"How to Win Friends & Influence People" still stands as one of the most prolific books on this topic for decades...
Also, my company has weekly Lunch-N-Learns, I give 1-2 a year on various topics related to writing, testing and deploying software just like I would at a meetup group.
Many of these opportunistic thieves think about what they can move quickly so if they are caught they no longer have the goods on them. That imac and walmart bike they could have moved the same day for probably $100 profit, where as the macbooks they may have had to shop them around for longer, long enough for theft services to lock them down and track them once they are turned on... Not good news for the crook. They are smarter than you probably think.
I think everyone here should post a comment on their announcement telling them how absurd this is. What it means for our nation as a whole, not just yoga videos. Keep the comments clean though, no reason to go all road rage on them.
I posted this comment, it will never make it through moderation, but someone will have to read it.
This patent is absurd and has disastrous potential for our already broken patent system for all industries, not just instructional fitness. This just goes to show you how delicate your company is that you feel you need to patent the camera angle that you use when filming a live event. How about stop wasting money and time on frivolous patents and start working on making your product the best in the industry. You will make more money and ultimately have a happier customer base than going around bullying your competitors. GG.
FWIW, when I go to their facebook page, the most upvoted (top) comment is lambasting them for this.
Not a heavy facebook user myself - its mostly my older, non-technical friends - but that makes it the perfect place to post information about how detrimental this type of business practice is.
If you're a subscriber, as I was, you can go into your account settings and "Suspend Indefinitely" your account from being charged. There is also a comments section. I'm betting they'll pay a lot more attention to those comments than to ones on a blog post or Facebook, so suspend your accounts if you have them, everybody!
I took the initiative to forward this post to the author, Tim Ferriss. He provided me with the following quote:
"Hi Chris, thanks so much for the link. I won't jump into the fray here, but feel free to post this quote on the board. I'm a huge fan of Paul Graham and his blog is one of my top 10 when I speak to media. I also just attended the Y-Combinator demo day this week, where I met Paul. His philosophies and mine do not conflict, best I can tell. If anyone reads the book or even the latest Men's Journal profile, I always emphasize that inactivity ISN'T the goal. I work my ass off on things that are meaningful to me, but 1) they are not primarily financially-driven, and 2) I measure results vs. effort. I suspect Paul wouldn't have an issue with either of these. Keep up the good fight... -Tim"
I agree. I also think that if you do not make yourself visible, you will not be found. Arrington and the rest of the crew at TC get requests all day long to be covered. You will be lucky if you can be noticed amidst the sea of requests. Your best bet is to just launch. Create a corporate blog, have a twitter account, post comments on other related blogs. Do the social thing and you will drive traffic and get noticed.
Ours is a different story, we launched privately with a beta key... we had to for what our product is. We have to test the code and grow gradually because our product is very involved. We do not want to be covered today in TC, maybe in 8-12 weeks (although we did apply for the TC50. :D).
What you are saying is incredibly true. See and that is what we are trying to determine, what is our product worth. Hopefully our beta testers will help us determine that.
You could run for a bomb shelter and cower in the corner...
or...
Launch early... update often. IF you launch first you get credit for that. Also, learn what your competitors core values and visions are. Compare those to your own, and find a way to differentiate if yours are the same as theirs. Let your core values and shared vision drive you and you will most likely improve your chances for success.
But if you do choose the bomb shelter option, let us know how to contact you in case the competition goes defunct!
Also, my company has weekly Lunch-N-Learns, I give 1-2 a year on various topics related to writing, testing and deploying software just like I would at a meetup group.