Kickstarter, Open Source RC & Modelsource - Facinorous Financial Foulness

[display_podcast]

For those interested, there is also now a transcript available for episode 118

This week Chris and Dave get talking about the intersection of money and electronics and all the craziness that can ensue.

• Yes, Chris still has far too many web sites, many of which are dormant.
  • Chip Report TV is going strong, there's a new one available. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uOmNP-J4e8
  • ChrisGammell.com just got a refresh, though is the same content.
  • Engineer Blogs is dying, much to Dave's disappointment.
  • Chris's other podcast, The Engineering Commons, is going strong and has new episodes every 2 weeks.
  • And if that weren't bad enough, Chris is talking about starting a kickstarter! What a nutjob.

• Would you start your own Kickstarter? Why or why not?
• The Open Source RC project is not going to continue development.
• A123 has also declared bankruptcy and sold its assets to Johnson Controls. There's an article detailing what went wrong there.
• Solyndra also folded, but more likely due to designing for the wrong variable: the price of polysilicon.
• The Altium Founder and CEO has gotten the boot from the board of directors.
• Boards of directors are in it for the shareholders, no one else. NXP is pondering splitting the company. Hope it doesn't affect our designs!
• Design Spark did a website refresh and has a (new?) feature called Modelsource that allows you to download footprints for a variety of CAD software.
• There are other paid systems that are out there, like Ultra Librarian from Accelerated Designs, but is it worth it?
• James Dyson has invested $8 million in a student incubator. Would you spend your fortune on something like this?
• Do you need to remain a CTO to make it as a nerd, even if you start your own company? Is Bob Dobkin (from LT) able to survive because he's kept doing the tech stuff he loves?
• adafruit has bootstrapped their own space and it looks huge and awesome! Photos by @bekathwia. Congrats!
• Amazon rumored to be looking at buying the OMAP line from TI? Does this make sense?
• Cool BGA routability guidelines from Xilinx. Looks like artwork!
• Dave had never heard of a Rorschach Test. Chris had really only known about it because of The Watchmen :-)
• What kind of Myers Brigg personality are you? Take the test here and then let us know below.

Thanks to espensorvik for the picture of the money, phone and coke.