Author Topic: EEVblog #643 - Mailbag  (Read 27181 times)

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Offline electrolux

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Re: EEVblog #643 - Mailbag
« Reply #50 on: July 27, 2014, 11:40:26 am »
New format is nice, but are you sure you didn't do it to get your ugly head in the picture :P  >:D
The funniest thing about this signature is that by the time you realize it doesn't say anything its too late to stop reading it.
 

Offline tocsa120ls

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Re: EEVblog #643 - Mailbag
« Reply #51 on: July 29, 2014, 06:16:23 pm »
Be lucky you don't know why someone made a crappy ohmmeter in 1989. :) Did a quick search in the forum, either nobody caught it, or was too lazy to write it down - that thing was made in an accordion factory.

Why? Well, short answer is the Russians. Until 1990 East Germany, and my home country, Hungary were under russian administration - one thing about that was the so called "five-year plans" - basically, high-ranking officials "predicted" what people would want in the next five years, and how much of those things should be produced. We know today that the best computer in the world would not calculate that until the heat-death of the solar system, but hey, down a few vodkas and you make

- bus manufacturers manufacture 5000 prams per year (yeah, imagine a 15lb plaything next to the 20ton busses on the assembly line)
- agricultural collectives manufacture PC power supplies (hey, there was a draught that wasn't in the 5-year-plan, now how do you make money?)
- in Hungary, the Telephone Manufacturing Company made... wait for it... reel-to-reel decks (they do make a sound, afterall)
- accordion factories produce ohmmeters (I don't even...)

Funny thing, that cold war was.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2014, 03:23:17 am by tocsa120ls »
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Short circuit - long fire
 

Offline Alexei.Polkhanov

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Re: EEVblog #643 - Mailbag
« Reply #52 on: July 29, 2014, 09:00:56 pm »
Sometimes I kind of miss it - there was arms race, space race, nuclear race, everything race ... So much truly new, cool stuff was invented!!! All sorts of cool research was funded out of those huge budgets. Now technology news all sound like "there are rumours of better, slimmer iPhone..." -  :o WTF?

Nobody going to miss those 5-year plans and crappy multimeters that is for sure, but there were lot of very good and amazing things happening as well. I remember how generously research was funded when I was on first year of my PhD program - everything went downwards from then on. If governments don't fund fundamental research the who will? Corporations don't want to invest into something that may or may not pay off in 20 years. They only care about next year at most.
 

Offline jancumps

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Re: EEVblog #643 - Mailbag
« Reply #53 on: July 29, 2014, 09:06:23 pm »
I was scared like hell that the bomb would fall.
 

Offline tocsa120ls

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Re: EEVblog #643 - Mailbag
« Reply #54 on: July 30, 2014, 09:42:38 am »
Sometimes I kind of miss it

Alyosha, you might have found the only good thing about it. Travel restrictions, rationing system, pointless jobs (so no citizens are without one), secret police (and not todays kind)... no thanks.
We only remember the good things about the old times. It's not offset by the bunch of other bad stuff, like...
you have a PhD. In those times that meant your kids couldn't go to university. 

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Short circuit - long fire
 

Offline Stonent

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Re: EEVblog #643 - Mailbag
« Reply #55 on: July 30, 2014, 03:54:40 pm »
Quote
With the background and facing the camera, I think Dave now needs a red vest with company logos on it and subtitles if anyone catches the reference...  ;)

What, you want him to join the EFF (A South African political party - The Economic Freedom Fighters - Who wear red Jumpsuits/Overalls with Red Berets even at Parliament mettings, Apparently to associate themselves with the hardworking, underpaid miners, etc in RSA)

?

No, I've never heard of them.

« Last Edit: July 30, 2014, 03:56:26 pm by Stonent »
The larger the government, the smaller the citizen.
 

Offline Alexei.Polkhanov

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Re: EEVblog #643 - Mailbag
« Reply #56 on: July 30, 2014, 05:06:23 pm »
you have a PhD. In those times that meant your kids couldn't go to university. 
Huh?  ??? High education was completely free and on top of that I was paid sort of like a salary while going to University from day 1 to cover my living expenses. Plus if you going to University right after school at 17 or 18 you get excluded from army draft. To send my kids to Canadian or US University I have to chip off at least $30K/year.
 

Offline phamuc

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Re: EEVblog #643 - Mailbag
« Reply #57 on: August 05, 2014, 08:39:45 pm »
Hello Dave,

I like the new mailbag format. Now you just need a group of geeks to clean the floor.  ;D
 

Offline coppice

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Re: EEVblog #643 - Mailbag
« Reply #58 on: August 06, 2014, 03:20:04 am »
Sometimes I kind of miss it - there was arms race, space race, nuclear race, everything race ... So much truly new, cool stuff was invented!!! All sorts of cool research was funded out of those huge budgets. Now technology news all sound like "there are rumours of better, slimmer iPhone..." -  :o WTF?

Nobody going to miss those 5-year plans and crappy multimeters that is for sure, but there were lot of very good and amazing things happening as well. I remember how generously research was funded when I was on first year of my PhD program - everything went downwards from then on. If governments don't fund fundamental research the who will? Corporations don't want to invest into something that may or may not pay off in 20 years. They only care about next year at most.

Not so long ago Bell Labs, HP Labs, IBM Labs and other commercial R&D centres did a lot of very basic research. It made them lots of money, but the money didn't come quickly. That worked when companies were run by their management. Now they are run by the stock market, and nothing long term is possible.
 


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