She who controls the TV-B-Gone… #JourneytotheCenteroftheCatalog
Raindrops glisten against the lit street like 3mm diffused white LEDs on a matte black background. It’s the year 2020 and screens dot the skyline, ads playing on perpetual loop. Bodies walk by in dull gray suits, eyes staring at the screens as they walk. While the screens are on, they see nothing else. And the screens are always on.
A black-clad maker blends into the darkness of a lone unwatched alleyway, fumbling through her pocket for a silver 3×5 anti-static bag filled with components…
Quickly, she takes the soldering iron out of her holster, and huddling in the rain, makes short work of the kit’s simple design. She rises, placing 2xAA batteries (not included) into the provided holder…
…and points the device toward the omnipresent screens. The street goes dark. Images dissipate into the matte black night. And as the Maker runs through the alleyway to find another street, whispers trickle through the crowd.
“She who controls the TV-B-Gone,” they say, “controls the world.”
We have like 2000 products now. Adafruit’s not just a SpokePov, a MintyBoost, and three people like it used to be. And while there’s probably some guy named, like, Kyle who’s memorized every PID, every product name, and everything we’ve ever discontinued, we don’t expect all of you to be as awesome as Kyle is. That’s why we’re starting this – because there are products in our catalog that are still exciting, still useful, and are still things that you probably want to add to your shopping carts but just don’t know it yet. We’re calling it Journey to the Center of the Catalog – because we like Jules Verne and we like to pretend, sometimes, that Adafruit’s a giant unstoppable volcano with a bunch of really cool dinosaurs inside of it.
Adafruit has had paid day off for voting for our team for years, if you need help getting that going for your organization, let us know – we can share how and why we did this as well as the good results. Here are some resources for voting by mail, voting in person, and some NY resources for our NY based teams as well. If there are additional resources to add, please let us know – adafruit.com/vote
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
