Embedded

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). Bill and Elecia met at LeapFrog. Bill was instrumental in making the original LeapPad Learning System. 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 South Texas Balloon Launch Team 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

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 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]