I remember also receiving that weird VHS tape from Nintendo in the mail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJzIc_c1PvE

I have no idea how I received that, but it was so cool!

I never expected a reply, but was so stoked when I received a letter with a similar generic-but-enthusiastic reply, along the lines of "Thanks for such a creative idea!"

Do kids still get the opportunity to experience things like this? I can't imagine that sending an email to a company's generic contact@ address is ever going to get the save kind of response - and certainly not something that they can proudly pin on their wall for motivation.

https://twitter-thread.com/t/1214607304106098689

Feel like that opened something in me..

I remember the wiring, pipes, everything actually went somewhere and was meant for something. Nothing was just for looks and everything served a purpose.

Still hasn't been built to this day ;P

I found the CEO’s corporate address somewhere online and sent the letter to him, never to hear back.

Then, around 8 months later, I saw my first ad for Snickers Unwrapped Bites on TV and freaked out. They had immediately implemented my idea, which as a kid was amazing, but I’ll never forgive them for not writing back. Especially because none of my friends ever believed me.

I event included some PHP code to explain how they could parse the input in question format and convert it to keywords, using regular expression. Ha, how naive. My dream was to receive a letter back saying how a good idea that was and that I was hired.

Unfortunately I never got a response back.

I'm curious about this - I thought it was a very expensive process to patent something.

In hindsight, I wasn't knowledgeable enough to write a printed book's worth of material (maybe a few modern blog posts, at best). But at the time, I knew more about electronics than the other 29 kids in my grade school class, and that constituted most of my worldview, so why couldn't I write a book.

I loved the Forrest Mims books, and, like any kid, wanted to mimic the things that I saw grownups doing.

Someone at Tandy might have realized that I was just an enthusiastic kid, but in any case, they wrote me a nice letter back. The company didn't wish to develop a book at this time, but if I did so on my own, they would be happy to review a copy off the press.

(Edit: I mean, there was a mailing address right there, on the back cover. In a kid's mind, why couldn't you simply mail a letter to that address. https://archive.org/details/gettingstartedin00mims/page/n131... )

Anyhow, when I was about 10, I wrote the CEO of Grumman a letter about how great they were talking nerdy about my favorite planes of theirs. The CEO wrote back with a short message thanking me personally. I was so excited, my parents framed it and put it on the wall of my childhood room, etc etc. Only as an adult, well into my 30s, did I remember that and think "OMG, of course his secretary or PR firm wrote that", but I truly couldn't realize that when I was a kid.

ahhhh this makes me feel things

Now, I answer every single email my app customers are sending me and have been doing this for close to 20 years and I get a lot of positive reviews for the great customer support.

He was a bit intimidated by the enhanced strapping, but he liked it still.

"Disaster on a stick An attempt to erect the world’s largest popsicle in a city square ended with a scene straight out of a disaster film — but much stickier."

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna8321110

I applaud parents who encourage kids to do stuff like this when they have the innate drive for it.

I did a similar thing with Roller Coaster Tycoon. I sent screenshots and explanations of my designs to Six Flags. I was probably around 10 or so. I think I got one generic letter back from them unfortunately.

For some time, I wanted to become a Roller Coaster designer.

I sent it to Nokia over email :-D. They didn't respond.

Dual SIM phones apparently became a thing that same year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_SIM#:~:text=The%20first%2... Not originally by Nokia, though.

I love that kids could be left alone in their home and would burn plastic over a gas stove to create models of roller coasters.

I love that Disney would respond to him and not even forget the typo in quadrupuler.

I love that he kept all that and thought of it as a foundational part of his personality (I think probably he was already like that)

I actually got a personal response thanking me for my input!

Then a few years later that keyboard I wanted actually became a product.

Not sure if I really influenced their process or not; but I got that keyboard and its fun to think I did :)

In the following years, they made it possible to order custom M&Ms (for a price...) and how you can even have your logo on them.

It also takes some awareness to state your age at the start of the letter. That's what makes people respond so well to it. I would never have thought age was relevant, or even that it was shameful to admit you're just a child. I didn't understand how people think. This guy apparently did, so again, he was already cut out for acting, I'd say.

Drop the "It's called" it's cleaner that way.