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I never said they shouldn't try. I said **Here is what we had
problems with when we tried.** <br>
<br>
Equally easy, but slower and stupider failures path: Don't listen to
anyone with prior experience when you start your project!<br>
<br>
hack on, <br>
- Far McKon<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/29/13 3:19 PM, Marketply wrote:<br>
</div>
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<div> Without knowing if Bug Labs had developed in the open like
Motorola will, that will make a crucial difference. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> 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. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> 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. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> 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. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> 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. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> 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. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> 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 <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.research-tv.com/stories/technology/nanotech/">magnetic
circuit</a>? </div>
<div> </div>
<div> 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. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> Marino Hernandez <br>
(just a founder of <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.marketply.org">Marketply</a>) <br>
203-429-4205 </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
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On November 29, 2013 at 9:35 AM FarMcKon
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:eponymous@farmckon.net"><eponymous@farmckon.net></a> wrote: <br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"> 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. <br>
<br>
Here is what (at an engineering level) made a lot of trouble
at Bug (IMHO, not an official view): <br>
- 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. <br>
<br>
- 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. <br>
<br>
- 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. <br>
<br>
- 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. <br>
<br>
- Delay: The open phone tech will always be 6 to 24 months
behind the advertised *buy now, we ship next month* phones. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
IMHO The game-changer in the rise of Open Hardware is going to
be: <br>
- Moore's law slowing down (+) <br>
- Retired Baby Boomer engineers getting into
less-profit-driven positions as they retire (+) <br>
- Patent trolls focusing on hardware more (-) <br>
- Competition from China driving Americans companies to be
more collaborative, and doing that collab open (+) <br>
- Price concerns driving Americans companies to be more
collaborative, and doing that collab open (+) <br>
- 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. <br>
<br>
<br>
hack on, <br>
- Far McKon <br>
<br>
<br>
On 11/29/13 4:04 AM, Marketply wrote: </div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2013/about_page">Google
Summer of Code</a> 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. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> Android has helped to get open source operating systems
into people's hands (and smart handhelds) globally. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://motorola-blog.blogspot.com/2013/10/goodbye-sticky-hello-ara.html">Project
Ara</a> could similarly help propel the global reach of
the open source hardware movement: </div>
<div> </div>
<div> <em>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.</em> </div>
<div> </div>
<div> Aside: the next logical progression could be a Motorola
Summer of Hardware. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> How do you feel about this and who else do you see as a
game changer for the rise of open source hardware? </div>
<div> </div>
<div> Marino Hernandez <br>
(just a founder of <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.marketply.org">Marketply</a>) <br>
203-429-4205 </div>
<br>
<br>
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