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News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

You should make it a matter of policy to disclose all such incidents in a timely manner.

We first learned the case was closed yesterday afternoon and were under instructions from the prosecutor not to publish the subpoena until it became public record (when the case closed), so we’re looking at less than a 24 hour turnaround time. Also, this type of transparency is par for the course.

As Mike Grusin mentioned we did not include the credit card information they asked for (because we don’t retain it for our own protection as an organization). We also excluded IP addresses for the same reason.

News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

Neither credit card numbers nor IP addresses were included because we don’t retain that information for our own protection as an organization.

News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

Consider this is not a subpoena for an individual to appear in court (subpoena ad testificandum), this is a subpoena for information (subpoena duces tecum) and is directed at SparkFun as an organization, not to any one individual. I too am not a lawyer, but it is my understanding that the laws vary from state to state and by the type of subpoena being issued.

News - SparkFun Sustainability E… | about 4 months ago

We’ve been there! Well, not brewing on site per se, but several of our employees are avid home brewers and once in a great while we’ll see a custom brew pop up in the keg.

My favorite was the Tail Waggin' Pale Ale whipped up by Pete and Casey, an homage to the many SparkFun doggies.

News - Plushbot Class | about 4 months ago

As I described in yesterday’s SOPA/PIPA post, it wasn’t easy arriving at the decision to come out with any stance on the matter as an organization. That was a decision that was arrived at yesterday morning when this PlushBot post was already up.

So we bumped this post up a day to today. Gotta give PlushBots their due! I’ll be attending this class with my wife, so I’d certainly hate to see it upstaged. =)

News - SparkFun and Censorship | about 5 months ago

One strong contender is the OPEN Act. It’s not perfect, but it strives to clearly define infringing parties without resorting to vague language that is ripe for abuse. It also emphasizes due process instead of the guilty-until-proven-innocent approach of SOPA/PIPA and has some modicum of checks against abuse of the law to take down innocent websites.

News - Free Day 2012 is Under Wa… | about 5 months ago

A lot of folks this year – especially those who’ve been around for past Free Days – are advocating a similar approach. I can’t tell you anything about next year other than that we probably won’t be discussing it in earnest until the fall.

However, I will say that it’s unlikely we’ll go with something that’s passive for customers. Every year has required some level of continued effort until a prize has been won – be it trying to get your order placed, answering quiz questions, or typing captchas. It won’t be the same next year – that we can be sure of – but it will likely still require players to be engaged and competing for a prize in order to win.

News - Free Day is TODAY! | about 5 months ago

Yes! With any luck the site will continue to be fully functional and responsive during the deluge of traffic and all normal checkout functions will be active. Give it a try – if you can get an order through during the mess then we’ve done something right. =)

News - Free Day is TODAY! | about 5 months ago

Sure is. There will be more details throughout the week about how it all works. It’s one of the more oddball projects to be stitched together by SparkFun staff.

News - Free Day is TODAY! | about 5 months ago

The resistor captcha was discussed as inspiration for a more electronics-oriented method of verifying humanity. We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, however, and focused efforts on building a webserver/proxy/geiger counter stack that was super efficient. It’s not easy piping Free Day traffic to a small circuit board, after all.