Have you ever done a vanity search..you know, Googled yourself. I imagine we all have...I did one today.....no my narcissism has it's limits..it was on "SchmartBoard", not me.
I found many good sites within our 15600 hits. Here are a few on them that I thought were cool:
Enjoy!
Do you drink Starbucks? Are you familiar with the story of Starbucks? In the book "Pour Your Heart Into It", Howard Schultz the CEO tells this great story. I recomemnd the book to anyone who likes the coffee or has an interest in how great businesses are started. In the book, he explains how Chicago became the test market for expansion out of Seattle. Chicagoans were seen a no-nonsense people who might not buy into new trends so easily. As they say, "the rest is history " because Chicago loved and embrace this "high end" coffee and Startbucks has since taken over the world.
I just came back from a short trip to Chicago, my beloved hometown. I had a chance to speak to a number of friends and family about our plans for Solder By Numbers and get input from some non-technical people. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find non-technical people in silicon valley. I was talking to people who were more interested in the series between the Cubs and Sox than in the latest IPO. I left yesterday with a sense similar(but smaller) to what Howard Schultz must have felt after testing his product in Chicago...Optimism!
Now I am back and ready to get back to the Silicon Valley way of thinking about our upcoming launch. But not quite yet. First I'll be in the right field bleachers of the San Francisco Giants game tomorrow night in full Cubs apparel with hundreds of other Chicago transplants. Go Cubs!
So what's the big deal about a new SchmartBoard distributor? Is it worth a blog post and the time of my readers to know that another distributor carries SchmartBoard?...YES
The Curious Inventor first came to my attention a few months ago, due to the great videos posted on the site. In today's market of commidities and price gouging, one has to ad value. I think Curious Inventor has added great value with their videos and other educational tools.
They now have the full line of SchmartBoards available. I expect great things from them. I am happy to have them as what i consider to be a value added distributor. Check them out today.
This weekend, Friday through Sunday to be exact, I was at RoboGames in San Francisco showing off SchmartBoards. My friends at Servo Magazine had asked me if we'd be interested in being there. I certainly wanted the opportunity to show our wares and spend time with the folks at Servo who are very good people...but the idea of spening my weekend at this show was not a happy one. In fact outside of watching the San Jose Sabre Cats(Arena Football) on Saturday night, this was my entire weekend.
I must admit though, that I saw some neat stuff and met some interesting people. One person that I enjoyed speaking to was Chris James who is part of the R2 Builders Club. Here is a photo of me with him(He is on the right). He fabricated this R2D2 robot that was amazing. It did everything that the movie robot did. It took his several years and thousands of dollars. I aksed him why he felt inspred to do it. He did not have to answer, the reason become evident to me very quickly.
There is nothing more warming that seeing the amazement and joy on the faces of children and that is the expression that I watched throughout the weekend as child after child brightened up my day. It was like Christmas morning and I had a front row seat. Chris was camped out by the Servo booth so it was perfect.
I have seen the combat robots on TV. It is cool ...robots tearing each other apart. Banging metal, sparks, smoke and an eventual victor. What red blooded male(and many females) would not enjoy the carnage? It is the combination of technology and sports that makes it so appealing. TV though, does not do it justice. It is thunderous and more exciting in person. Some of these machines were over 300 pounds with a spinning titanium blade. I recommend this event highly..and may find myself back there next year as just a spectator, by choice!
We will be at the RoboGames in San Francisco this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the booth of Servo Magazine. We will be doing a demo of hand soldering SMT parts on SchmartBoard. We'll also have coupons for customers who plan to buy SchmartBoards this month to receive a free magazine subscription to Servo or Nuts and Volts. So if you plan to be at this event..come on by and say hello. I plan to take photos of some of the interesting things at this show, and will share next week.
One of our Partners, Servo Magazine has just asked us to join them at RoBoGames in San Francisco next month. According to their website: 
"RoboGames is the world's largest open robot competition (even the Guinness Book of World Records says so!) We invite the best minds from around the world to compete in over 70 different events. Combat robots, walking humanoids, soccer bots, sumo bots, and even androids that do kung-fu. Some robots are autonomous, some are remote controlled - but they're all cool! As an open event, anyone can compete - this means you. This is the only event in the world that both Geeks and Jocks agree on: The Best Ten North American Geek Fests - Wired Magazine SportCenter's Top Ten - ESPN SportsCenter"
So if you are around San Francisco as a local or visitor take a walk over and see what's happening. We'll be demoing "EZ" soldering and talking about our future plans with Solder By Numbers. It should be fun...or at least interesting!
It is kind of fun to watch how fast the internet spreads information. At the beginning of the month we announced that we were looking for people to beta-test our future social networking site for electronics enthusiasts, Solder By Numbers.
We have since received a lot of interest.(We'd still like more!). Countries that have been represented by prospective Beta Testers include; The US, Canada, France, Israel, New Zealand, Morocco, South Africa, Greece, The Netherlands, UK, India, Brazil, Phillipines, Portugal, Romania, Nicaragua, Argentina, Egypt, Japan, Poland, Australia, Italy, and Turkey.
It is kind of amazing when you think about a small fish like us, getting the word out among the world. Are your from a country not represented, Lichtenstein perhaps? Sign up today and join your fellow Earthinlings.
I had an interesting weekend. I was at the Maker Faire in San Mateo CA all weekend. I was at the booth of Nuts and Volts and Servo Magazines as we co promoted our plans to turn some of the circuits that are published in their magazines into Solder by Numbers. More to be announced on this soon.
I met a lot of people..some pretty normal, some wild, dressed in all manners of head turning garb. I imagine that this is what a Star Trek convention may be like. I'm not criticizing....it's just very new to me! In addition I was able to meet R2D2, and the robot from Lost in Space. It is a very interesting show, and for those in the Bay Area or Austin, TX(the other market that has the faire), I recommend attending.
I also got to speak with some companies who I've been watching that are doing some very neat stuff. Instructables, SparkFun, SolarRobotics were among the attendees who I think have been innovative in their businesses. SchmartBoard will be among these companies with a booth starting next year most likely...But as an FYI, I do not plan to attend in a Chewbacca costume.
We are looking for BetaTesters for a new social network. The social network will be for professionals and enthusiasts in the electronics area. While we can't divulge much about it today, there are a lot of truly unique features that will be introduce. If interested, please sign up at www.solderbynumbers.com. Also, please pass this on to anyone who you think may have interest in this.
Are you social networking? I am on LinkedIn, Facebook, Biznik, Plaxo, Meetup, and I'm sure many others that I have forgotten about. it is hard to keep track! SchmartBoard is working on some of these features for a future website. I have been playing around on many of these sites to learn as much as I can about the features, technologies, and some of the strange things people are willing to do or tell...just a few million of their closest friends. This current revolution may soon dwarf the web 1.0 phenonmenon that we have very recently lived through. With this in mind, I'd like to invite you all to become a fan of our humble SchmartBoard fan page on Facebook. In addition, if you are on LinkedIn and if you feel so inclined, link up with me as a client of SchmartBoard.
Social networking is kind of a paradox when you think about it. It creates a lot more noise in our already crazy tethered internet experience...but at the same time, it allows us to know people that we could not otherwise.
However, you Twitter people, I may never understand though!
