Abstract: A game simulating business startup to initial public offering includes a board, business plans, playing pieces, cards and money. At the beginning of the game, the players fill out the beginning of a business plan. During the game, the players guide the business through four stages in order to form the business, build the management team, obtain funding, hire employees, locate office space, develop a product, market the product, hire lawyers and investment bankers, and deal with the securities and exchange commission. If successful, the company reaches IPO and the player calculates the net worth of the company. The board is square and divided into four stages. Each stage has a number of spaces and a respective goal to be accomplished during the stage, and each stage represents a point along a path from business startup to initial public offering. A numbers of playing pieces are provided and each player chooses a piece.

Abstract: A computer system for displaying terrain, weather and aviation information includes a terrain database, an aviation map database, a weather database, an air traffic database, an airplane specific database and a route database. A processor is coupled to the terrain database, the aviation map database, the weather database, the air traffic database, the airplane specific database and the route database and configured to determine a position and heading of an airplane over the terrain based on the route database, to compute terrain information, aviation map information, air traffic information and weather information relative to the airplane and to compute and display flight parameters associated with the airplane using the airplane specific database. Advantages of the invention include the ability to supply a pilot with information that he can use to visualize his flight and approach to the destination airport.

Abstract: An automatic golf ball dispenser includes a housing having a substantially horizontal top and a plurality of substantially vertical sides. Within the housing is a storage bin and track configured to receive a plurality of golf balls and to deliver the golf balls to a feed mechanism. The feed mechanism includes a meter configured to dispense a single golf ball for each movement of the meter. An arm mounted on a pivot retrieves the single golf ball from the feed mechanism and places the golf ball at a predetermined location for a golfer to hit the golf ball. A sensor is located nearby to indicate when another golf ball should be dispensed. A controller is also contained within the housing and configured to accept currency, where the controller is electrically connected to the sensor and responsive to the sensor, and where the controller is also electrically connected to an arm motor to control the movement of the arm.

Abstract: A belt drive transmission is disclosed which comprises a first gear, a second gear and a belt. The preferred embodiment is for a bicycle transmission which employs a plurality of gears in place of said first and second gears and employs a derailer to move the belt among selected gear ratios. A novel design of gears and a derailer permits the transmission to employ lighter materials thereby reducing the overall weight associated with a transmission.