Embedded

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

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)

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.

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). 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: XY Planning Network (by interest) Garrett Planning Network (hourly fees only) NAPFA (fee only advisers) CFP® (by zip code) Robo-advisor (automated investment management) Bill says: "It shouldn't be this hard for smart engineers."

Vicky Tuite (@vixter55) came on the show to chat with Chris and Elecia about EVAOS, a company that upgrades Ford trucks into plug-in hybrids. Feminist Hacker Barbie She’s Geeky Bay piggies (BayPIGgies)

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.

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

Ron Sparks (@txNgineer, AG5RS) spoke with us about the convergence of makers and ham radio enthusiasts. The alternative internet: AMPRNet (wiki) aka 44 net Pecan Pico AmSAT SatNOGS (their site, their hackaday entry, and the video Elecia liked) Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network ("whisper"). Also on wiki.

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

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