h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Tumsup I'm on the mend now. Not so as to so not likely to go off unexpectedly. So how are you?

I just had a thought whilst eavesdropping on a conversation where some chaps with large mitts were complaining about using tiddly little mobile phones and unavoidably tapping more than one key at the time. They want phones with big keys but manufacturers are getting the message that small is beautiful. What if there was some sort of raised bit in the middle of each key - a little bump right in the middle of each key about 2 or 3mm above the flat part of the key. Do you reckon that would make it easier for people with large digits to hit one key at a time? If so, could you invent one?

Hi Tibley, it's nice to hear from you and I'm glad to hear you're feeling better. I'm doing okay physically but fiscally..oh boy. I've blown my entire nest egg on crackpot inventions so, if I want to keep going, I have to actually sell one. The problem is, for some reason that I can't comprehend, I just can't make myself do the business part. I just finished version fifteen of my grabber, version ten was a spectacular success and it just keeps getting better. So why don't I stop farting around and get out there and present the thing?

The thing about the phone. That wouldn't be an invention so much as a design feature. There already is such a phone on the market. The house rules don't allow commercial pitches here but, since I'm not selling the thing, go to www.jitterbug.com Another solution, if you can afford it, would be the iPhone with no buttons at all. The touch screen is large enough and probably could be configured so you could use it with mittens on. With the internet features Nanook could check walrus meat futures on Wall Street.

Anyway, technology is advancing so fast that soon, no phones will have buttons. There are already cameras in them so the phone will just look at your eyes to see what letters you're looking at and generate the text that way. That's if you want to text someone from a quiet place. Otherwise, just talk to the phone and send the message as text or voicemail.

Sorry to hear about your lack of funds and seller's block Tumsup. It sounds like a real headache. Is it because selling isn't really your area and ideally, you should just be inventing and making things? I've met a few salesmen and they seem a breed apart - full of energy, enthusiasm and optimism (all the things I lack as a matter of fact). There were two of them in my office a couple of years ago and I couldn't believe the level of competitiveness between them. They take this selling lark very seriously. They have techniques and everything. And strangest of all, they seem to love it. Watching those two boasting to each other and trying to out-do each other, they seemed to be in a fever, oblivious to time passing and the rest of us boring people (ie non-buyers). If the problem is that selling isn't your thing, perhaps you could try to talk to someone who is into it or get a book on selling. Try to catch the disease, so to speak. Or just persuade someone else to do it for you maybe. Perhaps you can find one of these sales junkies and present them with the challenge of selling your grabber? I hope you find a way in any case. It must be incredibly frustrating.

Thanks for the phone info. That jitterbug address is useful too. Anyway, it was a good excuse to come and talk to you - as if I needed one

When I was a kid, I delivered newspapers. The morning route was very pleasant; 5AM up and a good walk. The once a week going door to door collecting payment was torture. I've always been painfully shy, especially when I was a kid.
Anyway, I have to bite the bullet and just go out and do it. This May, there is the annual Sawtech in Bancroft. It's a trade show for the logging industry with displays of every kind of forestry machinery. It's exactly the kind of market that the grabber is made for so I'll find out then if there's any interest.
Today, I cleaned out my shop to get ready to make a test market run of a hundred or so grabbers to take to Bancroft. I'll find out then how easily and for how much I can sell them. If it makes economic sense, then I'll apply for the patent and build the production machinery.

That's the problem then. You're not a natural born salesman. If it doesn't come naturally and you are, in any case, naturally shy, it's bound to be hard. But it sounds as though you've made a good start at getting on top of your selling block.

The very best of luck with the project

How about this for a phone you can use in the shower?

http://www.physorg.com/news122819670.html

Good grief!

Yogis could contemplate their navels and play video games at the same time.