On 03/07/2013, Wookey <wookey@wookware.org> wrote:

> So I've paid for two more years (and thus am now in control of the
> domain), and Laurie has kindly agreed to keep hosting the website for
> the time being until someone else volunteers, or the
> space/memory/bandwidth usage on the server become problematic.

Is very kind of you both!
Given the parlous state of applications processors (and their OSes),
I'm not sure what to build next for fun.
With my day-job hat on, I'm about finished on both my DM8148
http://www.ti.com/product/tms320dm8148
and OMAP3
http://www.ti.com/product/dm3725
jobs - both should be in volume this year or next. However, Broadcom /
RPi has rather gutted the little-linux-SBC world, despite being a bit
slack about all the promised educational collateral. BBBlack has some
OS challenges and is missing some interfaces I'd like. At the moment,
the temptation is to have a play with some of the FPGA / ARM combos. I
have a suspicion they're almost usable. Not as cheap as a smartphone
chip, but much, much more fun. If only the tools weren't so foul!
If I do get my act together, it'd be tempting to do it under the
Balloonboard banner, not least to avoid having to think up a new name.
In short, I'm happy to contribute towards keeping the Balloonboard.org
world ticking over.

One of the things that always hampered Balloon was the pain involved
in getting small prototype batches manufactured without breaking the
bank. That, at least, is solved, with Steve's pick'n'place emporium
(tm) these days. Low volume, bring it on!

Anyone with thoughts about a Spawn'o'Balloon, I'm reasonably receptive...

Steve