You just stop that right friggin now.

Yeah, I'm talkin' to you, lawyer/investor/clueless people.

Well, if you're a reader, go read this article from The Economist (my favorite magazine) before we proceed: http://www.economist.com/node/21554540/

The part about Google, Apple, Samsung and other handset manufacturers needing to quickly trade patents seems to make sense at first, right? But that's not the concern. Those companies have lots of resources at their disposal and I think their rattling of their technology (light?) sabers is just bad policy; they should have figured out that stuff in private, not in courts.

No, the part that bothered me was reading about the exchange itself and how it will exist for future work. I've not experienced a visceral reaction like I have to this in a long time. But this is just insane. There is now an exchange that allows you to buy, sell and wait for it...hedge patents.

The comments section of the Economist article belie the idea that an exchange already exists and that it is in a reduced format. However, it is an absolutely ridiculous idea in all its forms. Patents are broken enough as they are. Encouraging trading of these ideas as something that can then be auctioned off to end users (product integraters) does nothing but ramp the price of them through speculation. This does absolutely nothing but impede invention. It further provides firepower for patent trolls like Intellectual Ventures. While I understand the need to actually trade existing patents between companies (even though I don't always agree with how it happens), it should remain a private affair, if it should happen at all. There needs to be a high barrier to entry for outside people to jump in and try buying and selling things they don't understand.

I'm not hopeful that this will be regulated or turned down at any point in the future. I can only hope that people continue to open source the things the work on and leave the ridiculous nature of patent trading to the large and hopefully short-lived manufacturers.

Well...no.

This is the site for the podcast mentioned in the last post. We called the first episode, "Jumping Off" and the second episode is about "Feedback". We hope you like it! Many more themes, discussions and guests are on the way in the coming months.

You can find it over at our new home, The Engineering Commons. Please consider subscribing so you can hear our shows as they are posted. Thanks for listening!

As some you may know, I'm the co-host of an electronics podcast called The Amp Hour. It's a lot of fun and our listeners run the gamut of hobbyists to professionals. Me and Dave Jones talk about circuits and related topics weekly.

But something has happened lately. I keep trying to draw the conversation away from electronics during the show and into more general engineering topics. I enjoy talking about more general topics such as innovation and the design process. But that's not what Amp Hour listeners want to hear, they want circuits. We've done a couple surveys and each time that comes through loud and clear.

So, I started a second podcast!

I've paired up with Jeff Shelton of Engineering Revision. He's an experienced mechanical engineer who is back in school for his PhD at Purdue and has lots of great experiences to draw on during the show.

This is just the first episode, so we're looking for two things:

• Feedback on the content of the show!
• Help naming it!

If we keep enjoy doing the show and you enjoy what we have to offer, we'll find a more permanent home with a website and a feed. Please let us know what you think in the comments!

EDIT: I didn't realize the widget wouldn't allow a direct download. If you want the mp3 file all to yourself, you can download the .mp3 here directly.

Here are those two resumes, if you're interested: The bad (1st) version and the better (2nd) version.

I decided to dive into a new project after a long hiatus from hobby type activity. I plan to put an MP3 player and output stage board into an antique radio enclosure. I also decided to document the process, specifically using the open source board layout program, KiCAD. I've been talking about learning the software and doing the videos for a while now, so here it is! The first installment is the schematic capture. I'll add more as the board gets more complex and I need to dive more into the process of actually getting a board fabbed. I'm excited! Hope you enjoy the video and the ones to come!