Alexa joins the fray

• Wired stuff still wins for reliability...especially if it's fiber! Wifi continues to be unreliable for most things.
• Chris has an Amazon Echo in the AirBnB where he's staying. He's been talking to Alexa.
• Dave recently did a Sigilent Teardown.
• While in the Bay Area, Chris finally got to try out the CastAR.
• The HTC Vive is a true VR platform Chris got to try. It was designed by former guest Alan Yates and the controllers partially by regular guest Jeff Keyzer.
• UBM sold all of the assets around EETimes, EDN and more to Arrow.
• Newark/Element 14/Farnell was sold to a Swiss holding company.
• Intel's web/TV series "America's Greatest Makers" has a winner...a toothbrush.
• The makers of the ESP8266 have released a new model that has integrated flash.
• Chris started working at the same place that Bob Widlar started at (in Cleveland!). If you've never seen it, you can download the poster here.
• Tools that arean't used that often, but imporant to have on the bench.:
  • Network analyzer
  • IMTTI eye prober
  • USB to RS485
• Chip of the Week: TPS54A20

Winner of the Boldport subscription: @TallNorsk