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Out-Of-The-Head !

Turn your old tshirt into a pillow! (No Sewing Required)

One of us (contributors) Sakhi, had recently shared a video on Facebook that showed how you can make a pillow case or a pillow out of an old tshirt. This was the video:

Both of us wanted to try it out as soon as we watched it.

This is how hers turned out to be :

I used mom's old silk fabric instead of a tshirt, and this is how mine looked :

Stitched an old button on top of it just for some style ;)

Isn't this just the easiest way to make a pillow?

Source : http://craftyvillage.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/no-stitch-pillow-case/ and http://artsy-me.blogspot.in/2012/01/easy-pillow.html

Restroom queue formulation

The other day, after watching a play at the Nehru auditorium, a friend and I had to use the washroom. As the play had just ended, there were naturally a lot of women wanting to use the washroom and consequently, a longer queue. There were a lot of toilets inside the restroom and people had made a single queue outside the restroom rather than queues outside individual toilets, and were following FIFO (First-In-First-Out) which as per me, is the fairest way of queue formulisation when it comes to restrooms. With restroom queues, there is always that uncertainty as to how long a person will take and a queue outside every toilet inside the restroom would not be fair if a particular queue went faster than the others just because people took less time. With queues that follow a fixed time limit of service, multiple queues are okay. 

I googled for such a formulation before posting it up here to see whether someone else had already done so and this is what I got: http://www.credmond.net/projects/unisex-bathroom-problem/ It describes the queue problem for unisex bathrooms but follows a FIFO strategy too.

Unfortunately, this is not followed in restrooms in a lot of malls & multiplexes here.

Personalized Busy Messages - App Idea.

How many of you all are bored of hearing the typical busy messages or messages of unavailability when you call someone up? For example, "The number you have called is busy/unavailable. Please try again later." Don't you all get tired of her telling you the same thing all the time? I am always curious to know what the other person is upto when he/she is not available. Sometimes, it also becomes a subject of concern.

My friend had just started riding her new scooty and I'd always get tensed when her phone line was unavailable. I'd get worried sick thinking whether she was safe or no, considering she had JUST learned to drive.

I kept wishing there was a way to change those messages to "My battery's discharged. No other reason for unavailability. Don't get worried." so that I'd know everything is okay, or if you're driving, those busy messages (when you cut the incoming call) would change to "I am driving, will get back later".

Now, don't confuse this with voicemail. This app wouldn't charge the person who's calling. Rather, the person who owns the phone could pay a monthly rental fee to his/her network provider who would then let him/her change those messages when required. These messages wouldn't be typed in but recorded, so that language isn't a problem especially in countries like India.

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Check out the Intel® Atom™ Developer Program, if you are looking for an opportunity to build and monetize your applications. You can sell through Intel’s storefront – Intel AppUp Center. Intel has also set up a Million Dollar Development Fund to support developers who are looking at building innovative apps. For more details check out http://appdeveloper.intel.com/fund

Disclaimer: This blog post is an entry to Intel’s contest – My India App Story

 

SMS filters - App Idea

A few months back, I had subscribed for receiving one new English word, it's usage and meaning from a website everyday (sort of like a GRE flash card). I would keep getting one message from them daily, and I had created a folder just for those messages. I would move the message to that folder each time so I had all the words in one place.

Sometimes, however, I wouldn't get the time to check my inbox at all, and then going through my messages just to find that one message and move it to another folder became taxing. That's when I thought it'd be so much easier if we had SMS filters that'd send messages from a given number to the folder assigned to it- just like we archive mails using labels in Gmail. That way, I'd only have to check that folder to see the new word for that day and not go phishing through my Inbox.

There is one good app that blocks text messages or spam: http://www.smsblocker.in but I haven't come across an app that filters these messages sending them to different folders.

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Check out the Intel® Atom™ Developer Program, if you are looking for an opportunity to build and monetize your applications. You can sell through Intel’s storefront – Intel AppUp Center. Intel has also set up a Million Dollar Development Fund to support developers who are looking at building innovative apps. For more details check out http://appdeveloper.intel.com/fund

Disclaimer: This blog post is an entry to Intel’s contest – My India App Story

 

 

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