Electronics - how to ruin a good hobby. A story with no morals...

So now you're out to get all of us?

Do you got payback coming from me? Have you used some cheap excuse to defraud me?

Scott

--
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DIY Piezo-Gyro, PCB Drill Bot & More Soon!
http://home.comcast.net/~scottxs/

POLITICS, n.
A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. - Ambrose Bierce

Don\'t ever give up what you want in life. The struggle is worth it - Ayn 
Rand

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A hobby is a rest, an escape. A profession is the means for living.

Those unworthy of the task do not bear the armor of lesser men, as long as they are free. And if they are free, they fight.

Scott

--
**********************************

DIY Piezo-Gyro, PCB Drill Bot & More Soon!
http://home.comcast.net/~scottxs/

POLITICS, n.
A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. - Ambrose Bierce

Don\'t ever give up what you want in life. The struggle is worth it - Ayn 
Rand

**********************************

Yes, you say one thing about your employer, and I make a metaphor with Hitler & Stalin! Did I provoke you to clarify?

When does code ever *want* to run? My code seems to have a malevolent will to frustrate me, as if *Murphy* was inside it. I think that is common. Christians attribute it to *Original Sin*, God cursing us. No, its our finite minds. Our consciousness manages finite amounts of high-level abstraction. Our subconscious levels un-lossless encode the lower abstractions. When we replay our cartoon-like dreams on the reality of our real computers, we are introduced to the cruel reality of reality.

But we get smarter, faster and stronger. Just as muscles are exercised by weights, so are minds exercised by conceptual integrations, regurgitations and reiterations.

Do you hear information crunching into an organized conceptual framework?

I'm sorry if you feel I insulted you, I don't know your plight. I have nothing more valuable to lose than my freedom. Perhaps you have family and other values. Unlike most people that figure "we're all dead in the long run", I figure if I'm dead after some odd years, I ought to die servicing what values I am proud of, because that is better servicing what dishonors me for a longer span of years.

Its only good if you can kick-ass effectively. Lobbing grenades and pissing people off unreasonably serves no good. Which is why I still respect the motives behind, if not the reasoning of religion. People mean well and are compassionate. And that counts. A kind, silly word helps more than a mean, wise one to many.

That's sad, because I'm convinced life's meaning is what the living chose to find meaningful. Yes, its a tautology, but as you know from 2nd order differential systems, its the nature of reality.

That is a philosophical issue I'm crunching. We start out as brutal savages, as in "Lord of the Flies". Nature teaches us wisdom, by painful object lesson. In grade school corruption is expressed at brute-force level, and as we progress, through lies, deceit, ridicule and delusion.

In adult-hood, we are playing political "games", corrupt schemes one gang uses to vote themselves the work of another gang.

I have an optimistic outlook, long-term. If the world wasn't evolving, we wouldn't have a democracy but dictatorship, we wouldn't organize past the level of savage tribes, we wouldn't stop roaming to hunt to create farms and track produce with money, we wouldn't have evolved from stupid animals or, at the end, atoms wouldn't have formed self-replicating systems.

Nature demands we behave on principle, not self-deceiving predators or prey.

Wealth for what reason? Power for what cause? Go a level of abstraction, an integration of subsumed concepts deeper. Search out what wealth and power mean for those that seek them. Wealth and power are means to an end. Evil seeks them as values greater than the life which gives them meaning. The wise seek them as means to the living, which give them meaning.

The evil desire envy of others. The wise desire the love of the wise, and the fear of the wicked. Evil desires domination of others. Love desires others being the best they can be, the world being the best it can be, so the best values can be created and traded. The same in Objectivist or Christian morality (they diverge from this common ground). Other moral codes optimize other 'values'.

If you want an interesting opinion:

I screwed that up! I meant but didn't type: Geek: A person that thinks *technical* competency will be rewarded in an honest culture. But corrupt cultures reward brutality, deceit and popularity.

I exaggerated in my despair. I often get useful technical information here. But the moral climate is dreadfully depraved. And creating better technology for evil people is evil.

No, I have concluded that the world, as I, am mixed. Sometimes evil, sometimes good, and incapable of acting on perfect principle. And even if I could, the imperfect corrupt culture I live in would turn my virtue against me into my destruction, as it has.

Neither Solomon, Buddha or Rand advocate self immolation in the name of perfection.

This is my wisdom: Deal with evil on your terms, not its terms. Deal with evil if you must, in spite of itself, not because you are buying its cheap, degrading excuses and lies it gives you to enslave you. Hate it and use it, as it hates you and uses you. Know A is A, know the truth and be free.

I might have said, as I often have, my employers and coworkers never desired my technical productivity, but rather desired social dominance at the cost of profits.

This happens on the schoolyard playground, children calling each other false names, then denying the shame, pain and injustice.

At least you have the gift of seeing what many will never know.

"Gift"? Sometimes I wonder if the pathetic stupid sycophants, that the bullies pity, are not really happier in stupidity. But that can't be my path. What an honor it is, for God/Nature/Fate to have chosen me to fight a solitary battle against the world!

Reminds me of a favorite Rush song; "If their lives had been exotic and strange, they would gladly exchange them for something a little more plain, maybe something a little more sane".

I'm smiling now, anyways. That's all some of us have, or need.

Scott

--
**********************************

DIY Piezo-Gyro, PCB Drill Bot & More Soon!
http://home.comcast.net/~scottxs/

POLITICS, n.
A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. - Ambrose Bierce

Don\'t ever give up what you want in life. The struggle is worth it - Ayn 
Rand

**********************************

[snip]

Tell me about it ;-)

Try two girls in college at the same time.

Then two marriages.

Fortunately they're now 40 & 43... no wonder I seem to have so much discretionary income now ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

I read in sci.electronics.design that Roger Lascelles wrote (in ) about 'Electronics - how to ruin a good hobby. A story with no morals...', on Fri, 26 Aug 2005:

It might well be in your employer's interest, as well as that of you and your family, to re-negotiate your payments for this reason. Say you need to earn AU$500/week (numbers just for illustration):

20 hours/week at AU$25/hour - not tired, good code after 20 hours (or less) - = AU$500 40 hours/week at AU$12.5/hour - tired, not so good code after all of 40 hours (or even more) - = AU$500.

If I were your employer, I'd much rather have scenario 1.

--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only.
If everything has been designed, a god designed evolution by natural selection.
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk

I read in sci.electronics.design that Scott Stephens wrote (in ) about 'Electronics - how to ruin a good hobby. A story with no morals...', on Fri, 26 Aug 2005:

This is a really long article, so I'm going to snip bits that I won't comment on. No disrespect.

I think a tautology is nevertheless preferable to a slackology. We have far to much of that these days.

[snip]

Who was it said, 'I've been poor and I've been rich. Rich is better.'?

Wealth is good if you use it to do more good. I do a lot of voluntary stuff that I couldn't do if I had no money, but I'm not rich by Western European standards.

Power is good if you use it to do more good. I can use the little power I have to get good things done that otherwise wouldn't be done.

Exactly. Or they SHOULD be, not just desired for their own sake.

[snip]

You must have had unusually bad experiences.

>

--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only.
If everything has been designed, a god designed evolution by natural selection.
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk

No. Until this conversation, I had never even heard of you, as far as I can recall.

I read in sci.electronics.design that Roger Lascelles wrote (in ) about 'Electronics - how to ruin a good hobby. A story with no morals...', on Fri, 26 Aug 2005:

Thanks.

OK, any time.

The crunch point is that it would **help your employer as well**, to pay you a bit more so you could be less tired.

You are lucky they are not girls of those ages! For them, you need an oil well or a gold mine!

--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only.
If everything has been designed, a god designed evolution by natural selection.
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk

I read in sci.electronics.design that Roger Lascelles wrote (in ) about 'Electronics - how to ruin a good hobby. A story with no morals...', on Fri, 26 Aug 2005:

Don't you believe it! IQ isn't a single number, not even a vector and probably not even a quaternion. As you get older, the additional dimensions open up.

--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only.
If everything has been designed, a god designed evolution by natural selection.
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk

You sound like an interesting person Scott. I think it is very hard to have a good discusson on a newsgroup, without misunderstandings, because it takes a lot of time to craft a thoughtful, accurate reply. I would have to tell you about my life, so you know why I speak as I do.

Right now I have a bad headache from working very hard for my boss. My code just doesn't want to run today ! I hear anger, experience, wisdom in what you say.

My situation is this : my health is poor, so I only work a part week. To pay the rent on the house, I have increased my work hours to more than I can handle, so I am fatigued and my brain doesn't work properly. I can't stop work, because the government will not class me as sick enough. I have a wife and two children dependant on me.

I try to avoid anger and bitterness. I haven't worked out the meaning of life or anything. I have stood up to bosses on behalf of fellow workers - and paid the price. The fellow workers didn't thank me either !

I think we are part of society - for good and bad. The culture here in Australia, like every culture, has some ugly aspects. I have some too. For better or worse, the human race is my people - and your people. Before we can be heard by people we have to love them.

Many business people have a drive for wealth and power - naturally, or they would do something else. I appreciate my boss looking after the hassles of finance, customer relations, while I get to do interesting stuff. Maybe I will make him rich. I admit there is ambiguity in my attitude towards my employers - yes, I get used, yes the world is not fair - but then I can walk away if the business folds, while the owners take the loss.

I can hear that religious background coming through, Scott. "Prophet", totally bad vs good. They are such a confusing lot, those christians. Wonderful, too.

That would be really bad.

For me, the Geek lacks social competency. That is why he can't read "shark" when he sees the predator. I think that a balanced adult has a working knowledge of people and can avoid the big cons and flare-ups.

I enjoy the contact with people on this forum.

Good point.

I have never worked for a totally good person. Must I starve, therefore ?

Yes. Crap, manipulated culture. It has always been thus. Macaulay's essays

150 years ago showed the shabbiness of wealth and power. Tribal chiefs ran a similar racket for thousands of years. Ancient Greek and Roman culture, too. We seem to be able to adjust our point of view to favour our own advantage. At least you have the gift of seeing what many will never know.

Roger Lascelles

Specifically what thoughts? I want to add some more of my amature-science fooling around with lasers & microwaves. I have a lot going on, hopefully soon.

40

That's why I believe engineering is a kind of artistic expression.

Younger people are faster and sharper, but us old folks have the advantage of having (hopefully) polished and refined our concepts, practiced and hammered down true concepts and methods of reasoning. Along with acquiring much more information (hopefully of high-quality) to work with.

That is why good art, literature and technical information is so important. Garbage in, garbage out.

What is the nature of living? What do living things do? Sense, identify, decide, and act, according to primal drives, values and beliefs. Life is a "problem" requiring information, consideration and action.

And what is it that forces the poor man to choose between dignity and money? "The Great Gatsby" is the closest literature I can think of now that identifies the evil of degrading dilemmas forced on people that just want to get by.

If I could write novels, I would blend Gatsby with Rand's account of the communist culture of "We the Living" or, at the 20th Century Motor Company in "Atlas Shrugged", to illustrate how the culture and characters of medieval serfdom is alive and well.

Sadness is appropriate. Most people, aside from fundamentalists, don't blame themselves when a hurricane, earthquake or other natural disaster ruins them. But when people choose to ruin things in stupidity, envy and spite it is indeed tragic.

I understand the human condition. I don't know why the universe has its physical constants. At the bottom level, physics is a mystery. But I generally understand the organizing principles of the human condition.

If I could get a grant, I would write a cellular automata computer simulation that would model individual, group, national and world behavior. Things happen for reasons at every level of scale. Organizing principles can be derived from them.

Many people don't want to understand because on various levels they are dishonest, and subconsciously have come to believe that they can attain values by cheating, yet still be moral by refusing to recognize they're cheating.

Starts on the schoolyard; bully calls you a pig, you're obviously not a pig, you call him a rat. You know he's not a rat, but you choose to believe it so you can be sincere. Pretend the insults didn't hurt. Then comes the practice of lying. People find its effective, and sooner or later begin lying to themselves.

Its only lately I've really come to see the power of double-speak, redefining language for ulterior motives. While I still don't believe that words *are* concepts, words certainly have the power to prevent people from making beneficial value judgments when the concepts behind them are obscured or emotionally loaded. But I'm rambling.

Writing requires focus and demands concepts be distinctly states, rather than vaguely considered. What kind of thoughts? What links?

Thanks, and to you to

Scott

--
**********************************

DIY Piezo-Gyro, PCB Drill Bot & More Soon!
http://home.comcast.net/~scottxs/

POLITICS, n.
A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. - Ambrose Bierce

Don\'t ever give up what you want in life. The struggle is worth it - Ayn 
Rand

**********************************

I like, "the best thing you can do for the poor is not be one of them".

I doubt it. Unrealistic expectations and altruism magnify disappointment with whatever degree of pervasive corruption.

Scott

--
**********************************

DIY Piezo-Gyro, PCB Drill Bot & More Soon!
http://home.comcast.net/~scottxs/

POLITICS, n.
A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. - Ambrose Bierce

Don\'t ever give up what you want in life. The struggle is worth it - Ayn 
Rand

**********************************

Hello John. Welcome back to the group. I was going to talk to you about tansformer leakage inductance and peak current, but since moving house everything is in a whirl. Spring is coming soon - maybe then.

I think you are right about more productivity for fewer hours. I am doing 4 days now. If I drop back to 3.5 days, we are slightly in deficit. Sounds like a better hourly rate would help ! My boys are 12 and 14 years old and seem to cost more.

best regards Roger Lascelles

Just had a look at your website, Scott. I would enjoy it if you could put down some of your thoughts on a webpage. Sometimes, when I have a flash of intuition, I think of writing it up for my little website, but it hasn't happened yet. Some paragraphs putting forth the issues which interest you. At least you have a photo, though I can't work out exactly how old you are.

My best web page is

while the rest is scrappy junk.

When I am in the flow, uninterrupted, not tired and I have designed the project properly, coding is exhilarating. Today I was rewarming some substandard low level stuff - small, lean, detailed junk and I followed the debugger's lead from one mess to the next. I came back after tea and it sprang to life !

My hope is to get more cunning - because the IQ goes down, not up, so I can't use that raw mental grunt I had in my twenties !

From your words, I don't think you have a highly organised conceptual framework. I don't. I don't believe life is a solvable problem. It may not be a problem at all. I think the best to hope for is a peasant cunning about life - self preservation plus some empathy for others plus some humility plus some discernment plus some satisfaction in achievement and the joy of sunshine and the natural world.

Dignity. Thats all the poor man has. (Bad Joke). Yes, do the best you can with what you have. Keep learning. Don't give up on others - they need our support.

Yes. I have tried the anger thing - everyone makes eye contact behind your back - and you don't feel any better ! So true: get rich and you can afford to employ people then be grumpy to them!

I was admitting to not having a rigid "conceptual framework" as mentioned above. Anyway, the meaning of life is 27 or something.

For

we

You sound sad. I suppose it is sad. Beautiful also. They call it the "human condition". I am 51 years old. I have been "crunching" since childhood. I haven't even begun to figure it out. My kids and wife have taught me a lot. Also work. I expect to die slightly bewildered.

Good.

well Scott, this thread is very long, but it can stretch further. Or put up some of your thoughts, or some links on your site and send me an email.

best wishes Roger Lascelles

Well said. Poverty is not like skin color. It is something people can easily move out of. So whenever I see a plan for helping "the poor" I ask if it will in fact move people out of poverty, or just institutionalize poverty. We've had far too much of the latter.

"It is the LACK of money which is the root of all evil."

- George Bernard Shaw.

The problem is that nobody these days has a pornograph to play it on.

Jim

Certainly, but the libs are insane. They continue to try programs that don't work, yet expect different outcomes. The "Great Society" should have put an end to liberalism forever.

--
  Keith