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Comment by empath75 | Hacker News Reader

Silicon Valley is called that because that's how it used to be. They actually made the chips there, and if you grew up there, you could get computer parts cheaply and easily. Jobs and Wozniak could build the Apple I in a garage only because of where they were.

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Exactly this. North San Jose (the 237 triangle) used to have PCB, chip, chassis, component, etc., manufacturers in proximity to each other. Consider: Sun used to make and assemble their "workstations" over in the East Bay not far from the 237 triangle. As the late '90s approached much of that local manufacturing was off-shored to the Foxconns and Flextronics, etc. as well as overseas foundries.

As a consequence of all of that concentrated manufacturing, Silicon Valley is now a cluster of EPA superfund sites. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_Cal...

Check out the SuperFund sites in the original Silicon Valleys of NJ & Boston.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Superfun...

Lorentz Barrel and Drum was particularly reckless. That lot is across the street from the Solar For America Ice complex (formerly Sharks Ice) on 10th.

And when it all went over there it made room for Google and Facebook. Today it's hard for a startup to find space in downtown PA because of Palantir.

What's a "problem" for the rest of the U.S. is creative destruction here. I worry we may have learned the wrong lessons because of current politics and inequalities. And it's worth remembering that automation is going to result in that manufacturing resulting in less jobs. What's going to happen when people expect the jobs to come back but then they don't?

I know this has all been said, but I'm not sure everyone's connected all the dots.

>it's worth remembering that automation is going to result in that manufacturing resulting in less jobs. What's going to happen when people expect the jobs to come back but then they don't?

/u/Brightball posted this on HN and I felt it was a good response to your concern.

"One of the big perks to manufacturing is that it draws the entire supply chain around it naturally. Even if the manufacturing job itself isn't as abundant, the peripheral jobs that comes with it from shipping materials, producing materials, distribution, sales agreements, logistics, building construction and maintenance...they all provide benefits."

Ya, I don't think most people think past the surface of this issue, but than, most people don't think at all.

On a side note, unemployment rates are at a low, so we relly don't need to worry too much. If you look at the charts: https://www.google.ca/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_&... you see that it really was all due to the recession. Now that the economy has recovered, jobs are back.

All the talk of outsourcing, automation, and all that doesn't seem to show in numbers. Even full time employment is up: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/full-time-empl...

I wish our society valued data driven decisions a little more. Successful businesses do it all the time, why not politics?

Because you get elected by stirring emotion in voters.

Exactly, there may well be a lot more manufacture and assembly here in the US, but that's to support US deliveries with lower-cost shipments of final products. And most of that is automated, which is what allows US mfg to compete with overseas.

For off-the-shelf electronic parts in small quantities, everybody orders from Digi-Key, or maybe Mouser. Order by 8 PM Central time, delivery by 10:30 AM the next morning if you pay for FedEx.

That's what wiped out local parts stores. You never knew what they had in stock, and the markups were huge.

Also, Digi-Key doesn't have a counterfeit parts problem. Digi-Key deals directly with manufacturers. The supply chain is simple and has no anonymous resellers. If someone finds a bad part and reports it to Digi-Key, their systems can trace it back to the manufacturer lot. So not many duds get through.

The problem with digikey (in my mind, as a hobbyist) is that you don't actually know the total until after the order has shipped.

This is a problem with shipping with Fedex too. There are a bunch of variable charges that aren't finalized until after the shipment has been delivered. In practice it is rarely and issue and using post paid labels instead of prepaid shipping labels is a better system for most businesses anyways.

Is the order cost variable with digikey because the shipping weight is not known or is there another reason?

Im not sure.

Digi-key, Mouser should have retails office location in Silicon Valley where anyone can order on-line and pickup in person when notified the order is ready via email/txt.

Jameco has one in Belmont: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Jameco+Electronics,+1355+S...

Can you explain how this works?

I live in Canada, shipping is $8 flat rate, and all the taxes and shipping are totalled on the "preview" screen.

I've never paid customs fees in all the years of ordering, so for my situation I know the full price upfront before ordering

Yeah, I understand a DB9 solder cup is a niche product for a local Radio Shack and they have to pay for store space and employees, but there was just no way I was going to pay $6 per connector when I could order them for $0.30 each from Digikey and have it in two days. It wasn't just that part. Every part was like that. $2 for a single capacitor. $15 for a pack of 100 resistors. Etc. And good luck finding the exact one you wanted. Those parts shelves were only stocked every 5+ years ... I could easily see four generations of packaging for the same part in those things.

It's really a shame because it was great to have that "I can get this part in ten minutes" feeling when I was in the middle of a project and I ran out of something I needed, or realized I was missing a part.

shit, that was true as recently as 15 years ago, from personal experience. You can't just drive down 101 from SF and buy shit at Greybar anymore?

HSC, Anchor Electronics and Wierdstuff but that's about it

And Jameco, just off 101 in Belmont, and Fry's.

That's the one I was thinking of. Thank gawd.

Plus, many of the major electronics distributors were either based here or had presence here (Hamilton/Avnet, Wyle, and Marshall at least were within a couple-mile radius of each other). Fry's also started here, with its first electronics store in a former Fry's Market building on Oakmead in Sunnyvale.

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