I am quite surprised with how quiet the California Air Tools compressor is.
How quiet?
The construction-grade Porter Cable compressor is 95dB at 1m above it. Loud. You’d actually require hearing protection if subjected to that for more than a few minutes. You’ll practically need to yell to be heard.
The California Air Tools compressor rates a staggering 62dB when measured at the same position.
You can easily have a casual conversation over it…or even a freaking whisper.
I honestly don’t really have a need for a function generator. This was inexpensive and small enough to fill an hour’s time.
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.
Oh, and peeling off the protective coating from the acrylic parts. There are a few bits still inside of some of the letters.
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.
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:
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 testing 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.
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?
Because it’s in the rotation for the First of May.
the rest of me 