Re: A Classic Puzzle

Text messages can be dealt with at times when answering a call would be inappropriate.

Because a text message is a heck of a lot easier to read than a voice mail is to retrieve, perhaps?

ions

Bandwidth

Because there's that stupid invention of greedy operators that char$$ge you. So users just adapt to how the market works.

Ah, up to your old venomous ways, I see. You know, that hatred of yours has essentially no effect on me - you're the one bearing the consequences of hanging on to it, like the inability to walk without a cane, etc.

Your hatred is eating you alive, Michael - you need some serious psychiatric help.

And, by the way, I presume you've never seen your Mom get conked in the head by the corner of the door of an "ordinary" built-in over- the-range microwave that happened to be installed on the right- hand wall.

But, then again, you're not especially noted for your incisive powers of observation, are you?

Thanks for sharing this with us, Rich

In my opinion, Rich Grise's idea about microwave oven doors is a classic example of inventiveness; once you see the idea, it strikes you as being a simple idea that anyone could have thought of, but before seeing the idea, you *didn't* think of it.

Anoher good example is the drum-based photocopier. After the first one was invented and became a hit on the market, a whole bunch of really clever engineers did design work based on that technology. Super fast copiers. Two-sided copiers with autofeed. Color copiers. Copiers that tell you how to fix them. Copiers that staple or punch holes. Really cheap copiers. All fine examples of enginering. Then someone came up with a new idea that anyone could have thought of but didn't; the laser printer.

But laser printers predate superfast copiers, two-sided copiers with autofeed, colour copiers, copiers that tell you how to fix them, copiers that staple or punch holes, and really cheap (photo)copiers?

Phil

Thanks for this, Guy. The only thing stopping me going ahead and building one is my laziness. Old microwaves are free - all I'd have to do is take one apart, draw it, mirror the frame, and reassemble it, then find someone who can build one on my budget, which is essentially zero these days. But I have access to all of the tools that I'd need to do a proper design, so I'm kind of looking at myself wondering, "So, why don't I get up off my butt and BUILD one?" I blame laziness primarily.

Thanks, Rich

Or maybe it's the dread that I'll go through all of the sweat of building a working prototype, and then there will still be nobody that's interested.

I guess then I could move on to the house-vac - it's a variation on the Kirby turbo-brush that has wire bristles and can scrape the old paint off a house into a shop-vac. But again, I'd have to take the initiative to build one, demo it, and it'll probably flop like every one of my other ultra-clever inventions, like autosubliminal tapes. I started and lost a business with that one.

Eventually, even Sisyphus gets tired of the same old s*it. )-;

THanks, Rich

I didn't mention marketability. I mentioned inventiveness. There may or may not be a market for a particular invention. Thomas Edison's first patent was for an electric vote-recording machine to speed up voting. It was a failure. It turns out that legislators like the slow vote counting -- it allows them to see which way the wind is blowing before voting.

Sometime an invention is ahead of itself or awaits some other change in technology or culture to be a success. The fax machine was invented in 1843, and was in use by AP to send wire photos in the 1930s. The Xerox Magnafax was available in the 1960s, but it wasn't until the 1980s that faxes became a standard business tool (and I suspect that they won't be in a few years).

That is so cool! Thanks! Just the thing to keep a teletype company.

Maybe you could just turn an ordinary microwave oven upside down, and have a sort of 'chandelier' rotating pan hanging from the turning wheel, which is now at the top :-)

- Gerry Quinn

Actually, this brings up another idea - all microvave ovens (MOs) seem to have the feedhorn on top. This heats the top of the food, so if it's soup or something, you have to keep stirring it so it doesn't dry out at the top and stay cold on the bottom; and solid stuff has to be turned upside down half-way through or so.

So, what if you drove the turntable with a rubber belt (to get the hardware out of the way), and put the feedhorn under it? That way, the food would heat from the bottom, and with liquids, convection should distribute the heat.

Would that sell? ;-)

Thanks, Rich

You mean where the microwaves are apparently emitted from?

Two problems:

My soup always gets hot around the edges (to the point of splattering / exploding if ran for more than about 90 seconds) and stays cold in the center.

Incidentially, our microwave has a metal rotating tray. We have a 9x9" glass baking pan to elevate items, which probably helps.

A bottom waveguide would definitely be a bitch to clean out. Or are they usually covered with plastic anyway, I forget. Eh, even so you'd never clean out the crevices and it probably wouldn't seal quite good enough anyway. And it's a lot easier to obstruct the radiation that way.

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: A very philos> > snipped-for-privacy@example.net says...

wheel,

I just looked at mine and the feed horn is on the side.

Use one of those see through plastic spatter guards from the dollar store. Not only does it make it easier to clean the oven, but it holds in more of the heat, and humidity. It's also great for reheating pizza and sandwiches without turning them to leather.

store.

Well duh, that's a no-brainer... Mom's been on us since we were tall enough to use the microwave to put a cover on the fricking food. ;-)

Mmm, I like chewy pizza crust.

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: A very philosophical monk. Website @

I find two paper plates face-to-face with the food in-between works nicely. Fat/grease goes on the bottom plate. Top plate holds in the steam. Use top plate to serve and leave grease behind ;-)

...Jim Thompson