MindTribe Blog

Tim Prachar
Sometimes it *is* all about the blinky light
February 2nd, 2012 by Tim Prachar

This is a great story of an amazingly innovative solution to a difficult and expensive problem.

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Tim Prachar
CES 2012 – Armageddon Year?
January 26th, 2012 by Tim Prachar

CES 2012 – Armageddon Year?

According to the Mayans the calendar comes to an end this year.  Does this mean the world ends?  Probably not.  But maybe they were thinking of CES. Continue reading →

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Steve Myers
Leadership for Engineers, Part I: Getting the Most Out of the People Around You
January 25th, 2012 by Steve Myers

I recently realized that as our teams face the myriad challenges inherent with doing new things, and engineering innovative technology products, that I suggest one thing more than any other: that we provide leadership.

After some discussion, the question inevitably arises: “What do you mean? Exactly?”

My tendency is to provide a suggestion specific to the situation at hand. Don’t underestimate the value of your point of view–clearly express what you think is best. Or better understand what’s driving that decision you disagree with. Or do your best to leverage that person’s strengths and keep the big picture in mind. Stuff like that.

However, this is such a powerful concept I’ve wanted to generalize a response so people can see its applicability on a daily basis in nearly every situation, and hopefully help people develop leadership capabilities that permeate everything they do.

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Chet Lim
An Engineer’s Experience at MindTribe (refreshed)
November 11th, 2011 by Chet Lim

Now that we’ve settled into our new office and are expanding our team, I thought it’d be a good time to refresh some thoughts about some of the unique aspects of being an engineer at MindTribe:

1) Ability to explore outside of your core expertise

At MindTribe we have electrical engineers who use Solidworks, mechanical engineers who also wear the project management hat, and software engineers who have degrees in mechanical engineering. It is a one-of-a-kind company that encourages its employees to be multidisciplinary. MindTribe believes that breakthrough ideas for technology often come when paths of different disciplines cross, thus we place a high value on engineers who are well-versed in different disciplines. A wide breadth of perspectives benefits our clients, who have to consider the big picture as well as day-to-day priorities.

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Steve Myers
Unpacking Moving In
November 2nd, 2011 by Steve Myers

We moved into our new office last weekend and we’re pretty excited about it.

Why? There are many reasons, but the most important is that it supports the way we want to work.

We’ve been developing a method of doing engineering and product development over the past year dependent upon real-time collaboration amongst our team and with our clients.

Our old office became a limitation. Our desks had distinct divisions. It was difficult to roll over to a teammate to look at his or her screen, or sit together and work in real time. The entire space was broken into separate rooms, which made it difficult to be immersed in whatever was going on with your team at a given time.

Though still cluttered with blue boxes and monitor stands (where’d the monitors go?), here’s a sneak peek at our new setup.

The main room was designed to used as flexibly as possible.

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Tim Prachar
Try *this* with your fancy new iPhone 4S camera!
October 20th, 2011 by Tim Prachar

Many have written about the new iPhone4S’s camera, and how it might displace quite a few point-and-shoot models.  Still, there are some things it can’t do, or you wouldn’t want to do with it.  This is one.

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Tim Prachar
An Interview with Woz and Jobs — from 1979
October 17th, 2011 by Tim Prachar

UPDATE (Nov 15th): The IEEE newsletter can now be found here, and the article begins on page 21.  Many thanks to the authors and the interviewer, Robin Bradbeer.

In the most recent issue of IEEE Consumer Electronics Society Newsletter (Fall 2011) you’ll find two articles from Practical Computing April & May 1979: one is an interview with Steve Wozniak and the other with Steve Jobs.  I believe this issue of the newsletter went to press before the announcement of Steve’s death.

The articles are quite interesting as they tell a story so common to the companies that MindTribe encounters.  For those of us who’ve been in or around the computing industry since the 1970’s, it’s especially interesting to see how certain technical decisions took form, and how they led to the predominant architectures we work with today

Reach out to your IEEE member friends for a copy of the newsletter, or your local geek hoarder for a copy of the 1979 magazines.  I encourage all to read the two articles for a perspective on the men and the technology that affects us all to this day.

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Tim Prachar
Clamping, bounding, and Pease moments
October 11th, 2011 by Tim Prachar

Here’s a great article with more from analog guru Bob Pease.  The collection of analog circuits for diode clamps and ideal zeners are all pretty useful.

 And the photos of Pease are classic!

 

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Steve Myers
MindTribe is Moving to San Francisco!
August 25th, 2011 by Steve Myers

MindTribe is excited to announce that as of October, our new home will be 25 Kearny St, Suite 200, in downtown San Francisco!

That's us above Discount Camera, with Market and Third in the background.

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Tim Prachar
What’s All This Electrosmog Stuff, Anyhow?
August 2nd, 2011 by Tim Prachar

“Electrosmog”?

From time to time new words are coined in the tech world, and some stick like glue while others evaporate like old political jokes. And often these terms are formed not by the tech community, but by those outside of it. Enter Electrosmog.

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