In search of a Millionaire

After this post on Tire pressure Indicators, I wanted to see if the person who actually came up with the idea, is in fact a millionaire. Just to get some closure on the fantasy that if I had come up with that idea, I would have millions of $$ and ergo, not have to worrry about rising college tuition costs sometime in the future!

So, decided to track down the US Patent numbers on this thingy and see who came up with this. Here is a link to the patent from 1985, if you would care to read about it!

If you don't, the interesting thing is that "people have been trying to do this since 1914"!!! and there are various versions developed over time that evolved with the tires.

Here is a patent that describes the example I cited in the previous post. This is from 2003.. and here are some latest ones from 2005!! This last one looks close to what the Sienna has for an onboard system!

The learning?

Lot more tire pressure patents from Taiwan than US in recent years.

Things have evolved from a little stick that you insert in the valve stem, to the same thing built into the air inflation system to permanent visual indicators and onboard computerized systems that monitor pressure irrespective of the vehicle being stationary or moving...

Taiwanese govt. seems to be pushing their dudes to come up with a nice solution.

Chances are, none of these dudes are millionaires. They are all salaried employees like yours truly who got another patent award displayed on their cubicle wall!

I now know a lot more about tire pressure sensors, than I cared to know a few hours ago!

You have been bored with an information overload, when all you wanted to see or read about was the cute things the little ones say or do. Well, there is always tomorrow and I did post this earlier!

Here's to all the wannabe millionaries sitting in those tiny cubicles, coming up with ideas that change the world, one step at a time!

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Look Daddy...

Daddy, I look like Kasthuri!!

screamed Jr., and came running to me as I walked into the house after a long day!

Who the #u@k is Kasthuri, I thought to myself and why is Jr. still smiling after turning herself into such a spectacle?

As it turns out, she has been watching SUN TV Mega Serials in the early evening slots with Bombay Paati and hence the Kasthuri influence..

and for reference here is a photo of a woman from this serial (mind you, this is not the heroine). The heroine has a bindi (dot) twice the size of the one sported by the in the picture..

No wonder Jr. had the need to exaggerate!

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The Chair

The dreaded chair!

Had to sit on it for almost two hours last weekend.

It was not the chair or the usual nonsense associated with it that bothered me.

Have sat on it many times before.. Been there, done that!

We are talking about the Dentist visit here, in case you have not caught on..

This time, they forgot to turn on the water to the drill thingy. Poor me is getting this burning smell from the one nose that is still not numb from the injection (last time it was novocaine, this time the needle said "octocaine".. must be one number lower grade than novocaine!). In spite of the caine downgrade, the mouth did not feel the burn.. The doc figured it out pretty quickly.. called the assistant and said "I think something is wrong.. This thing got extremely hot.. is the water on?" This when the patients eyes are a few inches away from a smoking drill bit that has just burnt some flesh!

They found the water switch, turned it back on and proceeded as though nothing happened. My pain is still there though!

Never listen to a dentist when they say:

"Deep cleaning should be good!"

what they mean is that

"Deep cleaning (your wallet) should be good (for me)!"

Now that all the cleaning has been done, the verdict?

"your wisdom tooth is impacted. We have cleaned everything around it, filled cavities on nearby teeth (which did not hurt me in any way) but still the pain is not going away. So we are refering you to a specialist to get it extracted. It might be a surgery because most of the tooth is in the bone!"

This after the dentist goes "you know it is purely amazing that you have such a big cavity and no symptoms. The more decay I remove from this, the more I see.. this is like Pandora's box!".

I was thinking "Lady, If pandora had the X-ray machine that you used last week to capture my teeth in all its gory detail, she would have never opened the box!".. but because there were a few plastic and metal wedges between my teeth, and a drill a few centimeters above my face, I kept that thought to myself!

Thank you Dentrica!!!! (Dentist in America)

I am soooo looking forward to my next India trip to meet my good old dentist! My faith in the healthcare system has now been downgraded to "Orange". Oh wait, it has always been Orange, like the Security level in the San Jose Airport.. Let me downgrade it to "Red" for a change.

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