I'll meet new people at the airport

Have you ever thought why we don't think of airports as the perfect place to meet new people? We use them as transit areas or places to shop and eat mostly on our own. I believe it would be a great idea to turn airports into spaces where people can expect to socialize. For example, why don't companies that offer speed dating services operate at airports? Wouldn't you like to have the option to spend some of your transit time meeting someone new from another country? Sometimes I imagine how wider and more meaningful our circle of friends, dates and acquaintances would have been if airport space was designed to have venues where passengers can take part in group activities with people they meet for the first time. Just a thought.

http://www.thinkaloo.com

The end of book publishing

Executives in the publishing industry fear eBook distributors such as Amazon (kindle) and Apple (iPad) will spell the end of their business by eating into their market share or by precipitating a devastating fall in book prices. While Amazon, Apple and their ilk are formidable enemies, the final death blow to traditional print publishing will not be given by eBook distributors. It will come from printer manufacturers. The invention of home-use printers which allow consumers to not only print but also bind books from home fast and reliably and for less than $9.99 (the cost of buying an ebook on Amazon) will spell the end of book publishing as we know it.

Imagine it. Ebooks along with a custom cover of your choice are available to download online. With a click of a button consumers can then print and bind the book from home. The book will look and feel exactly the same as if they had bought it from the bookshop round the corner. For the cost of an ebook or less, consumers can have the paper version of it printed and bound at home. No shipping cost, zero delivering time.

Everyone predicts eBooks are the beginning of the end for book publishers. I am not so sure. Ebooks will compete fiercely against traditional books and will eat into the market share of traditional book publishers. But, mark my words, the end of traditional book publishing will take place only when fast and reliable home-use printers are introduced in the market.

http://www.thinkaloo.com

The unexpected benefits of not naming a product

I know it's crazy not to name a new product but does that mean advertising it with no name can never work? I must say I don't know of any product that wasn't named something before it got launched and for good reason. But some moron executives love to explore every aspect of an otherwise unnecessary dilemma. So what if a company didn't give its new product a name and went ahead and advertised it anyway? Sounds crazy? Yes, but hold on. For a start people might talk about how stupid it is that the company didn't name its product and that's a risk, but so long as they talk about it, they will have to call it something. In trying to figure out what to call it or how to refer to it, they end up asking questions or thinking about what the product is about. That means they end up paying attention to your product and isn't that the ultimate goal and prize in advertising a product? :)

http://www.thinkaloo.com

Can you help prove an Italian superstition Wrong?

In Italy we omit number 13 from the national lottery. We are convinced 13 brings bad luck. The level of clinginess to the conviction makes me mad. 13 brings bad luck. Yeah, right. Less numbers in a lottery means marginally higher probabilities to win and that is bad luck in Italy, because if you are Italian, you play the lottery to enjoy good luck, not to win money. It's only natural that we do everything in our superstition to eliminate "bad luck" from the game!!

To prove the myth wrong, the government could change lottery rules and require that the winning combination always includes number 13. If you are worried Italians may lose their sleep when they buy a lottery ticket with the number 13 in it, well they will, for a few minutes, and then go right back to dreaming they are the ones to win the lottery.

Don't take too seriously my suggestions if you are not superstitious yourself. In the absence of number 13 in the lottery, however, the government should consider announcing winning tickets on the 13 of every month or make Friday the 13 the day when multi-million-euro jackpot tickets are drawn.

If people start spreading fantasies that those lucky jackpot winners had a tragic fate later in life the government can threaten that if people continue to spread such stories they will be the ones to win the next jackpot!

That's a threat no Italian can easily ignore. If the threat is dismissed, it means people agree to be bought off by the government and Italians are known to have a very bad relationship with bribery and corruption to the point that they perfectly resist to it by totally yielding to it. If they pay notice to the threat, well they won't, because what sane Italian will ever refuse millions of euros in order to say that he doesn't believe the superstition is true.

Arguably then, the most powerful threat the government can make in order to put the superstition to the test is to choose everything in relation to the lottery in terms of number 13. As I've said, jackpot total winnings can have number 13 in them, they can always be announced on the 13 of every month with a preference for Fridays, and whoever is really against that, is welcome to be the lottery's winner and then refuse to take the money if they actually believe in the true power of the superstition...

http://www.thinkaloo.com

I need some help/ideas with my thesis

Since I came up with the following idea for my term paper, I'd appreciate if you could give me your comments and feedback. I would like to argue that humans decide the length of a word based on the frequency of use of that word in every day talk. The more often a word needs to be used, the less syllables it will have when you compare it to words that are not destined for use on practical, every day needs. The reasoning is that, it's more practical and easier to communicate in shorter words to get more work done through the day. Shorter words facilitate faster human interactions. I want to argue that this logic is universal across all languages. Any help, ideas on how to argue this are greatly appreciated. If you are a non-English speaker and your native language has a daily vocabulary which is unusually polysyllabic, please let me know about it, thanks.

http://www.thinkaloo.com

Order duty free online and pick up at the airport

It's such a great idea, I wonder why it took us so long to try it. A time saver for people who have very short stopovers. Do the shopping online, pay with your credit card in advance and simply pick it up at the airport. I don't think many people will disagree this is a great idea. If I was to predict which retail businesses will see an increase in sales over the next few years, duty free shops that offer online shopping would be the ones to bet my money on. A site which covers every duty free shop from every airport in the world will become the next eBay success story. eDuty.com? :)

http://thinkaloo.com

Can we make luggage pick up more comfortable?

It's unrealistic to expect that, in bending to pick luggage up, people will always know to bend their knees first. The risk of applying undue stress on the spine or even injuring it by bending over too much will always be there. So what can we do to improve the design of the baggage claim carousels? We could control the level of comfort by setting the height of the carousel to a better height but what is a better height? People have differing heights and one height can't fit all. One option would be to design the carousel to come in a gradient of heights as it circles around and let people stand in the area of the carousel whose height best matches theirs. Another thought to improve the experience of picking up luggage is to take advantage of the tilted surface of the carousel and allow the protective bar that prevents the luggage from falling off to open and close with the press of a button and have the luggage drop directly into the trolley.

http://thinkaloo.com

Is this financial innovation, exploitation or what?

A bank comes up with a computer algorithm that figures out how to sequence the checks somebody's written for more money than they have in their account in order to charge the maximum possible number of $37.50 in overdraft fees. I understand that banks need to charge overdraft fees, what I can't accept is banks manipulating charges and calling that financial innovation.

http://thinkaloo.com

Telepathy cameras

I'd like someone to invent a camera that takes snapshots by telepathic messages. Both hands are full. There's no time to grab the camera, turn it on, adjust settings, take the snapshot. By the time I've gone through it all, the moment's gone and won't come back. I resign. For the upteenth time I'm experiencing the tele-pathetic limits of modern photography equipment. Does telepathy exist or not? Is it a real phenomenon? I don't know. All I know is that the moment's gone and won't come back. I'm pretty convinced though that if telepathy did exist, it could have at least helped me capture it.

http://thinkaloo.com

Sexy Earthquakes

A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes. I believe he should be arrested for treason. The cleric just revealed the most powerful weapon the West can use if it ever gets in war with Iran. Instead of toppling the country with soldiers, missiles and nuclear weapons, the West just needs to smuggle an army of escorts, porn stars, miss universes and private muscle therapists into the country to spread promiscuity. According to the cleric, "When promiscuity spreads, earthquakes increase"

It's so sad that the West is not taking such statements seriously. Not only from a military point of view. Let's think business here for a moment. The cleric's statement can be read from back to front too. If earthquakes are increasing, that's because promiscuity is spreading. If promiscuity is on the rise in Iran, that means demand for sex is on the rise which suggests business opportunities are opening up for the adult industry. Too bad that only professionals with Middle Eastern names can benefit from it.

If we ever had doubts why our best porn stars can't make a career in Iran, now we know. It's not because they are not liked for their big boobs and voluptuous shapes, no, that's not it. It's because they cause e-a-r-t-h-q-u-a-k-e-s. It's not pleasure the Iranians are against, but fear of losing their lives after. What a drama. Solution? Profit indirectly by acquiring stakes in Middle Eastern companies specializing in XXX !!!

Now, if the cleric's statement is true, and I have every good reason to believe that he is truthful in wanting others to believe it's true, then we must be careful what the Iranians do with their promiscuous women. If they exile them in the West, that means they will, in effect, be smuggling a secret weapon into our own backyard which can be activated any time the promiscuous Muslim female takes her clothes off! And we can't ban this because we like promiscuity in the West.

I'm just praying for the survival and well-being of those promiscuous women in Iran who dare dress temptingly. I can only hope that the lunatic Iranian clergy will exile them in the West and not lock them in Iranian prison or bury them under the rubles. And I think we can accept them into our countries without fear of risking an increase in earthquakes in the West. That's because Iranian promiscuity is so modest when compared to ours. If we only train them in Western adult manners and smuggle them back into Iran, that can be a threat the Iranians can understand and take seriously :D:D:D

http://thinkaloo.com

What the Greek problem is all about

The way I see it the Greek economy has always been in technical default and thus in life support for many years now. We have been in life support for so long, we forgot about it and learned to live as if we didn't owe anyone anything. The only difference between then and now is that the hospital realized it's costing too much money to keep Greece on life support and for the first time there is discussion of pulling the plug. The patient is half-awakened by this talk but is not sure which is better. To stay on life support with the oxygen supply on economy or get a life without support but with the promise of experiencing it first-class again sometime in the future?

http://thinkaloo.com

Why is there no TV in the airport baggage claim area?

I wonder why we only see TV screens displaying news, entertainment or ads in a gate lounge but not in the baggage claim area. Baggage claim involves waiting and thus it makes perfect sense to have TV screens to entertain or distract passengers while they wait for the luggage to come out. The only screen we see is the one displaying the number of your flight and carousel. Boring. I don't buy the argument that people will get so distracted by a news program that they will forget to collect their luggage, or that they are so tired and eager to pick up their luggage that they won't bother to watch TV. They're already waiting there. Hello!


http://www.thinkaloo.com

Women-friendly gas stations

If I bought a gas station tomorrow, the first thing I'd do is put up a huge sign saying "Cleanest Bathrooms of Any Gas Station Anywhere." We're going greater distances and so need directions, and decent places to eat and drink, and clean bathrooms. Clean bathrooms with a clean baby-changing table and a working sink and a trash can that isn't spilling all over the floor would surely draw female drivers in. And no woman is going to sweat a few pennies in gas price if she is cared for otherwise. Gas stations persist in displaying most prominently the price per gallon, down to the tenth of a cent and forget that we don't always think that small. On the other hand, women most always think that clean.

http://www.thinkaloo.com

Total amount coin display

I know most people will probably say this is unnecessary but I think most people will appreciate the feature if it became available. When I pay for something, my first instinct is to get rid of all the coins in my wallet. The problem is I don't always know the total amount of money I have in coins and I might find myself in the embarrassing situation to want to pay in coins, take them all out only to discover I don't have enough. It's a hassle and a waste of time. I propose an electronic display in the wallet that shows the total amount you have in coins and a breakdown of coin denominations. Instead of fiddling through with your finger to count, you just browse the display and know right away if you have enough coins to pay or give in change.

http://www.thinkaloo.com

Rubik's cube party

Have you ever been to one? It's fun. Everyone's dressed head to toe in six separate clothing items in the six colours of a Rubik's cube - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and white. The aim is to switch socks, tops or pants with other partygoers until you're all in one colour. Just like a Rubik's cube. If you're throwing a party and want to impress with an original idea, try the rubik cube theme, it's quite fun.

http://www.thinkaloo.com

Hacked chopsticks for better grip

Even though this is not a million dollar idea, I don't understand why this simple trick isn't more widely used: I was eating at a friend's place and he had these chopsticks with little cuts at the end. The result? A grip that is 10x better, even catching peas was a piece of cake. Here is a little drawing.

http://www.thinkaloo.com

Online shopping tracking app

I love phone apps because they are often easier to navigate than going to the company website. What I'd like to see is a single app linking PayPal, eBay, Fed-Ex and UPS tracking, making it super easy to track online shopping and shipping. What do you think?

http://www.thinkaloo.com