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Comment #1 posted on 2018-01-01 08:23:26 by Mike Ray

Work load

I sort of drifted off a bit during the talk about how to embed show notes and other stuff in video, so I may be a bit off track here.

But I caught sentences that included talk of oscilloscope traces of the frequency distribution of the host and other stuff, like the HPR logo etc.

This made me think of a mantra I have always used in my professional life, and that is, don't promise to, or start to, provide something periodically on a regular basis that you are likely to regret.

I don't know about how other people consume HPR, but I typically do it in bed with my iPhone. Typically, if the show contains stuff I need to look at, like Dave's shows about bash, I will go to the site the next day and copy and paste stuff from Dave's notes into a markdown file which I then file away on my RAID system.

Some shows I delete just given the subject without even listening, typically anything which looks like a 'how I make coffee' or 'how I make a glass of water'. Other shows I listen to right through without any hesitation because of the reputation, in my own mind, of the quality of the hosts past shows.

But, on to my point...I would not recommend you make a rod for your own back by promising stuff like video embedded show notes, oscilloscope traces or any other stuff that is incresing your work load further than before.

Maybe I'm biased here by the fact that video is pointless for me because I can't see. And I have to admit to being scared that the next step will be to ONLY have the show notes embedded in a video, and then I'm sorry but I will have to shoot you.

Comment #2 posted on 2018-01-01 08:29:50 by Mike Ray

Soldering Iron

My ears pricked up when Ken was extolling the virtues of a 25 dollar temperature controlled soldering iron. Somehow I have missed that recommendation, if it was ever aired.

What is the make and model of the iron?

I hear a loud cry of 'why does a blind man want a soldering iron?' from the land of clogs and windmills...

I do solder occasionally, especially things like PL259 coax plugs, and even components into vero board. But more recently I have decided my fingertips are too valuable to me for me to risk them, and anyway the plastic surgery bills were eroding my beer fund.

But, I regularly take stuff to the local Linux User Group, where my good friend Tony Wood, AKA 'soldering slave' solders stuff for me under my guidance.

Unfortunately Tony's soldering iron is only one step short of being a big lump of copper on the end of a steel rod which he plunges into hot coals before bringing it to bear on the legs of a surface mount AVR micro-controller.

I have been thinking of getting a temp controlled iron I can stuff in my rucksack and lug to the LUG (see what I did there?)

Comment #3 posted on 2018-01-01 11:38:15 by Dave Morriss

Soldering Iron

Hi Mike,

I bought myself the solder station Ken was mentioning having seen it on Big Clive's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtM5z2gkrGRuWd0JQMx76qA). I recommended it to Ken and he also bought one.

The link I sent him was: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Electronic-Soldering-Station-Temperature/dp/B00KBPN1ZU

I also bought a few extra handles and a load of spare tips, which I found on eBay. I can send you eBay links by email if you want, but they may not be current any more.

Thinking of the big lump of copper on the end of a rod, that's what I learnt to solder with at school. We used a gas heating unit, so we'd advanced a bit from the hot coals :-)

Comment #4 posted on 2018-01-01 12:48:06 by Mike Ray

Soldering

I also learned to solder at school with the thing we're talking about thrust into the heap of clinkers heated with a gas torch.

The first thing the metal work teacher got us to make was a tin-plate tray. This involved cutting a V out of each corner of a square of tin-plate, folding it up slightly and running solder into the mating of the edges to make the tray.

Unfortunately, I never managed to cut the Vs accurately, and ended up trying to solder across a gap after bemnding the cut outs back and forth to break them.

After about six months the other kids were making hasps and staples, or paint scrapers, milling stuff on the milling machine, and I was still trying to get solder to bridge a one millimetre gap :-)

Comment #5 posted on 2018-01-01 18:08:55 by Frank

U. S. College Course Numbering

Regarding "101," 102," etc.

It is common, but by no means universal that U. S. colleges use this means of numbering courses. Generally, 100 refers to Freshman (first year) courses; 200 to Sophomore (second-year) level courses, up to 400 and above for advanced or graduate-level courses. Generally, the more advanced the course, the more narrow and in-depth its focus.

"101" is usually a basic intro course, "102" the next intro course, and so on. A first semester U. S. History course would be History 101 (say, colonization to Civil War); the following second semester course would be History 102 (say, Civil War to Present). (As an aside, judging by what's happening domestically in my country, I have concluded that those courses are no longer taught, but that's another matter). History 412, just to pick a random topic, might be an exhaustive dive into the Early Federal period (roughly 1790-1832).

Again, this is not a universal system, jut a very common, perhaps the most common system.

I do not know the origins of this system.

Here's a more detailed article from Cal State--Northridge: https://catalog.csun.edu/policies/course-numbering-system/

Comment #6 posted on 2018-01-03 22:07:42 by Dave Morriss

Learning to solder at school

I just realised I still have a little metal scoop I made at school. It was made from what I think is tin plated sheet steel bent in a box bender with tabs that had to be soldered. Getting those tabs properly aligned and soldered was a challenge and there are some *wide* gaps where the solder just didn't bridge them.

It wasn't a show-stopper, because I remember learning to braze some tools for the fireplace later and making tyre levers at the forge. Fun times :-)

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