Messages

1

Coding Snack Guidelines / Re: Mycroft PlugIn for SearchKindly.org

« on: August 07, 2007, 04:06 PM »

Wow! Thanks. I just submitted something. Hopefully it will be available shortly.

2

Coding Snack Guidelines / Mycroft PlugIn for SearchKindly.org

« on: August 07, 2007, 03:05 PM »

I was looking through all of the other Coding Snacks requests, and it doesn't really seem like what I am requesting fits the bill, so please feel free to ask me to remove this post if it doesn't belong here.

I'm one of the founders of the not-for-profit charity search engine, http://SearchKindly.org. In a nutshell, we have a Google search box placed on a page that has a lot of banners ads. Thoughout the month all of our users vote on which charity should receive the money that we make and then we give all the money to the lucky charity. Our site was highlighted in one of Mouser's newsletters awhile back and was also brought up in the follow DC post:

https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=7737.0

Anyway, I was just wondering if someone would be interested in building a plugin for http://mycroft.mozdev.org/

We don't spend any money on advertising or anything, so having a plugin listed there would give us some free publicity, which we really need.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Syed

3

Living Room / Re: How do I just give stuff away?

« on: December 26, 2006, 03:21 PM »

Thanks for the feedback.  I've actually tried all of the avenues that you suggested, but it's gotten to the point where it's just too late in the year for anything to be done (as far as eBay, calendar stands, etc).  I contacted a few wholesalers and shops last month and they all said the same thing--they do their buying in September-October.  Thanks Jen!  Way to tell me one thing and have me find out the complete opposite (Jen is the person who was in charge of marketing, but ended up doing nothing.)

I don't have a problem with giving them to bloggers, but I'm already out a bunch of money on the calendars and I really don't want to lose anymore (postage is about $1.50 per calendar).  Basically, all I want to do is give these away without it costing me anything.

And you're totally right about the lack of geekiness.  There were two guys and two girls involved with putting this together and we were both pushing for more geekdom--but the girls insisted on doing things there way.  Which I thought was lame.  There won't be another one of these calendars, but thanks for the feedback--I agree with you wholeheartedly.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could give these away without it costing me anything in postage?  My cost to mail them is $2 per calendar, that includes postage, envelope, and PayPal fees.  Hmm, maybe I should just offer one to everyone at DonationCoder...and if they want to donate anything for the calendar, then they can...but no obligation to do so...hey, I kind of like that idea.

Any takers?

4

Living Room / How do I just give stuff away?

« on: December 26, 2006, 02:05 PM »

Hey.  I'm new.  This is a really neat place.  But I'm sure you already know that.

Anyway, I'm in kind of a jam.  But let me put a little background on the jam. 

Over the summer (I'm a student, so I had some free time on my hands), a few friends and I put together a mildly interesting calendar--the theme was "Girls of Engineering".  I'm being totally serious here.  I know that Mouser goes to school in Champaign, so he'll get a kick out of the fact that all the models in the calendar are U of I engineers.  Sidenote:  Has anyone heard of this project?

Anyway, the project was headed up by a really incompetent friend of mine, who is actually no longer my friend, and it went to print really late, had no marketing done whatsoever, and hasn't sold well at all.  So now I'm stuck with like a thousand specialty calendars that I have no idea what to do with.  I wouldn't mind giving them all (or most of them) away, but that takes postage...yada, yada, yada. 

I spent one afternoon driving around Chicago handing these things off to firefighters and police officers (who seemed really appreciative of the gifts).  My girlfriend and I also spent an afternoon trying to hand these things off to strangers on Michigan Avenue--but that was a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be.  And my last attempt at generating some buzz, which really didn't work out as planned, was to drop off 300 calendars for all the employees at Playboy's headquarters on Lake Shore Drive.  I was able to get in and drop them all off, but I have no idea what they did with them afterwards.  My guess is that they all got chucked.

So here's the deal, as much as I'd love to be able to sell them, more than anything, I just don't want to waste these.  So I really don't have a problem with just giving these calendars away (obviously).  But 1000 is a big number...does anyone have any suggestions?

If you're interested in seeing a video preview of the calendar you should be able to find it if you check eBay and Google Video.  And the url of the site is...you guessed it:
www.girlsofengineering.com

Mouser--your copy just got put in the mail.  Let me know what you think of it.

Syed