A Simple Response

Sometime I wonder why my email inbox is so empty.  Actually it’s full of advertisements and technology related emails.  There are emails I receive from credit cards reminding me that my bill is ready to be reviewed and emails from companies I have purchased items from in the past.  Thank goodness there is a spam folder where most of the junk mail goes.  What's missing from my inbox are responses to legitimate emails. What really gets me going is when I don’t get a timely response from a person or company that I really wanted to hear from.  Has the world simply gotten too lazy and doesn’t respond or am I just looking for instant gratification and am upset that I don’t get an instant response?  I think it is a little of both.

Now there are two forms of email I expect responses from. First is the emails I send to a company and am looking for a response of some sort. It is amazing to find that in this day and age, some companies have still not realized how important their email communications are. Many companies send email replies late or not at all, or send replies that do not actually answer the questions you asked. The replies that really get me upset are the automatic ones from a person-less email box.  I guess it is OK if they give you instructions or provide a name to forward your request to, but to simply send an automated message that doesn’t supply any information is unacceptable. The other type of email I hate are the ones you get a response from a person, but you do not receive an answer to your question. But what really gets me steamed is when you send an email and you get no response. You wait a few days and send another one, but still no reply. It's these that I must resort to a phone call (more on that in a minutes).

Recently, I have been mucking through the various job boards and company career pages looking for something to do (other than writing this blog). The basic process is you find a job that interests you, click on apply, fill out the forms, attached a resume (also called a CV thanks to globalization) and click on submit.  A few seconds later you normally get an automated email thanking you for your interest and then nothing.  In the old days, before all of this, you would get a nice form letter saying the company was not interested.  Not anymore, now you get ignored. Yes I know that many companies are getting inundated with job requests, but it would be nice to get an email back saying no thanks. 

It's one thing to be ignored by a company, but when you don’t get a timely response from a personal acquaintance that’s an entirely different manner.  Now maybe in reality I don’t deserve a response because for some reason I have upset this person, but normally I am pretty easy going so I would think I would get some sort of response.  I always try to respond the same or the next day after receiving an email.  Is it too much to ask that the same courtesy be afforded when I send an email to someone?

The same is true with voice mail.  I hate leaving voice mail because I hate the way I sound and some times I stumble on the words or don’t know what to say or say too much.  However, once I leave the message I do expect a call back (or an email).  This usually happens when I leave a message for a company I have business with.  You get someone in Customer Service and you leave a message along with all the pertinent information. Most of the time I get a call back, but there is always that one company that never seems to bother returning the call.

So what’s the point?  A simple response is all I ask. Just a quick note in return to an email or a call back to a voice mail.  Thanks.

What Ever Happened to Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success. - Wikipedia

ar·ti·fi·cial meaning humanly contrived often on a natural model : man-made such as an artificial limb or artificial diamonds.  in·tel·li·gence meaning the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations.  So were are these man-made things that can understand their environment and learn from their mistakes?  Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been talked about since the early days of computing.  Sometimes it has been in the forefront of our minds, but mostly it is discussed in the dark hidden away labs of the worlds universities and larger computing companies.  The stuff really of science fiction, AI doesn't really resinate with the common person because there is nothing for them to really see, until this past week.

Courtesy of IBM Research

But first we need to go back some 14 years to 1997, when I was first introduced to AI. In May 1997, IBM's Deep Blue Supercomputer played a chess match with the reigning World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov (this was actually the second time there was a smaller match a year earlier where Kasparov won). The event was captured live and broadcast over the web, where millions of chess and computing fans tuned in to witness the event in real-time.  I had the opportunity to attend the event in NYC.  Now I know how to play chess (mostly loose at chess), but this was the first time I saw a real chess match. They played six games over six days.  I remember the match I saw where Kasparov was getting really mad because he was loosing. At the end of the sixth day the Deep Blue 2 Kasparov 1 Draw 3. I am not sure if this was a testimony to Kasparov or the fact that Deep Blue learned how to tie and ultimately defeat him. A lot of effort went into this but the scientific and technology community learned a lot and Kasparov pouted for awhile but he continued to play computers to gain his revenge.  He played computers publicly twice more in January 2003 against Deep Junior where he offered a draw and again in November 2003 when he played against a computer wearing 3D glasses, which also ended in a draw.  Even though Kasparov insisted that the computers were some how cheating, what was happening was they were learning from a master.


Now lets fast forward 14 years to this past week.  The big news (hype) of the week for AI fans has been the Jeopardy match between IBM's Watson computer and the two all time best Jeopardy players; Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.  Now the point of this exercise is to demonstrate that a computer can go through a huge database of information in a lighting fast way, learn form its mistakes and present answer to common questions and do this better than a human being.  This is really not that big a deal.  The big break through here is that it does this naturally (technical term is that Watson uses algorithms to understand the natural language that information is written in) in other words Watson can understand the different meaning of the word bat for example.  Watson knows the difference between a baseball bat and the animal bat and unlike its predecessors Watson can hear the question, see the environment and speak the answer naturally.  Deep Blue and the others couldn't do this because the technology was not available, but not today.  This is highly complex because Watson has to "understand" the questions.  Here's how Dr. Jon Lenchner of IBM Research explains it:

“The clue was: It was introduced by the Coca-Cola Company in 1963. Watson can find a passage stating that ‘Coca-Cola first manufactured Tab (the correct response) in 1963’, so in order to answer the question, Watson needed to understand that introducing and manufacturing can be equivalent – if a company is introducing a product. But that is highly dependent on context: if you introduce your uncle, it doesn't mean you manufactured him.”

Human's understand this with ease, but computers don't and that's where AI comes in. Human's also can do this with a device that weighs about 3 pounds and takes up very little space; the brain.  Watson on the other hand requires custom algorithms, terabytes of storage and thousands of POWER7 computing cores working in a massively parallel system in order to answer the questions in the same time as a human.  So for today this wonder of AI is big and not very portable.  But, so was the first computer the ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, also known as the "Giant Brain." It was a large calculator used by the military in World War II to calculate artillery firing tables.  The point is that eventually large computing things get smaller.  So it's only natural that the computing power of Watson will someday be the same size let's say of the human brain. But that's the stuff of science fiction, or is it?


Until the technology to reduce Watson in size becomes available (and it will) there are a lot of applications for AI that we should be moving forward with.  It's already being used by companies like Google to improve the search experience, but this is only the tip of the iceberg.   Complex problems that are taking thousands of human beings to solve could be done by one or two Watson (think cures for disease) and jobs that require hundreds of humans doing complex operations (air traffic controllers for example) could be replaced by a few Watson's. Could AI be used to interrupt facial expression and body movements during airport security screens and parse out the bad guys, absolutely. Now I know what your thinking you Terminator fans, but lets not cloud our judgement based on some 1984 science fiction movie.  AI is finally getting to the point of some real world applications, but before it can move forward human's might have to take a step to the left and put a little faith in these computers.


Now that Watson has successfully "won" at Jeopardy what's next for the super computer?  Watson is moving to NYC to the Columbia University Medical Center where it will be used to help doctors evaluate patients at the facility, helping to reduce the time needed to evaluate and determine the correct diagnosis for a patient.  Watson will also lend doctors a hand when it comes to developing more "personalized treatment options" for patients' needs through use of the Watson software.


Interested in learning more about IBM's Watson. Watch these videos.

    

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

Contributions
IBM Research at http://www.research.ibm.com/
Watson Research Center at http://watson.ibm.com
DNA info.com
PBS at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/smartest-machine-on-earth.html

Through My Eyes

As I wonder around there are things I see that make good pictures or there just interesting.  A strange name on a street sign, an interesting arrangement of food at the supermarket, a favorite wine at the liquor store.  Simply random things I see during the day that I capture on my smartphone.


This is what my latest blog "Through My Eyes" is all about.  It's an experiment of sorts to capture random images and post them with short descriptions.  Of course I could do this in Twitter or facebook or any photo sharing site, but I wanted to use the mobile blogging feature and see what I could produce.


Please go take a look by clicking here Through My Eyes and let me know what you think.

Gambling with Our Future - Part 1

It is well known that our future is in our children.  It is every parents dream that the next generation will be more successful than the last and for centuries this dream has in general become reality.  However, now I fear politicians, policy makers and the people that control were our tax money is spent are gambling with the future.  I am talking about our nations educational system. I realize there are multiple sides to this story, so I will attempt to discuss all of them.  

First, are the policy makers (politicians) in Washington DC and in our state capitals. It seems every year this education is an easy target that gets budget reductions first. To me that's like a demolition derby driver not paying for car insurance; your taking a gamble that the cuts won't affect anyone and in this case the local government will make up the difference. Plus the federal and state officials don't take any accountability for anything, they simply provide the local school boards with a number and say "next year you will loose federal and state funding by x% and you can't raise taxes" and the local school board is left to deal with the lack of funding.  Some school boards take the matter seriously and cut unnecessary or nice-to-have projects and take the time to do what is good by the community.  Others cut good programs like music, art and language and increase administrators salaries and clearly don't care about the impact to the community. What ever the case may be, it is clear that federal and state budget czars need to leave educational funding alone and look elsewhere for cuts.  There is no way that the United States is going to have any "Sputnik moments", as President Obama put it in his State of the Union Address, if we don't invest in education. Were do you think the future scientist, doctors and engineers are going to come from?  If we don't invest in our children, they will come from some other countries children.

Now lets switch gears to the local Boards of Education and the school administrators (in other words salary non-contract personnel).  I know they have a tough job balancing a budget, trying not to raise school taxes, dealing with the demands of teachers, unions and parents. However, I think they could get more creative when it comes to massaging the budgets.  I know they are bound by contracts and certain laws, but they always seem to go for the easy / quick fix places to cut rather than the more difficult long term deeper (and usually more painful) cuts.  One place they might look is in their own pockets; perhaps a salary freeze for a year or two (other people have had to do it). Perhaps ask teacher to pay a little more for medical care (other people have to do it). Maybe skip a year on buying the maintenance crew a new truck or get them to shut the lights off when the school is empty. The fact that they cut budgets in places like music, art and language and continue to take raises is simply crazy. They need to and can do better than this.  Protecting and nurturing our investment in the future should be the highest priority.

The Teachers also have a big stake in the budget issue.  Some people think teachers have it rough and others think its pretty easy being a teacher.  Personally, I wish we (in the USA) would honor these folks like they do in some other countries.  I think the real issue with teaching in America is that its basically been the same for the past 100 years and two of the things that are ruining this profession is the unions and antiquated educational policies.  I know the unions are suppose to protect the teachers, but I think the only thing they are protecting is themselves. Educational policies set by old men in offices that never set foot in schools to see what's really going on needs to change too. The American educational system needs reform and the two things that need to be done are put in place professional requirements (similar to a CPA or a Lawyer) requiring teachers to be re-certified every few years as well as review systems that rates and rewards teachers just like any other profession.  You do a good job, meet objectives and your students excel, you are rewarded.  You do a bad job, miss objectives and your students fail, you get fired. Both the teachers and the administrators need to work together and treat education as an evolving ecosystem and treat the profession of education as their own business with the students and parents as customers and investors.

The largest benefactor in this of course are the students.  But the students need to also take on some of the responsibility. They need to treat school property and the teachers with respect and they need to put the effort forward to succeed.  The problem is that our children take education for granted and they don't understand the long term consequences to not just themselves but to the country. The children in K - 12 today are the future of this country, but do they know what that means? Do they understand the burden placed on them? Do they care? In other countries, like China, children at a young age are taught the importance of education and what that means to the future of their country. They seek out a good education to make their country stronger. We need to do the same through educating them on the importance of education and investing in them so that they can succeed and move onward in life in support of the American Dream.

The last group in this puzzle are the Parents.  Parents have a few roles, first they are the mentors and caregivers of our future. We need to be there for our children, to help them through the school maze and to support them whether it be help with school work, attending parent / teacher conferences or showing up to support their child's extra curricular activities. It baffles me when I attend Open House at our local High School and very few parents show up. It frustrates the teachers who want to talk to the parents and it demonstrates to our children that school is not that important to Mom and Dad. Yes I know we have to work and these events sometimes start early, but these events are not surprises, every effort should be made to attend. The other role parents have is of investor through taxes. Now everyone I know complains about their school taxes (I do), but how many of use bother to show up to a school board meeting to understand how the money is spent and voice our opinions (I should talk I have only been to a few of these meeting in 18 years)? If you were the investor of a company and had a sizable stake would you not read the annual report or possibly show up at an annual meeting.  My point is we as tax payers need to invest in our future through tax dollars, but not spend the money blindly. Be involved in someway, other than simply voting No because your taxes are high. My final point for parents is be involved (you don't have to you the PTO to get involved). Go to the football game, support the bake sale, keep in touch with teachers ask your child how their school day went. If they see you are interested, then they will be interested also.

You've just bought the car of your dream. You spend time cleaning it, getting the oil changed regularly and putting new tires on when the old ones aren't good enough. Shouldn't we be investing just as eagerly in our future as well?  Let's make education the highest priority, not the whipping post for budget cuts and union disputes. Lets treat education as a significant investment for the future of this country. Because if we don't invest in it today, it will be to late in the future to catch up to the rest of the world.

There is a lot of information available from your school board to state run websites on this subject. Please take the time to seek out this information.

Stay tuned for part 2 on the education subject where I will discuss my off the top of my head thoughts on college; the second largest expense after your house.

Help my device has Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities (known as alter egos or alters), each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment. - Wikipedia


It appears that there are a lot of devices out in the world that need some psychiatric help.  Lately there all coming down with multiple personalities. From home appliances to mobile devices they all seem to have multiple personalities. 
Lets take a look at some of these devices.

The Playstation Phone is going to be primarily a gaming device, but its also a phone.  With the slue of Smartphones on the market, does Sony really believe that someone will want a portable gaming device and a phone built into the same device?  There was nothing wrong with the Sony PSP other than the fact that Nintendo was more dominant in the market.  Lets stick with either a really good gaming device or a better phone.


Apple is no stranger to the multiple purpose devices. The iPod was fine as a music player, but then it grew up to be a music player, camera (mostly for Facetime) Internet capable device, and with the help form Skype is a phone of sorts. The iPhone (as the name suggests) is a phone, with a camera, and a music player that is Internet capable. I don't think it does any one thing poorly and I can't think of anything else it should do, so as long as all of its personalities play nice together, these devices are probably the gold standard.

Then of course there is the three gaming systems form Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.  Each started off as great gaming systems in their own right.  But as time went on they gained Internet capability and other applications started creeping in that allowed them to do other tasks.  The biggest one is as a streaming movie player thanks to Netflix, but since they are Internet capable one can check the weather, read email and surf the net.  I haven't found the need to do anything other than play games and stream movies and they should just stick with that.


Another device that started off with only one function has also developed multiple personalities; the Internet capable television.  Here is a device that for decades did one thing really well.  It brought the world into people homes and was the center of entertainment. Now a new breed of televisions have come out that are Internet cable permitting Internet surfing while watch television.  Some even interrupt the television show to alert you to a new facebook or Twitter post (similar to the way they inform you of a phone call).  Do we really need a television that tells us this?


The most interesting home appliance I have seen is the coffee maker - toaster. I am not sure why anyone would want to combine these two appliances and I would be concerned that together they don't do as good a job as they do when there apart.  Other than saving some counter space, is there a real need for this type of appliance.

Now I realize there are several great multiple purpose devices on the market that do a great service to humanity, for example the toaster oven.  Here is a home appliance that does two things really well - toast and cook.  My mother cooks almost everything in her toaster oven and I am sure she could not do with out it. However, these are far and few between.


My father-in-law always told me "the right tool for the right job."  Through experience I have come to agree with him.  Nothing ever turned out good using the hammer-wrench or the tong-spatula.  They are simply the wrong tools for the job. My point here is lets stop making devices that do multiple tasks poorly and concentrate on devices that do one or two things really well.


Had experience with a device or appliance that originally sounded good, but turned out to be a bust. Email them to me or comment on this blog and one day I will post them all.

zzzzz Is Tech Sleeping zzzzz

shhhh, there sleeping out in Silicon Valley. Where has all the high tech been lately. The only thing in the tech news is the Verizon iPhone 4, the rumored iPhone 5 and the rumored iPad 2. Are there no other companies other than Apple? And if I have to hear about 3D or 4G anymore I might have to SCREAM. WAKE UP SILICON VALLEY and innovate something new.

It's 2011 and we certainly aren't any closer to Staney Kubrick 2001 a Space Odyssey or the Jetsons or anything from the movie trilogy Back to the Future (I really wanted a hover board). I was 13 when I saw 2001 A Space Odyssey and remember thinking wow is that what it will be like; I was sure disappointed. Yes, there have been some really great innovation over the years, but lately it seems there is no real excitement in technology.

Rosie The Maid - Jetsons

I recently read a tech blogs, from a fairly respected technologist, and the author said that the three biggest technologies for 2013 (not 2011 or 2012) will be 3D, 3G and robotics. You have to be kidding me. It's the same old thing; 3D, faster networks, robotics, yawn. Tell me about 3D when I don't need the silly glasses and it's broadcast on more than ESPN and Discovery Channel. We're always going to be talking about faster networks, because as soon as 4G is out people will think its slow and want something faster. As for Robotics, call me when I can get something better than a Rumba.

Star Trek Food Replicator

I would have thought by now we would begin to see more of the technologies seen on Star Trek.  Yes, I know we have the cell phone and the bluetooth headset, but that's old school.  When are we going to see technologies like highly intelligent computers or food replicators or holo-decks? Okay maybe that's too far fetched, but how about some exciting innovations similar to those of the last century.  It was a real big deal when homes first got microwaves and home computers. Remember when AOL first came out and people could email and chat (yes it was dial up) but it was exciting and it changed the way people communicated.  We haven't had a revolutionary new innovation in quite some time. (Please do not tell me facebook is revolutionary, although it did help to start a revolution recently).  I am talking about life changing technologies.


Let's wake up innovators of the technology world. Stop telling us about smart phones and applications for our Android's, iPhones and Blackberry's and get to work on something big that will revolutionize the world.

              Courtesy of Worldchanging.com

Wouldn't It Be Nice to be Nice

Remember when your parents would say "if you have nothing nice to say; don't say anything at all"?  Parents have been passing down this little tidbit of wisdom for centuries, but it seems like we aren't listening.  Everyday I hear another incident of bullying or frightening in our local high school. So if were being taught to be nice at an early age, what has gone wrong?  I suspect some people get a feeling of power, while others feel they need to do it because it was done to them or they want to seem tougher so others won't bully them. And it's not just the kids, adults do it to.

As a kid, I was bullied almost everyday.  Having moved schools in the middle of the 5th grade, I was the new kid.  It was hard to make friends, I didn't fit in and I didn't wear the right clothes.  Kids picked on me through school.  Bullying included name calling, flicking of ears, locker slamming, shoving.  Back then people just told you to toughen up and deal with it or fight back.  Funny thing is today, some of those people are my "friends" on facebook.  Did they forget about the bullying in their old age (most of us are pushing 50) now that they are parents?  Are they now telling their kids the same old adage handed down to them?

Back in the 1970's you never heard about bullying in the news. There was no YouTube or camera cell phones to record these incidents.  No Internet used to promote bullying for those to cowardly to do it face-to-face.  Now there are more outlets and methods to bully and it really hasn't gotten any better, its just gotten more attention.

Attention is good though.  This issues needs more attention from parents, school officials, politicians and children. I suggest just as there are state laws for schools drug free zones, there should also be state laws for no bully zones.  Bullying should have similar penalties to drug use in a school zone.  Maybe this way it will stop or at least kids will think twice.  But that's only one possible solution.


Where this really needs to begin is at an early age at home.  It's not good enough simply to say  "if you have nothing nice to say; don't say anything at all." Parents need to realize that the way they act in front of their child is impressed upon their children and then reflected back into society.  Kids do really look up to their parents (even though at times it may not seem that way). Remember bullying doesn't just mean name calling or physical abuse at school. Think about this; if your child is a bully, taped their exploits with their cell phone and posted it on You Tube or facebook for their friends to see, what would you do (assuming you found out)?   Today there is cyberbullying on the Internet and text message bullying and other ways to bully using technology.  Its faceless bullying and it can be more damaging than the face-to-face kind.


What children and adults (because remember it starts with the adults) need to practice is simply being nice.  So what if the kid who sits in front of you has big ears and acne.  Who cares if your boyfriend looked at another girl. Why can't the jocks like the drama kids.  Instead of a color purple day or a wear a funny hat day, lets have a be nice to someone everyday.  Being nice will make you and everyone around you fell good. Bullying is a serious issue and it needs to stop now.

If you interested in reading more about bullying for kids as well as adults go to the Stop Bullying Now Website for more information.

Special thanks to my daughter, who requested I write something on this subject as she see examples of this everyday in school.

Up in the Clouds

Grade school science taught us that there are a few different types of clouds. There are  cumulus clouds, stratus clouds, cirrus clouds and nimbus. Sometimes on a beautiful summer day you can see different shapes in the clouds and Angels have been known to live up in clouds.  But this is not the type of clouds I am talking about.  I am talking about Cloud Computing.

"To the Cloud!"  What was Microsoft thinking?

We wouldn't figure out this was simply a marketing way to say "To the Internet" or "Software as a Service" or "Distributed Computing." This is what they really were thinking, we got you locked into our service and it will be nearly impossible for you to switch once we have your data.  Now to be far, Microsoft is not the only one who offers this cloud computing solution, but they are the only one that is heavily (and sometime obnoxiously) advertising to consumers (average Joe that doesn't know what he is getting into).


Cloud computing has been around for sometime now in the business world, we just called it something else with a less sexy name.  Mainframe computing was sort of a cloud.  Back in the old days (I know some of you don't remember this) we use to access some central computer someplace behind a closed door in a big room.  We didn't care were the files or programs were as long as we could access them.  


Then the clever guys in Silicon Valley and in Redmond Washington decided they weren't making enough money this way so they came up with a better idea; to distribute the cloud (essentially creating more clouds).  We called this Distributed Computing and we put all of these file servers around so people could access their files closer to their office.  Yet still it was all magic, file servers hidden around companies in closets, under desks and occasionally in what was the old data center.  Eventually that got out of hand as companies important files were spread across their enterprises without much control and minimal security in some cases.  


After awhile (just enough time to extract a few more server licenses)  technology decision makers in various companies (along with the guys out West and various technology consulting firms) convinced companies that they could take the distributed stuff and centralize it again.  In other words take the clouds that they previously spread around the company and centralize it to a few clouds in key geographic locations.  I am not sure there is a name for it but will call it Downsized Distributed Computing.  


Now comes the tricky part.  Downsizing and centralizing the servers was actually a good thing, for a company.  It put computing back in control of the IT department, it resolved a bunch of security and risk management issues, it saved some money (less servers and less software licenses).....wait that's a problem.  The folks out West are getting nervous.  Presto chango... Cloud Computing.


Now don't get me wrong it's actually a pretty good idea.  No more purchasing software and then having to update it (repurchase it) every time a new version comes out. No more worrying about my files being lost because my hard drive crashed and I never backed it up.  Accessing my files from other computers connected to the Internet should be rather easy.  But cloud computing doesn't sell software licenses, unless of course your Microsoft and you sell the Operating System and little pieces of code required to access and operate the cloud.  Then you can double dip, license at the desktop and charge a fee to use the cloud.  This is were I have an issue and won't be using the Microsoft Cloud.


I much prefer the Google model...free.  Email free, calendar free, this blog free, photo storage free.  You get the point.  It's free people!  Yes, Google does charge for extra storage if you use up the rather generous storage they provide and yes there is a different model for corporate access rather than personal access. But for personal use, one can't beat free. Personally, I think Microsoft has chosen to confuse consumers into thinking that going to the cloud is easy and will solve all of their computer issues.  But they leave out the necessity for reliable high speed internet access and that you must be using Microsoft technology access for example your TV shows (see clip below).

So for now lets just say if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck and the Microsoft cloud isn't a cloud, it's just marketing.

The Next Great Idea

"The man with a new idea is crank, until the idea succeeds" 

Mark Twain

The Wheel, Paper, The Printing Press, Small Pox Vaccine, The Zipper, The Electric Light Bulb, The Telephone, The Gas Powered Engine, The Airplane, The Elevator, Toilet Paper, The Semi-Conductor, The Radio, The Television, TV Remote Control, The Microwave Oven, The Ballpoint Pen, Duct Tape, Velcro, The Internet, The iPod..................The list goes on and on and on.

These were all great innovations that in some way changed the world. They changed the way people worked. They changed the way people act. They made people healthier.  They made the world smaller. They made our world more enjoyable.
  
But what does it take to be an innovator.  First, you have to have an idea.  Either you want to solve a problem (not wanting to sit in the dark - thank you Mr. Edison) or you want to make something better (buttoning pants is a pain - thank you Mr. Sunback for the zipper) and sometimes you come up with something new (flying like a bird would be cool - thank you Wright Brothers).  Next, and this is the most important thing, you have to have guts.  You have to be a risk taker. To be willing to take a chance, to try until you get it right and you have to take criticism; this is the hard part.  We have all come up with new ideas, but only a few of us have the guts to take it to the next step. Why is this?

The most common reason is that we don't think our idea is good or it won't make any money or we aren't willing to take the risk to get it started. Another reason is we don't know how to take the next step; who can help develop the idea (without stealing it), manufacture, market, etc.?  Once we begin thinking about all of these tasks it becomes too daunting and we give up.  The next thing you know someone else has done it without you. I should now, it has happened to me. In my professional career I spend a lot of time speaking with technology vendors and from time to time I have blurted out ideas that would make their products better or ideas for new products.  I am sure it was not the first time they have heard these ideas, but before long there it was my idea (or at least I thought it was my idea) as a new product, making some company loads of money and me with nothing but a "I should have done that" thought.


So what's the moral of the story?  First, don't be afraid to dream, if you have a good idea be a risk taker.  Write the idea down or sketch it out, talk to a few friends about your idea.  Second, make it happen.  If you think it is good then send it to a manufacturer or make a few yourself and sell them online.  Eventually it may catch on and before you know it you will be the inventor of, lets say the Super Ball (thanks Norman Stringley).

Footnote
What do you think will be the next great idea?  If you need some incouragement here are a few less known innovators who came up with ideas that made peoples lives a little better.

Benjamin Thompson - The Coffee Pot

George Crum - The Potato Chip

Ezra Warner - The Can Opener

Seth Wheeler - Toilet Paper

Carl Linde - The Refrigerator

Felix Hoffmann - Asprin

Walter H. Deubner - The Shopping Bag

Garret Morgan  - The Traffic Light

Special thanks to The Great Idea Finder for some of the inventions and inventors