𝒇(𝓧) = The Generation of Functions

On By JohnIn electrics/electronics, radioLeave a comment

I honestly don’t really have a need for a function generator. This was inexpensive and small enough to fill an hour’s time.

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The most time-consuming part was understanding what orientation the electrolytic capacitors were to be installed. While the silkscreen on the PCB did have an indication that the capacitors had to go one way, there wasn’t a positive/negative marking. So I guessed that the white on one half of the circle must equal white on the capacitor.

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Oh, and peeling off the protective coating from the acrylic parts. There are a few bits still inside of some of the letters.

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There’s probably a slightly more elegant function generator — actually, there are several and more expensive — but this will do for now.

Before I build too many more things, I should see about building a power supply. Maybe the ubiquitous LM317 would be a reasonably inexpensive and capable project.

Also, it seems to me that I’m continuing to do things backward.

How so?

Because one would think that learning tasks would start with simplistic concepts and work toward more complex. I started with the complex (the QCX project) and moved over/back/into this, the simple.

End of the Smartphone?

On By JohnIn psychology, techLeave a comment

Samsung hasn’t had the best of luck with certain tech. Not long ago, its top-load washing-machines turned into guillotines with regular usage — glass lids parting company with the slightest vibration.

And there was the Note 7 smartphone, which had a tendency to spontaneously and spectacularly burst into flame.

And now, with the release — and retraction within a few short days — of Samsung’s latest folding phone, I feel that it doesn’t bode well for Samsung, but it also indicates the looming end of an era: smartphones have Jumped the Shark.

But it folds!

And it fails.

Quickly.

Go ahead. Go Google samsung fold fail. I’ll wait. Here, I’ll do it for you:

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It’s also amazingly expensive. If you think a top of the line smartphone is pricey at US$1,100, that folding Samsung monstrosity is twice the cost.

Oh, and it flounders — it’s not waterproof.

I’m starting to suspect that Samsung’s business model — once thought to be a cost-savings process not expending resources on engineering, QA, or Product-testing teams — instead relies on consumers to buy their quickly-conceived products so they can try them out and find faults and failures.

That means that you’re not only going to buy a shoddy product, but you’re also going to do the testingΒ and provide marketing feedback for them!

It’s a win/win from Samsung’s perspective. But a fail/fail for the longer-term. That feedback part that will be detrimental to them in the long-term.

Preaching to Myself?

On By JohnIn finance, lifeLeave a comment

A few days ago, my wife and I had a discussion about our wishes for our children, when we eventually die.

Essentially, it was: inheritance must be invested and never used to pay off debt.

Or, put another way, any debt that you incur is yours alone. Never, ever, expect that an inheritance will pay off your incurred debt.

It sounds simple enough.

It comes down to making meaningful, long-term financial decisions and is dependent upon having a basis for financial frugality.

Perspective 1

You’ve accrued $53,000 in debt and regularly make minimum payments. You quickly buy the new Th’need the moment it’s available. Quite suddenly, your mother passes and leaves you a home in good repair with a market value of $250K. Having a new money mentality and not wanting to have another house to care for, you promptly sell it for the first offer then pay off your $53K in debt, buy a top of the line new car, and take a trip to Tahiti, because it’s found money and you’ve earned it.

Perspective 2

Having a different view of money-matters, you regularly restrain the urge to make frivolous purchases and instead make meaningful purchases that have longer-term reliability and value. You still have debt, student loans, of $53,000. Your mother passes, etc, etc. You continue with your own commitment to repay your own financial debts. And restrain the urge to make additional purchases. Instead of quickly selling the property, you evaluate it and assume complete financial responsibility for it, ensuring it has regular maintenance and repairs and that its taxes are paid. You also carefully consider renting it at a reasonable market rate. You continue to address your own financial debts and sit back happily and comfortably whilst the value of investments grows.

In each case, what’s the enduring value — the worth — of what’s left of your mother’s life?

Now, I have a bit of a dilemma. I’ve reached the point, after *mumble-mumble-mumble*-years, where I’m comfortable putting my money where my mouth is so to speak. Shall I apply the same sort of logic to bonuses and treat them in terms of inheritance?

Floored… literally

On By JohnIn home improvement, projectsLeave a comment

I’m a strong believer in leaving something in a better state than when you started. Sometimes, that’s just vacuum and mop. Sometimes, it’s to pull a few extra weeds.

Occasionally, it’s a bit more of an undertaking: getting floored.

This room was purple and gray (door). My daughter liked it, but I’d prefer, for now, to unify the color across the rooms. Also, the paint work was very much substandard. Wall color was on the window casing, cieling, door knob, outlet covers.

Do it better.

Also, the previous tenants had pets. Not that pets are a problem, but if they pee on the carpet, it’s going to seep into the pad… then onto the subfloor.

Everything had to go.

And, no, it’s not a solid wood floor. The amount of work, additional tools, and material cost, would be insanely high. So, we’ll use a reasonably-good quality laminate solution.

It took a few hours to address that transition between the closet and the door getting everything just so

Let’s see, what else will I need to address?

  • Baseboard: none of the woodwork in the house was stained. This is actually a good thing. It means we don’t need to match a color and hope for the best. Just the specices. Wood will darken naturally over time. It will still need to be sealed and lacquered, of course.
  • Door casing: The aforementioned pets were, presumably, not fans of wood casing. Or they were fans and thought it tasted good. Same prep as the baseboard. The door jambs are misalighned in a few rooms and also had some really minor animal damage. I’ll need to see about reinstalling them properly.
  • Doors: This is interesting — there’s bare wood throughout, but the doors are the hollow-core, six-panel, primed variety. I think what they did was obtain the door jambs and doors separately then combined them on site. Oh, and the doors weren’t painted. They were hung in the primed state and had wall-color slapped on the doors in the two front rooms. I’d very much prefer solid wood doors, but I don’t intend making this a Forever-House (never mind, of course, that it nearly was) so the hollow-core variety will do… but I will paint them.
  • Touch-up: An often-overlooked concept. The walls are going to get bumped and dinged while putting in floors and woodwork. A small, but significant thing is to put the final touch on the paint and make the walls as perfect as you can.
  • Window dressing: we live here, so we’ll install suitable window dressings — that don’t have paint on them.

Oh, and repeat the process on three more rooms.

Then I’ll also see about refining that shelving/nook area by the door. I’m thinking about doing some simple wood shelves to protect them.

But those are all future projects.