cfinger

Very useful tool, solid team.

Does Simon Cowell know anything about entrepreneurship? Can't wait to see him berate tons of super hard working people on things he knows nothing about.

We used the same (well, similar) approach in our kickstarter campaign. It's actually one of the big pieces of advice I give people. Cool stuff.

I've heard a lot of good things about Olin and have always been impressed by it's grads. Seems like they are doing it right. I get the impression it's still a smaller school, is that true?

Definitely. This is kind of the test of my hypothesis, that doing these projects in the real world create a motivation that influences your school work, life, career, etc.

I've long thought that there should be a 'maker scholarship', giving small amounts of funding to people/students building real things. I found small amounts of this in the form of sponsorships from companies, but I really had to hustle for it. Whereas I randomly (literally just showed up in my mail) received a scholarship simply because my grades were above a certain mark. The 'Maker Scholarship' idea is definitely scalable.

As far as a new kind of school, I'm not sure the best way to do that. Certainly interested in all the online activity but I do like the social feel of a 'real life' school.

I think he has it backwards. Hardware is getting cheaper, making it easier to sell products that used to be too expensive. The cheap labor in China is fairly accessible to everyone.

This is an opportunity, not a death blow.

$0.99 Apps didn't 'Kill' software for the same reason.

Great concept. Watching other people code is a great way to learn AND teach. Really would like to see this for Obj C / other languages. Python would be an easy one to do.

"Better than ping-pong"

Careful now, that's a pretty strong statement.

The move to wireless is one part Apple's sake, and one part for users (no parts left over for developers, unfortunately). People tend to favor wireless accessories and associate a higher value with them. In some cases it just makes more sense- people want to use an accessory without handing over their iPhone (I'm looking at you, speaker docks)

The cost may be a wash, but it really does level the playing field.

Absolutely love this. When you're really interested, find a teacher that will teach at your own rate. Too often the answer is "Don't worry about that, you'll learn it next semester". A phrase that you should never hear from a teacher!

Haha, Awesome. This is great, we need one in SF now.

Back in the day I built a couple using sharpie and the radio shack etching solution. I did two using the laser printer transfer method as well. After doing a double sided board, it drove me nuts- you have to solder small wires for your vias. Once you order boards once you'll never go back- it just solves so many headaches and possible mess ups. Give it a try!