Building a better stop sign

(Please excuse my poor art skills.  Someone else will have to refine the colors and sizes, etc.)

I have several new ideas a day.  This is just one of the ideas that swam by this morning.  I was intrigued enough to hold on and think it through.  I like it.

You recognize this object:

There is a clear purpose to this sign.  But after you stop there is a good deal of additional information that you need in order to proceed.  You are at an intersection.  What are the other lanes of traffic doing?  Are they stopping, too?  Are they yielding?

My idea is to add information about the other lanes of traffic to this sign in an obvious and easy-to-read manner. So look at this sign and tell me (in the comments) if you immediately understand it:

Simple, right?  Red means the lane is stopping.  Green means it is not stopping.  There is really only one other option, they might be yielding:

The sign has eight sides.  That gives us plenty of options to specify which direction the other lane is in.  Like in the above image the lane that is yielding is intersecting at a narrow angle on the right.  This is a Y-shaped intersection.

This information can be easily added via stickers.  We don't have to replace the existing stop signs.  We can just add the red, yellow, and green stickers to the sides.

Isn't that simpler and more intuitive than the little signs that get hung beneath that say, "Cross traffic does not stop", or "3-Way Stop"?  This has the added advantage of being universal.  You don't have to be able to read the local language to understand what is going on.

What do you think?

Hacking Windows 7

I'm using Windows 7.  It's better than any previous version of Windows.  I haven't tried it on older hardware.  But on hardware that can handle it, it is slick, fast, and stable and has fewer annoying interruptions than Vista. Even on Vista I rebooted nightly in order to keep the machine running smoothly.  I only reboot now after installing stuff that requires a reboot (a few applications and Windows updates.)

I had to crack open my computer case the other day, and I had a Linksys wireless card sitting on my desk gathering dust.  My wireless seems to go down erratically, and I would like to be able to check it from my desktop without having to get out my laptop.  So I stuck the card in.

Microsoft added the concept of "signed" drivers a few versions back.  Its a good concept, in general.  The people who create a driver encrypt it with a secure public key.  They give Microsoft the private key.  Then Microsoft can validate that the driver was developed by a safe source and hasn't been hacked.  This is a reasonable security system.

It happens to also be a good revenue enhancer for hardware manufacturers.  When a new version of Windows comes out the hardware manufacturers can simply fail to create new encrypted drivers for their old hardware.  Now I can't take my older wireless card and reuse it in my new computer.

In all versions of Windows prior to 7, the whole signed drivers security system was optional.  You got a warning, but you could install the driver and use your old hardware with the old drivers.  In Windows 7 it is no longer optional.  Windows 7 refuses to run unsigned drivers.

In this case, I know that the wireless card would work.  I ran the Windows 7 beta, and I had this card running on it with the Vista driver.  The beta of Windows 7 let me run an unsigned driver.

Monday afternoon I found this fabulous blog post on signing drivers.  It turns out that I can install the Windows developer kit and sign my own drivers.  It looks like a decent compromise.  Hard-core propeller-heads can get old equipment to work, and they can take responsibility for the hacks.  They are likely savvy enough to recognize the problems that might arise, so letting them run old hardware is fairly safe.

The Vista driver from Linksys was a .inf file instead of being a .exe (the linked .exe file is just a self-extracting zip file), like in the article.  I had to figure out how to sign a .inf file.  It turns out that .inf files cannot be signed.  I had to convert the .inf to a .cab file, and then sign the .cab file (worked just like .exe files).

Now I have a locally-signed .cab file containing the Vista driver that I know works in Windows 7.  When I install the driver it shows to be digitally signed and generates no errors whatsoever.  I had to set my computer to run in 'Test Mode' to allow locally-signed drivers--I didn't want to submit my hacked driver up to Microsoft as if I were Linksys or providing the driver to the public.  But after a reboot it is working.

It's all a matter of perspective

The Time Online UK is reporting that Russian scientists are warning about a dangerous new environmental threat.

As I've noted before, we don't understand Earth's natural temperature cycles.  This is one of those things that we don't know.  But it makes a bit of logical sense that something like this must be a big part of the puzzle.  Large amounts of something must build up and then eventually escape to cause significant change.  In this case it is methane.

But, wait a second, isn't methane also a fuel?  Yes.  Yes it is.  We normally call it natural gas.

So climate change scientists find this leaky permafrost full of methane and cry that we are all about to die.  I've got an easy solution for you, fellows.  Send in some natural gas extraction companies.  Let's bottle and burn that stuff.

Burning natural gas generates CO2, a greenhouse gas.  But, as the Times article says, methane is 25 times more damaging than CO2.  It's not a perfectly clean win, but it is a big win, nonetheless.

We might have to subsidize the extraction.  Or subsidize the insurance on the extraction.  But surely it would be worth it to save the planet from methane catastrophe.

Comfort food

When I feel down there are certain foods that help lift my mood.  When I am sick, there are certain foods that bring me comfort.  Some of these I know where the association started.  Some of these make no sense.

I was sick a lot as a kid.  I had bad allergies and a constant runny nose.  And thus I had lots of sore throats.  My mom would make me "jello drink".  Heat two cups of water (near boiling is fine.)  Stir in a regular packet of Jello.  Stir and drink.  At first you have to sip, but when it cools enough you can chug it.  It really soothes a sore throat.  Peach is my favorite.  Black Cherry is also great.  Grape and Orange are also very good.

When I'm lonely or depressed I like a burger and tots with a cherry lime-aid from Sonic.  (I also get this sometimes when I'm just hungry and not depressed.)  I think that Dayna (my oldest sister) worked at Sonic for a little while.  I would have been about 6 then.  I don't have any specific memory of eating this.  I just found that it picks me up when I'm blue.

Runners up:
Cream of tomato soup, with salty crackers.
Chicken noodle soup, also with salty crackers.
Chocolate cake.

I thought about adopting some exotic food as a comfort food.  But at heart I just like the simple things in life.

My perfect desk

I thought of this years ago: the treadmill desk.  I even photoshopped a keyboard and monitor onto a treadmill to explain what I was talking about.  Curt and Matt at Journyx (and maybe some others) should be able to vouch for me on this.  This was long enough ago that screens were all big bulky CRTs--LCDs were still way to expensive to consider.

I didn't build it because I reasoned that the up-and-down motion of walking would make the screen too hard to read.  The screen (and maybe the keyboard) would need to move up and down with the walker, and that was too hard to build and too expensive to sell.  If you check the reviews on this (and it's competitors) that is exactly what you will find.  It works ok for surfing and videos, but you have to stop walking to read any significant amount of text.

We're approaching the technological point where someone could mount a camera on the whole thing and use hydraulics to move the screen (and maybe keyboard) up and down as the person walked.  Or just get some glasses with the screen projected on them--they would move with you, also.  That might be worth buying.

Until then I would be happy with a desk that I could move up and down.  My lower back gets sore from sitting.  I switch out to sit on a big posture ball sometimes.  But I often just have to stand or change positions.

I need a table top, a keyboard and mouse drawer below the tabletop, a screen, and a headphone jack (probably on the speakers.)  I want to have an easy clamp mechanism that is counter-weighted, so I can squeeze the clamp and lift or lower the work area.  The desktop might have several books on it, so the counter-weight system needs to accommodate that some.  I need it to range from full standing height to literally laying on my belly with a small pillow under my chest and elbows.

I found a couple of similar items, but neither is quite right.  One is very expensive and doesn't go down far enough.  The other is too small of a tabletop and doesn't go down far enough.

Somebody go invent that for me, please.  Thanks.

Yes, I am also thinking about getting a different chair.

My contrarian opinion on global warming

Energy equals heat equals life.

Humans are heating up the planet.  We're alive and moving and generating heat.  We are also burning and heating things because movement requires energy, which is heat.  And a whole lot of our burning and heating has chemical side effects, most of which seem to cause additional heat.  So it is no stretch to say that we are heating the planet more than we need to.

So what?

Without understanding the context of our situation it is impossible to judge if this heat is a good or bad thing.  All of the global warming alarmists clearly assume that heating the planet is bad.  Maybe they know something I don't about the planet's prevailing temperature patterns, and so they can tell that this heating will somehow cross a tippping point of desctuction.  But I don't think so.  I think they are just blindly assuming that global warming is bad.  I'm not saying that because I think they are fools or evil, I just haven't been able to find them explain in context why this is such a big deal.

Global warming idea #1, blinking red lights

Here's a free one for the global warming crowd.  It's an idea that you can easily get the rest of us to support.


Convert all stoplights to blink red instead of staying solid red.  At a blinking red light you stop, look to see if anyone is coming, and if it is clear you can go on.  That would ease congestion, reduce the amount of time people sit idling, and burn less gas.  Less waiting.  Less CO2.  Less frustration.  Less foreign oil.


We would need to talk about it quite a bit and have a big change-over period, in order to maintain safety.


There would probably be some intersections where the lay of the land, presence of obstructions, and speed of the oncoming traffic would make it too dangerous to let people stop and go like this.  But that is probably a very low percentage of intersections.


Hurry up.  Go make that happen for me.  :-)

The Power of the Poor

Hernando de Soto is one of my heroes.  If you haven't read 'The Other Path' then you should stop now and go do that.  I'm still working on my decision of what I would like to do with my life, but working with his Institute for Liberty and Democracy is definitely near the top of the list. 'The Other Path' and 'The Mystery of Capitalism' were two of the formative books that began my work on Democracy 2.0.

De Soto has a new documentary called 'The Power of the Poor' that is going to air soon on PBS.  Here is the trailer:


De Soto's website says that the show is supposed to premiere on October 8 at 10 Eastern.   Here in Austin, our first viewing will be KLRU on October 20 at 10 PM.

De Soto's website has an essay contest going.  The question is:  “What institutions can enable the world’s poor to realize their power and achieve prosperity?” This is my answer (and entry in the essay contest):

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“What institutions can enable the world’s poor to realize their power and achieve prosperity?”

There are thousands of poor communities throughout the world. Each has its own culture and causes for it's current situation. There is no one path that every poor community can follow to prosperity. The following guidelines must be custom fit to each situation.

Don't take a shower!

You probably saw the articles all over the net the other day.  Some researchers found bacteria growing in shower heads.  Ick!

What was your first reaction to that?

My first reaction was to either build a better shower head or to create a shower head cleaning product.

Cleaning a fixed shower head would be tricky.  Cleaning a shower head on a flexible hose would be much easier.  All you really need is a bucket of bleach, and maybe a stool.  But you have to get the bleach to go in to the shower head, so just sticking it into the bucket probably wouldn't accomplish much. That seems like a mess waiting to happen. And whatever I figured out there would be easy for someone to imitate.

Much easier and profitable to build a new type of shower head that is designed to drain better and to be cleaned.  If you get it right you will sell a hundred or more to every hospital in the world, right off--millions of units.

I would start with a hand-held shower head.  I would add a spout to the end (tip, top, whatever you would call the part farthest away from the water source), so that when you disconnected the shower head and let it hang, the spout would be at the very bottom (where the red arrow is pointing):

This spout would also serve as an inlet where you could hold the shower head upright in your hand and pour in cleaner (probably not bleach, if you are holding it in your hand.)

The real concern is the spout mechanism.  It would have to be water tight when closed, so you could actually shower and not spray the wall.  But once opened it should fully drain the shower head and hose.  So a spring-loaded thumb-switch of some sort.  It would probably need some sort of catch inside the shower head that would stop you from opening the spout while there is water pressure coming into the shower head.

But that's just what I think of when I hear stuff like that.  "This is broken."  So, let's fix it.  And let's make a little money off of it.

Anybody know anyone at any of the fixture manufacturers?

I fixed the microwave

I was laid off on Friday. While I was heating my lunch on Saturday the microwave stopped working. I was not a happy camper.

Of course it's a mounted-over-the-range model, so it's at least $160 to replace.

I decided that I had nothing to lose by ripping it apart and looking for the problem. I googled the model number and found the parts replacement diagrams at a part distributor's website. I found that there is an in-line fuse deep inside, so I had a little hope of finding a fixable problem.

So then I began ripping it apart. This is what I found:

I was very afraid that a burn-out of this scale was a bad omen of other damage. But I decided that it was worth trying to replace. I could have just re-wired without a fuse, but my fears of a kitchen fire got the better of me and I made a trip to Radio Shack.

$6 for a fuse holder and 20amp ceramic fuse. I cut the old one out. I wired the new one in. I put it all together and plugged it back in.

It worked like a champ.