Only Pay Internet Providers for Uptime

Project Status: Thinking out loud

The Problem

Internet providers take advantage of people, at least in my opinion they do. In this case I'm speaking about home internet, mobile phone internet throttling is a big racket of its own and a topic for another day.

Any home internet I have ever had slowed down over time. When you sign on it seems pretty fast right away, but as time goes on your top speeds get lower and lower. So you call in and they say, "Oh no problem we'll see what we can do." They click some stuff and like magic it speeds back up for a little while and then the same thing happens over time.

In my opinion they know that there are a lot of people out there who don't understand their connection or how to even check internet speeds. I think they know they can take advantage of this and simply calling in to ask why speeds are slowing down is probably helpful to put you in a category of users not to throttle because that group of users know what's going on.

The Simple Idea

I would really like to monitor my home internet every so many minutes. Logging the download and upload speeds and watching how they change over time and during peak usage hours. That is actually pretty easy to do by itself.

Once having done that I could have it text/email me anytime it slows down. Unless I wanted to build a more robust system, I could have it text/email also when the internet comes back on after having been down for any period of time.

The more robust system would be to write a small app or webpage that receives the data every so many minutes. In this way the back-end side of the app/site would notice anytime data isn't coming in and would be able to alert the end user as soon as the network went down instead of waiting until it came back up to do so.

Take it a step further and that robust system could have a button to tap when the speed slows to a crawl. By using the internet or things (IoT) or a little home automation it could then power cycle the modem/routers which often does the trick. If after a bit that didn't speed things back up then another button in that app or on that site could allow you to call your internet service provider (ISP) directly.

The Pipe Dream Part

When signing up for internet we should be promised a minimum download and upload speed that we are paying for. Then expanding on the idea from above, we would need to be able to monitor our speeds and when the minimum isn't reached during any point in time our bill could be prorated to match paying for only what we were provided.

I don't mean to say pay for what we use, as most cell phone companies are somehow getting away with now, but not having to pay for internet that was supposed to be provided and yet never was.

Being Realistic

The hard part, and reason among many that this will likely never happen, is because a monitoring system setup by either the service provider or the end user could easily be tampered with to directly affect the monthly bill.

The solution would likely require both the service provider and the end user monitoring to reconcile with each other, or a third-party altogether. The motivation for the end user is high but very low for the service provider.

A service provider would stand to profit in the long run by gaining more users, but at some point that edge will be lost when other internet service providers follow suit and do the same.

What Can I do?

The best solution now is to periodically check your own internet speeds, here are the top three ways I know of:

• Google search "speed test" and card shows up that let's you test right from there (as seen here)
• speedtest.net has been around forever and has an app you can use also
• fast.com is relatively new from Netflix but it doesn't test upload speeds as the others do 

Know what you are supposed to be getting from your provider, check often, and keep them honest by calling in and then checking more.

Related Products If you are looking for a router to use on your home network which does some of the monitoring portion of the idea mentioned above, check out this NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900 which boasts: "NETGEAR Genie App – Easy-to-use dashboard to monitor, control & repair home networks."

Rounding Gas Prices to the Penny

Project Status: Still Dreaming

Problem

Gas prices are always set to nine-tenths of a penny. This likely goes all the way back to when gas was only a few cents per gallon anyway. At that point adding a penny would seem like a lot more and people have always been so gullible that they think something priced right under a round number (in this case a just under a whole penny) is a great deal cheaper than it actually is. It's a marketing gimmick and a shady one that I have never liked. I would bet this 9/10 of a cent hung around even when gas prices reached a few dollars because penny-pinching marketing and sales people, plus those corporate fat-cats, never want to let go of even a cent if they don't have to.

Solution

Seriously, why can't we just round up to a penny? I would feel they were being much more honest with me if they sold me gas for $2.37 a gallon as opposed to $2.369 for each gallon.

You know, I have never seen a credit card statement with any denomination smaller than a penny on it, so who wants to guess that any of these shady sales gimmick people have ever rounded down when charging my credit card?

Then again I'm also the person who is really frustrated with people selling products of much greater value with this gimmick. Such as $9.99, $10,900, $95 or anything of the like. When I see a price like this it often makes me think two things right off the bat. First, that they are shady sales people trying weasel a quick buck out of me and second, that they likely arbitrarily picked this price and that the real value is likely way under what they are expecting me to pay here.

My Two Cents

If you asked me for a business plan it would be to "under sale and over deliver," which is in direct opposition to what you see people doing with the 9/10 of a cent sales gimmick at nearly all gas stations in the USA today. Then again, that's why I would make a horrible salesperson but would have a great business, because I'm the kind of person that would tell you all the things wrong with the product before selling it to you. No one should ever hire me as a salesperson if they only expect me to meet monthly quotas. However; if they want happy customers that come back and tell their friends to come too, well then that's me, but to understand that you would have to stop looking at monthly sales numbers and start looking at the big picture.

Accurate Delivery Times

Project Status: Product Improvement

Problem

Customers do not have an accurate time frame when packages will arrive from delivery services such as UPS, DHL and FedEx. Furthermore; drivers are pressured for efficiency and do not want to wait at doors for customers to answer.

On an unrelated note, I did have the idea for the Ring Doorbell way back before they came out with it, glad they did by the way. I always thought this was a cool commercial for them, showing delivery guys knocking and running or simply throwing packages at the door. Enjoy.

Workaround

Currently the best I have seen is that some companies will let you receive a notification when the package is scanned onto the delivery truck. At that point you basically know that you should receive the package that day, but when exactly is anyone's guess.

Solution

This problem is pretty simple to solve actually, I mean we aren't exactly talking about the traveling salesman problem here. Well, I mean it is actually, but it's a pretty small set of destinations to start with and it can always be corrected as the driver moves along the path. In reality we are probably always going to recursively look for the nearest destination from the driver's current position. All packages loaded on the delivery truck are already scanned and all destinations are known. I would assume that drivers are even automatically provided with a delivery route from the company to follow.

Since all of this information is known, it would take very little effort for someone to calculate and provide accurate delivery times for each customer on the route. There are a few ways of doing that effectively, the best probably being to have customers download your app.

An app from the delivery company would have solid control over notifications and updates. However; many people won't want to download an app that they aren't going to use on a regular basis. So another option would be updates via text or email. In this case, in an effort not to spam the customer with texts or emails, the companies would need to guess a little wider window. Then they would follow up with more accurate estimated arrival times when the customer is closer to being the next drop off.

Summary

The goal is to let customers have access, if they want it, to estimated arrival times that are accurate within a few minutes rather than within a day. While at the same time speeding up delivery truck driver's workloads by not making them wait as long at each door for customers to answer. This is a win-win for the company and the customers.

Soda Machine Creates Bottleneck

Project Status: Still Dreaming

Problem

If you have used one of these new soda dispensing machines which provide a variety of drink options you may have noticed the traffic jam they cause when even a handful of people are around to use one of them.

There are many reasons way the line quickly grows for machines like the one pictured here. There are a lot of options to choose from and people get overwhelmed trying to make the perfect choice, not only choosing the drink but mixing flavors into it. It not only fills your drink but also dispenses ice at the same location, which takes time. People are not use to this machine yet so they like to take their time and play with it and figure it out. Also each user must begin making a selection once at the machine, whereas with older style machines you could at least see all the options from afar and begin deciding on a selection before using the machine.

The new machines are awesome, don't get me wrong here, but they surely don't keep up with a herd of people with the same level of efficiency as the older style machines which have individual heads for each drink type provided. The following idea, if implemented correctly, could help to solve that problem.

Solution

The solution to this bottleneck in the flow of traffic is pretty simple with only a few small modifications.

Firstly; each cup needs to be unique. When printing cups in mass quantities the vendor simply includes a QR code. This should either be in the bottom or done in a way such that it can be read from any side of the cup. That way users won't have to struggle to line up the cup, it will just work without them changing natural behavior at all.

Secondly; the machine needs a small reader to scan cups. Each time a cup is held beneath the dispenser its unique identifier is read.

Lastly; a small back-end database added to allow these QR codes to load to an actual website when scanned by anyone else.

How it works

The first time a user fills the cup, the machine remembers what selections are made.

When the same cup comes back the matching drink is already brought into focus for the user to simply use or modify.

Waiting in line before your first fill-up? Why not go ahead and scan that QR code from your phone and select your drink while you wait so that way when you step up to the machine it is one quick button to begin dispensing.

Sitting at your table and curious what other options you had for drinks? That's right, scan the QR code and modify your drink without having wait in line or needing to hog the machine for a period of time.

What's that? You are the store manager and are having a problem with people asking for free water and filling up with soda. You're having cups sneak in to skip buying new drinks with new meals. Haha, no problem my friend. This system can easily be used to handle all those management woes, without the need for hawk-eye employees to police your soda machine or to awkwardly confront your patrons.

Maybe you have a restaurant with one of these machines in the back and you want to insure that waiters get the refills right, every time. Not that I recommend ever taking the restaurant goer's cup away, because it's far better to bring them a new one, but this could still be useful if handled correctly.

Miniature Bowling

Project Status: Still Dreaming

Who's up for some miniature bowling? I sure am, although you may have to help me build it first, lol. I'm not sure if anyone has capitalized on this idea yet or not, but I see no reason not to. Doesn't it sound like a lot of fun? I have searched around and have come to the conclusion that if anyone is doing this then they aren't advertising as well as they should be.

If you are not really sure what I am talking about when I say "miniature bowling," here's the lowdown. I'm sure you have heard of and probably even played mini golf, well, pretty much that but for bowling. Indoors or outdoors doesn't matter but obstacles with kid-like fun and absurdly disproportional objects are the name of the game here.

There should be a series of lanes setup for mini bowling much in the same way mini golf is setup. A player or group of players would start at one challenging setup and once completed move on to the next setup, walking through the course as they go from lane to lane. When I say challenging I don't mean your normal bowling experience which happens to be pretty challenging for me. No, I mean the lanes should bend up and down, are curved and twist all around, oh and there better be a giant windmill or a large clown's mouth to go through.

Mini golf often has 9 or 18 setups in a row, this is because golf is normally played 9 or 18 holes at a time. In mini bowling I recommend 10 challenging setups, derived from the fact that you play 10 frames while bowling.

Now you do have some creative choices when figuring out exactly how to go about scoring. You could try to stick as closely to bowling as possible or you could let some of the golf fun bleed into the game. Meaning that if you stick to bowling-ish rules players could stand at the starting position for the challenge and have two rolls to try and knock down all the pins. While if you wanted to let some of the traditional mini golf feel mix in, they could have multiple rolls from the same bowling ball starting from where it ends up. Whether you would want players making two rolls from the starting point or chasing their bowling balls around like golf balls is really something to consider based on how complicated of obstacles you want.

Making the choices of how players move and score will dictate how freely you may setup your course. For example; if you roll twice from the starting position your obstacles may have to be much easier to overcome. If you can't use your first roll to get through the windmill and your second to line up with the pins, then you better build it so that going through the windmill almost guarantees knocking all of the pins down.

I say the crazier the obstacles in the course the more fun that will be had. Although I also recommend using some very lightweight pins as well as a lightweight, probably even plastic, bowling ball. Being the guy that has thrown a bowling ball behind me at least once during normal bowling, let me be the first to say we don't need normal and therefore dangerous bowling equipment in this case. I do think it would be awesome to have the bowling lane look and feel by using wooden lanes or some kind of fake laminate flooring but how about we do that in a way that I can keep on whatever shoes I show up in.

I would think the last major thing to note would be how the pins are reset after each player. Of course we wouldn't want to build these small lanes so that they automatically return our bowling ball and reset the pins for us using a lot of mechanical equipment. If you could, great, but I doubt it's worth all the extra expense and safety issues it would cause. Nope, just keep it simple.

There are several ways to solve this problem. The super cheap and easy way is to mark the lane with some dots and let the players manually reset their own pins after each roll. That does get the job done but where's the fun in that, really, lol. I think the better option would be to rig the pins with strings on the bases of them. Feed those strings through a hole in the lane and setup a lever to the side of the lane so that players may quickly and easily reset the pins with a flip of the lever.

Ok, I'll stop rambling now for your sake, but someone better go build one of these courses or help me find one that has already been built. I'm the "bowl with the bumpers up even though I'm an adult" type bowler but I have a feeling I would have a lot of fun with Mini Bowling.