90: Stick It in a Pumpkin

90: Stick It in a Pumpkin
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The Linker post for this Episode: Solving a Different Problem 

ThingM's Tod Kurt (@todbot) joined us to talk about the most important part of every embedded system: blinking lights.

ThingM has been making I2C lights (BlinkM, MinM and MaxM) since 2006. 

The newer, more productized USB light is the Blink(1) (there is a coupon near the end of the show). Blink(1) had two successful kickstarters (second one).

The BlinkMs have an ATTiny85 (which is also on the Adafruit Trinket). The Blink(1)s have a PIC processor that is small, cheap, and supports USB quite well (PIC16F1455-I/ML and dev kit).

Other smart LEDs include WS28xx  (aka NeoPixel) and APA102 (aka DotStar)

Seeed Studio was discussed as a way to get boards built, assembled, even housed. Elecia mentioned Tindie's new CM review site.

Tod is cofounder of Crash Space (@CrashSpaceLA), a Los Angeles based hackspace. They (including Tod) were on the short-lived Mythbusters-hosted Rube Goldberg devices show called Unchained Reaction.

Tod has worked on some neat art projects, including the Crystal Monster and the Cash Machine.

Tod's blog.

Speaking of blogs, Chris and Elecia are going to start writing after (podcast) action reports for Element 14. More announcements (and actual links) soon.

Don't forget the Chris Savage (Parallax) call for assistance!

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89: I Have New Batteries

89: I Have New Batteries
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Chris Savage (@SavageCircuits) talks about building a community and about stopping projects when life intrudes.

His site is Savage Circuits. He has a YouTube channel. He has Savage Circuit TV which are the longer, more in depth videos and Short Circuit for the shorter ones. Also see his forums.

Chris works for Parallax and had some kit suggestions: BOE-BOT (board of education bot), its successor the ActivityBot, and the ELEV-8 Quadcopter Kit. Chris is also a writer for Nuts and Volts.

At the top of the show, we mentioned Chris' wife. Here is Ken Gracey's request for help. Or you can skip that and use the PayPal link on the Savage Circuits thank you page. (No PayPal account required.)

88: Science Is a Lot like Quilting

88: Science Is a Lot like Quilting
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Same day PCBs?!?  Danielle Applestone (@dapplestone) chatted with Chris and Elecia about desktop CNC milling using @OtherMachine's OtherMill. 

OtherMill links:

Synthetos TinyG controller (also see the Make write up about TinyG)

BANT (budget, authority, need, timing): more info

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87: Make My Own Steel Foundry

Chip Gracey spoke with us about founding @ParallaxInc, chip design, and the Propeller with its many cores.

Parallax

Some notes on open sourcing the Propeller

Propeller One Verilog forum

Propeller products

Elecia has a very old Propeller Starter kit but is tempted to get the PropStick USB.

Many years ago, Chris got a Basic Stamp 2 module (like this one) to control a camera in his RC airplane:

87: Make My Own Steel Foundry
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86: Madeupical Word

Erin McKean (@emckean) is a lexicographer, programmer, and start-up founder.  We spoke to her about Wordnik (the online uber dictionary), Reverb (smarter recommendations), and her many books.

Wordnik:

Reverb

Erin has written many books, some about words, one about dresses (The Hundred Dresses), and one fiction novel about The Secret Lives of Dresses. She has also given two TED talks.

Watson on Jeopardy

Brian Garner talks about skunked words in his book  Modern American Usage

Five Intriguing Things via Tiny Letter [Feb 2, 2015: This link is broken today but it is the right link, google "Five Intriguing Things" to see if they've fixed it.]

Elecia's Wordy project if fully documented over on Hackaday

Reaction Housing is hiring!

86: Madeupical Word
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85: Stalked by Hoopers and Engineers

Scott Miller built a hula hoop with Bluetooth, an inertial measurement unit, a 32-bit processor, an 8-bit processor, and a slew of individually addressable LEDs. It makes wild patterns when you move.

Scott's "normal" company, with all of its ham radio equipment, is Argent Data Systems. The hula hoops are Hyperion Hoops. 

You can buy a hoop. They are also on Facebook or you can watch the mesmerizing lightshow on YouTube (also here and here). 

Yes, the hula hoop does speak DMX512, doesn't everybody?

Reaction Housing is hiring!

85: Stalked by Hoopers and Engineers
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84: You Can't Make Money Taking Tests

The founders of Bluestamp Engineering spoke with us about running a hands-on summer engineering program for high school students (while keeping their day jobs).

Bluestamp website, Twitter (@BlueStampEng), YouTube channel full of student projects and Facebook page. 

Dave Young (@daveyoungEE) is also the principal engineer at Young Circuit Design.

Robin Mansukhani is also CEO of Alzeca. Robin also gave a TED talk about learning by doing.

84: You Can't Make Money Taking Tests
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83: The First Time I Was Electrocuted

Raman Pi creator Mark Johnson (@flatCat_) spoke with us about spectrometers, 3D printing, and competing in the Hackaday Prize. 

Raman Pi project on Hackaday.io

Hackaday prize semi-finalist video

Mike Szczys' Fl@c@ bio on Hackaday.com

Open Source Fusor Research Consortium

Wikipedia: spectrometer, Raman spectroscopy, fusors, and optical coherence tomography

Weird Stuff is a Bay area electronics surplus store

Raman Pi also has its own website

83: The First Time I Was Electrocuted
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82: I Was a Chewbacca Person

Jen, Chris, and Elecia talk about the movies that influenced them to go into engineering.

Real Genius (imdb, Amazon)

Star Wars (imdb, Amazon)

Choose Your Own Adventure books (Amazon, wiki)

Wargames (imdb, Amazon)

Ghostbusters (imdb, Amazon)

Star Trek: The Next Generation (imdb, Amazon)

321 Contact, show and magazine (imdb (tv))

The Muppets Show (imdb, Amazon)

Sneakers (imdb, Amazon)

Phineas and Ferb (imdb, Amazon)

Sisterhood of Spies (Amazon)

Crytonomicon (Amazon)

82: I Was a Chewbacca Person
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81: Two of Those People Can’t Be Ducks

Chris and Elecia babble up a show about gifts, conferences, and makers.

Embedded Systems Conference is put on by UBM. The conference is in Boston May 6-7, 2015, Santa Clara July 20-22, and Minneapolis November 4-5. The Santa Clara proposal deadline is January 9th.

O'Reilly's Solid Conference is June 22-25 in San Francisco. Proposals are due January 12th.

Fitbit Surge (Amazon)

Kerbal Space Program and some controllers and telemetry boards from other people

CrossyRoad is on iOS and Android (This is bad, do not start. Also unihorse is the best!)

Elecia's Wordy project on Hackaday

Magnetoception in humans is controversial (wiki) but the magnetometer/motor anklet is neat.

81: Two of Those People Can't Be Ducks
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80: Most of Us Are Human Beings

Bill Winterberg (@BillWinterberg) chatted with Elecia about leaving embedded engineering to become a financial planner then to being a technology adviser to other financial planners. 

Bill's company is FPPad. You can subscribe to his newsletter and watch Bits and Bytes, his video blog (or read it).

Bill and Elecia met at LeapFrog. Bill was instrumental in making the original LeapPad Learning System.

When Elecia mentioned Domini Social Investments, Bill mentioned Vanguard Total Stock Market.

Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance In Your Twenties and Thirties

Financial adviser networks:

Robo-advisor (automated investment management)

Bill says: "It shouldn't be this hard for smart engineers."

80: Most of Us Are Human Beings
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78: Happy Cows

78: Happy Cows
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Chris Svec (@christophersvec) has an idea about adding empathy to software development. It is a good idea.

His blog is Said Svec. He works for iRobot and they are hiring. (Chris' email is given toward the end of the show but if you hit the contact link here, we'll pass along info to him.) 

Obligatory cat video

Embedded has an episode devoted to impostor syndrome. 

O'Reilly's Head First book series is pretty awesome.

Elecia is still talking about Thinking, Fast and Slow as a great way to understand brains. Chris Svec also recommends Make It Stick.

The Richard Hamming quote came from his address to the Naval Postgraduate School. The whole lecture is available on YouTube.

77: Goldfish, Fetch My Slippers!

77: Goldfish, Fetch My Slippers!
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Sophi Kravitz (@SophiKravitz, G+) joined us to talk about working on neat things: Wobble World, Oculus Rift, Unity, goldfish training, and BlueStamp Engineering.

Sophi's company is Mix Engineering

Leap Motion vs. Microsoft Kinect

Goldfish driving (vid)

Quit Your Day Job on Element14, previously on Super Green Dot

Advertising in SkyMall

Thermoelectric Firestarter

 

75: End up in a Puppy Fight

Glenn Scott and Nacho Solis spoke with Elecia about content-centric networking, being research scientists, and working at PARC.

[Note: Elecia was the recording engineer and her inexperience showed by not hitting that other little button on the software. Nacho's mic ended up bad but Chris mostly fixed it... the sound gets better after the first five minutes.]

Twitter: Nacho (@isolis), CCN (@projectccnx), and PARC (@PARCInc) 

CCNX website (includes contact link)

CCN enabled Riot OS

75: End up in a Puppy Fight
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74: All of Us Came in Sixth

John Schuch (@JohnS_AZ) talked with us about being a semifinalist in the Hackaday Prize, his project, and entering other contests.

John's webpage

John's Hackaday Page

Winning Entry on Mouser 500 Challenge

Honorable Mention on Circuit Cellar's ChipKit2012

Many contests are announced on Circuit Cellar and searching the EEVBlog forums.

IRC channel mentioned is TYMKRS

74: All of Us Came in Sixth
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73: That's a Waste of Bits

Christopher and Elecia look through listener email, check in on what past guests are up to, and consider the best and worst of science in recent fiction. 

Hackaday Prize Finalists (and the 50 Semiinalists)

Saleae Logic Pro 16 (related: Drive the Boat with a Wii Mote)

Darma Kickstarter (related: Resonant Frequency of My Butt)

Peep sign up to be notified of their Kickstarter (related: Vision for Simple Minds)

EMSL Halloween round up and open house on Nov 13 (related: Mwahahaha Session)

Silicon Chef Hackathon results (related: Dancing with Hundreds of Women)

Pan-CJK fonts (related: The Tofu Problem)

The Martian (Amazon) (There is a tiny spoiler, one Elecia doesn't think merits the warning but Christopher says to skip 55:00 to 01:02:55 if you want to read the book cold.)

Don's I Snooze Remote

73: That's a Waste of Bits
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72: This is My NASA Phone

Emile Petrone (@emilepetrone) talked with Chris and Elecia about Tindie: buying, selling, changing the rate of hardware innovation, having a burgeoning start up, connecting government agencies to craft electronics, etc. 

We talked about many amazing projects on Tindie but there were so many, it is hard to call them out. Arduboy and AirPi Raspberry Pi weather station are two that stood out.

72: This is My NASA Phone
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71: Dirty Your Mindscape

Intellectual property attorney Judith Szepesi (@Judith_IP) discusses what Elecia (and startups) need to know about patenting.

Judith is a founding partner at HIPLegal, LLP. They will soon have a guide to addressing patent trolls (link to be added when available).

Ask Patents - a Stack Exchange site to discuss patents (and patent trolls) 

Judith and Elecia both recommend the Patent It Yourself book from NOLO Press (always get the latest of this). Even if you seek legal counsel, you'll have a better idea of what should happen through the process. [Note: we got to talking after the show and Judith reminded me that if you do research for other people's patents, you should track that because you have an obligation to tell the patent office about whatever you are aware of that is relevant. -El]

71: Dirty Your Mindscape
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