We get several request a week to asking us to cover various kickstarter projects and we usually just file them in chapter 13 because if we posted every one we received, we would become nothing but a kickstarter aggregator. We made an exception this time because this kickstarter is something we are very close to. SpacePRIDE is a team founded in 2010 to compete in the NASA Centennial Challenge - Sample Return Rover.In the 2012 competition, they built three rovers to compete with in a span of 7 months. They are doing it again this year for the 2013 competition, but this year they are starting from the ground up and building four rovers to compete with and they need your help! Check out their Kickstarter and continue reading after the jump for more information! [node:read-more:link]
Microchip and Digilent have officially extended the chipKIT Design Challenge from January 15th 2013 to May 15th 2013. In a press release Microchip stated "In light of the recent devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy to parts of the Northeastern United States, we will be changing the deadline for submissions for the chipKIT Design Challenge from January 15/2013 to May 15/2013. Microchip Technology extends our thoughts and best wishes to all those affected." If you are unfamiliar with the chipKIT Design Challenge or would like to post an entry check out the rest of the page after the jump. 
For for PC users worldwide the keyboard is a necessity. Without it we would not be able to quickly input text and commands into our systems. And while all keywords will get the job done, some do it better than others. Today were going to take a look at AZiO’s kb505u Large Print Keyboard. 
AZiO recently sent a keyboard are way for us to take a look at. The kb505u Large Print Keyboard is billed as a keyboard with easy-to-read keys, tricolor backlighting, and quick access multimedia and hotkeys. Sporting a three-year warranty and lifetime support the large print keyboard looks to be a home run. Check out our unboxing photos and stay tuned tomorrow for the full review. 
Hack A Day posted an article about making sure your data was backed up and used our home / workshop fire as an example on how to do things right. We lost no important code because our data is backed up in the cloud. After that post we got many emails offering condolences and well wishes on starting over. A few people donated money, some donated tools, and some companies stepped up and offered to send us some amazing hardware. ISO-TIP was the first of those companies to contact us. They emailed us and asked if we could make use of a portable soldering iron. Being Iron-less we replied with a resounding YES! 
As most of our long time readers know, we lost our home and workshop in a devastating fire in July of 2012. We have since moved in to another home but rebuilding our workshop has been moving at a snail’s pace. I really would love to see the new workshop have an active fab space with a small Laser cutter, small CNC mill and a few 3d printers so we can bring you even more awesome content. At the moment we are saving up to purchase a cheap Rigol Oscilloscope and a new motherboard for our bench dev box. We applied for a kick starter and was turned down as they deemed what we want as charity case and thus violates the TOS of kickstarter. So we looked into other crowd funding resources and nothing seemed to fit what we were asking. So we decided to put up a Chip-in widget.