# What crazy ideas did you have that turned out to actually exist? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 21, 2003, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513 "2003-05-21T06:00:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/41 "2003-05-22T18:50:05Z")
Years ago I thought it would be really neat if somebody could design “electronic paper”. Basically, a sheet of paper with ink made of charged particle – white on one side and black on the other. A small chip embedded in the paper could send current and cause the ink particles to flip in various patterns. Combined with a little computer memory, you could then store the entire contents of a book on a single sheet of paper. You could also have animated pictures on the page. Imagine my surprise when I read last week that some guys at MIT have come up with this very same idea and are close to coming up with a production version… Barry ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/42 "2003-05-22T19:45:30Z")
Grelby said: > [@](#): > > Anyway, as for myself, I thought of an automatic gear shifter on a bicycle, inspired by an uncle of mine with cerebral palsy and retardation. He finds shifting difficult, and I thought it would be nice if the bicycle would do it for him. > > I found out, however, that such devices already existed. However, I also found out that they suck. Apparently they rely on centrifugal force to work, the result being that they apparently are much harder to shift in one direction than the other (don’t remember which). > > So I hope one day to make a better one. I think I know how, too… Grelby, have you ever seen the infomercial for the Auto-Bike? This is a bike with automatic gear shifting using centrifugal force. I was thinking of getting one. Let us know if you ever build a better auto shifter. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/43 "2003-05-22T21:22:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by scr4 \* > \*\*I didn’t know the Olson Rowbike was discontinued - when did that happen? You can still get the [Thys Rowingbike](http://www.rowingbike.com/) though, it’s a much better design anyway - I have one and love it. But bear in mind that pedal powered HPVs are more efficient than leg+arm machines; the only reason to get a row bike is to achieve a more balanced workout. \*\* The three-wheeled version was discontinued a few years ago (right before I could afford it, alas). They’ve got a four-wheeler now, which I think is a bit of overkill. The two-wheelers are still being made; I bought one last summer, but am always worried what I’ll do if the bungee cord breaks. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/44 "2003-05-22T21:25:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\*Last week, I came up with the idea of a “urinal game” – an electronic doohicky that would convert mens’ urinals into a video game of sorts. The idea was that this invention could be sold to places like sports bars, where cheap laughs are always welcome. > > I found out the other day that [it’s already been invented at MIT.](http://web.media.mit.edu/~hayes/mas863/urinecontrol.html) \*\* I had an idea like this a while back at a highway rest stop, pondering the little motion-sensor auto-flush mechanism. I was thinking “what if they put a webcam in there?” It would be like mens-urinal-video-poker-internet-porn all rolled into one! ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/45 "2003-05-22T21:36:36Z")
I’ve had a couple. A few years back, I got bored and started exercising my high school French by reading through some French novels. I could do pretty well, but would miss maybe one key word out of 20. So I day-dreamed about a little hand scanner with a built-in French-English dictionary that I could use to OCR the troublesome word. Six years later, I was able to buy one on E-Bay for seventy dollars :-). Once I had my first experience with a CD burner, before they became cheap commodities, I day-dreamed of replacing music stores with kiosks where you selected your songs and created custom CDs. Not _too_ dissimilar from the Apple I-tunes store. Although my idea was that the elimination of stock inventories and large square footage stores would result in the lowering of prices for the consumers. _That_ hasn’t really happened yet. ---
**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/46 "2003-05-23T13:29:32Z")
In '78, I was twelve and had my first 10-speed bike and we would ride out to local conservation areas and ride the trails there. Some of the trails were rough and very hard on our wheels. The only other bikes at the time were the BMX bikes with no gears, or banana seat 3-speed bikes and touring road bikes. What we wanted was a bike that was 10-speed, and had knobby tires like the BMX and was big enough to continue riding comfortably long distances. We wanted a hybrid of a 10-speed/BMS/touring bike. Little did we know that people we doing just that in California around that time. Years later when mountain bikes became the rage, I was very disappointed that we didn’t try to make our own TrailBike. ---
**Author:** ![DogMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9c0ed/32.png) [@DogMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DogMom)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/47 "2003-05-23T14:07:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by T. Slothrop \* > \*\*I used to think that the undead ate at Denny’s. Then I went there once at midnight. \*\* It’s been used in a book, too - check out the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton (First book : Guilty Pleasures . I think it’s in that one. If not that one then her Merry Gentry series, first one Kiss of Shadows. **Warning** They’re a bit…um…racy. ---
**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/48 "2003-05-23T14:19:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Nemo \* > \*\*It appears most of the people here are talking about inventions, but I had an idea that seemed crazy but turned out to be true. > > Several years ago, I had an argument with my boss. It ended with him threatening to destroy my life by any means in his power. Considering the low regard I had for his power, I dismissed his threats. > > In the next few years, I experienced a number of problems. Obviously everyone has an occasional run of bad luck. But once and a while, I would find myself thinking that maybe my boss was behind it all, secretly arranging all my misfortunes. But then I would think, “No, that’s ridiculous, there’s no conspiracy out to get you.” > > Last year it all came to a climax. Not only did my boss finally get an opportunity to attack me openly, I also found out that he had in fact been spending hundreds of hours in the last few years working on ways to cause me trouble. And because he is a fairly high ranking man in the business I work in, he was able to influence other people to join him in these shenanagins. > > So on the one hand, I was incredibly angry to find out the depths to which this man would sink. But more than that, I was vastly relieved to find out I hadn’t been slowly succumbing to paranoid delusions. \*\* (hijack) What did you did next and how did things work out for you after that? ---
**Author:** ![gyt\_fx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@gyt\_fx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gyt_fx)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/49 "2003-05-23T14:33:59Z")
Way back in the day when i was playing Starcraft at my friends house, prolly like 97 or 98, i had to make an account with a name to play on, so i made some random name that came to mind first: Zoogie about 1 year later disney came out with “ZoogDisney” They stole the idea and made it into a gay little attraction to get more little children viewers ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/50 "2003-05-23T14:36:34Z")
> [@](#): > > What did you did next and how did things work out for you after that? Long story short, I left. Things are much better now. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/51 "2003-05-23T16:04:43Z")
Good on you, **Nemo**. It probably would have been six kinds of hell to take him to court over it. I had one idea, when I fancied myself a sci-fi author back in the lat eighties, of having a radio frequency transmitter in every major city in the world that broadcast the time, and would automatically reset your watch to local time without you having to do so. Read about its invention just under a year later in _Omni_, and then saw one at work in a coffee shop near my house in Arlington just last year. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/52 "2003-05-23T16:40:56Z")
Those infomertial spaghetti pots where the lid locks on and you can pour the water out without losing the pasta? I made one of those in my garage years ago with a spot welder and a drill press. Mine was different, but the same idea. Also, and band I was in wrote a song that sounded JUST LIKE the Filter song “Hey man nice shot” maybe a month before that song came out. DOH. ---
**Author:** ![nineiron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e56c9b/32.png) [@nineiron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nineiron)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/53 "2003-05-23T16:47:38Z")
Around two or three years ago, I thought I was brilliant in coming up with carbonated milk. (OK, I never actually made any, but I did come up with the idea, or so I thought.) “Kids like soda,” I said to myself. “Parents want them to drink something more healthful. Why not make fizzy milk?” I thought it was a million-dollar idea. It turned out it was created shortly thereafter, as a product called e-Moo. I don’t know if it was ever a big seller, though. I certainly never saw it in stores, but if I did, I’d try it. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/54 "2003-05-23T21:20:47Z")
Re-usable ice cubes Those shoes with the retractable rollerskate wheels The idea of a business buying you a car in exchange for covering it in advertising. (I just found out from a recent thread that some companies were doing that at one point. Wow. I had the idea about 2 years prior to the start of the businesses though, when I was actually looking for a new car and disgusted at the prices.) I have a fantastic idea for a bar, but someone told me there’s a similar one already in Berkeley. I’m going to find out this week (I don’t think it could possibly compare to my vision.) I think it’s brilliant but my husband insists I’m an idiot. He’s supportive like that. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/55 "2003-05-23T21:39:29Z")
In the mid-nineties, as the Internet was becoming popular, I was driving around New Orleans with some friends and getting hopelessly lost. I started fantasizing about the day that cars would come with a GPS system and a computer containing all the maps of the US (or whatever country they were sold in), and the system could tell you basically where you were and show you a map of the area. My Math Ph.D. friend pooh-poohed the idea. Way, way too much information to put on a computer, he insisted. Now, [it appears the systems are old-hat](http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/22/technology/circuits/22basi.html?ex=1054180800&en=9d04083d0a6d4472&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE). Daniel ---
**Author:** ![pestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e5b9ba/32.png) [@pestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pestie)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/56 "2003-05-23T22:24:20Z")
I wanted to start an internet cafe, but had no means to do so. Of course, I soon discovered I wasn’t the only one. Heh… A month or two ago I was thinking about anti-lock brake systems and how they worked and theorized that the same could be done for acceleration, so you could just stomp on the accelerator and your car would accelerate as fast as possible without the wheels ever slipping and “peeling out.” I told this to a friend of mine who knows cars and he said, “They already have that - it’s called traction control.” I wasn’t terribly surprised but I was a bit disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![nineiron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e56c9b/32.png) [@nineiron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nineiron)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513/57 "2003-05-23T23:37:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DanielWithrow \* > \*\*In the mid-nineties, as the Internet was becoming popular, I was driving around New Orleans with some friends and getting hopelessly lost. I started fantasizing about the day that cars would come with a GPS system and a computer containing all the maps of the US (or whatever country they were sold in), and the system could tell you basically where you were and show you a map of the area. > > My Math Ph.D. friend pooh-poohed the idea. Way, way too much information to put on a computer, he insisted. > > \*\* Really? In the mid 90’s? I find that odd. It’s not like computers 7 or 8 years ago were so primitive that having a computer that fit maps on it would be out of the question. If your friend had said this in the 70’s or early 80’s, I might understand. I just thought of another one, of which I was reminded by your comment about the internet becoming more widespread. At that time, computers were still pretty expensive (by my standards, anyway). I said that if there were a machine that did nothing more than give internet access without all the extra features (and prohibitive cost) of a computer, lots of people would buy it. A few months later they invented WebTV. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-crazy-ideas-did-you-have-that-turned-out-to-actually-exist/176513.md?page=2)