On Jun 22, 2010, at 9:19 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 6/22/10 9:43 AM, A. Christoff Baumann wrote:
This has been discussed here several times recently.
You're fifteen
years too late with this complaint; Radio Shack's parts offerings did
hit rock bottom years ago, but they have gone back up considerably in
most places over the past five years. They even started selling
microcontroller stuff (Parallax) a few years ago.
Agreed it is better than it has been (heck, I've bought the BASIC Stamps I've
needed for the last three projects, plus an RFID reader, from my local RadioShack).
However, it will never be as good as it was when they had the ".com stores" in a
few select markets. Those places rocked.
It is worth noting that RadioShack tells their investors all the time they are trying to
shake the "parts wall". It is still a pretty significant source of revenue even
compared to cell phone spiffs, so they keep it. For how long still remains to be seen,
and I'm not hopeful for the future.
Yes, it's sheer insanity. Just watch the average soccer mom's eyes
open wide when they hear the evil, scary word "DEVICE". "Oh my god, a
DEVICE!!!" ...it seems to be implied that it means something bad. And
heaven help you if you use that word within five miles of an airport.
Any time one of these morons sees a piece of wire, they panic.
I've had adventures getting Steampunk costumes through airport security. Don't
get me started.
Electronic components vendors: In 1975, we (the USA)
had Radio Shack
and Lafayette, and maybe a few little regional chains. Now they number
in the thousands, and their business is booming.
I don't really see that. In fact, I remember when there was six electronics parts
stores (excluding RadioShack) within a short bicycle ride of my house in the early
1980's in Southern California. All but one is gone. Here in my new home in Portland,
I understand they've lost quite a few over the years as well: what's left is
largely surplus and recycler outlets with few new parts (not that this is a bad thing:
many an inspired hack has come from Surplus Gizmos in Hillsboro).
Electronic kits: There are more electronic kit vendors...
Places to do stuff: "Hacker spaces" and "maker spaces" are popping
up...
"Maker" gatherings: These things get HUGE attendance, with people
building and showing off robots, homebrew computers, gadgets of every
kind, soldering classes (ahem!), etc etc etc.
I know about "hacker spaces": I've been involved in a few of them before
they were cool. And I'm a participant in our local dorkbot group (although I've
been neglecting my responsibilities). And SparkFun and Ramsey have gotten more of my
paychecks than I really should discuss in public, it's embarrassing.
There is a very exciting community in the DIY spaces. However, I always have the feeling
we're preaching to the choir. Most of the groups are small, and while quite active, I
don't always see a lot of new blood around them. Yes, there are a lot of sexy young
people building things that are interesting. However, I think as a society these people
are marginalized and not "mainstream" by any definition.
There was a time (way before I was born) that ham radio and electronics were considered
interesting hobbies by the general public, even if they didn't understand it.
Nowadays, it's a nerd hobby. And while nerd hobbies aren't quite as negative as
they once were, many in the general public don't understand these "magnificent
men and their [thinking] machines."
(your mailer is sending out paragraphs as one very long line, by the way)
Actually, it doesn't. Your mailer doesn't implement RFC 3676 et. al. properly
regarding the use of "soft" CRLF entries in the text/plain MIME format. The raw
message is, in fact, within spec (I'm assuming the list server doesn't munge it).
Welcome to the Internet, where standards move and not every display is a fixed-width
80-column screen.