Now thru 5:00PM EST Friday, June 5, 2009, TechSmith is offering a free license of their screen capturing and image editing program SnagIt.  Now this offer is for an older version (7.2.5) that will not work under Windows Vista, but by taking advantage of this offering and becoming a registered user, you can secure upgrade pricing to the current version, 9.1.  After installation, you can upgrade to version 9.1 for $24.95 USD, half-off the regular price of $49.95 USD.

To take advantage of this offer, please visit this page.  For information on the latest version of SnagIt 9.1, visit their What’s New page.

Via mCADForums.

Daniel Ha, co-founder and CEO of Disqus, and Pete Cashmore, founder of social media guide Mashable, announced today a partnership between Disqus, Mashable, and comment aggregation service uberVU to enable Social Media Comments on the popular Disqus commenting system. Disqus will use uberVU’s technology to scrape the Internet and pull in comments relating to posts.

According to Mashable, the services that will be accessed include Blogger, Digg, Flickr, FriendFeed, Moveable Type, Picasa, Twitter, TypePad, Vimeo, WordPress, and YouTube, with more added over time.  If a post is discussed on any of the above services, those discussions will show up in the Disqus comments of said post.

Additionally, users can choose to send their comments to Twitter by simply checking a box when commenting on a Disqus-enabled blog post.

The new Disqus service can be previewed exclusively at Mashable for the next two weeks, and the general release will follow soon after.

I can’t wait to see this new functionality in action.  It will certainly help consolidate, and possibly further stimulate, the conversation across the web that blog posts sometimes initiate.

Via Disqus Blog and Mashable.

Alex over at The SolidWorks Geek blog has launched a charity drive campaign called Design For The Future. This fundraiser will benefit the Orangewood Children’s Foundation and the residents of the Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange County, California.

To read more about this charity and to contribute, please visit Design For The Future.

Ktrak Cycle Corp. is the maker of a kit that turns your mountain bike into a human-powered snowmobile.  The rear-drive track system provides about 25 times the traction and flotation of a regular mountain bike wheel.  There is also an optional front ski attachment to allow even more control.

Designed for use in groomed, packed, or fresh snow, the Ktrak system was unveiled at Interbike in September 2006.  The kit is universal to most makes and models of mountain bikes, and fits 26-inch wheels.  The site mentions that 20- and 24-inch wheel flavors will be made available in late 2008, but as of this writing they are still listed as "coming soon".

The Ktrak system is available for purchase directly through their website and approved dealers.

via Been-Seen.com

The I-Ball is a camera designed with new technology that will enable UK soldiers to toss it anywhere into the battlefield to gain insights into what awaits them before putting themselves in harm’s way. The I-Ball camera “…can be fired from a grenade launcher – or thrown into a room – giving troops vital information of who – or what – is on the ground or around the corner.”

The camera houses two sensors and fisheye lenses that capture image data of it’s surroundings, and a transmitter that sends the data back to a processor.  the processor then maps out a real-time 360° view of what the camera is seeing.

The I-Ball is developed by a Scotland-based firm, Dreampact, and was conceived of in the 2007 Competition of Ideas sponsored by the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence.

Found via CrunchGear.

The free sheet metal certification exam offer ends this coming Tuesday, September 30.  The code to get the free exam was originally emailed out to all Certified SolidWorks Professionals (CSWP’s), but it was also posted in the last (September 23) issue of SolidWorks Express (under NEWS and EVENTS).

Don’t think you have what it takes?  Work through the tutorials and take the sample exam.  I don’t really do much sheet metal, a part here or there, but I ran through the sample exam before taking the exam, and I just passed it!

I had to go to the Help a couple of times and experiment a little, but you get two hours to complete the test, and there is an extra credit problem worth a few extra points.  You need to get at least 75% correct to pass.

My advice for taking this exam (as well as any of the other certifications)?  READ THE DIRECTIONS, AND THEN READ THEM AGAIN!  Double-check all your dimensions, and don’t make assumptions.  Most of the electronic exam questions build on the previous ones, so if you make a mistake early on, you are pretty much hosed.

So, what are you waiting for?  You have nothing to lose…what the heck, it’s free (as long as you sign up by Tuesday!).

If you are attending SolidWorks World 2009 in Orlando, Florida, this next February and were planning on visiting DisneyWorld or some of the other attractions in the area, SolidWorks has made arrangements for anyone attending to get discounted tickets.  This site will allow you to order tickets at a cheaper price than what you can get at the gate or ordering online.

They ship the tickets directly to you, so you must submit your completed order form no later than January 16, 2009.  They will also be onsite at the conference, and you can purchase discounted tickets there as well.  The onsite schedule is as follows:

Saturday, February 7^th from 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sunday, February 8^th from 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Monday, February 9^th from 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Tuesday, February 10^th from 7:00 AM – 6:30 PM
Wednesday, February 11^th from 7:00 AM – 12:00 PM

So order your discounted tickets today!

Ok, so after playing around with Disqus after some of the other bloggers started using it, I decided that I wanted to use it for comments here.  I really like the threading and social aspects of it, and you can edit your comments too!

I also like the fact that once you authenticate, you can comment on any other Disqus community blog without having to log in again.  So if you don’t already have a Disqus account, go create one to get started; and leave a comment! 

During my blog reading last week, I noticed that Mike Puckett had an article about Certified SolidWorks Professionals (CSWP) and that SolidWorks was looking for testimonials and quick tips that could possibly be published in an upcoming issue of SolidWorks Express.

At the end of the article, Mike mentioned the opportunity for current CSWP’s to take the CSWP Advanced Sheet Metal Specialist exam for free.  So off I scurried to see about claiming my free exam.

Now, if you read my blog, you know that I recently changed jobs.  But when I had taken my CSWP exam, I used my corporate email…which I no longer have access to.

So, at Mike’s suggestion, I fired off an email this morning to certification@solidworks.com explaining my predicament.  I felt certain that I might have some difficulty getting things switched over.  But within 20 minutes, I had a reply stating that everything had been changed, and I was able to log in and change my information, view my certificates, and download my logos!

I later sent another email inquiring about the free exam, and had my coupon code in 2 minutes!

I just want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Jeremy Luchini and the whole Certification team and give them much kudos for their prompt, excellent customer service! 

I’m telling you, if you ever get to meet and know any of the SolidWorks employees, you will see that they genuinely care about your issues and want to help…  How can you meet any of these fine folks, you ask?  SolidWorks World!

Some of you may have heard, but I recently changed jobs.  I accepted a Senior Mechanical Engineering position with another company, and started with them last week.  Of course, I will still be using SolidWorks in my new position, and hopefully I will now have more time to devote to maintaining this blog.

I am still getting settled and trying to come up to speed on everything.  I am definitely going to be using much more of the capabilities of SolidWorks on a regular basis than I have previously, so that’s a good thing.

And although I didn’t expect it, I am finding out that I will still be using some of my CAD management experience in my new position, although it will be in more of a consulting role than it was in my previous position.