daniper

Ugh there are only shit cap table management co's now

The team is here, includes creator of Signal, among others: https://www.juicebox.xyz/contributors

https://imeshyou.com — self-reported goTenna Mesh community map (globally)

https://globalmeshlabs.org — goTenna’s open-source Lot49 protocol, to incentivize build-out of global ISP/carrier-free messaging network

Not to be too meta, but the magazine this was published in is all about decentralization — I'm biased because I was involved in it, but if you're on this thread, you may want to check it out. Just launched: https://inthemesh.com

That's a really good question and part of it is that this shit is super hard and takes forever and it's totally binary: it works or it doesn't and you spend a lot of time in the "doesn't" and that is soul-crushing for anyone. So there's that barrier to cross, haha. But I think you're asking more about what decisions as we designed/planned our mesh network topology has enabled us to do this.... and I think it's because we started by focusing on an MVP and then became philosophically attached to that MVP in the long-term for different reasons beyond just being a practical place to start.

What that meant for us is we decided to focus specifically on burst data. As a result our hardware can be lighter/smaller/less expensive and our networking protocols can scale to do things that other mesh projects have failed at.

For goTenna/goTenna Mesh, not doing real-time high-bandwidth media transmissions is a feature not a bug. Plus, focusing on packetized burst data transmissions doesn't preclude us from even sending a whole Netflix show over goTenna if we wanted to, because you could technically send a video over in lots of small packets and reconstruct it at the other end. Everything, after all, are 1's and 0's. (BTW with our SDK you can do that if you'd like! We're still gonna be focused on text & GPS in our own apps for now - for both goTenna v1 and goTenna Mesh).

Because we didn't have the choice of working on beautiful licensed spectrum used by limited users and less subject to regulations by government. We always had to by definition design goTenna (and now goTenna Mesh) to work on public spectrum which is a scarce and shared resource with potentially unlimited users and regulations that we have to fit into.

TL;DR: Focusing on burst data has been a really great way of scaling our technology from the first intelligent protocols that power v1 (which we call Aspen Prime) and goTenna Mesh (Aspen Grove).

Also perseverance. And naivete probably helped too because it's easier to get into something difficult when you have no clue how hard it's gonna be. We've learned a lot along the way since our first working prototypes in early 2013.

(Sorry if I sound barely coherent right now; I haven't slept in a few days leading up to goTenna Mesh launch!)

In different places in this thread we've already discussed that different frequencies & different regulations means we couldn't have the v1 product Mesh and we means we can't have the Mesh product work with the v1. BUT I will say that we already have SMS network relay available for both v1 and Mesh which is the first time goTenna interconnects with central connectivity... and that, plus mesh, and some of the other stuff we're planning, is all meant to continue building out a parallel off-grid network that is resilient and scalable but that can plug into central infrastructure in creative ways that improves the communication stack for both on-grid and off-grid uses.

The TL;DR of it is: How do we build infrastructure-free infrastructure? It starts small but we have, I think, Big Ideas ;-)

Hi you asked this twice in the thread; just replied to your other comment but copy/pasting here to be thorough:

"Hey there, we sent an email out first thing this morning to all our v1 preorder customers (thousands and thousands) before we publicly announced the preorder campaign for Mesh and the mail system we use for newsletters bungled it and didn't send it at all, except to 24 people and their dashboard didn't show this happened til hours later (so we assumed everything was fine). We are working to remedy it right now. You all were supposed to get the very first email. (Here is proof of me yelling at the company whose software is responsible for this on Twitter -- after they didn't reply to 4 attempts to reach them prior: https://twitter.com/danielaperdomo/status/781222497131827200 We are working in real-time to get this issue fixed, which was the opposite of our intention. I'm really sorry this happened."

Hey there, we sent an email out first thing this morning to all our v1 preorder customers (thousands and thousands) before we publicly announced the preorder campaign for Mesh and the mail system we use for newsletters bungled it and didn't send it at all, except to 24 people and their dashboard didn't show this happened til hours later (so we assumed everything was fine). We are working to remedy it right now. You all were supposed to get the very first email. (Here is proof of me yelling at the company whose software is responsible for this on Twitter -- after they didn't reply to 4 attempts to reach them prior: https://twitter.com/danielaperdomo/status/781222497131827200

We are working in real-time to get this issue fixed, which was the opposite of our intention. I'm really sorry this happened.

Anyway, we like both products! Our award-winning v1 device gets great point to point range; this new one will do that plus offer the opportunity to relay messages via mesh in certain situations. And we can finally address demand internationally (Mesh can ship to 49 countries bc we're going through regulatory process in other regions).

And finally I guess I'd say that meshing is useful even among just 3 people who know each other. It has blue-sky possibilities that are really game-changing if adopted widely. I'm betting on both ;-)

Right, the other thing beyond being different frequencies is that we can't mesh on MURS frequencies given the FCC's rules on that band. So we moved to the civilian ISM band where store-and-forward is allowed. So we've had to negotiate not just with the laws of physics but the laws of... regulators ;-)

Thanks for mentioning the SDK — anyone can build atop goTenna now. Devs: build whatever you want over a really unique open data layer (totally off-grid, long-range). M2M, gaming, messaging — http://www.gotenna.com/pages/sdk

> Anyone who’s worked with BTLE knows field-testing can reveal results quite different from what’s observed in the lab — and what’s supposed to happen, according to spec sheets! — for a seemingly infinite number of reasons.

So true... #ptsd

Thanks! :-D

Our hardware team has been working on our next product for a few months -- that's why they found time to hack into iPhone batteries, lol, as work on the first product has been handed off to supply chain & manufacturing for the most part. ;-)

Meanwhile, the rest of the engineering team is working on firmware & software updates to make the hardware we're already shipping even better/more interesting (and of course, responding to first consumers' feedback).

But... you know what? Sorry for going on a tangent. All I really want to say is thanks, means a lot. Sometimes it's hard to enjoy these victories because you get so focused on the next uphill battle. ;-)

Thanks. We actually didn't do this for strategic content marketing purposes — we just did the lab tests out of our own curiosity/desire to open up an iPhone on a late Friday night. Once we had the data we figured it might be interesting to share with others. It also helps us now give even more specific answers to people who often ask us: "How much does Bluetooth drain my battery?" "How much does toggling into Airplane Mode do to conserve battery?"

Lol, we did these lab tests before we thought of turning what we learned into a post (if we had really been strategically content marketing, we wouldn't have posted this at 8 pm on a Friday night haha). Mostly, we wanted to break open an iPhone — that's what happens when a hardware team is in TGIF mode ;-)

In any case, it's not just background apps updating. Although yes, that's part of it. We wanted to learn more beyond what the iOS battery-monitoring feature will give you -- which is which apps are consuming which % of your iPhone's battery, both when you're actively using them and when they're running in the background.

For our own purposes, we were particularly interested in the interaction of location services and Bluetooth-LE which are required for own product to be useful. We threw in general "futzing" and screen brightness as well out of curiosity. And while our team knew that trying to connect to towers & routers ate your battery a lot (easily observed by just turning your phone into Airplane Mode -- can last for weeks!), we had no idea it could be as much as 250 mA every few seconds!

Yes, apps (like Facebook's) which are drawing lots of current in the background is part of it -- but the point of our team's hacking into the iPhone was to find out what else really affects your phone's battery. It's not just background apps updating.

Nothing we discovered in the lab is 'revolutionary' -- everyone knows your battery gets used up more when the screen is brighter, and when your phone is trying to find a tower or router to connect to, but we just wanted to put some numbers behind it.

Hope it was useful; we had fun breaking open an iPhone regardless ;-)

We started shipping earlier this month, which is why the price went up from the prior pre-order discounted number.

Stay tuned for a novel-length blog themed around something like, "Why Manufacturing & Supply Chain Are 100X Harder (& Take 100X Longer) Than Everyone Tells You". But I'm sort of still in PTSD mode. ;-)

And while feelthebern.org collabs w/ the Coders for Sanders Slack, we actually have our own Slack with even more volunteers. At our end, we're working on a iOS and Android apps (not just ability to access all the content, but also a gamifying canvassing/GOTV functionality; and also some Thunderclap-like native features). We're also preparing 3 more sites that will be tied into our site but be for more TL;DR consumption. Finally, we're developing flyer versions of our content for offline GOTV'ing.

(reposting my comment as well)

Best thing I've ever put my tech startup skillz to use for! If you haven't already checked out http://feelthebern.org, please do so and share widely. We built it to make clear where Bernie Sanders stands on every issue... TL;DR for 50+ years he's been consistent and on the right side of history no matter the political cost.

Before this I'd never found (or even tried to find) common ground with, say, Republicans, libertarians or even mainline Democrats. I'd also never really known people in active military service, or who were formerly homeless — but these are some of the amazing humans who I've been working with for 7 weeks now.

Most Americans care about the same things, and if we can move past the broken two-party system and the theatrics that play out in the media, we can actually start solving problems together. Feel grateful that thanks to this candidate and his issues-based campaign, my world's a little bigger.

Join us, we have mobile apps and social apps and so much more coming out. We need great devs, designers, writers & more. :-)

Best thing I've ever put my tech startup skillz to use for!

If you haven't already checked out http://feelthebern.org, please do so and share widely. We built it to make clear where Bernie Sanders stands on every issue... TL;DR for 50+ years he's been consistent and on the right side of history no matter the political cost.

Before this I'd never found (or even tried to find) common ground with, say, Republicans, libertarians or even mainline Democrats. I'd also never really known people in active military service, or who were formerly homeless — but these are some of the amazing humans who I've been working with for 7 weeks now.

Most Americans care about the same things, and if we can move past the broken two-party system and the theatrics that play out in the media, we can actually start solving problems together. Feel grateful that thanks to this candidate and his issues-based campaign, my world's a little bigger.

Join us, we have mobile apps and social apps and so much more coming out. We need great devs, designers, writers & more. :-)

That's a really good question. The problem is MANY freelancers give other freelancers a bad name by being unfocused, uncommitted, and hard to work with.

I think a good way of showing that's not you is kicking off your job interview process by submitting something with your intro email and resume that is germane to the company/team you're interested in joining. Perhaps a coding project, a UX design, a marketing plan -- something that shows you care.

That'll make you stand out not only among freelancers, but just about any applicant.

Right ;)

No on the noise floor question ;)

Not an issue on MURS; you're thinking of GMRS.

Our open SDK is coming soon. You can't really mess with signal strength and gain (especially bc of FCC regulations)

Our first prototypes worked over the audio jack (à la Square) but from both performance and form factor perspectives, having it work wirelessly over BLE worked better. That being said we can work audio and other data interfaces into later products for sure, we're just going MVP route ;)

The app comes with a vector map of the entire world. You can then download specific areas to get complete detail (i.e. down to hiking trails and city blocks) before you head out -- depending which maps you want you'll download via small country (e.g. France) or state (e.g. California). All goTenna maps are free!

goTenna's transmission rate goes up to 19,200 baud

Congestion is definitely the main reason. What we've done at goTenna's networking layer though, is we've made it listen-before-talk. That, added to the fact that we're only doing short-burst transmissions, makes it highly unlikely goTenna will ever "step on other tranmissions' feet."

We have an open SDK coming out soon -- you can sign up for developer updates at our website

Yes, we've built everything from scratch! It's been fun/impossible. :)