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News - blodeJazz | about 2 months ago

Haha, I see what you did there. Nice troll ;)

Product COM-11041 | about 4 months ago

The pad isolation on the high current pins for the relay and terminal block isn’t ideal, sure it makes it a little easier to solder since you don’t have a large trace acting as a heatsink (a good quality soldering iron will have no trouble) but if you pull too much current through the traces, they will be the first place to melt.

News - Little Box Stores | about 4 months ago

I would suggest talking to Jaycar in Australia/New Zealand. They are a chain, but they carry all sorts of kits and components. They are about the last place in Australia you can go to get this kind of thing.

News - Eagle 6 Has Landed | about 4 months ago

I definitely do see your point about having to price the software at a point to ensure a profit is being made and staying in business.

If I was designing electronics for a living, I would most definitely lay out the required cost for the package, in a professional capacity the Eagle pricing is quite good.

It’s good news about looking into some option to get the tool out there, I have a design in mind that I would like to commercialize (under an OpenHardware license) but the current licensing doesn’t allow me to make a profit off the design, if I could start selling the design (within the limit of an OpenHardware capacity) then as soon as I make enough off the design I will be able to pay out for a full Eagle license.

News - Eagle 6 Has Landed | about 4 months ago

Here’s a thought.

How about SparkFun/BatchPCB and CadSoft team up and come out with a version of Eagle that only costs $XX not $XXX that has the features of the Hobbyist version of Eagle but maybe with a larger allowed PCB size, and can be used for either unrestricted Non-Commercial use or Commercial Use ONLY where the schematic and PCB design are released under the OpenHardware license.

I love Eagle but I don’t love the price, I would like to do the occasional bit of design where I can sell the result, but I can’t justify spending high 3 figures.

News - SparkFun and Censorship | about 5 months ago

Being an Australian, where the political systems operate quite a bit differently, I do have this to say about politics in general.

All governments are so far out of touch a major overhaul of all systems is required.

Firstly, ban all lobbyists. No single group should be allowed to put this kind of pressure on elected officials. Special Interest Groups should be allowed to address the elected officials in some kind of open forum, but any decisions to be made should be left to the people at large, through the officials they elect.

Next, Limit an elected official’s time in office to no more than two terms, that way they don’t get comfortable in the job, they aren’t there to make a career, they are there to represent the people of their electorate. It will also ensure a fresh infusion of people to bring new ideas and blood into the government process.

Banning campaign fundraising is impossible, but set a fixed limit to the amount of funds that can be raised and used on a campaign, and a limit of one million dollars is just insane, no person needs that much money to get elected. Also ban all donations from special interest groups. All donations must be from a private citizen or the candidates own party. When a donation is made, that person must then declare the amount of the donation and to whom the donation is made when approaching the government to speak about an issue, those officials are then required to abstain from voting on the issue.

Elected officials must then also report to their electorates which way they intend to vote on an issue no later than 60 days before the vote, to give the people in that electorate time to contact their official to voice their concern about the way they intend to vote, if the electorate largely disagrees with the voting preference then a simple majority of voters disagreeing will then require the elected official to overturn their preference and vote with the electorate majority.

There is so much more I can think of to make Government a true democracy but I don’t want to flood the forum.

Government is for the people, not for the rich and powerful.

News - New Product Friday: Just … | about 5 months ago

My theory is when the weather seen what was just brought into the world by my mother, it just gave up any hope for the future down-under and went and lived in the northern hemisphere. :D

News - New Product Friday: Just … | about 5 months ago

4 years ain’t nothing. I haven’t had a white Christmas in 32 years!

*thinks being Australian may have something to do with it.

News - Friday New Product Post | about a year ago

Dave is really rocking that stache!

News - Introducing the IOIO for … | about a year ago

it will never happen. Apple will demand a cut of the price of each iIOIO device, pushing the price up at least 30%
Then you will need to own a mac and pay the developer tax to apple, just to get started with it.
Then there is the fact Jobs & CO will NEVER allow a device like this to connect to their devices, this kind of product fosters open and creative thinking. The completely opposite mentality Apple has.
Android FTW!