When Stig was on vacation up in Iceland recently, we used a chat program to keep in touch. Unfortunately, we wound up having a huge argument when I said soemthing sarcastic that Stig thought was meant literally, and we didn't speak with one another for a week afterwards. Couldn't this type of misunderstanding be avoided if there were an easily recognizable typeface for sarcasm? Every word processing programm has dozens and dozens of typefaces nobody ever uses - this would be one that...

If you have sisters and brothers, you will, as you get older, sometimes discuss the old times. Pretty often, you'll come across things your parents did that were just awesome (e.g. when you had to go for a vaccination and were brave instead of wailing around and terrorizing everybody else, you would get a matchbox car - what a great idea!) On the other hand, you'll come across a lot of stuff you virtually hated (e.g. you were forced to play a violin - and yuck, you still can't listen to...

What I hate most about modern email times is that more and more people believe that emails can be simply ignored. While this is partly understandable and probably due to the rising wave of spam that is sent by machines anyway, I find it incredibly annoying when you really have a request or problem and are longing for an answer. Two ideas: 1. An "I definitely want an answer" setting. Your email program will monitor if you received a reply to a particular message, and if you didn't,...

Yes, everyone knows that Harry Potter's latest is being released today, but how often have you gone to a book or record store and noticed that something new had been released by your favorite less-well-known author or artist six months ago without you notincing? It happens to Stig and me all the time: if your tastes are anything other than completely mainstream, you can't count on being informed by advertising, and you might miss a product you'd like to have. Why not create a...

A browser feature that will let you block all future access to the website where you are now. Good for when you hit some annoying link, where you never want to accidentally go again.

Don't you hate sites with pop-up ads every three seconds and if your pop-up killer doesn't get them all you race to see how many you can close - only to have more pop up?! Instead of having pop up killer programs, how about a search engine like Google add an extra option or feature to their advanced search. The bots could tell which sites have more than one or two pop-ups and put them in the idiot webmasters category. Some people don't get the idea that annoying advertising is bad...

A search engine where the registration will be free for every domain! The difference will be that the given priority will not be up to the amount of money given for the subscription (it will be free for every user) but the average time that someone spends visiting a site. For example if someone's domain has average visiting time for all the users 5 minutes, will have higher priority against someone elses domain that has 2 minutes average. In that way the more interesting sites will be...

How about an internet site where people could submit an electronic photo of themselves. (Perhaps two photos; one frontal facial, and one side facial.) A computer would then analyze the photos and create groups of photos in which the members of the group look very much alike. You could then log into the site and find someone who looks just like you. Who knows? You might discover that you are a twin and have never been told! Then once a year, a look-alike get-together would be...

Simple, painless: Pay, and download. A supersite covering virtually every Make and Model, with a complete automotive repair E-book detailing the car as a rebuild... Much like the books you buy at the auto parts store. With books costing around 15-20 bux, one could easily charge $10 for E-books. There is nothing like this on the Internet today, even Chilton's Online only has these stupid interactive CD's you can order... Who cares, who wants to wait 2-4 weeks when the car is sitting in the...

When I write my email, I'm sometimes REALLY absent-minded. One of the worst mistakes I sometimes make is sending mails to the wrong people. This problem could be solved by an intelligent email client that does some basic checking and then outputs an appropriate error message (e.g. "Are you sure you want to be so rude to your GRANDMOTHER?" - "Do you really want to send this business letter to yourself?" etc. etc.) With 20-30% of the internet population ignoring unpleasant emails, I...