This week only, Geiger Counter kits are on sale!
For a limited time, $99.95 gets you a Geiger Counter Kit and a stylish clear acrylic case.
Also, my online store will be closing this weekend (May 12th) and will reopen after I unpack in Seattle next month.
Yes, the things you have heard are true. After four glorious years of freelancing and working on fun open source hardware projects, I am going full-time again.
In June, I will be joining the hardware team at Valve.
Yes, Jeri works there. No, she is not my boss (or anyone else’s, more on that later).
On my last visit to Valve, I got a copy of the brand new Handbook for New Employees. This handbook outlines what it’s like to work at Valve.
If you read the handbook, you will discover that working at Valve is quite a bit different than working at other software or hardware companies.
Perhaps most significantly, Valve is a completely flat organization – there are no managers. (And by flat I don’t mean simple, or boring, because it is certainly neither of these things.)
No one, not even Gabe, can tell you what to do or what projects to work on.
So how does anything get done? Simple:
Interested in working at Valve? The handbook also talks a bit about the sorts of things that Valve looks for in the hiring process. I found this diagram particularly interesting:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightyohm/7096956887/in/set-72157629497191122/
Valve looks for people who are experts in their field but also generalists. (Jack of all trades, master of one?) This applies across all disciplines.
(Does this sound like you? If you are interested in working on hardware in an amazing work environment, surrounded by other super-talented people, I highly recommend that you contact Valve.)
The handbook contains lots of other good information for new and prospective employees. Unfortunately, it’s not available for download (yet), so you’ll have to come visit and beg for/borrow/steal a copy. (In the mean time, there are a few more scans here.)
As for me, I need to start packing. Wish me luck.
Update: LambdaGeneration just posted a link to the complete handbook.
Today marks one year since Mitch Altman, Andie Nordgren and I released our Soldering is Easy comic book.
Since then it has been translated into 15 other languages (not including Morse Code) and has been downloaded more times than we can count (40,000 times in the first week alone).
I would like to extend our sincere thanks to all of the translators and to everyone else who has helped spread our comic book around the world. I’ve seen it at hacker conferences and Maker Faires, referenced in university electronics courses, and posted at hackerspaces in very far away places.
Thanks for making our comic book such a huge success, we couldn’t have done it without you!
Last week I went to my local Apple store and came home with a shiny new iPad.
Why? So I could play with Geiger Bot for the iPad, of course!*
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightyohm/6902445590/in/photostream
Fortunately that’s not the background level in my lab, but a measurement of a Fiestaware plate I have in my collection of “slightly radioactive stuff“.
* Not really, but it is pretty cool.
Geiger Bot is an iOS application that allows you use your iPhone or iPad as a sophisticated display for an ordinary Geiger counter. It works with most Geiger counters that make an audible “click” for each event or count that is detected.
Here’s how to get your MightyOhm Geiger Counter working with Geiger Bot. These instructions were tested with an iPhone 4, but should work with other iOS devices (iPads and other versions of the iPhone).
Continue reading How to use Geiger Bot with the MightyOhm Geiger Counter