PDA Keyboard Idea

There are two common ways to input text to a PDA: using a stylus, and using a mini-keyboard.

The drawbacks of a stylus is that it is prone to mistakes, and takes just as long as writing by hand.
The drawbacks of a mini keyboard are that it is difficult to cram your fingers on the buttons, and you have to rest the PDA on a surface in order to type with both hands.

Yesterday I had a great idea. You simply put the keyboard on the back of the PDA, and touch type. I think the images do a better job than words of describing how it works.

4 fingers are on the back to type with, and the thumbs are free to use as pointing devices. The space bar would be in the top front. The keyboard and screen can then take up an entire side of the device, and you can hold it as you type.

The true hallmark of a good idea is that it's been done before. This idea is so good that in 2001, Xuan Ni of San Jose, California patented it. You can see it here, on Google Patents.

I have some ideas on why its never been popularized, but I don't know for sure.

The Wise and The Foolish

The foolish cannot understand the wise, and the wise cannot understand the foolish.

Education & Intelligence

There are many ways to define intelligence. I recall having debates in psychology class back in the day over whether intelligence is due to "Nature or Nurture". The reality is that just about every trait exhibited in man is a combination of nature and nurture.

In the modern era, where there is abundant knowledge, one who has access to and takes advantage of the great wealth of knowledge already developed has a significant advantage over one who doesn't. The access to that information gives a good head start, that can compensate for inferior intelligence.

I could put it simply: Education is more important than Intelligence.

I suppose this rule holds more in fields where there has been great consecutive sequential development, such as mathematics and medicine. However, in new fields or ones that have a disorganized structure, this rule finds less expression.

Hierarchy of Governments

This article describes a situation, and then suggests form of government that could perform well given the situation.

The Situation.
1. Globalization has turned many of the ways that countries remain independent into obstacles. For example, as global trade increases, tariffs and border security become greater and greater obstacles. Differences in law, currency and language are becoming greater burdens to mankind.

Global trade can be very helpful because it encourages the efficient use of resources and enables the specialization of entire countries into one sector. Measures to ensure that a single country can survive without any external help may be necessary for countries that live with the threat of embargo.

This line of reasoning

2. Technology empowers the individual. On the one hand, people are dependent on others for the supply of utilities and Internet. On the other hand, once an individual has those elements taken care of, he is capable of doing many things that an individual wasn't capable of doing many years ago. Similarly, small countries have been given a degree of power that did not exist before the existence of rapid global communication. Outsourcing of labor enables small economies to benefit and even compete with the rest of the world. Technological advances enable a small police and military force to maintain peace. International consultation enables small governments to make proper, well educated decisions.

A suggestion.
The question is, in what direction are governments moving: toward unification as part of greater states, or toward division into smaller states? The advance of technology drives man in both directions. I think a model that takes the best of both individuality and union is a hierarchy of governments. This model has been implemented in the EU and USA. The model enables unity and similarity where possible and differences where necessary.

Ultimately, a hierarchy could unite all the countries in the world, but since there are so few things that all of mankind agrees with, its domain would be limited. Regions with distinct culture, such as the Muslim Middle East could create their own union, and so forth. Of course, Israel would have trouble placing itself because it's not comfortably part of Africa, Europe or Arabia.

A corollary of the above suggestion that mankind is moving toward this model, is that in international relations, countries should encourage this sort of hierarchy as opposed to absolute union or Independence.

International Competition

As geographical boundaries continue to become less of on obstacle, the competition between for countries for people worth money will become very real.

This means that governments will be inclined to introduce systems into the government that favor those worth money, in attempts to lure the wealthy to live in and do business in their countries. This could lead to a deficiency of equal treatment of citizens.

The counter to this phenomena are at least three factors:

a. Not everybody who has money is worth money, and not everybody who is worth money has money. There are those with yet unrealized potential.

b. Not everybody who is worth money would want to risk living in a country that favors them. The reason is that nobody can ensure that his children will be worth money. Hence, the notion of living in a country that would treat his children unfairly is not attractive. This type of hedge is part of what motivates governments to provide services equally.

c. The poor masses revolt. This means that the wealthy government must treat the poor fairly to the extent that they won't revolt.

International Obvervation & Foreign Influence.

Although foreign observation of the political activities is positive in that it should prevent any wrongdoing go unnoticed, it has two drawbacks.

1. First of all, it undermines the observed countries democratic system. That means that the international pressure on the observed government can be strong, so the government doesn't necessarily heed the desires of the country.

This was highlighted in the recent Israeli Disengagement operation. Although Israeli PM Sharon went to great lengths to gain a green light from the white-house for the operation, no national referendum was conducted, despite significant evidence indicating that legislative representatives weren't voting in accordance with their electors' desire.

2. Foreign powers can be misinformed about the situation, or have ulterior motives preventing them from judging the case properly.

This might be the case in Iraq. The US populace was misinformed, and the executive government had ulterior motives. In the end, it can be questioned whether the Iraq War has been beneficial to the Iraqi public.

Getting Out.

I have a feeling that the best way to use blogs to spread ideas, is via posting comments on popular blogs.