I have absolutely no engineering experience or any idea about how to go about creating my idea...maybe someone can help.

So, my cable bill has been going up and up over the past few years, so I went to look into changing providers, and found cheaper ones. Great! However, I didn't switch due to the fact that I didn't want to spend hours and hours relearning new tv stations. With 1000 channels now on tv, it is a task only someone with unlimited time can complete.

This got me thinking about some sort of system that allows you to program channel numbers from any provider. For instance, I I know by heart pretty much all the channel numbers on comcast in my area, so if I switched providers to save on my monthly bill, I would be able to reprogram the channels to my desired taste.

I don't know where to begin with this, and not even sure if something like this is already out there. Any ideas?

Any ideas aimed at women?

-------

Aachwau A mix of a boxer mouth protector with a electric toothbrush, so you put on hot water, adjust to your mouth and brush your teeth quickly [we use about 100.000 minutes in our life washing our teeth].

DVRs are widely available and solve this problem for you.

I don't see how?

If I like to watch CNN and it's currently ch 123 on my provider and I switch to a new provider where it's 199 a DVR doesn't help me. DVR only assists in keeping up with shows and events, somewhat.

How much does the independent mechanic auditor will charge?

Try to convince someone doing this like if the auction already existed. Personally I wouldn't want to put my car in the guy whose primarily quality is being the cheapest.

agian depending on how many people come to the auction...you can say that the auditor gets 5% of the money earend from coming to the auction etc..

in order for a mechanic to go to the auction he must have some certifaction saying he is capable and doing this blah blah...you can set up a membership with the mechanics that want to come so the mechanics are just some joe shmoes.

Of course, before subbimted your car, youd have to sign a waiver, saying , something along the lines of....I put my broken car up for auction to be fixed and trust that the independant auditor has provided an accurate estimate and willing to pay for the auction price..etc

you, as the person putting your car up for the auction, create a legal liability for your self. kind of like a company declares a divedend...i think. once you sign that wavier you are saying "im willing to pay what ever the auctioned price is to fix my car" and you cant change your mind if you think the price is to high when your vehicales already been auctioned. its just the gamble theyre going to have to take. obviously the independant auditor would tell them before the auction starts if its worth it yadah yadah yada...and they would have a certain time period, say an ohour before the bidding begins to take their car of the lot and not have it bid on.

And im not to sure what you mean by your second statement? care to elaborate?

An idea that me and a mate have kind of joked about but could have some merit is a "log bomb". Probably sounds pretty stupid so I'll explain further. Basically, when a mate of mine goes to the toilet for a number 2 he says that he often does massive logs which won't flush (for days). I have seen evidence of this when I stayed at his house. Maybe not a big deal at home, but you don't always go to the toilet at home. I was with the same friend at a busy bar in France where he needed to go to the toilet and layed an unflushable log. The toilets were unisex and there was a hot French girl next in line for the toilet and he was feeling pretty embarrassed walking out and leaving that there unflushed. I could also imagine it being pretty embarrassing doing it at a friends place or something.

So the solution we had was a little tablet that could be carried in a wallet and could be dropped into the toilet cause a mini explosion in there to break up the log instantly. I guess the tablet would consist of something that would react with water to create a mini bomb, but won't create any splashing in the bathroom.

Getting the formula right for the tablet would take some work, so then the question is whether the idea is profitable. I think it really depends on how many people this affects. I have no idea, I've never had the issue myself. Is my mate just a rare freak, or is actually quite a common problem. Places where the tablets would be sold I guess would be pharmacies and perhaps in bar/nightclub vending machines.

A list of rentals that allows all dogs. No breed restrictions.

I'm currently trying to move and I own a pitbull. Virtually all management companies have a no aggressive breeds policy even though my dog has never bit anyone in his life. I'm finding it super hard to find a place to live.

hahaha this is funny! one pitfall...If one little tablet created a "mini explosion" to break the **** up, what would happen if some maniac went and bought 100 million tablets and put them in the ocean or something? the world would die and as the famous basketball commentator once said "boom goes the dynamite".

IMHO in reality it wont work if its a "bomb" if you can get some chemical formula that breaks down the solid **** and turns it into a dieriah then thats a bloddy innovation that will sell.

For now though, this can probably work as a joke pill. you can sell it to a gag shop and give it to your friends on their birthday or something to just poke fun.

Don't know if it would sell, but laughing mfao!

Tell your friend to put a plastic bag, close the thing, don't let the air escape and flush it.

Precisely. I don't see how dvr works to solve this problem either?

White people problems. There's an app called dijit which is basically a tv guide on your phone (I'm sure there are plenty others out there like this). Seems like it should be relatively easy to modify this app to have your favorite channels pushed to the top of the view so you could just click on them and change the channel and not worry about scrolling way down/caring what channel # is.

The app can be paired with a griffin beacon hardware device for $70 which connects to your phone via bluetooth and sends IR signals to your tv/dvd player whatever turning your iphone into a universal remote. I got it about a week ago and am kinda meh on it. It disconnects when I leave the house and I have to resync frequently. My gf and I can't both connect at the same time. Not as quick as a normal remote, but I still use the app as a tv guide all the time.

@justfold, I had misunderstood your idea, what I was saying is trying to sell the service in person (just to test the interest and get some feedback).

-----------

FreeCalls. Ads at the end of your phone calls that pay them which you listen through (if you want). "Press 1 for X to pay your phone bill, press 2 to X to pay your phone bill and contact one of their sales (optional - also use a know effect of human behavior that increased the % of buyers by about 100% on the researches I've saw).

Interesting info. Still not the exact same thing but clearly right along those lines.

The DVR knows what number channel X is. You look up a show on channel X, it tells you the number. It solves the problem.

The original solution proposed in which (via some gadget) one dials the same numbers and gets the same channel with a different provider has absolutely no market, and is a complete non-starter.

DVR does not solve the problem, and its impossible to say with such certianty there is no market for a solution. Focus groups years ago said no one would ever use an ATM.

Thanks, enjoyed these a lot.

Is there a good web app for drawing up a quick sketch / layout for how I want a website to look?

I love this thing:
http://www.balsamiq.com/

That is the exact point, we do not want to go to DVR and look up what channel a show is on, we want to know it already.

And the market would be for anyone who wants to change provider to save money, but not want to learn the new stations. I think a lot of people just say "the hell with the few dollars more I pay" I like the setup now.

FML is way different than telling others how much they suck.

www.kickstarter.com

Fresh, healthy uncooked meal packages

This would take the planning out of meals and be able to tell you exactly how many calories everything is. For example, I can go buy premade microwavable enchiladas that taste like crap. Or I can go buy tortillas, beans, enchilada sauce, sour cream, guacamole, cheese, chicken then I have to go look up a recipe and cook it, but it tastes 100x better and its 100x better for me. There are lots of meals like this. Burger and fries with all fresh produce and meat which you cook yourself. All the ingredients for fresh lasagna with fresh peas and garlic bread and a recipe in one package that you make yourself. Sure you can buy the frozen crap or do everything yourself, but how come there's no hybrid like there is for cakes, cookies, macaroni etc?

I feel dumb, even after reading the site I still dont really get why someone would fund most of the projects on there....when they speak of rewards/stories how is that going to benefit me at all...maybe im missing the point completely

I like it...a lot of the time i'll look up a new recipe and leave things out cos i either can't find it or don't want to buy a lot of something that i'll probably never use again or only comes in a large size etc