Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category

ExTech EX-330 multimeter snapshot review

Tuesday, January 6th, 2015

Cutting to the chase, I’m a bit disappointed with this multimeter. I bought it primarily based on low price, features and relatively good review in Dave Jone’s EEVblog #91.

The Ohm, DC volts and Diode check function work as expected. Some of the other features don’t work as well as I had hoped.

  • AC volts doesn’t work in millivolt range
  • Capacitance tester is basically unusable, except for a very small range of smallish caps

    • My sub $100 Tek 465 oscilloscope can be used for checking AC volts, though accuracy is approximate.

    The Fluke counter I picked off of eBay and repaired for around $40 is vastly more accurate and usable for frequency readings.

    At some point, I’m going to have to pick up a more capable capacitance tester, but in the past I have hacked one together out of spare parts on the few occasions when I really had to have one.

    For the features that do work well, the ergonomics of the EX330 are quite nice, much better than the $29 unit that it’s replacing.

    Bottom line – you get what you pay for, though I’m starting to believe that if it works or can be repaired, there can be some real bargains found in the vintage test gear marketplace. :-)

    Posted in HAM, Opinion, Vintage Computing | 2 Comments »

    Opinion – how not to take out Isis

    Wednesday, September 24th, 2014

    Trying to take out Isis by bombing them from a few high flying aircraft is like trying to destroy a fire ant colony by stomping on it’s nest.

    This approach has only really succeeded once – and that was when we resorted to using nuclear weapons at the end of World War II.

    There is an old saying that might lead to an alternative approach that might have more promise – Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

    Posted in Opinion | Comments Closed

    why is everything breaking?

    Monday, August 11th, 2014

    Within the last few weeks I’ve had the following problem with mechanical devices.

  • rear hub on bicycle
  • crankcase gasket on lawn mower
  • 3TB hard drive used for backup for three household computers died
  • coolant leak in 2009 Dodge Caravan
  • and a CD/DVD drive on a PPC Mac mini used for backup and connection to old peripherals is showing signs of imminent failure

    • My son says that I am having problems because all my stuff is old.

    Except for the the coolant leak, I’m getting replacement parts and doing my own repairs/replacments. I’d probably look the coolant leak, except that I just finished replacing the crankcase gasket on the lawn mower engine, and don’t feel like diving into another engine right now.

    I’ve had a lot of issues over the years with the lawn mower which was built in 1994 and would replace it with a new one, except that repairing it is so much less expensive than replacing it. For instance, the crankcase gasket, PTO oil seal, and a welded muffler (which I found was busted when I pulled the engine to repair the crankcase gasket) cost me all of $35 to repair or replace. That wouldn’t even pay the taxes on a new mower.

    When I pulled the crankcase cover off, I was expecting to see an engine on it’s last legs, but the internals looked good. Over the last couple of years, it was using a lot of oil, and I was thinking that the rings were going, but now I think that the oil was just leaking out of the crankcase. Now I think that the engine might last a few more years.

    Posted in Misc Stuff, Opinion | Comments Closed

    People in History with Narcissistic Behavior that Acheived Great Things

    Friday, October 25th, 2013

    I finally read Isaacson’s book on Steve Jobs and got to thinking about his narcissistic behavior. Though living around this sort of person is extremely difficult, he achieved great things. The question I have, was his narcissistic behavior part of what made him so successful or was this behavior something he had to overcome to achieve success?

    Here are some other examples of narcissistic people that achieved great things.

    Greek King Alexander the Great
    Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus
    French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
    United States General Stonewall Jackson
    United States Entrepreneur Henry Ford
    United States General George Patton
    United States Entrepreneur Steve Jobs

    I’m omitting people that had narcissistic behavior that caused great harm to society, that will be another list.

    Can you think of others?

    Posted in Opinion | 1 Comment »