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News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

I agree most folks on the list won’t be bothered but that type of argument ties too closely to ‘if you have nothing to be worried about, don’t be worried’. I am law abiding. And regardless if I was cleared from a similar list, I don’t like being placed on such list.

You raise good points and I don’t think we’ll clear up this debate any time soon.

News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

Hi John – I hear you and you’re right. I don’t like how it turned out at all. The way the timing turned out I had to make a decision with little time and incomplete information. I’m a data privacy hawk at heart and it really does pain me to give up anything. If I had to do it all again I would want to get a lot more legal options rather than the recommendations that I was given. I was caught off guard and at the time I made the best decision I could. We will certainly be much better prepared for the next one. I really do want to have this post serve as a piece of education to other folks who get a subpoena in the future.

News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

We were told it’s a very fine line between notification and what might be seen as tipping-off. Thanks for the link to twitter’s guidelines. Perhaps we can bake something into our policies and terms of service.

News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

Did I use it wrong? Sorry – I often misuse sayings.

What I found eye-opening was the simple process in which my name could end up on a list of ‘persons of concern’. I never took this class in college so I found it exceptional that a county clerk in a different state, with a simple email template, could compel a business to turn over records. This is my (perhaps poor) attempt at a PSA.

News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

I certainly hope the data turned over helps the authorities, but what really gets me worried is the false positives. In other words there are people on that list (potentially and probably all of them) that are perfectly innocent. I fear having the spot light turned on myself for no legitimate reason and I have similar concern for those on the list.

News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

I know. It makes me feel pretty awful. It may sound like an excuse but we don’t exactly have the legal support twitter poses.

News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

It was very surreal. Just a small csv file emailed to the investigator.

News - SparkFun Gets a Subpoena | about 2 weeks ago

Thank you. It’s been hard. I’m not satisfied with the outcome but it’s one more lesson we’ve had to go through. Hopefully others can make a more educated decision.

News - Fast and Malleable | about 3 weeks ago

Hi Member – I’ll try to answer your questions but may miss one. Let me know:

I’m sorry it what I wrote sounded like a cop-out. I tend to err on the side of admitting when we mess up, try not to beat ourselves up too badly, fix it and move on.

I don’t see a comment with your name on it on the BMP085 product. There’s a lot there. Let me know what issues you’re talking about. We test each board and verify functionality. We’ve had thousands of units deployed in the field with very few failed units of which we’ve tried to verify with the customer how the unit failed.

I would like to believe I am a real businessperson (though I regularly admit I never took this class in college) and I am bent on both business and personal improvement.

I don’t doubt other companies will come out with better designs – that’s actually what I was trying to say in the post: it’s what drives us to make better products. The speed at which things are changing makes designing always something new an uphill battle. But I don’t think anyone here would say we’re tired, rather, we’re ready for it.

News - Maker Faire San Mateo 201… | about 3 weeks ago

I agree with OhmMyGadgets – I’m really glad that Make has figured out how to make the faire happen in the first place. Maker Faire has always been a super-fun event for us. But we need to be clear that SparkFun is a for-profit company and Make has the task of running a for-profit event. I just wanted to explain to folks the reasons why we’re not going to be there this year.