TopDollar
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Everything posted by TopDollar
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Probably not. I arguably should have waited, but I only bought the 2080 a few weeks ago. This is my first big upgrade since 2012, so I try not to worry about the next big thing coming in a few months since I know that whatever I buy will still last me 5+ years.
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A nice upgrade that complements my RTX 2080SC well.
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It has definitely provided some new life to my aging i5-3570k build. I'm likely going to upgrade to a Ryzen 3900XT though soon enough.
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Upgrading from my old GTX 970s. Thought about getting a 2080 TI, but an extra $400 didn't seem worth it.
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I'm most definitely a gas man myself (or maybe I'm just a gassy man?). Unfortunately the apartment I just moved into only has electric, but it will do I suppose. I've only recently become interested in cooking and, not going to lie, I've learned the majority of my cooking knowledge from Binging with Babish. My girlfriend and I have also been using a lot of Chrissy Teigen recipes; most all of which have been fantastic.
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I'm a mechanical engineer in the naval/marine industry. There are certainly job opportunities out there for mechanical engineers in consumer electronics, although they might be harder to find than computer science or electrical, computer, and software engineering jobs. I do know however that a handful of Aero/Mechanical engineers from my graduating class got jobs at Global Foundries. My best advice is to start gaining professional engineering experience now by applying for all the summer internships or semester long coops you can. Not only will doing that make it significantly easier to get a job right out of college, but it will also help you figure out what you like to do. I have a feeling a lot of mechanical engineering jobs in the consumer electronics industry are related to manufacturing processes.
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Trades are certainly a fine career choice. There's good demand for skilled tradesman and you can certainly make as much if not more than your average college degree holder. The downside is making that much in a trade requires putting in many extra hours per week of work. An opportunity cost that some don't find worth it. For example, a typical journeyman with 5 years experience in trade might make $25/hr ($52,000 annual salary based on a typical 40 hour work week) with a 1.5x overtime rate of $37.50/hr. If the journeyman wants to make $100k per year (not unrealistic in certain industries), then they would need to put in an additional 1,280 hours of overtime per year (($100,000 - $52,000) / $37.50/hr = 1,280hr) or a total of 3,360 hours per year. An engineer with the same 5 years of experience in industry might make $80,000 base salary per year and work 40 hour work weeks; resulting in a total of 2,080 hours per year worked (true for my job, some companies have engineers salaried and expect more than 40 hours per week). The engineer might make 20% less than the journeyman, but they also spent 38% less time working than the journeyman did. For some, this benefit is well worth it. Sometimes you even get the best of both worlds where there is overtime available for the engineer as well. Increased risk of occupational health related issues is also an opportunity cost of working in trades, but that one is probably pretty self explanatory. In short, don't disregard trades as being a bad career choice, but understand the downsides of that type of work as well.
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I don't think we'll see an overall decrease in wages within the Computer Science field anytime soon. I have a degree in both Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering and work on piping systems in the Naval industry. At least in our industry, a large majority of complex mechanical systems are being slowly converted to electrically controlled. Seems to be the same story with most other industries as well. Meaning there is a big demand for electrical/computer engineers and computer scientists to design these new systems. In the Aero industry as well, eletrical/computer engineering and computer science play a huge roll (avionics, fly-by-wire, etc.) since a lot more things are becoming more automated. I'd say it's probably easier to get into the Aero industry this way than it is with an Aero degree. -
There isn't really any sort of difficult math involved with flying. Some simple stuff like weight & moment calculations, linear interpolation to determine aircraft performance, calculating ground speed and magnetic heading based on the winds, etc. For example, on my private pilot checkride, the examiner had me calculate our ground speed while in the air without using the GPS. I would expect that's the type of things they mean when referring to "industrial math".
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Engineering is how I make all my money...Flying airplanes is how I spend all my money. Spent around $20,000 on flying in 2018...
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I'm an engineer myself (in the marine industry). I would very much recommend finishing the degree. Mostly for the reasons you laid out. Even if you like what you're doing now, the degree gives you much more flexibility in the future. Having the existing experience in a technical industry will certainly help. Getting additional experience each summer either with the company you currently work at, or at different companies, will be very beneficial as well. I've done some recruiting and interviewing for entry level engineering positions. Getting industry experience throughout college is one of the things that pops out to me on a resume. I'm guessing the majority of your pay comes from overtime? Entry level mechanical engineering jobs are around the $50-$70k per year range. A lot of office jobs being salaried positions. Mid career can certainly be in the 6 figure range, however a lot of these jobs are supervisory instead of being technical. Positions with hourly pay and true overtime are certainly available (mine is one for example).
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What about XYZZY? Nothing happens.
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Betrayal at House on the Hill has become one of my favorites. Essentially all the players are exploring a haunted house until someone triggers the "haunt"; which is different each time you play. Then it usually becomes one player vs. the rest; each with their own set of rules and knowledge of what's going on. Secret Hitler is pretty great as well.
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The videos you see on youtube and the news are not even close to being an average interaction with police.
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If it's a job your'e not interested in and you're content where you're at now, then I probably wouldn't bother unless trying to raise your high 3 for retirement. We get into a similar situation in the office I work at as well. Not sure what pay band you're in but we top out at a 12 and the only way higher is in an exempt supervisory roll. Only other thing to consider is the rumor that an upcoming pay freeze might even affect step increases, and not just COLA.
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Been a prime member for the past 3 years. It's the epitome of convenience. Especially since we have Prime-Now 2 hour shipping in my area. It's like ordering pizza, but I get steak, beer, and ice cream instead. Their Prime Visa card is pretty great as well. 5% back on Amazon purchases, 2% back on gas and restaurants, and 1% back on everything else. 2 months into owning that card, and I have $75 in cash back already.
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Is there a HAM radio that can pickup ANY frequency at all?.?
TopDollar replied to WolfLoverPro's topic in Off Topic
I'd recommend going straight for General if you're interested in HF. At least when I took it, you could take the General test for free if you passed Technician. I never went higher than Tech though. I've participated in a couple contests and such, but the majority of my radio operating has been on 2 meter band volunteering at road rallies. -
Bose A20 aviation headset in celebration of my first solo
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If airplanes are included in this, then my ideal airplane combination is something along the lines of building a Kitfox STi for backcountry and local VFR flying: And an Aerostar 601P for cross country flying: For now though, I'll have to settle for a lowly Rockwell Commander 112 (a much more achievable goal at the moment):
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Her public facebook page is great right now. It's rated 1/5 starts with 8.5k reviews. Many of the 5 star reviews satirical. The comments people are leaving are actually thought out and surprisingly civil. Running for Congress on the premise of gun control in Virginia's 2nd district was a bold move to begin with. Hampton Roads is one of the largest military areas in the country; and we love our guns. It's the type of area where pretty much everyone has some sort of tie to the military. The representative she's running against (Scott Taylor) is a former Navy SEAL himself and runs on a position of helping Veterans.
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Kind of an odd question, but has anyone tried a picatinny rail GoPro mount? Curiosity makes me want to mount a GoPro Session to my Sig P226.
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It mostly just has a better sensor. Can record 4k at 30fps and 1080p at 120fps. It's also more rugged and the menus are a bit better laid out in my opinion. It's nothing too substantial that makes the Hero 4 obsolete by any means though. I actually picked up a Hero 5 Session the other day as well. This little thing is badass and makes a fantastic secondary (or tertiary) camera and complement to the Hero 5. Has 90% the capability of the Hero 5 Black, but the downside is the Gopro App is the best way to use its features. Planning on using the session to mount to the exterior of aircraft since it's lower price makes it a bit more disposable than the other models.
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Anna needs to reevaluate her finances if she's financing $859 items. You're thinking about this too much. It's just a simple interest calculation where total amount paid is equal to the sum of the initial principal and total interest paid. Not completely realistic, but a typical "get an idea" type of calculation. Interest Accrued = Principal x Interest Rate x Number of Time Periods Total Paid = Initial Principal + Interest Accrued A more realistic scenario, you would use a loan amortization schedule which takes into account that you're not accruing interest based on the initial principal each year, but rather on the present value of the loan at the time of the payment. The solution for this case (assuming equal monthly payments) is a total loan cost of $1029.12. For an added challenge, you could develop the amortization schedule.
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Gopro Hero 5 Black to complement the Hero 4 Silver I have been using. Using them mostly for recording flying videos. Really helps with debriefing lessons.
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And many people also don't understand the value of what they're buying (or stealing). These addons are made to simulate a complex aircraft and its systems as accurately as possible. The people who buy this are spending hundreds of hours learning the airplane and its systems; not just putting around and pretending to fly. There are plenty of freeware addons for that. $140 is certainly on the steep side though with $40-$50 is about average for the higher end stuff and $70-80 for the really complicated stuff. I can see why they would have a problem with piracy, but trying to combat that by installing malicious software is about as unethical as you can get. There are much less intrusive ways (and more legal ways) to combat piracy.
