Day 3: Perfect Steak Gadget

I recently cooked a store-bought filet on my grill.  I had to pay close attention to the amount of time spent for various stages of the cooking process.  While it turned out quite well, why not have a device that does all of that for me?

One Step Beyond

The PerfectSteak® (not really) machine would work in the following manner:

1. With the grill cold, you'd clip the device on two grill bars.  To the left is your hot side and to the right is your cold side.
2. Turn your PerfectSteak on.
3. Heat up your grill to the desired temperature.  PerfectSteak will let you know when you've achieved that by sending you a message to the PerfectSteak app.  All interaction other than turning it on and off will be through the app.
4. Press "Load Steak" on your app.  The device raises the two long, fork-like rods for you to attach the steak.  The PerfectSteak knows when its loaded and begins the timer.
5. After two minutes the PerfectSteak raises the steak up, rotates it axially and then places it back on the grill surface.
6. After two more minutes the PerfectSteak flips the steak over to the cold side and alerts the user to shut down the hot side.
7. After two more minutes, the PerfectSteak flips the steak over axially on the cold side.
8. After two more minutes, the PerfectSteak beeps excitedly that it is done cooking the perfect steak!

See the below diagram that provides a clownishly simple view of what would be occurring:

I think that there are some obvious reasons why this will be hard:

• Electroics/motors in a 500ºF environment.  I'm sure that we have electronics and motors that could be used in this environment, but they are likely well out of the bounds of consumer applications.
• Alternatively, this could be solved by using two control rods that would go into the grill (from the front) and some clever mechanical engineering to enable all of the above-described acrobatics.  This certainly complicates the mounting of the device, but given that its firmly attached to the grill surface, it could hang from the front of the grill without too much problems.

Two Steps Beyond

A few more features that would be quite useful:

• Provide a measured plastic sheet to put your steak on prior to putting on the grill.  Have the user take a picture.
• Combine the above with the weight of the meat, and a much more sophisticated model of the piece of meat can be created.  
• Use that model, combined with the actual temperature inside the grill, rather than set cooking times to create the truly perfect steak.
• Use thermo-couples inside of the fork-like rod ends to measure internal temperature of the meat to further refine the model.
• Pressing a steak onto two fork-like rods when the rods are at high temperature would be no fun task.  The design can be modular, such that the fork is attached outside of the grill and then snapped into place when cooking begins.
• Though much, much more difficult, you could enable the device to control the flow of propane to the grill.  Probably one step too far.

[Update 2015-01-06]

I guess the other option is to put the smarts into the grill itself, like the Lynx SmartGrill.

Day 2: Electronic Food Peeler

This appeals only to the gadget lover in me and, alas, is not likely to be very practical.  It was, however, born out of a not too satisfying experience with the "traditional" tool for the job.  And no, I don't mean a hand-held peeler, but a hand-cranked peeler/corer/slicer.  My son and I used ours for the first time in pursuit of some Thanksgiving mashed potatoes.  I dutifully weighed out 3 pounds of potatoes as called for in the recipe.  I then used the device as pictured below.  Given the geometry of the potatoes, I first cut them in half.

It worked, but took a lot of peel off.  And I had to finish off the ends in each case.  When I was done, I looked at the amount of peel that I had lopped off and decided that I should reweigh.  It turned out that there was only 2 pounds left!  A full third of my potatoes had been lost to the peeling process.  There has to be a better way. There is, and it would be our second day's gadget.

One Step Beyond

My conception would be to have a single axis peeler set up in much the same way that the above is. The goal would be a peeler that would work both well with apples and potatoes (referred to as pommes for the rest of this discussion).  As a result, my device would connect to the pommes on both ends of the axis.  If it connects to the end with the corer/slicer module, the user would have to feed the spikes through the hole, but I think the added stability would be greatly worth it.  The process would be the following:

1. Decide up front if coring and slicing will be part of the activity.  If so, mount the plate to do these things.
2. Mount the pomme by connecting both ends.  
3. Close the box around the pomme for safety.
4. Select apple or potato.  
5. Press "Peel Now!"
6. The device starts out by spinning the pommes and scanning them.  The scanner would move axially down the pomme as it collected sufficiently detailed topological information to understand the bumps.
7. As the scanner is moving down the pomme, the knife follows in its wake.  The knife moves in an out according to the topological map of the pomme to ensure that it's putting just enough pressure (still spring mounted) to take off the skin, without putting undo pressure resulting in too much pomme lost.
8. When the device is done, it beeps or says, "You're pomme is ready!" (depending on which one you chose).
9. Open box and remove the pomme.

Two Steps Beyond

Here are some additional improvements that could be made:

• Multiple peeling attachments for different fruit.  Potatoes and apples likely would require a different peel.  Cucumbers, too.
• Along with multiple peeling attachements, you could enable axial, instead of just circumferential, peeling.  Cucumbers are typically peeled exclusively like this.  Would likely require a substantial upgrade to the motor output and control of the peeler.
• Enable a spinning peeler for rinding of oranges.  Perhaps skinning of tomatoes.  Not sure what else.

Day 1: A Mini UPS

So I realize that some of you may think that I'm cheating on this one, but this is an idea that I had on my own.  First let me describe the problem that led to me thinking about the solution.

I use Vonage, which requires the use of an ethernet to telephone line interface.  I have an old Motorola Voice Terminal box (VT1005V) that I've had since I started with Vonage (around 2002).  It all works well in normal circumstances, but when I lose power in my house, it causes problems.  I'm sure that this isn't supposed to happen, but the VT1005V interferes with one of the FiOS TV box's reacquiring it's IP address via the FiOS router.  As a result, every time the power trips, even for a brief moment, I have to reset the router with the VT1005V unplugged, and let everything get set and then plug the VT1005V back in.

It's a hassle that could be solved by ensuring that the VT1005V didn't turn off.  The rest of my network gear (the FiOS router and the ethernet switch that the VT1005V is plugged into) are already on a UPS.  Unfortunately, the VT1005V is located in my garage all by itself so I can connect it to my house's telephone wiring.  I could just buy a normal small-ish UPS for the garage, but the least expensive one that I can find (having searched Google Shopping, MicroCenter and Amazon) is ~$40.  It also feels reasonably wrong that I'm plugging in a DC device into an AC output of a DC device (the UPS).

You may ask the reasonable question, "Why don't you just set up your VT1005V with a static IP address so that it doesn't interfere with the assignment of the other TV box?"  The answer is a bad one: the VT1005V doesn't respond to web requests, like it manual suggests that it would.  It doesn't even respond to ping requests.  So there is no setting this up with a custom configuration.

That leaves me with the option of making sure that the VT1005V never turns off.  $40 and I'm done.  But this device has very minimal power requirements and is DC, so why can't I buy a device better suited to that need.  I can't find any devices that meet my needs - at least that are readily available in retail.  This is where the internet comes in.

So, I knew what I wanted and kept looking.  Eventually, I did find a device that appears to get it right.  This would be perfect and if the Alibaba price of $16/unit was the retail price, I would be sold.  However, I'm assuming that the actual retail price would have to be roughly a 2x multiple of this.  At $30/unit, it feels less compelling, but still of interest.

There are a range of options, as it turns out.  The simplest would get the job done.  It's basically a battery, but a battery fit for it's intended purpose.  A more complex option (shown above), could get the job done in a cabinet where you have a number of DC-driven devices next to each other.  Even USB powered devices (which I think that we'll see more of).

So, it appears that somebody figured out there is a need.  But I can't get access to the gadget that is the solution.  Unless I want to become an importer.  Which I don't.  Unless I have six other really good ideas.

One Step Beyond

The only reason that I have interest in this product is that product designers have missed the boat.  What boat am I talking about?  It turns out that 75% of all electricity outages (at least reported to the APPA for 2013) last about 72 minutes or less.  See the below chart and look under the SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) column.

The second chart just suggests that these statistics don't vary too much over time.  So if manufacturers put batteries into their products that could power the product for 75 minutes, customers could avoid 75% of problems with running their devices in the first place without relying on a UPS.  For high power usage devices, this probably doesn't make sense.  My (old) 65" TV can draw almost up to 1 kW.  I have no expectation that Sharp would build in a battery.  That said, when its a clock, Voice Terminal, router, switch, Roku, or the like, I think that this is quite reasonable.  What would this look like for product designers to build this into their products?

The most obvious problems with building batteries into devices are the following:

• Additional cost
• Increased weight
• Battery could fail before unit is done
• Increased energy usage

That said, each of them could potentially be offset:

• Install a standardized slot with a name-brand battery (Energizer).  Have Energizer subsidize the slot on the expectation of replacements down the road.
• Advertise the benefits to consumers.  We all know that our power goes out a bit and especially no days with most of our computers being handhelds or laptops (that continue to have power during an outage), losing access to the internet is disruptive and inconvenient.  I'd pay extra.
• Addressed in the first bullet point.
• For energy usage, the manufacturers could compare their units usage to that of a combined UPS and their non-backed up device.  Their devices would probably compare favorably.

Seven Gadgets for Seven Days

My goal here will be to come up with 7 truly novel and useful items that would enhance our lives / technology experience.  I'm not sure that I can do this - I only have one in my mind right now, but it'll make me think hard about it.  And I will try not to cheat by mentioning gadget ideas that I have previously posted.  Which is partially the point.

Also, I'm totally open to hearing your ideas.   Please share and make my life easier!

Gadget Freak?

I was recently accused of being a gadget freak when talking about the new Amazon Echo.  I was talking to a friend about the new Amazon Echo and that is when he made the comment.  The accusation actually somewhat surprised me.  Perhaps it shouldn't have, I do write this blog.  But it did.

Perhaps I am a gadget freak.  But really I'm not after gadgets for the pure joy of gadgets, but rather the things that gadgets can enable.  I've recently replaced my flakey Pioneer VSX-1122 receiver with a Yamaha RX-A1040.  The thoughts below reflect my recent setup and comparison of the two units.

Here are some (new & recycled) high-ish level thoughts on how our lives could be better with gadgets:

• Reduced Friction: Make it easier for me to do things or access information.
• Make it easy for me to do the things that I want to do.  Echo is cool because you just don't have to do anything beyond speaking.  Until we can do a direct brain interface, this is going to be the easiest and most convenient way for me to express myself to a computer.
• Allow me to multitask.  Asking questions while I'm cooking (I'd probably put the Echo in my kitchen).  Setting timers while I'm throwing spaghetti into boiling water.  All of this would make my life a little bit better.
• I also that computer interface elements matter quite a bit here, too.  I am a huge fan of Atlassian's Confluence wiki product.  When I'm on a page and want to edit it, all I do is hit 'e' on my keyboard and boom - I'm editing.  Blogger has a long ways to go before its as good.  In fact, Blogger is so far behind that I'm worried that Google will give up on it at some point in the not too distant future.
• Lower Setup Hurdles: Make it easy for me to extend the equipment and environment in my home.
• Electronics companies do somethings poorly, but others are done quite well.  I don't have to set up HDMI.  I plug it in and it works.
• The device should stay aware of what is connected to it.  If it's configured in such a way as that output wouldn't or shouldn't be working, tell the user.  Can it be that hard?  Specifically, I'm thinking about my new Yamaha receiver that has a "Zone 2 - Zone Out" set of RCA jacks, but no description of when those are active.  See below in "Better Documentation" for more complaints here.
• I think that there should be a setup video, a walk through of all of the functionality and an ability to skip ahead to key sections.  Post this on YouTube or a specialized site that focuses on letting people to skip to specific portions of the video.
• Improved Error Handling:  When something doesn't work, help me fix it.
• When something doesn't work, don't tell me "Memory Error UE22".  Seriously (Pioneer), that is ridiculous.  Unhelpful, especially when Googling it comes up with nothing.
• My new Yamaha receiver cut out a couple of times when I was in the process of connecting speaker wires.  I would turn it off and then test a new group of speakers.  Eventually, it said to "Check Speaker Wires".  OK, that makes some sense.  But why stop there?  Why not tell me exactly which speaker is giving you the problem?  Shouldn't there be a quick routine where each speaker is tested individually and then a better suited message is displayed (i.e., Check Center Speak wire)?  I did check all of my wires, made some changes, but then got the message a couple of more times.  Then, the messages stopped and the stereo is no longer complaining.  I guess it's all fine?
• I'm the least optimistic about seeing improvements in this area, given that I think that companies (incorrectly) discount the value to the consumer of this part of the process.  I think that many people are willing to do some trouble-shooting before they get tech support on the line or before they give up and return their items to the store from which they purchased it.  I think that companies are incorrectly determining that it's just not worth it.
• More Integration and Imagination: let's think of all of the potential use-cases, not just the easy ones.
• If I'm playing music on my Roku using Amazon streaming on my Prime account, the Echo should be able to ask if I want it to replicate that sound stream.  Given that it can listen to it's environment, it should also be able to synch up on the timing.  This feature may exist, but if it does, I'm unaware from their documentation so far.
• Better Documentation: Document your product exhaustively, but in a way your customers are likely to understand.
• Provide good reference material.  Tell me exactly how it works.  I mean exactly.  When do various outputs function and when do they not.   What are the dependencies between one action versus another?  Yes, the documentation probably gets a bit more complicated, but mine was delivered by CD-ROM (or actually me downloading from their website), so it shouldn't really be much of an additional cost, no?
• Back to the "Zone 2 - Zone Out" set of RCA jacks.  Apparently they are not active all of the time? Are they at line level or at speaker level?  I don't know.  Again, the documentation is not sufficient.  It does say on page 153 that Zone Out is "1 V/1.2kΩ" but I don't know what that really means.  I think its more Line Level than not, but why is it at 1 V instead of 200 mV, like the AV out?  Why?  What is up with this? Wikipedia doesn't really help.  Maybe some of you all out there know?

A Golden Age for the Arts?

I recently wrote about how I believe that we are living in a "Golden Age" for information access.  I think that we are also in a golden age for the arts.  If you are good, maybe not even great, and you have hustle, you can find an audience using tools that our age of low information friction has enabled to come into force.

I just started today learning about an artist, Ana Free.  The specifics of her are not terribly important, but I spent some time trying to figure out how she makes her way in the world.  While I'm sure that it doesn't hurt that she is beautiful, what she sings is square into the realm of my personal preferences.  I've always found singer-songwriters intriguing and dream that some day maybe I'll have completed a song (written, played, recorded and "released").

She does the following:

1. Concerts & Touring: the typical core money-maker for musicians.  Which is why they complain about being on the road all of the time.  That said, she has no upcoming tour dates on her website.  So this can't be too important for her?   Maybe there just isn't anything set up right now.
2. YouTube videos: The grand-daddy of individuals monetizing their presence on the internet.  Generate a large enough following, and you can support yourself via a cut of the ad revenue generated from YouTube views.  But you need a lot of views to make that happen.  My guess is that her video posts are in support of her enhancing her other streams of income.  She has two types of videos:
1. Normal Music Videos (Covers): Ana appears to post roughly two videos a month of covers of popular music.  She is often collaborating with "friends".  The videos are professionally shot (I'm a fan of the aesthetics) often in simple locations.  Friends is only in quotes because I don't know if those folks are really friends or if its a convenient professional relationship and they want the public to think that they are just two friends having a good time when in fact they are professional musicians trying to make a living.
2. Elaborate Parody Videos: Ana sings in some fun parody videos that are quite elaborate (Spice Girls and Taylor Switch for a couple).  She may have creative input, but she appears to be there mostly for her pipes.
3. Original Music Videos: Much of her work is available for enjoyment in video form.  Killing Kind is a great example of an original video.  (My favorite song, so far, of hers.)
4. Web TV Series: Ana has been featured in the pilot episode of Coffee House.  Would be a great series if they could get the idea rolling along.
3. iTunes & Spotify: her music is posted and people who want to own or listen to, can download or stream.  Standard stuff, just note that she is doing it as (largely) an independent.  I say largely, because it does appear that at least in Asia, she has gotten support from Warner Singapore.  Wikipedia lists her as unsigned.  She released her self-produced album To.Get.Her on iTunes.
4. PledgeMusic: Ana had the equivalent of a Kickstarter or Indegogo campaign on this site.  She raised 171% of what she needed for the project with just 301 sponsors.  There isn't enough information on the site to know what the funding goal was, but it was met.  And the album was produced.  She recorded in London and at least did some song-writing elsewhere.  I love this funding model for new albums.  It throws the need for a label out of the window.  Over the Rhine did this recently with their last couple of albums and I know many other bands are doing it, as well.  Lowers risk for the artists (substantial upfront costs to produce an album) and let's fan show their support in a tangible way.  Cheesy to say, but total win-win.
5. Royalties:  She has had some chart-topping songs in other countries.  No doubt, she sees some meaningful income from video TV channels and radio stations playing her music.
6. Patreon: a relatively new site (at least to me) that allows artists to seek out support from "patrons".  I think generally that it works that an artist gets paid by their patrons for each piece of work that they do (or time period over which they do it).  For Ana, the piece of work is a video.  There are categories all of the way from Music to Writing to Comedy to Games to Science.  Much like a Kickstarted project, Ana has Goals at which her work gets more elaborate with the more money she raises per video.  And there are different levels of support.  At the top level, if you support her for $100 per video (roughly $200/month), you get to spend 30 minutes on Google Hangouts or Skype with her.  I guess that means her time is worth $400 per hour?  She currently has 69 patrons at various levels offsetting $469 of her cost to produce a video.  Super cool that any of us can directly support artists with nothing getting in the way.  That said, I like the singer-songwriter combination.  I'd be willing to support the creation of new material, but don't feel super compelled to support the production of covers of other people's music (though they are quite good covers).
7. Stage-It: Want to do a concert without going on tour?  Play local or play some music and stream it to your audience on the internet.  A very interesting (and still quite early stage) idea, but one being pushed by Stage-It and Livestream (and maybe others).  Ana has a concert scheduled on Stage-It for November 30th.  And there is a limit to the audience size.  And Stage-It doesn't archive any of the performances.  So you have scarcity and expiry to bring value to event.  I guess.  I've signed up for an upcoming concert that will cost me $3.50 or annoyingly 35 "notes".  I've signed up mostly out of curiosity.  I've seen a concert given by another woman that was posted to YouTube which looked reasonably well done.  I'm guessing Ana's won't be as elaborate, but it's a worthwhile experimentation.  Perhaps we will move from the local coffeehouse to global coffeehouse.  We will be snapping our virtual fingers in no time.  But they really need an AppleTV/Roku channel to enjoy it properly.
8. Social Media: yep.  She's all over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Tumblr.  She's probably too young to have a MySpace page?  (sort of - there is one, but clearly with no investment on her part)
9. Music Website: A very visually slick site devoted to all things Ana Free.  In the current (and annoying) scroll through web design.  A must have, but not a money generator in and of itself.  I'm sure that this is actually a meaningful cost center for her but one that helps support all of the other revenue streams that she's developed.
10. "Lifestyle" Website: Appears to be a poorly maintained site (last real posts were early August all on the same day) and the one post via a YouTube video two days ago.  She must consider this a further brand enhancement tool.  But seems like it should be nothing more than a tab on her music website.
11. Merchandise: Yes, can't forget the merch.  Some mildly interesting designs and some very cool ones.  Very simple brand extension and one that doesn't really require much work on Ana's part.  Pay a talented graphics designer to pull together a few logos and upload to a site that will do all of the fulfillment work.  Further brand advertisement and a fraction of each sale.

From an outsider's perspective, it still feels like the traditional revenue streams will dominate her monthly income and most of what she is adding to her revenue as a musician is at the margin.  It also feels like she's out there working hard to get her brand out there.  And pays for a lot of professional photography and design work to enhance her brand.  Her international booking agency is ITB, which has a roster of 100+ well-known bands (though amusingly, doesn't list Ana Free as one of their clients).  She may also have a staff of a reasonable size dedicated to making it work for her.

It appears that much of her recording is done in her own space (I could be wrong about this, but the gear in the background suggests I'm correct).  This is only possible given the advancement of low-cost / high quality audio processing.  A macbook and $5k of software and hardware and you have a pretty powerful setup for desktop music publishing.

She has a degree in economics and perhaps finds the business side of the industry as challenging and important as the artistic side?  I don't know, but I think that we are in an age where hard work, talent get you into a positions where you can support yourself as a middle class artist.  And that is a good thing for the vibrancy of our culture.

And all of this information was easily accessible from my easy chair.  Truly a golden age.

The Golden Age for Information?

There is, perhaps, a golden age for everything.  And many different people will think that their time (or more likely a past time) was a "Golden Age" for something.  For me, I think that we are currently living in a Golden Age because there is so much human knowledge available to you almost instantaneously.  And folks are still innovating to come up with ways of speeding it up even further.

I recently watched the Amazon Echo promotional video and I was struck with how useful that could be.  (My son made me immediately watch the parody video, which is admittedly a lot more fun).  Talking about it over dinner, both of my teenage son's thought that I'd be supremely lazy to buy one.  Their argument was that I already have a device (my iPhone) that will basically do the same thing.  I tried a few of the same examples from the Amazon ad and was disappointed with the Siri results.  They just rolled their eyes and said why wouldn't you just type it into your computer.

Friction.  Forcing yourself to the computer to ask a question or to take a note doesn't work all of the time.  There will just be things that you don't take a note about.  Or things for which you don't ask the question, even though it would have been nice to have an answer just then.  Perhaps Amazon Echo could read you the next step in the recipe?  The timer function would definitely help.

I have a bunch of z-wave controllable light switches around my house installed to work with a Mi Casa Verde device.  It stopped working and I've been looking into replacing it.  I could just replace it with a Vera 3 or a Vera Lite controller.  That said, I don't like the idea that I paid $200 or so and it works for 3 or 4 years and then just poops out.  (But perhaps that is the state of all electronics these days?)

In my attempt to find a replacement, I've wondered how possible / fun that it might be to create a controller on my own (or at least partially on my own).  I'm a reasonably tech savvy person and can code reasonably well.  I've thought that the Raspberry Pi was a very cool platform to build on.  With a simple Google search, I ran across the Razberry daughter card.  The Razberry includes all of the hardware and low-level software to control a Z-wave network.  And from some review of their site, there appears to be enough information for me to learn how to program my own profile.

Amazing.  I can just decide to do an incredibly complex electronics project because I can find sufficient and freely available information on the Internet.  I have a means to ask questions (forums) and learn from questions others have asked before me.  Worst case, I can buy books (without leaving my house) to go in depth on a particular topic.

Golden Age for information and ease of access to it.  At least that is what it feels like to me now.  Will the next 10 or 20 years get even better?  Have we reached a limit to how free information can get?  Or will I laugh when I look back on the state of information availability of 2014?

Ways in which it could get much better:

• More information available.  Generally, just an expansion of human knowledge.
• Better searching on the internet.
• More open source and open source-like projects.
• Easier interfaces for relative noobs like me to get started on electronics projects.

Ways in which it could get worse:

• Copyright insanity
• Paywalls
• Collapse of civilization

My bet is that it gets better.  Much better.  I can't wait!