Some of the problems that aren't completely trivial are very hard. These aren't "solved" - instead, there are just very preliminary sketches of potential solutions, which other people have already progressed far further with. For example:
- Day 1: Communicating with someone by voice is hard if you lack a shared languages. The proposed solution is "Integrating voice translation into Skype". This isn't a solution so much as it is a problem, with Voice Recognition and Machine Translation as sub-problems. But it is already done reasonably well by the Google Translate iOS app.
- Day 39: Personalize post-card by covering up a large portion of the image with a scratch off map. Since the front of a post-card is exposed in transit, wouldn't more be scratched off? And is the recipient is expected to be able to interpret a small section of map for an area they may have never visited themselves? An alternative solution is to mount an integrated camera and printer at a scenic location, so users can easily print a postcard that includes them (Post-Me: http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/stories/2010/design_show/)
Day 20: This padlock was too small for my locker. I'll wrap a metal cable around it and lock the cable.
Day 24: Wet socks. I stuck a towel under the door. It failed.
Is this really representative of what "designers" do? Just looks like jury-rigging to me. Slap some duct-tape on it and get on with your life.