Embedded Logical Elegance

Chris and Elecia chat about practice, software quality, and empathy for seemingly unmotivated team members. 
Elecia is teaching another cohort of Making Embedded Systems in the fall, starting late August. There will be reminders between now and then but if you want to sign up, here is the page. The funny and odd music instruction video with the copy-and-paste method of composition.
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Tom Anderson returned to the show to describe how transistors and passives work. We discuss everything from vacuum tubes to diodes to transistors (PNP and NPN) to resistors and capacitors. We search for synonyms among the confusing terminology of cathodes, plates, emitters, anodes, grids, bases, and collectors. 
This was a tech heavy episode so little bit of brushing up on terms may be useful before (or after):
Boltzmann constant
Physical constant
Vacuum tube
Diode logic
Diode 
Push–pull converter
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Ethan Slattery joined us to talk about animals, animal trackers, and how they work.
Ethan works for Wildlife Computers. They use the Argos Network for data transfer. He was previously at MBARI and worked with Engineers for Exploration as an undergraduate.
Ethan is also known as CrustyAuklet on Twitter and Github. He also has an Instagram page. 
Things mentioned in the show you might want to know more about:
Nautilus Live is a streaming YouTube channel from an ROV exploring the oceans. They have periodic dives where you can ask scientists about what they are seeing, while they are seeing it. Watch discoveries happen in real-time. Or watch the highlight reels on YouTube.
Ze Frank also has a YouTube channel about animals called True Facts that it is … not as scientifically minded. And sometimes NSFW. Start with the True Facts about the Ocotupus.  (Note he did a parody of a Nautilus Live dive). 
The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
Penguin, pangolin, whale shark, weta, you might have heard about those but what about the cassowary? In-depth documentary video, people on the internet are idiots video, and Wikipedia.

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Amanda “w0z” Wozniak spoke with us about her career through biomedical engineering and startups. 
Amanda contributed a chapter to Building Open Source Hardware: DIY Manufacturing. (A book we spoke with Alicia Gibb about in #289.) Amanda’s chapter was titled Design Process: How to Get from Nothing to Something.
For more information about the companies we discussed, check out Amanda’s LinkedIn page. 

Chris and Elecia chat about tools, interrupts, and general happenings. 
Thank you to Newark for supporting the show! The part that was not guessed was an RF FET: MRF1K50HR5.
Elecia found MCU on Eclipse (Eric Styger)’s tutorials on Visual Studio Code for C/C++ with ARM Cortex-M (Part 1).
Embedded has a Patreon page where you can get access to the Slack group. The book club is starting Prototype to Product: A Practical Guide for Getting to Market by Alan Cohen.
Wokwi Raspberry Pi Pico projects from Elecia: Command Line Interface and PWM Experiments with Logic Analyzer
Phillip Johnston of Embedded Artistry and Tyler Hoffman from Memfault are kicking off a quarterly embedded discussion panel. This month is about building embedded systems at scale using device metrics: Embedded Device Observability Metrics Panel 
Jonathan Beri from Golioth created instructions on how to use USB from WSL2.
Copy-editing game.
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Thank you to Newark for sponsoring this episode of Embedded!

Dr. Shirley Davis spoke with us about her book: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion For Dummies.
Dr. Davis is a speaker and consultant on diversity, equity, and inclusion topics; her website is drshirleydavis.com. 
Dr. Davis’ books include:
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion For Dummies
Living Beyond “What If?”: Release the Limits and Realize Your Dreams
The Seat: How to Get Invited to the Table When You're Over-Performing but Undervalued 
Reinvent Yourself: Strategies for Achieving Success in Every Area of Your Life
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