4 ms·

I'd like to hear the opinion of Lady Ada on this - one of the industries greatest hardware designers.

by andrewstuart 3y ago

napowderly 3y ago
So would we! I think we are trying to do much the same things, make hardware design faster and more accessible.
markrages 3y ago
> one of the industries greatest hardware designers Is this meant sarcastically?
- andrewstuart 3y ago
  >>Is this meant sarcastically? No I don't mean it sarcastically, why do you ask? Do you not see Lady Ada as a shining light of the industry? Lady Ada is one of the industry's greatest hardware designers and I would value her opinion on this. If you don't know who she is, her name is Limor Fried and she founded AdaFruit. I don't have current stats but from 2016: Revenue US$45 million (2016)[1] Number of employees 105 Front page of Make Magazine: https://blog.adafruit.com/2017/05/08/limor-ladyada-fried-on-the-cover-of-make-magazine-makev57/ https://blog.adafruit.com/2017/05/08/limor-ladyada-fried-on-... Front page of Wired: https://www.wired.com/2011/03/wired-magazines-cover-features-its-first-lady-engineer/ https://www.wired.com/2011/03/wired-magazines-cover-features... Front page of Smore magazine: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3920 https://www.adafruit.com/product/3920 Front page of Hackspace: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adafruit/40061387915 https://www.flickr.com/photos/adafruit/40061387915
  - markrages 3y ago
    By "industry" you mean "electronics hobbyists"?
    - andrewstuart 3y ago
      I oh see you are wanting to diminish her capabilities for some reason. I'm not interested buddy, you can take your sneering elsewhere until you show me the multi million dollar company you have created, the hundreds of commercial quality boards you have designed and sold for real money, the driver software you wrote to make them usable and the industry accolades you have received - on merit.
      - markrages 3y ago
        She's a solid entrepreneur and a competent engineer. Calling her "greatest" seems odd, for implementing breakout boards with datasheet circuits.
        joemi 3y ago
        I agree. She's really great for hobbyists and for prototyping. She's done a ton to help beginners. And Adafruit is a very interesting company. I seriously admire her. But as to the original claim that she's "one of the industries greatest hardware designers", when you look at the electronics industry on a whole (an industry where people design incredibly complex things that are used by millions/billions of people), her _designs_ are nothing special.
      - leptons 3y ago
        > and sold for real money "Lady Ada" and Adafruit certainly are good at price gouging. They often charge exorbitant prices for the same stuff we can get elsewhere at a fraction of the cost. No, providing datasheets and some instruction isn't enough, there's a thousand other sites with better instructions in most if not all cases.
        joemi 3y ago
        As far as I can tell, Adafruit doesn't price gouge. More expensive than some other US places, sometimes, but usually not by much. Sometimes they're cheaper than similar US places. The only places that sell same or similar items for drastically less than Adafruit are places like Aliexpress (or the same foreign sellers selling on Ebay), and there are many reasons why Adafruit is more expensive than those places... Some of the stuff Adafruit sell is likely sourced from Aliexpress (or perhaps from Alibaba if they're buying in large enough quantity) and is indeed priced higher at Adafruit, but that's because if they price it the same or lower they make no money. So we know for those items, they must mark them up. But how much they need to be marked up is kind of complicated. Buying lots of things in order to resell them is more complicated than buying just one or two things for yourself, especially when the seller is on the other side of the world. Simply put: there's a lot more overhead when buying for resale that you don't have to worry about when buying low quantities for yourself. One big difference is that they need _reliable_ suppliers with large quantities consistently available, and those are rarely the same sellers selling things for pennies. (I could go into more differences, because there are many, but this reply is already getting pretty long. Ask me if you want to know more, or google for info about how to open and run a retail business.) Also, bear in mind that some of that stuff that you can get elsewhere at a fraction of the cost than Adafruit are actually Adafruit's own designs being directly cloned, like a lot of their breakout boards. In those cases, you really can't blame Adafruit, since the reason those items are cheaper elsewhere is because someone's specifically trying to undercut them (often at the expense of overall quality and sometimes even at the expensive of authentic correctly-working parts).

I'd like to hear the opinion of Lady Ada on this - one of the industries greatest hardware designers.

napowderly 3y ago

So would we! I think we are trying to do much the same things, make hardware design faster and more accessible.

markrages 3y ago

> one of the industries greatest hardware designers Is this meant sarcastically?

andrewstuart 3y ago
>>Is this meant sarcastically? No I don't mean it sarcastically, why do you ask? Do you not see Lady Ada as a shining light of the industry? Lady Ada is one of the industry's greatest hardware designers and I would value her opinion on this. If you don't know who she is, her name is Limor Fried and she founded AdaFruit. I don't have current stats but from 2016: Revenue US$45 million (2016)[1] Number of employees 105 Front page of Make Magazine: https://blog.adafruit.com/2017/05/08/limor-ladyada-fried-on-the-cover-of-make-magazine-makev57/ https://blog.adafruit.com/2017/05/08/limor-ladyada-fried-on-... Front page of Wired: https://www.wired.com/2011/03/wired-magazines-cover-features-its-first-lady-engineer/ https://www.wired.com/2011/03/wired-magazines-cover-features... Front page of Smore magazine: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3920 https://www.adafruit.com/product/3920 Front page of Hackspace: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adafruit/40061387915 https://www.flickr.com/photos/adafruit/40061387915
- markrages 3y ago
  By "industry" you mean "electronics hobbyists"?
  - andrewstuart 3y ago
    I oh see you are wanting to diminish her capabilities for some reason. I'm not interested buddy, you can take your sneering elsewhere until you show me the multi million dollar company you have created, the hundreds of commercial quality boards you have designed and sold for real money, the driver software you wrote to make them usable and the industry accolades you have received - on merit.
    - markrages 3y ago
      She's a solid entrepreneur and a competent engineer. Calling her "greatest" seems odd, for implementing breakout boards with datasheet circuits.
      - joemi 3y ago
        I agree. She's really great for hobbyists and for prototyping. She's done a ton to help beginners. And Adafruit is a very interesting company. I seriously admire her. But as to the original claim that she's "one of the industries greatest hardware designers", when you look at the electronics industry on a whole (an industry where people design incredibly complex things that are used by millions/billions of people), her _designs_ are nothing special.
    - leptons 3y ago
      > and sold for real money "Lady Ada" and Adafruit certainly are good at price gouging. They often charge exorbitant prices for the same stuff we can get elsewhere at a fraction of the cost. No, providing datasheets and some instruction isn't enough, there's a thousand other sites with better instructions in most if not all cases.
      - joemi 3y ago
        As far as I can tell, Adafruit doesn't price gouge. More expensive than some other US places, sometimes, but usually not by much. Sometimes they're cheaper than similar US places. The only places that sell same or similar items for drastically less than Adafruit are places like Aliexpress (or the same foreign sellers selling on Ebay), and there are many reasons why Adafruit is more expensive than those places... Some of the stuff Adafruit sell is likely sourced from Aliexpress (or perhaps from Alibaba if they're buying in large enough quantity) and is indeed priced higher at Adafruit, but that's because if they price it the same or lower they make no money. So we know for those items, they must mark them up. But how much they need to be marked up is kind of complicated. Buying lots of things in order to resell them is more complicated than buying just one or two things for yourself, especially when the seller is on the other side of the world. Simply put: there's a lot more overhead when buying for resale that you don't have to worry about when buying low quantities for yourself. One big difference is that they need _reliable_ suppliers with large quantities consistently available, and those are rarely the same sellers selling things for pennies. (I could go into more differences, because there are many, but this reply is already getting pretty long. Ask me if you want to know more, or google for info about how to open and run a retail business.) Also, bear in mind that some of that stuff that you can get elsewhere at a fraction of the cost than Adafruit are actually Adafruit's own designs being directly cloned, like a lot of their breakout boards. In those cases, you really can't blame Adafruit, since the reason those items are cheaper elsewhere is because someone's specifically trying to undercut them (often at the expense of overall quality and sometimes even at the expensive of authentic correctly-working parts).