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Rails to slide up and down on, making every urinal ADA compliant, and allowing even tall men that perfect height; a handle and locking mechanism; adjustable tubing to hook into the wall. So, I drew up the idea in MS Paint, probably the only graphics package I had at the time. (Do you like the pixelated text?) Then I printed it out and took my picture to Joe and George, who managed the building for the company, figuring they might have some insights.
After listening to my boss complain one night about all of the things he had to keep track of, I invented a Personal Information Manager, which is basically the software they have on every phone, like an address book, and memo pad, task list and so on. All integrated together with an object-oriented data design, before object orientation had really hit the scene.
I started working on it, figured a six month time frame. Three months in, Lotus released Agenda, which did most of the same stuff. And they were the biggest software company in the world, so tough to compete, even though mine was cooler than theirs.
I thought of MTV when I was, I don’t know, 6 or 7?
The family was watching some variety show on TV, and some group was performing a song. I remember thinking that this is like radio, but on the TV. If we have radio stations playing music all day, why not a TV station that plays this kind of thing all day?
Then I thought, Nah! Who’s going to sit and watch people playing music all day? Besides, there’s only 4 channels.
There was really nowhere for me to go with this idea at the time, anyway. At 6, I had no contacts in the entertainment industry. Actually, I still don’t.
Yep. I feel for you. At least I didn’t put more than an hour into the programmable horn idea.
You could have been rich and famous by now. Of course, you probably would have wound up a Progressive there in the entertainment industry.
Nice try. Like I’m gonna just give my ideas away.
We know better. You never had any. That’s why you became a lawyer.
Well, I learned something today. I always thought those were situated lower for kids.
I always thought it was for the well-endowed.
What about pee whirlies?
Uh…?
I built a restaurant with exactly that kind of urinal in, I think, Greenville, NC.
Yep. One sees them occasionally in newer buildings, much more in older.
There you go. That’s your ticket to ride!
Or whizz. Whatever.
This was probably in the early 90’s. They’re very expensive.
I was at a urinal where I work and one of the partners was at the next one. He muttered, “Boy, this water’s cold. <pause> Deep, too.”
I learned that he likes this joke so much he told it all the time!
I always thought the lower units were for the well endowed so as not to get it wet.
I’ve seen janitors clean that type of urinal using a mop and bucket. Whether they used the same mop on the floor, I couldn’t recall…
The way I heard that one was two guys urinating off The Golden Gate Bridge.
It is the mark at the back of the urinal usually about 6 inches above the bottom. Sometimes it is a bee. It is the sweet spot. If you hit that, you don’t splash, no matter the height of the urinal.
In college a friend of mine and I had the idea of a hand held scanner that would let you take notes while highlighting the text in a text book. It being the early 80s at the time, OCR was not good, not possible in a small device, and we just were talking about a cool idea.
They exist now: https://www.amazon.com/Scanmarker-Air-Pen-Scanner-Highlighter/dp/B01N07J2AE
Ah, I had never heard the name. It’s also true that not all of them have that. (Yes, I have seen some.) Or sometimes they are covered by the mats with the deodorizer cake. Also, not all brands are that well engineered.
Yes! and if you hit that sweet spot, and then chow down on that puck-sized round breath mint so thoughtfully left there? Aahhhh. Not bad.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Uber. About eight years ago, my son and I starting musing about a ride-offering service where you use you own car. In ten minutes, we had thought about 80% of what’s in the Uber app today. But even then, I figured that if it was easy for us to figure out, someone had already had it in the works. Thomas Edison was right: Genius is 95% perspiration, i.e., it’s not the idea, it’s how you work it.
On another note– getting splashed from a urinal? That has never, ever, ever happened to me.
One Christmas years ago I gave each of my kids the first edition of this book (the first edition): The Mom Inventors Handbook: How to Turn That Great Idea into the Next Big Thing, second edition (McGraw-Hill Education, New York).
I wanted my kids to have it in case they thought of something that would sell well and provide for them financially while they went off to do things they really wanted to do. :) Their inventions could support them.
Don’t hesitate to pursue some of your ideas. You may not make a fortune, but you might get a nice vacation out of one of them.
My sister, thought to be just plain maladjusted because she has always been (and still is) in her own little world, once took her suitcase and attached wheels and a handle to it. There’s not a time I go through an airport that I don’t think of the fortune she could have made. :) One time she took a guy’s t-shirt and refashioned the neck to make a softer, more feminine neckline–just before LL Bean and Land’s End came out with women’s soft t-shirts. Another time she drove my aunt and uncle crazy by building modular furniture in their garage. In her mind’s eye, she could see the usefulness of this type of furniture for a generation of people constantly on the move. See the Ikea line of modular portable furniture, which became popular ten years later.
We are all geniuses. We just don’t know what to do with our ideas.
The most impressive business book I have ever read was by Lowell Bryan and Claudia Joyce called Mobilizing Minds. It’s all about how to capture and develop good ideas. It’s for businesses, but individuals could use the same methods for their personal ideas.
At the very least, please write them down somewhere. Don’t let them evaporate from your mind. Keep them somewhere.
Yep.
Very good idea.
I had a good idea once. Then I forgot.
But I really wish one of our programmers would invent a way so clicking on an employee to check their time would allow a pop-up or another tab, so I wouldn’t have to re-load the database every time I want to check someone’s hours. Sure would be nice.
A window screen that lets in fresh air, but with too fine a mesh to let in pollen. Then I found out they already make them in Japan.
There are many others. That one’s particularly memorable, for some reason.
You’d be surprised that even if it seems obvious (after the fact) to you, it isn’t to others.* After researching many papers on radio synthesizer design, I had a simple idea that eliminated custom tuning in radios. Unfortunately, the company wasn’t able to finish the development and didn’t pursue the obvious patent.
*shameless plug – I’ll reveal this on November 8th Group Writing
Actually, what I had in mind was a device with a propeller that spun when peed on. I gained a certain amount of insight into the human condition when I was told by restaurant owners that people stole them.