Can someone develop an app that goes through all of the available apps and finds me an app that I really need? I mean, Koi Pond is pretty, and definitely helps to soothe the soul when you're stuck on the bus or subway or in bad highway traffic (hmmm...is feeding the fish on my Koi Pond app while driving the same thing as texting while driving? If so, disregard this last sentence if you live in a state where texting and driving is illegal).
And Talking Tom Kat is amusing, if somewhat disturbing at the same time. (If you don't know this app, you must not live in the United Kingdom, Germany, or France, where it is currently the most popular free downloaded app. Talking Tom Cat repeats what you say to him in a helium-balloon-like voice, and he purrs when you pet him. The disturbing part is that after you smack him in the face a few times, he passes out on the floor. Something tells me that Animal Humane Societies across the world aren't going to be too amused by that particular bit of programming bytes.)
There are lots of other pretty apps on my iPhone and iPad, but as I was circling around for the 500th time in my garage this morning, I realized that what I REALLY need is an app that will tell me where the nearest open parking space is in the public parking garage I use for work. I mean, I live in San Francisco, which is supposed to be the most environmentally conscious city in the country, right? Jeez - I have garbage collectors who by law are required to comb through my trash cans and cite me if I've thrown out something that could otherwise be recycled or composted! But I can sit and idle and have my car emit toxic fumes 'til the cows come home with no penalty whatsoever.
Which means that I live in a city where it's not okay to toss a banana peel into the trash can - but it IS okay for me to circle around for 15 minutes in my fossil-fuel gouging motor vehicle, searching for an open parking space in a municipal owned and operated garage. This morning, I think that I must have consumed most of a long-extinct dinosaur before I finally cut off a guy in a red Prius to nab a coveted empty space. (I justified my actions by telling myself that the guy in the Prius was emitting fewer ozone-depleting fumes than was I, so it was more ecologically sound for him to continue circling than for me to do so.)
The city of San Francisco, as well as other cities around the country, is indeed tinkering with a smartphone application that will allow users to see which garages have available parking spaces. But I would think that it wouldn't be all that difficult for someone to come up with a very siimple and localized app that enables a user to pinpoint open parking spaces the moment you enter the garage itself. Now there's an app I can use - it will save everyone time, conserve fuel, be better for the environment...and, and I just thought of something else! If we modify it to include Talking Tom Cat, the app can purr at you as you slide your car into the app-appointed space, but will smack Tom and knock him out if you ignore the space and decide to waste time and fuel by searching for a better one. That should be an effective carrot-and-stick approach for the animal lovers amongst us.
Can someone get on that right away, please? Oh. And I want royalties....