When I voted this spring, I wondered about the security of the new machines. I had heard that a paper receipt was a part of the process but there was not one available.

Part business guru, part standup commedian, Guy Kawasaki has a knack for making complex things very simple while making you laugh along the way. I first met him when he spoke at the Innovest Venture Capital Conference years ago.

Here are two more listings of free (public domain) images. The licenses vary from site to site, so you'll have to pay attention to any restrictions.

LifeHacker had a great posting showing a USDA resource to find farmer's markets all across the country.

Linux-Watch had an interesting article about an Australian computer reseller that has an approach for doubling their profit margins by selling computers with open source software, and ultimately the Linux operating system to computer users who are accustomed to using Windows.

On Friday, June 9th, John Osher shared some thoughts about starting a business and being a successful entrepreneur with the Ohio Venture Association, based on his life experience.

Prior to Mr. Osher's presentation, Michael Weider of Gauntlet Technology Systems gave a Five-Minute Forum presentation on his company's patented technology that is designed to keep impaired individuals from starting their vehicles and to prevent vehicle theft.

Have you ever wanted to find public domain images that you can use for your blog posts or other creative projects? Have you ever used the "right click" approach to save images for some use only to wonder later if your use (school project, blog posting, collage, non-profit use) was within the intent of the owner of that intellectual property?

Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the One Laptop Per Child non profit announce gave an update recently on his initiative to produce inexpensive laptops running Linux with some form of power generation device, such as a pedal. The association hopes to distribute 5 million to 10 million of the systems to children in India, China, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, Egypt, and Nigeria in the first quarter of 2007. For more info, visit here.

According to new rules released by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Parks will begin charging fees of $150 per day to film, video and comercial photography projects, accroding to the National Press Photographers Association.  These fees  could total up to $500 per day when monitoring and additional costs are assessed. The fees took effect May 15th.

None other than the New York Times has opined on the sad state of voter affairs in the state of Ohio. All I could think of is the quote attribued to Yogi Berra that "This is like deja vu all over again." Here's what the editorial observed in part:

The latest sign that Republicans have an election-year strategy to shut down voter registration drives comes from Ohio. As the state gears up for a very competitive election season this fall, its secretary of state, J. Kenneth Blackwell, has put in place "emergency" regulations that could hit voter registration workers with criminal penalties for perfectly legitimate registration practices. The rules are so draconian they could shut down registration drives in Ohio.

To read more, visit Block the Vote, Ohio Remix. This site may require creation of a login. At least one blogger has reproduced the article on his site.

Recently I read the cover article of PC World which advertised 101 Fabulous Freebies (www.find.pcworld.com/52516). It is a description of 101 software downloads or Internet based services that are free. A number of the software products listed are open source. Wikipedia defines Open Source software as "computer software available with its source code and under an open source license. Such a license permits anyone to study, change, and improve the software, and to distribute the unmodified or modified software."

Software and sensor technology has progressed where in the near future games will be able to sense the emotional state of the player and modify the behavior of the game accordingly. We are on the verge of a new level of man machine interaction according to an interview with Mike Zyda, who heads up the University of Southern California's video game development program.  Weekend America host Barbara Bogaev conducted the interview and is pictured trying out an early prototype of this emotion-reading technology. Click here to listen to the broadcast.

The May meeting of the Ohio Venture Association at Lockkeepers featured presentations by two entrepreneurs seeking capital and the innovative story of Summa Enterprise Group.

OVA Board President Ben Calkins brought the meeting to order at Lockkeepers and allowed each person in attendance to introduce him or herself, following OVA's usual custom.

There were two Five-Minute Forum presentations. These speakers typically represent companies that are looking for start-up or expansion capital.

Sherry Aronson is president of Cure Systems, a company that provides enterprise software for hospitals that improves the quality of health care while enhancing cost efficiencies. Her company uses predictive analytics to anticipate and mitigate the risks in acute care environments. The result is a ten-fold return for its hospital clients and better outcomes for patients. The company has a partnership with the Cleveland Clinic Health System. They are looking for additional capital to complete product development and intellectual property protection.