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- Corrections
- It was Electronic Design, not Design News with the new radio show we mentioned last week. Sorry!
- WotW (our last?)
- Lucas Weakley writes from Florida to show off his bench and some kind of device in a pelican case.
- Our first female WotW submission, Irmi from Austria! She shows off her bench.
- Soliciting feedback!
- We want to hear your thoughts about changes to the show!
- Should we bother with a live section? A chat room?
- What do people think about some small sponsorships of the show so we can use the money for improvements?
- A project show off/cry for help segment?
- Please leave your thoughts in the comments below or on the EEVblog forum page about this topic.
- We want to hear your thoughts about changes to the show!
Suggestion from a listener
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- Natalie Portman used to be a nerd! Awesome! She was an Intel semi-finalist. Check out the video!
- Wow
- Rants
- Why do the likes of EDN and EETimes think pop ups are effective? Tell your chip suppliers to not advertise like this with them anymore!
- Nor buying covers of magazines for that matter. Silicon Chip Magazine is known to expressly forbid this.
- Chris hates how the defacto prize in competitions is an iPad these days.
- Discussion Points
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- Dave likes the new boards he ordered from ITead. Cheap and decent!
- “The New Cool” by Neal Bascomb is a book about the FIRST Robotics competition. Great interview on the Diane Rehm show with the author and Dean Kamen, the contest founder and head of DEKA research.
- Should apprenticeship be a path towards engineering? Discussion with the author of “Shopclass as Soulcraft” on Boston public radio.
- While talking about the process of “Muntzing” a board (systematically taking off components to reduce cost), we also talked about Bob Widlar and Paul Rako’s recent article. Here’s Chris’ poster idea for all aspiring chip designers to hang on their cube wall.
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I love the WotW part of the show. I consider it inspiration for my own workbench. I also think it is a great way for people to insert themselves. It offers people a personal way to contribute to the AMP HOUR. Forums are great and all but this WotW is a really great section.
I agree with the arguments to discontinue it, because, I catch myself not being happy about not being able to look at the pictures at the same time you people talk about them.
BUT…i seriously and highly recommend, that you outsource the WotW part. Basically, you collect the entries and you add them into a gallery on the Website. On every show you can also use 1 or 2 min to update people on new entries. Only stating what ammount of people from where and what age and gender have submitted. That’s kind of a shoutout value and I bet people love to be named on the radio show!
So just for the naming value of it, I would suggest you keep WotW mentioning in your episodes, without the detail picture discriptions. ANd just outsource the actual pictures into a WotW gallery accessible via a tab on the Website.
I hope this idea comes into consideration becaue I LOVE WotW! And actually, I was planning on submitting myself, when I have my workbench overhauled.
I have the feeling the WotW section also inspires people to redo their workbench so they can present it. But every redo usually has also a productivity gain factgor in it. So if you inspire people to redo their Workbench and it helps them gain efficiency by employing the lessons learned with the old workbench design, then I think WotW is just out of that reason worth keeping!
Greetings from Germany,
– ExtremHybrid
10cm is almost 4″ (3.937 inch), not 3″, as you said in the show.
Regarding the Itead PCBs these seem spookily familiar to SeeedStudios fusion offering which I have used for while.
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/fusion-pcb-2-layer-5cm5cm-max-10pcs-p-513.html?cPath=185
They do 5×5 and 10×10 boards
regards
Al
It was interesting to hear you talk about your Agilent reviews and about how people are only interested in seeing reviews that they can trust. With this in mind, maybe you could mention more about this in the review itself, i.e. whether you get to keep it, whether they’ve offered to pay you. To reiterate, all the things you said in this show about the reviews could have been in the reviews themselves. I hope that doesn’t come accross as a whinge, I love the show and the blog, keep up the good work!
I think this is a valid and great statement. I fully agree. The next time Dave makes a Review he should state the following at the beginning of the review:
* Can he keep the product
* Any money being paid to do the review
* General statement of Termans and conditions
This would give first-time viewers the confidence they need in Dave’s reviews and it also helps in general the credibility.
I hope dave takes your input to his “mind”. I would do it.
Greetzs.
*Rant*RANT: 3 or 4 inches?! Which sane person givess a rat’s ass! USE METRIC (base 10) units and math, then you dont need this conversion crap.
Come on you imperial nutheads. Fahrenheit, Feet, Inches, Yards, cups, pints, gallons, FURLONGS…of all those babylonian style garbage units the imperial system has, I can not understand how you people use FURLONGS as a measurement of length. It’s based on a distance of furrows in the mud. Com’on you gotta be kidding me. Abbolish that crap! Why do sane people even foster and encourage the use of the imperial system?
At best you should answer them: “Give me the measurements in sensible units or dont talk to me at all – you damn furlong!”
Anyways…
It would also be boring as bat shit!
I really can’t see what value it adds. If people ask I will tell them, but to stick in each review like some formal legalese is just a horrible thought to me.
I like to think credibility comes from what you say and how you say it.
Dave.
Yeah, on second thought I agree. Putting it into the video would kind of be boring. And it would not fit your off-the-cuff style. Maybe you might think of adding some detail into the video descriptions then. But I think it would be great if these kind of informations would be posted somewhere and not needed to be added on a ask-and-i-tell basis.
Yeah, two or three short bullet lines in the description would do.
Anyways…love your reviews. Keep it up!
I’m not quite sure that I want to continually justify myself in every review like that, I’d don’t see how it adds much value. I’d like to think that me pointing out bad stuff (there is almost always something to whinge about with any product) is enough to show that the review is genuine.
Another thought: I think it kind of problematic when information concerning the review conditions is ONLY mentioned on the AMP HOUR.
Im sure not every person who watches a single review on Youtube listens to the AMP HOUR, eventhough they should!!!
So even if you disclose such information on a ask-and-i-tell basis, I still suggest you somehow connect that information directly to the review video.
Im happy the way your handling it…I listen to the AMP HOUR and watch all your vids. Im just suggesting a solution for those who are not Dave Jones-aficionados, yet!
I hope any of this finds your consideration. I think it would help the EEvblog grow.
Another great show Chris and Dave.
You guys have a great show and should be rewarded with sponsorship. I trust you will find sponsors you believe in to promote. Good luck.
Another awesome episode – my favorite yet! My comments require a numbered list….
1. I agree with ExtremHybrid about the format for workbench of the week. Don’t trash it completely, but maybe cut down the description, and include a gallery on this site (allow people to upload pics, instead of outsourcing links to random upload locations).
2. A project “show-off” also sounds like a good idea, but I think it should be handled just like WOTW.
3. I’d say go for the sponsorship if you can. You guys put together such a great show, you deserve to get a little more than niche fame from it. I have no problem listening to a sponsor shout-out if it means you guys get a little income for you effort.
4. When I was in Washington for the 2008 Intel Finalists awards, they kept telling all of us about Natalie Portman and other notable Intel STS participants. They love to list all the finalists who have gone on to win various Nobel prizes, etc. It’s kinda sad that Natalie gets the most attention just because she is in hollywood, when the STS produces so many awesome scientists and engineers.
5. If you’re looking for a guest in one of your episodes, I have a nice studio mic! And since I’m probably one of your only listeners who is still at College, I might be able to offer some interesting perspectives. Plus, I have a whole rant about engineering education…
Already counting down to your next episode!
I like the idea of sponsors. I can’t understand why people would expect you to do this without sponsors.
5/5 mils is tight for a simple board, but board houses that do more complex boards consider 4/4 mil a mature technology. You need it to escape a 0.8mm (31.5mil) BGA. I used to neck down just to escape, but I did a whole a few months ago 4/4 w/o probs.
Regarding cheap PCB assy, cutting down on stencil cost is important too. That might be a bigger deal than the issue of time loading the machines. Warehousing isn’t a big deal b/c you can order Digi-reel quickly.
The politician who condemned Natalie Portman certainly isn’t showing concern about the geek vote. He said something implying she would outsource the care of her child. He can’t possibly know that b/c (from what I heard) the child hasn’t been born yet.
Great show as always guys.
Sponsorships: Do it. You guys put out a really great show, and deserve some reward for it. Sure there will be a few in the peanut gallery that say you “sold out” but I believe the vast majority of us think it’s the natural maturation of the program. Plus, in an odd way, sponsors or advertisers actually GIVE you more credibility. It moves the AH from being a hobby, to being a “real” radio show. Having a sponsor attests to the value and quality of the program.
Dave’s equipment reviews: I’m surprised that people don’t know that manufacturers usually GIVE you the equipment that you review. I asked everyone around here and every single one of them said they presume that a reviewer get’s to keep the stuff they review. If you get PAID MONEY to do a review I could see that warranting a mention, but short of that I don’t think any sort of standardized disclaimer is needed.
WOTW: Maybe you could change it up with other audience-participatory sorts of things. Off the top of my head, the OLDEST still functioning piece of test gear someone has, the most OBSCURE piece of test gear in anyone’s lab, the oldest date code on a semiconductor device, etc.
At any rate, whatever changes you make, I’m certain the show will still be great. Keep up the good work!
Nice show guys, I somewhat agree with a retooling of the workbench of the week, it is neat however when you begin discussing the details of the bench and where things are located the listener cannot really participate so to speak.
If you decide to do a live show, I think you should set some rules in regards to audio and video comments from the “audience” I have seen a lot of Dave’s shows where he spends what seems like 5 min. playing with the audio and video to suit some “audiophile or vidiophile” listeners. If you set your quality and such before hand, and there are no HUGE problems, simply tell them to suck it up. I am sure the time period was not actually 5 min. however it seemed like forever.
Keep up the good work guys, and get yourself a sponsor! I hope that it does not require you guys to do some of the annoying to me stuff like putting commercials from them before and after, but if it means a better amp hour then I am for it!