Ponderings 6/24/12

1. Phones, should have an "emergency mode" feature. Your phone turns off as soon as your battery reduces to 15 minutes of remaining talk time. In an emergency, even though your phone is dead you know you have the backup up 15 minutes.

2. I would be curious to see soccer do something similar, to what cricket did with the Indian Premier League, to increase the moments of excitement in a shorter game. I would reduce the number of players on each side, make the goal slightly bigger, reduce the game length to 60 minutes, and not allow strikers to pass the midfield line (need to stay on the attacking side). Needs more, but think this would be a good start to a more interesting American league that caters to those who want to see more goals and action.

3. On a road trip, where your group has a several cars, it would be great if there were ways to enhance the group experience. Here are a couple ideas:
3A. Have the ability to have all cars be listening to the same music, with cars taking turns being the main DJ.
3B. On the same channel as the music, cars using a radio channel, to be able to easily radio between the cars.
3C. One of your GPS views, shows where all the cars are.

4A. China is building the world's largest tower in 90 days. I would hate to be the person who needs to check whether its safe to go into that building?

4B. Every few years, someone decides to build the world's largest tower. Why doesn't someone build a tower where in the future, they can continue to build right on top it anytime someone decides to build a taller tower?

5. After watching Lebron James amazing performance in the NBA Finals, I have decided I really need to read those Hunger Game books. Also, the NBA has enough material for all of their advertisements for "Reading is fundamental" next year.

Ponderings 6/17/12

1. This week, I rode a segway for the first time, and realized that someone needs to open a huge warehouse for segway sports: lacrosse, quidditch, football, and hockey. Universal Studios,  should really make the segway quidditch happen at the Harry Potter park.

2. With the increase in VOIP providers and overall  internet access worldwide, I wonder why long distance calls still cost so much.

3. The problem with days off between NBA playoff games, is that is allows the media to spend so much time overreacting to the previous game.

4. Father's day was a much smaller deal than Mother's day on Facebook. What gives? Father's need their shout outs too.

5. Keeping a OneNote list of the movies I want to watch and the books I want to read, has helped me stop forgetting all the recommendations that come up during conversations. Best part, is I can edit, and share lists from my phone.

6. I'm scared for the day, when more families start managing their tasks with an agile process including daily scrums.

Ponderings 6/10/12

1. I wish as I exited my apartment, my phone would yell reminders of things that I needed to be taking. (Ex. keys, jacket, receipt, mail, etc.)
1B. I also wish as I entered my apartment my phone would yell reminders of chores that I needed to be doing. (Ex. laundry, dishes)
1C. What I really need to do is move back in with my mom. (Mom, jump to number 2.) Only benefit of the app above, is that you can turn it on and off.

2. Boxing ratings had already being going down but after the Pacquiao vs. Bradley fight, the sport was killed. Ironically, the person who this hurts the most is Bradley, the person who the judges picked incorrectly as the winner.

2B. The reaction to the decision on social media was pretty incredible. I know there is a saying that "there is no such thing as bad press", but I am pretty sure this was a case where the saying doesn't fit.

3. I hate the Boston Celtics, but when Doc Rivers substituted the Big three out of Game 7, I realized how much I respected them. They remind me, of the old guys who play pickup basketball, and somehow manage to stay close in every game, hitting open jumpers, setting solid screens, always boxing out, and then end up winning if the younger players take bad shots or try to show off too much.


4. Last week, I decided to become more active on Quora. Here are some of the questions I have recently been thinking about:
A. Do taxi cab drivers enjoy small talk?/How often are they asked where they are from?
B. How quickly do skilled waiters make a call on how much tip they will be receiving from a table?/ Do good waiters optimize to spend more time on tables they know they will get better tip at?
C. How come Ping Pong or Air Hockey tables are rarely found at bars/lounges, but Pool tables and Dart Boards are?


5. Recently, I decided to do a minor social experiment changing my phone background color and viewing people's reactions. An early observation has been, no one says anything when I use a background color that is traditionally socially acceptable for a male to like, but as soon as I changed my background to pink or purple,  many people would make comments.

5B. I also have been trying this experiment on the bus to see whether this affects who will sit next to me. Again, without any statistical proof (my sample size is about 20), young men and older men and women avoid sitting next to me when I use Pink and Purple, while with younger women I notice no difference when I change my background color.

5C. Yes, if you have seen me recently, I have been studying your behavior.  

Ponderings 6/3/12

1. Was anyone else confused when they saw a trailer for a new Spider Man movie with new actors and costumes?

2. It's not beneficial to anyone when people nod and pretend to understand something when they don't. I am starting to be trained to interpret a head nod as signifying the person does not understand.


3. Homeless people should conduct surveys on different products and receive some kind of reimbursement by companies based on the number of replies they receive.

4. My experiment with Twitter has been going strong so I have decided its time to experiment and become more active on Quora.

5. I love all the new video conferencing technologies, but there is still a current need for simple cell phone conference calls to have an easy app for voting and text messaging group.

6. I am waiting for the day of automated secretaries. A V1 secretary would be able to do the following:
A. Plan meetings including all email responses, and logistic reservations once you select the people you need to meet with.
B. Respond to another automated secretary trying to setup a meeting.
C. Notify and try to move meeting conflicts.
D. Send you an email every morning telling you how awesome you are.
E. Emailing a random contact each day, kicking off a catch up conversation.

7. In addition to showing me, the forecast details, weather apps should display an icon of what you should be wearing that day. (I.E. How thick of a jacket, short/pants, etc.)