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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

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.

Intellectual property attorney Judith Szepesi (@Judith_IP) discusses what Elecia (and startups) need to know about patenting. Judith is a founding partner at HIP Legal, LLC. 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 to HSC/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 FFA 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 Papilio development 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