Problem solving has always been the mother of all great inventions.
In the 1960s an avid inventor named Robert C. Herendeen saw a problem and decided to come up with a solution. The problem was the fact that dogs got overheated on hot summer days. The solution that Herendeen came up with was an invention he called The Doggie Air Conditioner.
This small, wearable device was designed to keep dogs cool on hot summer days by blowing air through a tube attached to the dog’s back, offering them relief from the heat. The Doggie Air Conditioner was completely portable and battery powered so you could take your pooch for a walk in the blazing sun and they’d be cool as a cucumber.
Unfortunately tiny lithium powered batteries didn’t exist back in the 60s. The effort of lugging around the 5kg battery pack attached to the Doggie Air Conditioner plus the weight of the unit itself, more than negated any of the cooling benefits that it brought.
There were also far more practical solutions to the problem at hand – water and shade key among them. Both of which came free. The Doggie Air Conditioner never took off.
The Classic 7 Seat Blackjack problem
Avid fans of the game of blackjack would be familiar with the problem of finding a seat on low limit tables. This is particularly so when it comes to a live blackjack table where a limited number of tables must serve a large number of online players.
Finding a seat at higher limit tables is never a problem. Relatively few players are comfortable betting at $200 and up. But during busy times getting a seat at the limited number of $5 tables is an exercise in patience.
That’s the problem. A live games provider has recently come up with their solution to this problem.
8 Seat Blackjack
The solution presented by StakeLogic, is an eighth seat at the blackjack table. They launched 8 seat blackjack in September this year proclaiming it as a logical solution to seat scarcity.
It’s certainly a solution to the problem of scarcity for 8th player to come across the table. Not so the 9th, 10th, 11th and so on. Whether the table is a hit remains to be seen.
Other providers have tackled the seat scarcity problem by simply making more 7 seat tables available, rather than an extra seat. I like to think of this as the ‘finding some shade’ solution.