I saw a concept car almost exactly like this at the Chicago Auto Show in (I think) the early 80s. I don’t remember whose display it was, but I remember chatting with the representative about how it was just what my wife and I needed; a small car for local driving and a large vehicle to haul the books we sold at conventions.
I’m also with Priceguy and tdn; I’m a very tactile person and I love touching and being touched, but that sort of thing is generally seen only as a type of foreplay. Maybe we could open a chain of “touch and scratch parlors” where you can get your back scratched and your hair and skin stroked. We could even have tickling for EmAnJ.
I checked the Yotel, but it is still 53 dollars for a 6 hour nap. Would that be worth keeping your eyes open a little longer to you?
I’ve stayed in Formule 1 hotels in France, and while a tad depressing, they are very good for the purpose. They are extra cheap if you stay with 3 persons in a room. They are almost completely automated, and, as Colophon mentioned, their cheap location on ring roads makes them even cheaper.
Holland has another idea for “modern” hotels that fit Ianzin’s bill: Qubic hotels. But those are innercity hotels.
53 dollars? Pfft. That’s less than 30 quid in real money. I can pretty much guarantee that in six hours awake at Gatwick or Heathrow I would spend more than 30 quid. A couple of coffees, maybe a pint and a pizza… purely out of boredom rather than hunger. Then a magazine, perhaps - at airport prices, it’s cheaper to sleep!
A straight razor shave. Sure there are some specialty shops in larger cities where you can have it done, but the days of being able to just go to the corner barber and get one are gone. One of the things I miss about being stationed in Turkey. I could get a killer shave and haircut there.
A box with battery(s) and auto voltage that I plug in at the wall. Power supply charges batteries and various DC output voltage plug-ins
For:
Computer
Printers
Scanner
Speakers
External hard drives
Other devices
etc.
Thin power cords to various powered devices.
Gives me a brownout, blackout, surge protected power supply.
Eliminates one/two howling fans at the computer.
Don’t need a dozen different power blocks/transformers wasting energy. Should be a quality device unlike some of the power cubes that heat up to searing temperatures that I unplug each time out of fear.
DC power has greater loss than AC when run for a distance. I’m with you, though, getting rid of power supplies, wall warts, etc. would make life much easier. There is also not a great deal of care being put on low-end power supplies to make sure they are efficient: people buy them strictly on cost (mea culpa).
Standarding voltages and plugs would be a nice start. I heard from a colleague that a typical computer may have half a dozen different voltages used internally for fans, disks, CPU, chipset, LEDs, memory, IO busses, etc.
A sturdy plastic box to store spare AA batteries in while traveling, keeping them reliably insulated from the rest of the backpack/bag contents, with individual storage positions that can be mechanically flagged as “used/needs recharging”.
As it is I take a blister pack or two of batteries with me, and once I remove the first battery the rest fall out soon, leaving a mess of batteries of unknown charge status in my pack/baggage that may even short themselves over any metal items if I am unlucky.
Head out to some smaller towns in your area, and look for barbers. They guy in my town does them, and I am willing to bet the older barbers still have the ability.
Failing that, you could always go over to straightrazorplace.com and see if any of them are local to you, and want to make a quick buck…