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Outside of stunts like recharging the battery from the wall and claiming this improves the gas mileage, what is the advantage of a hybrid over a normal internal combustion engine? If you don't introduce external electrical energy, the electric battery and motor are only a storage device. All the energy is ultimately derived from gasoline. So how does the electic motor improve the energy efficiency of the internal combustion engine?
One of the main real benefits of hybrid cars in freeway driving is that they have reduced throttle losses.
Honda has designed an engine which cleverly reduces throttle losses in a much less expensive way.
http://www.vtec.net/news/news-item?news_item_id=37 6015 http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Valve-timing_20_22t hrottle_22

Thanks for the comments, folks!
Yes, I am aware of the problem posed by sudden entry from vacuum to atmosphere, even if the place where that happens is, say, the 20,000 feet of Mt. McKinley.

So, I have concocted a mad space-mountain idea, for your entertainment, and to deal with that objection. :)

I heard that the death star subwoofer was created in an attempt to produce the dreaded brown noise frequency.

One small detail: they didn't contribute to any idea pool; someone had the same idea five years ago. He had no intention of building it, though!

http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Configurable_20Keyc aps

The first version of this mutation of "Life" was done back in the 1980s. It's a genuine strategy game for 2 to 6 players.

Wow, this article must be the one where everyone and their grandmother has something to say. I know my late post is going to get buried in the numbers, but I'll post anyway...

I use a corded optical mouse, the MX 310 from Logitech. It works well and the cordedness means great response and no battery charging hassles. Also corded mice tend to be much cheaper. I program and use all of the six buttons for the mac: left click, right click, shift click, command click, option click, and exposé keystroke. Five of them are really helpful, and I wouldn't want to go back to a mouse with less than five. Having said that, the pad on the bottom of the mouse is beginning to wear out :-(

On a separate topic, here's an idea for future mice that combines the best of corded and cordless worlds:

http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Cord-optional_20Mou se

Did they mention road construction?

It's an old concept, actually.

I think a dual mouse system, five buttons per mouse (one per finger), would be ideal. It would allow chordkeying and dual mousing from a single ergomonimc position. Obviously, this would be an user-chosen setup; it's no keyboard-killer. http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Low-Impact_20Dual_2 0Mice is a similar idea.

Meant to put this link with that post:

Forum on Random number genration

That's bizarre! I've never heard of this guy, nor seen his site, but there's the death squad in all its glory! I wonder if this has been featured on Halfbakery too?

I like the Duck-plunge Mechanical Fountain, that could be a neat waterpark ride.

Or he could always visit the Half Bakery.

I heartily hope that what Sun (and IBM) are doing with renting grid computing time takes off. I believe it to be a good idea and a useful service. However, if somebody tries to patent it (or a business model), please refer to the public-released idea at http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Distributed_20Compu ting_20Business_20Model#1057251600 to see if this idea from 2002 can be used to invalidate the patent.

Funny...now you can buy "grid computing time" on a network of computers. Back in the day, you could buy "computing time" on a powerful mainframe. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Could you use a Split-torque Epicyclic Eggbeater Gearbox? you can find it here : http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Split-torque_20Epic yclic_20Eggbeater_20Gearbox#1037379600/ Not really sure about the phlegm issue, tough... ;-)

Another one for the Half Bakery methinks... :D

According to theory, the rings were originally made up of water ice, but over the years they have been bombarded with a lot of other material (rock, I presume) so that they are now quite dirty. A lot of dust has landed on Saturn's moons as well; see for instance Phoebe and Iapetus, the latter showing a nearly black leading hemisphere (imagine pushing a snowball in front of you through an ash cloud for 100 million years).

In other words, what is desperately needed up there is a vacuum cleaner (then we can send the sufficiently cleaned ice on a trajectory towards Mars, to be used for irrigation).

Have the Halfbakery handle all patent submission. Those people are ruthless when it comes to ideas already thought up!

There is one, it's called the Half-bakery.

It has a specific category for Spam Avoidance, plus a lot of other entertaining half-baked ideas.

There is one, it's called the Half-bakery.

It has a specific category for Spam Avoidance, plus a lot of other entertaining half-baked ideas.

Warning: you might spend too much time here but... Half Baked Ideas.

Sure it is.. if there is a signal being transferred, there is a way to Jam it. [insert Spaceballs reference here]

Well, the Web page was intended to be an introduction, not a technical description. If you want to know more about how the "key" file is used to select primes pseudorandomly (8300 bytes --> approximately 1000 primes minimum -- AFTER which they are used to generate pseudorandom numbers), read the HalfBakery page, or download the .zip and study the "cryption.c" source code file.

Regarding your points 1. and 2., you can pick any key file you want off the Web, and just tell the recipient the filename -- maybe an .MP3 -- in a casual conversation (FIRST time and other random occasions; after that you mostly just encrypt the name of the next key file in your current secret transmission), and if the recipient has the downloaded the same "Primary Cryption" program suite/version as yourself, then he/she will indeed be able to locally generate the exact same library of prime numbers as yourself. The library is simply ALL primes that fit in 32 bits, after all (203,280,221 of them); it only exists so that the encryption process can obtain a thousand (or thousands) Nth primes more quickly than generating them on the fly.

Over at SourceForge is a relatively new Project called Primary Cryption. Working code (for Win32/WINE) has already been released. The source code includes hundreds of lines of commentary about encryption, C programming tricks, and other stuff that you might find interesting. The logo may be of interest, too. Some discussions about it have been started at the HalfBakery and at sci.crypt.research Oh, and if you want to put some effort into figuring out how easy (or tough) it is to break the proposed encryption scheme, feel free! I'd like to know. Thanks!

Already baked: it's called Vipul's Razor.

Here.

Quote: "To save energy, it would make sense to utilise the senselessly relentless pedestrian marathon tendencies of the domestic hamster (fatface domesticus). ..."

loc. cit.

CC.

It would be nice to find offsite backup partners on some kind of P2P network. If you have 80 gigs to back up, you need to have 80 gigs available on your system to trade off. All encrypted, so it's safe. And if you're extra paranoid, find 2 or more partners!

How about the powers of the defenestrator?

Some time back I posted this, of which the the present Slashdot Article reminded me. Some of it sound similar. And some is different, of course.

First off... FOLD http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/! !! Now that Stanford project is more relevant than ever!! 1. If the structure of a prion can be determined it may be possible to bind them up with another protein until the immune system can remove it from the system 2. From the Halbaked http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Prion_20Poison_20Pr evention#1062618359 site, enzymes might be able to remove them from the system as well, but it would destroy them in-place which may not be desirable

Here

A range of such biofeedback sports would be more fun.

Lets look at this from a physics standpoint. It is a glove with wires coming out. There are ...no rockets to fire...

Hey, credit where credit is due! That's my idea!

BTW, note the similarity of the actual scuplting system to this proposal.

That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.

-- Ecclesiastes 1:9

Lets look at this from a physics standpoint. It is a glove with wires coming out. There are ...no rockets to fire...

Hey, credit where credit is due! That's my idea!

BTW, note the similarity of the actual scuplting system to this proposal.

That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.

-- Ecclesiastes 1:9

I always loved the website

http://www.halfbakery.com/

been there, done that...

At the moment, I'd like to start a chain of bio-diesel and vege oil filler stations for diesel transport.

I'm still waiting for a decent teleport. And I'd like, in my town, someone who will do takeaway food after 9pm, the kind of food that won't clog your arteries.

Wait.. let me patent it first!!11!one!

For night combat you want the rectal silencer/biogas power generator combo. Stealth and free power in the same package

Personally, I'd be more interested in seeing the development of flocking road cones. But that's just me :)

-pararox-

Hooray! $m4r+n3$$ for every1!

• Halfbakery.com - a lively discussion of partly-baked ideas
• Smartfunusa.com - Cartoons by Kiva Sutton
• Idea-x.net - idea exchange software
• ShouldExist
• Global Ideas Bank
• ThinkCycle
• yet2.com
• Idea Exchange
• brainhead.com
• Ideas Happen - contest site for 18-29 year olds
• I Called It! - site for posting predictions
• openideas.net
• BrainFlower - revolutionary idea exchange
• Ideas by Creativity Pool
• Idea a day - "Where ideas are free."
• The Idea Oven
• Prior-Art-O-Matic - truly random product ideas
• Totally Absurd Inventions - America's goofiest patents
• Forbes
• Springwise.com - Springwise is an inspiring free newsletter that tracks emerging why-not ideas from all around the world
• Trendwatching.com - Trendwatching is a second free newsletter that lives up to its name

I prefer the Half Bakery. All the innovation, half the feasibility!

In light of the exceptional (and continued) success of the Open-Source Software model as well as the proliferation of peer-to-peer networks, I would like to get Slashdot readers' opinions on how a similar fledgling model is being applied to ideas, inventions, and patents. Particularly, I am interested in how advances in 3D and circuit board printers could lead to the 'Napsterization' of commercial products.

We have all had our own version of the Jump to Conclusions mat which never saw the light of day due to our own time and resource commitments. What if implementing that idea were as easy as contributing to an open source project. Ok, what if it were almost that easy?

My reasoning is this: I have noticed a recent rise in "open idea" sites such as Half Bakery, SlipHead, and Should Exist. These sites all have one common theme: put your idea out in a public discussion forum for others to enjoy, contemplate, and critique. My thoughts are that this methodology, coupled with the growing ease of desktop manufacturing, has a potential to revolutionize the way new concepts are created and developed. It also has potentially profound effects on procuring patents, business practices, and intellectual property in general. The question then is: How can these open ideologies and development processes excel within a predominately capitalistic society?

What are your thoughts?

Such a device has already been proposed...

I think your inner geek requires this little writeup for inner peace and happyness.

I'm going to try this myself. :P I'm sure further googling could turn up an even better mod.

There are a lot of good ideas for keyboards at Halfbakery.com. There are nine sections of ideas, including layout, alternative, illumination, comfort, etc.

I submitted an idea for extra thumb buttons. Here's the text of it:

"Most typing is done by the fingers, and even spaces are generally typed by only one thumb by most people. There could be one or more new buttons under the space bar, doubled for both thumbs. They could be shift or alt or ctrl, and/or a macro key for converting the characters on the keyboard to programming characters ({};", etc) or other application specific characters. Try hold your unused thumb down below the space bar - it's much easier than using your pinkies on the shift/alt/ctrl keys."

Any mouse has 'em... they tend to grow on the front :-)

How else do you think they feed the baby mice?

Perhaps you'd be better to look at rats to satisfy some of your cravings?

Since Britain and US are good friends now... It is time to start the Trans-Atlantic Tunnel. Early ideas are available. Even a promo tapes avaiable in english and german

"...when it comes to shrinking the size of transistors, one of the chief methods for making chips that are smaller..."

I'm not sure if I should attribute such sharpness to the fact that this site is:

1. sponsored by MS
2. USian
3. or was it purposefully enforcing the sense of the article - perhaps at the time, they weren't aware of such a link between shrinking things, and their resuling smaller size..?

Not to mention the use itself of the phrase "shrinking the size" [shudder]

Ok it's back to the halfbakery for me!

---

or better yet, halfbakery.com... home of ideas intentionally half-baked.