I suspect Zoot came closest to the correct answer. Your personality and cognitive traits will determine both your lifestyle and level of interest and learning about microcontrollers.
Oh it's so tempting to make a snarky remark, but I know by "lifestyle" you probably mean some combination of "personality" and "habits." Others have had good suggestions, but I'd like to add a slightly different one:
You have to be inspired by the magic.
When I was a kid and few people had access to computers at all, the magic hobby was ham radio and the magic was being able to talk directly to people half-way around the world without long-distance fees and other obstacles. Nowadays, with the Internet, we don't see that as being all that magical and the idea of leaving a message and finding a response a bit later from someone on another continent seems almost mundane. But I remember being startled in the late 1990's when, on a Usenet forum, I had a rapid-fire exchange with a fellow in Australia in the course of a few minutes over the different ways our electrical outlets were configured. Ham radio still has its attractions for some people but the magic of reaching around the world to meet new and different people is no longer special to it.
The magic of microcontrollers is that of creating something that you can set in motion and which will, while you stand back and watch, perform complex functions all on its own. It's the almost godlike power to create a servant, playmate, or pet that is capable of doing something you can't do or of surprising you despite the fact that you made it. It's a magic that drew many of us into the computer sciences in the 1970's and early 80's when computers were still rare and exotic but also, generally, comprehensible by mortals. That magic was all but killed in the 1990's by designs that got so complex and proprietary that only businesses which could afford expensive licenses and development systems could create really professional and useful products. Computers no longer shipped with BASIC interpreters or even any way to program them at all, and the ability to understand how the computer worked ceased to be a factor in whether you could usefully use one.
But microcontrollers have brought that magic back to ordinary people. If that magic seduces you, then you will learn whatever arts and acquire whatever means you need to work it; it's no longer expensive or difficult to build things that would have required years of study and tens of thousands of dollars to create in 1995. The barriers have dropped and if you want to build a robot that fetches beer from the fridge, a custom disco light floor, something to play your music according to the semi-random algorithm of your own design from a SD card, or any of a thousand similar things that you can't get any other way, the path is there if you have the interest.
roger, you make an excellent point. That's what I like about scientific instruments - they can make the invisible visible. When I was a kid, the magic was a telescope or a microscope. With your naked eye, you couldn't just see what was on the "other side," but with your scope you could. Then I found out oscilloscopes could allow you to peer into another kind of invisible world, a world in which things happen so fast, it's totally incomprehensible. And other types of instruments let you see radiation, things deep inside the earth, or back in time, and things inside your body, peering into planets and craniums and thunderstorms as though they were made of glass. These little chips now make it possible for common slobs to build things to explore everything around them. It's kinda frightening sometimes to think that common slobs have that kind of access to magic, but here we are.
Having relicensed and rediscovered ham radio a couple years ago, I've found that the magic never really disappeared. The keyword here is "disintermediation." With ham radio (barring repeaters, of course), it's just you, the person on the other end, your respective equipment, and antennae piercing the ether, without any cell towers, fiber optics, or other stuff in the way. And, compared with digital design, RF design is hard -- magic juju, if you will -- which only increases its allure for many. Personally, I've been struggling to get an answer to my CQs from a 40m QRP transceiver I built for a friend from a kit, using a homemade loop antenna. So far, no luck, which is frustrating but intensifies my determination to make it work. I don't deny that part of the attraction to ham radio stems from nostalgia. But a lot has happened in the hobby since I pursued it as a kid. The catalogs from HRO and AES certainly contain more twiddly knobs and blinkenlights than any microcontroller hobby could ever hope to serve up. The only thing better would be to combine the two interests -- and I'm working on that!
Living alone is Taiwan is helpful. I guess that would mean a misanthropic personality is helpful.
But I suspect it is more about one that has a great deal of interest in electronics and also is able to visualize how code is really processed within a microprocessor. One has to enjoy the multilevel abstractions that come together to make digital information storage and processing a rather powerful whole.
C, C++, and Java may all be good for regular computers, but for a micro-controller they are all rather too high level. PBasic works so well because it is very close to the level of the microcontroller.
If one really wants to do the kind of thing Parallax has succeeded at - the creation of a tokenizer in PBasic or Spin - one should take a look at Unix/Linux and software like YACC and LEX. This area is greatly ignored and misunderstood.
Okay, I have to admit that I have been living on Chinese take out since July of 1994. But that is only because I have been living in Taiwan without a refrigerator or kitchen since then.
Am I making this sound worse that it is? I haven't done laundry since then either as it all goes to the laundry across the street for a monthly fee.
And does riding a motor scooter instead of driving a car make the lifestyle worse? The dog, rather like a black German Shepard with one blue eye and one brown eye rides the motor scooter with me as well.
Oh, and I study Chinese and linguistics a lot. (There goes the neighborhood.)
At least being a foreigner is a plus with the ladies in Taiwan.
Okay, I have to admit that I have been living on Chinese take out since July of 1994. But that is only because I have been living in Taiwan without a refrigerator or kitchen since then.
I enjoyed my time in Taipei and the food was good. Chinese food in Japan had a bit more flavor ... except they didn't have stinky tofu.
Okay, I have to admit that I have been living on Chinese take out since July of 1994. But that is only because I have been living in Taiwan without a refrigerator or kitchen since then.
Am I making this sound worse that it is? I haven't done laundry since then either as it all goes to the laundry across the street for a monthly fee.
And does riding a motor scooter instead of driving a car make the lifestyle worse? The dog, rather like a black German Shepard with one blue eye and one brown eye rides the motor scooter with me as well.
Oh, and I study Chinese and linguistics a lot. (There goes the neighborhood.)
At least being a foreigner is a plus with the ladies in Taiwan.
That's a long time, from '94 until now.
I used to study Chinese during primary school and in saturday classes, but gave up on it. I struggled too bad, I bailed out. Still could not get the pinyins correct. All the time, I grew up speaking mainly English, Cantonese and Malay, and I admit my Cantonese is only good for conversations and not really for watching Hong Kong dramas/movies ( I ended up looking at Malay subtitles for scientific/law terms expressed in Cantonese ).
Many of my friends and students speak mainly Mandarin, been exposed for too long, but still couldn't master it. On the other hand, I could learn basic Dutch in just mere 16 hours, and Japanese in just one semester equivalent, without breaking a sweat. I'm still amazed at how the Chinese guys and girls speak, read and write Mandarin, which is probably the toughest language in the world. I could write my own name in Mandarin, that's for sure, and a few other actual Mandarin words. Rest of them, Japanese kanji.
On the other hand, I don't really eat much Chinese food. Many Chinese restaurants in my country is filthy, and my stomach is very sensitive. Dim-sums and cold soft drinks only works for me if I'm visiting the food stalls.
Still, Chinese food does not affect how I learn a language.
Yes, having been living abroad since '94 is a bit of a stretch. But I am really happy not to be living in the US these days with the high unemployment and all.
Still, a lot of hobbies are just impossible here as one has to import everything or deal with the language barrier. Microcontrollers are a blessing and Parallax has always had superb support. So I eventually got back into the electronics hobby I pretty much abandoned.
Frankly, the most successful personalities - Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs - do not speak well for mental health. But having a hobby that requires maths and research is a good thing for just about anyone.
My Chinese isn't that great. I suspect that what is said about Asian character based languages using different centers of the brain for reading and writing are true. Nonetheless, I do read and write as well as speak. Maybe in another 15 years it will be good. And by then, I will be able to write my own compiler from scratch as well.
Maybe I should install a 'personal cubicle' at home to enhance my creativity and be like Dilbert.
"avoid sedentary" - Well said Humanoido! ... I can't express this enough... until I was 40 I didn't have to worry about this sort of thing, but as soon as I hit 40 it's like someone flipped a switch. I used to bike 90 to 120 miles a week, just because. Now, where I live isn't as conducive to that luxury, or it is, but now days I'd rather walk than ride... So I walk every day that I can at least 3.5 miles during my lunch which takes about 50 minutes. Besides, I'd have to bike about 10.5 miles in the same time frame to get similar health benefits from walking. Walking is beneficial to more muscle groups than riding.
Anyway, bottom line... find some form or outlet (exercise is best) that changes your surroundings and take time to do it, rather than sitting in front of a computer 24/7
Here's an idea for the Red Cross fundraiser at the next UPEW. Start taking pledges for how much people will donate for each pound you lose between now and then. I'm in for $2/pound.
Being stubborn helps a great deal. You have to be willing to keep trying in spite of failure until you get it right. This comes naturally to me as I come from a long line of hard headed Dutchman.
"avoid sedentary" - Well said Humanoido! ... I can't express this enough... until I was 40 I didn't have to worry about this sort of thing, but as soon as I hit 40 it's like someone flipped a switch. I used to bike 90 to 120 miles a week, just because. Now, where I live isn't as conducive to that luxury, or it is, but now days I'd rather walk than ride... So I walk every day that I can at least 3.5 miles during my lunch which takes about 50 minutes. Besides, I'd have to bike about 10.5 miles in the same time frame to get similar health benefits from walking. Walking is beneficial to more muscle groups than riding.
Anyway, bottom line... find some form or outlet (exercise is best) that changes your surroundings and take time to do it, rather than sitting in front of a computer 24/7
I agree.
But, I don't walk that much. I lifted weights. And more weights. of course, it's in the gymnasium. With tattered curtains, and old dumbells and machines. Sorta like a sweaty place and pumping iron thingy.
Tounge firmly in cheek I'm sure. Thanks for the laugh! I'm still giggling.
I enjoyed my time in Taipei and the food was good. Chinese food in Japan had a bit more flavor ... except they didn't have stinky tofu.
I once got a whiff of the Stinky Tofu. Needless to say, I can't explain how it smelled.
It smells like it's in between the unwashed sweaty clothing that is not washed for some time, and a bit of worn socks, and a bit more of a rancid butter. I wouldn't eat that either that much!
Not sure lifestyle is the word you were going for.
Perhaps you meant what kind of personality, or
personality quirks lend themselves to doing well
with something as exacting as embedded
systems work.
OCD seems to be a plus. Being obsessive and compulsive
about bugs is what drives me to test, test and test again.
I enjoy being able to have total control over the world inside
the processor. It's the only thing I have ever found that I can
control completely...and I like it.
I enjoy really getting inside the processor, if you know what I mean.
Just can't do good work on something that I don't understand completely.
I have to be inside looking out.
I have to code alone. I can't handle having other people doing things I
can't control. In a team the work slows to a crawl as I try to maintain a grasp
of everything the others are up to. This was a real problem at my last
workplace...finally I was doing the coding and the rest of them were
pouring over the code looking for errors and making suggestions that I
was allowed to accept of reject.
What I'm doing now is a lot like programming in a way. It feels like I am using
the same skill set. I work with a small group and our job is to analyze a
problem and come up with possible solutions. What I like most is that I get
to ask pretty much anyone any question and they are required to respond
until I am satisfied. This is just so cool! One person was slow in getting back to the
group with some technical explanations and was eventually dragged in bodily
to provide the info.
OCD seems to be a plus. Being obsessive and compulsive
about bugs is what drives me to test, test and test again.
I enjoy being able to have total control over the world inside
the processor. It's the only thing I have ever found that I can
control completely...and I like it.
I'm pretty sure my wife has OCD and thinks I'm a processor ....
Regarding stinky tofu - the Taiwanese stuff in the night markets is rather tame, comes in large lumps and served deep fried. To me, it is just a wee bit sour.
The Japanese have cultivated their own stinky tofu that is served uncooked, comes in a small bits, and is likely to put you off eating tofu for quite some time. I believe it is called natto tofu.
Personally, I prefer all my tofu fresh rather than fermented.
Eating disgusting foods is NOT a requirement of learning microcontrollers.
The former wife of a friend of mine came from Kunming, and they always went there for a holiday every summer, so I asked them to bring some back for me. Unfortunately, it doesn't keep very well, so they didn't bother.
Yunnan, where Kunming is located, is known as The Land of Eternal Spring, because of the nice weather. It's like our summer, all year long, apparently.
Comments
-Phil
You have to be inspired by the magic.
When I was a kid and few people had access to computers at all, the magic hobby was ham radio and the magic was being able to talk directly to people half-way around the world without long-distance fees and other obstacles. Nowadays, with the Internet, we don't see that as being all that magical and the idea of leaving a message and finding a response a bit later from someone on another continent seems almost mundane. But I remember being startled in the late 1990's when, on a Usenet forum, I had a rapid-fire exchange with a fellow in Australia in the course of a few minutes over the different ways our electrical outlets were configured. Ham radio still has its attractions for some people but the magic of reaching around the world to meet new and different people is no longer special to it.
The magic of microcontrollers is that of creating something that you can set in motion and which will, while you stand back and watch, perform complex functions all on its own. It's the almost godlike power to create a servant, playmate, or pet that is capable of doing something you can't do or of surprising you despite the fact that you made it. It's a magic that drew many of us into the computer sciences in the 1970's and early 80's when computers were still rare and exotic but also, generally, comprehensible by mortals. That magic was all but killed in the 1990's by designs that got so complex and proprietary that only businesses which could afford expensive licenses and development systems could create really professional and useful products. Computers no longer shipped with BASIC interpreters or even any way to program them at all, and the ability to understand how the computer worked ceased to be a factor in whether you could usefully use one.
But microcontrollers have brought that magic back to ordinary people. If that magic seduces you, then you will learn whatever arts and acquire whatever means you need to work it; it's no longer expensive or difficult to build things that would have required years of study and tens of thousands of dollars to create in 1995. The barriers have dropped and if you want to build a robot that fetches beer from the fridge, a custom disco light floor, something to play your music according to the semi-random algorithm of your own design from a SD card, or any of a thousand similar things that you can't get any other way, the path is there if you have the interest.
Exactly!
roger, you make an excellent point. That's what I like about scientific instruments - they can make the invisible visible. When I was a kid, the magic was a telescope or a microscope. With your naked eye, you couldn't just see what was on the "other side," but with your scope you could. Then I found out oscilloscopes could allow you to peer into another kind of invisible world, a world in which things happen so fast, it's totally incomprehensible. And other types of instruments let you see radiation, things deep inside the earth, or back in time, and things inside your body, peering into planets and craniums and thunderstorms as though they were made of glass. These little chips now make it possible for common slobs to build things to explore everything around them. It's kinda frightening sometimes to think that common slobs have that kind of access to magic, but here we are.
Having relicensed and rediscovered ham radio a couple years ago, I've found that the magic never really disappeared. The keyword here is "disintermediation." With ham radio (barring repeaters, of course), it's just you, the person on the other end, your respective equipment, and antennae piercing the ether, without any cell towers, fiber optics, or other stuff in the way. And, compared with digital design, RF design is hard -- magic juju, if you will -- which only increases its allure for many. Personally, I've been struggling to get an answer to my CQs from a 40m QRP transceiver I built for a friend from a kit, using a homemade loop antenna. So far, no luck, which is frustrating but intensifies my determination to make it work. I don't deny that part of the attraction to ham radio stems from nostalgia. But a lot has happened in the hobby since I pursued it as a kid. The catalogs from HRO and AES certainly contain more twiddly knobs and blinkenlights than any microcontroller hobby could ever hope to serve up. The only thing better would be to combine the two interests -- and I'm working on that!
-Phil
AD7YF
I can attest that having young children is not a good lifestyle for doing microcontrollers. If you have then, rent them out to a factory or something.
But I suspect it is more about one that has a great deal of interest in electronics and also is able to visualize how code is really processed within a microprocessor. One has to enjoy the multilevel abstractions that come together to make digital information storage and processing a rather powerful whole.
C, C++, and Java may all be good for regular computers, but for a micro-controller they are all rather too high level. PBasic works so well because it is very close to the level of the microcontroller.
If one really wants to do the kind of thing Parallax has succeeded at - the creation of a tokenizer in PBasic or Spin - one should take a look at Unix/Linux and software like YACC and LEX. This area is greatly ignored and misunderstood.
Am I making this sound worse that it is? I haven't done laundry since then either as it all goes to the laundry across the street for a monthly fee.
And does riding a motor scooter instead of driving a car make the lifestyle worse? The dog, rather like a black German Shepard with one blue eye and one brown eye rides the motor scooter with me as well.
Oh, and I study Chinese and linguistics a lot. (There goes the neighborhood.)
At least being a foreigner is a plus with the ladies in Taiwan.
I enjoyed my time in Taipei and the food was good. Chinese food in Japan had a bit more flavor ... except they didn't have stinky tofu.
That's a long time, from '94 until now.
I used to study Chinese during primary school and in saturday classes, but gave up on it. I struggled too bad, I bailed out. Still could not get the pinyins correct. All the time, I grew up speaking mainly English, Cantonese and Malay, and I admit my Cantonese is only good for conversations and not really for watching Hong Kong dramas/movies ( I ended up looking at Malay subtitles for scientific/law terms expressed in Cantonese ).
Many of my friends and students speak mainly Mandarin, been exposed for too long, but still couldn't master it. On the other hand, I could learn basic Dutch in just mere 16 hours, and Japanese in just one semester equivalent, without breaking a sweat. I'm still amazed at how the Chinese guys and girls speak, read and write Mandarin, which is probably the toughest language in the world. I could write my own name in Mandarin, that's for sure, and a few other actual Mandarin words. Rest of them, Japanese kanji.
On the other hand, I don't really eat much Chinese food. Many Chinese restaurants in my country is filthy, and my stomach is very sensitive. Dim-sums and cold soft drinks only works for me if I'm visiting the food stalls.
Still, Chinese food does not affect how I learn a language.
Still, a lot of hobbies are just impossible here as one has to import everything or deal with the language barrier. Microcontrollers are a blessing and Parallax has always had superb support. So I eventually got back into the electronics hobby I pretty much abandoned.
Frankly, the most successful personalities - Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs - do not speak well for mental health. But having a hobby that requires maths and research is a good thing for just about anyone.
My Chinese isn't that great. I suspect that what is said about Asian character based languages using different centers of the brain for reading and writing are true. Nonetheless, I do read and write as well as speak. Maybe in another 15 years it will be good. And by then, I will be able to write my own compiler from scratch as well.
Maybe I should install a 'personal cubicle' at home to enhance my creativity and be like Dilbert.
Anyway, bottom line... find some form or outlet (exercise is best) that changes your surroundings and take time to do it, rather than sitting in front of a computer 24/7
OBC
Here's an idea for the Red Cross fundraiser at the next UPEW. Start taking pledges for how much people will donate for each pound you lose between now and then. I'm in for $2/pound.
I agree.
But, I don't walk that much. I lifted weights. And more weights. of course, it's in the gymnasium. With tattered curtains, and old dumbells and machines. Sorta like a sweaty place and pumping iron thingy.
Could it be also exercise?
I once got a whiff of the Stinky Tofu. Needless to say, I can't explain how it smelled.
It smells like it's in between the unwashed sweaty clothing that is not washed for some time, and a bit of worn socks, and a bit more of a rancid butter. I wouldn't eat that either that much!
Perhaps you meant what kind of personality, or
personality quirks lend themselves to doing well
with something as exacting as embedded
systems work.
OCD seems to be a plus. Being obsessive and compulsive
about bugs is what drives me to test, test and test again.
I enjoy being able to have total control over the world inside
the processor. It's the only thing I have ever found that I can
control completely...and I like it.
I enjoy really getting inside the processor, if you know what I mean.
Just can't do good work on something that I don't understand completely.
I have to be inside looking out.
I have to code alone. I can't handle having other people doing things I
can't control. In a team the work slows to a crawl as I try to maintain a grasp
of everything the others are up to. This was a real problem at my last
workplace...finally I was doing the coding and the rest of them were
pouring over the code looking for errors and making suggestions that I
was allowed to accept of reject.
What I'm doing now is a lot like programming in a way. It feels like I am using
the same skill set. I work with a small group and our job is to analyze a
problem and come up with possible solutions. What I like most is that I get
to ask pretty much anyone any question and they are required to respond
until I am satisfied. This is just so cool! One person was slow in getting back to the
group with some technical explanations and was eventually dragged in bodily
to provide the info.
I'm pretty sure my wife has OCD and thinks I'm a processor ....
The Japanese have cultivated their own stinky tofu that is served uncooked, comes in a small bits, and is likely to put you off eating tofu for quite some time. I believe it is called natto tofu.
Personally, I prefer all my tofu fresh rather than fermented.
Eating disgusting foods is NOT a requirement of learning microcontrollers.
http://www.chinatravel.com/Yunnan/Kunming/food/smoked-smelly-bean-curd/
The former wife of a friend of mine came from Kunming, and they always went there for a holiday every summer, so I asked them to bring some back for me. Unfortunately, it doesn't keep very well, so they didn't bother.
Yunnan, where Kunming is located, is known as The Land of Eternal Spring, because of the nice weather. It's like our summer, all year long, apparently.