Similar story here. I got RIS 2.0 after it had been out for awhile, but my parents couldn't justify the cost. Finally, Toys R Us had a beat up box sitting on the shelf and marked it down. I wandered over to that aisle every time we went in. Then it showed up one Christmas.
I learned Java because of leJOS too. I wanted to display something on the screen. The rest is my career.
This may be a difference in learning preference, but I've always found the easiest way for me to learn about new topics was to jump into them directly. Supplemental reading could certainly help of course, so I apologize that I have nothing to provide in that area, but if you're interested in it I'd recommend just jumping in with simple projects and learning on your own from there- with assistance from just searching around for fundamentals on google. I hate to be the quote person, but I think this one fits perfectly; "The best time to plant a tree was 100 years ago, but the second best time is now" or "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step". Ignoring the cliche quotes, I'd just say the best thing you can do is dive in without any direct guidance and navigate the unknowns yourself. At the end of the day, starting off in the wrong direction is better than not starting at all. Good luck on your adventure!
Search for & take tours of community maker-spaces in your city. You’ll find people (often SWE) who switched over to 3D printing, metal working, robotics, wood working & more. They have classes, so you can get certified to use the tools - and you’ll just learn by hanging out, meeting fellow makers & checking out their projects. Best of luck on the journey - it’s a ton of fun.
There is such shortage of skilled contractors. It's unreal, so I've considered getting in via being an electrician.
The starting salaries always stop me though. How can I reset the salary clock 10 years?
Maybe if I had started out at 20 on this route I could do what my father did: carpet cleaning and supported two sons and a homemaker on his one truck operation. We were solid middle class. All the needs met.
It's amazing what quality hard work, calling people back, and time can do.
How did you come to have the skills to design and build whatever it is you manufacture? I'm guessing you have a mix of mechanical and electrical background.
I always have ideas for little products (some involve electronics others not) I'd like to build, but how to go from raw idea in my head to working assembly, I'm lost on: choosing motors, control board, mechanical reliability, etc. Maybe I just need to read some ME books, but if they are like math and physics texts, there is gulf between the text how to do build something practical.
I have a background in electrical engineering, but a) it's 20 years out of date (I got the degree and immediately went into software), and b) my training was somewhat niche in that I focused on microprocessor design. So I'd never (for example) learned how to lay out a circuit board, or deal with mixed digital & analog effects (well, at least not at the scale of a PCB).
Recently I had a small project idea that involved a pretty basic PCB. I was surprised at how easy it was to teach myself board layout (using KiCAD) and several related skills. You can get one(ish)-off PCBs manufactured by PCBWay or OSH Park on the cheap. I haven't finished the project yet (supply chain issues), but I'm pretty sure it'll be successful, and fairly cheap, considering.
There are lots of resources online if you need more external help learning. Two I was pointed to (but haven't really dug into too deeply yet) are All About Circuits (https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/) and Ultimate Electronics (https://ultimateelectronicsbook.com/). For the more physical aspects, YouTube has been a great resource -- for example I needed to solder a 5mm x 5mm QFN IC to a breakout board, and didn't want to spend the money on a high-end rework station. A random video on YouTube taught me how to do it with some flux, solder paste, and a cheap hot air gun I bought on Amazon.
Next I'm going to look into getting a 3D printer, and learn how to design stuff for that. I expect the learning curve there will be higher (at least for me), but I don't see it as out of reach.
> Next I'm going to look into getting a 3D printer, and learn how to design stuff for that.
I'm in the high power rocketry hobby and a 3d printer was a game changer for me. I have a prusa i3 mk3s+ and can't recommend it enough. For software i originally started with onshape but then went to Fusion360 because that's what everyone else in the hobby uses. Learning curve is steep but there's tons and tons of good material to help you learn. My workflow is Fusion360 then PrusaSlicer then save to sdcard then print. You can really optimize further but i don't sell 3d printed parts so it's good for me.
On the other hand, i do have a big arse laser and i stood up a little website and sell a simple cutting service to my buddies in the rocketry hobby. I like my website, i have no database! I actually use some metadata features of the stripe api for my order database hah.
A couple years ago I became quite interested in building my own grow lights for starting garden veggie seedlings. The YouTube recommendations surrounding such videos were quite interesting... It turns out another plant needs high power as well.
Parent just missed the new keyword, and generics can work based on return type as well with the above syntax. It has nothing to do with erasure, we are at compile time.
Just out of curiosity, do you like your Kia? I see that cars from Korean manufacturers tend to be very competitive in terms of pricing and/or feature. But I am not sure if they are as reliable compared to, say, Japanese cars.
An anecdote of why I'm asking -- I have Samsung dishwasher, for example, and it broke less than two years for very, very minimal use (I use it like once every two weeks). Based on that experience and having owned a Samsung galaxy phone that slowed down significantly after about 2-3 years (again, I installed almost no apps other than essential ones like Gmail and a couple of bank apps), I am not sure if Korean manufacturing has matured enough for me to consider buying a car made by one of the Korean manufacturers. This is, of course, not to diss on Korean manufacturers. Just wanted to explain why I am asking this question to begin with.
Forgive me for getting up on my soapbox, but ... I strongly recommend avoiding Samsung appliances like the plague. I have had nothing but bad luck with Samsung appliances that were not TVs or computer-related. My washer and dryer both failed the first time after less than a year of use. My fridge lasted about two years before the control panel started losing LEDs, and now I replace that control panel periodically -- the replacements start burning out LEDs again typically within a matter of months. LEDs! Burning out! WTF.
To their credit, the mechanical bits of the fridge have been flawless so far (9 years later) but the control panel issue makes me hot under the collar. It's always a guess now as to whether the dispenser is about to give you cubed ice, crushed ice, or water. And judging by the volume of complaints online, I'm not the only one who has this exact experience with their refrigerators.
I even bought my washer and dryer specifically on the recommendation of Consumer Reports. The first time I can remember where they led me astray.
If it's literally just burning out LEDs, you could probably do some fairly simple modifications to protect those LEDs. It's not exactly ideal, but a simple resistor in line with each LED would almost certainly solve the issue.
I used to own a 2006 Hyundai and it was very reliable. I only sold it because I sustained a foot injury and could no longer operate a manual transmission, even the extremely forgiving one in that car.
I would prefer to never buy another car (and would absolutely not buy a Samsung car) but Hyundai's absolutely on my 'consider again' list.
I am in the same boat. Looking at getting a new vehicle and Kia is near the top of the list because of warranty. I'd love to hear about personal experiences with the brand.
I've owned GM, Honda, Ford, VW, and Chrysler. I've been very disappointed in all of them.
My father has 2012 Sonata with a 2.4 Theta II engine, which has failed at 70k miles. Dealer replaced with no fuss and he had a nice loaner for 2 months. Initially, he had to pay for a loaner before dealer inspected it. Hyundai corporate was a pleasure to work with to get his money back.
I bought a 2019 santa fe with the same engine. As these engines are now covered under lifetime warranty. I had 0 problems with the car in the last 2 years, and honestly I am quite amazed with how much of car I got for 34k with 0% financing. I have the highest trim with AWD, which had original MSRP of $39k, so I did get a decent deal.
IMO, hyundai/kia is a great buy, Toyota/Honda used to be a good deal some years ago but right now their cars are overpriced, toyota especially.
Toyota does still retain value quite well. However, carmax offered me $32k for my car, so almost what I paid. This most likely due to the chip shortage so that value would probably be lower normally.
Thank you for sharing your experience with Hyundai/Kia. I'll definitely keep that in mind when I decide to buy a car in the future (I unfortunately would have to buy one if I were to move to suburb some day...)
You have to check the model and engine specifics. Kia had a bad run of V4 turbos due to metal shavings in the manufacturing process. I think the electric Hyundai is on recall in South Korea because it overcharges and catches on fire. That is sort of a national scandal over there as far as I can tell which will probably lead to positive changes in their manufacturing processes. It also took a lot of hassle of those V4 Kia owners to get warranty coverage.
That being said the V6 lambda engines are very nice and considered reliable. They started with the Genesis which was an important flagship vehicle. I have a V6 and have had no issues approaching 100k. But I am the type of person that wants to get 200k out of my vehicles, I have no idea if that will happen. I'd be upset if the car failed before 10 years as well.
There are forums where you can get an idea, especially if you look at previous model years.
I have a 2 year old Niro EV with 20K miles. It is a fantastic little car, no issues or defects with it all so far. The dealership experience sucked, but that’s not the car’s fault.
This is off-topic, but your comment on your user base caught my attention.
Do you think Android app development can be monetarily worth the time investment for individual developers who would be just starting out?
I made two apps years ago and greatly enjoyed it, much more than any development I've done since. At that time, the markets were dominated by the big players. Only the big apps made any $$. Is that still the case making individual development a hobby with the occasional bit of $$?
Absolutely, yes, but if you are writing your own apps rather than being paid to write apps for other people, there's a strong luck element as with any entrepreneurial activity. I have six apps out right now, of which just one accounts for 90% of my revenue. Rather than setting out to write apps, I think it's better to think about an app as merely a vehicle to deliver a service, a product, some unit of customer value, from you to your customers. If you have something to offer that is of high value, you can definitely make a lot of money from an app. If you don't, no matter how well designed and built the app is, it is likely to fail.
I learned Java because of leJOS too. I wanted to display something on the screen. The rest is my career.