A bit of a mixed bag episode. Chris is off to Maker Faire, and Dave likes to carry a man bag. 

Lots of talk about CAD, Education, Startups and China today! Sparkfun is having a soldering contest! Just like paying for FedEx, people are almost always willing to pay for faster service. Dave is working on his MakerBot directly after recording the show today. Chris is off on a trip to go do a technology transfer [...]

Chris is back from Hawaii, and we are joined once again by Jeff Keyzer of Mightyohm.com. All about Sabaticals, and trying to get out of working for a living :-> We ridicule a Spray-On Antenna in a can! We are reluctant to mention a new reality TV show called Top Engineer. Before auditioning, be sure to [...]

Whilst Chris is on his belated honeymoon, regular cohort Jeff Keyzer from Mightohm.com takes over. Jeff has been travelling again: He barely survived Berlin for New Years, what with their readily available fireworks, unlike Australia. The Edison National Historic Park in New Jersey Another surplus shop tour, including the TWR swap meet. Will Detroit just [...]

Dave's choice of an Arduino as the brains of his new power supply is giving him strife. They are manufacturing the 6502 again! Similar to how Rochester Electronics makes old parts. "Programming (Hardware) is like sex: One mistake and you'll support it for the rest of your life!" Chris is looking at a new project [...]

Happy Chinese New Year! Find out how to say it on YouTube. Or how to say it as a hardware engineer! Dave wasn't able to get parts from AliBaba. So is he a locavore now? Locatech? Ugh, terrible term. Dave's new boards are from NZ! http://www.pcbzone.net Chris likes the LPKF S43, which can dispense solderpaste right [...]

Chris visited a FabLab today (not a fab!) to work on some projects and hang out with friends. Chris has also been reading Neil Gershenfeld's book of the same name, FAB. Melbourne had its first MakerFaire, though Dave was not able to go, unfortunately. Dr. Howard Johnson offered rewards for finding errors in his book, [...]

Welcome Dr. Howard Johnson! He has published two reference books that are a must-have for the field of high speed signal propagation: High Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic High Speed Signal Propagation: Advanced Black Magic Howard hails from Twisp, WA. Martin Graham, the co-author of his book, was also his longtime mentor [...]

Happy New Year! We hope 2012 will be a great year for The Amp Hour and all of our listeners! We have a new theme by Paul Stevenson! We love it! Chris has a ham exam scheduled for next Sunday! Dave has been chasing a hum at his new studios, he took a spectrum snapshot [...]