Have you done anything big: start a business, climb a mountain, build your own house?

[tcmtech]

The other day the phone rang and all I did was pick it up and before I new it I had updated Android, taken a picture of my foot and bought a Thai wife on ebay for £200. Could I answer the phone call...no.

Yea you gotta watch out for that foreign wife app.

I got a Turkish one. No returns for defective goods and being made in the middle east area she came pre wired with the 'Detonate before Negotiate' function that could not be turned off. It didn't matter what I said or did *click* !BOOM! was the default response.

I'm happily divorced now so I guess that's another plus for my life accomplishments resume!

 

[tcmtech]

Speaking of starting your own business.

A neighboring town has a fair sized John Deere implement dealership that outgrew its old residence and moved so the original place has been up for sale for going on two years that I have been aware of now.

Every time I drive by and see the fair sized main building and good sized older storage building behind it plus large lot space I can't help but think that it would make a super farm/commercial supply and surplus business site!

I have friends who ran a small town business like that for decades that closed shop, a bigger business wanted their building and gave them an offer they couldn't pass up, that have litteral semi truckloads of inventory all boxed up and ready to go just from their store and probably double that inventory that never made it to the store as well.

It's so tempting to give it a go and see where it leads but just can't find the courage to ask a bank for a half million dollar business loan to give it a run. I'm less concerned with being told 'no' as I am with the possibility of them saying yes.

 

[JoeJester]

I'm less concerned with being told 'no' as I am with the possibility of them saying yes.

I can believe that. You'd probably have to get a third job just for the loan payments.

 

[spec]

Yea you gotta watch out for that foreign wife app.

I got a Turkish one. No returns for defective goods and being made in the middle east area she came pre wired with the 'Detonate before Negotiate' function that could not be turned off. It didn't matter what I said or did *click* !BOOM! was the default response.

I'm happily divorced now so I guess that's another plus for my life accomplishments resume!

Oh dear. Cut and run is often the best and only way tcm. It is good to hear that you have the situation sorted out.

spec

 

[spec]

Rich D. and I have been complaining about mobile phones in previous posts. Well, now I have lost mine. Yesterday, went to town shopping with the missus, with the phone in my right trouser pocket as usual, and when we got home the phone was gone.

So, instead of doing electronics, today I will be trying to find the bl**dy phone. It is still ringing if you dial the number and, if I had not turned off 'Google Location' as being too intrusive, Google could have told me exactly where the phone is.

It has been one of those weeks so far. My credit cards have been canceled because Barclaycard said they have been compromised, and now my phone has vanished. That's what you get for moaning about modern technology.

UPDATE: phone located: I had left it on a shop counter.

spec

 

[Ian Rogers]

Cycled from Leeds to London and back when I was a teenager,

We did a stint to Great Yarmouth.... Not my scene, so I took the train back!!

 

[tcmtech]

I can believe that. You'd probably have to get a third job just for the loan payments.

In order to get a 3rd job I would have to get the 1st and 2nd ones. That's what scares me.

The estimated payments would be around $3500 a month on a 20 year loan which is not bad really for a business.

 

[tcmtech]

Oh dear. Cut and run is often the best and only way tcm. It is good to hear that you have the situation sorted out.

Most of it came down to her continually threatening to leave if I didn't do things her way so I called her bluff one day and made her stick to it. She was in her own place for less than 2 days before she called and needed to borrow $300 for food for the month being she had no money and all her credit cards were maxed out because she lived, and still does, paycheck to paycheck all while having a job that paid ~$50K a year on a 40 hour schedule.

We actually get along better now. Reality set in over what all I actually did do and contribute while we were married once she was out and having to take care of it on her own.

The divorce went easy. She wanted out so she paid the paperwork and related court fees and I helped her move.

 

[spec]

Most of it came down to her continually threatening to leave if I didn't do things her way so I called her bluff one day and made her stick to it. She was in her own place for less than 2 days before she called and needed to borrow $300 for food for the month being she had no money and all her credit cards were maxed out because she lived, and still does, paycheck to paycheck all while having a job that paid ~$50K a year on a 40 hour schedule.

We actually get along better now. Reality set in over what all I actually did do and contribute while we were married once she was out and having to take care of it on her own.

The divorce went easy. She wanted out so she paid the paperwork and related court fees and I helped her move.

Hmm, sound like a satisfactory outcome from a difficult situation.

After graduating, a friend was married for about three years when his wife did a runner with a university professor that she was working with. He had a family and looked like he was old enough to be her father. Of course, she took half of the assets but he managed to keep the house which he was rebuilding.

What gets me is that the media is always banging on about women's rights, but what about men's rights?

After that, for 30 years, my friend had a series of girlfriends; all were weird in one way or another, mainly neurotic. But three years ago he met a girl who he married a year ago. They are getting along just fine, and he is a different person now. Touch wood that things turn out in the long run.

So the message seems to be to find the right one: there are millions to choose from.

spec

 

[tech master 117]

Yes I did start my own forum about gaming,Have a SAMP server and complete4d my course in C++.I think this things are big enogh for me.

 

[spec]

Yes I did start my own forum about gaming,Have a SAMP server and complete4d my course in C++. I think this things are big enough for me.

Sounds good to me.

How did you get on with the C++ Object Orientated Design (OOD) stuff: Encapulation, Abstraction, Inheritance, Polymorhism?

Takes a lot of effort to get your head around the C++ syntax and find your way around the libraries and a lot of students find instantiation difficult at first.

spec

 

[throbscottle]

Quite an adventure throbscottle. I bet the traffic was not so bad when you did your megga ride. Did your bike need any maintenance en route?

I take my bike for a spin from time to time. The other day I rode for over two miles, but there were a few stops on the way.

spec

Actually come to think off it, my front brake calliper (side pull) came off, with the brake firmly clamped to the wheel! Threads on the bolt stripped 'cause I'd kept tightening it to stop it squealing. Threw me over the handlebars. That was in stop-start traffic in Northampton. Got hit by a car on my second circuit of a roundabout near Coventry too. No harm done. Not sure traffic was much different to now.

 

[spec]

Actually come to think off it, my front brake calliper (side pull) came off, with the brake firmly clamped to the wheel! Threads on the bolt stripped 'cause I'd kept tightening it to stop it squealing. Threw me over the handlebars. That was in stop-start traffic in Northampton. Got hit by a car on my second circuit of a roundabout near Coventry too. No harm done. Not sure traffic was much different to now.

Ouch

 

[tech master 117]

Sounds good to me.

How did you get on with the C++ Object Orientated Design (OOD) stuff: Encapulation, Abstraction, Inheritance, Polymorhism?

Takes a lot of effort to get your head around the C++ syntax and find your way around the libraries and a lot of students find instantiation difficult at first.

spec

Yes it takes a lot of effort to get around the libraries and learning the function of include files I will just say that I have just started learning and can just make say level 6 programs if you put level 10 to the top.Whatever i will always be available if anyone needs help in that.

 

[spec]

I'm no programmer but I have learned a bit about programming and have worked with many 'softies' as we called them.

When they first started using C++ there was all this talk about OOD and 'instantiation' and I thought that was way beyond a mere hardware engineer. But when I looked into it and realized that a lot of the OOD techniques had been used for years in hardware, and when I found out that instanciation only meant 'an instance of', some of the fog cleared.

Software is a fascinating area and the boundary between software and hardware is dissolving, to an extent, with the availability of low cost single-board computers and free IDEs that run OK on PCs.

spec

 

[spec]

then I ran an electronics club after hours at my office,

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/find-the-bug.149151/

This is from another thread granddad, but care to tell us about the electronics club and how it worked.

spec

 

[granddad]

The 'Electronics Club' . I am afraid it sounds a lot grander than it was. It was at the start of the electronic revolution in business machines. Around 1970's most small companies were run on accounting machines, large mechanical monsters sometimes 20 or more in one office . It seemed to me that most of the engineers ( service, that is , including myself ) did not have any formal electronic training, but plenty of interest . The company's training programs started with the top people, to move them into the new electro , mechanical machines. Accounting machines linked to some form of electronic input,/ storage / output. And then of course onto mainframes. So a few of us met after work, and began to explore the new world of , diodes transistors and silicon magic ! , We had use of the work shop , and the company gave us some “expenses” . Parts were somewhat difficult ,mail order took an age, but there were some electronic component shops locally an OC72= 5 shillings ! Once a week , Magazine's, circuits, ideas and parts were swapped built and sometimes destroyed ! Handily we had tools and test equipment to hand, even a oscilloscope if we promised to look after it. (ever seen a scope switched on in front of 8 engineers , hands everywhere ! ) The club lasted perhaps a couple of years, with several regular members, young and not so young, making amps, train controllers , power supplies and testers .. we even had a couple of talks by clever chaps... transistor theory etc.. it ended when we were all getting trained and involved with electronics in our daily work. One of my projects was a 74 TTL test rig , a wooden bread board , with power and sockets for 9 IC's . only way to learn ….

 

[spec]

Well, thanks for that granddad: very interesting. I think you are understating your achievements.

OC 72= 5 shillings that takes me back. You only had to look at those and they popped.

spec

 

[throbscottle]

I would love to have a yank classic: Lincoln Continental, Thunderbird, Mustang, Camero...

spec

Mines a trans-am please! Any year

 

[spec]

Mines a trans-am please! Any year

Make that 2.