4 ms·

What a great idea! I would immediately buy this, I just wish this were an actual product instead of a crowdsourcing kickstarter-type campaign. After my experi

by steven2012 13y ago

What a great idea! I would immediately buy this, I just wish this were an actual product instead of a crowdsourcing kickstarter-type campaign. After my experience with Lockitron, I have no desire to lock away my money for months while fretting over whether or not I'm going to get ripped off. The same goes for the Heritage Chemistry set which I would buy for any of my kids (but to be honest, mainly for myself), but I just don't have any faith that I will see my $500-700.

csmuk 13y ago
You can always buy the Heritage Chemistry set bits separately. It's quite easy to obtain most chemicals and glassware worldwide.
- VLM 13y ago
  One startup idea which is either commercially nonviable (sounds likely) or is new, would be a startup which is basically a consumer level online internationalized purchasing department. So if you define a project called "teach my kid titration" it would understand how to get phenolphthalein and other indicators in Belgium, how to get a beaker in Texas (good luck), etc, and for a modest 10% fee of which they keep half and the designer keeps half, they make one CC charge and magically anywhere in the world boxes start arriving. This would be tremendously helpful with electronic projects, where I get a custom PCB from somebody, some obscure transistor from somewhere else, and COTS support parts from the "big 3" suppliers. Something tells me the agony of being a purchasing agent can't be abstracted away for a mere 5% commission. And how to intermediate, if at all, shipping, customs, and return disputes. Still, whatever it costs, it would be an interesting and probably worth it to some people.
  - aroch 13y ago
    There is a ton of regulation involved with both intra- and inter-country chemical shipping and purchasing. There are some chemicals that are perfectly legal for normal people to own but not to purchase if you aren't an institution. There are chemicals that require specific handling and packaging, which when shipped internationally become "potential chemical weapons" and thus can carry life prison sentences if not done properly. We ship both live and dead cell cultures (both extremely pathogenic and relatively benign) that can pose severe risk even when dead. The few times I've had to do international shipments have been a pain in the ass with all the paperwork, special packaging, customs bullshit and then there's the agony of waiting for the shipment to clear US customs, then destination customs, then destination culture screening -- and we have lawyers of who deal with the paperwork for us!
    - VLM 13y ago
      Yes your employer, and maybe competitor like carolina, would be a good supplier in the US but to keep shipping agony to a minimum maybe some place in europe would ship to europeans. On the other hand amazon can probably ship blank unused new microscope slides anywhere in the world, so maybe they get to ship to .UK This kind of coordination of which supplier can ship what, where, would be what the proposed startup would do.
      - aroch 13y ago
        What you're thinking of already exists to a great extent -- look at Fischer/Thermo and VWR. They're the Amazon's of science-stuffs (Amazon has AmazonSupply but it is greatly inferior)
        VLM 13y ago
        Well... sorta but I want to meta it into a generic online purchasing department for any activity. So as a kit designer, my lab experiment which anyone in the world can buy from the startup for $100 or whatever (of which I get 5% and the startup keeps 5%), needs an arduino, a A/D and D/A shield from some specialty electronics supplier (adafruit?) and a spool of copper wire, clipleads and connectors and stuff from generic supplier (jameco?) and some sticks of different metals like aluminum, copper, steel (onlinemetals.com?) and some rather generic glassware (carolina? VWR? Fischer? or downscale to a ceramic mug or flower pot?) and something like lemon juice in a can or maybe a wide variety of mostly harmless electrolytes like diet coke soda (amazon food department?) Whoops forgot to add a decent printed lab manual (lulu.com?) Ta da instant lets do introductory electrochemistry at home kit. Send the startup $100 in a single credit card charge, they keep $5, send $5 to me as designer/curator, and $90 goes to about 5 suppliers and boxes start arriving at the end users house. Now the magical startup wouldn't only do this project or only those suppliers, but it would middleman ... hundreds of kits maybe thousands? This is basically the drop ship retail model, but for small consumers and small orders instead of the more traditional use of drop shipping a 5 HP air compressor. Also I'd internationalize it, why not. So if you live in some weird country where shipping canned lemon juice is illegal, well, I guess its not available for purchase in that country. I don't personally want to do this. It sounds like a huge PITA and probably will fail and it'll be hard. Someone else can go right ahead, and I'll probably end up a project curator for a couple projects and most likely a buyer. Unless they try to grab something ridiculous like 50% as middleman, in which case I'd drop them like a hot potato.
BHSPitMonkey 13y ago
When placing any kind of order, you have to look at the seller's reputability and decide for yourself. This project appears to be coming out of a MIT Media Lab project (perhaps this could use confirmation), and the Heritage Chemistry Set is from what seems to be a well-respected shop. It might not be necessary to lump these projects together with other fly-by-night crowdfunding attempts.
JoeAltmaier 13y ago
Im confused. Is this a 'support our project' kind of site? Or a 'buy it now' site? Because it makes no sense to talk of getting ripped off if your intent is to support the idea and help out an inventor. Kickstarter tries to make this clearer. I see from this project that they couch everything as 'buying' not as 'supporting'.
- storborg 13y ago
  The site as a whole is a 'Support Our Project' site which is limited to hardware products, and projects turn into 'Buy It Now' when they are shipping. Projects are vetted to help ensure that the funding threshold is high enough for them to successfully deliver. In the case of these stickers, the development is already done. Unlike typical crowdfunding campaigns, the creator is not expecting backers to fund development or absorb the risk of unexpected engineering challenges, which is why the funding threshold is set at $1. Source: I have these on my desk, and they're awesome.
ChuckMcM 13y ago
Actually, in the circuit stickers case Bunnie is committed to shipping them (did you see the funding goal was $1 ?) This was more of a marketing move than a raise funds move.
- steven2012 13y ago
  Lockitron is also committed to shipping their product, but I still have no idea if I'm going to get it or not, or if it's going to be DOA on arrival.
  - icelancer 13y ago
    I'm almost ready to crow about Parallela as well. Waiting on my kit and the future is bleak.
    - ChuckMcM 13y ago
      Interesting I thought both the Parallela and the Lockitron were shipping. I see that Lockitron claims they will 'resume shipping' this month and shop.adapteva.com allows orders but is 'out of stock' of the parallela. Such a sad place to be.

csmuk 13y ago

You can always buy the Heritage Chemistry set bits separately. It's quite easy to obtain most chemicals and glassware worldwide.

VLM 13y ago
One startup idea which is either commercially nonviable (sounds likely) or is new, would be a startup which is basically a consumer level online internationalized purchasing department. So if you define a project called "teach my kid titration" it would understand how to get phenolphthalein and other indicators in Belgium, how to get a beaker in Texas (good luck), etc, and for a modest 10% fee of which they keep half and the designer keeps half, they make one CC charge and magically anywhere in the world boxes start arriving. This would be tremendously helpful with electronic projects, where I get a custom PCB from somebody, some obscure transistor from somewhere else, and COTS support parts from the "big 3" suppliers. Something tells me the agony of being a purchasing agent can't be abstracted away for a mere 5% commission. And how to intermediate, if at all, shipping, customs, and return disputes. Still, whatever it costs, it would be an interesting and probably worth it to some people.
- aroch 13y ago
  There is a ton of regulation involved with both intra- and inter-country chemical shipping and purchasing. There are some chemicals that are perfectly legal for normal people to own but not to purchase if you aren't an institution. There are chemicals that require specific handling and packaging, which when shipped internationally become "potential chemical weapons" and thus can carry life prison sentences if not done properly. We ship both live and dead cell cultures (both extremely pathogenic and relatively benign) that can pose severe risk even when dead. The few times I've had to do international shipments have been a pain in the ass with all the paperwork, special packaging, customs bullshit and then there's the agony of waiting for the shipment to clear US customs, then destination customs, then destination culture screening -- and we have lawyers of who deal with the paperwork for us!
  - VLM 13y ago
    Yes your employer, and maybe competitor like carolina, would be a good supplier in the US but to keep shipping agony to a minimum maybe some place in europe would ship to europeans. On the other hand amazon can probably ship blank unused new microscope slides anywhere in the world, so maybe they get to ship to .UK This kind of coordination of which supplier can ship what, where, would be what the proposed startup would do.
    - aroch 13y ago
      What you're thinking of already exists to a great extent -- look at Fischer/Thermo and VWR. They're the Amazon's of science-stuffs (Amazon has AmazonSupply but it is greatly inferior)
      - VLM 13y ago
        Well... sorta but I want to meta it into a generic online purchasing department for any activity. So as a kit designer, my lab experiment which anyone in the world can buy from the startup for $100 or whatever (of which I get 5% and the startup keeps 5%), needs an arduino, a A/D and D/A shield from some specialty electronics supplier (adafruit?) and a spool of copper wire, clipleads and connectors and stuff from generic supplier (jameco?) and some sticks of different metals like aluminum, copper, steel (onlinemetals.com?) and some rather generic glassware (carolina? VWR? Fischer? or downscale to a ceramic mug or flower pot?) and something like lemon juice in a can or maybe a wide variety of mostly harmless electrolytes like diet coke soda (amazon food department?) Whoops forgot to add a decent printed lab manual (lulu.com?) Ta da instant lets do introductory electrochemistry at home kit. Send the startup $100 in a single credit card charge, they keep $5, send $5 to me as designer/curator, and $90 goes to about 5 suppliers and boxes start arriving at the end users house. Now the magical startup wouldn't only do this project or only those suppliers, but it would middleman ... hundreds of kits maybe thousands? This is basically the drop ship retail model, but for small consumers and small orders instead of the more traditional use of drop shipping a 5 HP air compressor. Also I'd internationalize it, why not. So if you live in some weird country where shipping canned lemon juice is illegal, well, I guess its not available for purchase in that country. I don't personally want to do this. It sounds like a huge PITA and probably will fail and it'll be hard. Someone else can go right ahead, and I'll probably end up a project curator for a couple projects and most likely a buyer. Unless they try to grab something ridiculous like 50% as middleman, in which case I'd drop them like a hot potato.

BHSPitMonkey 13y ago

When placing any kind of order, you have to look at the seller's reputability and decide for yourself. This project appears to be coming out of a MIT Media Lab project (perhaps this could use confirmation), and the Heritage Chemistry Set is from what seems to be a well-respected shop. It might not be necessary to lump these projects together with other fly-by-night crowdfunding attempts.

JoeAltmaier 13y ago

Im confused. Is this a 'support our project' kind of site? Or a 'buy it now' site? Because it makes no sense to talk of getting ripped off if your intent is to support the idea and help out an inventor. Kickstarter tries to make this clearer. I see from this project that they couch everything as 'buying' not as 'supporting'.

storborg 13y ago
The site as a whole is a 'Support Our Project' site which is limited to hardware products, and projects turn into 'Buy It Now' when they are shipping. Projects are vetted to help ensure that the funding threshold is high enough for them to successfully deliver. In the case of these stickers, the development is already done. Unlike typical crowdfunding campaigns, the creator is not expecting backers to fund development or absorb the risk of unexpected engineering challenges, which is why the funding threshold is set at $1. Source: I have these on my desk, and they're awesome.

ChuckMcM 13y ago

Actually, in the circuit stickers case Bunnie is committed to shipping them (did you see the funding goal was $1 ?) This was more of a marketing move than a raise funds move.

steven2012 13y ago
Lockitron is also committed to shipping their product, but I still have no idea if I'm going to get it or not, or if it's going to be DOA on arrival.
- icelancer 13y ago
  I'm almost ready to crow about Parallela as well. Waiting on my kit and the future is bleak.
  - ChuckMcM 13y ago
    Interesting I thought both the Parallela and the Lockitron were shipping. I see that Lockitron claims they will 'resume shipping' this month and shop.adapteva.com allows orders but is 'out of stock' of the parallela. Such a sad place to be.