Voting patterns

What idesign thinks of other contributors' views

What other contributors thinks of idesign's views

Latest comments posted

Boiler Rooms in a Box
idesign thinks: Clearly there is room for improvement in the home building arena. For most part, water heaters and other household necessities are standardized. The true innovation would be in creating a technology to heat water that is not so space intensive.
(100% of 17 votes AGREE)

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Simplicity is... Automation
idesign thinks: I've always been bothered by automobiles maintenance. Why does it have to be so cryptic to find out what is wrong with my car? Generally, when I see that a light has gone off (for example "service engine soon"), why can't the car just tell me exactly what the problem is? It always takes a mechanic and $100 worth of labor costs for him to simply use a special piece of equipment to tell me what's wrong. The car should update me automatically on issues and even give me reminders on when i need maintenance.
(93% of 16 votes AGREE)

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Expiration dates on products
idesign thinks: Interesting article from wired magazine discusses the buy-die-buy cycle of technology products. It seems if something doesn't change soon, we will have land fills full of obsolete products that are only a few years old. We need to find a way to either mae products last longer or make them completely disposable and environementally friendly at the same time.
(100% of 17 votes AGREE)

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Is social lending the next evolution of banking?
idesign thinks: Our latest Nobel Peace Prize winner has shown lending is about giving someone opportunity to contribute. If one family in poverty can borrow enough money to buy a cow, that cow can produce milk and provide nourishment to its owner and to a village, which in turn makes money for the owner. It has been shown that most of these micro loans are paid back quickly given the level of trust between the lender and the borrower although I'm not sure this would be true in all parts of the world.
(100% of 5 votes AGREE)

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Are we really busy or do we just complain more?
idesign thinks: I think todays society simply has different priorities. We don't have the inconveniences of the past to limit the time we can spend doing leisure activities or working. We make more, but we also work more. Maybe we don't have to slave away doing manual labor, but the lack of vacation time puts as much of a stress on us than anything our parents faced. We worry about security in our retirement which our parents never had to. In my opinion, stress levels are the same, it's just the type of stress that we face today that is different.
(100% of 1 votes AGREE)

Latest comments agreed with

Are we really busy or do we just complain more?
SwissTony thinks: The pressures in todays society is much greater than 100 years ago, it is a rat race that intensifies with every decade, with competition for absolutely everything. Values and foundations that our past generations could fall back on have disapeared, leaving a society obsessed with getting ahead.
(90% of 10 votes AGREE)

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Are we really busy or do we just complain more?
Simpler thinks: human evolution has brought this upon us. Try living the simple life today - you either have to shield yourself from the typhoon of information hitting you, or move to the countryside. In either case you're diverting from our society's current expectations of good behavior and risk being considered an eccentric (if you're rich) or a freak (if you're not)...
(100% of 2 votes AGREE)

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Is social lending the next evolution of banking?
JBonnin thinks: Didn´t 2006 Nobel Peace awarded Muhammad Yunus and the Grammen Bank prove that social lending is the step to follow against poverty while completely viable? Having started it 30 years ago only, with $27 from his own pocket, the bank is today a solid institution while at the same time helping poor people to launch their own businesses.
(100% of 18 votes AGREE)

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Are traffic lights dangerous?
martbox thinks: Small junctions in 30mph areas don't need traffic lights, but 40mph+ areas on rush hour routes need congestion management so need lights. (If traffic lights were really that much of a safety problem it would have been clearly identified years ago)
(80% of 25 votes AGREE)

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Are traffic lights dangerous?
englishdanny thinks: I agree that roundabouts both slow down traffic and put the onus for safety upon the driver. I live in the Netherlands and the place is full of traffic-lights! In residential areas, (many with 30kph-20mph approx.), use of the, "rule of right", (exactly the same as the rules of right-of-way for roundabouts) and various traffic interrupters work well and because bicycles always have the right of way the driver must pay attention and drive carefully with due consideration for all other road-users and pedestrians. The problem with roundabouts is that they take up far more ground-area than a set of traffic-lights making them impractical as a replacement especially in built-up or high-density dwelling areas. Incidentally, roundabouts are a British invention. Most of the traffic management systems in the Netherlands are indigenous but they "Imported" this idea from Britain. Maybe we should have a closer look at their systems for use in the UK?
(82% of 23 votes AGREE)

Latest comments disagreed with

Are traffic lights dangerous?
Geek1 thinks: I think I saw that article you're mentioning. The town was in the Netherlands. It may work there, but somehow, I doubt removing traffic signals could be a good solution for cities such as New York or London where traffic is overflowing and a city grid system is already in place for directional traffic.
(80% of 25 votes AGREE)

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What type of technology has had the most impact?
Aos thinks: Medical realted advances including the curing of diseases has obviously helped the world, but at the same time, it has created an inevitable population issue. Now, we are faced with a whole new set of problems. What do we do about overpopulation?
(62% of 16 votes AGREE)

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Do we expect too much from technology?
Geek1 thinks: I think technology can only help us and advance us as a society. We are who we are based on technology. Imagine if the industrail revolution never happened. Where would we be as a society. Yes, there are times when technology takes a negative turn and creates unexpected side effects, but the overall benefit is undeniable.
(83% of 6 votes AGREE)

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Are hot water heaters outdated?
Maven thinks: You're absolutely right! While we're getting rid of the hot water heater, how about we throw out all fax machines. It's amazing that these products are still used in this day and age.
(81% of 11 votes AGREE)

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Merging Man and Machine
Techy23 thinks: I think this would be an interesting option, but it could be decades before we see something like this being used in our everday lives. How amazing would it be to have digital readouts show as replacable tatoos on your skin almost like LCD straight to your skin surface. Eventually, it seems, if things move in this direction, we will become a sort of bionic human. What next? Cell phones embedded in my ear?
(64% of 17 votes AGREE)

Submitted discussions

Discussions this contributor has submitted to LiveSimplicity:

1. Why do we carry so many keys? - 5 comments
2. Holiday shopping simplified - Concluded
3. Inhabiting the Moon and Mars - 7 comments
4. Are newspapers and magazines a dying medium? - 8 comments
5. RFID, help or hype? - 8 comments
6. Home technology upgrades - Concluded
7. Pricing simplicity - Concluded
8. Are hot water heaters outdated? - Concluded
9. Technology and Terrorism - Concluded
10. Do books really need technology? - Concluded