Author: coutinho

By matt buchanan, Gizmodo – November 24, 2010 at 03:59PM

Give Me Something to Read is a fantastic, simple service: It’s a collection of the best articles and essays saved with the iPhone/iPad/Kindle offline-reading service Instapaper. And you should read everything on their best of 2010 list. More »

By Jason, DadCentric – November 24, 2010 at 03:13PM

Indiana Jones teaches you table manners.

By (author unknown), Ars Technica – March 15, 2013 at 11:12PM

By (author unknown), Don’t fret: There’s another mobile RSS reader for you out there yet | Ars Technica – March 15, 2013 at 11:12PM

By Guest Contributor, Digital Photography School – December 10, 2010 at 09:04AM

A Guest post by Mark Hauge from Ana Rita Photography.

When my wife and I decided to take up wedding photography a few years back I had a good idea of how much we would need to learn. I knew reading one book on wedding photography wouldn’t cut it but it was a place to start. I recall the book stating that for weddings you should be in aperture mode so off we went to shoot our first wedding for a friend. After shooting most of the ceremony in aperture mode I quickly realized there was a lot more to it when I saw the soft and blurry images from low shutter speeds due to the low lighting in the church. I knew we had a long ways to go.

As my wife and I have grown in experience over the past few years I have made mental and physical notes of what we have learned in hopes of sharing our insight in with others and to further our learning by going through the process. This is not meant to be a how to guide but instead an overview of tips and techniques that work well for us with our style of wedding photography which is photojournalistic with some minimal posing of subjects.

Camera Settings

Every time we purchase new cameras I set them up knowing they will be used solely for weddings. Here are our preferred settings (we use Canon so your camera may have slightly different names for these settings):

Date/Time: Since both my wife and I shoot during weddings I make sure our cameras have the exact date and times down to the second. Later when we upload the photos to begin editing this makes everything quicker as the photos are in chronological order. There is no easy way to reorder photos in most photo software applications so this is a huge timesaver if you plan on posting the photos online as it simply looks better if everything is in order. It also saves time when you arrange the final wedding album.

Auto Focus Area: Many cameras have sophisticated systems to choose the best focal point for the shot. Our Canon 7D’s have 19 points which can be auto selected by the camera. When shooting weddings, we often find ourselves shooting between close objects to get the shot we want which might cause the camera to choose that object as the focal point. Also in low light it can be difficult for cameras to choose the correct focal point. If the camera chooses the wrong focal point and you need to change it you may have just missed your shot. As such, we set our cameras for single point autofocus and set the focal point to the center point. We then focus using this center focal point by pressing the shutter button half way and then composing our shot. This provides a consistent method for taking shots quickly as you are not composing your shot around varying focal points in the viewfinder and you can easily focus exactly where needed.

AF Servo Mode: This mode selects if the camera will keep a constant focus once you depress the shutter button halfway or if it will refocus if it detects the object is moving. Since many times during the procession subjects may be moving toward or away from you this is a nice feature to leverage which is why we set this to AI Focus mode (Canon). In AI Focus mode the camera will focus on still subjects as normal and notify you that focus has been achieved yet if the subject begins to move it will change to AI Servo mode which will attempt to keep your moving subject in focus until you take the photo.

Drive modes: Most cameras have various shooting speed selections from single shot mode, which is one frame per shutter button depress, to high speed continuous mode, which typically will take anywhere from 4-8 fps depending on the camera’s fastest shooting speed. We set our cameras at low speed continuous for weddings. That way we can take several shots quickly without making too much noise and without taking an excessive amount of photographs which can quickly fill up a memory card and add to your post production time.

Metering Mode: Now that we have focus set to single point we also want to tell the camera to look at the center of the image when setting exposure and this is done by setting the metering mode to center weighted average. The camera then gives higher priority to what is in the middle of the image and less to what is at the edges when it sets exposure. We also set our flashes to meter in the center, since we use flashes mostly for portrait shots, which can typically be done right on the camera when the flash is attached or on the flash itself.

Rear curtain sync: This tells the flash to go off at the end of the exposure as opposed to the beginning. This will make low light shots, such as during dancing, look more realistic as any motion blur will be behind the subject instead of in front of it. This setting can also be made on the camera with the flash attached or on the flash itself.

Highlight Warning: Most cameras will have this setting which will flash areas of the image on the LCD that are blown out in the highlights. This is a must since the last thing you want to do is blow out the bride’s dress causing you to lose all of the detail so we have this set to enabled all of the time. If we take a shot and notice areas of the image are flashing on our LCD screen we know we need to lower our exposure or turn down the flash using the flash exposure compensation setting.

White Balance: We choose to leave this set at auto. As photojournalistic photographers we take lots of photos and are thus moving around too much to be setting white balance continually. White balance settings often change even during a ceremony as the bride and groom move around so we prefer to do our adjustments in post-production using the bride’s dress to set the white balance which gives a consistent and accurate white balance to the images.

Shooting the event

Getting Ready: Typically the day starts off with my wife taking photos of the bride while I do the same with the groom. We always attempt to use existing light sources but find using the flash is often a necessity, especially indoors. During this time we both use diffusers on our flash and angle the flash upright at approximately a 45 degree angle. This gives a nice diffused light source and cuts down on shadows which are easy to come by in small rooms where people are often getting ready. For shooting modes we will use shutter priority mode and set our shutter speed to 1/60 or faster to get nice sharp stills since the subjects tend to be moving around as they prepare for the day. Manual mode is also used if we find ourselves stationary for a period of time to give the photos a more consistent look. Aperture priority may be used for detail shots of the rings, shoes, and other accessories to provide nice bokeh or to increase depth of field as needed. If you are using flash also practice with lowering the camera exposure to darken the background to give your subject more presence.

The Procession: We always attempt to practice this shot ahead of time during the rehearsal if we are in a church we have not been to prior. It’s important to know where to stand which the church’s event planner should instruct you on ahead of time. We always shoot a full length portrait shot keeping in mind the camera should be at about the midway point of the subject. This is a great opportunity to use manual mode since you will take all the procession shots from the same spot. This will give your photos the consistent look you will want if they are going into an album. Again make sure to check that shutter speed is at least 1/60 sec. if not faster. We prefer 1/100 of a second or faster when we know people will be moving. A typical setting for this shot would be 1/100 sec., F4.0, and ISO 400. Keep in mind there may be a wall behind your subjects so this a shot where you will want to use a flash bracket to keep the flash over your camera so as to minimize shadows showing on the back wall of the church. Again we typically have a flash diffuser on our flash keeping in mind they are not effective much past 10 feet so if the shot is longer than that we will remove the diffuser.

The Ceremony: This is the time to be creative but aware of lighting conditions. Since we move around a lot we will typically put our cameras in shutter priority mode to prevent low shutter speeds which might cause blur. We typically set the camera to 1/60 or 1/80 of a second depending on available light but we will go lower if needed so as to not go above ISO 1600 keeping noise at a minimum. Often we find our aperture maxed out at F2.8 which is fine by us. The depth of field at F2.8 is typically more than enough to have both the bride and groom in focus with a minimal amount of bokeh which always looks great. ISO may go up to 1600 or 3200 in some situations for which later use software such as Imagenomic’s Noiseware to remove the noise during post processing. Having a zoom lens is important to get in close from the back of the church (see below).

The Portraits

For the formal portraits after the ceremony we always use a tripod and set the camera to manual mode. The tripod helps maximizes sharpness of the photo and make it easier to move around to pose and direct. For indoor weddings we almost always use a flash. A typical setting for the portraits would be: 1/60 second shutter speed, F5.6 (or higher you need more light), and ISO 400. Keep in mind you are setting the exposure for the background so one thing we always think about is how much of the background do we really want to see? If it’s a beautiful background we may set the exposure to normal. If the background has nothing going for it we may set the exposure down to -2 stops to darken it a bit and make your subjects stand out more. This is done by raising the shutter speed. It’s certainly personal preference and we always take some test shots to verify the look we want. We use our flash in TTL mode and take it off camera using a sync cord or wireless. Our entire setup time is just a few minutes and we do not typically use a light meter. Remember, when using a flash, exposure becomes your friend, just like bokeh, to handle difficult backgrounds. In the shot below we used a -1 stop exposure to darken the background since the colors in it were a bit rich could be overpowering to the subject if not subdued.

The Reception

Here we will set our cameras back to shutter speed mode so we can take candid shots quickly without the need to change settings. If the reception is outdoors we may use aperture priority mode since available light is plentiful so we can choose the depth of field. Any outdoor portraits of the bride and groom would also be taken in aperture mode with the flash turned on for fill flash if needed. Flash exposure may need to be set to -1 or lower to make the flash blend nicely which we always verify on the LCD. Aperture settings would be F4.0 or lower for more depth of field if we wanted to show the background otherwise we might raise aperture to blur the background to draw more focus to our subjects.

Cake cutting and toasts is another time when a flash bracket is handy as often the couple will be standing near walls so keeping the flash over the camera for these portrait shots is essential. If you don’t have a flash bracket you are better off taking the shot in landscape and then making it a portrait image during post processing to help minimize shadows.

Finally for the dance we continue to take flash photos with our diffusers attached bouncing the light off the ceiling when possible. If we need more light we take off the flash diffusers. We also will lower our shutter speeds down to 1/10 sec. or lower to bring in more background light. This works fine since the flash freezes the motion of your subjects so blur is limited and it keeps the background from being overly dark with no detail.

Reception photos are a great time to experiment with different settings on your camera and trying out new ideas. We often will get on chairs to try a different perspective or you can also utilize live mode, if your camera has it, to take the shot leveraging the back LCD monitor which allows you to raise the camera above the action and still see your composition.

Final Thoughts

If someone asked me how to do a wedding and I had thirty seconds to respond I would advise them to use aperture priority mode outdoors, shutter priority mode indoors, and use manual mode for portraits leveraging a tripod and flash. While this is certainly no catch all advice it certainly has helped us to have a high level game plan in place which we then can build from as our experience grows. The worst feeling is getting into a situation where you aren’t ready to take the shot when it occurs so these basics are our failsafe. Over time I have come to enjoy using manual mode because in addition to giving the images a consistent look, it slows you down and makes you “think” more about your composition and your camera settings before you press the button.

I’m sure our techniques will continue to evolve over time. It’s that continual learning process which makes photography so rewarding for us. Each and every wedding we do prepares us for the next and this evolution will be your best learning tool and confidence builder as it has been for us.

Mark & Ana are an energetic husband and wife team specializing in wedding photography in Atlanta, GA.

Post from: Digital Photography School

By Guest Contributor, Digital Photography School – December 09, 2010 at 02:59PM

A Guest post on conference photography by Paul von Schwarzenfeld.

I love conferences. There’s always a lot of people mingling and networking, some interesting speakers and everything goes according to a fixed agenda — even the coffee breaks! There are no surprises and the stress levels are low, so long as you’ve done a good job preparing yourself for the event.

All the rules of photography apply to conferences as well. Assuming you already have some knowledge about them, I’d like to add some hopefully helpful but certainly not complete tips.

1. Define the job

If you’re photographing the conference as a professional photographer, both yourself and the client should sign a contract that clarifies the way pictures are delivered, delineates the copyright situation, and last but not least, limits your liability as a photographer.

Keep in mind that the copyright demands on this kind of job might be different from those on other jobs because the conference organizer likely needs to publish the pictures online, and if they’re unable to do that, the shots may be worthless to them.

Also, forget about any price model including prints. They will never, ever need prints. The only prints that will be made out of your conference pictures will be found in the next year’s program, or other marketing material that will be printed by them or their designer. So shape your pricing model around a DVD delivery.

Don’t rely on your client reading the fine print of your contract. Even if your contract allows you to, discuss with them whether you can publish the conference pictures on your website or not. Sometimes the client won’t have a problem with that—they would probably even appreciate it because you’re doing additional marketing for their project. But they may want to limit the distribution of the images, so be careful to talk to your client beforehand about publishing the pictures you’re about to take.

Also, get ready for guests and speakers approaching you with the question: “Where can I see the pictures later? Do you have a business card?” Again, a clarification with your client will help you give a confident answer—or any answer at all.

2. Bring a fast lens

Nothing is certain but death, taxes, and bad lighting at conference venues. I don’t want to discourage anybody who’s planning to work with a point-and-shoot camera, but if you want to have some quality shots at the end of the day, bring a SLR which can produce acceptable photos at ISO 1600, and an 85mm f1.8 lens. I wouldn’t dare to set a period at the end of this statement, but you can photograph a whole conference with two lenses: an 18-(…)mm f2.8 to capture some wide-angle frames of the venue, mingling crowds, and group shots, and the 85mm for the rest. A pricy but ideal combination would be a full frame SLR that can work with ISO 3200, and a 70-200mm f2.8 plus a wide-angle lens.

Bring your flash with you, but most likely you won’t use it. Ceilings are high, direct flash is a bad idea, and the speaker and audience may easy be bothered by you strobe-lighting the keynote.

I stopped using shoulder bags in favor of a lens-belt system that’s based on a simple waist bag (that accommodates batteries, memory, business cards, and one lens) with one or two belt lens cases. ?

It’s a $25 combination that doesn’t drag me down or hook me up with armrests.

A tripod is great for group shots, but it’s not a must-have, and a monopod can be helpful. Maybe you can leave some gear in the car or at the conference registration table. Go light-weight, since you’ll probably be stuck with that gear for a very long time.

3. Know the agenda

As soon as I’m booked for a conference, the website goes to my browser favorites. At the night before, I sneak over the agenda to check for changes and to prepare myself for the day. How many panels do they have? How many keynotes? How long is the job and how long do my batteries/memory cards have to last? I count on at least 50 pictures per panel and keynote. What’s the parking situation and how long does it take me to get there? When there is parking close by I can leave some stuff like my tripod in the car when it’s accessible within five minutes’ walk from the venue. Valet parking is a problem for that.

Arrive on time and grab an agenda or program from the registration table. It’s much more relaxed when you’re aware of the agenda and have a watch on hand. You don’t need to stay in the conference room all the time, but don’t miss any program points, and be back for the Q&A sessions.

Take a look at the program, specifically at the faces of the speakers and panelists. You don’t want to miss a picture of the CEO meeting another VIP at the coffee table because you don’t know what he looks like. Also, having some idea of what the conference is about could be helpful.

4. Don’t bother the guests

It’s a thin line: they conference-holders want you to take great pictures of the speaker, but they don’t want you to block the guests’ views or machine-gun people with your camera.

Some people talk and move themselves in a way that ensures every shot you take of them is great. Unfortunately these people are rare. Most of the speakers will have weird expressions on their faces, mouths that look bizarre when they’re snapped mid-sentence, and will make fast movements that blur in every single one of your shots. Some of the worst ones will constantly stare at their notes and only look up to the audience (and your camera) for half a second at the most!
?My only recipe for not machine-gun-shooting the speaker, but still getting some great shots, is to instinctively wait for the right moment (observe how the speaker moves – they’ll behave and move repetitively), make a single click, and check the display before making another shot. If you make a click every 10-15 seconds, people will not perceive this as too disturbing.

Speaking of disturbing: never stand in front of the guests or a video camera. If there is a camera, the videographer will love you for that, and the guests will feel more comfortable.

Remember: you’re not capturing a golden memory, you’re just another service person delivering … lunch … coffee … no: pictures. The guests or their companies paid a lot of money to attend the conference and to listen to whatever the person on the stage has to say. Keep that in mind. They are paying you to take pictures but they expect you to be as unobtrusive as possible.

The good news is: there’s no need to hurry. You have a lot of time to take the shots, since the speaker will be up there for at least 15 or 30 minutes.

5. Change your point of view

The speaker won’t run away. But you can move around and get some great shots from different perspectives.

Sit down on the floor in front of the stage, take a seat in the front row, take pictures from the back including some guests, take the same with a wide-angle lens including a lot of guests, walk around and make pictures from the side.

You are shooting marketing material so stop thinking exclusively like a photographer, and start thinking like a designer. How would you like to crop this guy into the next year’s website? Or into the conference report? Take a full-body picture from the front, the side, and maybe from behind. Take a landscape and a portrait picture, a close-up, and one from very far away. Include the conference logo if possible and make one with an interesting bullet point on the presentation screen in the background. Don’t leave out any possible perspective.

Try to make every image look full. Nobody wants pictures of empty seats.

6. Take the must-have shots

At the end of the day, you want to go home with a story on your memory card. Shooting all the different angles of the keynote speaker alone is not going to cut it.

Make sure you talk to your client before the event, though. If they just want to have pictures of the one VIP speaker, forget about this part and save your shutter some actuations.

Assuming the client wants more than this, you have some serious work to do. Your photographic story starts at the registration table: guests getting the program and their nametags. They’re reading the program and getting coffee at the breakfast bar. Then the first speaker is talking. Take pictures of the guests listening, and wait for them to clap – that’s a great picture.

When it’s time for the Q&A session, get shots of the guests with the microphone asking questions, and of the speaker answering them. At the coffee break, take pictures of people mingling. Use your 85mm to get in close without being noticed. Then, in a panel, don’t forget to shoot a single panelist — capture them all, and get shots while they’re talking. What’s going on in the audience? Are there any crazy laptop stickers, fancy devices, or people making notes? Is the VIP keynote speaker already sitting in the audience? Try to capture everything that you would observe as a guest sitting in this room for a couple of hours.

Also, look at what’s going on outside: is there anything that needs to be documented? Did you take a picture of the programs being lined up on a table and that display the main sponsor put up in the foyer??At lunch, don’t take pictures of people chewing, but do try to make some shots of the food.

The rest of the day will continue in the same vein, but try to squeeze out new aspects of every network coffee break of the day, and don’t forget a single speaker.

Later, there may probably be time for group pictures of the conference organization team. Maybe you should address that, but sometimes the client isn’t interested, or they simply forget about it. I try to remind them that a group picture would be a great memory, but I don’t push it that hard, because at that point, they usually have other things in mind than pictures.

7. Process fast

Remember, you’re producing marketing material. And that gets old very fast. So be faster and try to get the selection ready within 48 hours. These guys are not a wedding couple waiting for their lifetime memories — they want to post the shots on their website now! Taking fewer pictures and deleting some of the bad ones from your camera might help to speed things up afterwards.

Forget about black and white pictures, HDR, crazy colors, or any artistic experiments. You’re not producing art, you’re producing marketing material.

Sort out the pictures. A happy couple might be excited to sneak through hundreds of their pictures on a DVD, but a marketing rep from the company that held the conference is definitely not. I find a good practice is to hand out a master collection with not more than 300 pictures (for an eight-hour conference), plus a selection of the best 125, plus the very best 75 pictures. Each image is provided in low, medium, and high resolutions.

Be a service person. It’s hard to get into the conference business because every organizer will probably be thinking of hiring last year’s photographer again. But not always.

From my experience—I once organized a conference—I can give you a pretty bad example. I was creating the website for a conference, and we’d Iost the photo DVD. So I asked the last year’s photographer if he could send me a copy of the pictures again. He responded more than a week later, and charged $125 for burning and shipping the DVD to me. Guess what? He got the $125 but was never ever hired again.

Paul von Schwarzenfeld is a wedding and conference photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
www.schwarzenfeldphotography.com

Post from: Digital Photography School

By Justin Pot, MakeUseOf – December 09, 2010 at 02:31PM

With access to millions of books and compatibility with a wide variety of devices, Google’s new book store is certainly going to be a powerful force in the publishing industry. Even better, it provides easy access to beautifully rendered public domain books free of charge. Get yourself a quality collection of classic literature free from Google.

Google’s entry into the ebook store business will undoubtedly be controversial, but one thing is clear: their collection of public domain ebooks is without rival in terms of volume and quality. Best of all, with the help of Calibre, you can read these books on practically any device – even the seemingly unsupported Amazon Kindle.

Sadly, it seems that right now none of these offerings work outside of the United States. You could try using a proxy to bypass this with various proxy services, if you want, but the sad truth is that Google isn’t officially opening this service up to everyone quite yet.

Finding Free Books

For those of us in America, though, Google’s book store appears to be just another book store at first glance. There’s the usual collection of New York Times Bestsellers, and many books for sale.

Keep scrolling down, however, and you’ll see this section:

This is the paydirt. Here you can get access to Google’s 3 million public domain titles. You can browse by simply going through the free titles here, or you can search for any work that is in the public domain. Any book without a price beneath it, you can assume, is free.

Once you find a book you like you can read the book online. Google offers a simple but very useful web-based ebook reader:

This elegant interface gives you a great way to read these public domain books, particularly if you set your browser for full-screen. The arrow keys behave as you’d expect them to, turning the pages, and you can quickly access the table on contents or search the text. Best of all, it’s tied to your Google account, meaning you can switch computers and keep reading from where you left off, without having to install anything.

Supported Devices

But for those of us with access to a dedicated ebook reader this has no appeal at all. We want to read these books on our readers, of course. This isn’t a problem. Users of the iPad, iPhone and Android devices will be happy to know that dedicated apps for reading these books exist. There’s also official instructions for the Nook and Sony Readers.

Beyond this, Google is offering support to any device that can work with Adobe Digital Editions, including my beloved Kobo. If you’re wondering whether your device can access these books, check out this handy list from Adobe and see if your device is there.

Note that you only need to use Adobe’s software for purchased books, however. All of Google’s ebooks are completely free of DRM, meaning you can easily put them onto any ebook reader supported by Calire, the best ebook management software. This includes all of the above-mentioned devices, and the Kindle (which is specifically not supported by Google).

Using Google EPUBS With Calibre

So how do we download these unprotected books, so we can transfer them to Calibre? Easily. On any book’s summary page, you’ll see this blue box:

Instead of clicking “Read Now,” click “Read on your device“. This will bring you to a page of various options. Scroll down until you see these options:

I highly recommend you select “EPUB”, as this format is custom-made to work well with almost every ebook reader on the market (except the Kindle, which doesn’t support it, though you can use Calibre to convert it). Once you’ve downloaded the EPUB all you need to do is add the book to your Calibre library and then use Calibre to send it to your device.

Conclusion

You’ll be glad you did. Google’s EPUB files are wonderfully rendered, and far less cumbersome to read than the ones provided by Project Gutenburg–at least, that’s the case in my experience. I’m going to be using Google for all my public domain EPUB downloads from now on.

What do you think about Google ebooks? Do you enjoy this free service from Google, or do you prefer to use other sites to get free ebooks? Let me know in the comments below.

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By Ryan Dube, MakeUseOf – December 09, 2010 at 01:31PM

If there’s anything that annoys me about being at work for eight to nine hours every day, it’s the strict lockdown on the Internet. While I certainly don’t envy the job of the network administrators tasked with the job of filtering and policing Internet use, it seems that the level of filtering varies significantly from company to company.

One thing that should be said is that the network security team at any company has a pretty tough job – they have to protect internal IT resources from a myriad of external and internal threats. However, some security groups clamp down everything so tight that you’re lucky if you can get through the Internet firewall at all.

While this is perfectly fine during the workday, during your lunch break when you’re taking a moment to relax, it would be nice have a few places to visit that are interesting and fun. You could follow Ben’s tips and try to bypass the filter.  That might get you in trouble, so maybe finding appropriate sites for work is a better alternative.

10 Safe For Work Websites

The following ten websites are some of the coolest places I found to just unwind for half an hour while eating lunch. Aibek offered a list of cool websites to procrastinate at work. While reading tech sites and news is awesome – it can get old after a while. Sometimes you just just need a good laugh to unwind.

The first website is one of those places you’d want to visit if you’ve just suffered through a meeting run by those types of people that are insufferably “inspirational.” They talk about passion, drive and perseverance like an Army drill sergeant talks about duty and honor. When you’re through with the meeting, visit Despair.com.

One of my favorites is the one for “Customer Care” that reads, “If we really cared for the customer we’d send them somewhere better.”

Another website that an MUO reader mentioned in the comments area of my Bizarre Websites article was People of Walmart. This website has been gaining in popularity quite a bit in the past few years.

Mostly all content here is PG and accepted by most corporate filters. So enjoy a grin or two at the expense of others!

Now, for those of you that feel the workday can get you stressed out and down – a useful site to visit during your break is Things are Good. Here, you can read about positive news and things that are, quite simply, good.

Read about kind things people have done in the world. Things that will just make you feel good about the world, even in the midst of a really hard day at work.

Don’t feel like reading – but would rather play games? Check out Free Rice, a highly addictive English vocabulary game where you need to answer various questions that increase in difficulty in each level.

For each correct answer, Free Rice will donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme. Have fun and help the world at the same time during your 30 minute lunch. How cool is that?

If you’re the type of person that loves to travel, and you feel confined to your office – try visiting EarthCam.

Earthcam is an impressive collection of webcams around the world that let you travel from the comfort of your desk. Check out Times Square, Aquariums, Monuments and much more.

Next up is Passive Aggressive notes. This is a blog with frequent updates featuring…well…passive aggressive notes. I visit this one often. Being rather passive aggressive myself, I think I get a little too much enjoyment out of these posts!

Another great safe-for-work site that is well suited to read in an office environment is a website called Overheard in the Office.

This is an absolutely hilarious site where visitors submit real-world conversations they’ve either had or overheard where they work. Trust me, some of these will have you doubled over in pain from laughing.

Another one for those of you that enjoy traveling or exploring different places is Walk Score.

This is a really interesting online resource that lets you type in any address and find out how appealing that city or town is to people that prefer walking. Any score over 90 is a place you could live without really owning a car.

One of my favorite sites to visit on those days where I just want to let my mind wander is Magnetic Poetry.

You can play an online version of the real-world magnetic poetry kit. This is a great “zen” like activity for those days when you’re feeling particularly harried at work.

Finally, I’ve saved one of my favorites for last. It isn’t always easy to find funny photo gallery sites through the company firewall, but no need to worry, Awkward Family Photos will give you some of the biggest laughs you’ve ever had.

Hopefully, these ten websites provide you with plenty of material that you can bookmark for a little bit of lunchtime relaxation and fun. Work can be stressful sometimes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take a break every now and then to sit back and enjoy a laugh or two.

Do you have any other fun safe-for-work websites that would make it through pretty much any firewall? Share your own suggestions in the comments section below!

Image credit: Stephen Davies

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By Angela Shupe, Business Opportunities Weblog – December 09, 2010 at 12:46PM

Inventing might start with a good idea, but the real work comes when you turn that idea into something that can be used. The process, which can be very complicated, is sometimes enough to stop a really good idea from going anywhere. Now there is a web service that can help inventors turn those ideas into something real.

NventNode is a web-based software that helps inventors “invent, research, develop, & market” their product. Anyone that was once wary of getting started can now do so with ease. New inventors are able to learn about the inventing process, manage development, and collaborate. Furthermore, this unique product is the only invention management software of its kind.

I recently had the opportunity to ask the inventor of NventNode, Brian Gates, about his service and what it can do. Read on and you’ll also find a special discount code just for you!

Tell us a little about the NventNode.

NventNode is the first and only software service created for inventors and entrepreneurs to help manage their product development. The software is designed to guide the user through every phase of development by providing tools and resources to aid in completing each task. Users of the software will benefit from an improved understanding of the development process and have better managed products, resulting in shorter development timelines with significantly increased potential for success.

What inspired it?

NventNode was inspired by my experiences in working with entrepreneurs and inventors to bring their products to market. During those experiences I began to see a trend that those who had an understanding of the process and a means by which to manage the process had greater success. Realizing that, NventNode was created to provide a step by step road map for successful development while providing a wealth of knowledge in easy to understand segments. This solves two major problems an entrepreneur or inventor will face, understanding the development process and being able to manage all the moving parts.

How does it work?

NventNode works by allowing a user to be guided through every step of the product development process. The first step involves documenting the original concept and capturing the problem to be solved. Once the idea has been recorded the user is then asked to determine the end goal of their development, licensing or business development. Based on the selected goal, a road map is provided, with clear milestones to be achieved. NventNode will provide the user with the tools to identify, collect and share information throughout the entire process. Users are able to research competitors, perform patent searches, conduct focus groups, manage design development and generate a provisional patent application all through NventNode. In addition, users can assemble a team and assign each team member a task or safely share information with other professionals in a confidential environment.

What are some goals that you hope to accomplish over the next year or so?

Our goal is to provide entrepreneurs and inventors with the tools to bring their products to market on an unparalleled scale. Our software service is designed to empower the user and we are excited to see what entrepreneurs can do with it when given the tools to succeed. I would love nothing better than to have the next great product come from an NventNode user.

What separates the NventNode from the competition?

NventNode is very much an industry game changer. As the only complete software solution available to entrepreneurs and inventors, we intend to completely change how products are developed. We have seen attempts from other companies who focus on one single aspect of development and fall short in providing a simple to use interface. NventNode offers a single solution for managing the entire development process while being able to collaborate with your own team.

How long did it take for you to build the NventNode into what it is today? What was that process like?

NventNode has taken years of development to define exactly what steps should be taken and how best to present those to the end user so that they can quickly grasp the concept. During our development, we have gone through many different iterations of the site, each time testing the basis for our steps, methods for presenting those steps and identifying the tools which provide the most value to the user.

If you could go back in time, is there anything you would have done differently?

At this point we are very satisfied with the service and believe it provides a great foundation that we can continue to build upon. Ultimately our user base will determine which tools provide the most value and where we need to continue refinement. So far we have received excellent feedback from users and industry insiders.

The great thing about web based software is that we can continue to add value to our clients by refining or adding new features instantly to all users.

What are some lessons your business has taught you?

Perseverance. We live in a world where we expect things to happen instantly or at least relatively quickly. The long process for developing this software seemed daunting at times with no end in sight but the time spent refining the idea has provided a service which will change how people bring products to market.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

To thank Business Opportunities Weblog we would like to provide your readers with a discount code. Enter “invent” to receive $5 off the monthly price or $15 off the quarterly price. Visit www.nventnode.com to begin bringing your ideas to life.

Do you have any advice that you’d like to offer fellow entrepreneurs that are just getting started?

Having a great idea is a start but the trick is being able to prove you have a great idea. Spend the time to research competitors, research patents and prove there is a market for your product. By having research to back up your claims, you not only present a more compelling solution but have the foundation to develop a strong product. This research will be extremely valuable throughout the entire development process and is critical to success.

By Brian Barrett, Gizmodo – December 09, 2010 at 09:40AM

Let’s say you’ve got a kickass sled and plenty of snow, but no nearby hills to plummet down. Are you thinking what this guy’s thinking, and tying your sled to the back of a fast-moving train? Please don’t! More »