Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Video

We Need VP8 Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle

I’ve been waiting for a little to mull over Google’s announcement about dropping H.264 support in Chrome in favor of VP8. Although my partner Ben Mesander would take the other side of the argument, I think the world needs VP8 like a fish needs a bicycle.
Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Outsourced Engineering

Two Types of Technical

In all the sturm und drang of bad economic news, Cardinal Peak is on a bit of a hiring spree. If you’re a talented engineer who is interested in embedded application development and lives in the Denver/Boulder area, please get in touch! We’re working on some very cool products that I hope to be able... View Article
Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Outsourced Engineering

I Want Smarter Competitors!

We recently became aware of another contract engineering firm that had appropriated our Why Contract Engineering page for their own website. This other firm (and no, I’m not going to link to them) claims on their home page that they “operate in an honest, ethical and professional manner,” so I guess they’ve got that going... View Article
I’ve been waiting for a little to mull over Google’s announcement about dropping H.264 support in Chrome in favor of VP8. Although my partner Ben Mesander would take the other side of the argument, I think the world needs VP8 like a fish needs a bicycle.
In all the sturm und drang of bad economic news, Cardinal Peak is on a bit of a hiring spree. If you’re a talented engineer who is interested in embedded application development and lives in the Denver/Boulder area, please get in touch! We’re working on some very cool products that I hope to be able... View Article
We recently became aware of another contract engineering firm that had appropriated our Why Contract Engineering page for their own website. This other firm (and no, I’m not going to link to them) claims on their home page that they “operate in an honest, ethical and professional manner,” so I guess they’ve got that going... View Article
Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Audio

Did the Manhattan Transfer Use Auto-Tune?

Discover the controversy of Auto-Tune in jazz vocals. Can you detect its subtle use in Manhattan Transfer's latest album?
Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Connected Devices and IoT

Sniffing iPad Traffic

Our engineering expert details how to capture and analyze all the network traffic flowing to and from a Wi-Fi-enabled device using a network sniffer.
Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Video

Encoders Aren’t Commodities

My partner Ben Mesander had a really cool post the other day: An H.264 encoder written in 30 lines of C code. Ben’s encoder outputs completely valid H.264, but it doesn’t actually compress anything. (What do you expect from 30 lines!) In fact, because of the necessary H.264 headers, the output of Ben’s encoder is... View Article
Discover the controversy of Auto-Tune in jazz vocals. Can you detect its subtle use in Manhattan Transfer's latest album?
Our engineering expert details how to capture and analyze all the network traffic flowing to and from a Wi-Fi-enabled device using a network sniffer.
My partner Ben Mesander had a really cool post the other day: An H.264 encoder written in 30 lines of C code. Ben’s encoder outputs completely valid H.264, but it doesn’t actually compress anything. (What do you expect from 30 lines!) In fact, because of the necessary H.264 headers, the output of Ben’s encoder is... View Article
Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Outsourced Engineering

More on Patents

I had intended to give the indemnification issue a rest. But then the following caught my attention this morning: One big difference between patents and other kinds of intellectual property, like copyrights and trademarks, is that patent-holders who want to sue someone for infringement don’t have to show that their patents or their products were... View Article
Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Outsourced Engineering

Providing Indemnification for Patent Infringement

Discover why Cardinal Peak chose to walk away from an engineering engagement for the first time. Learn about our stance on indemnification and why it matters in high-stakes engineering contracts.
Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Outsourced Engineering

The Cost of an Engineer-Hour

As all good project managers know, there are three dimensions to any engineering effort: The features of the product: What does the product do and how does it look? (For sake of simplicity, let’s include “quality” as a product feature.) The schedule on which the product is produced: How fast does it get to market?... View Article
I had intended to give the indemnification issue a rest. But then the following caught my attention this morning: One big difference between patents and other kinds of intellectual property, like copyrights and trademarks, is that patent-holders who want to sue someone for infringement don’t have to show that their patents or their products were... View Article
Discover why Cardinal Peak chose to walk away from an engineering engagement for the first time. Learn about our stance on indemnification and why it matters in high-stakes engineering contracts.
As all good project managers know, there are three dimensions to any engineering effort: The features of the product: What does the product do and how does it look? (For sake of simplicity, let’s include “quality” as a product feature.) The schedule on which the product is produced: How fast does it get to market?... View Article
Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Video

On the Importance of Encrypting Video

This morning brought a front-page Wall St. Journal article that’s a bit of a jaw-dropper: Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. operations. … The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink... View Article
Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Outsourced Engineering

Outsourcing Just the 1.0

Consider outsourcing just the 1.0 version of your product for a quick market entry, then bring maintenance and enhancements in-house. Learn more about this strategic approach here!
Howdy Pierce
Blog Post
Audio

Why is the Compact Disk Sample Rate 44.1kHz?

During a recent conference call discussing audio sampling rates, the question came up: Why do CDs use a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz? The 2 Most Common CD Sampling Rates: 44.1kHz & 48kH First, a little background: When you sample an audio waveform, you have a choice as to how many samples you take per... View Article
This morning brought a front-page Wall St. Journal article that’s a bit of a jaw-dropper: Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. operations. … The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink... View Article
Consider outsourcing just the 1.0 version of your product for a quick market entry, then bring maintenance and enhancements in-house. Learn more about this strategic approach here!
During a recent conference call discussing audio sampling rates, the question came up: Why do CDs use a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz? The 2 Most Common CD Sampling Rates: 44.1kHz & 48kH First, a little background: When you sample an audio waveform, you have a choice as to how many samples you take per... View Article