Over two years ago, we compiled a spreadsheet of all the Maker-Friendly subscription boxes.
We’ve augmented it for 2020 with the boxes from Cyber City Circuits and Alien3D. Yay!
Of course Adafruit has their wonderful AdaBox quarterly subscription boxes. Just 17 days until the next one, subscribe here.
Massachusetts’ Right to Repair –
Massachusetts Question 1. Amend Right to Repair Law
Allows car owners to access and share data generated by the operation of the vehicle with independent repair shops.
Have you tried modifying, repairing, or diagnosing a product but bumped into encryption, a password requirement, or some other technological roadblock that got in the way? EFF wants your stories to help people fight for their rights to get around those obstacles.
Every three years, there is a window of opportunity to get exemptions to this law to protect legitimate uses of copyrighted works. Last time around, we were able to preserve your right to repair, maintain, and diagnose your smartphones, home appliances, and home systems. For 2021, we’re asking the Copyright Office to expand that exemption to cover all software-enabled devices and to cover the right to modify or customize those products, not just repair them.
If you have a story about how:
—EFF wants to hear from you!
Cute 3D printed Toy Story project made with some Adafruit parts. From P3 on YouTube:
3D printed in resin on the Peopoly Phenom and Phrozen Sonic Mini with Siraya Fast Gray resin. Painted with Badger airbrush and Molotow paints. Powered by an Arduino Nano, an Adafruit sound FX board,a servo and some LED’s.
Austin sent in this project he built. He added driving light/turn signals to his 2007 Honda CBR 1000RR. To get the job done he used a bunch of Adafruit gear and the Adafruit Bluefruit app!
Via the University of Wisconsin:
My 2007 Honda CBR 1000RR has flush mounted turn signals meaning that it is hard for cars coming head on to see which way I am turning, this is especially difficult at 4 way stops when I want to turn left and the car in front of me thinks I am going straight. COVID-19 left me at home with my thoughts long enough that I decided to not only fix my problem, but have some fun with it as well. Many high end cars such as Audi, Lamborghini, and Ford Mustang have dynamic turn signals and LED accent lighting that I decided to recreate for my motorcycle.
Grant Imahara STEAM Foundation – To empower and inspire…. Grant would have been 50 years last week, this is a foundation that will celebrate his legacy and provide STEM resources –
The Grant Imahara STEAM Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Grant’s mother, Carolyn Imahara, and several of his lifelong friends.
Guided by the core principles embodied by Grant throughout his life – curiosity, integrity and generosity, the Foundation’s mission is to inspire emerging talent and empower underserved youth in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math education.
The Foundation will carry on Grant’s legacy of giving back to communities in need through mentorships, grants, and scholarships.
We envision a world where every student has equal access to STEAM education, regardless of their socio-economic status, race, color, or gender.
This is really good to see, so we are helping get the word out – Microsoft is running a survey (+ sweepstakes) to better understand the tools and pathways used by makers and to help them identify what kinds of projects to focus on –
Share some things about tools and sites you use to help Microsoft build better and more useful projects for makers! Bonus: a chance to win a $50 giftcard!*
Survey Link: https://aka.ms/MakerSurveySweepstakes
Questions: AskAMaker@microsoft.com*Open in 50 US (+D.C.), 18+. Ends 10/30/20. Rules: https://microsoft.github.io/makers/sweepstakesrules.html
Survey, MicrosoftMakers on Twitter, and Instagram.
Facebook’s ad chief talks ad boycotts –
Facebook’s Carolyn Everson said she was “thankful” for a push for the company to make changes, prompted by a boycott that caused a slew of advertisers to temporarily pause spending on the platform in July.
…
Facebook global ads chief Carolyn Everson said the summer of 2020 was the most difficult summer she’s had in her professional career, but that she’s thankful for way the the advertiser boycott in July has forced the company to address hate speech more aggressively.
“It was a very rough summer, the most difficult summer I’ve ever had professionally for sure, but sometimes through those most difficult moments you understand what really matters, and actions matter,” she said. “I’m thankful for the push we got because I think it’s making us better.”
Elizabeth sent this blog tip into us and says “I have shared this project before but I thought it would be
interesting for people to see again. I’m a lawyer and a maker and RGB was
one of my heroes. My daughter Josie and I made this project together last
March.”
Check out the DIY project on Youtube!
This DIY video demonstrates a STEM project which uses a circuit playground express from Adafruit and is coded using CircuitPython. A painting is created and public statements are recorded and modified to fit on the CPX. When the pad is touched the CPX is activated to start one of several audio clips from RBG.
Robert sent his project over to us! If you have a blog tip let us know via our contact us page ! Robert say:
Hello Adafruit!
I made this car based on the design of one of my favorite YouTubers, Colin
Furze. This is a scaled down version of his 100 mph bumper car, and is
controlled via bluetooth. The Arduino inside can, and was coded to, be
controlled by a WiiFit board and a PS4 controller. The shell was 3D printed,
so everything but the electronics was custom-designed by me.
See more on Roberts Youtube Channel!
DOJ antitrust suit against Google filed –
“Google has thus foreclosed competition for internet search. … Google is so dominant that ‘Google’ is not only a noun to identify the company and the Google search engine but also a verb that means to search the internet.”
Google tweeted back right away…
“Today’s lawsuit by the Department of Justice is deeply flawed. People use Google because they choose to — not because they’re forced to or because they can’t find alternatives. We will have a full statement this morning.”
It took 22 years for Microsoft to get an antitrust suit, and the same seems true for Google.
Our experience with Google for things like search and shopping over the years has been “ok”… the search results are not that good anymore with ads taking over search so users cannot find search results quickly.
We’ve had some specific instances of Google doing some things that do not represent most people who work there or the company in general, but they still happened.
A Google recruiter impersonated our founder’s email (Limor Fried) and applied for a job as Limor. After catching them do this, it eventually went to their leadership council at the time (Amy Lambert, Google’s senior employment counsel). In the end, we were told we should be glad Google wanted to hire Limor. We asked what the data retention policy for something like this, Google said they did not have any policy.
Google removed our founder’s account on the Google social network at the time (Google+) numerous times for “violating Google’s Community Standards”.. it was because she used her real name and nickname “Ladyada” – Google it was assumed to be fake, even after verifying numerous times with IDs and more. Because so many things were connected to Limor’s Google account, she was locked out. It was resolved, we asked at the time what the data retention policy for the scanned IDs, we did not get a reply.
A Google employee turned off our Google Ads bypassing the logging, history, and without leaving any records, we were told it was a human error due to the ads performing too well at the time. We were credited with a small amount, but not the amount the ads/conversions would have taken during that time. We asked for a data log of all the interactions on the account. Google said they would not disclose to us what human changes were made that were not in the records to us.
Google (YouTube) met with us and said to change to our video content to be “more like PewDiePie” so the “algorithm will promote them” (and more of their advertisers will spend on them), and that there was not enough interest in “women in tech” or “STEM”, but there is a lot of interest in makeup videos and we should do some of those.
Google’s statement today so far is “People use Google because they choose to”… we could not function as a business without having a presence on Google, via organic or paid search/shopping. There is no choice for us and many others. Long term, the antitrust suit against Microsoft made the company better, more innovation occurred, and more options are available to people.
In 2020, OSHWA conducted the third OSHW Community Survey, which collected 441 responses. A few highlights from this year’s survey compared to the 2013 survey:
See the results – OSHWA.
Also of note: at least 40% of the certified open-source hardware comes from a Minority and Woman-owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE)… Adafruit (more)
Finally, October is Open Hardware Month – Learn More.
About Us: Bank Greenwood. Modern Banking for the Culture. –
It’s no secret the current financial system has failed Black and Latinx communities. Our communities suffer from a lack of wealth, its recirculation, and generational transfer. That is why we created a new financial platform. A platform inspired by the early 1900’s Greenwood District, where recirculation of Black wealth occurred all day, every day, and where Black businesses thrived. Today’s Greenwood is a banking system developed by us, for us. This is our time. Join us now.
Greenwood. Modern Banking for the Culture.
…
Introducing the Greenwood Gives Back Program. A dollar circulated in the Greenwood District 36 times before leaving the community. Today, a dollar stays in the Black and Latinx community 6 hours. We believe in recirculating wealth
Create an account and we will provide 5 meals to a food insecure family through Goodr.
Every month we will give a gift of $10,000 to a Black or Latinx business.
Whether online or in store, every time you purchase something with Greenwood, we’ll round up the spare change to support HBCUs through the UNCF, reinforce our commitment to civil rights with NAACP, or fight hunger with Goodr. You choose. You swipe. We all pay it forward.
We are a Sponsor of the Greenwood Cultural Center, keeping the original spirit alive.
Read more, coverage on TechCrunch, Twitter and Instagram.
It’s possible to be a good cause and good business.
The site I started 16 years ago (Sept 5, 2004, announced on October 7, 2004) has now hit 1 million comments. Almost exactly 16 years to the day, 1m comments later, the site is still going, the look/feel, and even the logo is the same that I designed (some folks have got tattoos of it which is always wild to see). While I do not have anything to do with Hackaday now besides being a reader, things like: hackaday.io (project sharing), events, prize, store, and more were part of the decades-long-roadmap that went in to the idea at the time that I had hoped to get to, and the teams that took over are or have done them. Thanks Hackaday and Supplyframe folks for carrying on something that was important for the community and still is. It might end up being one of the longest running blogs, electronics for sure.
The recent changes to improve the comments, moderation, being more supportive and inclusive have helped, keep at it, there are millions of more opportunities to bring people together and share.
I posted a comment about the 1m comments, but it’s not showing up yet.
Today is the last day to register to vote in these 13 states.
Arizona
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Indiana
Kentucky
Louisiana (by mail & in-person)
Mississippi
Ohio
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
30 days until the election, some folks are voting now. if you have not made a plan, now is the time – Double check your voter registration, request an absentee ballot if you want to vote by mail, check your polling place for early voting and voting on Election Day.
Imagine a society where it wasn’t considered bold to talk about worker’s rights. Powerful talk by Abigail Disney from TED on YouTube:
What’s the purpose of a company? In this bold talk, activist and filmmaker Abigail Disney imagines a world where companies have a moral obligation to place their workers above shareholders, calling on Disney (and all corporations) to offer respect, dignity and a living wage to everyone who works for them.
Another milestone overnight: together, the Adafruit Community on Discord has reached over 25,000 humans. Thank you!
We share projects, coordinate events, make new friends, and we build open-source together like CircuitPython. We’ve worked really hard to make this a special place for everyone to share their projects, code, and things they make.
Join today! https://adafru.it/discord
Thank you everyone!
Previous milestones:
*Note: Count is all registered users and includes duplicates, not activity.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died of metastatic pancreatic cancer at age 87.
