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Member Since: May 7, 2006
Country: United States
In addition to the losses from using a linear regulator (according to Lady Ada's Minty Boost Meta Documentation) 9V batteries have a much higher internal resistance than AAs, ~2ohms compared to ~0.3ohms. Moreover, 9V batteries have about 4.5Wh of power (9v at 500mAh) compared to 9Wh for 2 AAs (2 * 1.5V * 3000mAh).
Publishing a magazine in addition to running SparkFun would be tough, but a column and/or regular project articles in Make magazine might be feasible. A lot of projects in Make are based on SparkFun products anyway.
After a couple of years the columns/articles could be collected into a book, eventually becoming a series of books.
The Teensy and Teensy++ use the Atmel ATmega32U4 and AT90USB1286 respectively (http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/) and can be programmed with sort-of-mostly-Arduino-compatible firmware (http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/teensyduino.html).
No, you cannot use these out of the box.
You need a U.FL to RP-SMA cable and an antenna with an RP-SMA connector (or a U.FL to SMA cable and an antenna with an SMA connector, but SparkFun doesn't seem to sell any antennas with an SMA connector).
There's an very active subgenre of arcade enthusiasts, so I'm sure I won't be the only to suggest that if you're going to carry arcade style joysticks, you should also consider carrying some arcade style buttons, trackballs and interface electronics.
Just a couple of example links; http://www.xgaming.com/arcade_parts.shtml, http://www.ultimarc.com/JShopServer/ and http://www.u-hid.com/.
For those of us who can't get to Hong Kong, there's always http://DealExtreme.com (prices include shipping).
Just for reference, an instructable on how to make an RFID tag.
Unfortunately a 13.56 MHz tag, not the 125 KHz version.
http://www.instructables.com/id/RFID_Reader_Detector_and_Tilt_Sensitive_RFID_Tag/
This looks like the datasheet, http://www.p3america.com/pp/802.htm.
Can you use a phase-change material instead of water?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_change_material
I don't know if they make phase-change materials that work in the 120 degree range. Although I suppose you could use wax. According to this:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060911183537AAMm269
Bee's wax melts (phase-change) at 45C/113F, paraffin between 47C/116F & 65C/149F and carnauba between 78C/172F & 85C/185F.
No public wish lists :(