54: Oh the Hugh Manatee

Elizabeth Brenner (@eabrenner) returned to the show to talk about the are-you-ok widget that she and Elecia have been working on. (The initial problem-statement show is episode 17.)

There is now a SparkFun tutorial so you can build one of the are-you-ok widgets yourself. As announced in the show, there is a contest to get a SparkFun gift card, it ends 6/13/14 so get your answer in by then (maximum of two entries per person, please).

Elecia already took the name Sal Right out of the running (reference). In the photo below, are Maxwell, Hugh (Cation pattern!), Haley, and Grimes (from left to right) so those are all taken as well.

Noted on the show were two things El saw at the Solid Conference: 3D printed flexible materials from Kinematics and circuit stickers from Chibtronics. Also, we look forward to trying out the Fitbit channel for if-this-then-that (IFTTT) to see if that can monitor our loved ones too.

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BONUS: From Solid Con

Elecia attended O'Reilly's Solid Conference, recording a few of the people she met there. Note: this episode is recorded in a noisy location.

Also, thank you to O'Reilly for giving away copies of my book. 


53: Being a grownup engineer

Jack Ganssle shared his wisdom on being a good embedded software engineer (hint: it takes discipline). 

Jack's website is filled with great essays and new videos. He's also written the Art of Designing Embedded Systems and The Embedded Systems Dictionary (with Michael Barr).

We covered a lot of ground, here are some of the highlights:


51: There is no crying in strcpy

Jen Costillo (@r0b0ts0nf1r3) joins Elecia and Christopher to discuss their experiences interviewing (both as interviewer and interviewee).

Elecia did an hour long webinar on how to conduct technical interviews. In this show, she mentions a good post-interview ratings system.

Google discovered that their brainteasers are not a very effective way to interview.

Despite the news that swearing is good for you, we tried to bleep everything.

Also, it is minesweeper, not minefield. What were we thinking? It was obviously all Christopher’s fault. Though we should have stood up to him. 

Elecia's book has more interview questions but from the perspective of how do you ask a question and what do you look for in a response.

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50: The podcast formerly known as...

Christopher White (@stoneymonster) and Elecia celebrate a year in podcasting by talking about the show. Then they decide whether or not to change the name of the show to Embedded (yes).

Elecia's list of current and soon activities:

Other things they mentioned include an amazing anti-tremor spoon, using trampolines to go to space, how drinking the blood of youth will keep you young, oil sensing, and our consulting episode.

49: Is that an Arduino in your pocket

Tenaya Hurst (@ArduinoWoman) shares her incredible enthusiasm for teaching Arduino and the San Jose's Tech Museum of Innovation (The Tech).

Being a geo-anthrop-actress, Tenaya teaches chemistry, geology, Arduino, and beginning wearables for the Tech, for their Galileo summer camp, for Oakland's Workshop Weekend, and on her own recognizance through her website. 

Tenaya will be at the Linino booth at the Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA on May 17-18, 2014

Tenyana's movie credits

Lilypad sewable (washable!) electronics

Other places to connect: @TenayaRocks, @LininoWoman, and Google+

Penny Arcade Museum

Also noted, Elecia was interviewed in Circuit Cellar magazine, May 2014 (#286). In the first few minutes of this show, she gives a discount code for their store.

48: Widgets on the hands of ants

Dr. Kevin Shaw, CTO of Sensor Platforms, spoke with Elecia about his career progressing from designing MEMS to building a company that makes sensor fusion algorithms. Wandering from the Internet of Things to Singularity University to power management in Android development, Kevin and Elecia had a wide-ranging conversation.

Due in July, check out Sensor Platform's Open Sensor Platform project, an open source framework for developing sensor systems (sample timing is critical!). 

47: Bridge of toothpicks

Nathan Tuck joined Christopher White (@stoneymonster) and Elecia White to chat about varied topics relating to being an embedded (and graphics) engineer (and manager).

Nate works at NVidia on the Tegra K1-64. He mentioned some openings in his team at the end of the podcast, email the show to get a connection.

We also noted that Eyefluence is hiring for an EE and/or technician for work somewhere between San Jose, CA and Reno, NV. Direct resumes to Peter Milford using the email you find on their webpage (info @ ...). 

We asked if managers are sociopaths.

If you haven't seen The Expert tragicomedy sketch (7 perpendicular red lines...), you need to as it is becoming engineering vernacular.


45: Yanking on a cat's tail is the only way to learn

David Anders (Google+) joined Elecia to chat about open source hardware, what it means, how to do it, and why. 

Dave will be speaking at the embedded Linux conference in San Jose, CA on April 30th:

Open Source Hardware Association describes the gradient of open source hardware.

Sigrok looks at open source and open source friendly tools

Dave works for CircuitCo, manufacturers of the mysteriously elusive BeagleBone Black. While he didn't explain their absence (other than they are super popular for OEM'ing), he did announce the brand new Intel-based MinnowBoard MAX.

Some open source tools we discussed included Tin Can Tool's 40 pin DIP Linux processor, Flyswatter, and Flyswatter 2.

Also, check out Dave's past eLinux presentations.

 

44: Light Up strikes back

Josh Chan and Tarun Pondicherry, founders of Light Up (@Lightup or on Facebook), returned to the show. In episode 7, they were midway through their kickstarter, planning to make a product to teach electronics to elementary and middle school students. They've start shipping, even distributing, their MiniKits (other kits will ship soon!). 

Elecia asks them if building their business and shipping the product went according to plan. 

43: A lot of high-falutin’ math

Tony Rios from MEMSIC spoke with Elecia about inertial systems and tuning algorithms used in sensor fusion (i.e. Kalman). The IMU380 will appear soon, creating a whole line of relatively inexpensive quality inertial measurement and inertial navigation systems. 

Tony has a  few embedded systems and algorithms positions open, for example, embedded software engineer. Email hr@memsic.com (note you heard it in the podcast so Elecia gets brownie points). 

41: Pink universes die really quickly

Micah Elizabeth Scott (@scanlime) came to talk about Fadecandy, a really neat way to control smart LEDs (NeoPixel, AdaFruit's term for the WS2812). The conversation ranged from beautiful LED control algorithms and open source embedded projects to triangle tessellations, art, and identity. 

AdaFruit has a great intro to Fadecandy.

Fadecandy is open source hardware and software, see the repository.

Micah's blog is a combo of art and technology.

Burning Man's Ardent Mobile Cloud (also a lovely still pic).

Elecia also mentioned Deep Darc's hack of the GE Color Effects lights.


40: Mwahaha session

Evil Mad Scientist's Lenore Edman (@EMSL) talks about what evil mad scientists do on their path to world domination. Surprisingly, it consists largely of art, education, and soldering. 

Some EMS items we talked about:

We also mentioned Maker Faire, a wonderful community, and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.

There is a give away on this show: EMS's Snap-O-Lantern kit. Tweet to Elecia (@logicalelegance) or contact the show. Send in the name of the author of the final quote, first one to do so wins the kit! [Update: Matthew J has won the kit!]

39: I blame space

Jen Costillo (@r0b0ts0nf1r3) joined Elecia to talk about Jen's start-up: Bia Sport (@BiaSport). They discuss the difficulties of being in an underfunded start-up as well as the joys of shipping a new product and their upcoming conference talks.

Jen discussed the company's focus on safety and privacy at the DesignCon sponsored Geek Girl Dinner. She will be speaking at :

Elecia will also be speaking at EELive, on how the internet of things isn't serving consumers very well on Thursday, April 03, 2014 at 1pm, though the talk title keeps changing. 

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38: Blame the monkey

Producer Chris White (@stoneymonster) and Elecia discuss some insurmountable problems and some strategies for approaching them. 

  • Google it (or look on Stack Exchange).
  • Explain the problem to someone else… even if they aren't there (use a stuffed animal or write a really detailed email, anticipating potential questions).
  • Draw a picture (system/subsystem architecture or code block diagram or a doodle).
  • Make sure you are running what you think you are, start over from a blank slate, making no assumptions about how your hardware is programmed.
  • Identify and verify your assumptions about the all the pieces involved.
  • Get scientific: define the problem, create a hypothesis, run an experiment, record the results. Small steps! Also: get methodological and write everything down.
  • Return to first principals: how is this supposed to work?
  • Revert to last known good and diff to find the cause of a new issue.
  • Logging functions: they take time but can lead to a better trace, better picture.

  • Make it reproducible: there is information in the solution if you can find the steps to repro. Step by step, reduce the steps until you can nab it in the act. Remove the voodoo.

  • Avoidance: accept the bug (it's a feature!) and go on.
  • Sleep, go for a walk, or work on something else.


37: Surf's up

Dr. Karen Shell and Elecia talk about modelling vs. building models, ocean albedo vs. ice, climate vs. weather, and science vs. policy. They gloat about being on vacation only intermittently.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

NASA's climate change home 

Help run climate models on your home computer at climateprediction.net

Karen's class will be looking at data from NOAA's Climate at a Glance