In some sense, Bug Labs seems like one of those companies that attend DEMO or the Microprocessor Forum: interesting in the abstract, but never quite clear on how they're going to set the market afire. Perhaps the company's latest initiative, to seed educators with the company's kits, is a realization of this.
A quick refresher: think of Bug Labs as a cross between PC Magazine and ExtremeTech. Customers can buy a series of interlocking hardware modules, which are avalable at varying prices. The hardware is accompanied by a set of APIs, through which customers can write their own control code.
Recognizing that the way to build interest in the product is to lure the young, Bug Labs is offering educators and students between 10 percent to 25 percent discounts.
(Why? The Zilog Z80 lesson. For years, computer science classes taught students how to program the Z80 microcontroller. And, when those students graduated, they took their knowledge to their respective engineering departments. The Z80 flourished -- helped, to be sure, by Zilog's decision to license the design to other companies and not charge royalties.)
So here's how it works:
Students: Send an email to students@buglabs.net, with your full name, school name, and scanned school ID.
K-12 Teachers: Send an email to k12discount@buglabs.net with your full name, your school/institution name and mailing address, and your role. Discounts are open twice a year. The company is also sponsoring an essay contest for three free BUGbundles; details are available on the Bug Labs Web site.
Secondary educators: The company is offering a 25 percent discount to educators, contingent on teachers emailing Bug Labs at collegediscount@buglabs.net. Bug team members will also volunteer their time at schools who work Bug Labs into their coursework, the company said.
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