This is the Amp Hour Podcast Recorded July 11th 2011 Episode 51 Baffis Video Vaniloquence Welcome To The Amp Hour I'm Dave Jones from the EV blog and I'm Chris Gaml from Chris Gamls Analog Life and this is pretty novel, isn't it? Chris it is. We are on Google+ for the very first time and we are using the hangout feature. If people don't know about it, it is basically a video. We're trying out video as well, so we apologize in advance.

so if we if if we're giggling, it's because we're staring at each other um, via our webcams and we're trying to video capture it as well. So um, hopefully this will upload onto YouTube I'm just hoping that I can like, look at the camera, look at the screen. remember to switch over to you. We're actually doing like all the production switching and everything and so hopefully it doesn't suck too much.

but we'll have the audio just for all our regular listeners. So yeah, and hopefully we don't get any bleed through on the audio because I'm using my little earbud headphones. ah hello. waving at the camera was waving s We'll have to have some kind of visual at some point here.

I mean why else we doing this, you know? But yep, we'll I think the whole idea, the golden rule of video and TV and broadcast and everything else is just to pretend the camera's not there. That's the you know? that's the thing you've got to do. So maybe that's what we should do. We should just do that.

I I will just ignore the hell out of you D oh wait, the camera, not the not. the uh I think we ignore the hell out of each other anyway and just rant rant. Yeah, all right, all right, what what should we start with I mean we have uh, this list. we do have a shout out uh oh I Wanted to start with history.

Actually this is a pretty fun week in history actually. go for it this week in history. So this week uh is actually two things. First off, Tesla was born July 10th back in 1800s and so happy birthday Nicola Tesla and and all the Tesla Fanboys are going to get super excited.

All of those uh you know those energy uh energy scammers. they'll uh they'll get mega excited. Yeah yeah and so there's a lot of fun. I mean I saw a couple things on Reddit and I think Googled had like a a doodle with it and there's like a YouTube video and all this other stuff about history and everything.

but you know, just kind of reminding yourself about history all the time. it it's interesting just seeing man it was messed up, the stuff between him and and that whole electrocuting elephants and and the whole ACDC thing. Yeah yeah, the war of the currents and everything. So War of the currents is is that what it's called? Is that the official? well that is.

that is the Wikipedia page at least? Oh okay, right there you go. I haven't heard War of the currents? Yeah. so AC versus DC is war of the currents. and uh yeah.

so there's a couple fun links we'll post up about it. and man, I'm really nervous now that I'm video. this is stupid. So am I'm I'm a video blogger and it's just a it's I don't know, it's just different.

I know I've got to remember. yeah, we can't pick our nose, we can't do anything. can't scratch our bum? Well we can just got to make sure we're not on camera at the time. I I can since I'm in control I Can just you know pan over to you and it'll be fun.

and I'm sorry, but my mic is just far superior. I'm just holding my mic up to the camera now it's got a a shock mount. sorry yeah, far superior. Your analog mic there? yeah uh.

all these spider mounts they they. they just look totally profession profal. That's right. and now people can see them.

If anybody's listening after this or watching, you know they'll be so sick of us messing with video and everything. I I will probably upload this to my Uh Channel as a as a test to see if anyone likes actually watching the Ow. Um cuz who knows, maybe there's people out there who watch and they don't uh, they don't know the Ow exists really well. They don't care and maybe they will like it now that they're watching it on for an hour.

Deal with me too. They'll be like who's this? Uh, who's this guy with the The Sideburns yeah. Show your sideburns Chris my sideburns. Why do I Always dude I I Get a cut here I get a cut like halfway up my ear and then it just kind of creeps down on me.

So it's right. Come on. I Got to get a haircut now before every amp hour. It sucks.

All right. Yeah, I just got so haircut the other day it was really big. Now it's all short. Oh yeah, this.

this doesn't work on radio. No, it doesn't really. It's only for video. sorry all our dedicated radio listeners.

which is yeah, 99.9% of our audience. It's got to be 100. It's all of it's. all of them, right? Yeah boy.

So also so this other, uh, this day in nerd history. That's what this segment's called for. People that are maybe watching new the first time. Uh, we call it this day a new nerd history.

Now we have to go through all the segments again and come up with names and show. Tell people what the names are and everything. but it's actually related to the David Bowie thing or to to the David Bowie thing. Wow! the David Bo thing I just blew that one.

David Bowie fish Nea Tesla thing. So uh, a little bit of History David Bowie play played. uh, Nicola Tesla in the Prestige which is a movie about magicians in this kind of time period. Oh really? yeah.

so David Bowie played the part and we have another tie to the show. As in David Bowie's real name is Dave Jones it is which we've talked you didn't know and you're a muso I Can't believe it. Yeah yeah. and I I think that was actually back in I Believe our our last episode we talked about David Bowie was Bowie and the brown note Bowie and the brown note.

Yes, what an episode that was. What was in it? No idea. Oh no, we were just cracking up about the brown note. Yeah, that's right.

Anyways, there was a a a NASA Twitter Uh, there's a history thing for NASA uh Twitter account And basically they said five days ago or sorry, uh, today in 1969 it was 5 days before the Apollo 11 launch that David Bowie released his space Odity song oh really? there you yeah? Wow. so it's that old. That's scary. Yeah, it's it's getting up there man.

Yeah yeah. geez, how old was Bowie when he actually released that? how old is Bowie now he is I don't know this. the music history part of the uh Channel yeah yeah and I see I just got a pop out Yes Chris is now watching a YouTube video. Would I like to switch or hang on? This is part of this new Google+ thing.

Here we go: I'm going to try it. This could be find it First we'll see. We'll see if this works. This is the this is the video we talked about before.

so it's David Boe and this is the song Space Aity so we can at least have people listen I've lost your audio I can't hear there go. So you actually there's a there's a push to talk during videos. oh he's there right? Yeah, so we can actually watch and record videos and everything Mine mine's mine's not working at all. Oh okay, no, there we go.

Google Plus Fail Live on air. It doesn't work. There's a big green button at the top which says switch to YouTube and a big button which says Nope and now I press nope and it's not even going away. So I got to turn this video off.

Yeah, sorry about that. the so uh that was that was a fail there too I guess but we were trying out the video thing. You can actually watch videos concurrently on Go+ so me and Dave it'll actually sync up the the time wise and it'll It'll allow you to watch videos together. Yeah, so that's pretty awesome if it works.

Yeah, if it works I mean this is only a beta right? I mean it's only or or it's an alpha or something. It's beta. Yeah, yeah, well. isn't everything in Google Still Still Bea Don't they claim that that everything? Even the search engine? still? Bea You know? Yeah, yeah, they do.

And and that's actually cure I don't know if it's still on the list. we had that on the list for a while, but that actually happened with the uh, the power stuff. They they cancelled the the Google power meter a while back, right? Yeah. Google power meter.

Yep, and that's that's kind of annoying because and and then apparently Microsoft did the same. They they ended up cancelling their I think they called it Rome RM I think Oh okay, so that that was Microsoft one there's a company called Rome they make resistors. Yes, that's right. yeah.

I've heard I mean I know the company Yeah, yeah, um, but okay figure and so they and then you know they both had this big deal coming out about it. They both said oh well, we're doing power metering now and control your smart devices and then no one really took it up and none of the smart meters really came out on time. So they just said, well screw it and they just cancel the whole thing. That's cuz that's the software way of things, right? There's not as much reason to keep it around.

Yep, but you think a company that size would just keep it going because they could I Mean that's just. that's just crazy I can't imagine it would be a cost cutting thing on their part. I mean how many people would be working on that in a company the size of Google for example? Well, Google it could be. You know Gole has their 20% time.

so if they have people that were working on it and they were invested in it and then later they said oh well I want to try a new project that would actually be. you know if they they said oh, we don't want to spend 20% time on this anymore, that would just be the end of it right? Yeah, of course if it's a pet project, yeah and if there's no one left to everyone goes oh, it's boring now I Want to move on to something cool? Yeah, something new and cool then well so be it. Yeah, and so I'm actually looking at it right now. uh, this is is actually Microsoft home and I found a little neat little trick I can actually drag with Google Chrome right over the top of your face Dave while I'm recording this.

Yeah, so people that are watching the video can see what I'm talking about. it's called home, not Rome which makes a lot more sense but it's hohm um so that's the Microsoft one that got cancelled. Uh, okay, and if yeah, that's too bad. and what we're actually trying to do here is we're actually recording uh video at both ends here.

So we're actually locally screen capturing our video. So I'm screen capturing Chris and he's screen capturing me and hopefully we can put them side by side. Yeah, I'm switching. I'm switching between them.

Well, you're switching. It looks like I can't switch it just well look. I'll try it now. Here we go.

Let me hit me. Yeah, there we go. hello. but I get lag you see whereas Chris has no lag.

This is the interesting thing about Google Plus is that the there is essentially no lag. The video is awesome. I can see Chris in real time and he can see me in real time. But if I put my video up on the window then I get lag.

So go figure out that's a good one. second, half second, one second lag there. Yeah, it's almost like what we would need is like a third person just doing like production type stuff because then if they they would be able to record the two remote people right, they would record you and me and that would be syn perfectly and then their own stuff would be lagged and they'd be able to switch between things. So maybe professional shows work.

So right? Exactly. That's how Twit Network does it and everybody else. but they don't. They don't do it from the US to Australia.

they do it from you know they're in their new New York or something. you know? Oh yeah, well. they all. They all.

Most people are local. Yeah, it's all Yeah, yeah, a lot of their stuff is so oh. we are bouncing around a lot though. Um, so Google+ let's talk about that just a little bit more.

I mean I I don't know what what your feelings are about it. but and and we're not like a tech show but it's probably comes as no surprise to everyone. but Chris is super excited about Google Plus Well yeah, but I was more excited. You're excited about a new social media Outlet I I'm more excited about I Was most excited when I saw the video thing.

That's what I'm most excited about because people know I've been complaining on here about getting audio in here and getting more people involved and everything and that's that's the hardest part. This is a huge tool for just hooking people up and being able if we just invite people and record. That's pretty awesome. So that's what I'm excited about.

but it doesn't solve the audio problem. People still have to record locally. We're still recording our audio locally because the audio actually recorded through here is probably not good enough. although it's probably okay.

I guess if we had to have a third person and they didn't have a a recording setup, we could actually record there audio coming through. But yeah, yeah, exactly so that that would be. Yeah, we would just you and me have to probably have a second machine there to actually just record that and then then then we don't record our voices on that same stream and then mix it together later and ah, all gets too hard. Yeah, so I mean Google+ it's it's fun, it's it's a lot nicer than Facebook I think well that's the whole thing.

it's not Facebook and that's what I love about it. Oh yeah that XKCD that XKCD K CD thing. these little earbuds. I'm using my earbuds instead of the big thing and they're hurting the inside of my ear cuz they've got no uh little you know, foam inserty thing in them so I don't know I'll Soldier on.

it's all right. I'm a radio professional. Okay, all right and this is the uh that XK CD is actually about Google+ and that was actually one of the first things to come out about Goog Plus yeah, it was. It's very cool.

Yeah, we'll have to link that in actually. yeah. yeah. so uh to jump around to jump back I actually want to talk about because we were talking about the the Apollo launch with the David Bowie song that was part of the history thing.

Yep, uh so what do you think about the last shuttle launch? You get a chance to watch that I missed it live I totally well I kind of remembered and I go. oh I should check when it's on and then I actually forgotten it already gone but I saw it on uh saw it on the news and yeah it's it's sad it was. It was so funny. they actually interviewed people down on the ground there and um and they're balling their eyes out.

there was this one woman oh I can't believe it I can't believe it Typical American sorry you know it's yeah and and I was watching the news with the wife and and and we'll just going Americans you know and we'll just that's just what they show you I mean come on man. I know but that's the stereotypical image we get. You know these? they actually have the same clip that they use every single time in Australia it's always some I can't believe it America America was number one. oh it was it.

We were just shaking our heads. it was just funny. Yeah these stuff they choose to show and like and and the other stuff we're seeing here. another American poke we I I haven't poked America for a while I'm poking to the camera here.

There we go. Um, was that what there's this trial on at the moment or something? Oh I don't even want to hear about that. No. I've been avoiding that.

There's fights. That's all they show here is I know people fighting to get into this trial. just be a witness in this anyway and we just shake our heads and go bloody. Americans Yeah, you just yeah.

Well, you heard it here. First there you go. Yeah yeah, it's crazy. Yeah the uh.

the thing that bugs me about I mean na I mean NASA is kind of running into funding stuff now too. so that's kind of the thing that bugs me about it. and I was kind of trying to figure out what what would finally do it to get the US off its butt and get NASA back in gear. and uh I think I figured it out though I think if what is it I think if we start a cold war with China and then China says we're going to the Moon every time.

Yeah, exactly right. Uh, so if we if they say we're going to the moon or we're going to Mars yeah, bring it on man. I thought they already have. don't China say we're already, we're going to be at the Moon by 2020 or something, we're going to land a man on the moon.

haven't China already? I'm sure I've read that somewhere. you read it on our list. Actually a couple weeks back it was right. it was on there.

but yeah, they they they have said it. they. I think they said robots to the Moon in Mars first. All right.

Okay, yep. but I mean in terms of like dollars that you know technology, dollars that need to be spent. Yeah, we need Yeah, yeah. and I that was a dumbass move by America to cancel that.

it's just at least keep it going until you've got your next program up and running because they're still spending money on the what's the other program called the the the new program that they have the constellation or the the something like that the heavy lifter. uh yeah something yeah the yeah. it's got a and very American type name you know? Oh yeah. the the Freedom the Freedom America Star Spangled Banner booster crazy um but yeah, why you would can it and then not have anything else finished yet? it's just that's another thing.

Yeah you know I was watching a lot of the like Neil tast in the grass I was watching his Twitter feed as as I was watching Fe I don't subscribe to him on Twitter is he good does especially during liftoff and he'll give like facts and stuff and so if people are on Twitter he's a good one to follow. Ah I am actually reading his book at the moment. so oh great. Yeah yeah it's an awesome awesome book.

He is one of the number one advocates for science in the world and he's every time I see him I'm just blown away I mean like you watch some of his speeches even? he's just so Frank about everything. Oh he's brilliant and I've seen him live. he was at the Big Bang taping. he was the special guest in that big bang uh thing I went to so oh unfortunately he didn't stick around so I didn't get to meet him afterwards So that was that kind of sucked.

but yeah, yep, yeah. so so he's just a really good advocate for science for NASA And he was saying uh I think he was the first one to say it. you know the first. uh wow sorry.

a little distracted. you're live on camera here. Chris Come on I know, right? Uh, the He: if you look at the space shuttle program going backwards, uh, you know we go from nothing to low earth orbit to finally landing on the moon if you went backwards in time, right? Yeah, and the point of that is, well, that we've been going backwards basically. So we started by on the Mo.

Okay, yeah, well yeah. I mean it has been down. You know it is downhill since we land since you land a man on the moon, didn't it? I mean it's just how could it not be? and it's just crazy. Imagine what we could have achieved if we kept up that level of in investment and enthusiasm.

So I it's a shame. don't even get me started. Anyway, we've got a followup from last week. Well, I've got a followup.

You know how we talked about the open source multimeter. Oh yeah that that was a good yeah. this is a good follow up. I Like this: yeah um somebody posted a new uh Forum person just jumped on the Forum and their first post.

It was a killer First post they went, uh, just take a look at my rendering. I've done um of my of my own concept for this open source multimeter. It's like a Euro card uh format type thing and he's done it in. um, he's done all these 3D renderings and it just looks absolutely brilliant.

Yeah, it's really fantastic It I Really like that. it's a it's a pixie chassis which is a a type of uh, modular device. So it's it's pixie based. That's really cool, right? Okay, so that's an off-the-shelf rubber.

like a that's an off the-shelf case he's actually using. Is it I'm I've seen these cases before, but I'm not overly familiar with them. but yeah, it's a standard. Is it actually a Euro card format plugin? Euro I Don't know what Euro card is? can you explain? Oh, you don't know what Euro card is.

Oh come on man, it's only been around for like 30 years or something. It's a standard size uh board footprint. It's a stand. You know it's like a 160 mm by something.

Um, anyway yeah, it's a standard standard size plugin rack kind of thing which people have been using for 30 years. Um, so yeah and it's great. and Google SketchUp he's used Google SketchUp to do this now I tried to use Google SketchUp to do my lab um to try and remodel my lab and I just sucked at it I just could not drive the thing properly I I gave it a good go and I just I don't know how he's done this, how much effort he's put in Google SketchUp is easy, easy. it's great.

You think? Yeah, I' Well I've used it for my I used it for my workbench when I built my workbench and I've used it. uh what else? I've actually built uh, similar models before I actually taught people in my company how to use SketchUp for for Rapid circuit prototyping and everything. Because if you don't have a mechanical engineer around and you need to try, you've got to do it. Show someone what you want and you know maybe you want to do all this work before you go.

talk bugging a mechanical engineer, then yeah, you need to show him something and it's it. Plugins for circuit boards and stuff has it got like you know standard things which you know you can like. like he's got batteries there. He's like actually the batteries and the LCD and yeah it's it's all just a really simple.

it's just a you know you do a circle, you just draw a circle and then you extrude it and then and you extrude it. Yeah that's what I've been trying to do. but then when you're trying to do the complexity of this and do those little molded brackets he done. you know those little brackets which hold the right angle panel in place and all that sort of it just seems like a hell of a lot of work.

Um, it is a lot of work. I'll give you that it right? Okay, but it's it's fun work. I mean like I've never been a mechanically inclined person, but it was really fun doing this kind of thing. and so what? I do for uh, for when I when I use it, you know I I showed pictures here I'll drag it across again.

You know he shows it with with a green circuit board and then you know he's got the different colored plugs and everything. Yeah, But then what you can do with Google uh SketchUp is just overlay a picture and so what I do is a picture of a PCB and then just it just tiles that ACR and so it looks like a PCB and that's how he's done the screen there. he's he's he's done the LCD He's just taken a bit map image and said I want it on that surface Yeah, my voice is going why W on that surface and bingo Um and I Guess once you've done a single button then you can like actually copy and paste those buttons right? So yeah, and you know he's done the front panel. uh plug.

so you know once you done one, you can just copy and paste it I guess But yeah, that's a hell of a lot of work I Don't know how many hours that that would have taken him to do that, but very impressive. anyway. did you uh, did you mention your video last time? Did you mention your your own video about the Open Open Source Hardware Multimedia Did you mention that last week? Yeah I think I mentioned it okay I I didn't I wasn't sure if you had or not I Oh, had I actually done it by then? Anyway, yes I do have an open source multimer concept I'm yeah, pretty sure we talked about it last week, but I know only have some kind of Internet medium to check this out and I wanted to talk about. well you know, does you know how much this has changed the landscape? I mean and as you say, you know, whereas before you need a full-on mechanical engineer right to actually do this sort of stuff and you had to re try and relay your concept to them and and things like that.

but now you know a single engineer can just do the whole show, they can do their own 3D renderings and prototypes and I I would have killed for this 15 years ago. you know we we just weren't Even if you had a full-on mechanical person 3D wasn't you know, as big as it is and as easy as it is uh these days and um, it's just you know to to do like a 3D rendered mockup of your actual product was almost unheard of. really outside of, say Aerospace or something like that. you know, outside of Boeing doing a 3D model for the they actually like build the little plane and they put it in wind tunnel and they have those Texs that are like brilliant at doing that stuff.

Those those those tools were so massively high-end and expensive that no company could actually afford them. You know, apart from big boings and you know, defense companies and stuff like that. So really you you? you had nothing you had to do, just a little hand sketch of of of your concept. and it was.

It was pretty shitty. so you know, yeah, that's the worst when you're trying to uh, that was actually part of this presentation I did on it I I showed the difference between a 3D model that I had and it was pretty rough. a rough 3D model but then I I compared it to the the situation that got me in into it in the first place where I was trying to show a connector vendor what I needed and instead of being able to quickly draw it in 3D I had to try and sketch it out. So I scan those sketches in and they were just.

they were unbelievably bad. Yeah, and you can tell the difference between the video I did which is my hand draw and Dave CAD uh, sketch of the of my concept and this fantastic 3D model. You know it's just yeah. Ah, no contest.

really? So yeah, it really is quite nice. yeah I and it's just changed the whole landscape. You know anyone? can you know come up with these brilliant Concepts and ideas and once again, you can go on. Kickstarter and you can get funding and you can do all sorts of you know you can go and get venture capital or anything you know with your concept.

It's just so easy for any man on the street to do a 3D model. I Don't know? Is it putting these um 3D experts out of business? If you're a you know a 3D you know? um I don't know 3D artist if you're into that sort of stuffer a mechanical engineer? Well, you know there are differences between. you know there are Specialists who actually specialize in, you know, product renderings like this I mean that's like the difference between someone saying well oh, Dave people have you know Eagle or Design Spark? Are you as a professional Electronics designer and and you know former uh, you know CAD specialist when you're just doing CAD like would that have put you out of business? I don't I don't think so cuz you couldn't handle the volume that was needed right? The volume of boards I I Yes I guess okay, but this just opens up Avenues to you know anyone? Really, it's just true. Absolutely amazing because it's apparently so easy to use even though I'm dumbass at it.

Um, but yeah, it's it. It just works. It's great. Yeah and so on a similar front.

Actually, we just saw news this week that CERN the uh, particle accelerator lab in Switzerland Yep or uh, they have. They have released the first official I guess it's official open- Source Hardware license. So it's a license Now versus the whatever has actually been a real before has there. It's people of it's a concept.

It's a definition. Open Source had Open Source Hardware definition but it didn't actually come with a license. You had to go choose one of the you know, GPL or something like that, You? you know? Um, but now this is actually a specific Hardware open license. So why is it? How's it different? I Haven't looked into the details.

does any? Do you actually know how it's different to the Creative Commons one for example, which most people use. it is different than the Creative Commons I'm not completely sure the so I' I'm on the Uh Open Source Hardware mailing list which anyone can get on and so I could post a link to that if people are interested. It's not like this is like some kind of secret information. Um, so it's a lot of people that went to that Open Source Hardware convention last year.

Yeah, uh, that's on again shortly, isn't it? It's coming up Yeah. Remember I said that's the uh, same weekend as my oh, you're getting married. That's right, right, right? Yep, uh. so basically on the same list, the one of the guys from CERN actually wrote to it today and and he and he said basically it was all in the same the same vein as as the the definition, the Open Source Hardware definition or the open Hardware definition and basically they were just kind of taking that running with it.

and now I think that I think the difference is it's a legal framework now. So now it's like enforcable. They had lawyers look all this over and well, that's the same. the creative commment.

So what's the? What's the actual difference If the Creative Commons which we've talked about before where there's commercial, non-commercial and there's all sorts of, there's about eight different variations of that you can pick and choose. So I'm assuming that that there's got to be some sort of extra stuff in there that covers Hardware I Don't know. Um, yeah. or did they find that the Creative Commons really when it came down to it, didn't legally support Hardware as well as it could have I believe that's it.

So he he wrote uh, the he talked to the legal adviser of CERN and they needed a good legal framework for their open Hardware Designs right? And basically I think they were adding other stuff in I Think that's kind of the idea right? So they have looked into it soon, have looked into it and they go well. the other one's not really legally adequate for us, so we're going to do our own. Okay, you know that the thing that's crazy to me is that CERN I I wouldn't have thought of I mean CERN is is publicly funded and they really crazy stuff. but I wouldn't have thought of them as as someone who you know a company or entity that would be like yeah, let's release all their stuff.

You know it feels like it be very secretive, you know? I was very surprised. Yeah soon as you know. Yeah, usually they don't actually release anything unless it's actually published. you know in a in a peer reviewed Journal Unless you read it in nature or something like that, you know I just didn't expect them to.

Yeah. I was very surprised I went soon. Huh? Yeah. But going, whatever it is I mean it's it's good that it's in there.

Whatever it is, you know? So oh boy. Excellent. So if you want to release your Open Source Hardware stuff, you've got an extra license you can use. So yeah, if you can actually read if there's any legal experts out there who can read the stuff and actually tell us the exact differences.

um so yeah, I don't know. maybe I'll be using that instead of the creative comments for my stuff. Yeah, and uh. one of the last thing about that, there was actually another de debate on that email list about uh.

whether and I think we've talked about it on here before about Open Source Hardware versus open hardware and uh and we are our our prognosis was who cares and I think theirs was who cares? So all right, let's just move on and make some stuff. you know? Yeah, exactly yeah. I like it now. Another followup.

um Dino yes, tried to make that USB Kill Switch I was talking about. he did. he did. I Jo He he actually did a live show where he tried your concept.

even though even though I shot that down in flames last week and said it wouldn't work, he actually went ahead and tried it and well duh it didn't work. Yeah yeah. I actually ended up sending a I I found a USB There was like this webinar and actually I think for the first time in history recorded history there was a useful webinar. I'm not sure no way.

no oh oh yeah yeah yeah. so he actually he wrote to me today saying that he learned more about Usb and it and you know I was reading about it as as he was doing some of the hacking there and he was just kind of trying. resistor here. Resistor there? Yeah, try to try to actually uh, the data lines trying to pull them up and do weird stuff like that I Never realized that with USB there's actually I mean there's data Plus data minus but what I didn't realize is that it's not just differentially uh sens like the data coming in, but it's also it.

It's different depending on what speed grade you're on. so if you're at like the lower speed versus the higher speed it'll be I think it'll be reversed and that's actually how it tells which is which. okay I I didn't know the exact details like that right and I know I knew I knew that some of the the how how that's determined how the which speed grade it is is based on like pull-ups and pull down resistors on on different lines. but uh and that's just like when it when it first talks to a device it says okay well what speed grade are you going at and it says oh you got to pull up on your data Plus or whatever it is see I didn't know it did that I thought it always defaed to the lower one talked and then it was a software handshake thing that that actually determine the faster bit rate.

Yeah after to try was actually a pull up so that's but once again I've never been that involved in it to actually um know that sort of detail. So right. Well unfortunately USB is one of those things where you just kind of expect it to work I mean it's not really realistic? No, no that's right you you want to, you know you have a it's got USB building, you hook it up to it and you just yeah, you know. Yeah well the other the other thing that usually confounds that too is that that like the the simplest of USB is always like USB to serial.

That's the the simplest stuff. but when you get into it, it's always. it's always like USB Stacks So it's basically like Ethernet where it has different priority levels. Oh yeah yeah, cuz if you have like a 100 100 different devices on line.

oh yeah yeah yeah. so if you have a bunch of different devices that has to figure out well all right, this one has priority. This one. you know if you're webcam and your mouse are plugged into the same port it and it's sharing the data lines then it's got to figure out if like a USB router or something right or what's it called a USB port you were talking about, you needed one? Yeah I need a I've run out of us cuz my laptop's only got four uh you know USB ports and I've got one for my exter I'm using one for my external speakers which you've seen in a blog I'm now using one for external webcam cuz I am using my and Dave can actually show show his little his lab here if he moves his his webam I I I can yeah let's hope we don't kill it.

So there's my notebook and can we get there? there's you. and there's the recording window. There's I'm I'm using that as the recording window. There's the live yeah, that's the live audio there in uh, being being recorded and there's my speakers which I'm plugged into there.

This is like see now. This is another thing we could do with Google+ we could have. We could invite people on here, right? not just guests. and I can.

Yeah. and I can show. we can do workbench of the week. This way we we could switch back to workbench of the week.

See, that's that's what I'm saying man. I mean it's it's not bad, right? is now a video show? All right? Well, we'll see how it works. Oh boy. Anyway, yeah, I think people are still going to listen to it rather than watch it? Well, if that's stick it up as an experiment on my channel and I'm sure we'll get like 5,000 people watch it just out of curiosity.

but then they'll probably get pissed off. I don't want to watch this anymore. Want audio? Yeah, or maybe they are. actually they.

they're actually playing it. but they're just I do this all the time at work like I will sit. you know, I will, uh, play something on YouTube but I won't actually watch it. You know it'll be a lecture or something like that and I'll just play the audio in the background and I'm just.

you know, wasting all killing, wasting all that bandwidth. Um, because I'm just listening to. but why? why Why don't they have a simple option like kill video I just want to listen to. Oh yeah, we talked about that before.

Yeah. I You know? Yeah, that' be nice for us too. We would have to AUD audio U edit the audio at all. Yeah, yeah.

Anyway, should we start up a new amp? our YouTube channel have have we got? I think so? Yeah, we'll we'll We'll make one for that. So I'll link in I'll link it into that I I actually just made a amp hour account just just before the show. So so yeah, I'll link it in there amp hour account. Yeah! I don't know.

this hasn't been too awkward yet. I mean I'm usually a pretty awkward person and right now I feel kind of awkward. I'm well see you're staring directly at the camera whereas I'm I'm not I haven't I'm barely looking at the now I am I'm looking at the camera and uh, right. No.

I'm just staring at my screen because you can't have the camera in front of the screen. So right? uh well. I guess I could I could stick it right in front and then sort of if I need to read something that's under it I can move my head around but uh yeah, maybe I should try that. All right move.

I got so much on the desk here. Hang on. All right while Dave's doing that. I'll uh I'll start talking about the the next thing I want to talk about? So this is actually a segment we haven't done in a while so we got what this is.

crap. What the Yeah So found out that's just garbage I'm sorry I got too much on my desk. Oh that's okay. so I found out yesterday, not yesterday two days ago.

Cleveland So I live in Cleveland uh I live in Cleveland Ohio I found out Cleveland has a Semiconductor Company This is just like the weirdest thing ever. Yeah yeah and it's just. uh, it's a small company. You know they they.

they do, you know, like sensors. a lot of like Photo sensors and stuff like that. but it's funny. I I wouldn't think about like a chip company being in in a small place.

but I guess it it. If you have the right kind of equipment then that's all that really matters. So right? So they so they actually have their own Fab They've got their own small yeah, small scale. basically a bunch of CBD machines and you know, some silicon.

Wafers and but yeah, it's pretty cool. It's called ER Semiconductor and so I there you go. Shout out to ER Semiconductor. Yeah right, we uh, we found we found semiconductor companies before so maybe they'll get they'll get big and then throw a design contest after this, right? Okay, any more thought of any more design contests? Uh, it's too hard isn't it? No.

Oh for me. Oh hell yeah yeah. uh hell no. we're still.

we're still dealing with that. Yeah, right. Oh, you still dealing with after littleit here and there. Yeah here there.

y uh yeah. I told you so. whatever. Chris my my young pedin learner.

he does just cuz you're lazy man. just cuz you're lazy. yeah. I am I'm inherently lazy.

Yeah, it's a wonder I get anything done at all really? I I'm just totally surprised. Yeah. Anyway, um so another thing in the chip, the chip bin. So we have other you know we group stories by by topics and another thing, the chip bin.

there's I Think we've seen a story about this before, but there's a there's a new company I Found this this kind of obscure article today, but so India has has sponsored a chip design before and I think we've talked about that but there's a new one actually from the Philippines. Now now the Philippines is trying to get into it and so they're developing new processor and I for what they call it like a A Ryar I think that was it. Ryar R I Z a l and so they're trying to just develop a new processor from scratch and then and then you know actually do the manufacture there in the Philippines but I think what they're trying to do. basically it's state sponsored and I think they're trying to create a chip industry because they're kind of a a Next Generation lowcost area.

Okay, that's pretty cool, but why design your own architecture from scratch I right? There are so many out there. there's so many open source ones now. Why would you? I don't understand I You know, just just from an educational point of view. Maybe Great fine.

go for it. But I don't know the world almost expressly for the purpose of trying to stimulate industry and trying to create a chip industry in the area. And yeah, but you can do that just taking an existing off. In fact, you can do it a lot quicker and with less risk an existing off the shelf open source architecture.

I mean why? Well, but then you then you don't need tons of designers that you can give money and that injects money into your econom. Well, yeah, so that's I think that's the real thing. So it I think I don't know I I Don't think it's going to be a big deal I mean and and and it's not going to be like a national pride kind of thing either. because like I'm sure that you know at least on the street, probably one in 10 people couldn't tell you where arm was first started and I'm sure even in the electronics Industry Six out of 10 people probably couldn't tell you where it was started.

Uh caller now and now you can't fake it Dave you're cam I can't do it. it doesn't work anymore on the video. sorry buddy I I can answer it but uh, maybe it's Randy again was it Randy was it I I don't think it was. Was itand Randy where was he from Hickville or something? Oklah Oklahoma or something like that? something like that? Yeah, poor.

Oklahom this is the Oz like behind the curtain kind of thing. Yes, we are the Wizards from behind the curtain so it's just lifted. Totally yeah. Oh well.

what can you do? talk you get when you actually work from your studio here which is your office. You've got a phone in here and well, it rings occasionally. It's never for me. Nobody ever calls me, you know.

I've got a mobile phone, never rings I don't even bother to check it even if I have a message or something right and back in the day. off the grid right? And if you were Consulting back in the day and the phone's ringing, that's a good thing, right? But now it's like email. It was a real phone. CU We didn't have Bloody mobile phones back then.

you know it was A we had fax machines and we had real phones and uh yep, geez, we didn't even have cordless phones back then. It was just all uh, you know back in your day, is that what? Yeah back, it was rotary dial. You know we had a rotary dial phone up until well into the 80s. I'm sure it was well into the ' 80s.

We we we had rotary dial. So yeah, I mean we had it in the ' 90s I think no, we probably got WEA touchdown in the '90s Well you are from Cleveland Ohio What the hell is that me? So I'm just poking you bring you from some backwat. You know, backwat don't even know where be in California where all the action is. You know, well, it could be.

but you know, whatever you're you're talking about how few opportunities there are. Well I think you know I think the interest. Okay, so here's an interesting article about that actually. so you say California is where the action is and I would I would counter with China is where the action is right and that's what I think a lot of people counter right? but get this: Uh now there's a company called uh who I don't know how to say this.

uh hway, uh, where is it? Yeah, right, yeah hway. I'm totally saying that wrong. Anyways, uh, they're foreign National company they're They're a Chinese-based company and they are. They've got a huge Design Center now and they're expanding it continuously in.

uh in the Silicon Valley that's that's their thing and I'm going to focus here. sorry my camera I have to try and uh, get it back. focus Oh okay. I thought it was something to do with the stream.

it was your focus camera Focus just not working. Yeah, Fail Yeah. another fail. Um yeah.

so there's uh, there's a new. it's not new though, it's it's this huge company they got. They got people everywhere. But basically there's so much talent in Silicon Valley that this Chinese company opened uh, a uh, a design center in Silicon Valley and now they're expanding it because that's where they're They're pulling a lot of their talent from I mean even a lot of Chinese Talent is ending up.

So here's all these other dumb companies right? Moving to China Like like Alum thinking that's where the action is. And here's all the CH smart Chinese companies now moving out of China because there's right because there's no Talent there. right? right? right? Is that? Well, you know there's there Must be a huge reason why a Chinese company like that you know would would move shop. and I I assume they've move shop, right? They were China base they didn't start up in Silicon Valley right? Is that the no, no, they I mean they started in China and basically they've grown through Acquisitions and everything else and now they have a North North American arm and right, Yeah, you know they just they're like contract your company I think and okay Y and they realize that's where the talent is right, right? There's that.

and they also I mean they also, uh, it's because they're growing through acquisition too. I Mean if you're if you're buying RF companies, you're going to want to be where the RF companies are because you need to have more people there. So yep, very true. And it's um, I think We talked about this the other week.

It's like you know everyone's moving to China companies are moving there thinking oh yeah, we'll get cheap. uh, really good talent. You know there's so many people coming out of the universities there and stuff like that. Yeah, we can pick them all up cheap.

but a it's not that cheap and B apparently there's a really high, uh, really high turnover. a really high churn rate in these companies for engineers. They just last 6 months and they bug her off. Um, especially in in the big cities like um, you know, Shanghai and Hong Kong and places like that there.

there's just a massive turnover apparently. So um, it doesn't matter how good the talent is, if it's just churning over every 6 months, you're going to be screwed. As a company, right? right? Really, it's going to be hard to get consistent quality and stuff like that. So right, Especially when there's a big steep learning curve.

Say you're a software company like, uh, like Almr and they they move to China as we've talked about. Well, if you've got your key programmers actually, you know, churning over every 6 months, Well, good luck to you It's going to be hard to get consistent, uh, code out of it. So yeah, yeah, that's that's got to be tough because the you know the it takes you many, many months to come up to speed on something like that and you know they they spend 3 months coming up to speed. They do 3 months worth of work and then bugger off.

right? Well, yeah, you're screwed. So and you so you were talking about the Time article right? Is that right? Dave The Time article that you? Yes article? Yes, Yes, that's right. Yeah. so I've got that up here now.

and uh, you know part of it too is you know you read about it and you you know it's it's easy to say like oh well. Chinese people are taking our jobs and whatever. Whatever people say, right? But at the same time you know, like you read of these stories and like man, they are just it's It's like heartbreak. You know, heartbreaking to think like how how little work there is for the world, right? That's kind of what it comes down to because they're so happy to have the jobs.

People that are losing jobs are so sad to be losing the jobs. you know. and it's It's just culturally, it's just amazing difference you know. I I don't have any solution for it obviously.

but uh, you know well that that's at the low end. Um, the but I think as I said, like at the high end. all of these uh Engineers all these graduates who are coming out and people with experience. they're not bad in an eyelid at changing companies.

You know at moving around they they they they don't seem, you know. Oh I've got a job I've got to be loyal to the company and you know, um, they. they just don't seem to care. they will just jump from one company to the other.

so I guess there's work out there. Uh well. there has to be to be able to do that if you compare that. to say the Japanese who.

they're very loyal. you know? um that's part of their culture. You know you join a company and you're there for Life almost sometimes. so um they they're a very loyal culture but uh China I don't know? um yeah it that is kind of interesting.

the uh the difference between the the the different like white collar Blue Collar kind of stuff cuz this this article is mostly about kind of manufacturing side of things and and they don't They don't really touch on the the white collar kind of stuff. so right? yep I don't know if you've got a background in China if you can tell us if we're right or wrong or you know what actually happens over there. um sure we have some Chinese listeners. yeah you notice I got that right.

I didn't say Chinese viewers I'm I'm learning. What do you mean Now we do well because I always mix up viewers and listeners right? Oh well, we have. We might have both now. Well We? well okay, technically I can say either now, right? cuz we're video.

The amp hour is Gone video. Yeah yeah. crappy 320 by 240 webcam. Yeah yeah.

jerky video. Um I'm just making funny faces to the camera there. actually I haven't even looked at the camera. hello camera, hello camera.

Yeah whereas you seem to be staring directly at the camera, is that on purpose? or are you actually or is it smack in front of your screen staring at you man? Oh right. Okay, oh sorry I'm being rude I haven't looked at you once. It's okay. it's so sideburns dude.

I just can't I know, right? I can't look at you I can't look at you this 14year old kid I can't It's just no. yeah doesn't work. That's okay. I So does your girlfriend tease you about that your youthful look or is it just a or is it just an on camera thing? Are you that youthful looking in person? You know what it is.

it's the uh, it's it's the lights here I have like right up here you can kind of see how washed out my hand is I mean I'm I'm a pretty pale dude to start with. but yeah I have some sick, some sick amount of lighting in my in my house and uh, right, and you know I get the greasy forehead too so that helps, right? Okay so yeah, everything about my setup basically makes me look really young. uh cool what you going to do I love it I get CED a lot still when I try and buy beer so don't worry about that right? Okay oh boy yeah, what else we got? We we got 10 minutes left. Yeah, we do.

um yeah, it's a bit different. it's a bit muddled today. we're not as focused as we us. we are all over the place.

you know I didn't give a shout out Bas not that we usually Focus Oh shout out Did we miss a shout out I Missed a shout out because I wanted to talk about history but now I should get to it the uh I want to just give a shout out to Hams again. So I've been I I was going through old emails so like basically clearing out my inbox and I I got so many emails from Hams when I was talking about that and I'm still studying obviously. but uh right, they're just so helpful. you know it's and I don't know if people know that are listeners that aren't like ham people.

uh, but they actually have a thing called Elmer's have you ever heard of that? Dave no yeah so that's what they call like Elmer is like basically mentoring someone and so if if you're an Elmer to someone I look really stupid when I say the word El Elmer right? you're a young Jedi pedin learner are you? Is that the right? Yeah I me that's kind of the idea. the interm for oh okay, interesting. it's really, it's really integral to the culture. and so I got so many nice emails about that stuff and uh, it was I just wanted to thank all those guys who sent emails and uh and just give a shout out to the hams again because as I've said in the past, I mean annual Analog.

The rock stars of Analog obviously. but uh, you know, just the helpfulness is nice too. and and it for people that are listening or watching too. If you're interested in getting into it, you know, don't be afraid because there's so many people out there who are willing to help.

that's pretty awesome So well I'd love to know what is the rate of young people actually taking it up because I you know I can I can picture it almost dying out I don't like to say that but as people get older and older and you know, um, as the people who are, you know cuz I think it's mostly older people who are into it. so I'd love to know what I actually have an article for you Dave and there you go. Hey yeah, there's this article from article hey hey hey something yeah uh, it's from Brain Wagon. but basically this the the author.

he Brain Wagon Brain Wagon he uh, he went to a conference called Pacific Pacificon and he's talking about Elmer's here too and he said he's in his 40s and he was one of the youngest people there if that gives any indication, right? Okay, that's yeah that I'm not surprised in the least. you would be a young young hipper Snapper if you're yeah, you're what. He was in his 40s like mid 40s or something and he was oh, where's he yeah, he said he I suspect I was in the youngest 2% of attendees and I'm in my late 40s. Yeah, late 40s? Okay, it's tough man.

it's still not surprising. Yeah, yeah, yeah. and and you know it's It's interesting. the whole article is about mentors in general.

but and he he bolds this part. He says mentors don't actually create interest in subjects And that's true. You know, if people aren't going to be interested in ham radio, it's just going to die out. You can't make people want to like stuff, right? No, No, of course, at least at least not directly.

At least not as a mentor. You come on in indirectly via. It's cool. It's fun in some way.

but yeah, no, right. And just like just like parents, like engineering parents who like force their kids into engineering, those kids usually don't make it. But the ones who are like, hey, let's go make some stuff together, That's usually where it ends up working out. So yeah, you know, so take notice.

Dave So when you and you know when your uh, neuro project you know ramps up Don't force him, just show him the cool stuff you can do. Oh noly, that's what I'm going to be doing. Yeah, exactly. So no, he can.

You know I don't care what he gets into as long as it's technical I don't care. but musician one musician coming up right? Great technical musician. Yeah, okay, I you know, not fussy, but obviously I'd be more excited if he's interested in the stuff that I'm interested in. Hopefully yeah, I'll show him.

but if he doesn't like it, if he thinks it's just un uncool, then well so be it, You know. Yeah I Can hear a dog barking in the background. ah yes, the uh, the lovely noises of my my uh, my lab uh should I uh give a give a showing of my lab real quick I Can um yeah, move the curtain. If if you don't know if you're watching this on video that is a curtain behind this is literally The Wizard of Oz curtain behind the curtain and there a wizard behind there a bunch of crap.

Look at that. that is the messiest basement ever. There's a reason there's a curtain there and you can tell the difference in the in the actual uh light there like you're really lit up and behind they so dark and grainy and yeah yeah and this is the uh holy doly. oh I can see drums, drums and uh this is my bench.

people. have seen my bench before obviously. but yeah, you know there's all this junk I can't really tell what I'm looking at here. oh you, you've got je jeel monitors there dude? oh yeah yeah so that's nice.

that's my thing. Yep there my piano on the bench. so yes the wonders of video. Yay! So Noel isn't it? You can waste your time Dick on.

yeah that's what I did on the live shows I just you know. started putting special effects over the thing and then the stupid and it's just yeah yeah no they just want to listen to to your rant on so come on rant. oh there's a door closing. yep oh never a doll moment in my house.

no youg have your own Foley Studio there? Yeah right. Yeah, if only we needed sound effects right? And for those people who don't know, a Foley studio is like a Sound Studio where they do the all the sounds for the movies. Like so if you're actually oh oh you didn't yeah I I believe it is. maybe I got it wrong.

But anyway yeah a Foley studio is. um is where they do all the after effects for the movies. So when they're actually shooting a movie, they don't actually um, they. They don't actually record sounds on set like sounds of people walking or sounds of you know, things clanging and doors closing.

They actually add all that after the fact. um usually. so with all of your big budget ones do anyway. all of your big budget movies.

So every almost every sound effect almost any sound you hear people's footsteps and stuff like that is added after in a fley studio. and they just have lots of weird objects. There's a guy who sits there at a at a thing with you know, pots and pans and little tiny doors and little squeaky kids toys and all sorts of stuff. Just to you know, um just to get all these noises you know, like the you know, the the noise for the Star Wars lightsaber or something like that.

you know that was done by a folio. Foley Studio Guy They'll spend a whole week you know, going around. They go out to junkyards and they take their little record with them and they try and try and record just the right sound for something. So anyway, there there you go.

Studio is well equipped with lots of noise, unwanted noises. so if you ever need anything recorded just uh, you know, give me a shout and oh look at that. even even dogs coming downstairs even though I didn't ask for them and I did get it right. I Just searched Wiki and uh yes, Foley is used to describe a place such as a Foley stage or Foley Studio where the Foley process takes place.

Oh there you go. Um, a Foley artist sound effects. There you go. So I was right.

Yep, that was a bit of useless trivia wasn't it? Yeah and we got one minute left. Yep, what do we got? Uh, anything else on here I don't know. this is a big fail this episode I Think we're too distracted by? well we've been. We've been a little distracted by the video I Got to say but hopefully we get better at it.

You know? Yeah, well there's actually uh. did did we ever talk about the video with uh with William Shatner the with him explaining microchips so there's a no I don't think so I thought we did really yeah there was a there was a video back in the day. yeah of it's really weird. It was like it was sponsored by AT&T or Bell Labs Oh and mine started of course and uh it was started by AT&T or Bell labs and it it's basically him explaining it like just kind of diving down into a a micro processor.

That's right, I think maybe it was on the yeah I do recall mention of this right and this I assume this is like back in the 70s or something. Is it or 80s or something like that? Uh yeah I think late 7s early ' 80s, something like that. Yeah yeah and uh. basically there's a there's a site with all these with a bunch of uh not not just the Shatner explaining it, but it.

it was also uh, other videos too. So a lot of lot of other like technical type videos all sponsored by Bell labs and basically you'll never see this kind of thing again because Bell Labs doesn't exist in that capacity and you know there's other other people making these kind of videos. But I think this kind of video stuff is now up to hobbyists making making fun videos, explaining stuff as opposed to whereas you needed you know, thousands of dollars of production. You know that? Yeah, exactly anyone can do it.

Now that's the anyone can do anything they like. These days you can form your own chip company, you can do your own. Uh, you can become a uh a movie star, a video star film star. any Radio Star Anything you want to do mess it up all you got to do is buy a, bucks worth of gear and go.

you know you're set. Yep that's amazing. Yeah the world of the internet. And one last fun thing, uh there was actually this uh I don't know when I saw it but the uh, there was a prediction of the internet actually from The New York Times it was a New York Times article.

Uh, talking about how let's see study says technology could transform Society apparently. So I don't know if you guys heard about this. Yeah, and uh, you know they're talking about privacy and shopping online and all the other stuff. Oh, it sounds yeah.

they talk about you know home home will double as a place of employment homebased shopping. Will you know? open up the markets shift away from conventional workplace and then okay, a new Prof This is interesting. A new profession of information Brokers they call it and managers basically. uh.

video bloggers I don't know podcasters I guess is that? I Well, not broke? Well, yeah, we sort of. Syndicate You know when you're talking about create content, then you? I I guess yeah. Um, when they talk about like influencers online, right? So people that are really influential, right? Yeah, uh. do they talk about people producing content I Guess what? That's maybe what they broker.

Maybe that's what they're talking about. They're actually talking about a Content producer? Yeah, perhaps. I I don't know. Yeah, I don't know.

But then they're also talking about extended family too. So like allowing elderly people to work from home long? uh, you know longer in life and that's another good thing. And and and I think with the exception of the elderly thing cuz that has been more of a amount of jobs that have been available you know, and the amount of people coming up with technology and like being able to use the technology Aside from that, I think yeah, Yep, they've been pretty spoton. So this was written in 82 1982.

Wow, that's pretty crazy. Okay, that was before you were born, isn't it? Yes, you were born in ' 82, weren't you? I was born in ' 83 83. There you go before Chris was born before Chris was itch in his daddy pant Daddy's pants. There you go.

That's the saying goes I Like the uh, the last line it says copies of this report titled teletext and video text in the United States are available. If you write to this address, it's just like who you had to write to. People actually write a letter and and you have to include a stamp self addressed onel yeah, have to get it on micro feish or something from the library right? Got to wait a bunch of months. That's