So I was at OSCON all last week. And I got to meet some really cool people etc. Got a free Tattoo of a PCB on my calf from the good folks over at SourceForge during the CCA awards. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=446724308362598359
Made a $50 personal donation to the awesome Open Source Labs. http://osuosl.org There was not a lot of embedded outside of the avr, arduino platforms that I really saw. But I got a chance to talk with Vik Olliver and see the really cool projects like the RepRap http://reprap.org in action and making use of the arduino platform. So I picked up one of the arduino starer kits from the Make: booth and will be joining the realm of playing with micro controllers like a few others of you out there. The kit included the following items 1 x Arduino Diecimila, Kit fully assembled 1 x ProtoShield un-assembled 1 x Making Things Talk Book I imagine they will become a bundle soon they will be selling directly on the site. http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKSP1 http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKAD6 http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=0596510519 I then ran over to the radio shack and picked up the Parallax UltraSonic PING sensor. http://www.radioshack.com/sm-ultra-sonic-range-finder--pi-2909789.html Also picked up a DIY Design Electronics Kit from Make: have have nearly completed all of the projects in the accompanying book. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to build yet . But.. Hey I'm having fun. The chances of whatever I might do being 'solar' powered are pretty high.. After the show at the "BeerForge" a sponsored event by the OSL among others, I got a chance to meet one of the developers behind the BUG http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue/172 where we discussed making Gentoo Embedded a suitable/supported platform for development of the device. "He Who lurks on this list" :) I also got to meet one of our own Gentoo Embedded users who is working on a Robot called W.A.L.T.E.R which I filmed about a 100M of till my tiny camera's flash filled up. http://linbsd.net/~solar/pict0008.asf One thing I have in common with the RobotGuy is that we are both developing using the really cool NailKit's from TinCanTools. http://www.tincantools.com/product.php?productid=16143 His blog site is http://www.thedynaplex.info/serendipity/ I'm sure there are lots of things I'm forgetting but I just thought I'd share.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SideNote: Anybody planning on attending LWE this year in San Francisco? Gentoo wont be doing a booth this year but we can probably arrange an embedded BoF..
