# Have You Ever Invented Something... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 5, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097 "2009-12-05T16:25:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097/21 "2009-12-06T03:17:32Z")
too many to think about anymore. here’s a few I thought of years ago, a flat panel screen personal monitor for TV, internet and electronic books attached on a swing arm over your bed or lounge chair, wireless to a central server. the periodic table spice rack, color coordinated for things that go together for different ethnic foods. all in one Solar Cell, Wind and Thermal modular panels, 1 meter hexagonal. Just plug one in to another as you go. personal home semi-nuclear/microwave reactor/heat exchanger, for rural locations mainly. battery powered guitar w/effects, speakers and plug in for mic, for those small acoustic occasions when dragging all that shit around is way overkill. 101 objects that need to be put on a key chain. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097/22 "2009-12-06T04:10:13Z")
A website that tells you the exact time in a movie where a female gets naked… nah too easy. I had a windshield wiper idea once too, instead of having an intermittent setting, you would touch the button once to activate the wipers, and again once more when it needed to be wiped again. A chip would record this exact time interval and repeat it until it needed to be reset to a different interval. This would eliminate the too fast or too slow wiper speed, it would always be just right. Then I heard about rain sensing wipers, I still kinda like my idea better though. Funny thing about wiper inventions, they even made a movie about a guy with one. [Flash of Genius](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1054588/). ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097/23 "2009-12-06T04:24:10Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > An alarm clock that monitors your brain waves to determine the optimal moment, when you are sleeping only very lightly, to wake you up within a pre-set time interval, but at the latest at the end of that interval. Years ago I thought of something similar that would help people power-nap for the optimal time (15-20 minutes, apparently). The device would monitor your brain waves and would only start timing once you fell asleep. That way you get the exact amount of sleep you want, no matter how long it takes you to fall asleep. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097/24 "2009-12-06T04:42:43Z")
I wrote a baseball story, and then everybody who wrote it accused me of plagarizing the movie “The Natural,” which I had never seen. I had read the book, but the scene in question was only in the movie, where the cover was knocked off the ball. The idea for my story came when I peeled the leather off a real baseball. ---
**Author:** ![Oukile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@Oukile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oukile)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097/25 "2009-12-06T10:44:52Z")
When I was about 12, I figured out that 1+2+3+…+n = n.(n+1)/2 ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097/26 "2009-12-06T11:02:54Z")
Another story I wrote was essentially (in my mind) part 2 of “I am Legend,” where the vampires have evolved, set up societies, etc., and the story follows one of the vampires who is a detective. After it was published in my school’s student writing journal, I heard a ton of people comparing it to Blade (a vampire hunting down other vampires.) When I checked the dates, the publishing cycle of the journal put it out after Blade, but I had actually written the story a year before. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097/27 "2009-12-06T15:17:05Z")
While I didn’t intend it as onthological proof, apparently I wasn’t the first person to realize that “it is not possible for a human being to completely understand/comprehend/know the universe; heck, each of us doesn’t even ever get to completely know himself.” I still think St. Anselm and [Kurt Gödel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del's_ontological_proof) cheated 😛 I spent a whole class period during 11th grade Philosophy arguing that position against the rest of the class (and convinced them). Didn’t find out why the teacher had been giggling so hard or what the notion is called until several years later. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097/28 "2009-12-06T15:28:20Z")
I think what all this demostrates is that ideas are a dime a dozen. What counts is execution. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097/29 "2009-12-06T16:04:17Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I think what all this demostrates is that ideas are a dime a dozen. What counts is execution. And getting there first. Double flush toilet. Up for one, down for two. Though I have never seen any in the wild. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097/30 "2009-12-06T16:17:30Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > And getting there first. > > Double flush toilet. Up for one, down for two. Though I have never seen any in the wild. They’re all but universal in western Europe, at least for anything built/rebuilt in the last 15 years. Ditto NZ. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097/31 "2009-12-06T18:24:56Z")
Most recently, after hearing the Lada Gaga song “Poker Face” a few times I thought it’d be really funny to come up with a parody song and accompanying video panning up on hot looking women only to settle on some homely looking mug (with Photoshop, a mask or makeup as necessary), called “Butter Face”. One day I thought to double check on YouTube if it’d been done already, and [yep, it has](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK7wW-qj2SY)(and pretty well, too). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-invented-something/520097.md?page=1)