Embedded

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]

Rob Faludi (@Faludi), author of Building Wireless Sensor Networks and chief innovator at Digi International, spoke with us about Zigbee, writing, and experimenting. Rob's blog Books we talked about: Building Wireless Sensor Networks (of course!) Creativity, Inc. Make: Wearable Electronics

Mike Szczys (@Szczys) discusses @Hackaday, the SPACE! prize, being a professional musician, and visiting Silicon Valley. Hackaday.com blog including Mike's post about Why Open Design is the way forward Hackaday.io project site Hackaday Prize All entries 50 semifinalists Science fiction contest winners (previous contest) Mike was on the judging panel to winnow down from 800 entries to 50. Some projects that he thought were particularly awesome that didn't make the semifinalist cut. Intelligent Ski Course Taylor Multifuel Null-rotor Turbine V-Sink -- video in anything out (not discussed) Daisy Kite Airborne Wind Turbine (not discussed) Supply Frame FindChips and (upcoming) Parts.io In response to a listener question, Elecia wrote a blog post about things to do in Silicon Valley. When Mike visited for the first time, he caught many highlights: he went toHSC/Halted, enjoying how organized it is, woke up early for the De Anza electronics flea market, and had a ball at the Computer History Museum. Mike's Science Friday segment

Angie Chang (@thisgirlangie) joined us to talk about the coding bootcamp Hackbright Academy, their upcoming hardware hackathon, Girl Geek Dinners, and the extreme awkwardness of networking. Sign up to be a hackathon mentor (not gender limited) or to be on the waitlist to attend (women only). Get your team together on Hackathon IO. Sign up to be a Hackbright Academy mentor. Oh look! Elecia signed up to speak on Sunday! Grace Hopper Conference The article on Peter Thiel and women founders by Kate Losse that Chris referenced toward the end of the show.

In front of a live audience, Chris and Elecia talk about their experiences with FAA and FDA. This show was recorded live in front of the Silicon Valley Automotive Open Source meetup group at Hacker Dojo. The Wikipedia article on DO-178B is a good place to get an overview of the FAA process (even for other levels of concern). For FDA, their guidance is the best place to start. Also see their 510k information. Finally, note that all class III (3, very high risk) require the more difficult Premarket Approval (PMA) process. Everything we know about car safety certification, we learned by reading Wikipedia's ISO-26262, including Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL). Jack Ganssle's Embedded.fm episode was Being a Grownup Engineer.

Jack Gassett (@gadgetfactory) is the creator of the open source FPGA Papiliodevelopment board. He joins Chris and Elecia to answer the age-old question of how to get started with FPGAs. Jack's company is Gadget Factory. Chris got the Papilio Pro and Arcade MegaWing. Recommended reading: Mike Field's book Introducing the Spartan 3E FPGA and VHDL (FREE! With code!) Mealy and Tappero's Free Range VHDL (FREE!) Sundar Rajan's Essential VHDL : RTL Synthesis Done Right Roger Tokheim Digital Electronics: Principles and Applications Thomas Floyds Digital Logic Fundamentals (also see the latest edition) Chris and Elecia will be recording live at Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, CA on Monday, September 8, 2014 at 7 P.M. RSVP!

Darma (@Darma_inc) is a nascent start-up focusing on optical sensors in a seat cushion to aid in posture, stress reduction, and meditation. Chris and Elecia speak with CEO Dr. Junhao Hu and Sharif Kassatly about building a company, going through the Haxlr8r's accelerator program, and choosing a crowd funding platform. Keep up with Darma on their webpage and on their Facebook page. One of their advisors is NASA's Dr. Joan Vernikos, author of Sitting Kills, Moving Heals.

WHOOPS! We didn't record Elecia's mic this week and are taking a track direct from Chris' computer mic. Sound quality is not up to our normal standards. Sorry! Chris (@stoneymonster) hosted the show, asking Elecia (@logicalelegance) what it was like to write her Making Embedded Systems book. (Thanks to Chris Svec for the request!) Put in your idea to O'Reilly Write a novel this November with NaNoWriMo Come hear Chris and Elecia talk about writing software that can kill you at Hacker Dojo in Mountain View on Monday September 8, 2014, 7pm. Sign up! Also, bonus quotes: "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." - Benjamin Franklin "Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being." - A. A. Milne

Steve Dalton (@spidie) told us about starting a hackerspace, visiting Silicon Valley with a homebrew incubator group, and tech and fencing Australia. Gold Coast Tech Space started off building the Rep Rap 3D printer Steve's consulting group is Refactor Silicon Lakes incubator just opened a call for applications to the SURF accelerator. The Arduino-like GCDuino, available on Little Bird Rabbits are not indigenous and not appreciated in Australia. They have the rabbit proof fenceand the Easter Billby.

Josh Bleecher Snyder (@offbymany) joined us to talk about PayPal's Beacon, being acquired, the Go programming language, BTLE, computer vision, and working at a large company after founding small ones. Bluetooth Low Energy: A Developer's Handbook by Robin Heydon TI CC2540 BTLE module Learning OpenCV: Computer Vision by Gary Bradski and Adrian Kaehler Gatt is a Go package for building Bluetooth Low Energy peripherals (video description by Josh from GopherCon 2014) Card.io Machine learning's Theano Eigen Library for matrix math

Jen Costillo (@rebelbotJen) brings Fashion Professor Kyle Chan to discuss wearables from a different perspective. California College of the Arts' Summer Series: Design of Wearables. Jen and Kyle's session isFashionably Practical on Wedneday, August 6th, 2014 8:15pm-10pm in San Francisco. Sparkfun conductive ribbon and thermochromatic pigment (blue) Athos athletic body monitoring Cute Circuit's photonic couture Smoke dress (neat!) Necomimi: thought controlled cat ear headband Reebok Checklight for detecting concussions and the Adafruit teardown Hövding scarf airbag for cyclists

Jason Kridner (@Jadon) joined us to talk about the BeagleBone Black... and other things. Some good books for Beagle : Bad to the Bone: Crafting Electronics Systems with Beaglebone and BeagleBone Black(co-authored by Jason) Getting Started with BeagleBone: Linux-Powered Electronic Projects With Python and JavaScript Programming the BeagleBone Black: Getting Started with JavaScript and BoneScript More comprehensive list of BeagleBone resources BotSpeak - A programming language for internet endpoints To contact Jason about ordering a bunch of units for your OEM use, see his contact info on BeagleBoard.org's About page.

Chris and Elecia went on vacation so this week we have music for you: the Ballistic Cats will be releasing a new album soon! If you like it, please check out the Ballistc Cats website. This album will be officially released on August 15, 2014.

Craig Sullender of ChipSight joined Elecia and Christopher to talk about machine, computer, and embedded vision. Craig's $20 Vision System – IoTcam Lighting control demos Slides on embedded CV technology Peep, a camera for your door'd peephole (soon to be on Kickstarter) Lattice Mach X02 O'Reilly's Practical Computer Vision with SimpleCV

Joe Grand (@JoeGrand) spoke with us about his life as Kingpin, hardware hacking, hosting a TV show, and being a Hackaday judge. Joe's company is the Grand Idea Studio. His TV show Prototype This was on the Discovery Channel. He created an Atari game: SCSIcide. Joe will be giving his hardware hacking training at Black Hat USA in August (as well as some of the other security conferences in also Las Vegas at that time). Joe and Elecia are on the Hackaday Prize judging panel. There are some amazing projects if you want to check out your competition (or vote for the ones you like!).

Ken Milnes talked to Elecia and Chris about his career developing augmented reality for sports broadcasting. SportVision MLB Stats

Matt Haines (@beardedinventor) and Tom Byrne (@tlbyrn) spoke to Elecia and Chris about Electric Imp (@electricimp). This discussion goes far beyond our first with Matt (Episode 6!). It is more software and implementation oriented than last week's Amp Hour. In the vein of "what do I do after I've made an LED blink from a webpage?": Tom's Neopixel Weather project (instructable!) Mars Curiosity rover that mirrors what is happening on Mars (provide your own Martian) Elecia's are-you-ok widget Sparkfun tutorial, thanking Matt for his help with cleaning (ahem, re-writing) the code Electric Imp github repository, including the extensive webservices page Hackathon entry Twitch controls a HexBot via Electric Imp led to an excited discussion of Twitch Plays Pokemon Matt's Hackaday Prize (SPACE!) entry that uses an Imp to show when the ISS is overhead MakeDeck is making Electric Imp dev kits for OEM development. Imp page devoted to the question under Next Steps (also, the new Squirrel documents mentioned on the show are up!) Finally, the SparkFun contest winner was announced. There were many great entries, choosing a winner was difficult. Ken M (@Deamiter) won the grand prize. Luckily, Matt and Tom brought two April board + Electric Imp sets to give away so Chris Svec (@christophersvec) and Alex Irvine (@EternalPractice) were runners up. Thank you to all who participated, your ideas were awesome and we loved to hear about them.

Radhika Thekkath, CEO of Agivox, joined Elecia to talk about her start up, entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, and getting NSF SBIR grants. Contact Radhika SBIR home page

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.

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. Erin Mulcahy at littleBits (@littleBits), magnetic electronics modules Jack Mudd at Onewheel (@RideOnewheel), powered sort-of skateboard with only one wheel and auto-balancing Laurie Yoler from Qualcomm, she spoke on Intelligent Connectivity. It's What's Next Taylor Stein from AutoDesk, a Fusion 360 evangelist (free for hobbyists!) Ahmed Daoud from Playtabase, makers of Reemo Terrence McKenna of Panoptes ("No drone is safe until it is a Panoptes UAV.") Michael Holdmann at Coversant, on XMPP communications protocol Also, thank you to O'Reilly for giving away copies of my book.

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: Spark language Capers Jones on high quality software and associated statistics Joel on Software test for good teams LDRA unit test tool James Grenning's Test Driven Development for Embedded C

Elecia spoke with Micheal Worry, CEO of Nuvation, about engaging with and working at a design firm. Disco Fish, the autonomous Burning Man party vehicle Udacity course in autonomous vehicles ROS is Willow Garage's robot operating system Contact Nuvation at their website or on twitter (@Nuvation). Contact Disco Fish and its build buddies on Facebook.

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.

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: Hackaday Prize (SPACE!!!!!) and snooping on current entries Element14 blog based on her EELive Internet of Things talk Shopping list for the are-you-ok widget first discussed on Elizabeth's episode Circuit Cellar interview Going to SOLID conference 5/21 in SF (we didn't mention this, thought I'd sneak it in) Sophi Kravitz blog 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.

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.

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!).

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.

Jennelle Crothers (@jkc137) explained to Elecia what a technology evangelist does. Of course, it wasn't an embedded technology but it was still amusing. Plus, Elecia got to play with a Surface Pro. Check out Jennelle's blog Jennelle and Elecia met at She's Geeky in Mountain View, CA.

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: 9:00am: Panel: IoT and the Role of Embedded Linux and Android 4:20pm: Hardware Debugging Tools 5:20pm: Debugging - Panel Discussion 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.

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.

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 [email protected] (note you heard it in the podcast so Elecia gets brownie points).

Christopher White (@stoneymonster) and Elecia talk about the failed startups (and projects) they've been through, focusing on identifying how to discern the end is nigh. A nice collection of startups introspecting their failure. Wonderful, in-depth Everpix post-mortem. If you liked this episode, try 24: I AM A TOTAL FRAUD.

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.

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 EMSL items we talked about: LED Menorah kit (solderless breadboard and soldering version). ATtiny2313 Target Boards Bristlebot: a very cute, easy to build mini robot 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!]

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 : Wearables Device Conference. Beyond Activity Trackers: Sport Wearables Thursday, March 6, 2014 3:15pm. (Use the coupon code COSTILLO to save 30%.) EELive's embedded systems conference. Battle Out of Painted Corner, Thursday, April 03, 2014 10:45am. EELive's EE Times Fantastical Theater of Engineering Innovation (in the Expo, free!): Bia Sport Teardown. Time TBD. (With Elecia!) 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.

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.

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

Elecia gushes about her favorite logic (and protocol) analyzer to Saleae co-founder Mark Garrison. They also discuss start-ups, manufacturing, and covering yourself with rum and pretending to be a pirate when harbor patrol arrives. Saleae Logic 8 on Amazon (or from Saleae) Saleae Logic 16 on Amazon (or from Saleae) Space X reusable rocket video Saleae's blog talks about Mark and Joe's boat, start here The mooshimeter multimeter (as seen on Hackaday and Dragon Innovation)

Want to learn how to get from idea to schematic, through layout, all the way to physical boards? Elecia spoke with Chris Gammell about his Contextual Electronics course to teach the missing steps between what an EE learns in college and what an design engineer's job entails. Chris is co-host of the excellent electronics podcast The Amp Hour and author of Chris Gammell's Analog Life. On twitter, contact Chris via @Chris_Gammell or ask questions about the course @ContextualElec. We mentioned UT Austin's online embedded systems course which starts soon as well. Contextual Electronics includes some in-depth KiCad instruction. Some intro (and free) KiCad tutorials: Chris' Getting to Blinky Series teho Labs Wayne and Layne Curious Inventor

Elecia describes to Christopher (@stoneymonster) how to design and create a firmware update mechanism. Hilarity ensues. 4k PC emulator Making Embedded Systems, the book, on O'Reilly (coupon in last 2 minutes of the show) or on Amazon.

Alison Chaiken (Google+) and Elecia discuss what you need to know to get into development for the automotive market. Check out Alison's she-devel site for a big list of links and resources or go to a Silicon Valley Automotive Open Source Group meetup to say hello. A small subset: Open source engine management system on DIYEFI Car hacking site MP3 Car Vehicle standards ISO-26262 CORRECTION: In the show, Elecia talks about airplane certification levels as though only the size of the plane matters. As listener Burko points out, the certification level also depends on how critical the subsystem is. Those seatback tray tables don't have to be certified to DO178A, but the artificial horizon does.]

Patrick Kane (@PSoC_Nation) is the director of the Cypress University Alliance, working with colleges to provide development kits and information to college (and high school) students. Happily, Patrick brought Elecia a new dev kit: CY8CKIT-042.

Producer Christopher (@stoneymonster) joins Elecia to look through their mailbag and talk about gift ideas. Podcasts we like: The Amp Hour 99% Invisible Radiolab 5x5 network's Back to Work Accidental tech Splendid Table (food) Some listener suggestions on where to get small run boards made: http://www.cadsoftusa.com http://www.seeedstudio.com/service/index.php?r=site/pcbService http://www.pcbcart.com/ http://oshpark.com/ Gift ideas (specifics): Dropcam and Dropcam Pro Nest thermostat and smoke alarm Online automatic backup services: Crashplan and Backblaze Books: Thinking Fast and Slow, Quiet, and Kraken The BUS Pirate serial bus logger and injector Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones for noisy offices Gift ideas (stores): Shapeways 3D Printing on demand Think Geek Find a kit or component for someone: Sparkfun, Adafruit, or Maker Shed

James Grenning (@jwgrenning) joined Elecia to talk about how to be a good programmer using Test Driven Development (TDD). James' excellent book on how to use TDD: Test Driven Development for Embedded Systems Take a class from Renaissance Software Manual test is not sustainable blog post, from James' blog Legacy code challenge from Github SOLID design principles Iterative and Incremental Development article by Craig Larman Untapped: the beer drinker's twitter To get the signed copy of James' book, email ([email protected]), tweet (@logicalelegance), or hit the contact link on embedded.fm with your number between 0-99. First one with the correct number wins the book (if no one is correct, the closest number will be selected 12/25/13).

Kathleen Vaeth of MicroGen Systems (@MicroGenSystems) spoke with Elecia (@LogicalElegance) about energy harvesting using MEMS devices. Some introductory videos: BOLT™ Micro Power Generator An energy harvester enables TI eZ430 with Linear LTC3588 While we missed it on the show, Kathleen also wanted to mention MicroGen Systems' finite element modeling partners: SoftMEMS and Open Engineering.

Author Laura Lemay (@lemay) spoke with Elecia (@logicalelegance) about writing books, APIs, code, and science fiction. Laura wrote many of the Teach Yourself ... in 21 Days books: her bibliography on Amazon. Laura's blog includes short stories. November is National Novel Writing Month, see the NaNoWriMo site Edward Tufte wrote the amazing Envisioning Information (among many other beautiful and informative books) Neal Stephenson wrote Diamond Age Laura suggests Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go

From the MEMS Industry Group Executive Congress: Ivo Stivoric, co-founder of the Body Media which was purchased by Jawbone CEO Sam Guilaume and Dave Rothenberg of Movea Stephen Walsh, ISKN – iSketchnote, one of the pitches in the MEMS Elevator Pitch Session From the 2013 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference: David Peter works with New Life International. His paper was "A Simple Algorithm for Chlorine Concentration Control"

In this in-depth technical discussion, Dr. Ken Lunde helps Elecia understand how to internationalize her (memory constrained) device. CJVK Information Processing, Ken's excellent O'Reilly book on internationalization [Note: there is a 40% off print and 50% off ebook coupon in the last few minutes of the show.] Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP) Images of the bone ideograph that is different between Chinese and Japanese (U+9AA8) can be found on Wikipedia. Other sources of information: Ken's CJK Type Blog at Adobe Unicode specification, surprisingly readable though large An introductory tutorial Elecia found helpful Open source type faces Source Sans Pro OpenType font family (for UIs) Source Code Pro OpenType font family (for programming environments) Adobe's open source projects and Ken's contribution to those: Adobe Blank is a special-purpose OpenType font, making webpages wait to load fonts until they have the correct one AGL and AGLFN (Adobe Glyph List) maps glyph names to Unicode values CMap Resources are used to unidirectionally map character codes CSS Orientation Test are lightweight and special-purpose OpenType fonts that map all Unicode code points to glyphs that indicate their orientation based on the writing direction. Kenten Generic OpenType Font provides glyphs suitable for typesetting emphasis marks in Japanese. Mapping Resources for PDF are used to derive content from PDF files that include CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) information. You can also reach Ken via lunde "at" adobe.com

Jen Costillo surfaced briefly from her startup-induced blackout to share her wisdom about manufacturing consumer products. They discussed new product development and working from (and making modifications to) Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, CA. Jen and Elecia pined for this (probably not really a two pack) microscope.

Listener Jim Gf posed an interesting question about how to tell if you are a good embedded software engineer. Producer Christopher White joins Elecia to fail to give an answer. While they mention the embedded C test, they devolve into "why would you ask that question?", impostor syndrome, and methods for dealing with it. (Normally our podcasts are recorded during the day but this one was after a long, fairly grueling day for the co-hosts. You may hear the clink of glass as we drank a nice Pinot Noir from Hahn Winery.)