Research it first...

If there's something I've learned the hard way more than once, it's that if you've thought of something, chances are good, in fact they're better than good, that someone else has beat you to it.

I'm not saying you might not have thought of something original, it's entirely possible, but you'll never know until you look it up first.

I've got some good links on the right side of my blog, so go there if you haven't found anything yet, but if you're like the rest of the world these days, you can just use google and that will suffice 9 times out of 10.

To reiterate, whether you've thought up a new gadget, a new algorithm, or a whole new pattern, I recommend looking for it first on the web. Think about what you've invented, and think about it hard. Not everyone names things the same so try to figure out the core of what your ivention is, and try to think up at least 3 or 4 names for it. Now go out and search for it!

Chances are you'll find someone else has already put some thought into it, and heck, maybe there's even an OSS project around it to get you started.

There's nothing worse than NIH syndrome, so do your research first and spend your time advancing the state-of-the-art, not re-stating what's already been done.