Picking Up Hobbies
These days, I'm learning new things again.
First, I've been doing a self-study electronics gig, which is coming along nicely. I'm taking things slowly, making sure I understand the what's & why's at every stage, and basically studying the subject the way I wish I had learned to study every subject. I'm almost to the point of being able to actually sit down and design useful gizmos. The only things holding me back are the number of components I understand / know about, and developing more of an intuitive sense of relative scales as far as voltages, currents, capacitances, and so so on go.
The second, and more important, of my new hobbies is - wait for it - electronic music. Not listening to it, not collecting it, but - wait for it again - making it. I started out thinking that I could get away with using csound, but except for the most basic experimentation, that option has turned out to be far more painful and time-consuming than the sort of commercial programs available for Windows these days. Given that the linux drivers for my sound card (Audigy 2 Platinum) still don't seem to support the 24-bit / 96Khz output mode yet, and Windows most certainly does, I will most likely end up spending more time playing in Microsoft's sandbox.
More later.
First, I've been doing a self-study electronics gig, which is coming along nicely. I'm taking things slowly, making sure I understand the what's & why's at every stage, and basically studying the subject the way I wish I had learned to study every subject. I'm almost to the point of being able to actually sit down and design useful gizmos. The only things holding me back are the number of components I understand / know about, and developing more of an intuitive sense of relative scales as far as voltages, currents, capacitances, and so so on go.
The second, and more important, of my new hobbies is - wait for it - electronic music. Not listening to it, not collecting it, but - wait for it again - making it. I started out thinking that I could get away with using csound, but except for the most basic experimentation, that option has turned out to be far more painful and time-consuming than the sort of commercial programs available for Windows these days. Given that the linux drivers for my sound card (Audigy 2 Platinum) still don't seem to support the 24-bit / 96Khz output mode yet, and Windows most certainly does, I will most likely end up spending more time playing in Microsoft's sandbox.
More later.