Episode Description
- Chris will be having a meetup in London March 8th, 2026 click here for more info. He will also be at Embedded World the following week at various events.
- Dave is also headed to a meetup in Sydney that he has presented at in the past.
- The “lazy man move” for meetup organizers: scheduling events within walking distance of home to simplify travel logistics.
- Chris provides details on his latest high-density hardware project, a 22mm circular board packed with 0201 components, Bluetooth, and a suite of sensors, noting a move from BGA to QFN for better assembly reliability.
- There is significant skepticism regarding “solid-state transformers” and tech articles claiming they will replace the traditional power grid, with the hosts citing efficiency losses that become massive at megawatt scales.
- A fascinating look into global supply chains reveals how a single AI prompt can be traced back through layers of manufacturing to sugarcane fermentation and high-purity quartz mines in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
- The creeping normalization of biometric face scanning in public spaces, from water park lockers to international airport terminals.
- The marketing tactics behind Donut Lab’s solid-state battery claims, explaining how “independent third-party testing” can be carefully hand-picked to avoid industry standards. They want us to talk about it like this
- The nuances of UL certification explains how companies sometimes use specific lab reports to imply broader official endorsements that do not actually exist.
- Dave shares his experience watching the show Silicon Valley with his son and discusses the “hideous accuracy” of the Australian public service comedy Utopia.
- The pros and cons of modular hardware are debated, covering the Framework laptop’s “Ship of Theseus” repairability model versus high-end gaming tablets like the Asus ROG Flow Z13.
- Dave’s viral social media quest for the best Linux distribution leads to a consensus on Linux Mint as the top choice for beginners, fueling the ongoing joke about the “Year of the Linux Desktop”.
- Recent industry news highlights the release candidate for KiCad 10 and the discovery of a three-cent Paduk microcontroller performing auxiliary functions inside Rode wireless microphones.
- Pimoroni did extreme an cooling project back in 2024 that successfully overclocked the RP2350 microcontroller to 800 MHz. We just found out about it from a post from Jeff Geerling.