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flubbernugget

Things You're Surprised Nobody has Done Yet

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Here's two that come to mind:

Caffeine snorting as an alternative to illegal stimulants. Caffeine is considered safer than other similar drugs because it is not consumed in the ways most drugs are, and we consume significantly lower doses of it as a result. So how come by now nobody has tried to use higher doses of caffeine in any way as an alternative to illegal stimulants?

Dual bootable smartphones. Okay, I understand the clusterfuck of red tape that prevents this from being marketable idea, but I don't understand the hardware restrictions preventing a serious programming hobbyist from throwing a custom build if Linux right next to his android OS. It might have happened and been undocumented, but isn't this something a tech journal would have gotten excited about by now? Speculating about how someone could plug their phone into a docking station and run a full blown desktop OS from it seems like something right up their alley.

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flubbernugget said:

Caffeine snorting as an alternative to illegal stimulants. Caffeine is considered safer than other similar drugs because it is not consumed in the ways most drugs are, and we consume significantly lower doses of it as a result. So how come by now nobody has tried to use higher doses of caffeine in any way as an alternative to illegal stimulants?


Having tried this myself I can attest to it being nothing like cocaine or harder drugs. In fact if you drink a ton of Red Bulls you can experience the same effect without risk of heart failure. Seriously - snorting caffeine powder is an easy way to overdose and provides absolutely no euphoria.

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flubbernugget said:

Here's two that come to mind:

Caffeine snorting as an alternative to illegal stimulants. Caffeine is considered safer than other similar drugs because it is not consumed in the ways most drugs are, and we consume significantly lower doses of it as a result. So how come by now nobody has tried to use higher doses of caffeine in any way as an alternative to illegal stimulants


Not an expert on the effects of caffeine, but I think you maybe confused with the extraction process, since the process of extracting caffeine from its plant is extremely similar to how Cocaine is extracted... ya I always found my chemistry teacher to be quite shady.

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flubbernugget said:

Dual bootable smartphones. Okay, I understand the clusterfuck of red tape that prevents this from being marketable idea, but I don't understand the hardware restrictions preventing a serious programming hobbyist from throwing a custom build if Linux right next to his android OS. It might have happened and been undocumented, but isn't this something a tech journal would have gotten excited about by now? Speculating about how someone could plug their phone into a docking station and run a full blown desktop OS from it seems like something right up their alley.

Is it really that easy to run Linux on your phone and still have it act like a phone with all of its modern features, not just an awkward computer? I'm sure it'd be done already if people could hack phones that easily.

Anyways, Huawei tried pitching a double-boot phone that'd combine Android for the app breadth and Windows for the battery-friendlier idling, but they got shut down by both of the OS megacorps.

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If you're talking pure caffeine, I think that would be extraordinarily dangerous. It really doesn't take a lot to OD on the stuff. In fact, I think a pile large enough to snort would easily be enough to kill you (don't quote me on that, I'd have to check, but I know it doesn't take too much pure caffeine to kill you). Maybe if you cut it with pixie sticks or something, but that leads to a whole different set of problems (sugar + nasal cavity = bad idea).

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flubbernugget said:

Dual bootable smartphones. Okay, I understand the clusterfuck of red tape that prevents this from being marketable idea, but I don't understand the hardware restrictions preventing a serious programming hobbyist from throwing a custom build if Linux right next to his android OS. It might have happened and been undocumented, but isn't this something a tech journal would have gotten excited about by now? Speculating about how someone could plug their phone into a docking station and run a full blown desktop OS from it seems like something right up their alley.


Take a look at this : Ubuntu for android.
http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/ubuntu-for-android

Why add anything to Android?

Android is a mobile solution, designed for a touch interface on a handheld device. On the desktop, where users expect a pointer-driven experience, a PC operating system is essential. Several vendors have tried to bring Android-based desktops or laptops to market, with no success; Android was designed for touch only, and has its hands full winning the tablet wars... (this continues on the website)

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flubbernugget said:

Caffeine snorting as an alternative to illegal stimulants. Caffeine is considered safer than other similar drugs because it is not consumed in the ways most drugs are, and we consume significantly lower doses of it as a result. So how come by now nobody has tried to use higher doses of caffeine in any way as an alternative to illegal stimulants?

People have done this, though typically it's used as filler to cut mdma with.

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Even though this is in the Everything Else section, I'll mention something Doom-related: A map named "When Pigs Fly" with - you guessed it - flying pinkies in it. As far as I know anyway.

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development of a pill that abruptly eliminates addiction. kinda unrealistic but ehh what the heck.

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Invent a camera that only takes pictures of things worth seeing.

Taking a piss while running off a cliff at full speed.

Eating an entire wicker rocking chair just to prove it can be done.

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I'm surprised nobody has invented a quiet microwave oven. Obviously the mechanical parts are hard to suppress, but why do the doors have to make so much noise and why do they always have to beep loudly? Some of us want to make tea in the middle of the night, damnit!

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Aliotroph? said:

Some of us want to make tea in the middle of the night, damnit!


Use existing inventions like a water boiler, or a standard every day gas based cooking installation... or even electrical ones !

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A remake DOS PC, along the lines of what the Retron and its ilk do for consoles. Theoretically it should be easier to get right since DOS software (excepting the really old stuff) was by necessity more tolerant of hardware variation than consoles (with remake consoles you just about always get reports of certain ornery games like Gauntlet on the NES that will mess up if things aren't exactly right.) There's already FreeDOS to provide the OS component.

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Obsidian said:

Why hasn't anyone invented a chainsaw scythe? Not even in a video game!

Brushcutters.

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I was expecting to see all sorts of wild ideas like commuter jetpacks, flying cars and the such and instead....snortable caffeine and dual-boot smartphones? And a remake DOS PC? Wow...talk about limited imagination.

FWIW, there already is pure, dust-form caffeine that could be snorted. And this is why it's not a good idea to do so.

Dual Boot smartphones? Could be done, but pointless: Android IS already a Linux derivative for the ARM CPU (mostly) ....so you're gonna dual-boot to another Linux derivative? Meh. Now, dual-booting to e.g. OSX or Symbian would be something. Besides, whatever advantage you'd gain from dual-booting (using more apps) could be achieved by emulation/virtualization, as all those platforms use the same CPU family.

Remake DOS box? There are already thousands of hobbyists doing that, and someone even remotely interested in having one will also be "street smart" (or DOS Smart?) enough to build it himself. Not that it's hard: just install FREEDOS onto any PC. Even the lowliest Pentium II or 3 you might find, will be ages ahead of what even the best true DOS box had ever been, so.... OTOH there are remake Amigas, though how much they truly are Amigas is debatable (calling a PC with a heavily customized Unix "Amiga" is not what I had in mind...meh).

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Obsidian said:

Why hasn't anyone invented a chainsaw scythe? Not even in a video game!

The closest thing I saw to a chainsaw scythe is the lancer from Gears of War.

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Maes said:

I was expecting to see all sorts of wild ideas like commuter jetpacks, flying cars and the such and instead....snortable caffeine and dual-boot smartphones? And a remake DOS PC? Wow...talk about limited imagination.


Well, its stuff that should have already been done because it's fairly within our technological confines. So not only is it unsurprising that nobody has made jet-packs and flying cars, both of those are tropes that themselves aren't very creative anyway ;-)

Maes said:

Dual Boot smartphones? Could be done, but pointless: Android IS already a Linux derivative for the ARM CPU (mostly) ....so you're gonna dual-boot to another Linux derivative? Meh. Now, dual-booting to e.g. OSX or Symbian would be something. Besides, whatever advantage you'd gain from dual-booting (using more apps) could be achieved by emulation/virtualization, as all those platforms use the same CPU family.


Well, what I had in mind was a primary phone OS like Android for the typical phone computing and app usage we have today, and then a more desktop oriented OS that could be hooked up to a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, screen(?), or whatever. Use your phone like a desktop the way many businesses use laptops as desktops.

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Speaking of cell phones, why aren't multi-SIM phones common? You know how people in offices end up with three phones on their desk and at least two in their pockets? Why can't all the cell phones just be one phone? This seems most appropriate for Blackberries.

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There were multi-SIM expansion modules avaiable already in the 90s for certain models of phones, though their purpose was mainly to be able to switch SIMs/carriers for obtaining the most convenient "mixture" of services, e.g. make calls with one, long calls with the other, texting with another etc., rather than having two or more active lines at once.

They also had a lot of limitations, e.g. you could only have one SIM active at a time, and the switching process was kind of clumsly/monstly mechanical. It's not like there were two phones in one device (that'd require two receivers and two transmitters too, if you didn't want butchered functionality).

I don't know if a true multi-SIM phone with multiple lines exist, but it mustn't be cheap. Edit: well, they do. And as expected, they are essentially two phones in one. The older/simpler tech is called "passive/standby". Still, I think having physically many phones is more convenient if you really have to handle multiple incoming calls. Better yet, it would be to only have to do so at your office and have the convenience of a corporate call center to coordinate/switch calls for you.

flubbernugget said:

Well, what I had in mind was a primary phone OS like Android for the typical phone computing and app usage we have today, and then a more desktop oriented OS that could be hooked up to a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, screen(?), or whatever. Use your phone like a desktop the way many businesses use laptops as desktops.


Uhmm.... Windows 8? The new Metro interface and a lot of modules (like e.g. broadband support) make sense when you realize that a convergence between desktop/mobile/tablet with a common development platform was exactly what they had in mind.

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General Rainbow Bacon said:
Eating an entire wicker rocking chair just to prove it can be done.

This makes me think of this guy

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Aliotroph? said:

I'm surprised nobody has invented a quiet microwave oven. Obviously the mechanical parts are hard to suppress, but why do the doors have to make so much noise and why do they always have to beep loudly? Some of us want to make tea in the middle of the night, damnit!

Have you tired the stove top?

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flubbernugget said:

Well, what I had in mind was a primary phone OS like Android for the typical phone computing and app usage we have today, and then a more desktop oriented OS that could be hooked up to a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, screen(?), or whatever. Use your phone like a desktop the way many businesses use laptops as desktops.

So you want Asus to put Win8 on dual-boot to the Padfone.

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Technician said:

Have you tired the stove top?


Too slow and noisy in its own right. Boiling water isn't quiet it seems. Having an electric kettle by my PC might be cool, but I still think quiet microwaves should be a thing. They do a variety of night snacks too.

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Lol the beeping sucks yeah, every button you press makes an obnoxious sound and you have to manually stop it at like 0:02 to save everybody's ears.

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Aliotroph? said:

quiet microwave oven.


Thumbs up, recommended, favorited, etc. Maybe it's the expensive models that have quiet doors and volume adjust? I wouldn't know.

I'm surprised nobody has found an entire commercial airliner full of people.

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[sarcasm]I'm surprised nobody has found god[/sarcasm]

EDIT: Oh, there's no [/sarcasm] tag in the forums? I'm surprised nobody has implemented that...

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