Practical Tools and Wise Quotes on All Matters Creative

About this site

 
 Who are you? | Who are we? | Our philosophy | Intellectual property | Disclaimer
 

So what's this site about? You might well guess from the URL. It's about creativity, being creative, inventing, innovating, managing creativity and so on. 

Who are you?

So who are you, the peruser of this site? you might be an engineer looking for ways to invent new products, or perhaps you are a facilitator who helps others get the best out of their brains.

Whoever you are, creativity is of significant interest to you.

Who are we?

We are mostly Me. My name is David Straker and I have worked in creative fields for longer than I care to think. I have written a number of books, including two on problem-solving and one on inventing. I spent many years in R&D (hardware and software) where I even won a few patents for my employers. Since the 90s, I have been a business consultant and have trained people in blue-chip companies around the world.

What's In It For Us

Why? you might be asking. Why would someone put all the work into this site to give away their hard-won secrets?

Putting together this site give us several benefits:

• We like to help people. That is what consulting is all about. That what this site is about.
• Books have a certain reach. The web goes further.
• This is also an experiment in publishing. As a donation- and ad-supported site, maybe we can get enough revenue to do it full time...
• It's fun! But then work is always fun if you decide that it is.

Technical philosophy

Technical-wise, the philosophy is 'quick and easy'. You'll find limited graphics, which means fast-loading pages. We also aim to cross-link the site, making good use of the hyperlinking capabilities of the web.

There aren't a lot of graphics: they slow downloads. Where they are used, the download size is minimized, for example by using a one-bit plane. 

Color interest is achieved through fonts and backgrounds (although most text is high-contrast black-on-white).

On the 'how wide should the columns be' question, we listened to the arguments then decided to let you decide. If you fill the screen, the text will follow. If you like narrower columns, then hey, the web interfaces are designed to make the text follow you!!

Intellectual property

The words here are copyright but you are free to use them for non-commercial purposes and of course you can link to anything here (that's what the internet is about!). If you want to use anything for commercial purposes, including use with a company intranet, please contact us so we can create a win-win agreement (we may even be able to add further value for you).

If you want to reference anything on the site, or link to it, there is no need to ask for permission (we have had several kind requests about this). All content is written by David Straker unless otherwise indicated.

As a content-oriented site, we necessarily refer to what other people have done, but do so with the belief that we are not treading on any toes. Our general approach is to only use information that is available from more than one source and is not attributed to an particular person or organization. Most books are written this way - there is very little new knowledge created. If you are the owner of any copyright, etc. and want anything changed or removed, please contact us and we will be pleased to correct things.

Disclaimer

Whilst we have taken as much care as possible to make this site accurate, with appropriate references and so on, we cannot guarantee that everything is perfect or complete. Please contact us if you know anything to be incorrect. We also make no claims about site availability or development. Whilst we will constantly do our best to keep the site going, if disaster strikes then the site might one day stop being updated or disappear. It's a life's work and there should be a few decades before the old dog kicks the bucket, so fingers crossed, it should keep going for many years to come.