标签: hobby

I just got a jolly interesting email from a reader called Mark, who wrote as follows:   Hi Max, it's been a while since we've been in touch. I hope all is well in your corner of the universe. I think we're finally done with the snow for a little up here in New England! As a designer of circuit boards, and a believer that one should always have spares of everything handy, I've accumulated a variety of boards over the years, many of them un-populated. Until recently, they mostly just collected dust. Then I had a cool idea, based on my wife's tireless and wildly creative scrapbooking, I decided to scrapbook a bunch of my old PCBs. I think that you're able to appreciate the notion better than most of my non-geek friends! Anyway, if you have some time, I was wondering if you could pop over to this entry on my blog and check it out.   Well, I for one am a fan. I love the way in which different technologies have evolved, so I would really like to see a PCB scrapbook starting with the earliest techniques and progressing through to today's offerings. I'll have to ask Mark if he's planning on creating such a thing.     I also love the concept of blogging in general. Check out this link to the home page for Mark's blog and then scroll down to peruse and ponder his musings. If I weren't an editor at UBM Canon, I'd probably have a blog of my own. As it is, I effectively do have a blog of my own, because -- as this column shows -- I'm free to post articles about whatever's currently on my mind.   Mark closed by saying: "I'd be very interested to know what you think." I replied that I thought scrapbooking PCBs was a cool idea, and Mark responded with: "I'm very glad you like it! I worry sometimes that I'm an oddball, even among geeks."   Fear not Mark, you are not alone. How about you, dear reader? To what geeky hobbies do you subscribe? And do you sometimes worry that you would stand "proud in the crowd" at a geek convention?

A few weeks ago, I had a bit of a scare. It made me stop and consider, and the thought at the forefront of my mind was: "If I were to lose my left arm, how would this impact my ability to create my electronic hobby projects?"   Yes, I know that there's more to life than electronic hobby projects, but that really was the first thing that popped into my mind (and I use the term "mind" in its loosest sense LOL).   So here's how this all came about. About five months ago, I arose from my bed and meandered into the bathroom to get ready for work. Whilst brushing my teeth, I happened to notice that my left elbow was badly bruised.   When I say "badly bruised," it's hard to convey just how bad it was -- it looked as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to the little scamp. If I took my right hand and clasped the entirety of my left elbow, then that was the extent of the bruising.   I couldn't recall banging it on anything, and there wasn't any pain, but it did look pretty scary. On the other hand, bruises do tend to appear now and again, so I decided to wait and see what happened. Over the course of the following week, the bruise went through the usual color cycle -- from brown to red to purple -- and eventually it almost faded away.   But a week or so later it was back again! So I went to the doctor, who took some blood and sent it off for analysis to see if I had arthritis or anything obvious. The results came back negative, so the doctor said to wait and see if anything else happened.   Which brings us up to about a month ago, when one of the guys who works in the building where I have my office said "Your elbow is still bruised -- it's been that way for months now -- you really should have it looked at." Now, he'd had a scare with a blood clot a while back, so he's hyper-sensitive to stuff like this, but what he said made sense, so I ambled back around to my doctor's again.   This time, my doctor referred me to a left elbow specialist. Apparently there aren't as many of these around as you might expect; it seems that most elbow specialists succumb to the siren song of the more glamorous right elbow, because that's where all the adulation and money is to be made.   After examining me, the left elbow specialist said "That's funny." This made me quite proud, because I'd come to the same conclusion myself without the benefit and expense associated with years of medical training. The upshot of all this was that he set me up with an appointment for an MRI to take place on Monday (three days ago at the time of this writing). He also presented a list of possibilities, most of which had long names I didn't understand, but one of which certainly caught my attention -- I'm sure you can guess what this was.   This past weekend -- the one just before the MRI -- I spent a happy time working on my Vetinari Clock hobby project. This little rascal is based on the use of antique analog meters.   Now, if you look at this YouTube video that I just posted recently, you'll see the first elements in the wiring harness starting to appear.   Surprisingly enough, I haven't wandered off into the weeds; this is all relevant to the story at hand (no pun intended).   So I had the MRI first thing on Monday morning on the way into work. I'd forgotten how noisy those things are -- and also how they cram you in; it's lucky I'm not claustrophobic. Later that afternoon, I received a call from the nurse at the left elbow specialist's office asking if I could come in the next day because the doctor wanted to discuss the results with me in person.   Now, you can call me a "Nervous Nelly" if you wish, but this did seem to be rather enthusiastic of them -- I'm more used to weeks of delay when it comes to communications from doctors and suchlike, so same-day response made me wonder. Generally speaking, I'm a "glass half full" type of guy, but I must admit that I started wondering as to what the future held.   On Monday evening, whilst lying in bed, my mind turned to the wiring harness I'd been working on over the weekend. I don't know about you, but the inside of my head tends to be a bit chaotic, with ideas popping into existence and ricocheting around my skull with gusto and abandon.   My first thoughts were how tricky it was to do this sort of thing with two hands. Then I started going through all of the individual actions -- stripping wires, soldering contacts, gathering and bending groups of wires, restraining them with ties -- all the time pondering how one might achieve these tasks with only one arm at one's disposal.   My conclusion was that most of the tasks I take for granted would become major pains in the rear end if I tried to perform them using only one hand. On the other hand (again, no pun intended), others have surmounted far worse situations before me, so I determined that -- if the worse came to the worse -- I would learn the tricks of the trade and work my way around any obstacles.   I also thought of an episode from the classic TV series MASH -- the one where a soldier who was looking forward to a career as a concert pianist after the war lost the use of one hand. He was in despair, until one of the doctors -- Charles Winchester III as I recall, but it may have been Hawkeye -- played some recordings and/or gave the soldier some music created especially for one-handed pianists. As a follow-on from this, I also considered the real-world story involving hard rock drummer Rick Allen , who has played with Def Leppard since 1978, and who overcame the amputation of his left arm in 1985.   It also crossed my mind that sometimes even having two arms is barely sufficient for requirements. Being a big science fan, I of course thought of The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. This is a really good "First Contact" tale in which the aliens -- called "Moties" -- have a large arm on one side of their bodies for heavier work, and two smaller arms on the other side for use in more detailed and delicate tasks.   I'm not sure if I'd like the Motie arrangement myself -- although I can see how it could be rather advantageous -- but I guess you'd get used to it over time. Actually, when you come to think about it, having two arms on each side would be quite handy (yet again, no pun intended). For example, you could be eating a meal using two of your arms to hold a knife and fork, while using your third arm to be texting on your smartphone, and still have an arm left over to scratch any itches that might arise.   Of course, should this somehow come to pass, the downside of my spontaneously growing two extra arms would be that I'd have to purchase a whole new wardrobe of Hawaiian shirts, but we digress... As it turned out, my left elbow specialist was just being ultra-efficient; he prides himself on offering way better service than you could hope to receive from a regular old right elbow practitioner. Although there is fluid in my elbow, and although we still have to track down exactly what's going on in there, the MRI has ruled out anything that would require radical surgery.   Phew! I have to say that I ended up feeling like I dodged a bullet there. But even after I discovered that everything is OK, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how difficult it would be to cope with only one hand. All I can say is that, for those of us who still have the use of both our arms, it behooves us to take a moment to ponder just how fortunate we are.

I had a bit of a scare recently. It made me stop and think, and the thought at the forefront of my mind was: "If I were to lose my left arm, how would this impact my ability to create my electronic hobby projects?"   Yes, I know that there's more to life than electronic hobby projects, but that really was the first thing that popped into my mind (and I use the term "mind" in its loosest sense LOL).   So here's how this all came about. About five months ago, I arose from my bed and meandered into the bathroom to get ready for work. Whilst brushing my teeth, I happened to notice that my left elbow was badly bruised.   When I say "badly bruised," it's hard to convey just how bad it was -- it looked as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to the little scamp. If I took my right hand and clasped the entirety of my left elbow, then that was the extent of the bruising.   I couldn't recall banging it on anything, and there wasn't any pain, but it did look pretty scary. On the other hand, bruises do tend to appear now and again, so I decided to wait and see what happened. Over the course of the following week, the bruise went through the usual color cycle -- from brown to red to purple -- and eventually it almost faded away.   But a week or so later it was back again! So I went to the doctor, who took some blood and sent it off for analysis to see if I had arthritis or anything obvious. The results came back negative, so the doctor said to wait and see if anything else happened.   Which brings us up to about a month ago, when one of the guys who works in the building where I have my office said "Your elbow is still bruised -- it's been that way for months now -- you really should have it looked at." Now, he'd had a scare with a blood clot a while back, so he's hyper-sensitive to stuff like this, but what he said made sense, so I ambled back around to my doctor's again.   This time, my doctor referred me to a left elbow specialist. Apparently there aren't as many of these around as you might expect; it seems that most elbow specialists succumb to the siren song of the more glamorous right elbow, because that's where all the adulation and money is to be made.   After examining me, the left elbow specialist said "That's funny." This made me quite proud, because I'd come to the same conclusion myself without the benefit and expense associated with years of medical training. The upshot of all this was that he set me up with an appointment for an MRI to take place on Monday (three days ago at the time of this writing). He also presented a list of possibilities, most of which had long names I didn't understand, but one of which certainly caught my attention -- I'm sure you can guess what this was.   This past weekend -- the one just before the MRI -- I spent a happy time working on my Vetinari Clock hobby project. This little rascal is based on the use of antique analog meters.   Now, if you look at this YouTube video that I just posted recently, you'll see the first elements in the wiring harness starting to appear.   Surprisingly enough, I haven't wandered off into the weeds; this is all relevant to the story at hand (no pun intended).   So I had the MRI first thing on Monday morning on the way into work. I'd forgotten how noisy those things are -- and also how they cram you in; it's lucky I'm not claustrophobic. Later that afternoon, I received a call from the nurse at the left elbow specialist's office asking if I could come in the next day because the doctor wanted to discuss the results with me in person.   Now, you can call me a "Nervous Nelly" if you wish, but this did seem to be rather enthusiastic of them -- I'm more used to weeks of delay when it comes to communications from doctors and suchlike, so same-day response made me wonder. Generally speaking, I'm a "glass half full" type of guy, but I must admit that I started wondering as to what the future held.   On Monday evening, whilst lying in bed, my mind turned to the wiring harness I'd been working on over the weekend. I don't know about you, but the inside of my head tends to be a bit chaotic, with ideas popping into existence and ricocheting around my skull with gusto and abandon.   My first thoughts were how tricky it was to do this sort of thing with two hands. Then I started going through all of the individual actions -- stripping wires, soldering contacts, gathering and bending groups of wires, restraining them with ties -- all the time pondering how one might achieve these tasks with only one arm at one's disposal.   My conclusion was that most of the tasks I take for granted would become major pains in the rear end if I tried to perform them using only one hand. On the other hand (again, no pun intended), others have surmounted far worse situations before me, so I determined that -- if the worse came to the worse -- I would learn the tricks of the trade and work my way around any obstacles.   I also thought of an episode from the classic TV series MASH -- the one where a soldier who was looking forward to a career as a concert pianist after the war lost the use of one hand. He was in despair, until one of the doctors -- Charles Winchester III as I recall, but it may have been Hawkeye -- played some recordings and/or gave the soldier some music created especially for one-handed pianists. As a follow-on from this, I also considered the real-world story involving hard rock drummer Rick Allen , who has played with Def Leppard since 1978, and who overcame the amputation of his left arm in 1985.   It also crossed my mind that sometimes even having two arms is barely sufficient for requirements. Being a big science fan, I of course thought of The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. This is a really good "First Contact" tale in which the aliens -- called "Moties" -- have a large arm on one side of their bodies for heavier work, and two smaller arms on the other side for use in more detailed and delicate tasks.   I'm not sure if I'd like the Motie arrangement myself -- although I can see how it could be rather advantageous -- but I guess you'd get used to it over time. Actually, when you come to think about it, having two arms on each side would be quite handy (yet again, no pun intended). For example, you could be eating a meal using two of your arms to hold a knife and fork, while using your third arm to be texting on your smartphone, and still have an arm left over to scratch any itches that might arise.   Of course, should this somehow come to pass, the downside of my spontaneously growing two extra arms would be that I'd have to purchase a whole new wardrobe of Hawaiian shirts, but we digress... As it turned out, my left elbow specialist was just being ultra-efficient; he prides himself on offering way better service than you could hope to receive from a regular old right elbow practitioner. Although there is fluid in my elbow, and although we still have to track down exactly what's going on in there, the MRI has ruled out anything that would require radical surgery.   Phew! I have to say that I ended up feeling like I dodged a bullet there. But even after I discovered that everything is OK, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how difficult it would be to cope with only one hand. All I can say is that, for those of us who still have the use of both our arms, it behooves us to take a moment to ponder just how fortunate we are.

My wife is need of an intervention. She's the sort who never slows down. She is always creating some form of art. The house is overflowing with her stained glass creations. Everything is decorated with mosaics or her paintings. Even rocks in the yard are mosaic victims. But a few years ago she discovered beading, and, well, let's just say those beaders are nuts. Her bead society is full of similarly-minded women ( to a first approximation, all women ). They can't go for more than a few microseconds without stringing bits of shiny glass or other materials together. Some make their own beads, an effort that seems deliriously obsessive to me. I'm afraid my welding torch will get co-opted for that soon. The bead shows are packed. One of her friends spent a kilobuck on beads at a single show recently. Actually, I admire her dedication, but frequently josh her about it. In fact, I would be nearly as bad with my hobbies given more time. In Hobbies: Leisure and the Culture of Work in America , author Steven Gelber suggests that the word "hobby" derives from "hobby-horse," and the notion of having pet projects was considered silly and even a dangerous obsession. Around 1880 American views started to shift as necessary crafts were reborn into avocations practised primarily for fun. But it's clear that in Europe science was practised primarily as a hobby in much earlier times, though probably only by the wealthy. It's truly impressive how many people in this country so passionately pursue their avocations. While the media complains about couch potatoes the truth is many of us are consumed with our passions and fill the spare hours doing something whose profit is mainly happiness. While in India recently I was struck by a comment made by a very smart guy who grew up there but moved to the States many years ago. He said that Indians don't have hobbies, and lamented that a lot of tech talent is missed as a result. I have no data on the accuracy of that statement—Googling for information about hobbies in India I got 119 million hits, and there's even an India Hobbies web site. But one would think hobbies are the province of those who have the luxury of time and some disposable income, which are probably in short supply in poor countries. If he is right and hobbies are uncommon in India or other locales, those nations are missing a great source of talent. For many of us our hobbies led to our vocations. My interest in embedded systems stem entirely from my hobbies, as I was consumed from an early age with electronics. I know a lot of other engineers who can make the same claim. Some of the very best analogue designers I know mastered their craft building stuff long before college. Remember legendary analogue engineer Jim Williams? He worked in a TV shop in high school to learn more about electronics, and throughout his career maintained a lab at home to pursue that passion. What about you? Are you consumed by some avocation? And did that get you into the embedded world? Do you have a hobby web site you'd like to post? ( Here's some info about my hobbies . )  

It's true that the old jokes are the best ones. I once walked into a friend's office and said "Is this a banana in my pocket or am I just glad to see you?" Then, a fraction of a second later (timing is everything in these matters), I whipped a banana out of my pocket and said "No, it's just a banana!" (Hey, it was funny... it had been a long week... I had a cold... you had to be there). We will return to the topic of bananas in a moment (be afraid, be very afraid...), but first let me explain how we got here. As you may recall, in a couple of weeks' time I will be heading out to Norway to give the keynote presentation at the FPGA Forum followed by a guest lecture at the University of Oslo (see Presenting "Max the Viking"! ). In the case of my talk at the university, I thought it would be interesting to show the students a copy of the UK hobby magazine that got me started in electronics so long ago – Practical Electronics . Furthermore, I thought it would be a little poignant to use an issue from the summer of 1975, because this what when I had just graduated from high school and was hanging out with my friends before we all set off to start college and plunge into the rest of our lives. But where would you go to find a copy of an electronic hobbyist magazine from 37 years ago? Well, I actually write a monthly column for the magazine's successor, which is called EPE (Everyday Practical Electronics) , so my first port of call was to ask the publishers, but – perhaps not surprisingly – they replied "Sorry, we don't have any issues from that long ago." Next, I emailed my old chum Alan Winstanley, who has been writing for the magazine for as long as I can remember. Good old Alan – he immediately responded that he had a couple of copies of the December 1975 issue lying around and would send me one immediately (I later discovered that this issue contained Alan's first ever published article, for which he was paid the princely sum of five UK pounds). But, as we all know to our cost, there's no such thing as a free lunch. A couple of days' ago, Alan emailed me to say that a reader had just posted a question to one of the EPE message boards. Is seems that this reader had recently purchased a high-end graphics sub-system, but the 12V output he was using from his power supply wasn't sufficient to drive the card. The power supply actually had several 12V outputs, and the reader was wondering if he could simply strap them together to give him enough "Umph" to drive his graphics card. The bottom line is that Alan wanted me to answer this query (no, I'm not going to tell you what I said ... you'll have to visit the EPE message boards if you want to find out). The point is (yes, there is a point, there's no need for you to look so disdainful), as part of all this I somehow found myself wandering around a site called Geeky-Gadgets.com . I really don't recall exactly how this came about ... I just know that it was somehow connected to the Wily Wicked Winstanley, who delights in luring me into sticky sites from which I find it exceedingly difficult to extricate myself. Thus it was that I found myself looking at a picture of a banana with an associated USB cable and connector. (You thought I'd forgotten about bananas, didn't you? Oh ye of little faith!) It appears that this is something called USB-It from those rascally rapscallions at ThinkGeek.com . The idea is that you can attach the sticky end of your USB-It to pretty much anything, thereby causing confusion and consternation to those around you. What? Me? You think I would buy something like this? I can safely say that I DO NOT have any of these little rascals winging their way to me (the fact that they were out of stock when I visited the Think Geek website has nothing to do with anything). Next you will be saying that I'm the sort of person who would buy a USB Pet Rock . OK, I'll have to give you that one, because by some strange quirk of fate I do happen to have one of these little scamps sitting on my desk plugged into a spare USB port on my computer.     Who are you calling an idiot? Why are you interrogating me like this? It's a talking point, for goodness sake! On the bright side, this little rascal is environmentally sound because it consumes no power whatsoever. Also, it works with any form of operating system (including those that are yet to be invented) without the need for any special drivers. Plus, you can play all sorts of games with it. One game we like to play is to try to outstare each other and to see who blinks first, but my favourite is to see which of us can exist the longest. (What? Of course I'm not thinking about getting a Wireless Pet Rock... that would just be plain silly!) But we digress... The Geeky-Gadgets.com website also lured me to the gallery of an artist called Dmitriy Khrishtenko, who creates awesome miniature sculptures such as scale model motorcycles and cars from parts he recycles out of old watches ( Click here to see some of Dmitriy's creations).