Frequently Asked Questions

When was InventGeek founded?
May of 2004 when I decided to put together a site for myself.

What is the purpose of InventGeek?
Originally when I put InventGeek together it was only to be used as a personal outlet for my creative needs. I spent months working on a site design, tinkering and poking at the code until one day I realized that I would never get the site done due to perfectionist tendencies I have. So I finally decided to put up “something” never expecting anyone on the web to find it. 1 week later during the midst of the roomer mill about Mac converting to Intel chips someone submitted my site to Slashdot. The copy I had on at the time had written at 4AM of my first project converting a G3 to a P4. it was terrible! A grammar and spelling nightmare as all I was doing was trying to get the ideas and concepts out in print to be refined. After some emergency editing on the topic and a republish of the content Mac announced a formal CPU switch. My sites traffic shot through the roof. This really inspired me to keep writing for the site but also made me realize that there was a lot more to InventGeek than I originally could see.

Now the purpose of InventGeek is really very simple. Its to be a resource for the geek inventing community and in perhaps some grand vision to the world as a whole. Our goal is to provide information, examples and an attempt at an entertaining read all at the same time. InventGeek is for those people out there who are interested in doing more than just reading that some one put a window in the side of there PC with some aquarium striping. Ultimately we want to provide information that inspires people to do there own tinkering, experimenting and ultimately to follow there bliss.

Who is this site for?
InventGeek is not meant for the bench warmers of life. Nor for the self building / fault finding critic. We exist exclusively for the geek, the DIY enthusiast, and any one that has dreams of doing something more than reading about what others are doing. We hope our site is an inspiration for our visitors and that they do great things as well! I get a few emails a week from people that are out there doing things that we show here. Our lcd quick fix is a great example of an article that has really benefited thousands out there. It really is rewarding to see others benefiting from our labors.

Who is InventGeek?
While InventGeek is owned and operated by one person. I like to think that InventGeek is not necessarily a who. But more of a group of like minded people.

How are InventGeek projects funded?
100% out of pocket. We get a small amount of revenue from Google Ads, but that mostly just covers hosting. Some projects we try to do on the cheap, others we need to do more costly research and development of prototypes before we ever publish something to the world. As with many things in life, cash is king. Our ability to bring projects to the community is entirely as the discretion of the dollar.

Is it possible to sponsor a project on InventGeek?
Yes it is, if you’re a good fit. Generally InventGeek only will accept sponsorships and advertisement placement from what we deem as highly innovative companies. We regularly get offers for ads and sponsorships from company that would not provide any benefit or value to our users. We will always strive to run a site that is as not intrusive with advertising as possible. The obvious downside to this type of mentality is that it can severely limit our revenue stream for the site and thus slow the frequency of projects. If your interested in sponsoring InventGeek you can find contact information on the contact us page.

Your grammar and spelling sucks! You shouldn’t be allowed to write.
I have received more mail like this than I would like to admit. But also it has inspired me as well to continue with InventGeek. I know that I personally have a handicap in spelling and grammar. And I don’t intend to ever in the slightest bit cover this up. Some how that makes the success I have experienced all the sweeter! I am what I am. And that’s all you get here. I have received offers from people at renown magazines and sites across the web asking if they could act as an editor for the site. Ultimately I turned them all down for the simple reason that the site is just who I am. There is no hiding or masking or modifying the simple fact that I am who I am and write because I love to write. This site is not for the liberal arts and English graduates of the world. This is for people that will go and do and improve on the things I present to the world here. Ultimately I hope to inspire others out there to write for the love of writing. My success stands as a estimate that there are a few that will send you a email about how awful you are to build them self’s up. But there are millions that will have the chance to be inspired by what you write.

What if I have a Lack of vision.
People that cant see the vision of a solution. Take the bread box project for example. I loved the fact I had so many people criticizing the capacity of the project with the lighting installed. Capacity is not the point. Once a concept is proven any dumb ass can come along and make it a little bigger or use a small bulb. Or change the design all together. The concept of the solution and the proof that it works is where the elegance comes into play. If a project can be done simply by pulling off the shelf parts then obviously I am going to use those rather than inventing my own wheel. In fact this project is so successful it is now being produced totally royalty free by 3 companies for the world to use. Not to shabby for a POC.

What if I am a Self Building Critic.
There is nothing I hate more in the world than people that find flaws or mistakes for the sake of making them self’s feel better. Instead of improving something or contributing to a overall common good they take the path of the dark side to stroke there reality skewed ego pets. These types of people are black holes to innovation and divergent or creative thinking. Most of the people that criticize our projects are merely doing so to make them self’s feel important or smart. We always respond to all criticizes and far more often than not after clearly defending my self or a project I never get a response. So I would suppose with ego in check they are off to look for another person willing to follow there bliss to attack. InventGeek does not condone or support any form of innovation halting attitude nor ego stroking in our team. We do what we do because we love it and want to benefit others with a pool of information that anyone can draw on.