gofer articles

The NEMO Equipment tent is the flagship product category of NEMO Equipment, an outdoors business specializing in high-level design and engineering. The business was started by Cam Brensinger while still in school, and was moved after his graduation to its present location between New Hampshire’s gorgeous White Mountains and RISD and MIT, the Rhode Island School of Design and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

From the very beginning, the NEMO Equipment tent was destined to put the new business on the map, targeted as it was to bring significant innovation to the industry. Early concepts explored the possibility of creating an entire tent from one compound beam rather than sewing them together.

Once successfully developed, the business began hiring its first employees. Its expertise in the field even allowed it to offer consultation on human habitats for lunar and martian exploration! And so, with its credibility thus established, the organization branched out beyond the original NEMO Equipment tent to research other designs for an increasingly diverse market of outdoorsmen and women.

The spirit of extreme sports had by then taken hold of campers, hikers, climbers, and trekkers alike, and so the AST range of products designed for extreme situations was unveiled. Industry accolades poured in right alongside increased sales, and no less than U.S. Navy Seals have endorsed NEMO products for real-world use that’s reliable like no other.

Most recently, NEMO Equipment has been exploring greener products, work that has resulted in the first-ever nearly hundred percent recycled tent, with poles made of bamboo. Product lines have expanded to offer tent accessories and even fan gear, in response to the company’s dedicated following!

In fact, the company is staffed with individuals whose pastimes often incorporate company products. Being avid outdoorsmen and women themselves has surely lent the business invaluable marketing insight.

The serial entrepreneur is a special breed of a special breed. Take Zalman Silber, for example. Already a President’s Club member at famed New York Life Insurance Company, he hit upon the idea of a “ride” located at the Empire State Building. After all, what do tourists pay for if not to get a bird’s-eye view of the city from there? So why not provide them the Skyride, an attraction that is as enticingly named as it is misleadingly so, a tourist trap of an attraction as any to be found in the backwoods of a small hick town, just that it’s right there in the Big Apple itself! And it’s nothing more than a half-hour movie, some of which is made up of helicopter flybys over city landmarks. Whoopee.

But it’s wildly successful, and from such success he has founded other successes. And that’s just what a serial entrepreneur is. But a new breed of serial entrepreneur has come on the scene. No Zalman Silber peddler of old-economy businesses, these young men and women are as much technicians as they are visionaries. That is to say, they harken back the age of a Thomas Edison, when businessmen actually built the things they sold. And one of the most outrageously incredible startups has been the most recent effort from serial techpreneur Seth Priebatsch (who founded his first company at age nine and has pocketed enough from other ventures to get this latest off and running), based on his idea of “the game layer.” This is…well, it’s hard to explain. Best get a cup of coffee started.

Like most of this generation, Priebatsch really likes to play videogames. It is almost certain he has tried his hand at constructing some of his own, given that he also appears to have a certain level of programming skill. But no videogame can possibly compare with the thrill of creating a business – one that is successful. And that is what propels the serial entrepreneur. The thrill of the chase.

And here’s where it all ties in to Priebatsch’s Big Idea: the game layer. It’s a kind of platform whereby just about any task can be turned into a game – and with very tangible rewards. In programming terms, it would be a little like an API, or Application Programming Interface, a set of pre-made ready-to-serve software that makes programming that much easier. A bit like a template, if you will, though greatly more open-ended and customizable.

Well, Priebatsch’s game layer is a platform upon which a business, say the local bakery, can reward you for achieving certain goals in a game. Yeah, really! The game allows players to compete for rewards at stores, gyms, museums, and so forth.

Nice idea – except that “game” doesn’t necessarily mean “videogame.” A game could be anything. Frequent flier mileage is a kind of game, according to Priebatsch’s take on things. It’s just not particularly fun.

He aims to change all that, in the process introducing a “game layer” to the world.

When to sell your company is one of the most important challenges facing a serial entrepreneur. Serial entrepreneurs are people who enjoy starting up a enterprise more than anything else. They are like serial daters, who enjoy “the chase” above and beyond any other aspect of a relationship.

So too the serial entrepreneur, who, once the company is really established – once money is steadily flowing in at a good amount, once staff has been hired and all plans worked out – once there is, in a extremely crucial sense, nothing more for them to do, starts itching to relieve the thrill of the hunt all over again.

Thus the popularity of “when to sell your company” advice in the business literature, though such ideas appeal to any businessman or woman who does not merely wish to run his or her own business but actually retire by selling a wildly successful company.

After all, many people who go into business for themselves are truly not looking to merely “be their own boss,” as the popular phrase has it. No; numerous such people go into business so that they can be financially independent – that is to say, retire, if they so choose.

What’s the point of trading in one boss for another, even if you’re your own boss? What numerous entrepreneurs want is to strike it rich, so that they don’t have to work if they so choose. Therefore, knowing when to sell your company is an essential skillset in itself, like a professional gambler who knows when to call it a night and keep his winnings.

Sell too early, and your business could go on to be worth even a lot more, making for a sort of opportunity cost. Sell too late and your business could be worth less than you could have earned, making for yet another sort of opportunity cost!

Mention marble sculpture and chances are that and most people think about such examples as Michelangelo’s David or Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. But there is more to marble artwork than that. Obviously, no one denies that Italian marble statues are some of the very best examples of the material ever made, but there is much more to working with the “crystalline rock” (its etymology via the ancient Greeks, masters of the material themselves) than what is widely imagined.

Modern examples abound, in which marble is pushed to the limits. But for some people, the most majestic examples of marble sculpture are those Mother Nature herself has so lovingly crafted over untold eons of patient chiseling and polishing.

For who has not caught his or her breath on the startling simplicity of stalacites and stalagmites? Arising out of the coolness of the dark, or silently suspended off the cavern ceiling, these unmetamorphosed limestone may indeed be what first inspired humankind to chisel and polish.

Or consider such folded and weathered examples as stud the shorelines of lakes, rivers, and oceans. Why do folks not usually consider such works in contemplations of marble? Nature is certainly full of beauty, had we but eyes to see.

Of course, human masterpieces are perhaps infinitely more versatile, whereas even essentially the most astounding of natural wonders can only come about as the result of the same eternal forces which, after several hundred millennia, prove to be of a limited repertoire.

But the point is clear; marble has been worked on by a lot more than just man, and, for that matter, more than Greeks and Romans and Italians! Marble is discovered not only in statue form, but some of its greatest achievements has been as buildings, for instance, the incredible Taj Mahal in Agra, India. Next ye think of marble, then, think of everything!

What would your own dream estate look like? Would there be Italian marble statues in the garden? A big long driveway leading up to the front entrance? Mighty oaks and tall pine trees all around?

Sure it can be fun to dream, but most of us will never get the chance to find out for sure. We could still buy our Italian marble statues, of course, but they just wouldn’t be the same without acres and acres of land to go with them! So just what is it that can make multi-millionaires and billionaires out of some while most others live relatively normal lives?

It really is an old question, and even in this age of scientific marvels no one knows for sure. A lot of the self-made feel, whether publicly or only privately, that they on their own are practically entirely responsible for their own good fortune. But notice that the very word itself, “fortune,” underlines the lucky, entirely coincidental nature of wealth.

While one still has to work, and usually very hard, to earn such great fortunes, there are many who work just as hard and get no such rewards. However because there is really nothing to be said about luck, which is often amenable to improvement through conscious actions, the conversation can only involve those issues which can be directly affected, creating in the long run the false impression that everything or just about everything is due to skill, intelligence, and perseverance.

The greatest part of the issue is semantic. Exactly what do we mean by luck? Just what do we mean by success? Ultimately, it has to do with free will. What is free will? What is the self? Against such perennial philosophical puzzles, obtaining your fancy estate and all the marble sculptures to go with it should be a walk in the park (or across your own estate!) by comparison.

Various ships of the New York City Staten Island Ferry service offer various kinds of boat seats. Some designs enable you to lay down flat almost as comfortably as on any other hard bench, while other kinds feature seats with what is supposed to be an ergonomic curvature that makes them unsuitable for laying down on.

Most times of the day, of course, a ferry’s boat seats wouldn’t be available for such a use anyway, seeing how loaded New York rush-hours can be, even for transportation to the so-called “forgotten borough” of Staten Island.

Other times, however, particularly on the weekends, seating is plentiful and many a commuter takes to them as to a bed, almost. You can be certain it’s a commuter, one who habitually travels on the ferry, because tourists are otherwise too busy oohing and ahhing over the sights.

After all, viewing Lady Liberty from the confines of ferry boat seats – none next to the windows face out – is nothing in comparison against leaning over the railing at her. And who wants to take pictures with the most famous statue in all of the United States from behind a glass window, anyway?

No, if you’ve come this far, well over a mile from the harbor of downtown Manhattan Island, you will experience her the way countless immigrants have, in passing in the open air, you are actually heading in the opposite direction, away from the city, in common with countless soldiers spanning two world wars.

Other differences exist, too, between the various ships employed by the Staten Island ferry service. Some offer a second storey observation deck of sorts, while others can transport cars as well. However, since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, vehicles have not been allowed on the ferry.

The most effective in educational toys throughout the 1980s was surely the personal computer. Likely unknown to most parents at the time, personal computers were poised to completely take over the world in another ten years, and having one in the house could give one’s child a headstart on the brave new world of tomorrow.

Actually, it has so transpired that most of today’s positions in information technology are indeed staffed by individuals whose early fascination with personal computers has now lead to careers creating software, setting up hardware, or managing networks.

Unfortunately in the case of many others, however, such educational toys became nothing more than a home arcade. However, the scope of genres offered encompassed more than just simple shoot-’em-ups, and entertainment by itself was but one category among others like productivity (accounting software like VisiCalc) and art (greeting card makers like The Print Shop), but for the many kids who owned a computer during the eighties, it was all about games, games, games.

What a lost opportunity, if there ever was one! It was a great tragedy, too, for the parents who in all earnesty thought that they were buying educational toys, for personal computers were not cheap back then!

Even the popular Commodore 64, with a floppy disk drive, monitor, and printer, ran about nine hundred dollars – at a time when pizza was less than a buck a slice and most comic books no more than seventy-five cents!

That’s more than fifteen hundred dollars in today’s money, adjusting for inflation; that’s a lot for a CPU, monitor, and printer. That’s a lot for a glorified gaming console. The computer is the most fascinating example of an “educational toy” ever in history. It’s the only educational toy that is truly both, and yet could very easily be used exclusively as just one or the other.

If wines should go with a dinner to make it complete, then wine racks must go with a wine for that exact same reasons. For a bottle of wine in the cupboard or on a shelf, while adequate, seems something of an opportunity missed, an opportunity for excellence.

Indeed, if one is such a gourmand as to care about serving fine wine with a meal, then one should not begrudge the additional expense of wine racks appropriate for one’s collection.

People who serve wine will surely have a lot more than one or two bottles on hand, and because it’s important to do something properly, all the way, if it is to be done at all, it is essential to store these precious bottles in the time-honored way, as befits their status at the table.

That’s where many go wrong, introducing an element of kitsch into an otherwise good faith attempt at an elegant evening. They pull a bottle out of the fridge instead of a proper wine chiller. Or they serve it warm, straight out of the cupboard – they could have used a proper rack, at least.

Besides, wine racks lend an air of elegance to almost any setting, above and beyond what they do for the wine itself. Fine racks are available in a wide range of designs bearing any variety of construction, from fluid cast iron shapes to hand crafted wooden forms.

They’re important accessories for the true connoisseur. Though the word “accessories” usually refers to that which isn’t vital but only improve, a wine rack completes the experience as much as properly serving a bottle does. A rack is to a bottle what candlelight is to the dinner: one might as well dine in the jungle naked, then, over poor roots and berries in the dark and damp!

Article marketing is really a form of promotion that uses a “soft sell” approach to generating publicity. Instead of outright ballyhooing a product or service, article marketing mentions it in passing, casually and often briefly at that.

In this way, the prospective customer’s likely well-developed resistances against being pitched to, being sold to, may possibly be overcome – or, more to the point, entirely avoided, for the resistance never has the chance, a cause, to be raised in the first place.

That’s how article marketing works, by appearing to be something other than a sales pitch. And in fact, the very best examples of it are truly articles, with useful information presented in an engaging manner.

They’re indistinguishable from any other article in newspapers or magazines (or spots on television and radio, for that matter; despite the name, “article” marketing takes place on those media, too, as well as the internet) except for that previously mentioned small casual mention of the company that is actually being promoted.

As an example, during tax season, a cpa or your local accountant might pen an article on new changes in the tax laws governing refunds. This is timely information that a magazine would love to present to its readers. Now by allowing the financial advisor to write the article, the newspaper gets free material, free content, always a precious commodity for those in the media. But the accountant gets free exposure, free publicity for his or her business.

And here’s the key: that publicity is positive. Readers benefit from the information provided, and are in a positive frame of mind as a result. People in a good mood are much more likely to buy – this is really a proven fact. So guess who they are likely to think of when it’s time to get their taxes done? Unless they currently have a family accountant or the like, folks are likely to keep in mind that helpful man or woman who had already made a positive impression on them with helpful timely information.

Virtual travel has basically only come of age now, in the 21st Century, thanks to the kinds of Web 2.0 applications like Google Magps’ Streetview function. Unlike something like the sort of hokey movie one might view at a Zalman Silber Skyride or Oztrek, where the audience simply sits back and watches tape of a helicopter flyover intended to induce a you-are-there feeling, virtual travel today is really virtual, and much more interactive – which is all to say, realistic like never before.

Indeed, two pals have even embarked on that time-honored tradition of The Great American Road Trip – only this time, thanks to the marvels of modern technology, they will do it all from the comfort of their own homes. Making use of Google Maps and its Streetview option, Peter Baldes and Marc Horowitz have been able to trek across the country without paying for gas – or speeding tickets!

Perhaps best of all, however, are all the people you can meet along during such a road trip – and they aren’t necessarily locals, either! Thanks to those same wonders of modern technology, it’s easy for others to check in on you, joining you for a part of the virtual trip by webcasting the trip live, just as Marc and Pete mentioned above had done. After all, what’s virtual travel without virtual companions?

Unlike the travel videos of yesteryear, virtual sightseeing this way is fully open-ended, the same as if you’d won the lottery and can afford to do whatever you want, whenever you want to! No longer will you merely be following along passively; with the simple click and drag of a mouse you can instantly teleport anywhere! Started off in Rome and suddenly longing for Paris? Have most of Germany covered and now want to check out Japan? It’s easy, and fast, with virtual travel in the 21st Century!

Of course, as any Physics 101 student will tell you, you don’t get something for nothing in this universe. And with respect to sightseeing virtually, you give up a lot even as you save a lot of time and money. You won’t meet folks face-to-face, or feel the wonderful weather or sample regional specialties, culinary and otherwise. Most of all, as any globetrotter knows, much of the fun lies in the journey itself, the very getting there. All this, and much more, are lost on a virtual trip.

It is, in many ways, about what you get with a Zalman Silber spectacle, only without the professional production values – a flowing stream of images, as if instead of a juicy well-done steak on your plate you are presented with a glossy high-resolution photo of one! Virtual travel will likely never replace really being there yourself, and it still has a long way to go before it can even begin to rival the same level of fun offered by the real thing – for right now, the sizzle is the most attractive thing about it.

Dog food coupons rank among the most popular of searches on the web. Dog foods has traditionally been divided into two kinds, dry and wet, though semi-moist varieties now exist. Though most dry foods could be left out for long periods of time, many owners practice portion control and feed their dogs twice a day, the same as they would with wet foods.

As could be imagined, dry varieties usually cost less, but that does not stop folks from trying to find dog food coupons online to lock in even greater savings. Dry dog food is the much better option where nutrition is concerned, too; they’re more nutrient-dense than wet dog food because the latter necessarily contains high amounts of water, anywhere from sixty to ninety percent.

On the other hand, however, wet dog foods usually contains less filler, such as corn and wheat, and a lot more meat, particularly when compared against the cheapest dry ones.

Dry dog food is important for giving canine teeth a bit of a workout while wet food is recommended for older dogs that have difficulty chewing. Most owners, nevertheless, will simply purchase whichever one they have dog food coupons for! Some individuals also believe that specific breeds should be fed only certain kinds of food, but practically everybody agrees that an age-specific diet is vital.

In common with human food, dog food ingredients are listed in order, by amount, and such lists are really long. Many folks feed their dogs food made at home, and there are those who even feed them human food.

Although dogs will eat just about anything we do, from beer and donuts to rice and vegetables, many are in fact toxic to them, for instance grapes, onions, chocolates, tomatoes, and certain nuts and, yes, beers. And even common household objects like pennies manufactured after 1982, which contain zinc, could be fatal with ingestion.

Affiliate marketing is really a method of promotion whereby independent contractors, so to speak, are employed to help publicize a product or service. Such work is done on a commission-only basis, so that payment is only made on a sale. These folks are traditionally known as “affiliates;” hence the name.

Affiliate marketing could be quite lucrative, and theoretically can produce residual income, money that’s earned from work already done. Think of all those songs on the radio.

Did you know that every time one of them is played, the musicians involved are paid? They might have first composed and performed the piece years, even decades, ago, but today they are still being paid for it, every single time the song comes on the air (or is used in movies, et cetera).

That is residual income, and that is the true power of affiliate marketing. It’s a promise that animates tens of thousands of affiliate marketers each and every year, recruiting ever more affiliates – for the way to residual incomes lies in creating one’s own network of affiliates who “kick up” a percentage of their earnings to oneself.

Of course, the devil is in the details, as the old adage goes, and before signing up it is essential to carefully educate oneself. Most programs need an initial purchase of some sort, and many others require that sales be on-going in order to continue receiving affiliate income. So let’s say that Charlie has built a network of subscribers to some kind of service or other.

Every time they renew, he receives his take, his cut. But some programs will stipulate that he only actually receives his “lifetime” commission on the condition that he continues to generate new clients! Otherwise, his earnings on his established clients are held for him, and not usually in some third-party escrow, either.

Most people have heard of 3G cell phones, whether it be via advertisements or recommendations, understanding that 3G is “good” with little understanding beyond that suggested fact. In fact, the 3G of 3G no contract cell phones simply means “third generation”, referring to the third “generation” or wave of technical advances that have upped the functionality and technological capacity of cell phones and mobile devices, including CDMA and GSM standards.

Particularly, 3G cell phones are those fulfilling certain specifications allowing use of wide area voice and data telecommunication, internet access, video messaging, television – as well as most of the modern applications we associate with normal smartphones. By IMT-2000 features, to be classified as 3G, a device must provide peak rates of data transfer at 200 kilobits a second.

Before 3G cell phones, there were of course cell phones of the first and second generation. A new “generation” has become widely available more or less every ten years, each offering new frequency bands, higher rates of data transfer and non backwards compatible transmission technology. The first generation, 1G, relates to the first generation of analog based mobile phones produced during the eighties. This was replaced by 2G on the GSM standard in 1991, which was the first digital standard allowing data to be digitally encrypted for the first time.

It also offered data services to mobile devices for the first time, beginning with SMS text messaging which has become revolutionary, but also including picture messages, email, and file transfers. Though 3G cell phones are the current standard, with 4G looming over the horizon, 2G networks are still fully functional in several parts of the world.

3G cell phones first came to fruition in 2003 when the first 3G network was released. By 2007, 200 million people had subscribed to any one of the 190 3G networks functioning in 40 countries. Still, only about 7% of cell phones users are subscribed to a 3G network, given that most cell phones users are in places like East Asia or the Middle East where networks are slower to roll out and technology is still a few years behind places like Europe or North America.

Poised to succeed 3G cell phones, 4G is slowly beginning to find its way to the market. The 4G standard of data transfer is 100 megabits a second for users in a state of substantial mobility, such as behind the wheel or on a moving train, and 1 gigabit for pedestrian or stationary users. This update in data transfer will allow 4G to improve and continue using features established by 2 and 3G, such as video calls and broadband internet access, as well as newer technologies such as streaming HDTV. For 4G, the CDMA standard is set to be deserted, in lieu of the newer OFDMA.

As one of the most promising platforms to have surfaced at the turn of the century, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was primarily greeted with widespread derision as a Johnny-Come-Lately to the nine billion-dollar videogaming market place (which is right now worth many multiples of billions more each year). Nowadays the Xbox is considered cutting-edge and competes right with Sony’s just as amazing Playstation, but recently the stakes were increased with Microsoft’s introduction of its Kinect technology that pledges to do away with game controllers completely, using the player’s own body movements to direct all onscreen activity. The highly leading-edge motion-detection technology makes it possible to scan even facial gestures!

Bronze sculptures are made from, obviously, bronze, however what may not be as apparent is that bronze is an alloy composed primarily of copper. It is frequently mixed with tin, though other elements like aluminum, silicon, and phosphorous are common enough ingredients as well. Before any bronze statues could be crafted, of course, mankind had to first invent bronze. Unfortunately, the time and place of invention remains questionable, but etymologically the word is theorized to go back to ancient Persia or ancient Rome.

Bronze is also a common material utilized in the crafting of musical instruments, particularly bells and cymbals. Indeed, though bronze sculptures are most likely what most people bring to mind when thinking about the metal, there exists a wide selection of uses for it, even today.

As an example, unlike steel, bronze struck against hard surfaces don’t generate sparks, so it’s an important ingredient in the making of tools such as hammers, mallets, and wrenches, anytime something needs to be durable or intended for service under potentially explosive or flammable conditions.

Oddly enough, the Bronze Age is followed by the Iron Age even although bronze is typically harder than wrought iron. Bronze is also less brittle and probably the preferred material, but iron is easier to find, and the later development of forged iron and, finally, steel, relegated bronze to a sort of secondary status among metals.

One area where bronze continues to dominate, nonetheless, is in statuary, due to particular properties that make it the material of choice for sculptors. As already noted, it is not brittle, and thus strong, an advantage that permits for the depiction of movement such as flight.

Bronze also expands a little bit right before setting into a mold, therefore filling in even the finest details involved. Lastly, through the application of various corrosive processes, bronze affords sculptors a fair amount of control over the color and finish of their work.