mouldy.org

Who would've thought that so much random crap would come up on a daily basis?

• Spoke with the local supplier of my control chip. That should arrive in the next few days. 
• My would-be supplier that buys people's existing stock seems to have their website purely for generating sales leads and not for conducting any sort of commerce. Which is a shame, because I could do with a service that buys and sells people's electronics stock (eBay for components). Especially if they can get me obscure parts fast.
• Dan's Data has a review of a flashlight that uses Luxeon K2's. I panicked for a bit, and eventually realised that this doesn't hurt me at all. The light is kinda scary; three Luxeon K2's connected directly to a bunch of AAA cells. It relies on the series resistance of the cells to provide regulation, and does about 2.5A between three LEDs. I guess there are two things there for me: people aren't so likely to use a regulator in a small flashlight (there are 'good enough' regulation methods) and there'll be a bit more knowledge of the Luxeon K2 soon. Which is good for me. I guess I was a bit surprised at how quickly the thing came out; I can't even get the LEDs yet, let alone integrate them into a product and begin shipping.
• I've almost finished reading 'Bootstrapping Your Business' by Greg Gianforte and highly recommend it. Plenty of useful information, no fluff, easy to read. Good and information-dense, and tons of good ideas. Read it.
• I got thinking about heating etching tanks using ammonium persulphate. I've used ferric chloride in the past without heating, but have given in to agitating the board while it etches. Depending on who you read, ammonium persulphate doesn't need agitation, but it does need heating. Rather than using a heating element in the etchtant (which is difficult to build, messy and risky) I was thinking of putting a 'steam tray' underneath the etch tray. It'd just be another plastic container full of boiling water; it'd heat the etchtant without requiring any extra gear or cleanup.
• My passives have arrived. They're so, so small. I can barely read the markings on the side. I might have to get some sort of magnification to help with assembly and soldering. Alternatively, I could use larger parts; the board isn't that packed. Which probably means it could be packed tighter.