Hello, newbie here.

[Simon]

the title of the thread was pretty much "hello world", theres not much more to talk about on that. If we applied rules as you suggest there would be no forum and we'd spend all of our time having to move/rename topics and edit the entire forum. I'm happy to see a first topic slip but would expect future topics to stay roughly on topic. You are being a bit pedantic.

[oldway]

the title of the thread was pretty much "hello world", theres not much more to talk about on that. If we applied rules as you suggest there would be no forum and we'd spend all of our time having to move/rename topics and edit the entire forum. I'm happy to see a first topic slip but would expect future topics to stay roughly on topic. You are being a bit pedantic.

I only try to understand the rules of the forum....I see most of the topics with a clear tittle and answers "on-topic"....
I am surprised to see a potpourri subject where we talk about different subjects without any relationship between them....Is that "pedantic" ?

[Simon]

This is a first topic by a new user with no more initial intent than anouncing themselves and expressing their interests. So some discussion has ensued, the actual topic title does not warrant any response per se if we want to do it by the book that much. As it is a first topic by a nerw user I don't care what it ends up talking about. I am sure the next time the new user creates a topic it will have a well defined purpose and the responses will be pertinent. Some forums do indeed have a "new member come and anouce yourself section" which is meant as a throw away section for users to make a first post in if they so wish to test the forum out. We don't have such a section and it's no surprise the begginers section will have such a topic as it's the most pertinent section for that.

The issue of staying on topic usually relates to things that can be a bit more controversial or for those users that can turn any topic in a political/religious you name it spin off to troll and argue in. This forum does also pride itself in not being over moderated and strict. Most of the rules are there for people who want to sail as close to the wind as they can and beyond and them use the lack of rules as an excuse for disruptive behaviour on the forum.

[FrankBuss]

I have easyflash, jiffydos and sd card reader on my c64 now

Here is a photo of my Commodore 64 I just snapped.  I am particularly proud of the little 1541 sticker I made for the built in SD card reader   [Another example of my very limited electronics experience lol.. pop in a board, find a way to mount it.. connect it up and go. After all these years, I am decent at soldering and de-soldering at least.]

Nice, I like the sticker. Yep, who would have thought back in the days that you could integrate a 1541 floppy drive, and thousands of disks, into the C64?

The EasyFlash 3 is a good device (my Kerberos cartridge emulates EasyFlash 1, too, so you can play Prince of Persia from CSDb with it, a very good C64 port). With the USB port of the EasyFlash 3 you can upload programs direct to the C64, good for cross compiling on a PC and fast testing on the real machine. That's very useful if you want to test some DIY hardware attached to it, or special SID features which the emulators can't do. It's crazy what you can do with the SID. Do you know this demo? Only recently VICE has been updated to play it correctly.



It sounds awesome, like an Amiga. But some of the magic of the simple SID sounds is lost with these new digi tricks.

Have fun with your SID-Arduino-MIDI project. If you have a good keyboard with knobs and wheels, maybe map the SID filters to the knobs and the wheel to the pitch, implement some C64 style effects like arpeggio, and then play some music Or write your own tracker on the Arduino and then write some music for it or port some of the old musics. One of my all time favorites is the Tetris music (no, not the annoying Gameboy music)

[MrAl]

I bet if the thread title was "Hello my name is Bob, I'm new here" I would have about half as many views.

Hello Jennifer.

Hello. Don't know what to say.  I guess I wish there was a Welcome Wagon subforum here.  Other forums have it.  I guess I apologize for trying to do a friendly introduction.

I'd love it if the moderator would just delete all references to gender from this thread and any negativity I or others have caused. I feel awkward.   Never had this issue before on other forums.  Not even in the muffwiggler DIY section.

Or better yet, it might be more convenient to just delete this entire thread, please.

Hi again Jen,

I think maybe you just need to grow a little thicker skin.  As i tried to explain before, there are nasty people on the web who will always find a way to cause trouble and believe me it is not anyway limited to gender.  Anything they can find that looks even a little questionable to THEM (not necessarily to anyone else) may get a nasty comment.
But overall i find many more nice people who like to help others regardless of gender or where they come from.

As to your project, if you have never built anything electronic yet maybe start with something simpler like an op amp circuit or something and dig into the theory and measurements and you'll get going pretty fast.

You also have to check more than the last post that was posted in a forum because there could be 10 posts after yours that you will want to read that may contain much useful information.

[oldway]

This is a first topic by a new user with no more initial intent than anouncing themselves and expressing their interests. So some discussion has ensued, the actual topic title does not warrant any response per se if we want to do it by the book that much. As it is a first topic by a nerw user I don't care what it ends up talking about. I am sure the next time the new user creates a topic it will have a well defined purpose and the responses will be pertinent. Some forums do indeed have a "new member come and anouce yourself section" which is meant as a throw away section for users to make a first post in if they so wish to test the forum out. We don't have such a section and it's no surprise the begginers section will have such a topic as it's the most pertinent section for that.

The issue of staying on topic usually relates to things that can be a bit more controversial or for those users that can turn any topic in a political/religious you name it spin off to troll and argue in. This forum does also pride itself in not being over moderated and strict. Most of the rules are there for people who want to sail as close to the wind as they can and beyond and them use the lack of rules as an excuse for disruptive behaviour on the forum.

Thank you for all these explanations but let me tell you that after all the time I spent on this forum to help others, I did not appreciate being the victim of personal attack on your part. .... I do not ask for any thanks for my more than 1000 posts, but there is a minimum of gratitude that must be respected, even when you are a moderator.

[Simon]

Thank you for all these explanations but let me tell you that after all the time I spent on this forum to help others, I did not appreciate being the victim of personal attack on your part. .... I do not ask for any thanks for my more than 1000 posts, but there is a minimum of gratitude that must be respected, even when you are a moderator.

I have not attacked you. I have simply explained how we try to run the forum to keep it reasonably orderly but also friendly. Maybe english is not your first language. As a moderator I don't see myself above anyone, I am simply entrusted to step in if things get out of hand and take the abuse I sometimes get for trying to preserve the forum for the MAJORITY despite a minority that sometimes try to disrupt things because they think it's fun. You should try being a moderator sometime .

[oldway]

You are being a bit pedantic.

Is this not a personal attack ? English is not my motherlinguage, but if I translate it in French, that's for sure an unfair and inacceptable personal attack.

[Simon]

Well in english it's not an attack, it's an expression of an opinion, and the "a bit" tones down the meaning of the word that follows, not that I'm an expert of english.

[oldway]

In French, to be pedantic is to treat others as if they were inferior, to lack them with respect and consideration.
It's has been a shock to hear this talk while I have been volunteering for almost 10 years to help others, mainly poor and disadvantaged people.
I am also participating for 4 years as volunteer of the repair cafes, repairing free of charge.all that people bring to us.
For an instant, I thought to quit this forum definitively.

[Simon]

In French, to be pedantic is to treat others as if they were inferior, to lack them with respect and consideration.
It's has been a shock to hear this talk while I have been volunteering for almost 10 years to help others, mainly poor and disadvantaged people.
I am also participating for 4 years as volunteer of the repair cafes, repairing free of charge.all that people bring to us.
For an instant, I thought to quit this forum definitively.

Well to be honest I have no idea what you do outside of this forum and what you do outside of this forum is totally irrelevant to this forum. Obviously it's very nice that you do these things and I also do quite an amount of voluntary work but I don't expect to get recognition for it on this forum.

Not that I'm an expert on language but in the past I have used the word pedantic as a compliment particularly when talking about an assembly house. Working for a company where documentation is often quite loose and ill-defined it is a pleasure sometimes a deal with a supplier that is pedantic about their paperwork as it forces my employer to allow me to produce precise documentation.

Words often have different meanings in different languages even though they are a direct translation. There will be an amount of culture behind their use.

[oldway]

If I understood correctly, to be pedantic would mean something like to be demanding.....something quite different than the french translation "être pédant" (Qui fait prétentieusement étalage de son savoir ; cuistre)

[Simon]

Well in English to be pedantic is to want something to be just so and so. If you are a pedantic boss then yes you would be demanding because you would be expecting other people to carry out things just the way you want them doing whether or not it is strictly necessary or productive. However it can also be applied in many other ways such as the way I used it where I was meaning that you were expecting the rules to be applied in such a rigid way that it was going to be almost pointless for the functioning of the forum if that makes sense. Or to put it another way pedantic can be used in replacement of strict. Your interpretation of the rules were very strict which in one word can be replaced by pedantic.

[oldway]

Ok, understood.....many thanks for your patience....

[EEVblog]

5) This is an electronics forum, so try to stay on-topic. We understand that threads drift off-topic, but try not to start deliberately and grossly off-topic stuff.
What is the definition of "off-topic" ?
The tittle of the thread seems to be the topic ....or not ?

Jenifier started the thread. If she wants to go on and discuss her technical stuff in here then she can.
But yes, it's better if people start separate threads for each new question, as it separates the discussions, but you don't have to harp on about it, she is new here.
Now a third of this thread is polluted by talk about this 

[ZeTeX]

If you want a fun and useful project maybe build a good current limited power supply, its a very useful thing and you learn a lot about electronics in general because generally when designing a PSU a lot of random knowledge about electronics is combined together, and you can make it 99% pure analog..
 
*I'm not talking about LM317 based PSU but more like from scratch with not IC's other then op amps.

[The Soulman]

If you want a fun and useful project maybe build a good current limited power supply, its a very useful thing and you learn a lot about electronics in general because generally when designing a PSU a lot of random knowledge about electronics is combined together, and you can make it 99% pure analog..
 
*I'm not talking about LM317 based PSU but more like from scratch with not IC's other then op amps.

In the original post from the original poster:

[About the only thing I have built that isn't digital related are a couple linear power supplies.. one for DIY LM3886 home stereo amplifier and another for my old commodore 64.  I understand how transformers, rectifiers, filtering caps work at least.]

[JenniferG]

Thanks everyone for all the help.  I got what I want out of this thread.  I introduced myself here (because there wasn't an Introductions sub-forum and I am a "beginner"), I gave info on my background along my current capabilities, and I did post with intent on perhaps getting some suggestions how I should approach learning electronics.

I've gotten excellent advice (thank you) and I've purchased the Art of Electronics (along with the labs book) and I'll learn about electronics sequentially using those books.  I doubt I'll do much of any projects until I get through with those books.

I enjoyed the friendly discussion back and forth as a typical introduction thread has.  I suggest this forum create an area for introductions, so this isn't a problem in the future.  Allowing free-for-all discussions within the introduction area, would be prudent.

Sorry to have annoyed anyone looking for specific "topic related" information -- despite me personally feeling this thread did not go off topic, because what I said and help I asked for is typical of an introduction thread. I feel it DID go off topic when gender related comments were introduced and perpetuated.

Again thank you for all that have helped me.  I appreciate all the helpful comments and friendly welcoming replies.

I'd appreciate it if a moderator would lock this thread now. This thread has fulfilled its usefulness.

[Brumby]

I am glad you have found your way to the EEVblog forum - and that you have found some very useful contributions on this first encounter.

The technical information available from members here is, indeed, quite varied - from people who have spent a few weeks blowing things up on their own hobby workbench to people who have spent 20 years ensuring things DON'T blow up in an industrial setting.  There are members here from all over the world and that is going to encompass a wide range of personalities, experience and opinions.

Hang in there.