Show 2 -- Critical Mass

[ChrisGammell]

So the second show is in the bag! We're still hunting for names so please keep those coming!

A quick rundown of the show:

• Project uptake by groups of people
• China, India and paying for quality
• Why are there more programmers than others in the MAKE/DIY culture
• The importance of mineral acquisition
• LEDs
• Other random ranting

[Simon]

ooh leds that sounds good, I'm still toying with the idea of converting my house to leds as the current lains lighting is naff, I'd be really interested in the effective efficiency they have particularly compared to CFL's and other aspecs like temperature colour

[EEVblog]

How did we come up with all that stuff? I guess one things leads to another, it's like surfing Wikipedia 
Gawd it's so easy to rant on randomly for an hour!

Do people prefer the random type stuff, or would people like that we stick to one or two topics per episode?

Dave.

[saturation]

I think spontaneity is key, its the same thing that attracts people to talk shows where the responses aren't canned, when you have a script and think of trying to stick to it, you lose spontaneity as your mind tries to stay on course, rather that simply letting loose.

The emotional content projects the sincerity of the response, in the case of something technical, whether you believe it to be true, between or not.

So, grab the topics as it comes to you, just use the general theme to help seed ideas.

[Zad]

Random type stuff is perfect! It is amazing how often a random chat can bring up all sorts of interesting stuff. If you limit it to a couple of narrow subjects then I think it can get a bit dry.

I must admit, every time I see a YouTube video and the guy is talking about "soddering", part of me sighs like a schoolmaster, and another part makes me snigger like a schoolboy. Hur hur, he said sod 'er. How on earth did the "L" get lost from "soldering"? Back in the 80s it just seemed to be poorly educated southern US people, now it seems to be all over the place.

You mentioned something along the lines of "Why are maker people software people". Easy, they already have most of the tools and the skills are easy to learn on what they have already. Aside from a cheap dev board, most of the tools cost nothing. No screwdrivers to buy, or resistors, capacitors, ICs, LEDs, solder, PCB, multimeter, oscilloscope etc etc. It can be done pretty much "here and now".

I suspect the people who came from to digital from an analogue background are slightly older. In my case, I was 10 or so before there were any usable micros here in the UK, so the only way to learn was analogue. I was lucky that my dad was in electronics, so I had access to endless components and circuit diagrams to learn how things worked. That meant that I was there as computers came along, and in the early days owning a computer meant building it yourself, so us hardware people were vital. Back when my school got it's first Nascom computer (as a kit!) only 2 people could solder, me and the physics teacher. Learning how to program just became a natural extension of that.

[squeezee]

I must admit, every time I see a YouTube video and the guy is talking about "soddering", part of me sighs like a schoolmaster, and another part makes me snigger like a schoolboy. Hur hur, he said sod 'er. How on earth did the "L" get lost from "soldering"? Back in the 80s it just seemed to be poorly educated southern US people, now it seems to be all over the place.

I always thought it was just north-american english vs. everyone else in terms of pronounciation.

[Zyvek]

I do enjoy the free form discussion and listening to the show on my ride to and from work!  Keep up the good work.

-Z