Hardware, Surveys and Giveaways - Radular Rental Ranting

[display_podcast]

• The patent company Dave interviewed with was Silverbrook
• Do you release your BOM to vendors, distributors and others, even with an NDA?
• Sometimes it's a tradeoff with how much info you can release. The Raspberry Pi project needed to hold some info back in order to protect distributors that were getting them pricing that allowed them to succeed.
• There are shades of gray in how you do your manufacturing and how much info you release for your OSHW project. Dave reminds us of the unwritten rules of OSHW:

• There is a new non-profit dedicated to geting more people to learn how to code called Code.org. Kind of odd video, but great intentions!
• Hardware will still be necessary though (and hopefully high paying!). This stuff always ebbs and flows like the boom in hiring IT professionals in the 90s.
• SXSW has a bunch of startups that are focusing on hardware!
• MakerBot is one of the prominent hw companies there this week, as well as past guest of The Amp Hour, Jeremy Blum.
• Jeremy was not only making fun quips about the silliness of social media startups down there, but also has been working on the newly announced MakerBot 3D scanner.
• A recent article from The Economist talks about how sacks of potatoes can be used to simulate human beings sitting in airplane seats for RF testing.
• Another Economist article mentioned the sharing economy, citing established companies like AirBnB and RideShare and many new software entrants to the market.
• Could this kind of thing exist for Test and Measurement equipment?
• Dave says it already does for T&M rental companies, but he doesn't think it's a great business.
• Speaking of sharing, Intel will soon be acting as a foundry for Altera, which could have other large scale implications for the company.
• Is it stealing hardware if you bought the lowest end model and unlock other functionality that was built in (poorly)? Check out the EEVblog forum thread that brought up this topic.
• The White House recently responded about the legality of unlocking cell phones, which could have implications for other things we buy.
• Would Rigol have sold as many scopes if certain people hadn't talked about how to unlock the 100 MHz mode?

• The Engibous contest from TI is starting again soon for college students. Win up to $10K...and maybe a job.
• Chris has finally begun cutting metal on his milling machine!

• This can be the prize for Dave's potential design contest!
• Found on Hacker News: Another site that is dedicated to decapping chips and seeing what is inside of them.
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