How To: Build Your Own Animatronic Furry Cat Ears

furry-ears.jpg Let's face it: everyone, deep down in their coal-black hearts, is a furry. Except -- EXCEPT -- for me an all the normal f***ing people who are actually scalies/featheries. CAW, CAW! This is a pair of homemade animatronic cat ears similar to the Neurowear ones except these ones aren't mind controlled, you have to push buttons. The poor man's animatronic cat ears, if you will. "I won't." Neither will I. How about you and I go knock back some beers at the bar and reminisce about the good ol' days before animatronic cat ears? "So like, last week?" Last week is a little hazy to me, it's gonna have to be more recent than that. "Yesterday?" Still nothing -- how about this morning? I think I had a cup of coffee. "You don't remember anything before lunch, do you?" It's after lunch?! Hit the jump for a VERY emotive girl giving the ears a run through their paces, and a link to the Instructable to build your own.

from Geekologie - Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome http://www.geekologie.com/2012/02/how-to-build-your-own-animatronic-furry.php

Appeals court: Fifth Amendment protections can apply to encrypted hard drives

Two rulings this week helped to clarify the circumstances under which a defendant can be compelled to reveal the contents of an encrypted hard drive. On Wednesday, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals let stand a judge's ruling in a Colorado case that the defendant in a mortgage fraud case could be compelled to produce the contents of her encrypted laptop. But on Thursday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a Florida contempt of court charge against a suspect in a child pornography case who refused to decrypt the encrypted contents of several hard drives.

While the two rulings reach opposite results, they don't necessarily contradict each other. The results turned on how much the government knew about the contents of the encrypted drives. In previous cases, the courts have held that when the government already knows of the existence of specific incriminating files, compelling a suspect to produce them does not violate the Fifth Amendment's rule against self-incrimination. On the other hand, if the government merely suspects that an encrypted hard drive contains some incriminating documents, but lacks independent evidence for the existence of specific documents, then the owner of the hard drive is entitled to invoke the Fifth Amendment.

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from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/02/appeals-court-fifth-amendment...

Gevey Ultra S SIM brings freedom to iPhone 4S, unlockers rejoice (video)

GEVEY Ultra S brings freedom to iPhone 4S, unlockers rejoice (video)
Fancy yourself a world traveler but steadfastly refuse to pay a premium for an unlocked variant of Apple's 4S? Or perhaps it's just not up for grabs on that beloved carrier of yours. Well, a solution to all of your iPhone's freedom problems may be on the way -- and no, it doesn't involve jailbreaking. That is, if you're on iOS 5.0 or 5.0.1 and your Baseband digits are within the 1.0.11, 1.0.13, 1.0.14 boundaries. Unfortunately, those of you lingering on 04.11.08 are out of luck for now. The Gevey Ultra S, as it's so cleverly dubbed, is set to start shipping on March 3rd for $55. We've yet to come across anyone we know who's put it to the test, thus you'll be taking the dive at your own risk. Meanwhile, you can jump past the break to catch the Ultra S in some self-promoting action.

Continue reading Gevey Ultra S SIM brings freedom to iPhone 4S, unlockers rejoice (video)

Gevey Ultra S SIM brings freedom to iPhone 4S, unlockers rejoice (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/23/gevey-ultra-s-sim-iphone-4s-unlock/

‘Earmark’ Was Most-Searched Term on Google During Republican Debate

The four remaining Republican presidential hopefuls went toe-to-toe in Arizona during Wednesday night’s CNN debate, dishing out terms like “romneycare” and “bridge to nowhere.” But which was the expression that sparked the curiosity of debate watchers and Internet searchers across the nation? “Earmark.”

Google’s Politics and Elections team monitored the search engine during the two-hour Republican debate. During that time, searches for “earmark” skyrocketed by 2,300% above the normal rate for the term.


In Congress, an earmark is a guarantee of federal funding for a certain project, sometimes hidden away in bills intended for a different purpose altogether. Because earmarks can be tucked inside unrelated bills and sometimes benefit voters from a politician’s home turf, they’re often the target of those who argue against excessive government spending. And during Wednesday night’s debate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum got into a spat about that very issue.

Romney has been tagging Santorum as an “earmarker” in recent campaign ads. During Wednesday’s debate, Rick Santorum defended his earmarks by explaining that there are “good” and “bad” earmarks, using the example of salvaging a military aircraft project as a “good” earmark.

Santorum went on to attack Romney for taking advantage of earmarks for the Salt Lake City Olympics, for which Romney was CEO. Romney returned fire by criticizing the earmark process in general.

“While I was fighting to save the Olympics, you were fighting to save the bridge to nowhere,” he said to Santorum.

“You’re misrepresenting the facts,” responded Santorum. “You don’t know what you’re taking about.”

Finally, the two found common ground on the line-item veto, which allows the president to veto small provisions of a bill without touching the rest of it.

But the back-and-forth between the candidates was enough to pique the interest of millions of Americans, who turned to Google’s search engine to learn more about earmarks and the “bridge to nowhere” metaphor, which was second on Google’s list of debate-related searches. “Bridge to nowhere” is a reference to earmark spending on projects that benefit a politician’s supporters.

Google also found that searches for former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich spiked during the debate in Arizona and nationally. Meanwhile, Rick Santorum enjoyed the highest number of absolute searches across the nation.

Do you think Google trends are an effective way of seeing what parts of a debate resonate with an audience? Sound off in the comments below.

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, manley099

More About: GOP primary, Politics

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/23/earmark-search-gop-debate/?utm_source=feedburn...

Kashoo iPad app: Business accounting on the go

Kashoo began existence as an online business accounting service. With the addition of a new free iPad app, business owners now have a powerful accounting tool at their fingertips at all times. In this review, I'll take you through a quick look at Kashoo and describe how it's helped one small business owner -- me -- take control of the day-to-day transactions that keep a business going.

I have to admit that accounting is not my strong suite. Back in the early 80s when I was getting my MBA, I struggled through the concepts of T-charts, debits and credits just long enough to pass the required course. Through the years, I tortured myself with various versions of QuickBooks, but when I had to move to QuickBooks Online because Intuit had once again fallen behind the curve on updates, I decided that any future companies I started would use a different accounting package.

Kashoo immediately caught my attention as an online alternative. For $10 a month, you not only get full access with a lot of features (more on those later), but the company's support is incredibly good. Early on, my lack of accounting savvy had me questioning my sanity in terms of figuring out how to perform a certain task. I zapped a quick email off to Kashoo support, and within an hour or two I had a very clear answer. You can also call the support line for even faster response, and that support is free.

When I initially started setting up the books for a business partnership, Kashoo's iPad app wasn't available so my work began on the web app. It's fast, and a special "setup" section made it a piece of cake to set up a profile for the business, add accounts, vendors, and more.

The iPad app, however, has made life even easier. When the app is first launched, you're asked to log into your Kashoo account. If you don't already have an account, you can sign up for a free trial or paid account. For those who sign into an existing account from the app, Kashoo syncs with the server and then displays a three page "dashboard" that business owners can scroll through by swiping.

The first page of the dashboard displays income by month, quarter or year in a colorful column chart format with revenue, expenses, and profit listed at the top (screenshot below). The next dashboard page shows one year's worth of income by customer in a pie chart with sections by customer. There's a slider at the bottom of the chart for constraining the income information to a shorter timeframe.

The last page of the dashboard shows expenses by account (below). Once again, the slider makes it possible to look at expenses for a specific timeframe during the last year. For the last two dashboard pages, tapping on either the customer name (for income) or expense account takes you right into the transaction details for that account. Likewise, tapping a vendor name on the expense dashboard page shows you exactly who your money is going to.

If you've set up more than one business in your Kashoo account, you can select between them from a "Select Business" button at the top of the app. It's even possible to set up a new business from the iPad app. The settings button for the Kashoo app is pretty minimal, allowing you to force a sync with the cloud, log out, upgrade to a premium account, or send feedback to the Kashoo team.

Along the bottom of the app are seven buttons -- Dashboard, Banking, Invoices, Expenses, Accounts, Reports, and Business. I've just described the Dashboard, and Business is where you can either set up or edit information about a business.

The Banking button displays bank and other accounts one at a time (below). For example, I have a savings and checking account set up for the business, a PayPal account, several cash expense accounts, a cash account, and two accounts for Visa debit cards. Tapping on any of the accounts listed takes me to a detailed transaction record showing both income going into the account and expenses being taken from that account. Tapping an individual transaction shows a detail of that transaction.

The standard iPad share button can be used to preview an invoice for a transaction or to email the transaction to someone. Speaking of invoices, the Invoice button displays invoices that have already been entered into Kashoo and also allows you to create and email invoices. You can pick a customer to invoice, pick the date from a standard rolling date picker, and enter an invoice and order number, terms of payment, and a memo.

There are fields for adding line items to the invoice, including quantities, unit prices, extended prices, taxes (if applicable), and a description of the line item. There's also a location on the bottom of the invoice page for adding payments that a customer has made to their account.

When adding expenses to Kashoo by tapping the Expenses button, a list of vendors appears (below). You can also add new vendors -- a tap on a "plus sign" button lets you add the company contact information, payment terms, the default account to which those expenses will be charged, and other miscellaneous information. If you do business with international vendors, you can choose from a number of different currencies.

The Accounts button lets you see all transactions in all accounts or just in specific accounts (below). As before, tapping on any transaction displays a detailed accounting of vendor and account information.

Probably the most useful button is the Reports button, which generates a Profit & Loss Statement (below), a Balance Sheet, and Aged Receivables and Payables. While these reports can be emailed as PDFs, at this time they cannot be printed directly from the iPad. Likewise, invoices and checks can't be printed from the iPad app; you still need to use the web app to accomplish printing. If you happen to have an HP printer with its own email address, you can print the reports from your iPad by mailing the report to the printer's unique address.

I've been pleased with both the web and iPad apps; they're fast, they don't crash, and I'm able to do my business account fairly easily. Since the Kashoo app is new, I expect that the development team will continue to add new features like printing as time goes by. As it is, I can now review and update the current financial status of the company from my iPad -- helpful if I'm talking to a banker or potential vendor as I don't need to print out a stack of reports prior to the meeting.

If you use an accountant for tax purposes like I do, you'll be pleased to know that most of them simply want a copy of your General Ledger for the previous year. In this case, I was able to generate that GL from the web app and email it directly to the accountant. Many of the various reports created by Kashoo can be saved as .csv files for import into a spreadsheet package.

Kashoo's development team continues to add functionality to the online system as well, including FreshBooks integration and Payroll (Canada only at this time), and recently adding automatic import of transactions from banks. If you're starting a new business or thinking about breaking from a traditional Mac or Windows small business accounting package, Kashoo's the first place you ought to look. And be sure to expense that new iPad to your business, OK?

Kashoo iPad app: Business accounting on the go originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog http://www.tuaw.com/2012/02/20/kashoo-ipad-app-business-accounting-on-the-go/

We’re Heading Down to SXSW & Throwing a Party. Are You Coming? #SXStreetwise [Event]

This will be my first time going to SXSW. From the tales I’ve been told, it’s a beer-fueled mecca of digital awesomeness, where rubbing elbows inside and outside of panels leads to new ideas, lasting connections, and matching late-night tattoos. I’m packing sunscreen, a fresh BostInno tee for each day, and a laminated notecard of witty things to say about Pinterest.

I’m excited, as is the whole Streetwise Media crew, and we hope everyone who’s down south will join us for our meet up in Austin, South by Streetwise on Sunday, March 11. We also want to know what else folks have going on!

South by Streetwise (#SXStreetwise) will be a kick-ass happy hour on the 11th from 5-7pm, with team members from BostInno, InTheCapital, and InTheEmpire (launching this spring) conveniently located at the Side Bar. You can register here or below, and we look forward to enjoying some cocktails with folks from Boston, D.C., New York, and beyond.

But what else is happening? Who else is going? What other events (official and otherwise) should we know about, be at, and cover? We’d love to hear who else in the BostInno and Streetwise Media community has already made a cowboy boots impulse buy.

We’d also love guest posts on your tried and true tips and tricks to find events and have the best SXSW experience possible, what you’re looking forward to this year, or what you’re doing to prepare. Send your posts our way!

So, if you’re a startup headed to SXSW, if you’re planning something, or if you’d like to get in on the action as a sponsor, let us know in the comments or at info@bostinnovation.com. Stay tuned as we round up everything you need to know, preview what to look forward to, and give you coverage from the heart of the awesomeness.

See you in Austin!

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/02/23/were-heading-down-to-sxsw-throwing-a-party-are...

New Feature: Opportunity Landscape (The Bubble Chart)

You’re a busy sales manager. You want to know at a glance whether your team’s open opportunities are being handled well or whether some are stalled and need attention. You want maximum information from minimal effort.

Ready to take things to the 4th dimension?

(The vocabulary in the screenshot, such as “Job Order,” is for a staffing firm. This is configurable to match your business.)

Opportunity Landscape Chart

This is the new Open Opportunity Landscape dashboard. Let’s take a quick look at the four metrics this chart visualizes:

Horizontal axis: the created date of the opportunity. Bubbles on the left side represent older opportunities that are potentially problems if they are much further back than your average sales cycle.

Vertical axis: the value of the opportunity. Bubbles near the top represent higher-value opportunities that might merit more attention or effort.

Bubble size: how much total effort invested in an opportunity to date. Effort is derived as the weighted sum of the activities associated with that opportunity. (Activity weights are also configurable.) So, large bubbles represent opportunities that are consuming a lot of your team’s time.

Bubble color: indicates whether the opportunity is currently stalled (red) or being worked (green). We use the Momentum value for this, where Momentum is the number of activities in the last 10 business days. A red bubble means nothing has happened with that open opportunity in 2 weeks.

The best status would be a small green bubble in the top-right corner of the chart. That would indicate a low-effort, high revenue opportunity with a lot of activity. The most concerning bubble would be a large red one in the bottom left.

Opportunity Landscape Data Table

What about the table? We’ve iterated here too! There are 2 new columns that we think are useful when discussing status with your sales team. Last Activity and Next Activity tell you the last and next activity associated with that opportunity. Use this to quickly see what’s been the last point of contact, for example, and what’s coming up next. Of course, an opportunity with a blank Next Activity could be a problem and one to look into.

As with all of our reports you can easily change the date range on the fly, add/remove filters and export to Excel.

Enjoy, and let us know what you think! Not a customer and want to get in on the fun?

Get Started with a FREE 2-week Trial!

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/channels/new-feature-opportunity-landscape-the-bubble-cha...

Private Equity vs. Venture Capital: Finding the Capital That is Right for You

Venture Capital and Private Equity get a lot of media attention.  Sometimes they are the “genius” talent scouts of the business world, investing into companies with astounding foresight.  In other narratives, they are the ruthless capitalists, taking control of companies and ejecting management teams from the driver’s seat like carjackers.  As it turns out, neither of these stories are very accurate.

Venture Capital and Private Equity firms are key components of the corporate finance landscape, offering growth capital and liquidity at critical moments in the evolution of companies when more traditional sources of cash, like banks or public markets, are unavailable or unwilling to invest.   But like all professional investors, these firms have a job to perform on behalf of their limited partners.  These firms survive their own torturous sales and diligence processes to convince pension funds, banks, universities, hedge funds, fund-to-funds, and other institutional investors that they will successfully earn returns superior to public indexes and other asset classes.  This is no job for the faint of heart.

Interestingly, the differences between venture capitalists and private equity firms are often misunderstood, in part because some firms have both types of investment funds housed under the same umbrella.  Publicly they are often treated as the same kinds of investors, where the only difference is the average deal size.  The story goes that venture capital will put in a few million, but private equity will put in tens or hundreds of millions into companies.  While average deal size is a critical differentiator between the two types of capital because of the implications for the fund structure and business model, it is by no means the only difference.   I have worked on private equity deals as low as $4,000,000 and venture capital deals for greater than $50,000,000.

But the real issues are that, for the most part, they do not invest in the same kinds of companies.   Primarily they differ when it comes to the stage of companies in which they invest, as well as the breadth of industries they will consider.  In addition, they have differing requirements on total market size, likely return range, return horizon, technology risk appetite, market adoption risk, competitive environment, liquidity for founders, size of investor stake and whether a prospective portfolio needs a new disruptive technology or only potential for sustainable future cash flows.

Companies seeking capital from venture capital and private equity are well advised to first understand the priorities and goals of these firms, and to understand which might be a fit for their current needs.  Once understood, crafting an investment deal that aligns the interests of all parties is not only possible, but usually provides benefits far superior than investments from banks, public markets or other sources of silent cash.  Why? Because the premise of both kinds of firms is that outsized returns are the result of the human capital deployed by the firms into the investment. It is the venture capitalist and private equity teams that help move companies forward.  As such, the very first job of any company seeking capital is to form relationships and to judge the quality of the humans involved.  While firm level reputations are good general guides, they are absolutely no substitute for working with individual partners and teams at the investment firms to gauge whether these are the kind of investment and operational partners you want for years to come.

Equally, many growth or expansion stage companies often believe that obtaining fresh capital will solve all of their problems.  While more cash can usually (but not always) accelerate operational goals, the wrong type or timing of new capital is often not in the best interests of current equity holders.  A financing plan that articulates and balances the need and uses of cash with the resulting dilution and preferential treatment of the new money is critical.  But that is the beginning of the analysis not the end.   Companies and investors need to align on issues of control, leverage, management, culture, values and their operating relationship.  Only after this courtship results in (mostly) true love will there be a venture capital or private equity deal that is right for you.

To learn more please join Jeremy Halpern, Partner, Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP, Matthew Witheiler, Principal, Flybridge Capital Partners and Geraldine Alias, Principal, North Bridge Growth Equity, at the XPX-Boston Roundtable on February 29, 2012: Unraveling the Mysteries of Venture Capital and Private Equity.

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/channels/private-equity-vs-venture-capital-finding-the-ca...

WebInno 33 Companies Revealed: MediaMob, GatherEducation & Lifeables Have the Main Dish Spotlight

WebInno, a regular, informal gathering around mobile and internet tech, just announced the companies that would be demoing during the group’s 33rd event on March 5, at the Royal Sonesta in Cambridge. WebInno was started by David Beisel, a partner at NextView Ventures, a local micro-VC firm that just closed its first fund.

The event is structured around a series of “Main Dish” demos from companies, picked through an application process beforehand. There are also “Side Dish” companies set up on the periphery to talk with interested attendees.

Here are the Main Dish pitch companies for WebInno 33:

  • MediaMob - Matt Snyder – Mobile marketing solutions for brands, bands, and publishers.
  • GatherEducation - Pano Anthos, Chris Mortonson, & Shonak Patel - Take a class online. Collaborate on projects. Share your success with everyone.
  • Lifeables - Jeremy Daly, Karen Macumber & Greg Czarnowski - A collaborative social media platform for family content curation.

And here are the Side Dish demo companies:

  • Abroad101 - Adam Miller, Mike Stone, Jamie Davidson, & Jenna Lashley - Software-as-a-service tools to institutions of higher education that want to collect study abroad program evaluations.
  • Zoora - Aubrie Pagano & Chirag Nirmal - Online boutique offering personalizable and custom-tailored women’s clothing from independent designers.
  • Mosaic Storage Systems - Gerard Murphy & Andy Young - Solution for serious photographers to manage, access, sync, and safely store their images both online and locally.
  • OnTheBar - Ian Stanczyk - Consider this app a real-time window into your local cocktail scene.
  • Cangrade - Michael Burtov, Gershon Goren & Steve Lehr - Pre-employment evaluation tool s for Recruiters, Employers and Job Candidates.

In addition to that, the event will feature remarks from Steve Papa, Founder and Chairman of Endeca, which was sold to Oracle recently for a rumored $1B+.

Finally, to cap it all off, the evening will include the announcement of the AngelHack2 Grand Prize winners! (Everything you need to know about the AngelHack2 hackathon is here.)

All in all, it looks to be a great evening for the web/mobile startup community. We hope to see you there.

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/02/22/webinno-33-companies-revealed-mediamob-gathere...

Dear Start Ups, secure a mentor……it’ll be your greatest life jacket.

Your friends and family, the Web, periodicals, and even casual acquaintances can provide you with a steady daily flow of information regarding news, industry developments, and opportunities. Industry analysts, consultants, employees, and good networking contacts can share their expert knowledge with you regarding particular situations and needs you may encounter. But only a mentor can truly share wisdom with you on an ongoing basis.

A mentor is someone with more entrepreneurial business experience than you who serves as a trusted confidante over an extended period of time, usually free of charge. Why do they do this? First and foremost as a way of giving back to their community and to society at large. They may do it to develop their skills as a teacher, manager, strategist, or consultant. And a true mentoring relationship also works in both directions—they learn about new ideas from you just as you learn timeless wisdom from them.

But whatever the benefits to the mentor, the benefits to you, the entrepreneur, are even greater:

  • Where else are you going to turn? There’s no boss any more to turn to for advice or direction—maybe not even any employees yet. You’re flying solo. But you don’t have to. Everybody needs a good reliable sounding board, second opinion, and sometimes just emotional support.
  • They’ve “been there, done that”. Learn from others’ mistakes and successes. They don’t have to have experience in your particular industry. They don’t have to be up on the latest trends or technology—you’ve got other sources for that. Their role is to share with you lessons from their experience in the hopes that you can learn them a bit more quickly and easily.
  • It’s (usually) free. If you’re on a tight budget, that’s a major factor. While good coaches and consultants may be able to offer some things that a mentor doesn’t, it comes at a price, usually of several hundred dollars a month. Mentors, though, are readily available free of charge through a number of organizations, such as SCORE (Service Corps Of Retired Executives) and many others. But plan on at least treating them to lunch or coffee!
  • Expand your social network. Your mentor, being an experienced businessperson, is likely to have an extensive network, and can offer you access to far more senior decision-makers than you currently have. And they will be far more willing to open that network up to you than some casual acquaintance from a networking meeting.
  • A trusted, long-term relationship. Your mentor has no ulterior motive—no service or product to sell you. That combined with their experience creates a good foundation for trust. And as the relationship develops over time, that trust can grow even stronger. Also, your time with them becomes more and more efficient as they become more and more familiar with you and your business.

As you can see, the rewards are many, and the risk is non-existent. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by finding a good mentor. Every entrepreneur should have one.

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/channels/dear-start-ups-secure-a-mentor-itll-be-your-grea...