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[Reply #15 on:]

I got an incredible amount of help from older-than-me people when I started learning tekkie stuff, about 1952.
...
Sadly I didn't, that is why I am keen to do it now. The internet is great for that.

That reminds me.  I can't pay it back to those great guys that helped me.  Thinking.. Dick Landers, A.C.Gilbert, going way back..  Dr. Walter Gard, Adam Osborne.. many others. I can't pay it back.. they're all dead.  So I have to try to Pay It Forward.

If anybody knows a kid who needs an Arduino but doesn't have the money, or a kid who you would help if you had a Starter Kit to hand out, I have about 5 to go now, and more over time. Email terry@terryking.us  Don't be shy.

[Reply #16 on:]

I was taught to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder to find one... 

I'm pretty sure Rob is your elder, dude 

[Reply #17 on:]

I'm pretty sure Rob is your elder, dude  smiley-small

Hey, I shoulda taken bets on THAT!

I'm 14 years older than The Gray Nomad.  

But I ain't as famous: http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/76599860/EEWeb-Pulse-Issue-26-2011

I'm reading all his stuff about Life On The Road, though. After move back to USA this June and I rebuild the engine in my GMC Yukon and fix the old travel trailer, my wife and I will head out on the American Outback.

[Reply #18 on:]

I thought you looked a little grayer than me.

We're playing with the idea of coming over to the 'States, buy a camper and hit the other side of the road for a while.

Maybe we can share a Walmart car park sometime

______
Rob

[Reply #19 on:]

I thought you looked a little grayer than me.

Real Light Gray ~~ White  

Rob, I really do need to read all your OnTheRoad stuff.  In a way I have been practicing up on doing ElectronicsAnywhere and SoftwareAnywhere as Mary Alice and I have lived in Africa, China, The Middle East and now Europe the past 8 years.  I can't fit all the stuff I haul around the world in a small trailer, though. Here's what it usually looks like (Italy Version): http://terryking.us/p/TK_Shop_Italia-800.jpg

Lotsa questions about Internet access and power and all that...

You'd be real welcome in Vermont, New England .. Almost Canada where I am.

Oh: Hey "mrdove500", come back in.. Where are you located?  Do you have anyone around there to help out??

As you can see, SOMETHING is gonna go on forever, and it's Learning new stuff and Making stuff work.  You can do it. We're STILL doing it.

[Reply #20 on:]

ElectronicsAnywhere and SoftwareAnywhere

Software is petty easy, hardware can be a pain because I don't have a physical address to ship components to. That's actually one reason I tend to just design things not actually build them (Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it )

Lotsa questions about Internet access and power and all that...

All pretty easy, ask away when the time comes (offline probably better unless you think it's interesting enough for its own thread).

______
Rob

[Reply #21 on:]

hardware can be a pain because I don't have a physical address to ship components to.

Hmmm. Interesting problem.

If everyone on these Forums put in their Lat/Long, I bet you (or at least travelers in USA and Europe) could find someone in the 'next town or two' who'd receive stuff.

I'd also bet that "Pay it Back by Paying it Forward" would work for many of us.

[Reply #22 on:]

If everyone on these Forums put in their Lat/Long,

There is the Google map thing started by Mowcius,

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=106367500863692290311.00048bf511125d88d5fc7

but I think I was the only Aussie that put my location in (just checked, there are two of us now)

I do have 1 or 2 people that can accept stuff for me, they are not usually in the next town but they can forward it to me C/O a post office. It's a bit of a long-winded process though and I don't like to impose too much. 

______
Rob

[Reply #23 on:]

I'll be the optimist here and say yes, if I'm permitted to take a more liberal view on the meaning of forever.

So long as I'm capable, I'll always have extra electrical components and hobby RC equipment around that I'll get an urge to make something out of that could use some brains. If there is an end, it'd come from me burning out my Arduino by mistake and not being able to replace it, or maybe loosing it, I guess, but that's probably less likely in the long run.

My TI-89 (non-Titanium) calculator is over 10 years old, or there about, and it is still more than capable and user friendly enough for my needs and wants. (I find "smart" phones and their ilk rather unpleasant to use, and fairly limited in useful capabilities relative to investment demands, but I'll refrain from going into more detail.) Now I just have to figure out how to hook my TI-89 up to the Arduino and get them to work together.  (Just for fun: The main brain of the TI-89 is essentially the same used in some of the first home computer and video game systems.)

On the other hand: Will Arduino continue to be a relevant force on the open-source hobby microcontroller programming market? Ask my brother; he's in marketing. 

[Reply #24 on:]

The biggest threat will come when you can't get the chips any more. The demand from the hobby market is not enough for a manufacturer to keep on producing. As Massimo said he has seen the sales figures from Atmel and his quantities are tiny.

[Reply #25 on:]

Hi Everyone,

I got this notice:

A topic you are watching has been split into two or more topics by Coding Badly.
View what remains of this topic at:
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php?topic=88016.new;topicseen#new

But WHERE is the other part of the Split???

Thanks!

[Reply #26 on:]

I think this was it...
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,102390.0.html

[Reply #27 on:]

The biggest threat will come when you can't get the chips any more. The demand from the hobby market is not enough for a manufacturer to keep on producing. As Massimo said he has seen the sales figures from Atmel and his quantities are tiny.

I think that's GOOD news.. think of all the stuff that ATMEL AtMega stuff is designed into. There will be a LONG aftermarket like there was for the 6502 and Z80. And you can STILL get them  

I would bet that the Arduino form factor survives for a long time. Not because it's wonderful or high-tech, but because it has such wide adoption and it's Good Enough.

I'm betting on a BASIC based version a friend is designing called Zarduino:  http://davehouston.org/Zarduino.htm  as one of the longevity things...

[Reply #28 on:]

There will be a LONG aftermarket like there was for the 6502 and Z80. And you can STILL get them 

Oh yes!  This is true.  "When I was your age" (OP's age, not Terry's) the 6502 was what I was using, and now, some years have passed, and it is still available.

[Reply #29 on:]

Ahh yes... started with a 6507, then moved on to a 8502, followed by a 68000, a 68030, a couple of PowerPC iterations, and now Intels...

I'm still kicking myself for getting rid of the C128. As unsophisticated as some of those games may appear today, they are a tribute to the programmers that wrung so much from the little CPUs, RAM, etc. that were available then. It was only too fitting that some games like Artic Fox ran better on the C64 than on an Amiga, the former having been written 100% in assembly, the latter relying on a compiler...