Your New Job? Today's Muse. Jan 17 2013

Some make reference to tea leaves, others to a crystal ball,  but perhaps it’s really easier to predict the future than many of us know? Might I have predicted the 2013 ‘Toy Of The Year?

Read on…   

DIYers are more aware of advances in technology than the average dependent who must call in other people to fix a thing.  I muse today about new things that could bring back old things that will be called new again, and will they find a place in the market? Will you build them?

LED lighting has greatly improved, two of the necessary improvements were color correction and cost reduction, both have seen significant progress. With our ability to design and build a smart and efficient lighting system comes the natural ‘revisit’ of power sources that could power such a system, and of course we know the sun doesn’t always shine, nor does the wind always blow, (at least outside the politician’s mind).

With this thought, we re-visit some of the stirling engines built in the 1880s, they were durable, and building a small fire in the fire box started the work, and the fire burning out stopped it. (visit Jay Leno’s Garage for a demo)  

Certainly our minds are more pliable than our Constitutions, and we can envision a pellet stove driving a stirling engine or even Peltier junctions, as one of it’s tasks.  What we might note is these devices could make the small amount of energy necessary  to recharge our lighting systems, and of course advances in Capacitors or even newer batteries could store it.

One thing DIYers should take note of?  People will pay a high price for stuff they know works, and we need understand that niche markets can be reached via the internet. Why not start with a replica of a durable 1880s stirling engine for off grid use?

Another muse? The Governor of NY has just created a new jobs program, do we all know that he is a skilled politician, and near all he does is to assure he stays in power?  We live in a day where we can program machines to make very complex products in a very short time.  As I muse today, I think of kid’s toys.. Transformers for one.. I’m reminded of the past when more complex things like a music box took weeks, months, even years ot make!  Now one can design it, and spit the parts out of a machine in a week if the profit motive were high enough.  And those Transformers, has you seen them? Quite complex. When might adults get interested in Collecting transformers?  

My Crystal Ball sees a whole new series of toys, new kitchen appliances, and amazing as it might seem, some of these parts inside will fit other things!

Take some of those parts out of your appliance, and some how they seem to function in specific fire arms as auto sears?

We all know of the PEZ candy dispenser, can’t we imagine a useful toy or appliance having a similar dispenser? Larger, and on the top is a plastic part removed, and right there.. another part seems to slip in and function as a follower for a 30 round magazine that just happens to fit an AR!  

Or that Transformer’s lower body, …the legs are attached by pins, they are identical to take down pins!  .250″.  On close inspection, that chunk of metal….. are those legs suspended by what looks like an AR receiver minus a few holes drilled? And those parts that make up this transformer’s shield, do they look like they might snap onto the body and function as a drill guide?

And who is it who designed these appliances and toys? Did they contract out the work, or was it done in-house? Maybe it was done as many things are.. outsourced work is bid on over the internet, and teams of people are assembled who have never met, and never will. Is open source software an example?

And those who sell on Ebay.. they are always looking to sell anything ‘legal’ that might make a profit for them.  Are they liable for selling a product that might be altered or used for a different purpose than sold? I think of a baseball bat, just how many have been killed by one, and should the seller have known it could be mis-used?

DIYers naturally see the world and it’s complexity, they generally know who Homer is, and that many of todays problems were problems then, and discussed to great length.

Is it any surprise to you that DIYers (for the most part) see things as more complex that the average liberal?  DIYers are not so quick to install an easy fix, they seem to know more about cause and effect, they are also far more likely to tell you they don’t have the answer to your question. The liberal mind on the other hand always has the answer at hand!  Even when the problem is 2000 years old.

GB