Obvious... And Oblivious

SOMETIMES EVERYBODY KNOWS what easy-to-implement feature should be added to a product except the very company that makes it. Let me give you three examples. 

Why don't cars have standard household electrical outlets? Why do they force you to use the cigarette lighter for electricity? Somehow Detroit hasn't noticed that most Americans don't smoke anymore, but do carry cell phones, video cameras, digital cameras, handheld organizers and other gadgets that need electricity. Meanwhile, smokers carry lighters. Those car cigarette lighters are totally obsolete. It's obvious. 

Here's another one. Why do ATMs ask for language preference? Here in Silicon Valley, 90% of the population speaks English and 50% of the population speaks at least one non-English language. There are some 80 major languages spoken by local residents. At any given time, there are tens of thousands of visitors from non-English- and non-Spanish-speaking countries. Yet only English and Spanish are offered at ATMs. Why can't my language preference be encoded in the card? And why can't the ATM speak 1,000 languages, including Urdu, Swahili and even French? The vocabulary of ATM transactions are limited, and ATMs are just computers that are easily capable of interacting in foreign languages. It's obvious. 

And finally, the new iMac sports a truly cool design, with a radical dome CPU and lamp-like stand for the incredible digital flat-panel LCD display. OS X is awesome, and the whole thing is a thrill to use -- except for one minor detail. There are cables and wires all over the place. Why doesn't the new iMac use a wireless keyboard and mouse? That one small change would make the Mac truly elegant to use. It's so obvious!

Some companies will spend millions on marketing and research, but remain totally oblivious to simple changes that would make their products far more valuable and appealing. Why? 

Well, it's obvious: They don't read Mike's List!

Chinese Teens Admire Bill Gates

The City University of Hong Kong conducted a survey recently in which more than 1,600 teenagers were asked who they most admired. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates came in second after former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. But the survey is nothing for Gates to feel good about: The number-three most admired person is another Chairman: Mao Tse tung, the chain-smoking megalomaniac who killed more people than Hitler. 

Don't Try This At Home

The Flo Control project is the brainchild of a small company called Quantum Picture, which develops image recognition software. The project uses a PC, a commercially available cat door, custom sensors and Quantum Picture software to prevent the owner's pet cats from bringing rodents into the house. Click on the "Flo Control" button at the bottom of the page, and click through four pages to see the whole project. Amazing!

No Such Thing as a Free Newsletter

But there is a such thing as an ad-free newsletter! Click here to make a small contribution and keep Mike's List ad-free! (Warm thanks to all who contributed during the previous week!)

PhotoShop Phonies

Boilerplate was the name of a robot, or "mechanical man," built during the 1880s -- (or an elaborate hoax built with a homemade model and Photoshop)...

Proof You Can Find Anything on the Web

The Google search engine actually started out as a Stanford University Computer Science research paper by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page. Here's the research paper. 

Shameless Self-Promotion

 I'll be on Craig Crossman's Computer America radio show this Sunday, which is on the air from 1pm to 3pm Silicon Valley Time. Don't miss Computer America!

Follow-Up

My editorial last week, "Does Intel Own 'Inside'?" was picked up by David Lazarus, who writes for the San Francisco Chronicle. He wrote a really nice piece on the issue, which you can find here. 

Have you seen additional coverage of a Mike's List item? Let me know! 

Reader Web Site o' the Week

Fred Langa, author of the LangaList, mentioned Mike's List in a recent newsletter and I got floored with new subscribers, which reminded me that I haven't plugged his awesome newsletter since Mike's List issue 17. Fred's newsletter is, hands-down, the best, most useful and most valuable technology newsletter in existence. If you want to become a mega-geek and transform yourself into a PC know-it-all, then subscribe to Fred's newsletter right now! Tell him Mike sent you. : ) 

Get YOUR web site on the high-traffic Mike's List Reader Links page. HERE'S HOW! 

Gotta-Get-It Gadgets

The PowerSkip, which is a cross between stilts and pogo sticks, gives you bionic legs to jump high and run fast. Designed and built by the German ALANSportartikel GmbH, the PowerSkip can be ordered at the company's web site. (Also check out the videos and pictures.)

Keys are so, like, 20th century. Replace the lock on your home's front door with a FS-500D fingerprint identification lock system from Total Biometric Solutions. 

Is Junior always wandering off? There is, of course, a high-tech solution (why else would I mention it?). Wherify sells a GPS watch to track your kids -- it even sets itself by an atomic clock. You can send text messages, too, such as "Dinner's ready!" And it has a panic button, which, if pressed and held for three seconds, calls 911. Amazingly, the watch can even tell the time! 

Have you seen an amazing new toy? Let me know! 

Wacky Web Sites

The first video game I ever played was Pong. Here's a new perspective on the arcade classic: 3D Pong. 

The Pseudodictionary is a dictionary of made-up words, obscure slang and random jargon. The words are added by site visitors. Examples include "gack" (to attack, destroy, or damage), "jed" (a very regional Canadian way to say the letter "j" (jay) as in "z"=zed), and "funch" (to flip your pillow over in the middle of the night to expose the "cold" side.)

The secret world of New York's abandoned subway stations is lovingly portrayed on the Abandoned Stations web site. I thought the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' secret hideout was far-fetched, but places like that really exist under the city. 

How the heck can American innocents abroad understand that exotic foreign language they speak in England? For example, you might find "aubergine" on the menu (whatever that is). Strangers at a "petrol" station may ask you to raise your "bonnet" (dude, I hardly know you!). Someone at the hotel may offer a "duvet" (my dog is fine, thank you!). Holiday Inn comes to the rescue with an American-British travel dictionary. 

Who says New Jersey is weird? Well, the "Weird New Jersey" web site, for starters.

 If you see a really crazy web site: Let me know! 

Reader Comment

Mike, thank you for the plug to my site on your newsletter ("Now you can buy fake Silly Putty by the pound!"). I guess any publicity is good publicity even if it's wrong. My funny putty comes from the same factory as Silly Putty, and is identical in every way. I just can't call it Silly Putty since I don't own the trademark. I received a cease-and-desist letter from them a couple of years ago. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify.
Gene Schenberg

I get hundreds of reader e-mail messages per week, so I can publish only a tiny fraction of them. I reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Send comments to: [email protected]

Last Week's Mystery Pic

No, it's not "Carrie-Ann Moss from Matrix II," a "receptionist at Microsoft" or "Miss Geekness 2002" as suggested by some readers. It's a picture I took at CeBit of a model wearing a Mobile Assistant Transferable Core (MATC) made by Xybernaut. The rig includes a portable computer, mounted display, camera, wrist-worn mini keyboard and mouse. Mega Mike's List congratulations to Billy Brandenberger for being first with the right answer. 

 Have you seen an amazing, hard-to-identify picture? Let me know!

Mystery Pic o' the Week

What is it? Send YOUR guess to [email protected]. If you're first with the right answer, I'll print your name in the next issue of Mike's List!

Mike's List User Manual

If you're like me, you have multiple e-mail addresses that all flow into the same inbox. Sometimes it's hard to remember which e-mail address you used to subscribe to a newsletter, like Mike's List, for example. And if you don't know the e-mail address you used to subscribe, it's hard to make changes to your subscription. With Mike's List you can always find out what e-mail address you're subscribed to by checking the bottom of the newsletter.