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Everybody gear up for free day @ sparkfun.com!!!


h3%5kr3w

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So I was rooting around on sparkfun.com the other day and they just updated their servers, and they mentioned something of a 'free day'. Got me curious, so I clicked the link. Come to find out they are giving away $100 worth of whatever you want on that day for free! They are just asking you pay shipping.

I swear this isn't some b.s. "get this free cause we just like phishing" scam.

Here is the link!http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/news.php?id=305

You can find the link on the main page of the website, just read the little article about their new servers and you'll find it.

So what would you be thinking of getting? At first I was thinking I was going to just get one higher priced thing, and then a few really cheap things, but thinking of it more, I believe I am going to get a slew of cheaper stuff, so that way when I start my projects I can have a little bit of an assortment kit :)

Also here is the details on this:

$100 max per household
You pay shipping
Limit of $100,000 in giveaways for the day
Starts 9AM MST January 7th, 2010
Ends 11PM MST January 7th, 2010 (or when we hit $100k, whichever comes first)
Rainchecks for popular items will be allowed
...
...
There is no special code to type in. But you get only one order on Free Day, so spend it well!
Only one $100 credit per household. We ask that you respect this limit and don't try to abuse this gift.
There is no minimum or maximum order. You can spend more than $100, the balance of which will be charged to your method of payment.
Only Credit Card and Paypal orders will be eligible for the $100 credit. We don't want to have people tying up inventory with POs, wire transfers, checks in the mail, or lost faxes.
You will see whether or not your order qualifies for a credit in the checkout process.
Free Day does not apply to our distributors. Sorry!
Gift Cards cannot be bought on Free Day.
Any returns from Free Day will be exchanged for the same item.
Every order isn't going to ship on Free Day, or for a few days after. We've got extra tape guns on hand, but please be patient and give us some time to catch up!
We are ratcheting up inventory for Free Day, but backorders (a.k.a. rainchecks) are allowed on most items (some items we simply can't get anymore). We'll get you your goodies just as soon as we can get them back in stock.

So basically the first $100,000 worth of orders will be done. After that, it's over so I know I am going to be clicking and adding fast which means that I am going to go ahead and find out what I want ahead of time :X

***BTW, no I do not work for sparkfun.com (wish I did tho..)***

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Yup, i saw this a week or so ago and it's legit!! I started making a cart but it automatically deletes itself after a while. I will be home on the 7th so i'm defiantly going to see if i can get a couple things for future projects!! Even though sparkfun has upgraded there servers, i doubt they are going to be able to support some many reguest on the 7th (or only for an hour or so). Granted I'm no IT expert but all i know is a lot of people are gearing up for this day.

Any one have any tips for getting your stuff ordered or is it just go as fast as possible haha..

Hope some of the Hak5 community gets some goodies!

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Well dunno if there is any tips I can give for ordering (you know as much as I do at this point on it). I am going to make an account the day before, log in as early as I can and put it all in my cart, and then just wait for the proper time, so I can be at checkout when it STARTS to *hopefully* ensure I get everything (or anything for that matter)

I tried to look up some traffic stats but all the web statistics sites do not give a concrete number, just an average put against all internet traffic (but then billions could turn out to be like .0001% that way maybe???)

here is one link: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/sparkfun.com

Does anyone know if this is a high traffic site or not? It does show that the traffic has ramped recently on the site, but being so close to after christmas (26th, last update) it's hard to gage if that is just from the holidays, and I am sure that there are a lot of people who never even saw the link to the article so.. who knows. Of course that kind of leads me to the idea that maybe I shouldn't have posted about it on here (thus having to compete with less people to get my free stuff) but then, any way I can I like to give back to the community so, I don't mind telling all of you :)

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I have had an account with them for awhile (bought some cool stuff off them too). I'm pretty sure its well know in the electronics area. Like there latest update said, they just moved to a bigger server the 25th so they can deal with the loads. They also have IRC so don't worry about telling people about it lol. I'm probably just going to do the same as you and hope i get in. I have a feeling they will be able to hold out for a little bit, hopefully things don't break.....

I'm not 100% sure but i think i saw something else on their site where you can guess how long they will be able to keep their servers up and the winner with the correct time gets $200 worth of free stuff :P

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dudes they have JTAGS (HINT HINT PEOPLE) and CARD READERS!!!(HINT FUCKING HINT(where can i buy them cheap? HERE MOTHER FUCKERS)) hmm...

LAWL! you sound like someone I know. (that's the only reason why they bought an arduino, for card readers, and cellular... um.. fun)

though come to think of it... I do need a jtag cable!!!! (glad you made me think of it!)

list:

led.. led.. lcd.. resistors.. capacitors.. breadboard... JTAG!!.. hehehe.

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Here's what my list looks like so far

Sparkfun Freeday List                    
    Description:    Part Number    Price    Ammount of Multiplez    Multiplied Price    Running total
    Digital Multimeter    TOL-09141    $14.95    1    $14.95    $14.95
    Breakout Board for Electret Microphone    BOB-08669    $7.95    1    $7.95    $22.9
    Breakout Board for microSD Transflash    BOB-00544    $14.95    1    $14.95    $37.85
    8-Bit Parallel-In/Serial-Out Shift Register - 74HC165N    COM-09519    $1.45    4    $5.8    $43.65
    Beginner Parts Kit(not tools)    KIT-09285    $24.95    1    $24.95    $68.6
    Resistor Kit - 1/4W    COM-09258    $10.95    1    $10.95    $79.55
    Basic LED - Green    COM-08532    0.35    4    1.4    $80.95
    Basic LED - Red    COM-00533    0.5    4    2    $82.95
    Basic LED - Yellow    COM-00532    0.5    4    2    $84.95
    LED Matrix - Dual Color - Small    COM-00681    $4.95    1    $4.95    $89.9
    Basic 16x12 LCD    LCD-09054    $14.95    1    $14.95    $104.85
.
                        Total    $104.85
                    Amount left (under $100)    $4.85000000000001
                    Ammount Over $100    $4.85000000000001

Still got some tweeking to do but that is most of it (i'm just starting otu so this is awesome to me)

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I was having a hard look at that myself, but I dunno how accurate it really is or even if I could use it. BUT it is really cool, and would be something to have a lot of fun with (but I also wanna use my cart for a good bit of other stuff)

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Yah, portable light oscope is the win. I don't know how many times I bring either that huge case along with the DSO inside, or borrow my coworkers scopemeter, when all I want to know is if there is an actual signal present. I don't even care if its right, just need to know whether or not the device is not sending, or I'm not receiving.

Although I swear this was much cheaper in kit form, but at this price, I can't lose.

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This past week I was on vacation, and for Christmas the family got a Roomba and a Wii.....

That Bluetooth device will come in handy (Rootooth)

I will make sure I am on "break" at work when this goes down.......

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I am constantly revising my list right now :X

So far I am hell bent on this stuff:

Digital Multimeter

Breakout board for microSd

8 bit parallel/serial out shift register (x4)

Dual color LED matrix (small)

Basic 16x12 LCD screen

Breadboard

Jumper wires

and still have to figure for $30.55cents :)

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Basic 16x2 Character LCD - White on Black 5V

Nordic USB ANT Stick

Transceiver nRF24AP1 with Trace Antenna

Arduino USB Board

My first time ever getting stuff like this, should be fun to see what I can do with just the wireless trancievers (damn they were expensive), an arduino, and an LCD.

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Well... Doesn't look like it will happen. The site is down completely right now, and free day doesn't start till tomorrow. Some speculate that they are updating their servers at the last minute, however with no forum posts, twitters, etc, from the moderators, I feel that it's most probably from hundred's of thousands of people making their accounts ahead of time. MAYBE if you get on @ around 4am you might be able to get in, but then I still highly doubt it cause all the college kids are doing the same thing constantly, and it makes me very upset to even see a refresh button right about now...

So unfortunately I am not even going to try. I guess I should have thought, but then I didn't think their site was quite THAT popular? Hell who knows, maybe even people trying to get free stuff that they don't even know what it is. Oh well. It was worth a try.

Hope at least one of you get your freeday on.

sparkout.jpg

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Well... Doesn't look like it will happen. The site is down completely right now, and free day doesn't start till tomorrow. Some speculate that they are updating their servers at the last minute, however with no forum posts, twitters, etc, from the moderators, I feel that it's most probably from hundred's of thousands of people making their accounts ahead of time. MAYBE if you get on @ around 4am you might be able to get in, but then I still highly doubt it cause all the college kids are doing the same thing constantly, and it makes me very upset to even see a refresh button right about now...

So unfortunately I am not even going to try. I guess I should have thought, but then I didn't think their site was quite THAT popular? Hell who knows, maybe even people trying to get free stuff that they don't even know what it is. Oh well. It was worth a try.

Hope at least one of you get your freeday on.

sparkout.jpg

It was posted on pretty much every big tech blog when they announced it a couple months ago. It's going to get hit hard. You finding it on the site was just luck for you, hundreds of thousands of people have probably seen it on other blogs.

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It was posted on pretty much every big tech blog when they announced it a couple months ago. It's going to get hit hard. You finding it on the site was just luck for you, hundreds of thousands of people have probably seen it on other blogs.

It was even talked about (very briefly) on Tekzilla. I will be sitting at the computer waiting for the clock to hit 08:00.

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