farber

In "The Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (1974), there is an interesting discussion about the idea that removing university grades would provide a better education.

"[A student at a grade-less school would] be a free man. He wouldnt need a lot of discipline to shape him up. In fact, if the instructors were slacking on the job he would be likely to shape them up by asking rude questions. He'd be there to learn something, would be paying to learn something and theyd better come up with it.

Motivation of this sort, once it catches hold, is a ferocious force, and in the gradeless, degreeless institution where our student would find himself, he wouldnt stop with rote engineering information."

"If I can do it, it's trivial: Once you have seen the solution to a problem it appears trivial. Then it is tempting to say `that's too easy, I'll try something else'. This is a non-terminating loop! Your solution won't be trivial to other people (probably it will be wrong or over-complex) and should anyway be used as a basis for further work. Motto: do the easiest thing first, then stand on the shoulders of these achievements and do the next easiest thing, etc. - a better infinite loop."

This is good advice for life in general, not just for researching.

One example of an existing use of this sort of thing, is that fire alarm systems commonly notify the building's lift controller, which sends the lift to the ground floor and opens the doors.

Don't build something so that you can make $100k. Build something that you want to make and that you will enjoy the process of doing. If you are involved fully in each moment of making whatever it is and not focused on the end result then you will probably be happy, fulfilled and also profitable.

I know the tests were done by a company selling IP cameras but there are many cameras available which would make better competitors to the human eye. For instance the Leaf Aptus-II 12 which produces images with a size of 80 Megapixels.