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http://www.elektor.com/products/kits-modules/modules/070039-91-software-defined-radio.91475.lynkx

http://sdr-radio.com/

Elektor

http://www.elektor.com/magazines/2009/september/obd-analyser-ng.1041201.lynkx

Or ....

Get yourself a best-of-class kit radio from Elecraft - K3 or K2 or one of their other kits. Or a cutting edge Open source High Performance Software Defined Radio from HPSDR and TAPR.

Get yourself a radio kit from Ten-Tec, or MFJ.

Or from Oak Hill Research, or Hendrick's QRP Kits, module kits from W8DIZ who also sells parts, or from various non-profit QRP groups selling kits from time to time, like NorCal QRP Club.

Get yourself a copy of Circuit Cellar or Nuts and Volts from the US, or Everyday Practical Electronics (EPE) and Elektor from Europe or Silicon Chip from Australia.

Heck, you can even get vacuum tube based kits still.

Forget it, just go buy a new chinese made mp3 player!

Wow, +4 Insightful for a parent Troll..

Hmm, I should have Googled a bit before posting. Elektor is alive and well, I'm happy to report:

http://www.elektor.com/elektor-uk.35.lynkx

And others:

Everyday Practical Electronics Magazine
Practical Wireless
Electronics World

I realise there are UK mags, but it's what I grew up with and having read a large number of US and Australian publications over the years as well, I believe the UK publications are actually better than the world average. I may be biased however ;-)

I would recommend The Art of Electronics. Then for the Practical aspect visit: 1. http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/ 2. http://www.elektor.com/ Here you will find magazines for everything you need in hobby electronics.

For those that find this idea interesting, can program a bit & understand electronics, you might want to check out the following:

E-blocks : http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/abouteblocks-X.php?

mikroElektonika : http://www.mikroe.com/

Elektor Electronics [a Brit electronics mag] : http://www.elektor.com/ : They had a prebuilt FPGA module not so long ago, with a supporting course.

Not affilaited in any way with any of the above.

You don't see it happening, because there is no need. If, as you claim, the need will arise due to TPM or Tivoization or whatever else, need arises.

Again, in the radio world this happens all the time. For example, a simple kit that you can put together in a weekend is the SoftRock SDR a radio that does most of the work in software. I built one recently, it is pretty amazing. Tony put together 1000 kits and sold them out in a few months. People build much more complex stuff reguarly, there are Yahoo groups like "Homebrew transistor radios", "ham radio homebrew", "homebrewqrp", and entire magazines and magazine articles dedicated to fabrication. Like Elektor (not ham specific) and QST, etc.

And the same thing is happening in the aerospace world. Familiar with XCOR, Armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space, etc? All these little companies that are trying to hit LEO, eventually, and open up commercial access to space? A lot of them participate in online forums and share a wealth of information. In the mix are hobbyists with budgets I can only dream of that play with big rockets, motor casting, etc. It isn't electronics but it is the same fundamentals, starting with square 1 and re-constructing what has already been built (we had Saturn, the shuttle, Soyuz, etc) but to the specifications desired.

There are plenty of homebrewers out there. There just needs to be a 'need' for computer homebrewing.