As much as I hate the current situation, Radio Shack has simply gone where the money is...
There are more sales and higher markup in those cell phones, TV's, and cables than there is in selling RFID readers, and resistors.
Our purchases are not enough to pay salaries, mini mall locations, and overhead.
If we represented more than 60%-75% of the sales, I guarantee they would hire employees who were trained in electronics.
In the US at least, the word Shack was commonly associated with HAM radio in the phrase "HAM Shack" .... As heater points out, it was a place of refuge and the wifey didn't have to hear the incessant key coder clicking. My wife is always threatening to move me and my gear into one of those backyard prefab buildings from HD or Lowes ... I may agree to that soon [noparse]:)[/noparse]
I wish the Class Ohlson concept would catch on here in the States. Not so much the mall part (I would still hate malls), but the mixture of hardware and electronic bits. The local hardware store in my little burg of 7000 does a great job on fasteners: two full aisles lined with drawers and bins. But I still have to rely on the local RadioShack's apparently dwindling selection of components when I can't wait for delivery from DigiKey or Mouser. Perhaps, if RadioShack drops their component line completely, the hardware store will take up the slack.
OBC,
On a gross profit percentage basis ((retail - cost) / retal), I'd bet that RadioShack makes more selling resistors than they do pushing cellphones. The problem, though, is inventory turns and dollars per square foot. I've always thought that getting the components off the wall and into drawers was a good idea. But even the drawers are not going to be a cash cow if the stuff in them is blister packaged for wall display and can't be densely packed in the drawer compartments. If you've got a product that doesn't turn quickly, you can't let it take up a lot of room in the store. That's why hardware stores sell fasteners in bulk out of little drawers.
The Propeller chips I saw in the Concord Fry's were in the same section as the rest of the Parallax stuff (GPS, Ping, Basic Stamp, etc).
I agree with the other posters--it's a shame that Radio Shack has turned into "Cellphone Shack" and has eliminated almost all electronic components. The stores themselves now feel more like miniature Best Buys rather than the feel I remember from the late '60s and '70s.
I live in Silicon Valley, and you'd expect that there would be plenty of places selling electronic components here. Sadly, this is not the case. The only one I know of that's still in business is HSC in Sunnyvale. This place sells components of all sorts from rows and rows of bins in a big, dusty warehouse. Need a 10uF 16v tantalum cap? No problem--locate the bin and count out how many you need. 120 ohm 0.1% resistor? No problem. Surface mount? Also no problem--just find the right reel and cut off a strip containing however many parts you need. They don't tend to stock some of the more exotic ICs, though.
Perhaps this is all due to the maturation of the industry. Fifty years ago consumer electronics was expensive, and people tended to have more free time, so it made sense for many to build a TV from a Heathkit. Nowadays, Chinese factories can build TVs for far less than it would cost for the equivalent TV in kit form.
I'm also seeing this effect in the local mega bookstores (Barnes & Noble and Borders). Ten years ago the computer sections of these stores were easily 5x larger than they are today and you could find books on compiler theory, graph theory, embedded programming and many other topics. Now days, these books have disappeared to be replaced by 100 different books promising to teach you Excel or Outlook in 24 hours.
As others have mentioned, RadioShack does have the RFID reader on clearance.· I stopped by my local RadioShack after lunch today and picked one up for $10.· The regular price at RadioShack was $50!· If your interested in playing around with RFID now's the time to do it.· However, you have to act quickly because at that price they're going fast.
I did see a few Basic Stamp kits at RadioShack, which was nice to see.· I first got involved with Parallax products when I bought a Basic Stamp kit at RadioShack several years ago.· The Shack website lists the Basic Stamp kit in their "top seller" category.
Dave Hein said...
As others have mentioned, RadioShack does have the RFID reader on clearance. I stopped by my local RadioShack after lunch today and picked one up for $10. The regular price at RadioShack was $50! If your interested in playing around with RFID now's the time to do it. However, you have to act quickly because at that price they're going fast.
This is exactly what I was thinking while waiting for my wife to finish with Target today .... I went in RS, found some batteries for my garage remote and the RFID reader. Unfortunately, the only clerk in the store was helping someone buy a cell phone the entire time I was there! I couldn't wait all day ....
I too am a proud owner of various Forest Mimms books, and "mini notebooks". As well as a 150-in-1 electronics kit about 16 years ago. Then about 3 years ago, I finally bought the "Whats a Microcontroller" kit, after eyeballing them sitting on the shelves at radio shack stores across the country.
While I may have a general dislike for the store, and most of the products they carry, it is fair to say that without such junk, they wouldn't have a store on every corner, and thus eliminating any chance for the electronics hobbyist/professional from having the potential convenience of buying a measly component or two. Sure, they're no digikey, but I've been lucky enough to find what I needed numerous times. In fact, I'm surprised that they still carry any components at all! 6 or 7 years ago, I've had the displeasure of working for them (and that's an understatement!), and in those couple of months (all bad things MUST come to an end), I can count all the times someone purchased a component on 1 finger. Needless to say, we never had to replenish the stock in those drawers! Maybe it's the lack of serviceability of most modern electronics, or a declining interest in hobby electronics - I don't know. At least they haven't *completely* abandoned their roots, but still, RIP Tandy.
I don't like shopping at Radio Shack. Remember that irritating battery of intrusive questions they would ask you before they would ring-up a purchase? Just about the time they abandoned that practice they took up selling cell phone plans. More than once I have left the store without completing a purchase because the clerks were tied up dealing with cell phone matters. More and more I find little reason to shop there. Their products are generally inferior and overpriced. Nothing they offer is unique or exclusive. I try not to allow them to "help" me as this just results in confusion and frustration.
Thanks for the heads up on the RFID at RS. I just bought the last one at my local RS. The bag was obviously opened but the electrostatic bag inside was still intact with all its parts. That's another thing about the RS's in my area, about 10% of their stock is taped up and obviously returned and yet they sell it at full price! At least the RFID is only $10 so I can put up with it otherwise I won't buy a "repackaged" product.
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Will work for Propeller parts!
I like the line: "Once most of us were makers, now most of us are users......the American who built, repaired, and tinkered with technology has evolved into an entirely new species: the American who prefers to slip that technology out of his pocket and show off its killer apps.". I promise, the only time I will be showing off "killer apps", is if they are ones I programmed or they run on a device I designed. I, and most here, are not satisfyed with simply showing off some device we BOUGHT, but showing off something we MADE.
Maybe you can learn how to MAKE killer apps? That at least has some commercial appeal.
Can a Propeller run iPhone apps? If not why not? Could PropII run iPhone apps?
Mac doesn't open-source their code any more then windows does. Who knows what the app is encoded in? I doubt that the Propeller will be running iPhone apps any time soon. Also, I have attempted making iPhone apps and figured out there was no easy way to do it without a Mac, which I don't ownn.
The end of the article has a link to the Radio Shack Catalog archive. Apparently I spent a lot of time looking at the 1975 catalog because I remember just about every page. Looking through it online was almost surreal!
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I worked at RadioShack back in the 80s and 90s in high school and college and it was a pretty fun job, kind of like the job the guys in the hardware stores have but for electronice. I also remember the electronics kits and the TRS-80 and good tandy computers. There were many good times coming up with solutions to people's problems from weird cable/satellite hookups, to electronic circuits, to computer problems or whatever. They used to have good stereo equipment and speakers. It looks like time has passed that outfit by and the employees do not seem very smart like you used to find at many of the stores. It was great to hear that they were carrying microcontrollers and sensors, though.
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Tom Talbot
New Market, MD, USA
heater said...
From what I'm hearing here perhaps he should have said those things...
My comments re: "radio" and "shack" still stand.
I'm with you 100%. A few years ago when I went into my local RadioShack to get a catalog and they told me they no longer made printed catalogs I felt like the guy hit me in the stomach.
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Sal Ammoniac said...
I live in Silicon Valley, and you'd expect that there would be plenty of places selling electronic components here. Sadly, this is not the case. The only one I know of that's still in business is HSC in Sunnyvale. This place sells components of all sorts from rows and rows of bins in a big, dusty warehouse. Need a 10uF 16v tantalum
Well off the top of my head I can think of Anchor Electronics in Santa Clara right down Central Expressway from Halted. You can download their ancient looking catalog from their website. (Actually really close to the NVidia headquarters.) And Jameco up in Belmont. Some of the Fry's Electronics stores have components, but it's not great. Better than the Shack though. The electronics swapmeet still meets at DeAnza - I believe that this Saturday is the date for this month. Although it's not what it used to be. I haven't been to the one in Livermore since the .com days, but I heard that it's still going on.
But for comparison when I was in Beijing last May we called up a distributer and purchased EOL'ed parts for a friend at 1/10th the price of what I could get them for in the US, and they hand delivered them to our apartment. And they worked!
I'd like to read a bio about Your brother Chip
You should write one....
Also, I think some sort of small and cheap Propeller kit
that was something like the Ybox project would be a nice
product for you guys to sell to retail outlets. perhaps you
could make it where you could send new code to the eeprom
using a web page interface instead of the 25$ USB dongle you
sell. Ybox with a solderless breadboard area and ethernet
eeprom chip programming...a winner I think
I HATE the external USB converters and we'll always put them on the PCBs in the future. I'm totally supportive of your "cheap Propeller kit" concept. Just need some time to sketch it out, or to ask the forum members to do that for us. At the same time we need to be careful not to squish the growing 3rd party support we see from other board developers like uController, Gadget Gangster, Mikronauts, etc.
Perhaps David Carrier/Timothy Sweiter's work with on Spinneret will support remote programming via web. And if it doesn't that's okay because it IS supported by Kevin's new WiFi module. The WiFi module is about six months overdue but it's finally nearing production.
And regarding Chip's bio. I need to put it together before too much more time goes by. My dad would certainly have another interesting perspective that I'd need to capture. He could probably identify some of the early behavior that influenced Chip's interests. I've got enough material already, but they are from only one perspective. In his 5th grade class he wrote a paper about how a computer works (?) and the teacher didn't know how to grade it because it was over her head. Or the important role of Mr. Wofford, the junior high instructor who had the room full of Timex Sinclair computers. This teacher was very influential and involved Chip in classroom instruction. But the real entertaining stories revolve around Chip's first product (ISEPIC) and the friends from the 80's computer shows. I am certain a few of these guys were from another solar system. One of the biggest disruptions in our home happened when Chip announced he wanted to buy a used Lotus Esprit Turbo at the age of 17.
More later - I've absolutely got to get back to the "plan".
As I understand, he did the circuit path layout using black tape on a drawing table.
You can REALLY see it when you open the cart and look at the board. Square traces! [noparse]:)[/noparse]
I still blame Chip for starting me out on my life of piracy. <SMIRK>
Tried to gift him mine at UPENE'08, but couldn't get him to accept it. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
A few months back I was with my wife visiting her parents and I saw a Radio Shack sign down a side street. I got excited and asked her "You guys have a Radio Shack in this town!" We pulled up to the store and it looked like an old school RS and looked like it had been their for at least 50yrs. I thought finally a franchise store that didn't sell out. I ran in and to my horror....what components they did have was in a small corner with a lot of it on closeout and most of the store was full of scrapbooking supplies and candles!!
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"If it ain't broke, your not trying"
@ihmech - RadioShack offers two different types of arrangements: company-owned stores and dealers. The dealers are what you referred to as a franchise. The company-owned stores are located in malls and suburban areas and they don't fall into such a state as you described, but dealers are most common in small towns. In fact, the RadioShack dealer near me (Truckee, CA) just closed up a month ago. Apparently I was the only person who went in there to buy stuff from the back wall. I couldn't find a transistor on my last visit, however.
RadioShack corporate boasts that 95% of all Americans live within 5 miles of a RadioShack. I'm one of the 5% who lives 40 miles from a RadioShack.
RadioShack could survive with some attention to their historical success. Robotics, education, science fair projects and renewable energy are popular concepts that tie their past success to today's interests.
I find it very sad how things have become. I'm one of the 95% and my Radio Shack is a joke. The guy running the checkout doesn't even know what the parts I purchase are or do. It seems like everything is throw away any more. My Grandfather was a lot of my influence in getting into an electronics hobby and Radio Shack was a big boost too. My Grandfather had a Radio and TV repair business that he started up not long after he came back from the Pacific in WWII. All of his equipment was either a "Heath Kit" or an "Eico Kit" that he built himself. But he was self taught and it truley amazed me. I have some of his old equipment and even his "Eico Tube Tester". I have some old tubes I test just for fun and look forward to sharing it with my first child when he/she is old enough(got about 15 days to go on that first child!). I was going to make electronics a career, but my math skills and the lack of jobs anywhere near me kept me from really diving into electronics.
In the last couple years I have really been getting back into it and its thanks to you guys and gals at Parallax!
I got started programing first with a "WAM" kit, then a BOE Bot, and recently a PE labs kit...how many BOE boards is too many...I have 4 so far and don't think its enough. Its like a sickness, I can't get enough! I was excited to hear about the UPENE in Ohio. I am going to attend in August and wanted to take my Grandfather with me, but sadly his health keeps him close to home. So, I'm bringing a friend and hoping he gets an interest in programing.
I have just about finished my first Stamp project and look forward sharing it with everyone when its finished! It's not as amazing as many of the things that others have built, but its a big deal to me. And I hope to learn some good stuff on the Prop. in August and then dive into my PE kit soon.
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"If it ain't broke, your not trying"
·At the fry's in san marcos,·ca·they had the DIP version of the prop, the edu kit, SchmartBoard Kit (Kind of pre built, almost every thing but the surface mount was already pre soldered). It was all·over by the·soldering irons, and by the other boards made by SchmartBoard.
Sal Ammoniac said...
I was at the Concord Fry's (a large chain of electronics mega-retailers in the Western U.S.) this weekend and spotted the DIP version of the Propeller packaged individually right alongside the other Parallax items that Fry's has stocked for some time now (Ping, GPS, USB-to-Serial, etc.) This is the first time I've seen the Propeller chip itself at Fry's.
The price is $12.99, which is 50% more than the direct-from-Parallax price, but it's still nice to see the Propeller getting shelf space at Fry's. Is Radio Shack next?
I was just at the Renton, WA store and without looking, I found the DIP Propeller hiding next to somewhat unrelated products. At least it was packaged pretty well. However, I did not see any other Parallax products, but as I just said, I wasn't really looking. I wish we had that store back in Michigan, though. Got a shiny new multimeter!
We have a Shack around the corner from work and we buy allot of our R&D stuff there.
I learned AutoCad on a Tandy 2000 running Dos 2.0, those were the days when a
10 Meg hard drive was huge.
@ihmecc
I know what you mean about the checkout people. I sometimes get very strange looks when I come into RS after a bike ride - all sweaty with my backpack. I go straight to the back and start sorting through part bins. I'm usually after one particular component but end up taking a few. Can you imagine this sweaty, bearded guy, who just came in on a bicycle, dumping a bunch of chips, resisters, caps, and wires on the counter. I can't imagine what this guy is thinking and if his expression is any indication it's probably not good.
I also was re-motivated after many years with the WAM package. I've been going to RS since the early 80s when I got into electronics in high school. After being a sonar technician in the Navy my interest was even more keen and I practically lived at the shack in the late 80s early 90s. I then migrated away from electronics as my software career took off. It was only after a decade that I happened to be in an RS looking for headphones that I saw the WAM kit. I bought that and the BOEBot kit.
Comments
There are more sales and higher markup in those cell phones, TV's, and cables than there is in selling RFID readers, and resistors.
Our purchases are not enough to pay salaries, mini mall locations, and overhead.
If we represented more than 60%-75% of the sales, I guarantee they would hire employees who were trained in electronics.
Like I said, I hate it too, but...
OBC
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Propeller Feature Projects: PropellerPowered.com
Visit the: PROPELLERPOWERED SIG forum kindly hosted by Savage Circuits.
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Propeller Pages: Propeller JVM
I wish the Class Ohlson concept would catch on here in the States. Not so much the mall part (I would still hate malls), but the mixture of hardware and electronic bits. The local hardware store in my little burg of 7000 does a great job on fasteners: two full aisles lined with drawers and bins. But I still have to rely on the local RadioShack's apparently dwindling selection of components when I can't wait for delivery from DigiKey or Mouser. Perhaps, if RadioShack drops their component line completely, the hardware store will take up the slack.
OBC,
On a gross profit percentage basis ((retail - cost) / retal), I'd bet that RadioShack makes more selling resistors than they do pushing cellphones. The problem, though, is inventory turns and dollars per square foot. I've always thought that getting the components off the wall and into drawers was a good idea. But even the drawers are not going to be a cash cow if the stuff in them is blister packaged for wall display and can't be densely packed in the drawer compartments. If you've got a product that doesn't turn quickly, you can't let it take up a lot of room in the store. That's why hardware stores sell fasteners in bulk out of little drawers.
-Phil
I agree with the other posters--it's a shame that Radio Shack has turned into "Cellphone Shack" and has eliminated almost all electronic components. The stores themselves now feel more like miniature Best Buys rather than the feel I remember from the late '60s and '70s.
I live in Silicon Valley, and you'd expect that there would be plenty of places selling electronic components here. Sadly, this is not the case. The only one I know of that's still in business is HSC in Sunnyvale. This place sells components of all sorts from rows and rows of bins in a big, dusty warehouse. Need a 10uF 16v tantalum cap? No problem--locate the bin and count out how many you need. 120 ohm 0.1% resistor? No problem. Surface mount? Also no problem--just find the right reel and cut off a strip containing however many parts you need. They don't tend to stock some of the more exotic ICs, though.
Perhaps this is all due to the maturation of the industry. Fifty years ago consumer electronics was expensive, and people tended to have more free time, so it made sense for many to build a TV from a Heathkit. Nowadays, Chinese factories can build TVs for far less than it would cost for the equivalent TV in kit form.
I'm also seeing this effect in the local mega bookstores (Barnes & Noble and Borders). Ten years ago the computer sections of these stores were easily 5x larger than they are today and you could find books on compiler theory, graph theory, embedded programming and many other topics. Now days, these books have disappeared to be replaced by 100 different books promising to teach you Excel or Outlook in 24 hours.
I did see a few Basic Stamp kits at RadioShack, which was nice to see.· I first got involved with Parallax products when I bought a Basic Stamp kit at RadioShack several years ago.· The Shack website lists the Basic Stamp kit in their "top seller" category.
Dave
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Propeller Pages: Propeller JVM
While I may have a general dislike for the store, and most of the products they carry, it is fair to say that without such junk, they wouldn't have a store on every corner, and thus eliminating any chance for the electronics hobbyist/professional from having the potential convenience of buying a measly component or two. Sure, they're no digikey, but I've been lucky enough to find what I needed numerous times. In fact, I'm surprised that they still carry any components at all! 6 or 7 years ago, I've had the displeasure of working for them (and that's an understatement!), and in those couple of months (all bad things MUST come to an end), I can count all the times someone purchased a component on 1 finger. Needless to say, we never had to replenish the stock in those drawers! Maybe it's the lack of serviceability of most modern electronics, or a declining interest in hobby electronics - I don't know. At least they haven't *completely* abandoned their roots, but still, RIP Tandy.
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Will work for Propeller parts!
www.wired.com/magazine/2010/04/ff_radioshack/
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There is no problem that can't be solved with a suitable amount of explosives!
EOD Memorial
Micro
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Check out my new website!!
Use the Propeller icon!!
Follow me on Twitter! Search "Microcontrolled"
Can a Propeller run iPhone apps? If not why not? Could PropII run iPhone apps?
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Propeller Pages: Propeller JVM
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Check out my new website!!
Use the Propeller icon!!
Follow me on Twitter! Search "Microcontrolled"
heater, The Onion is a satire site. The real CEO of RadioShack didn't say those things.
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OS-X: because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows
links:
My band's website
Our first album on the iTunes Store
Our second album...
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OS-X: because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows
links:
My band's website
Our first album on the iTunes Store
Our second album...
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Tom Talbot
New Market, MD, USA
Ha, got me!
From what I'm hearing here perhaps he should have said those things...
My comments re: "radio" and "shack" still stand.
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For me, the past is not over yet.
I'm with you 100%. A few years ago when I went into my local RadioShack to get a catalog and they told me they no longer made printed catalogs I felt like the guy hit me in the stomach.
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OS-X: because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows
links:
My band's website
Our first album on the iTunes Store
Our second album...
Well off the top of my head I can think of Anchor Electronics in Santa Clara right down Central Expressway from Halted. You can download their ancient looking catalog from their website. (Actually really close to the NVidia headquarters.) And Jameco up in Belmont. Some of the Fry's Electronics stores have components, but it's not great. Better than the Shack though. The electronics swapmeet still meets at DeAnza - I believe that this Saturday is the date for this month. Although it's not what it used to be. I haven't been to the one in Livermore since the .com days, but I heard that it's still going on.
But for comparison when I was in Beijing last May we called up a distributer and purchased EOL'ed parts for a friend at 1/10th the price of what I could get them for in the US, and they hand delivered them to our apartment. And they worked!
I'd like to read a bio about Your brother Chip
You should write one....
Also, I think some sort of small and cheap Propeller kit
that was something like the Ybox project would be a nice
product for you guys to sell to retail outlets. perhaps you
could make it where you could send new code to the eeprom
using a web page interface instead of the 25$ USB dongle you
sell. Ybox with a solderless breadboard area and ethernet
eeprom chip programming...a winner I think
I HATE the external USB converters and we'll always put them on the PCBs in the future. I'm totally supportive of your "cheap Propeller kit" concept. Just need some time to sketch it out, or to ask the forum members to do that for us. At the same time we need to be careful not to squish the growing 3rd party support we see from other board developers like uController, Gadget Gangster, Mikronauts, etc.
Perhaps David Carrier/Timothy Sweiter's work with on Spinneret will support remote programming via web. And if it doesn't that's okay because it IS supported by Kevin's new WiFi module. The WiFi module is about six months overdue but it's finally nearing production.
And regarding Chip's bio. I need to put it together before too much more time goes by. My dad would certainly have another interesting perspective that I'd need to capture. He could probably identify some of the early behavior that influenced Chip's interests. I've got enough material already, but they are from only one perspective. In his 5th grade class he wrote a paper about how a computer works (?) and the teacher didn't know how to grade it because it was over her head. Or the important role of Mr. Wofford, the junior high instructor who had the room full of Timex Sinclair computers. This teacher was very influential and involved Chip in classroom instruction. But the real entertaining stories revolve around Chip's first product (ISEPIC) and the friends from the 80's computer shows. I am certain a few of these guys were from another solar system. One of the biggest disruptions in our home happened when Chip announced he wanted to buy a used Lotus Esprit Turbo at the age of 17.
More later - I've absolutely got to get back to the "plan".
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Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
Follow me at http://twitter.com/ParallaxKen for some insider news.
Here's a link to an ISEPIC cart and manual..
www.atariguide.com//79/7996b.htm
As I understand, he did the circuit path layout using black tape on a drawing table.
You can REALLY see it when you open the cart and look at the board. Square traces! [noparse]:)[/noparse]
I still blame Chip for starting me out on my life of piracy. <SMIRK>
Tried to gift him mine at UPENE'08, but couldn't get him to accept it. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
OBC
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Propeller Feature Projects: PropellerPowered.com
Visit the: PROPELLERPOWERED SIG forum kindly hosted by Savage Circuits.
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"If it ain't broke, your not trying"
RadioShack corporate boasts that 95% of all Americans live within 5 miles of a RadioShack. I'm one of the 5% who lives 40 miles from a RadioShack.
RadioShack could survive with some attention to their historical success. Robotics, education, science fair projects and renewable energy are popular concepts that tie their past success to today's interests.
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Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
Follow me at http://twitter.com/ParallaxKen for some insider news.
I find it very sad how things have become. I'm one of the 95% and my Radio Shack is a joke. The guy running the checkout doesn't even know what the parts I purchase are or do. It seems like everything is throw away any more. My Grandfather was a lot of my influence in getting into an electronics hobby and Radio Shack was a big boost too. My Grandfather had a Radio and TV repair business that he started up not long after he came back from the Pacific in WWII. All of his equipment was either a "Heath Kit" or an "Eico Kit" that he built himself. But he was self taught and it truley amazed me. I have some of his old equipment and even his "Eico Tube Tester". I have some old tubes I test just for fun and look forward to sharing it with my first child when he/she is old enough(got about 15 days to go on that first child!). I was going to make electronics a career, but my math skills and the lack of jobs anywhere near me kept me from really diving into electronics.
In the last couple years I have really been getting back into it and its thanks to you guys and gals at Parallax!
I got started programing first with a "WAM" kit, then a BOE Bot, and recently a PE labs kit...how many BOE boards is too many...I have 4 so far and don't think its enough. Its like a sickness, I can't get enough! I was excited to hear about the UPENE in Ohio. I am going to attend in August and wanted to take my Grandfather with me, but sadly his health keeps him close to home. So, I'm bringing a friend and hoping he gets an interest in programing.
I have just about finished my first Stamp project and look forward sharing it with everyone when its finished! It's not as amazing as many of the things that others have built, but its a big deal to me. And I hope to learn some good stuff on the Prop. in August and then dive into my PE kit soon.
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"If it ain't broke, your not trying"
Edit: Sorry for the poor picture quality.
I learned AutoCad on a Tandy 2000 running Dos 2.0, those were the days when a
10 Meg hard drive was huge.
I know what you mean about the checkout people. I sometimes get very strange looks when I come into RS after a bike ride - all sweaty with my backpack. I go straight to the back and start sorting through part bins. I'm usually after one particular component but end up taking a few. Can you imagine this sweaty, bearded guy, who just came in on a bicycle, dumping a bunch of chips, resisters, caps, and wires on the counter. I can't imagine what this guy is thinking and if his expression is any indication it's probably not good.
I also was re-motivated after many years with the WAM package. I've been going to RS since the early 80s when I got into electronics in high school. After being a sonar technician in the Navy my interest was even more keen and I practically lived at the shack in the late 80s early 90s. I then migrated away from electronics as my software career took off. It was only after a decade that I happened to be in an RS looking for headphones that I saw the WAM kit. I bought that and the BOEBot kit.