Vafrous Video Vaniloquence

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql7J_tFBVfY

Our initial try of Google Plus “Hangouts”! Hopefully all the interuptions and the concentration on a new medium didn’t interrupt our usual shabby quality of podcast (thereby downgrading our rating to “godawful”). We had fun and hopefully will be able to use it to pull in guests in an easier way and somehow get back to the shabby quality everyone is used to!

• This Week in Nerd History:
  • Nikola Tesla was born and reddit was celebrating. There's a video explaining him to anyone who's never heard of him. Alternately, stick your finger in your electrical outlet, he's to thank!

• • David Jones (fine, Bowie) recorded Space Oddity 5 days before the Apollo launch and released it on July 11th, 1969. He also played Nikola Tesla in "The Prestige"
• Everything is in beta at Google, it seems. They recently cancelled their power meter and Microsoft followed suit with their "hohm" service a few weeks later.
• Google+ is fun but do we need more social networks? Chris likes it for the video. Dave likes it for not being Facebook (like XKCD said it)
• Last shuttle launch was this past week. Neil deGrasse Tyson had some choice words and showed obvious disappointment.
• The open source DMM idea was advanced a bit further by a new member of the EEVforum. Great use of Google Sketchup.
• The new DMM could use the recently released Open Hardware License instituted by CERN. The mailing list also says it's ok to say "Open Source Hardware".
• Dino from Hackaweek of tried building the USB "cough switch" we discussed last time. Ended up learning a lot from a webinar about USB.
• The Amp Hour has a YouTube account (but might not get used right away because of length restrictions on YouTube videos)
• WTF?
  • Cleveland apparently has a semiconductor company! Cool! It's called ER Semiconductor and they make image sensors.
• The Phillipines is trying to boost their chip industry by sponsoring the design and manufacture of a new microprocessor, the Rizal.
• Why bring the chip company to you when you can hire out of Silicon Valley? Huawei (out of China) is expanding a design center in SV.
• May be due to the fact that manufacturing in China is less of a deal than previously, according to a recent Time Magazine article.
• Shoutout:
  • The ham community. Chris was cleaning out his inbox and amazed at how helpful the community of "elmers" is. Unfortunately, the community is shrinking and mentors don't create interest in subjects.
• More videos like the one of Shatner explaining microcontrollers. Sponsored by Bell Labs and hosted at the AT&T tech channel.