Ideas within topic machines,computers: (click suns to rate or comment on ideas)
| 1 |
| Use an internet homepage rotating tool like Whatpage. Link to several free click-to-donate websites, and each time you open up an internet browser a different click-to-donate website will appear. | |
| 2 |
| To make text files smaller, file compression utilities could include a pre-stored database of English words mapped to two-byte codes. Therefore, every word in this sentence could be swapped with a two-character code like "&@". Much smaller! | |
| 3 |
| Yahoo and similar public e-mail systems should provide a way to detach the file attachments and keep the mails. It can have the filename and path of where the file has been stored. This will be useful to conserve storage space and mail history. | |
| 4 |
| To help learning drivers, a computer program should be developed that would be like a driving simulator. It would be no subsitute for real driving, but it would help drivers to learn the rules. (cars, driving) | |
| 5 |
| Place to register online if your laptop is stolen. If you are in this registry, associated software on your computer sends out a 'distress signal' over the internet with the IP address, screen name, & ISP of the thief the moment he gets online. | |
| 6 |
| Instead of having your computer find drivers for a specific piece of hardware, have the driver itself stored on a chip within the hardware. That way you wouldn't have to go to the trouble of finding drivers for unknown hardware. | |
| 7 |
| Making a buddy in instant messenger (Yahoo or AOL) as an assistant will be good. e_oatbot is one. Please see what's possible with such assistants. | |
| 8 |
| Linux is a free, stable and powerful operating system. It can be used along with Samba to access files stored on Windows computers. | |
| 9 |
| In places where computers are left on for much of the day (internet cafes, libraries, offices), these computers could be working on distributed computing projects in the background. | |
| 10 |
| Instead of throwing away old computers, you can use them as web servers. Computers as slow as 33mhz can be used for this. | |
| 11 |
| A Vocal Language Translator. Speak in, select the language (English, Spanish, French, etc.), press the button to translate your language into the desired language selected. This is an excellent device for traveling to other countries. | |
| 12 |
| Instead of throwing out old computers, donate them to a developing country. | |
| 13 |
| A worldbot: a robot controlled remotely via the internet allowing randomly selected surfers to participate in magnificent occasions for short periods of time. | |
| 14 |
| Hard drives taken from obsolete machines can be used to back up more data on newer machines, and are usually capable of storing more information and retrieving it more quickly than CD-Rs/CD-RWs. | |
| 15 |
| A computer tower with a built in powered subwoofer, and a monitor that incorporates a Bose acoustic wave sound system, this would eliminate those dinky little speakers and tangled up wires. The sound would be superb. | |
| 16 |
| I would like to see a tool for three-dimensional artists/modelers that uses SONAR to map the 3d coordinates of real-life objects. Such a tool could be made relatively inexpensively for amateurs. | |
| 17 |
| Web based Robots are doing more and more amazing things every day. While mostly text based, more and more voice based BOTS are starting to appear. For a good survey, visit botspot.com. | |
| 18 |
| Electronic magazines will help save trees and paper waste. | |
| 19 |
| Do you want to keep a personal knowledge base, which is easy to manage? Do you want to prioritize, know where you are, where you've been and where you are heading? Try FreeMind. | |
| 20 |
| To allow teacher to display computer screen output to the TV screen, use the adaptor that is available to link computer to television. | |
| 21 |
| Wood trimmed computer, instead of the old plastic look. | |
| 22 |
| Photomosaics (one large picture composed of many smaller ones) make great Christmas presents. PhotoTile, a program for creating these, is free for 60 days. | |
| 23 |
| Why not teach kids how to build computers in school? Or build computers easy to repair. Come to that, why not do that for all machines? The Russians did that for tanks during the second world war; illiterates maintained tanks with simple colored parts. | |
| 24 |
| Remove floppy drives completely. Instead use CD writers, which cost as much as floppy drives yet enable you to store hundreds of times more data. | |
| 25 |
| Take a 3.5 mm connector cord and connect one end to your computer's "line in" or "microphone" jack and the other end to your MP3 or CD player. Cheap quality speakers that take up no processing on your CPU! | |
| 26 |
| For cleaning the computer screen, it would be convenient to have a small box filled with wipes. | |
| 27 |
| A Digital Picture Frame: A flat-screen monitor with wood or metal frame with port for media card or USB key. It would have a simple program to either rotate several photos daily, weekly, whatever, or simply remain on one photo until switched by user. | |