"I think being a woman is like being Irish." — Iris Murdoch

I doubt that I could do anything with these ideas, and have no idea whether they already exist or are practical at all, so if you can do something with them, go ahead.

The first idea is for a mini-incinerator. I don't like paper shredders. There's one at work that sounds like a sewing machine. When I lived out in the sticks, I used to burn old records. No muss, no fuss, no messy papery stuff to clean up. So wouldn't it be cool if there was a little box that could sit on your desk, and when you put papers inside, they would be burnt up cleanly without setting off the smoke detector? I would use it.

The second idea is for a conveniently small portable caffeine tester, so you could know how much caffeine was in a cup of coffee. For various reasons, decaf can have higher caffeine than regular coffee should have, and sometimes waiters will serve regular coffee when you ask for decaf. It would be nice to be able to verify that you got what you asked for.

Also, there's a place near where I work where I swear the caffeine is several times higher than coffee should be.

Why would one cup be stronger than another? When you make coffee, it leaves a residue in the coffee machine that affects the subsequent brews. This is good in a way, because the first batch or two of coffee in any coffee maker should be tossed out — it isn't going to taste as good, because it's just passing over bare metal.

Be that as it may... the residue supplies extra caffeine to the subsequent brews. If you clean the machine regularly, the caffeine won't get too high.

Why would waiters serve regular instead of decaf? They might honestly forget. On the other hand, it could be laziness: it's easier to just pour from one pot instead of two. They might figure you won't notice (you notice later, though!).

Let me know what you think.