View Single Post
Old 19th Oct 2017, 11:41 am   #12
David G4EBT
Dekatron
 
David G4EBT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Cottingham, East Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 5,737
Default Re: Chinese electronics and The Art of Electronics

I'd echo those sentiments - what a very clever and enterprising young woman.

First impressions can be misleading.

Limor Fried, AKA "Ladyada", founded Adafruit in 2005 in her dormitory at MIT when studying engineering. Her goal was to create the best place online for learning electronics and making the best designed products for makers of all ages and skill levels. It's grown to over 100+ employees in the heart of New York City with a 50,000+ sq ft. factory and has expanded offerings to include tools, equipment and electronics that Limor personally selects, tests and approves before going in to the Adafruit store. The prices look quite low to me, but of course, for us, there's the complication of shipping, duty etc.

She was the first female engineer on the cover of WIRED magazine, awarded Entrepreneur magazine's Entrepreneur of the year, and was on the cover of 'Make': Vol. 57. 'Ladyada' was a founding member of the NYC Industrial Business Advisory Council. Adafruit is ranked #11 in the top 20 USA manufacturing companies and #1 in New York City by Inc. 5000 "fastest growing private companies". Adafruit is featured in Google's Economic Impact Report, and Limor was named a Whitehouse Champion of Change in 2016. Adafruit is a 100% woman owned company.

So, if she's not worthy of having an informal chat with Paul Horowitz, then who?

https://www.adafruit.com/about

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limor_Fried

Arduino, Raspberry Pi etc isn't the sort of stuff that has any direct appeal to me, but clearly has an enthusiastic following the world over, and the rapid growth if Adafruit is testimony to the fact that they're tapping into that market and meeting its needs. In 2008 they had eight employees - now they have 100 plus.

I spent quite a time having a poke around the website and blog, and continue to marvel at the stuff that people are able to create using 3-D printers. The item at the links below look quite well finished too, but as I said in another thread, most of the things I've seen don't have a very smooth finish to them. I'm always enthralled by the creation of quirky things that are created for little more than the fun of it, and because the creator has the skill and imagination do it:

https://blog.adafruit.com/2017/10/19...ng-3dthursday/

https://blog.adafruit.com/2017/05/04...ng-3dthursday/
__________________
David.
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club member 1339.
David G4EBT is offline