Embedded

We were joined in the studio by the Evil Mad Scientists Lenore Edman (@1lenore) and Windell Oskay (@oskay). Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories (@EMSL) produces the disintegrated 555 Timer kit and 741 Op-Amp  kit. These were made in conjunction with Eric Schlaepfer, who also created the Monster 6502.  EMSL also makes the Eggbot kit and AxiDraw not-kit (and mini-kit). For a history of the pen plotter, check out Sher Minn’s Plotter People talk on YouTube. (They have too many neat things to list here, go look on their page: https://shop.evilmadscientist.com/directory. Or stop into their Sunnyvale, California shop.) We talked about the beauty of boards including Kong Money and ElectroCookie’s candy colored shields and Arduino Leonardo. Jepson Herbarium has interesting workshops including one about seaweed. At one workshop, Lenore and Windell got to talk to Josie Iselin, author of The Curious World of Seaweed.  Elecia enjoyed Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us by Ruth Kassinger. Windell was previously on Embedded episode #124: Please Don’t Light Yourself on Fire, we mainly talked about the book he co-authored: The Annotated Build-It-Yourself Science Laboratory. Lenore was previously on Embedded episode #40: Mwahaha Session, we talked about EMSL. Our post-show tidepooling was very successful with a variety of nudibranchs, shrimp, seaweed, sea birds, snails, and hermit crabs.

Professor Barbara Liskov spoke with us about the Liskov substitution principle, data abstraction, software crisis, and winning a Turing Award. See Professor Liskov’s page at MIT, including her incredible CV.

Chris and Elecia talk with each other about non-work activities including music, office rearrangement, and origami. The Solarbotics Squid Hunting CearouSol Kit Samson S-patch plus 48-Point Balanced Patchbay Waldorf Blofeld Synthesizer EarthQuaker Devices Rainbow Machine V2 Polyphonic Pitch-shifting Modulator Pedal (with Magic knob) Artelino is a Japanese print auction house

Mohit Bhoite (@MohitBhoite) makes functional electronic sculptures from components and brass wire. We spoke with him on the hows and whys of making art. Mohit’s sculptures, including the Tie Fighter. More on his instagram: mohitbhoite Jiri Prause has a wonderful tutorial on how to make simpler freeform electronics on Instructables. Peter Vogel is another artist making phenomenal freeform electronics. Leonardo Ulian uses electronic components in his art (his don’t function but wow). Advice from Mohit on trying this yourself from Bantam Tools. Mohit likes Xuron Pliers Donate to DigitalNest by the end of 2019 and get your donation matched! Thank you to the listener who is doing the match!

Robert J. Lang spoke with us about origami, art, math, and lasers. Robert has many origami books, here is a subset: Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art (the one we talked about most, has the hummingbird crease pattern) Twists, Tilings, and Tessellations: Mathematical Methods for Geometric Origami (his new one, a textbook!) Origami in Action: Paper Toys That Fly, Flap, Gobble, and Inflate (not a theory book, just fun folds) Origami Sea Life (not mentioned but probably the book Elecia will be getting next) Robert’s website langorigami.com is full of neat goodies: Gallery Origami design software including a pointer to the Origamizer by Tomohiro Tachi Crease patterns! Suggested other books: Tomoko Fuse's Origami Boxes: Beautiful Paper Gift Boxes Origami to Astonish and Amuse by Jeremy Shafer Origamido has a number of books. Robert uses Origamido paper but it is unobtanium to most people. Unless you are in Maine.   (Note: book links are affiliate links, we get a little kickback if you buy from there.)

Chris and Elecia talked through how security holes can get explored on a fictional product. Thanks to an Embedded listener who enjoyed hearing from Jacob Martinez about helping young adults have access to technology, we have a grant to match donations to DigitalNEST up to $2500. Donate here: give.digitalnest.org/embeddedfm We talked through OWASP Top 10 Embedded Application Best Practices but OWASP Internet of Things and OWASP Mobile Security are also very useful. GREAT explanation of buffer overflow attacks by Coen Goedegebure XKCD Little Bobby Tables

Phoenix Perry (@phoenixperry) spoke with us about physical games. Phoenix is CTO of DoItKits (@DoItKits).   More about Phoenix: Bot Party Her site: PhoenixPerry.com She enjoyed Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin Physical games are sometimes called Alt Ctrl such as at the Alt Ctrl Game Jam.  Phoenix co-founded Code Liberation with Catt Small, Nina Freeman, and Jane Friedhoff. “Code Liberation catalyzes the creation of digital games and creative technologies by women, nonbinary, femme, and girl-identifying people to diversify STEAM fields.” There is an 8-part workshop in London in Summer 2017 (more info). Some other interesting people: Lynne Bruning (http://etextilelounge.com/) Helen Steer (http://doitkits.com/) Perla Maiolino Rebecca Febrink How to Get What You Want wearables site Yoga Pants AutoDesk Fusion360 I know you only read the show notes because you wanted this link: Velastat LessEMF has the supplies for ghost hunting!

Rick Altherr (@kc8apf) spoke with us about firmware security and mentoring. Rick is a security researcher at Eclypsium. His personal website is kc8apf.net. Rick’s deeply technical dive into reverse engineering car ECUs and FPGA bitstreams was on the Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast, episode 24. He also spoke with Chris Gammell The Amp Hour 357 about monitoring servers, many many servers. Firmware security links: STRIDE threat model OWASP Top 10 Security Risks OWASP IoT Firmware Analysis OWASP Embedded Application Security Best Practices Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Elecia’s Device Security Checklist (wasn’t mentioned) Thank you to our Embedded Patreon supporters, particularly to our corporate patron, InterWorking Labs (iwl.com).  

Aimee Lucido (@AimeeLucido) is a software engineer and children’s book author. Her first book is Emmy in the Key of Code about music, learning to code, and fitting in. We spoke with Aimee about writing, programming, publishing, and putting beautiful words together. You can get a copy of Emmy in the Key of Code from Booksmith, IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Target, or Amazon. The music playlist can be found in Google Play or Spotify. Aimee’s website is aimeelucido.com. She also writes crossword puzzles for American Values Club and New Yorker. Some other authors and books we talked about: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Shane W. Evans Pulitzer-prize winning Kendrick Lamar After the show, I asked Aimee about resources for learning to read as a writer, she suggested looking at the KidLit Craft Blog. Thank you to our Embedded Patreon supporters, particularly to our corporate patreon, InterWorking Labs (iwl.com).

Pete Staples of Blue Clover Devices (bcdevices.com, @theiotodm) spoke with us about tools for manufacturing hardware.  Some posts and products from Blue Clover Devices: PLT Spec Sheet and ICT System How to write PLT Board Test Plans (using YAML) PCB Design Tips and More PCB Design Tips Flying Probe Testers in a Nutshell Zephyr - an OS for IoT BC Devices github Behind the scenes at factories: Shenzhen Tena RT3188 HDMI Stick Factory Tour Inside a PCB Soldering Factory - in China Thank you to our Embedded Patreon supporters, particularly to our corporate patron, InterWorking Labs (iwl.com).