Totally agree. One of the main advancements in the last several years IMO has been bringing the cost of this type of thing (ie; dev boards for microcontrollers,

Totally agree. One of the main advancements in the last several years IMO has been bringing the cost of this type of thing (ie; dev boards for microcontrollers, RPi, Arduino, etc) way, way down. I remember back in the day to get the equipment needed to program your own MCN or FPGA required a substantial investment, nowhere near approachable for a typical hobbyist or generally interested person. Now days you can order 3.3 and 5v arduino pro mini's by the caseload for $1.50 apiece.