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The Amp Hour — Now with 100% more guests! Welcome, Jeri Ellsworth!
- C vs. assembly language. Jeri still uses asm, Dave has in the past but favors C, C stands for Chris, that’s good enough for him.
- Management of projects could improve projects, but not much can help code reviews.
- Jeremy is done (for now) with his Arduino videos. More types of uC’s to come!
- Jeri’s encounter with misogynistic bus gadget maker continues. Peter Bartok really dug quite a hole.
- Continuing of misogyny in the electronics world, Edmund Optics’ new catalog has made a stir, just like the one 4 years ago.
- Chris hates that the first thing tech magazines started doing was talking about supply shortages (as people were being pronounced dead and missing).
- Dave thinks being female will help you stand out in the job marketplace. Jeri suggests to stand out in any other way possible. She also mentions how much more difficult it is once in a workplace.
- Bad way to stand out: being a white collar criminal. Tyco execs sent to jail and have huge fines for embezzling over $600 million. May explain the name change to TE Connectivity.
- New Kickstarter project has first proto boards in: An open source USB protocol analyzer. Sextupled the funding request (!) and looks to be a great project.
- Fund your favorite project, likely found under the “Technology” section of KickStarter.
- The Australian version of KickStarter is called Pozible.
- Looks like another Open Hardware Summit is on the horizon, set up by the wonderful folks at BugLabs.
- Go Gear Go!
- Dino suggests a printed sticker breakout board called Protoflex. Pretty cool! (and expensive)
- Alan Yates (@vk2zay) suggests a set of SMD component boxes for storing teeny tiny parts.
- There’s a whole conference for printable electronics!
- Jeri is considering printing her own chips, much like the folks the referenced her on video.
A few comments about Podcast #35…
I am a relatively new listener since about episode #30 so I don’t know Jeri Ellsworth. You did not introduce Jeri at all. Just !BAM! and you start talking with here like everyone knows who she is. It would have been a better show if you introduce Jeri and gave a bit of her background and tell how she fits into the overall scene. Maybe you introduced her in the past and I just missed it.
Also, Jeri kept dropping the term “RTL”. Like what is “RTL”??!!??? RTL…..RTL….RTL……. 🙂
Nice podcast. Keep up the good work.
RTL is, if I’m not mistaken, “Resistor-Transistor Logic”, by analogy to TTL and ECL.
It is Register Transfer Level (RTL). Verilog and VHDL are two hardware definition languages often refereed to as “RTL”. I should have been more clear when talking to a broader audience.
Thanks Jeri.
I did a little research on RTL while listening to the show. I also saw the link to your Youtube site below the show title.
Great job on this AmpHour podcast. You certainly added a new dimension and made things interesting!
What is that horrible background sound that starts up around 33:30? My ears got hammered. Besides that, great show. Love it as usual. But i must agree with Frau Farbissina, that in the future a nice short introduction of the guests would be great. Not everyone is so twitter interconnected and stuff.
Greetz from Germany
Did I hear Jeri used to work at a racetrack? If so, doing what? That’s range!
Speaking of rtl, what’s the main difference between behavioral and synthesizable rtl? I always thought you can synthesize behavioral code so long as you don’t use any of the #time delay time attributes. Also, if not careful, behavioral code/Procedural code can eat up registers in your device, but it will still work, no? Not sure why you would have to throw the whole thing out!
Jeri was a race car driver and builder.
Jeri has not yet cured cancer though. Maybe next week.
Jeri will find a cure for Chuck Norris.
The line between what used to be behavioural and what used to be strictly synthesizable RTL is blurring. Example — the * operation (multiplication) didn’t used to be synthesizable. It now is. However, not all behavioural code is synthesizable. Real variables and operators thereof is one example. Another example is referencing an out-of-module internal signal in another module.
I had a predecessor who wrote spaghetti asm. I still maintain the code. I got used to it after a while even though there are few meaningful variable and label names.
I was happy to see the open USB analyser project get overfunded. They probably needed the $ to buy an off-the-shelf usb analyser to start them off? It’d be nice if there was a crowdfunding site dedicated to electronics makery / hackery.
JD
Howdy Folks! I must say this podcast was amazing! I was literaly laughing out loud when I heard it.
The adition of Jeri brought a little extra to the scene.
And I’m not talking about the use of the word “Vagina”, but another point of view to the themes that were discussed and her experiences on the EE world.
I know that the idea is to bring different guests to the podcast, but I must say that it would be awesome if Jeri joins the podcast more often.
I must agree with Dave, that assembler sucks and C rules for I also saw the light of the higher level languages.
Anyways, I’m a huge fan of the three of you and I’m looking forward to hear more of the “Ternary” (as Chris feels uncomfortable with the word threesome).
Sebastian (sgtech)
I’m a programmer doing electronics as a hobby. I think it’s funny to see that at this level people think of C as a “high” level language. In my day job I would think of C as way too low level, worrying about memory management yuck! But I understand where you are coming from.
C is a high level programming language, while Assembly is a low level language. As closer to machine code (ones and zeros) you get, the lower level the language is classified. This is why C is considered a high level language because it is actually build up upon Assembly (when you compile C code it is compiled to Assembly first, then machine code).
The high/low level is often confused with the complexity of the actual language!
Obiously if you compare it to Java, Ruby, Python or C#, C is closer to the “low level” than the others, hence C is the lower high level languaje.
Jeri is awesome, and a great addition to the show!
I have a potential solution to a print at home board system. Instead of going with inkjet, why not go with a sintered powder. … Sounds suspiciously like a laser printer to me.
Best show so far, it seemed to fly by in no time. I’ve only been listening for about a week now and I’ve blitzed the entire 35 show series already. Now I’ve caught up with you I’ve got to wait a whole bloody week for another episode? You’re kidding right?
Well fine, I’ll have to go and absorb the entire contents of EEVblog and Analog Life in the meantime!
Check the date on that Tyco article. It is old news.
This is maybe a start to do your own flexible prototyping component adapters
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Flexible-Printed-Circuits/
Great episode. Jeri is awesome and you guys are too.
I know you don’t want to make the show scripted and that’s great. But maybe you could consider something like a signing off with feedback and contact information. It would make it easier to end the show 🙂
Cool idea, might try it out
I thought this Amp Hour was great, loved hearing Jeri as a guest – you all did an excellent job and it was good hearing input from a 3rd person. Would like to see this again!
Google translate: “ternary tussle” (English) = “Ménage à trois” (French)…well, almost.
Another great show. I discovered The Amp Hour recently and have listened to all episodes. I’m easily amused by discussions of the anechoic effects of pillows on walls and how a sheer stocking and coat hanger can be used to damp audio transients.
yep, great show the guest slot worked well. got your way chris 🙂
anyway was listening to it with headphones (while cycling) and somebodys cooling fan was in overdrive, too much assembly and not enough artic silver, not that im saying it was jeri’s computer.
it was a bit distracting…other than that, a big thumbs up 😉
Speaking about tradeshow-babes. I attended the Electronica 2010 in Munich where there was 2 topless girls in thongs being body-painted and guys were totally crowding them. I think the discussion somewhat compares to porno/prostitution, and is definitely a topic worth discussing.
I learned when I lived in the South that “fixing to” (sometimes pronounced “fittin to”) is a more immediate version of “going to”. Unlike “going to”, “fixing to” can only apply to something that’s going to happen almost immediately.
Regarding sexism in EEing, it’s a hard problem because there are so few female EE. I cringed when Jeri described playing dumb at the tradeshow because I would totally fall victim. When I call a vendor and hear a woman’s voice, I assume that the person is probably not knowledgeable about electronics. That may be why it takes Jeri weeks to earn respect with new colleagues. I wonder what it must be like constantly having to disprove stereotypes every time you meet someone new.
http://wardyprojects.blogspot.com/
I don’t know if you should call someone a “douche” if you’re berating them for being sexist…
The social etiquette pertaining to “douche” attribution is a complex minefield of pitfalls and faux pas.
Jeri, a little late on the comment, but I wanted to say you seemed more relaxed and comfortable on The Amp Hour than on most other shows I have seen you on. Congrats!