Still Life with Robin: Businesses I Wish Existed

by Peggy Robin

In a tough economy it’s hard to get a new business going, but sometimes an idea comes along that is so powerful, you think to yourself, “How could this fail?” Still, you need more than a good idea to make a business viable. Someone has to draw up a business plan, and scout for investors, and do all the legwork to create the product and market it. In other words, put years of work into it. I’m not the person to do that. I’m just someone who sits around talking with others (mainly my husband, Bill), saying things like, “Yes! That product is just what we need! If only someone would start a business to sell it, they’d make a fortune!” So, if you’re feeling entrepreneurial, here are three ideas for businesses that we’d love to see someone take the ball and run with.

1. The Smarter Smoke Detector. Fire safety experts tell us that you should have a smoke detector on every level of your house and you should change the batteries when needed. You know that smoke detectors save lives. But you also know the annoying reality that when a smoke detector is beeping “low batt” it’s always the middle of the night. So you stumble out of bed and begin to wander around the house, going from smoke detector to smoke detector, listening for that damned beep. Why are they set to beep just once every other minute? What idiot came up with that design? The needed improvements seem so obvious: Design a smoke detector that has a smarter “low batt” warning, set so that it won’t start the warning beep in the dark. It could work on a timer, so that it waits until the next daytime cycle to start beeping. (The “low batt” indicator comes on when there’s at least 24 hours of battery life left, so there’s no worry that they battery will die before the next daytime cycle.) Or you could link the low batt indicator to a light detector so that the beeping starts only in the presence of light. And while you’re at it, eliminate that minute-plus gap between beeps. There’s no reason why you should have to wait so long to hear the beep that lets you locate the one that's losing power. Just make it give a steady stream of pips. If I could buy a product with a smarter battery indicator, I’d scrap all my smoke detectors right now and replace each one, before their batteries had a chance to go “low batt” on me in the middle of the night!

Buy of the Day: Caffeinated Chocolates

The Buy of the Day is something we've seen and we think you'd enjoy. It might be geeky, it might be something to wear, it might have to do with travel or work. It might run on batteries or it might be something you use in the kitchen.

Today's Buy of the Day is Buzz Bites, yummy caffeinated chocolates.  Buzz Bites contain about the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee, only without any possibility of a spill. In addition to containing 25 percent more caffeine than Red Bull, Buzz Bites have ginseng, taurine and five B vitamins. Buzz Bites also come in chocolate mint flavor.

I Need Coffee, Part II

Photo by Helga

Last week’s column about coffee technology generated a lot of responses. Who would have thought that coffee was such a popular drink, especially in Washington, DC? From observing the way everyone calmly drives on the Beltway and has boundless patience for tourists who stand two abreast on Metro escalators, I was under the mistaken assumption that Celestial Seasons decaf teas were the beverage of choice here.  I was wrong.

I’m still happy with my Senseo coffee brewer -- and the K-cups machine from Keurig. Both make terrific single cup coffees. But fair warning: Not all flavors taste equally good. And you will need to vary the amount for these different brews and brands to achieve coffee perfection.

It’s comforting to know that I’m not alone when it comes to experimenting with different coffee making technologies.  Here are some other thoughts on how to make amazing coffee:

National Coffee Day and the Quest for the Perfect Cup

Most kickass espresso machine:
Saeco Etienne Louis Espresso maker

There's no better way to celebrate National Coffee Day (today's the day!) than with a new coffee machine.

So I bought a new coffee machine. It was actually an involuntary purchase, but that's okay because there's no such thing as too many ways to make coffee in the morning.

I'd been faithful to my Keurig single cup coffee machine and I didn't intend to stray.  But these things happen, and when you hear my tale perhaps you'll feel some sympathy for me. I went to order some new coffee pods on Amazon for the Keurig and spied Kona coffee, so I ordered it. When the coffee arrived two days later, I realized that I had ordered pods that fit another kind of machine.

(Before you feel superior, ask yourself this: Have you ever bought the wrong kind of paper towels, perhaps the dreaded Select-a-Size, or the wrong kind of some other product? These other coffee pods came up in the search for Keurig K-cup coffee, so it's only partially my fault.)