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Now when you have all toys are you happier than when you were a broken student?
hans:
Anecdote from gaming scene with race/flight simulators..
Young kids don't have money to buy a fancy PC and gear. They use their crusty old rig with a cheap wheel/flightstick, and make it work. They do have all the time available, and perhaps also the younger reflexes, and make the most out of it.
Then there are the older folks. They are tied up in family and work obligations. That drains energy and time, but does yield disposable income to buy the fanciest toys. But does that make them win against these young folks? Quite often, no not really. To afford these toys, I don't have the time and energy to use them anymore!
I think something similar goes with electronics or many other hobbies. I now have relatively fancy toys compared to when I was a student that make some things much easier to do (I took projects to school to build/scope them, then back home where I wrote firmware while basically "blind" to what was happening). But honestly, the thing I miss most are the days where I had all the time to in the world and little obligations, honestly.
I also tend to think that anything thats "fancy" today, will become mainstream in a few toy-generations time. It depends on how early adopter you want to be and the willingness to keep upgrading. If not for the latter its maybe better to sit out and wait for the bang/buck killers. Example: finally we see a somewhat affordable generation of high-resolution DSOs enter the market by e.g. Rigol and Siglent. I'm now using one of those Siglent scopes at work. It's splendid, noise 70uVrms in 50R, 350MHz, 4ch+MSO, 12-bit ADC, large display.. such crisp and clear signals. I honestly thought digital signals had a lot more noise on them as I'm now seeing, e.g. because of high inductive ground leads or whatever. But it was probably quantization noise of my 8-bit 1054Z I got at home.
So nice toy and all, but honestly as a hobbyist I will sit it out. It's a nice thing to have, but in my projects on mostly digital low power stuff I don't really need it. Besides, what is the point in spending 2k$+ on a similar 12-bit scope when perhaps in 5-10 years time this stuff will find its way into the new workhorses like we know as e.g. the Rigol 1052E or 1054Z scopes are?
DiTBho:
--- Quote from: artag on July 19, 2023, 08:22:55 pm ---I am still poor, because I keep buying toys.
--- End quote ---
I'm like the father of Marty McFly in the first Back to the Future film: I write my own tales in secret
And I think I am still poor, because I haven't yet made a movie for Netflix :D
but! I already have the script!
sort of cyberpunk version of the Aristotelian process behind the film by Gabriele Muccino,
which was itself based on the book "The Pursuit of Happyness" by Chris Gardner.
Stray Electron:
--- Quote from: tautech on July 21, 2023, 03:28:04 am ---I must be the exception. ;D
So so many toys....and in a position to offer such good ones at costs we once never thought possible.
--- End quote ---
X2! After Ebay came along, I've was able to bypass the over-priced used equipment dealers like Tucker and buy very sophisticated TE that I once could only dream of personally owning! For example, I never saw a professional quality spectrum analyzer before E-bay came along but now I own five of them!
Unfortunately E-bay is now becoming an over-priced store front instead of the sell-it- at-any-price auction that it originally was. But it was GOOD while it lasted!
Wallace Gasiewicz:
I was never a poor student, so I have nothing to compare.I had a almost full time job with benefits while in college.I had a new Dodge Challenger. Hot Car. Bought with cash.
But at that time the future looked pretty good, I do not think if I was a student today, that I would think the future looks good.
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