Culture
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Background: People frequently listen to music during their day-to-day activities. In olden times, a person was limited to whatever was playing on the radio, but in the post-iPod world, it’s very straightforward to load up an entire day’s worth of personalized music ahead of time. However, such music can’t react to the events of the…
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Background: Most people would probably enjoy some extra time in the day: the ability to sleep sleep for a couple of extra hours and still be on time for your obligations the next day would allow allow even the most exhausting day to conclude with a leisurely “reset.” Unfortunately, one thing that money can’t buy…
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The Issue: When creating figures, it can be tempting to use misleading techniques in order to bolster one’s own agenda. But it can be hard to create a misleading figure while technically representing the facts correctly, at least from a certain point of view (Figure 1). Proposal: A popular—yet rarely formally acknowledged—method of creating misleading…
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Background: Vinyl records have gained in popularity in the 2010–2020 timeframe, perhaps because people enjoy the tactile sensation and ritualistic elements of playing music on a traditional record turntable. The Issue: This style of tactile interaction is unfortunately unavailable in the streaming music space, where the only user interaction is “push button → hear song.”…
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Background: Most standard “utility” programs (word processors, spreadsheets, photo editors…) haven’t been substantially improved since approximately 2005. The Issue: Unfortunately, in order for the companies that sell these programs to survive, they need to somehow get paid. But this is a difficult argument to make when the 1997 version of a spreadsheet program is essentially…
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Background: Video chat is now relatively widespread. Frequently, people on a chat will be muted and/or have their video off. The Issue: The terminology for “a person is muted” is straightforward: “muted.” However, English currently lacks short terms for “I am muted” versus “I have the audio turned off for the remote speaker.” Additionally, there…
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Background: When people go out to restaurants in groups, it can be hard for a waiter to keep their order straight: there might be a dozen people at a table, all with slightly-different (yet easily confused) orders. The Issue: Normally, it’s easy to fix a dish that was given to the wrong person—just swap it…
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Background: Back in the days when fireplaces were a common method of heating a home, houses typically consisted of a number of smaller rooms with doors between them. However, modern homes tend to have open floor plans with large rooms that cannot be sealed off by doors. The Issue: In the open-floor-plan home-design world, heating…
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