So it’s quite apparent I haven’t been around posting too much. The date on the last post makes that pretty obvious. I have been doing some fun and exciting things though!

First off is The Amp Hour, a new electronics podcast/radio show. We just completed our 8th episode yesterday and it seems to be going well! We were very lucky to have much of Dave Jones’ wonderful community at EEVblog make the jump over and listen to us. It’s nice to have a strong base of listeners to start with and we appreciate everyone of them (I appreciate you doubly if you happen to read here as well!).

I know we said we wouldn’t talk about it on our sites any more, but I figured once more can’t hurt. We have our latest episode of The Amp Hour up on the new website, just waiting to be downloaded or streamed.

I will say though that you should pull the RSS feed ASAP in order to not miss any future radio shows. Who knows what kind of hijinks you’d miss out on?

A note about part reviews: I do not get paid to do reviews. I am either doing them out of the kindness of my heart, because they have some historical significance (as in the case of my review of the LM741) or most likely I think the technology is important and interesting. All opinions are my own and I would not suggest making any part choices based on the information in this article alone. Read some datasheets, they’re pretty informative.

I really don’t have much to say in response to my last post about where all the electrical engineer sites are online other than: message boards. I alluded to the idea of message boards when I mentioned EEVBlog, though unknowningly at the time; I thought EEVblog was only videos. Working with Dave on The Amp Hour has shown me that a message board can really help hash out ideas (if you’re one of the content generators), get suggestions, or get questions answered (if you’re watching or reading and don’t understand something).  So I started hunting and found some other quite active electronics-only forums:

We finished recording the 3rd installment of our newly-named radio show–“The Amp Hour”–last night. The show focused on a couple different topics, we were trying to stay a little bit more focused than we had been previously. Anyway, be sure to click the link above to get to the podcast/radio show, I don’t plan on putting the audio on this page anymore. I would also suggest that you try out the RSS feed on The Amp Hour, it’s the easiest way to get up to date info on the program; plus I’d like to discontinue posting that there is a new episode up on both that site and this one.

Dave and I have decided to move the radio show we started together to a separate site. We also chose a name for the site, The Amp Hour.

Going to a different site will allow Dave to continue providing video podcasts on the EEVblog site and I can continue providing analog type articles (and podcasts) on this site.  Our content will appear there from now on, but we’ll be sure to link over to that site for the next few shows to ensure people know where the audio files can be found.

Dave and I have recorded our second radio show. Still no name for the show, or else it would be posted at a different site than this one.  If this show happens to inspire an idea for you, please leave your idea in the comments.

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Links discussed in the show:

• MAKE magazine’s review of Maker Faire Detroit (learning to solder)
• NYT article about mineral deposits in Afghanistan
• Antipasto Hardware Blog — Graphing Calculator on the Beagle Touch
• Anduino Wiki Page
• Maker Faire NYC Tickets

We would love any feedback either in the comments or at the EEVblog forum (there is a specific section for the radio show).

So I’m very pleased to announce an inaugural episode of what we hope will be a regular “radio” show with Dave Jones of EEVblog. I got in touch with Dave about doing an interview for my series on the electronics food chain, as many others have in the past few weeks. Instead, we decided we could try taking it to the air and maybe try out a radio-type format.

To any EEVBlog members arriving on this page for the first time, welcome! I really dig the community that has risen up around Dave and his video blog and how supportive they are of one another on the forums there. For anyone who has not yet been to Dave’s site, I highly recommend watching and/or downloading some of the videos and joining the forums.

In this continuing series about the electronic food chain, I thought it would be interesting to hear the perspective of  someone who writes about leading edge technologies on a regular basis. We’ve already heard from an RF analog chip designer, an EDA software consultant and an electronics industry analyst**. There will be more interviews to come in the future and suggestions are always welcome.

How do most engineers get information about projects they aren’t working on directly? I often hear it is from technical magazines. I have also been told by my mentors the benefit of keeping up to date on innovation that might eventually become the new standard. Just think, one day however many years ago, they were discussing WiFi in magazines–even though it was not widespread. And now it’s so standard that I’m using it for free in an airport while writing this post! The point is, keeping up on technology is important. But who gathers all this information for us to later digest?

This is my first podcast ever!

Sure, it’s something different, but give it a listen and let me know what you think in the comments!

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