Not off topic. My point was we on AAC get somewhat frustrated having to answer the same questions such as why...

1. you need 0.1μF decoupling capacitors
2. you need capacitors on 3-terminal voltage regulators
3. you need to read the datasheet
4. you need a current limiting resistor on an LED
5. you can't put a zener diode across a voltage source
6. you can't have both constant voltage and constant current at the same time
7. a load will take only so much current that it needs
8. you need to hire a professional engineer to help you design your project
9. you need to give us the big picture
10. you need to show us a circuit schematic
11. you need to divulge what it does when you say it isn't working
12. you ought to put a better title on your thread
13. you cannot hijack someone's thread
14. we don't do your homework for you
15. you need to be humble and grateful that some unknown person is taking the time to help you
16. you need to say "Thank You"

 

Not off topic. My point was we on AAC get somewhat frustrated having to answer the same questions such as why...

1. you need 0.1μF decoupling capacitors
2. you need capacitors on 3-terminal voltage regulators
3. you need to read the datasheet
4. you need a current limiting resistor on an LED
5. you can't put a zener diode across a voltage source
6. you can't have both constant voltage and constant current at the same time
7. a load will take only so much current that it needs
8. you need to hire a professional engineer to help you design your project
9. you need to give us the big picture
10. you need to show us a circuit schematic
11. you need to divulge what it does when you say it isn't working
12. you ought to put a better title on your thread
13. you cannot hijack someone's thread
14. we don't do your homework for you
15. you need to be humble and grateful that some unknown person is taking the time to help you
16. you need to say "Thank You"

Wow you are needy... You have people coming onto this site to bring meaning to your life. You should be greatful that they make you feel useful.

On a more serious note about what people are like today - apparently it is popular now to hike with random strangers you met on facebook. This sometimes does not end well. A person who hurt her leg was abandoned by one such group on a train in North Vancouver. She got lucky that someone else was on the same trail and helped her walk out to cell range where they called for assistance.

But wait, there is more stupidity... 2 young Iron Man marathon conquerors got advice from facebook groups on where to go to explore Vancouver Island. They set out in a new SUV onto logging roads with low understanding of the area and now food. They got stuck on a dead end road as they had low comprehension of what they were doing. They got lucky as there were some loggers in the area. Apparently the experince did not teach them anything...

There is another good one, there is a guy missing in a river, he is feom Europe, he set out into the wilderness in an inflatable kayak.

These are sad stories of people who got very bad advise and who considered themselves well prepared.

 

There was a time when we were new to electronics and had many of the same questions. When new to AAC, some of us may have failed to give sufficient information. I recall one thread about a neon bulb that continued to emit light after being disconnected. That thread had insufficient information. It was later learned that the neon bulb had a phosphorus coating that could continue to glow if warm enough. The device was a warm water vaporizer. It was MY thread where I didn't give sufficient information. Took a while to arrive at the truth of the matter, but we got there and I learned something.

I know it may be exasperating telling newbies you can't get volts and current control at the same time, that a load will draw what it will draw, that a 12 volt 400Ah battery won't fry their tiny 12 volt motor - and more. That's not what I was focusing on. Rather, how if someone says something then someone else comes back with a terse response which may appear to be belligerent. I am wondering if others have noticed a change in this sort of behavior since the sequestering of ourselves for fear of CV19.

 

Aye!

 

It's a two way street when answering questions. Are you Worthy?

 

it seems like people are becoming more hostile this past year. Take these two points into consideration: NASA and a flight to Mars, and submarines. In both cases experts are concerned with people who are confined for long periods of time where mental attitudes can change and become more hostile over time due to the isolation.

I know something about this. I was a U.S. Navy submariner. I think a more appropriate analogy is the one cited most often - cabin fever. Being isolated (together) with others by chance in an environment of boredom, with no shared interests or goals, no structure or authority, and no ETA of parole, is a very different experience than that which is experienced on a submarine (and similarly a space mission I assume). On a submarine there is a mission to accomplish, of which every sailor aboard volunteered to play a crucial role. There is a clearly defined chain of command. There is hardly time for anything other than work and sleep. It can be a very stressful environment but there is not the specific flavor of animosity among the crew as what this thread is about. The crew is a very tight-knit unit. Friendships forged under those conditions are hard to replicate in the civilian world. You must have thick skin on submarine. The amount of trash talking that goes on down there would be appalling to almost anyone, but it does not turn into hatred. At least not often; and when it does, it is handled with swiftness and finality. I never experienced a single act of hostility among the crew during my time on the boat. A submarine sailor is more likely to get into a fight against someone who is not a crew member in defense of a shipmate they "hate" than they are to fight that "hated" shipmate.

I think the hostility we see on the forum and in the world is, among many other things, a result of the lack of a common foe. Humans I think need some level of conflict on a primal level. We (us) need a them. With no them, we divide ourselves and make thems out of the splintered pieces of us.

 

2nd - all those in favor say Aye!

A big AYE.

 

I know something about this. I was a U.S. Navy submariner.

I bow to your first hand experience, knowledge and to your "Cabin Fever" analogy.

 

I bow to your first hand experience, knowledge and to your "Cabin Fever" analogy.

During long trips "Cabin Fever" becomes Saturday Night Fever.

 

Not off topic. My point was we on AAC get somewhat frustrated having to answer the same questions such as why...

1. you need 0.1μF decoupling capacitors
2. you need capacitors on 3-terminal voltage regulators
3. you need to read the datasheet
4. you need a current limiting resistor on an LED
5. you can't put a zener diode across a voltage source
6. you can't have both constant voltage and constant current at the same time
7. a load will take only so much current that it needs
8. you need to hire a professional engineer to help you design your project
9. you need to give us the big picture
10. you need to show us a circuit schematic
11. you need to divulge what it does when you say it isn't working
12. you ought to put a better title on your thread
13. you cannot hijack someone's thread
14. we don't do your homework for you
15. you need to be humble and grateful that some unknown person is taking the time to help you
16. you need to say "Thank You"

...and my addition:

17. No, I don't know what an RDL or DST or LSY is.
Please don't assume that your favorite acronym is known to all.

 

I think the hostility we see on the forum and in the world is, among many other things, a result of the lack of a common foe. Humans I think need some level of conflict on a primal level.

OWKA the Tribal instinct.
One just needs to read the works of Jane Goodall et-al to see the Exact same traits in our closest relatives.
Her gig in the jungle which originally was for 3 or 4 months, turned out to be 50 years!
Max.

 

OWKA the Tribal instinct.
One just needs to read the works of Jane Goodall et-al to see the Exact same traits in our closest relatives.
Her gig in the jungle which originally was for 3 or 4 months, turned out to be 50 years!
Max.

Going from tribal hunter/gatherer wielders of pointy sticks to globally connected societies with the power to melt the face of the earth to slag happened in the blink of an evolutionary eye. I think we have evolved our technology at a much faster rate than we evolved ourselves. We have bestowed ourselves gifts and abilities that in a situation governed by a responsible power, surely would've been reserved for a more advanced species. I think maybe we aren't yet cut out for societal structures any more advanced than tribal bands and maybe we should consider ourselves "artificially" advanced; like one of Jane's primitives who has been given a machine gun. That machine gun is social media, media, religion, genetic modification, weapons of war, etc. We don't have what it takes to coordinate and sustain what we have built. Every civilization that rises, falls; consuming itself in every case that I'm aware of. We are not yet able to rise above our tribal mindset and we will continue to exist in a precarious state of flux and strife until we learn how. If we can only ever find meaning in being in opposition to others, then... well, we are guaranteed to see our own end at our own hands (again (again (again (...)))). For now I have faith only in our ability to find new lines of division and more creative methods of persecution.

 

Sometimes I imagine I've built an interstellar star ship that can explore hundreds of planets within the timespan of a year. Finding those that can (or once did) support life, in my imaginations I find a dead planet with a built-up infrastructure, the beings who built this civilization built themselves up to their own extinction; which is where I believe we are headed ourselves. Only, in my imaginations the entire planet has been completely ruined and incapable of ever supporting any kind of life ever again. Earth will likely survive the virus known as Human Kind. But along the way we will take many species with us. But I believe earth will recover because of its iron core and magnetosphere which protects it from solar winds, and earths Ozone layer that protects it from harmful UV radiation. With humans gone pollution will recycle back into the earth as plate tectonics slowly pulls land masses beneath the crust to be recycled. Plastics and mercury in the oceans will eventually be filtered out, but at great cost to biological life.

Today we're just snippy with each other because many of us are semi - or totally isolated. And isolation breeds restlessness, which breeds contempt for those closest to us. In the case of the internet, many of us here on AAC are closer than we are to our own grown children. And grand children who are kept at a distance for fear they may infect grand parents. This is why I believe over this past year (2020) members have become more snippy with each other. Not intentionally so - but nevertheless, involuntary annoyances with others who may be even just a little bit wrong in what they say.

 

Only, in my imaginations the entire planet has been completely ruined and incapable of ever supporting any kind of life ever again. Earth will likely survive the virus known as Human Kind.

Hey, speak for yourself. I intend to stick around for a while.

 

See the History channel documentary. "Life after People" predictions of what happens to the earths remnants of civilization and its life in general after different stages, 100 yrs - 1000yrs etc.etc.
Very enlightening.
Max.

 

@MaxHeadRoom, yeah, I've seen it. Yes, very interesting. Parrots who mimic the sounds of humans and their electronics may hang around for quite a while. Cell phones and human conversations (brief as they may be). Cities overrun by vines and trees; eventually earth will reclaim itself.

 

Sometimes I imagine I've built an interstellar star ship that can explore hundreds of planets within the timespan of a year. Finding those that can (or once did) support life, in my imaginations I find a dead planet with a built-up infrastructure, the beings who built this civilization built themselves up to their own extinction; which is where I believe we are headed ourselves. Only, in my imaginations the entire planet has been completely ruined and incapable of ever supporting any kind of life ever again. Earth will likely survive the virus known as Human Kind. But along the way we will take many species with us. But I believe earth will recover because of its iron core and magnetosphere which protects it from solar winds, and earths Ozone layer that protects it from harmful UV radiation. With humans gone pollution will recycle back into the earth as plate tectonics slowly pulls land masses beneath the crust to be recycled. Plastics and mercury in the oceans will eventually be filtered out, but at great cost to biological life.

Today we're just snippy with each other because many of us are semi - or totally isolated. And isolation breeds restlessness, which breeds contempt for those closest to us. In the case of the internet, many of us here on AAC are closer than we are to our own grown children. And grand children who are kept at a distance for fear they may infect grand parents. This is why I believe over this past year (2020) members have become more snippy with each other. Not intentionally so - but nevertheless, involuntary annoyances with others who may be even just a little bit wrong in what they say.

The plot of many a sci-fi book and/or movie. George Carlin said it best.

 

LOVE George Carlin. Miss his early comedic stuff. His later stuff was just too cynical.

 

Not off topic. My point was we on AAC get somewhat frustrated having to answer the same questions such as why...

1. you need 0.1μF decoupling capacitors
2. you need capacitors on 3-terminal voltage regulators
3. you need to read the datasheet
4. you need a current limiting resistor on an LED
5. you can't put a zener diode across a voltage source
6. you can't have both constant voltage and constant current at the same time
7. a load will take only so much current that it needs
8. you need to hire a professional engineer to help you design your project
9. you need to give us the big picture
10. you need to show us a circuit schematic
11. you need to divulge what it does when you say it isn't working
12. you ought to put a better title on your thread
13. you cannot hijack someone's thread
14. we don't do your homework for you
15. you need to be humble and grateful that some unknown person is taking the time to help you
16. you need to say "Thank You"

Hi MrChips,

Not sure if it was when reading about an accident at sea or some plane doing an unfortunate maneuver when landing, when I realized that with every person, no matter in what activity, you have to start afresh, always. That is why, training in safety, even for experienced people is a never ending task.

What you mention in your list ( and the so many other things anyone could add) you are considering them from your experience that, no doubt, has been growing day by day, climbing the long endless ladder of knowledge. Everyone before racing, had to learn to walk and before that, crawling.

Myself, little after signing on the now defunct EPE Chatzone forum, some 20++? years ago, made a naive (lazy?) question about finite state machines that I could have solved by simply googling it. The not rude but direct answer telling me to do that was enough for me.

When I started dabbling in electronics, I had no one to whom ask questions and not even bulletin boards did exist. And when I finally could approach a group of really seasoned technicians related to marine equipment (most of them attending the vessels of our company) all I got was jokes instead of explanations. Go figure.

Would you believe the so many times I had to answer the question if vessels in open sea do navigate in night time?

One of my grandsons is now 4++yo. I like answering his incredible questions. He is just starting; myself "being in my way out" as Brazilians use to say, I would like to be able to teach him one or two simple things at least like the sun rises on the east.

BTW, the incredible amount of things I got from you, properly explained in a concise way is enormous. I admire people able to explain. Sinceramente, gracias for that.

 

Has anyone else noticed a growing level of hostility among us AAC users? More and more I'm reading responses that are growing in hostility. Someone expresses an opinion and someone else gets hot under the collar in their response. I'm wondering if it's due to the virus and being a whole lot more home-bound.

If you disagree with my comment(s) it's OK to say "I disagree"; then explain why you disagree. But sometimes other users take on an adversarial role in the way they speak (type). I try not to let myself get hostile in return, but I admit I'm guilty of it too.

Can we take a step back to the days when I first joined? I remember a much more friendly and helpful experience back then. I also had a lot more respect for those with superior knowledge and experience.

I feel that the pandemic, at least in my case, is not the main reason but my personal timer insisting in counting forward (73++ as of today). That made me more intolerant when replying, I know. Being used to be for long periods in seriously constrained environments (freighters in long voyages with short calls in strange ports, two antarctic campaigns or one year in an hydrographic survey in the Parana river, taught me to handle my emotions to a reasonable extent (well, that is what I believe).

Anyway, asking this kind of personal question is quite close to the famous "do you consider a good driver yourself?". Obviously, top level myself .