rta5

I just started The Gold Standard by Saifedean Ammous. I'm still in the history part of the book, since it starts off with economic history and moves into a fiction about what the 20th century could have looked like if the fiat money experiment had failed and the gold standard was instead refined.

I don't usually do fiction outside of classics (Tolkien, Dostoevsky, Huxley, etc), so I'm hopeful this will be interesting.

This looks like it has a long way to go before it is usable. Clicking 'Capabilities' largely just gives me the 7 day turn spiel again, while I'd expect something about min trace / space, HDI capabilities, number of layers, any fancy laminates, etc. For assembly I'd need to know more about min pitch / package size, available types of solder paste, etc. If you're doing PCB sourcing AND assembly (like it sounds like in the text here), that is not clear on the site.

Also, for slow old industries (like Automotive), you'd likely need a fast way to coordinate NDAs just to get an engineer to be allowed to share the design files with you.

I've been working on an OBDII scanner application for my port of Tock to the Microchip SAMV71. The idea is that it will help prove out the CAN peripheral in a real world environment before I start layering other things like UDS on top of it.

I started experimenting with meshtastic in December last year, but so far it has been a really quiet network, so I'm not seeing the congestion problems the author highlights. According to meshmap there should be a node ~2 miles from my house but I don't reliably see it. I don't see the next closest at 4.3 miles either. For some reason I saw the next furthest (~8.4 miles) for a few days, but it has since disappeared. Since Christmas I've seen 583 nodes from mine - none reliably.

My node is a solar powered tree hanger hanging maybe 25 ft above the ground, and I'm in southeast michigan with a typical ~30 minute commute into the suburban cities.

I really liked this article but in the end it reinforced my belief in meshtastic - I don't need a computer connected to my node and I'm not paying for any meshcore features. I just wish there were more fixed nodes out there to extend the network.

Are you using simulink for code generation or something else? I used to work at a company that made automotive controllers and a simulink "platform" for developing controls on them, and I occasionally flirt with starting a similar company that uses a cheaper/open source toolchain, but always come up empty handed. There are some academic libraries and papers around the Xcos ecosystem, but nothing near production level that I could find.

KiCad continues to improve, and that plain text file thing is a killer feature. Also in the new version they added the capability to have library databases for components which is a massive step towards professional libraries.

If they could bring in better signal integrity tools and Altiums outjobs, it would be a no brainer to use KiCad for hobbyist to small business applications.

I've really wanted a Stargate-esque galaxy explorer type game. Something 2D (like RimWorld graphics) that has procedurally generated planets and addresses, base management, etc

No Man's Sky is ok, but the alien life is mostly focused on lower intelligence animals, and base building feels clunky relative to what you can do in games like RimWorld or prison architect.

I've thought about learning unity to do this, but I have not had the time.

This is why I've heard the argument (presumably from Stephan Kinsella, who wrote a book against intellectual property) that the patent system is unconstitutional - it is dubious that patents "promote the progress of science and useful arts."

The economist Fritz Machlup did a study in the 1950s on the economics of the patent system in the US and in his conclusion came to: "If we did not have a patent system, it would be irresponsible, on the basis of our present knowledge of its economic consequences, to recommend instituting one."

A technical background may be helpful for understanding IP, but certainly not sufficient. Compare Massie to someone like Stephan Kinsella (BS and MS in electrical engineering and a law degree) who literally wrote a book called "Against Intellectual Property."

I went ahead and bought a boox air within a week of the original connect service announcement (yet to arrive). I originally wanted a RM after trying a coworker's RM1 but the connect announcement pushed me away.

With supernote currently giving a roadmap that improves handwriting recognition and boox allegedly having the ability to convert and search handwritten notes already, the remarkable connect plan is very unattractive.