Time to retool with a visit to the innovators guild

The conventional economy is undergoing changes. I realize this as I contrast how my father's generation and my generation differ in terms of occupations. Had I known even 10 years ago what I know now, I would have no problem finding employment at top dollar. Now, it's very difficult to find paid work at all. The difference? What I know now is now known to more people. So, I need to find a way to re-gain some exclusivity in the market place.

One of my favorite places to do this is at the Syracuse NY hackerspace. Being in Syracuse, it's a bit far for me to regularly travel to. However, it's still worth an occasional trip. So, I decided to stop by to see if I could do some networking (more social than technical)

The event I participated in this time was soldering instruction. The exercise was to put together an Arduino kit. Although there wasn't quite enough time to finish up my board, it did get me interested in the technology. Thanks to the soldering tips I received that night, it was easy to quickly finish up the through-hole soldering at home. It is nice to know my soldering skills are still good. The board works flawlessly!

The idea of the Arduino is to have an open source, low cost platform available to people so they can build small low cost electronic projects. The most popular board uses a "shield" approach which allows for easy expansion with supplemental electronics such as temperature sensors, RFID sensors, lights, relays and other ready-made boards. It also gives a nice platform for making user designed boards too. Rather than requiring an expensive programmer and support electronics, the boards can be programed with only a USB cable.

This technology, combined with RepRap technology, could in theory allow people to engage in manufacturing of niche products right in their own home! Just as sewing machines allowed some households to make their own clothes and occasionally get extra income from selling wedding dresses, a person could make electronic products for their own use and possibly make some money servicing niche local markets with custom electronic products.

The Arduino is only one technology which is at the hackerspace. There are others. From analog radio to video production, the space is frequently a fountain of ideas and answers. The only problem for me is that it's quite far away. So, I can't visit physically as often as I would want. However, being a technology group, it's still possible to visit it virtually. It's at http://SIG315.org.

I'm also working on a project using the board I built. If you want to know more, visit http://plasticnerd.blogspot.com