Rob McNealy interviews Nathan Seidle of SparkFun Electronics, a company he started while working on his electrical engineering degree at the University of Colorado.

Nathan Seidle,A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Nathan Seidle came to CU-Boulder as an electrical engineering student in 2000. During his junior year, Nathan was designing one of his first micro controller projects when his programmer sparked and burned out. While looking for an affordable replacement, he noticed a lack of resources and online stores catering to developers and prototypers.

During winter break from school, Nathan maxed out his credit cards with inventory and pizza and went to work building an easy to use website. SparkFun launched shortly after that, in January of 2003.

Nathan maintained SparkFun Electronics part-time during his junior and senior years, and grew it as much as he could while keeping up with schoolwork. By the time he completed his degree in 2004, the company had grown enough to support his full-time efforts—and his first employee’s as well. Now in its fifth year, the company employs over three-dozen people and maintains a growing office on the outskirts of Boulder.

Nathan Seidle of Spark Fun Electronics on Being a Young Entrepreneur ....

If ever there was a car made for the times, this would seem to be it: a sporty subcompact that seats five, offers a navigation system, and gets a whopping 65 miles to the gallon. Oh yes, and the car is made by Ford Motor (F), known widely for lumbering gas hogs.

Ford's 2009 Fiesta ECOnetic goes on sale in November. But here's the catch: Despite the car's potential to transform Ford's image and help it compete with Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC) in its home market, the company will sell the little fuel sipper only in Europe. "We know it's an awesome vehicle," says Ford America President Mark Fields. "But there are business reasons why we can't sell it in the U.S." The main one: The Fiesta ECOnetic runs on diesel.

Automakers such as Volkswagen (VLKAY) and Mercedes-Benz (DAI) have predicted for years that a technology called "clean diesel" would overcome many Americans' antipathy to a fuel still often thought of as the smelly stuff that powers tractor trailers. Diesel vehicles now hitting the market with pollution-fighting technology are as clean or cleaner than gasoline and at least 30% more fuel-efficient.

Yet while half of all cars sold in Europe last year ran on diesel, the U.S. market remains relatively unfriendly to the fuel. Taxes aimed at commercial trucks mean diesel costs anywhere from 40 cents to $1 more per gallon than gasoline. Add to this the success of the Toyota Prius, and you can see why only 3% of cars in the U.S. use diesel. "Americans see hybrids as the darling," says Global Insight auto analyst Philip Gott, "and diesel as old-tech."

None of this is stopping European and Japanese automakers, which are betting they can jump-start the U.S. market with new diesel models.

Ford keeps making these mistakes and will continue to hemorrhage to death...

They need to partnet with TaTa Motors and bring cars like the Nano and ECO to the USA, and the goverment needs to lower taxes on ALL petrol period...

But hey what the hell do I know...

The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can t Have!

John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin said Monday that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant, an announcement campaign aides said was aimed at rebutting Internet rumors that Palin's youngest son, born in April, was actually her daughter's.

A statement released by the campaign said that Bristol Palin will keep her baby and marry the child's father. Bristol Palin's baby is due in late December.

Lets see where the R's stand on this...

Palin Says Her Teenage Daughter Is Pregnant

[Cliff Miller] pointed out this incredible project from 2004. [John Pultorak]'s journey began in late 2000 when he decided to build a 60's or 70's era minicomputer. While gathering technical documentation, he found some interesting information on the Apollo Guidance Computer and felt that was the way to go. The AGC was the first integrated circuit computer ever built. Designed by MIT in 1964 it was constructed from ~5000 ICs, almost all 3-input NOR gates. [John]'s version uses late 1960's 74LS TTL logic which gains him a 10 to 1 reduction in the number of ICs. A good thing when you have to do ~15K wirewrap connections. He also used flipflops and register chips instead of building everything from NOR gates. [John] essentially built the AGC three times: First, he coded a simulator in C . Then, he imported the logic design into CircuitMaker to verify that it would actually work. Finally, he built the 3 by 5foot machine. He's provided an amazing amount of documentation for anyone that wants to explore this device and the overview alone is well worth a look.

I love this type of tech history.... read on!

Apollo Guidance Computer clone

I'm sure to catch flak for this, but I've been waiting for this song for about 5 months now. And with New Kids on the Block's comeback album, The Block, scheduled for release it a week, we kind of figured it was inevitable that their mighty ship might spring a leak.

Overall, I liken this album to Britney's Blackout. Sure it's not the greatest album in the world, but the [lack of] talents have gone and hired themselves amazing writers and producers to make it feel like an extremely solid effort. And if anything, you can dance the night away to it.

ha ha here is a tad dose of audio cheesy goodness!

New Kids on the Block and Lady GaGa Tell Us She's a Big Girl Now

Denise Plant and Murphy Houston are the morning drive team disc-jockeys at KOSI101 FM in Denver. Murphy is a Denver icon in radio and Denise is the queen of media in Denver - radio, television and commercials. I mention this because even seasoned pros can be surprised… especially when their producer invites yours truly in for a morning science experiment. Behind the scenes, I never told Denise what was going to happen. You’re seeing it just as it happened on the air.

Reminds me of my cool science teacher when I was just a kid...

Radio DJ Didn’t See This Coming/Fire Extinguisher Science Demo

The social bookmarking service Ma.gnolia is announcing a new version at the Gnomedex conference in Seattle today, and the big news is that the whole thing is being rewritten from the ground up. M2, as it's being called, will include all of the features of the current Ma.gnolia, but it's going to be entirely Open Source. A first look at M2 should be available by September.

So, why Open Source, and what does it mean to Ma.gnolia users? Well, you'll be able to download Ma.gnolia and run your own version of it, and that version will be able to interoperate with Ma.gnolia.com and other web services. Standards like OpenID and OAuth will be supported, allowing for maximum portability of your data -- which, in the case of Ma.gnolia, mostly means your bookmarks and tags --- between sites. If you're already thinking of creative uses for an Open Source Ma.gnolia, good! They're looking to make user feedback a big part of building M2, so keep an eye on their blog if you've got input.

Ma.gnolia to go Open Source

Public Service Announcements in the medium of comics regarding the dangers of... well whatever the popular perils of the time are, have been hoisting well-intentioned gibberish on kids for generations. PSA comics have touched on everything from drugs, to smoking, to famine, and land mines.

The latest in a long heritage of comics urging you to do right comes without any super heroes or association with an established comic outlet like Marvel or DC. Justice Case Files really... is an in-house effort from the National Center for State Courts, which we can only assume is a front for the RIAA, the most dastardly group of super villains to ever grace the pages of a comic book.

This disgrace to the label of propaganda bulges with misinformation so dense you d have to bushwhack your way through its pages to find even a kernel of truth.

Issue one centers around Megan, a student with a file sharing addiction that puts her freedom and scholarship seriously? jail time isn t motivation enough? at risk. Megan is charged with Criminal Copyright Infringement by her fictional city government and faces charges at the state level that could net her a total of $25,000 in fines and 2 years in prison. Of course, in real life Criminal Copyright Infringement involves the selling of copyrighted materials, not peer-to-peer file sharing, and CCI is prosecuted by the federal government not local courts, but who s paying attention? Apparently, not the legal non-profit handing out this mumbo-jumbo.

You can download the entire comic in PDF form here, or for those with a taste for the ironic, you can search Limewire and BitTorrent.

Major LOL!

Comic Book Does the RIAA s Bidding...

The tops carried slogans in German and Polish that translate as Jews forbidden from entering the park .

They were reproduced from Nazi signs from 1940 that targeted the Jewish community in the Polish town of Lodz.

Some 95% of more than 200,000 Jewish people there would die in concentration camps during World War II.

The sales assistant at the Parisian store, in the Belleville district, said one person had bought five of the grey, sleeveless garments for about 18 euros $27 each.

She said she did not understand what the inscription meant.

The neighbourhood of Belleville in eastern Paris has been the site of ongoing scuffles between groups of Jewish youngsters and youths of North African origin.

France has one of the largest Jewish communities outside Israel, numbering about half a million people.

Paris anti-Semitic T-shirt probe

Demonstrators who gathered outside the Mann Village Theatre, in Los Angeles, said the film "humiliates people with intellectual disabilities".

"intellectual disabilities"? That would include quite a few of my fellow Americans, mainly law makers, and co workers...

Protesters gather at Stiller film