The killer app for open-source hardware is scientific components and apparatus. It improves accessibility and repeatability, and can deepen your understanding of experimental results and error budgets. Check out Open-Source Lab by Joshua M. Pearce [1], as well as his lab's website [2]. Also check out the Gathering for Open Science Hardware [3].
My favorite from python are decorators, especially the built-in ones like @property. They can improve readability immensely, so the don't feel extraneous.
There's a huge number of people involved in the design of the rpi. The antenna is a great example of a subsystem designed by a separate team; another is the new PMIC for the 3B+[1].
According to [1] (which has more info on the antenna design), the resonant cavity antenna was designed by a company called Proant [2]. I remember reading the the antenna is the same on the Pi 3 and Zero W. There are a few options for PCB antenna design software out there, but I had never seen this type of PCB antenna before the Zero W. Not sure what software they use, or whether it's off the shelf or proprietary. Any antenna designers out there?
Seconded. While Art of Electronics is the classic text, this one is a bit more accessible. It has less depth but more breadth, and is less intimidating because of it.
Right. Why play an acoustic instrument when we can accurately synthesize its sound, or use a tube amplifier when we could use a digital modelling amplifier that perfectly simulates it? Because nostalgia is one of the enjoyable aspects of music. That being said, one should realize that paying for nostalgia isn't necessarily paying for objectively better performance.
Cool project! This reminds me of an idea that you're awfully close to: optimized small-volume part kitting. I can order boards from OSHPark and stencils from OSHStencils, but figuring out which distributor has parts in stock for the lowest price and in the preferred packaging still takes an inordinate amount of time. The Octopart BOM tool is the closest thing I know of, but it will only let you fill a cart at a single distributor. Going in one step from BOM to ordered parts from multiple optimal distributors would save a lot of time.
Yes! I had this idea too (or maybe I stole it off you, who knows :). Though I changed my mind at some point and thought I would first do it according to preferred retailer (since I normally want to order at Farnell and then RS, if Farnell doesn't have it, because both will deliver next-day in the UK for free). Check 1.6 and 2.0 on the 1-click BOM roadmap [1]. Though it may be better to integrate this with Kitspace.org rather than build it into the extension.
"[T]he stuff I was making was really weird, because I didn't have real-world, existing examples to work from. I mean, they were around, but I guess I wasn't interested enough. It just seemed beyond what a kid could buy with his pocket money."
His good intuition and willingness to disregard tradition seem to be the key to his success. Studying examples of the "right" way to build something might be a useful learning exercise, but it can also be mentally constraining.
http://inthesetimes.com/rural-america/entry/17778/local-econ...