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The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

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Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#2

Post by sriram_sun »

http://www.sparkfun.com/ - Best place on the web IMO. Great resources and support. They are incredible. The founder started the company right out of college (CU Boulder). He gave a talk in a kick-ass embedded design course I was taking in CU. I think they've been around for 6-8 years and had been growing at 100% every 6 months for a while. Don't know how it they are doing right now (pretty well I'm sure). The web site is always chock full of nicely organized articles and videos.

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#4

Post by SpacemanSpiff »

sriram_sun wrote: post #2

http://www.sparkfun.com/ - Best place on the web IMO. Great resources and support. They are incredible. The founder started the company right out of college (CU Boulder). He gave a talk in a kick-ass embedded design course I was taking in CU. I think they've been around for 6-8 years and had been growing at 100% every 6 months for a while. Don't know how it they are doing right now (pretty well I'm sure). The web sit…

Agreed. Their CEO Nathan Seidle gave a talk in one of my classes at CU and seems like a great guy. We also took a tour of Sparkfun and their facility is really amazing. They have a great selection of parts/gadgets available for "hardware hackers".

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#5

Post by anigbrowl »

“You walk into a regular RadioShack and it’s become like a neurosis,” Cohen says. “‘Sir, can I sell you a cell phone today? How old is your cell phone? What about your family, do they have cell phones?’”

Depressingly true. Of course they have to worry about the bottom line, but I really doubt the long-term future viability of becoming a mini Best Buy - if all they sell is mid-priced consumer goods, I have no incentive to buy there rather than on eBay for.

Where they are really useful to me are for speedy supply of things like batteries, media, and accessories (eg specialist cables) which I might need at short notice and in unusual quantities or configurations (compared to consumers). I have a feeling that that won't last, though.

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#6

Post by jws »

anigbrowl wrote: post #5

“You walk into a regular RadioShack and it’s become like a neurosis,” Cohen says. “‘Sir, can I sell you a cell phone today? How old is your cell phone? What about your family, do they have cell phones?’” Depressingly true. Of course they have to worry about the bottom line, but I really doubt the long-term future viability of becoming a mini Best Buy - if all they sell is mid-priced consumer goods, I have no incentiv…

I've mostly solved the cable problem using monoprice.com. They are about 25% the price of a radioshack or other intown store. So when I place an order I buy 3 of everything I might need and keep them in a box, including a couple really long examples of each cable. It's cheaper for me to keep inventory than to buy local. I use the long ones temporarily if I run out of "right length" and swap when the next order comes in.

The best part is I don't have to listen to the nice young men try to upsell me to gold plated connectors. It has lower resistance! I swear I'll sprain my eyes if I have to keep rolling them like that.

Don't miss the iPhone sync cables at 1/12th Apple's list price. You know your family needs these.

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#8

Post by sheldonwt »

"But his shop is a lone outpost; in a single generation, the American who built, repaired, and tinkered with technology has evolved into an entirely new species: the American who prefers to slip that technology out of his pocket and show off its killer apps. Once, we were makers. Now most of us are users."

So humbling and true. Most people will throw out any given piece of technology rather than try and repair it. And speak of building something yourself, that's practically unheard of. Maybe it's only people around me who think and act this way, but I'm 22 and all these people aren't going anywhere.

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#9

Post by docgnome »

anigbrowl wrote: post #5

“You walk into a regular RadioShack and it’s become like a neurosis,” Cohen says. “‘Sir, can I sell you a cell phone today? How old is your cell phone? What about your family, do they have cell phones?’” Depressingly true. Of course they have to worry about the bottom line, but I really doubt the long-term future viability of becoming a mini Best Buy - if all they sell is mid-priced consumer goods, I have no incentiv…

I was reminded of why I don't go into Radio Shack when I had to go get a watch battery there the other day. They keep trying to foist a cell phone off on me. If I had wanted a cell phone I would have said "Hi, I would like to buy a cell phone." not, "Hi, I need a replacement for this battery." Do people actually buy phones because of this tactic? It's just plain rude to try to sell me a phone multiple times when I've already made it clear that all I want to do is buy a battery.

Edit: After rereading this, I think I've turned into a crotchety old man at 23. I'm half surprised I didn't wave a cane at the whippersnappers and tell them to get off my lawn.

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#10

Post by paulgerhardt »

iamwil wrote: post #7

oddly enough, there is a market for do-it-yourself still. I don't know how big, but interest in sparkfun, make magazine, makerbot, and arduino signifies it's anything but dead to me.

Limor Fried (founder of Adafruit) gave an ignite talk that was posted a few days ago. From the looks of it, most Open Source Hardware outfits are grossing around a million a year.

http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/05/03/million-dollar-baby-...

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