[ChuckMcM]

I've been reading Bunny's "The Hardware Hacker" and it does make me want to visit.

What I find particularly fascinating is that it provides powerful evidence that 'open' is innovative and 'closed' is stifling.

Early on in the tech business everything was 'open'. The IBM PC published the source code to the BIOS in its technical manual, Intel and Motorola documented all of the options on their chips and how to program them, early programmable logic (PALs and PLDs) were easy to program with available documentation.

As a result lots of people built a wide variety of devices and systems using those parts, and that supported (in the Bay Area at least) dozens of circuit board houses, small run manufacturers, fastener companies, assembly houses, and parts distributors.

Starting with 3D accelerator chips, documentation became locked up behind NDA walls, access to small quantities was nearly impossible, and it became harder and harder to build something out of off the shelf parts. Designers and inventors were held back, their reduced demand for services put pressure on the rest of the ecosystem and the vibrant economy around building hardware crashed and burned. The biggest loss was perhaps the small boutique chip houses that made interesting parts with a bit of this and a bit of that.

Reading Bunny's book and the economist's article it seems that a combination of "Gongkai" and many different small factories has created this environment in Shenzen. That is a good thing and bodes well for the future growth of the area (assuming it isn't crushed by the powers that be). I'd love to figure out how to rekindle that here in the Bay Area.

[gjkood]

Actually, buying Bunnie's "The Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen" [1] was what motivated me to make the trip. I was motivated enough to spent 7+ months learning basic Mandarin before making the trip. Not to mention the WIRED videos on Shenzhen featuring Bunnie [2].

Learning the Mandarin number system made negotiating prices a breeze.

I just got the Hardware Hacker a month or so ago. Great read.

[1] https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/the-essential-gui...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp6F_ApUq-c

[SexyCyborg]

I made audio files of all words and phrases in "The Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen" and posted it here: https://soundcloud.com/sexycyborg/sets/shenzhen_bunnie-huang

[nojvek]

This is awesome. Would love to visit China and learn basic mandarin.

[canada_dry]

Visited Shenzhen a couple years ago and was blown away at the scope. Sprawling supermarkets of state-of-the-art electronics! Met folks who were finding suppliers for their kickstarter projects... so cool.

Since Hong Kong is still (for all practical purposes) not really under full Chinese rule, Beijing is pouring gobs of support into making Shenzhen the world's electronics marketplace.

Fun fact: Shenzhen is home of the 2nd tallest building in the world (after Dubai).

[blacksmythe]

  >> I was motivated enough to spent 7+ months learning basic Mandarin

That is impressive.

I have tried learning Mandarin, and found that in the same amount of time that you could be communicating (at a very basic level) in another language (even one considered 'hard' like Japanese), with Mandarin I am still trying to get tones right.

[gjkood]

I definitely did not learn it on my own or through self study.

I attended Mandarin classes at the San Jose Learning Center. (http://www.sanjoselearningcenter.com/mandarin.php)

A special shout-out to my fantastic instructor Larry Xue.

It is not easy but it has changed my life and outlook.

[contingencies]

Tones are hard but far less important than people make out. If you can copy someone else's sound, you will eventually just get tones right automatically. This is how Chinese learn. There's no need to learn them formally. (Source: 16 years, native English speaker, fluent Mandarin, some capacity with multiple tonal languages + dialects)

[blacksmythe]

What was your path to getting started?

(from beginner to being able to make basic conversation)

[contingencies]

Alcohol.

[blacksmythe]

  >> early programmable logic (PALs and PLDs) were easy to program with available documentation.

FPGAs now are much easier to use now than early programmable logic (PALs and PLDs). You can do 10x more than you could before (about 1990 IIRC), in 1/10th the time.

The main thing that has shifted is that the bar is higher. 10x more than an early PALs/PLD design is not worth much today.