HN user

zsupalla

274 karma

CEO/Founder of Particle (IoT Platform-as-a-Service)

Posts18
Comments13
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www.atomsandbits.io 4y ago

Hardware/Software Business Models

zsupalla
3pts0
www.atomsandbits.io 4y ago

Hardware is hard. Does it have to be?

zsupalla
2pts0
medium.com 9y ago

On Particle, IoT, and solving hard problems

zsupalla
4pts0
medium.com 9y ago

A cellular-connected DIY Pokéball for finding rare Pokémon

zsupalla
3pts0
medium.com 10y ago

Processed meats as bad as cigarettes: bad reporting on good science

zsupalla
131pts45
blog.spark.io 11y ago

DIY Iron Man Arc Reactor and Repulsor

zsupalla
58pts1
www.proto2prod.com 11y ago

Circuit Design 101: fab specs and Gerber files

zsupalla
1pts0
www.proto2prod.com 11y ago

Creating and Optimizing a Bill of Materials

zsupalla
3pts0
blog.spark.io 11y ago

Building WarSting: A sword that turns blue near unsecured Wi-Fi networks

zsupalla
11pts0
z.svbtle.com 11y ago

Drone Adventures, Pt. 1: Building a Drone

zsupalla
59pts8
www.spark.io 11y ago

Spark Photon: a $19 open source, hackable Wi-Fi development kit

zsupalla
15pts0
blog.spark.io 12y ago

Wi-Fi connected telegraph

zsupalla
1pts0
blog.spark.io 12y ago

Publish events from your Spark Core

zsupalla
43pts20
www.kickstarter.com 12y ago

QBox: A Wi-Fi connected BBQ smoker

zsupalla
2pts0
z.svbtle.com 12y ago

Why Kickstarter projects are always delayed

zsupalla
8pts0
www.kickstarter.com 13y ago

Spark Core: Wi-Fi for Everything (Arduino Compatible)

zsupalla
56pts20
blog.sparkdevices.com 13y ago

Fail = Win? A Kickstarter post-mortem

zsupalla
2pts0
www.kickstarter.com 13y ago

Show HN: Spark + Twine = sensors + lights + API

zsupalla
3pts0

Yep that's right! It's an Arduino-like microcontroller development board, but with built-in Wi-Fi and an open source cloud back-end

Less marketing jargon, more actual content. What I find particularly fascinating is that bitcoin is mentioned a bunch of times passively without anyone ever saying "this is a bitcoin bank". It's like your supposed to just intuit the function of the site from a bunch of vague adjectives and adverbs like "everywhere" and "instant".

Zach here, also from Spark. We're definitely working on next-gen hardware now, haven't selected a final chipset yet.

Our hosted cloud is somewhat different from the open source version, and the differences will grow over time. As an open source company, the question always comes to "how do we make money?" Our open source thesis is to give away basic technology and sell advanced technology. Right now the biggest differences between our hosted cloud and the open source version is scalability; our system is designed to scale horizontally whereas the open source one is a single instance (although it could, of course, be modified). We are still deciding which features that are still in development will be open sourced, and which won't. We've learned from other for-profit open source companies (like MongoDB, for instance), that even after being on the market for years they're still trying to figure out which features to give away and which to sell.

Discourse 13 years ago

The differences between a forum system designed to be implemented on someone's webpage and a big platform for "social interaction" are significant. Discourse could be used for a narrow purpose (i.e. creating a developer forum or a customer service portal), Branch can't. Just because their external appearance shows similarities doesn't mean they are the same product, or even in the same market.

Ok, I understand why they might sue Formlabs - it's a shame, but without knowing the details there's opportunity for patent infringement there. But Kickstarter? Seriously?