Life's Too Short to Worry About Shipping Costs

I am very ordering-averse because of shipping costs; they frequently bump up the price of what I want to buy by ~10%. But, like being uncertain about printing PCBs, you shouldn't let the fear of mistakes become a source of procrastination. Of course, you shouldn't just order whatever parts you feel like ordering at the moment, but when you're 90-100% confident in yourself that you've accumulated the right materials, don't waste any more time worrying!

Three sites that I have been quite happy with are OnlineMetals, Sparkfun, and McMaster Carr, because of the vivid part descriptions and resources that they have. It's not only helpful for identifying what I want, but I can also learn new things just by browsing their inventories.

Digikey and Mouser are good for electronics parts, especially in bulk, but it's hard to make sure you get the right thing on the first try. 

Article: Uncanny Valley in Animations

"One day, realistic animation will completely replace film actors. And then it will be software developers, not merely beautiful people, who form our celebrity class. There will be better movies, and it will be cheaper to go see them." -Dr. Noah Smith

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/28/175635684/is-it-real-with-new-technology-has-activision-crossed-the-uncanny-valley

Article: Things KAJ wish he knew

"I wish I'd been able to ignore the physical differences as I can now and just sit down, preferably on a shorter chair than them, and just talk to them about movies and books and history -- anything but basketball," he blogged.

Other items on his list include better choices in automobiles, taking a more adventurous approach to vacationing, an earlier discovery of yoga and a better diet.

The Hall of Famer and NBA's all-time leading scorer also wishes he did a better job maintaining friendships.

"I wish I'd called more, visited more, and generally paid more attention to those people who were most valuable in my life," wrote Abdul-Jabbar.

He also regrets he didn't pay enough attention to business and his own finances.

"I thought that if I played exceptional basketball, all else would fall neatly into place," blogged Abdul-Jabbar.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakersnow/la-sp-ln-kareem-abdul-jabbar-shares-regrets-20130329,0,5995727.story

Article: Start making abstract associations

• What if you used computers as telephones?
• What would happen if you used a web site as a Word processor?
• Would people care about what other people are doing right now?

The people behind projects like Skype, Google Docs and Twitter all have one thing in common: They fused seemingly abstract concepts together. Taking what-ifs and testing them is a great way to start thinking of things in a different, more creative light.

http://lifedev.net/2008/07/programmer-creativity-boost/

Mine Kafon

Landmine Detonator

Design Choices:

• low cost
• wind-powered
• strong enough to set off land mines

Mine Kafon

Omni Crawler

Omni-directional mobile robot.

Another innovation on the mechanical design side.

Lately, I've been berating myself for not paying more attention to the art of design. Throughout the undergrad ece degree, I've been focusing on understanding, interpretation, and problem solving - all of which are useful skills. However, one major aspect that I didn't pay attention to is design, where there are no right answers, and that is where I've struggled. The hardest classes for me have been analog circuit design, circuit board and layout design, and mechanical/enclosure design. I can't even imagine where to start with industrial/communication design.

Design is like a NP-complete problem: easy to solve but hard to optimize.

Everything's interdisciplinary!