Man, my trainer — that guy is seriously a demanding arsehole.
He tells me that next week, I’ll need to run further.
That is all.
Well, That’s Annoying…
Well, that’s a bit annoying… I was many hours into the build and noticed that the instructions were calling out a couple of electrolytic capacitors…
Okay, but in reality, the silkscreen on the PCB differed…
Not quite sure what the markings are for C21, C22, and C54. The silkscreen indicates a ceramic capacitor, but the instructions call for electrolytic.
Time to do some research as time permits…
Work + Reality = Entertainment
So, we’re approaching tax season here in the USA. The company’s HR team sends out an update to the company via email.
Somebody replies to the sender with an innocent-enough request of, “Hey, my form is incorrect. How can I get it changed?”
The originator replied… and… I readied some popcorn to enjoy the show.
Then all hell broke loose.
People hit Reply-All — hundreds of them — and insisted on being removed from the distro, making snarky remarks and comments about the originator, or about the entirely mundane tax issue. Still more people even hit Reply All and warned everyone to not hit Reply All.
How could it be prevented?
It can’t.
Well, not unless you were to ensure that people sending out company-wide emails obscured all recipient names from each other[1] or we eliminated email[2] or learned how to not fan the flames[3] that would feed trolls[4], or…
Obviously, somebody made a harmless mistake. No blood. No foul. It’s a good lesson, I think: “Ah, right. As we learned 40-ish years ago about email, be careful not to do that.” But for an education company, there are a surprising number of employees who seem rather intent on ignoring the educational opportunity that this has presented.
…like not hitting Reply All then demonstrating to the entire company what an inconsiderate asshole you’ve turned in to.
—
[1] – We work together. We already know your email address.
[2] – and email isn’t going to “go away”.
[3] – there was that one time that a parent yelled at her kids to tell them to stop yelling.
[4] – because the trolls were going to eat their free cookies.
QCX Started
A slightly more subtantial, and tunable QRP transciever, the QRP Lab QCX kit, is rather well-underway:
And I’ve come to the conclusion that I should really improve my interior project bench.
All in due time, of course.
Safety Third…
Ideas first
Tools second
Safety third
“But John,” you’ll exclaim, “safety always comes first!”
No, it doesn’t.
You would not have even considered safety at all if you didn’t have the idea to begin with.
Ideas come first — they’ll guide you to attempting and completing them. They give you direction. Purpose.
“Well, surely safety comes next!”
Nope.
Next, come tools. It would be folly to prioritize acquiring the “best of” every conceivable tool for every issue. Ideas will determine which tools you’ll need to make achieving that idea more efficient.
Safety? Once you have ideas of what you want to do, and once you have tools [to help get started, not “perfect tools”], then you’ll have to be aware of the risks.
I think I’ll have a meaningful sign made up to call those out. It’ll serve as a realistic reminder to help maintain focus.
the rest of me 