[Discuss] Google the game changer?

Fri Nov 29 22:52:25 UTC 2013

I never said they shouldn't try. I said **Here is what we had problems
with when we tried.** 

Equally easy, but slower and stupider failures path: Don't listen to
anyone with prior experience when you start your project!

hack on,
- Far McKon

On 11/29/13 3:19 PM, Marketply wrote:
> Without knowing if Bug Labs had developed in the open like Motorola
> will, that will make a crucial difference.
>  
> Motorola is seeking nothing short of reinventing the mobile phone. The
> problems you mention could result from working within the constraints
> of the established paradigm.
>  
> A useful analogy in GPS : imagine the problems and 'impossibilities'
> that engineers would've encountered had they approached GPS technology
> from the paradigm of Newtonian physics. Well actually they had, and
> upon failure promptly upgraded to the physics of relativity.
>  
> If Bug Labs, Open Moko, etc, were all working with components that are
> optimized for the established paradigm, that could've been the
> problem. Motorola is likely to work with components reinvented
> specifically for their new architecture of plug/unplug DIY modules.
>  
> Because the easiest way to fail without any gain, or to pre-fail
> (failure by giving up before exhausting all avenues), is to view the
> goal as impossible, instead of merely doubting the current method of
> getting there.
>  
> Since Project Ara is being developed in the open, with community
> input, we avoid the cathedral effect that can reinforce the existing
> paradigm and even produce tunnel-vision. To break the existing
> paradigm, you need a more diverse environment where for every set of
> engineers that see a dead-end, another set of engineers see the
> possibilities.
>  
> What if you could bypass the solder problem entirely by merely
> bypassing solder itself, with chips in the electronics using the
> principles of wireless power? Or nano chips that don't use solder in a
> magnetic circuit
> <http://www.research-tv.com/stories/technology/nanotech/>?
>  
> The great thing about developing in the open is that more people get
> to see when the team decides something is a dead end, and the extra
> eyes boost the chance that someone outside the core team will have a
> solution.
>  
> Marino Hernandez
> (just a founder of Marketply <http://www.marketply.org>)
> 203-429-4205
>  
>  
>> On November 29, 2013 at 9:35 AM FarMcKon <eponymous at farmckon.net> wrote:
>>
>> I love the idea, but I've been down that road once (I was a
>> kernel/app developer at Bug Labs) and while 'lego hardware' is a
>> great concept, it's impossible to make practical.
>>
>> Here is what (at an engineering level) made a lot of trouble at Bug
>> (IMHO, not an official view):
>>  - To get people onboard, you really need 2-4 years of engineering
>> experience. It's not a 'get it for christmas' hobby.  The people that
>> will use and benefit from this are other R&D Departments.
>>
>>  - The faster, hotter, and smarter you make electronics, the more
>> finicky they are.  A ****LOT*** of chips are hard to get happy and
>> stable if hand soldered by a pro. Making them a plug/unplug module
>> (and protections circuits to go with it)  and your failure rate
>> explodes, or your engineering effort expodes.
>>
>>  - A lot of the protocols they are trying to use over these wires are
>> not built for plug/unplug. So most chips will need to have a
>> 'translater' to get on a bus that can handle that spec, or you will
>> need to do a hell a lot of hack arounds to get those protocols
>> working in a plug/unplug environment.
>>
>> - Cost. On My Christ, sourcing high-end chips (Broadcom GSM,
>> low-power wifi) is hard enough for medium sized firms. Sourcing them
>> in hobby quantity, and then ruggidizing them. By the time you get
>> them stable and out 3 years later, they are so outdated it's  sad.
>>
>> - Delay: The open phone tech will always be 6 to 24 months behind the
>> advertised *buy now, we ship next month* phones. 
>>
>> We've been down this road (Open Moko. Bug Labs, and more)**.  The
>> 'fully configurable' system is going to be crash-tastic.  It's great
>> PR, it's shit engineering. It's always amazing to watch computer
>> science (and some engineering disciplines) waste weeks or months of
>> effort when 2 days of research (google, and calling experienced
>> friends) could have mapped out the problems space and either stopped
>> the project, or avoided the giant time-suck holes other people fell
>> in.  
>>
>> I have more hope for jolla, where the 'plugable' modules are
>> nice-to-have add-ons and external to the core system.  They are a bit
>> isolated, and they are not core components of operation.  It's much
>> more likely to succeed, and they can use isolation circuits and
>> 'firewall' the electronics at a few external point, instead of
>> ruggidizing a lot of internal connections.
>>
>> IMHO The game-changer in the rise of Open Hardware is going to be:
>>  - Moore's law slowing down (+)
>>  - Retired Baby Boomer engineers getting into less-profit-driven
>> positions as they retire (+)
>>  - Patent trolls focusing on hardware more (-)
>>  - Competition from China driving Americans companies to be more
>> collaborative, and doing that collab open (+)
>>  - Price concerns driving Americans companies to be more
>> collaborative, and doing that collab open (+)
>>  - Internet of things drive + SDR:  Wireless technologies make it
>> easier to sniff and reverse-engineer internal protocols, meaning it
>> will be harder to lock folks out.  You just need an antenna, and
>> compatible code to hack something in the system. It lowers
>> integration cost for legit partners, as well as 3rd party add on's
>> and hackers as well.
>>
>>
>> hack on,
>> - Far McKon
>>
>>
>> On 11/29/13 4:04 AM, Marketply wrote:
>>> Google Summer of Code
>>> <http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2013/about_page>
>>> pays students to write code for open source projects. Thus
>>> increasing the pool of people introduced to open source while at the
>>> same time improving the health of open source.
>>>  
>>> Android has helped to get open source operating systems into
>>> people's hands (and smart handhelds) globally.
>>>  
>>> Project Ara
>>> <http://motorola-blog.blogspot.com/2013/10/goodbye-sticky-hello-ara.html>
>>> could similarly help propel the global reach of the open source
>>> hardware movement:
>>>  
>>> /Project Ara is developing a free, open hardware platform for
>>> creating highly modular smartphones. We want to do for hardware what
>>> the Android platform has done for software: create a vibrant
>>> third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers to entry,
>>> increase the pace of innovation, and substantially compress
>>> development timelines./
>>>  
>>> Aside: the next logical progression could be a Motorola Summer of
>>> Hardware.
>>>  
>>> How do you feel about this and who else do you see as a game changer
>>> for the rise of open source hardware?
>>>  
>>> Marino Hernandez
>>> (just a founder of Marketply <http://www.marketply.org>)
>>> 203-429-4205
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> discuss mailing list
>>> discuss at lists.oshwa.org <mailto:discuss at lists.oshwa.org>
>>> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>  
>
>
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