Firefox search

It has been a while since my last post, but I have been somewhat preoccupied with other things. However, that led me to discover this little gem of inventiveness. (That was not really the word I wanted to use there, but my English is still too limited to allow for the use of nuances and unusual expressions.) What I am talking about is the small box in the top right corner of Firefox. It is by default linked to Google and some other search engines, but you are free to add almost whatever search engines you like. I have currently added Lexin (a Swedish-English dictionary), IMDB, ACM, IEEE, Google Scholar and Wikipedia. The only thing that might have done it even better would be if you could use several different search engines at once and get the results on a single page, but I guess you cannot get everything at once. Good work, Firefox!

Google Calendar

I am aware that I give away my personal life completely to Google by using a variety of their services such as mail, calendar, maps, earth etc., but I do it because their services are useful! In this posting I will not discuss the dangers of giving away too much information to a large company (or to any organization for that matter), but rather the functionality of their Calendar system. I use Google Calendar because it allows me to syncronize all three computers I use to the same calendar and, as a bonus, to syncronize my mobile phone as well. And it works both ways, i.e. if I change something on one computer, it will change in the others as well as soon as I connect them to the internet and start up Thunderbird. The convenience of having the same information accessable everywhere is just, well, nice.

Toothbrush-holder

Now the summer is slowly ending (even if I do not think it ever started this year) and I am trying to get back to my routines. One of these is to identify designs that I, for one reason or another, like. Me and my boyfriend moved in together in the end of June which led us to visit IKEA almost every weekend since. During one of these visits I came across this:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/70074182

Later, when I showed this purchase (I actually bought one) for a friend of ours, he was surprised that I seemed to be as enthusiastic about that thing (a toothbrush-holder) as I would be about a new TV or other more expensive gadget. So why do I find it so fascinating? Well... It is a very simple design that solves one of the problems toothbrush-holders usually have: it gathers water on the bottom of them. With this design you can simply tip it a bit and the water will fall off. It also show the core of every design for holding toothbrushes: it has a supporting "floor" and a top with holes in it. It does not get more minimalistic than that. And you really do not need anything else to support a toothbrush.

Glove With Flashlight

I was reading today's newspaper and came across this. It is a very simple solution for a problem that has been around as long as people have been working with fine mechanics in dark places. To simply place a small flashlight in the glove that automatically points at whatever you are holding is quite clever. I just wonder if it is available for people who are left handed as well...

Money Cards

I have a Visa-card. I tend to use it a lot. Being an easily distracted person I usually forget to withdraw money from cash machines and is therefore forced to pay with my card instead. I don't really mind doing that as long as I am not charged for the service. For me as a person, living without cash is quite convenient. Especially if I go travelling. The big debit/credit-cards work all over the world and relieves me from the task of changing enough money to get by during an entire visit. If I haven't exchanged enough I simply pay with my card. Or use it in a cash machine to get more.

However, there are drawbacks. A couple of years ago an evil person stole my card during a trip to France. This was just a couple of days before I was to return to Sweden so I still needed the card. I was quite happy then that I had been clever enough to bring with me a second card connected to another account. I blocked my stolen card and continued my journey with the other one. If I hadn't brought that card I would have been in trouble because I have become totally dependent on it. However, I do find the card to be a very useful invention.

The Red and Green Door Handle

Me and a couple of friends went out to a bar last Friday and there I got to see this weeks delight: the door handles used on the toilet doors were lit up from the inside with a red light if the toilet was occupied and a green light if it was free. That way there could be no misunderstandings about the status of the toilet, i.e. you got to sit in peace without anyone tugging at the door to see if it is unlocked. Well... you get to sit in peace until the queue outside grows and people get impatient at least...

The Cat

Ok, it is not an invention, but the cat as a phenomenon is certainly interesting. My calendar on my desk is one that gives me a new picture of a cat every day except for some days when it gives citations of things said about cats and the citation for today is "Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.". I kind of like that citation even if I don't consider it to be true: cats have a function even if it is a very subtle one. Cats are company. Cats are companions. Cats can make the owners feel good about themselves. If you make a cat purr you feel a warm lump in your stomach of satisfaction for some reason. Cats as individuals might be the most selfish creatures in the world, but for some reason they still have the ability to make us feel good. They are soft, warm, and, if you have befriended them enough, very loyal. Well.... in short: cats are, if you are frank about it, completely useless, but we still are prepared to shape our lives around them.

The Mechanical Pencil

I am not completely sure that that is the proper name for it. If it is not the people at ARM in Cambridge are evil or illiterate. What I hope it means is a pencil that never goes dull because it is loaded with thin graphite leads that you can replace with new ones when they run out. I just recently came to value this type of pencil because I was forced to use one of the old kind, i.e. the ones you have to sharpen every 5 minutes or so. Another good thing about it compared to the old ones is that it stays the same length during its entire lifetime. A regular pencil goes shorter with every sharpening which makes it increasingly difficult to hold and write with. A reusable pen that never goes dull is a simple, but oh so useful invention.

My Swiss Army Phone

How I adore my little Swiss army phone. Well... it is not its actual name. Officially it is called SonyEricsson W300, but the idea is the same. It has a little bit of everything. As Weiser argued it does not do everything as good as if the things it does were done by specified applications, but for me it is still a delight to use. Ok. It is the budget version of a mobile all-in-one-phone, but the concept it represents is what makes my all warm inside. So what is it that is so good about it?

• It is a mp3-player! I have already an mp3-player which also doubles like a usb memory stick, but by using my phone as a mp3-player I just need to bring one gadget instead of two.
• It uses memory sticks. I am not all that thrilled about there being so many different kinds of memory sticks on the market since I really like to be able to use the same stick in different gadgets, but as a concept the memory stick is really, really good. In this particular gadget using a memory stick means that when the technology so allows I can trade my 1GB stick to a larger one. I have already discarded the 256MB stick that came with the phone for this one...
• It has a camera. Not a very good one, I admit, but it is always with me when I feel the urge to capture something I see.
• I can send the pictures I take with my camera to my friends. Seeing something funny when being alone is not half as fun as when you share it with someone. By sending it the experience is shared and the happiness twice as large.
• It has games. When waiting for the bus or just being plain bored I can pick out my phone from my pocket and entertain myself with some game for a while.
• It has Internet. Surfing on a small screen is NOT a delight when it comes to regular pages, but some helpful companies has realised that their services are more useful when you are on the go than when you sit at home in front of your usual computer screen. The ability to look up bus or train schedules, or read your mail (where you might have your travel plan sent to you from your airline), or look up someones address, or trying to figure out where you are with the help of a very tiny map... Let's just say - there are lots of useful pages out there...
• It has a clock. I don't wear a wristwatch anymore and am therefore completely dependent on my surroundings or my mobile phone to know what time it is. The bonus of it having an alarm clock so you don't need to bring one when you travel is also a good thing. Not to mention a timer when you just want to take a quick nap for 20 minutes or so.
• It has a calendar. Here is something I still miss: the ability to seamlessly synchronize my calendar with my other calendars since I do not want to use Outlook. However, it still has a calendar that keeps track of where I am supposed to be and when. By giving me reminders it keeps me organized.
  
• Radio! Even with 1GB of mp3:s you might still want to listen to something new every now and then. By providing me with a radio, the phone gives me this possibility. I like it.
• It uses Bluetooth. This is a standard I have not really come to grips with yet, but if it at some point should start working as intended it would be really useful. By connecting all sorts of devices all sorts of applications could be built. I mainly use it for controlling my computer with my phone, but if I had enough money I probably would have bought a GPS and tried to us my phone as a navigational aid. For people who needs to talk while they drive, it enables a seamless connection to a hands free system built into the car.
• Last, but not least: I can call my friends and family with it. This does admittedly depend on where I am, but in the majority of cases this function can actually be used.

My phone might not be the best example, but the concept it represents suggests that our phones will more and more be one of our most used tools and sources of entertainment in the future. Maybe we are already there...