O'REILLY

The O'Reilly Hardware Podcast is hosted by Jon Bruner and David Cranor, and focuses on the people, ideas, and technology that we feature at the O'Reilly Solid Conference (solidcon.com). We explore topics related to the Internet of Things, hardware, software, manufacturing, and the blurring of the physical and virtual worlds.

O'Reilly Hardware Podcast

Manu Prakash, a bioengineering professor at Stanford University, talks about radically inexpensive microscopes and the democratization of discovery in this episode of the Hardware Podcast. Prakash’s Foldscope is a “completely functional, foldable, origami microscope.” He says that “every kid in the world should carry a microscope in their pocket,” and so far, more than 50,000 Foldscopes (the parts of which cost only $1) have been shipped to more than 130 countries.

Manu Prakash on Microscopy for Everyone

In this episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast, Jeff Bleiel and I speak with Gilad Rosner, a privacy and information policy researcher, and the founder of the Internet of Things Privacy Forum.  Rosner is also the author of the recently-published free O’Reilly ebook, “Privacy and the Internet of Things.”

Gilad Rosner on Privacy in the Age of The Internet of Things

With interest growing in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)—witness Amazon’s recent addition of AWS EC2 instances that include dedicated FPGAs—this episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast looks at what FPGAs are and how their capabilities are different from microcontroller boards (such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi).Jeff Bleiel and I speak with Ryan Cousins, co-founder and CEO of KRTKL (pronounced “critical”), the makers of Snickerdoodle, a board that’s based on an ARM/FPGA hybrid chip.

Ryan Cousins on Field Programmable Gate Arrays

In this episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast, Jeff Bleiel and I speak with Niko Triulzi, co-founder and CTO of AE Dreams, the makers of the children’s product Turtle Mail, a wooden mailbox with a WiFi-connected thermal printer inside. Triulzi explains the hardware and software workings of the device, which enables parents, relatives, and friends to send a message from a computer or mobile device. The child then receives the message, which is printed from the mailbox.

Niko Triulzi on IoT Toys

In this episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast, Jeff Bleiel and I speak with Joel Johnson, co-founder and CEO of BoXZY, a startup that makes an all-in-one desktop CNC mill, 3D printer, and laser engraver. We discuss the BoXZY device’s software and hardware, including its CAD/CAM software (Autodesk’s Fusion 360) and controller board (Arduino Mega), as well as its shield, steppers, and firmware.

Joel Johnson on Desktop Fabrication

In this episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast, Brian Jepson and I speak with Mike Vladimer, co-founder of the Orange IoT Studio at Orange Silicon Valley. Vladimer discusses how Internet of Things devices could benefit from connectivity options other than those provided by well-known technologies (including cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth), and explains the LoRa wireless protocol, which supports long-range and lower-power applications.

Mike Vladimer on IoT Connectivity

Jon Bruner and Mike Loukides talk about the classical music publishing industry and how it's being disrupted by projects like the Petrucci Music Library (http://imslp.org/) that make public-domain scores available online.

The future of classical music

Jim Stogdill, Edd Dumbill and Roger Magoulas have a conversation about in-memory databases and the impact on real time analysis. Leave questions and comments for us at http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/05/talking-about-in-memory.html

Talking about in-memory

Jon Bruner, Mike Loukides and Jim Stogdill from O'Reilly Radar muse on the return of software to the physical world.

Software and the physical world

Jon Bruner, Jim Stogdill, and Roger Magoulas talk about anthropology in big data, advances in JavaScript, searching for ancient civilizations, the importance of context, and good sites for checking the weather.

Related blog post: http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/06/radar-podcast-anthropology-big-data-and-the-importance-of-context.html

Anthropology, big data, and the importance of context

Jon Bruner, Jim Stogdill, and Roger Magoulas talk about what's been on their minds this week: the NSA's surveillance programs, what defense contractors will do with their technology as defense budgets dry up, and a Californian who isn't doing what you think he's doing with hydroponics.

For more on these topics, and links to the things we talked about, see http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/06/radar-podcast-the-internet-of-things-prism-and-defense-technology-that-goes-civilian.html.

The Internet of Things, PRISM, and defense technology that goes civilian

O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators. At O’Reilly, a big part of our business is paying attention to what’s new and interesting in the world of technology. We have a pretty good record at having anticipated some of the big technology developments in recent history. For instance, we launched the first commercial Web site, GNN, in 1993; we organized the meeting at which the term “open source” was first adopted; we were early investors in Blogger, which helped launch the blogging revolution; and more recently, our Web 2.0 conference launched a world-wide meme. We call this predictive sense the “O’Reilly Radar.” And while we’re certainly not always right, we are, at least, good at making interesting guesses.

Our methodology is simple: we draw from the wisdom of the alpha geeks in our midst, paying attention to what’s interesting to them, amplifying these weak signals, and seeing where they fit into the innovation ecology. Add to that the original research conducted by our Research team, and you start to get a good picture of what the technology world is thinking about.