Necessary Invention: Mobile Mode in Desktop Browser

My mother, and many other elderly or non-power users, would have a much easier time browsing the internet if the web-sites on her desktop defaulted to the way they appear when you browse the web on your smartphone.

WebbIE is a browser for low-light vision or blind people, which cuts out all the pictures. And there are add-ons that let you simulate your user-agent (I couldn't get the one for Firefox set up properly). I don't think these are what I'm looking for.

Necessary Invention: Dual Call Waiting/Voice Mail

Has anyone ever heard: "If this is an emergency, press 1 to go to call waiting. Otherwise, leave a message at the beep"?

Necessary Invention: Anti-Labels

Every time I add a label to an item in Google Mail, Windows Music Player, or what have you, the system should automatically add an "anti-label" to all other items indicating that they are NOT in the label group.

Unless I have literally only created exactly one label (so I can view all item without the label) or two labels (where all of my items are either labeled A or B, but never both) how can I find all mail items that are NOT relevant to my work? When playing music, how can I play all items whose genre is NOT podcast or comedy? I shouldn't have to select all items in every other genre, as well as all the music I haven't yet labeled.

As far as technical issues, adding a label X to an item should automatically remove the anti-label "not X". An anti-label should disappear the moment the last item with that label removes it, so, for example, if I accidentally create a label for a music item called "grudge", and then quickly delete the label and add a new label "grunge", the anti-label "not grudge" should go bye bye and the new label "not grunge" should be created. If "not grudge" has already been used for some kind of filter mechanism, it can be silently deleted from that mechanism. It would have been better form for me to simply rename the label "grudge" to "grunge", which will automatically rename the anti-label "not grudge" to "not grunge".

Thank you and good night.

Necessary Invention: Yeshiva Stock Market

Yeshiva's beg for money to support their learning from people who make money, and then often feel superior to those who don't learn all day. That's chutzpah.

Back in the day, Issachar and Zevulun has an arrangement where one would learn and the other work, each getting the complete share of the merit for learning. Or so I understand.

I also feel entitled to the some of the study merit of those people I support. Whenever I give, I feel tempted to ask for some. But I don't know how much to ask for. If I give 100 NIS, is that 0.1% of the daily output of the yeshiva? Or a select group of students? How do I know that my 100 NIS wouldn't gain me better merit at some other more studious yeshiva, with better students and more disciplined finances?

I think there should be a yeshiva stock market. Individuals, study halls, kolels, and so on should float learning shares. That way we can evaluate what we get for our money. I want to support the yeshiva with the best learning (and good deeds) output. I want to know what I'm getting.

Yeshivas could report ... uh ... "mitzvaentials" on a quarterly basis: dafim learned (tested, to ensure quality), old ladies helped across the street, time spent delivering food to the needy, happiness quotient. We could more easily discover the yeshivas whose activities match our path. We could buy low (a yeshiva with unrealized potential) and sell high (when it's doing great). We could float shares. We could buy puts.

And best yet, we could sue for insider trading (you knew that the Rebbe's son was going to be accepted to your yeshiva, didn't you?).

Necessary Invention: Mouthphone

I can listen to music on my headphones at work, but I can't sing out loud.

I need a "mouthphone", something that I can sing into that will dampen my voice so that I can sing while I work in an office.

Yehuda