Month: August 2012

By Dane Carlson, Business Opportunities Weblog – August 15, 2012 at 04:28PM

ThinkGeek has a long tradition of inventing and manufacturing amazing products across a whole host of categories: the ThinkGeek Electronic Rock Guitar Shirt, the Annoy-a-tron, Bag of Holding, and the iCADE just to name a few. Now, they’re opening up their proven product launching process to inventors just like you with the ThinkGeek IdeaFactory!

How the ThinkGeek IdeaFactory Works

The process for submitting an idea to ThinkGeek is easy.

• You submit your idea: They’ll need a written description and an image of the idea. The image can be a rendering or a detailed drawing.
• ThinkGeek will review your idea, make sure it passes the caveats, and respond within 60 days.
• If they choose to make the product and you get paid.

How You Get Paid

They believe in keeping things simple. If ThinkGeek chooses to make your idea into a real product, they’ll pay you an advance of $1000 and then 10% of retail sales for the life of the product up to $1 million in Net Sales. When your product reaches $1 million (yay!), the rate drops to 5%. Royalties will be paid quarterly. In addition, you will also have the opportunity to purchase any quantity of the product at a reasonable price just above cost (excluding shipping). You’ll be free to sell that product on your own website or when you make public appearances at conventions, trade shows, or other public events. This way you can show off your genius work and point proudly to your wallet while chuckling manically to yourself.

Why Choose ThinkGeek?
Best chance for success. Zero upfront costs. 100% easy.

When you choose to go with ThinkGeek, you’re placing your idea in the hands of master retailers who not only have direct access to the market but also have deep wholesale relationships and the ear of the media. You’re also trusting a company with a long history and proven track record of inventing, manufacturing, and distributing unique products. Their products have appeared on the Today Show, Regis and Kelly, the New York Times, WIRED, Gizmodo, and hundreds of media outlets both online and off. they’ve also placed products with retailers of all sizes, from small specialty stores to the giants of traditional retail. This unique combination gives ThinkGeek a distinct advantage over other companies in today’s crowded custom manufacturing market.

In addition to significant market advantages, there are no up-front costs associated with developing an idea with ThinkGeek. You do not need to pay a submission fee and there are no development costs. They take care of all prototyping, mold changes, creative, packaging, and marketing expense. There is truly zero out of pocket cost to you. Remember when I said it was easy?

What Ideas Will ThinkGeek Consider?
ThinkGeek’s manufacturing capabilities span a wide range of products. If you can dream it up, they’ve probably made something like it at one time or another. That said, there are a few caveats about submitting ideas to ThinkGeek’s IdeaFactory:

1. You must own the idea you’re submitting.
2. You may not use licensed intellectual property you do not own. (Sadly this means no Star Wars, Star Trek, Mario, Batman, etc. ideas. However, things like Zombies are fair game. Your idea has to be 100% unique or generic enough to not require licensing.)
3. You must use the official IdeaFactory submission process and agree to the terms of the contract.

Want to see the fine print?

Of course you do. Click here to read the full contract you would be required to sign if your idea is selected and you decide to move forward with ThinkGeek on the project. Please note that due to their deadly allergy to onerous legal mumbo-jumbo they cannot entertain ANY CHANGES to the contract. If you don’t like it, they are very sorry to have upset you, but they still can’t change it. Keep this in mind BEFORE YOU SUBMIT your idea.

And… One more thing. Directors, officers, employees, or agents of ThinkGeek or the parent company Geeknet, Inc., and/or its affiliate companies, as well as the immediate family of the employees (including spouse, and parents, children and siblings, and their respective spouses regardless of where they live) and individuals living in the same households as the employees, whether related or not, are not eligible. Mkay?

By (author unknown), Core77 – August 15, 2012 at 03:00PM

Once or twice a year we see redesigns of hand tools, like Craftsman’s recent announcement of pliers updated with LEDs. Less common are attempted redesigns of fasteners, which we haven’t seen since GRK’s “W-Cut” no-pilot-hole-needed screws from 2008. But now Kenji Hasegawa, who runs Japanese automotive parts supply company Lock’n Bolt Corporation, has developed something surprising: A bolt that needs no nut.

Hasegawa’s Lock’n Bolt-F is designed specifically for industrial and commercial applications where constant vibration can eventually loosen typical nut-and-bolt configurations. The design is pretty ingenious: The bolt has two slits on the inside end, in which a conical metal slug is placed. As you screw the bolt in and the slug makes contact with the bottom of the hole, the bolt’s ends begin to separate, essentially jamming the entire thing in place.

The reason something like this can only succeed in industrial/commercial applications (as opposed to something a DIY’er might try to do) is that, as far as we can tell, the design requires the bolt’s length be precisely calibrated to the depth of the hole in order for the head to meet flush with the surface. As for joining sheet goods, where the nut would ordinarily be exposed under the surface, I wonder if the slug could be tapped with a hammer to lock up the works. Sadly I cannot read Japanese, so if any Nihonjin can provide any insights, please let us know in the comments.

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By Melanie Pinola, Lifehacker – August 15, 2012 at 12:30PM

Box is one of the more generous of the online storage services—especially if you got in on one of the free 50GB deals previously offered. However, syncing wasn’t offered for personal users—until, it seems, now. Here’s how to get Box syncing without a business account.

Slickdeals member mfaraday noticed a “Get BOX Sync” option under the “My Account” tab. This provides the Box Sync app (for PC or Mac). So, first log into your account at Box.com and click on “My Account” in the menu to see if the syncing option is there.

If it’s not there for you (it wasn’t for me), don’t worry. Apparently new users are getting the feature. If you can get an invite for 50GB free from someone, you can set up a new account and should see the syncing option (You might even be able to send a 50GB invite to yourself from your account—as long as you don’t have a commercial email address like Gmail or Yahoo).

If you don’t have access to another 50GB offer, Slickdeals user BSGjunkie offers this link for 25GB:
https://www.box.com/signup/o/hellosign_25

I set up a new account via that link and now have desktop syncing plus the 25GB storage space (normally free accounts come with just 5GB. Although it does suck to go down from the 50GB promo, syncing may be a fine tradeoff.).

Install the syncing app and then just like Dropbox, Google Drive, and SkyDrive, you’ll have a new folder in your Windows Explorer/Finder for Box Documents. Note that the max file limit is just 100MB.

Because it’s unclear how long this will be available, jump on it now if you’re interested.

Box | via Slickdeals

By (author unknown), Core77 – August 15, 2012 at 01:15PM

The so-called “Invisible Bike Helmet” has been blowing up on the web thanks to a new-ish video about designers Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin, directed by Fredrik Gertten. It’s something of a slow build as the two relate their story for the first 2:30 of the three-minute film, but it’s well worth watching in full. For those of you who don’t know how the Hövding works, we won’t ruin the reveal:

Some seven years in the making, we first got wind of the remarkable, visually-compelling concept back in 2010. To say that it’s a 10 million dollar idea (the amount that Haupt and Alstin have raised) is an understatement. However, at 3,998 kr (just under $600), we hope that the price will eventually drop to motivate widespread adoption. Find out more at Hovding.com.

Amen to that

Invisible helmet-tip to booooooom

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By Eric Reagan, Photography Bay – August 14, 2012 at 08:57AM

onOne has a new collection of Lightroom 4 presets that are available for free download.  You just have to give your name and email and onOne will send you a link to the free download.  Check them out here at onOne’s website.

Copyright/DMCA Notice: The RSS entry was originally published on Photography Bay and is protected by copyright laws. It is unlawful to (a) edit, modify, alter, or create derivative works of the text, content or links supplied by Photography Bay, (b) use any robot, spider, scraper, other device or manual process to monitor or copy any content from the Photography Bay RSS feed, (c) sell, retransmit or commercially exploit the Photography Bay RSS feed, headlines or content in any manner except as expressly permitted in writing by authorized representatives of Photography Bay, (d) incorporate advertising into or the placement of advertising associated with or targeted towards the Photography Bay RSS feed or (e) use the Photography Bay RSS feed for any unlawful purpose or in violation of the rights of others. RSSID#794326

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By Sarah Perez, TechCrunch – August 14, 2012 at 11:00AM

Remember when Google ruined its RSS news reader Google Reader by removing its built-in social features? Back in October, Google announced that it was removing Reader’s friending and following functions as well as its shared link blogs. For a niche crowd of heavy Google Reader users, this news came as a big blow. Like everything Google does these days, the changes came about because of Google+ – specifically, the idea being that Google needs a single social layer across all its products, not standalone communities like those that existed in Reader.

If you’ve been lamenting the loss ever since, there’s a new startup to keep your eye on: Feedspot. Basically, it’s Google Reader with social features and more. You’re welcome,  (niche RSS reading) world.

The current product is still in private alpha (see invites below), so be warned. According to founder Anuj Agarwal, the site is finally ready for a little tire-kicking after over eight months of  heads-down coding. Agarwal also notes that he was specifically inspired to create Feedspot following the TechCrunch post about Google Reader’s sad, sad makeover. (Really, even some of Google Reader’s original creators volunteered to fix the thing.)

“We want to make a perfect social feed reader by understanding exactly how users want it to be,” says Agarwal. “To do that, we are following Eric Ries’ Lean Startup model and are focused on shipping the first minimum viable product to users.” In other words, it’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

Also, to be clear, it’s not a Google Reader clone. If you’re just looking for the old Google Reader made new again, keep looking. Currently, the reader supports up to 5,000 RSS feeds, as well as topics (e.g.  Marissa Mayer, London Olympics) and feeds from your Twitter account. The topic-based feed approach may appeal to those who don’t care about following specific blogs or authors, but rather subject areas of interest. In other words, more mainstream users. However, RSS has failed to catch fire in the mainstream, and those who used “real” RSS feed readers tend to have a pretty specific idea about what feeds need to go in there. Thankfully, for this group, Feedspot has added OPML import. Google Reader exit strategy!

Like ye ol’ GReader, you can follow people, share articles and view your friends’ feed activity (a curated stream of their news). You can also consume the news via a Facebook app if you prefer.

Now, not to get you all excited about where this could be headed, but Agarwal tells us that Feedspot has Ex-Yahoo VP of Consumer Internet products Dr. Larry Cornett on board as a Product or Design Advisor. Cornett previously worked at Apple, eBay and IBM. And, you know, if Marissa Mayer decided to take new Yahoo in the “product” direction, maybe there’s hope for RSS readers yet?

Despite the fact that RSS readers have been losing the fight in the mainstream, where they have long since been replaced with “getting the news from social streams” like Facebook and Twitter. Others prefer reading the news in magazine-style apps like Flipboard. But there are still some companies working on building RSS/news consumption tools for more hardcore users: Feedly, Wavii, Reeder for iOS and Mac does a good job with style, Betaworks just invested in Bloglovin, and YC-backed NewsBlur went back to the basics.

If you count yourself among the precious few who still care about RSS in all its geeky glory, then use the invite code TechCrunch to try Feedspot.

By Frederic Lardinois, TechCrunch – August 14, 2012 at 11:52AM

Google today expanded its search coverage for patents by adding millions of documents from the European Patent Office to Google Patents. Google’s patent search tool went live all the way back in 2006, but only featured U.S. patents until now. In addition, the company also added a “Prior Art Finder” feature to Google Patents that automatically scans the web, Google Patents, Google Scholar and Google Books for key phrases from a patent’s text.

You can insert your own joke about prior art and the ongoing Samsung v. Apple lawsuit here, but this is obviously a pretty useful tool for somebody who is trying to understand how novel a patent really is. In today’s announcement, Google engineering manager Jon Orwant notes that the company hopes that “this tool will give patent searchers another way to discover information relevant to a patent application, supplementing the search techniques they use today.” He also stresses that Google will refine and extend this feature as its engineers and algorithms learn how to better analyze patent claims.

Google and the European Patent Office started working together on a number of projects a while ago. The first result of this cooperation was an improved translation system for patents based on the parallel texts the EU already produces for many of its patents.

In its announcement today, Google also notes that it continues to work with the US Patent & Trademark Office to improve its repository of U.S. patent data and that it will continue to make this data available for bulk download.

By (author unknown), Groklaw – August 14, 2012 at 11:16AM

A Very Short Primer on Design Patents and Trade Dress
by Michael Risch
Associate Professor of Law
Villanova University School of Law

Here is a very short rule-of-thumb primer for Groklaw readers that might focus some of the areas to look for as you follow the Apple v. Samsung litigation:

By (author unknown), Dilbert Daily Strip – August 14, 2012 at 01:00AM

By juanram, MySQL Workbench 5.2.42 – August 13, 2012 at 05:29PM

The MySQL developer tools team announces the availability of version 5.2.42
of the MySQL Workbench GUI tool. This version includes important corrections
over version 5.2.41

For a full list of issues fixed in this release, see  https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/changes-5.2.x.html

Please get your copy from our Downloads site.

Sources and binary packages are available for several platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/workbench/

Workbench Documentation can be found here.

https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/index.html

Utilities Documentation can be found here.
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/mysql-utilities.html

If you need any additional info or help please get in touch with us.

Post in our forums or leave comments on our blog pages.

– The MySQL Workbench Team