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Parallax Is To Blame! — Parallax Forums

Parallax Is To Blame!

ajwardajward Posts: 1,130
edited 2011-06-20 00:48 in General Discussion
Dear Parallax,

Until late last year, I was just your usual computer geek with 12 Macs, 7 peecees and the odd Silicon Graphics and Sun workstations. On a whim, I bought a Boe Bot kit and things changed!

Now my floor is littered with boxes of resistors, capacitors and assorted nuts, screws, and plastic moldings. Scattered across my desk are numerous blinky, flashy, clicky and whirry things along with the lab power supply, two VOMs and oscilloscope. I've become the community leader in alkaline battery consumption.

I can see where this is headed... I'm doomed!

It's all your fault! :lol:

Amanda

PS - Just ordered the 7.2 volt motor and wheel kit, Propeller Dip parts kit and Ping sensor w/stand. (Not counting a few items from the local 'Shack)
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Comments

  • Roy ElthamRoy Eltham Posts: 3,000
    edited 2011-06-17 14:11
    This same (well very similar) thing happened to me a few years ago. It's all Parallax's fault. I blame Ken the most though, for being so nice and generous.

    Roy
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2011-06-17 14:23
    I think Chip is as much to blame as Ken. I don't think my addiction would have been quite as intense if Chip hadn't made the darn Propeller chip.

    It's like a show I saw on PBS about crystal meth. When the purity of the crystal meth goes up so do the addiction rates. The Prop is the super-pure crystal meth of the microcontroller world. Just one blinking LED is all it takes to get addicted.

    Duane
  • Roy ElthamRoy Eltham Posts: 3,000
    edited 2011-06-17 15:15
    Duane,
    You are right, Chip deserves a lot of the blame too. Lets just say Ken and Chip are both equally to blame!
  • HollyMinkowskiHollyMinkowski Posts: 1,398
    edited 2011-06-17 15:34
    Duane Degn wrote: »
    When the purity of the crystal meth goes up so do the addiction rates. The Prop is the super-pure crystal meth of the microcontroller world.

    It is a kind of addiction...maybe we need our own version of AMCs "Breaking Bad"
    As manufacturer and distributor Ken and Chip could play the lead roles ;-)
    images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjLkaBq7oNRFgePcMQE3AstoJ1ops8hwTZjlEBX_q3lry-Fin3
  • Matt GillilandMatt Gilliland Posts: 1,406
    edited 2011-06-17 15:48
    Yeah, well count yourselves lucky...

    I too was once, just like you. I once bought a single BS2, then another, then another.

    Chip and Ken (aka "the Borg") have a powerful influence over a week mind (witness me).

    I was assimilated.

    Yep, just like you, I drank the kool-aid.

    Resistance was futile...
    -Matt
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2011-06-17 15:57
    Ok, I'll start the official meeting. "Hi, I'm Jeff, I'm a propoholic"

    Bought a single Propeller Protoboard with programming plug...

    Now it's spilling out all over.. I'm writing help guides, games, programs, hosting expos...

    Parallax has a 8-cog(ehm! step) program for dealing with the addiction, but I'm afraid it only leads to more of the same! :)

    OBC
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2011-06-17 16:12
    You realize, of course, that Chip is busy working on the cure for our Prop I addiction, don't you? Parallax does not shy away from its social responsibilities!

    -Phil
  • Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
    edited 2011-06-17 16:15
    ajward wrote: »
    Dear Parallax,

    Until late last year, I was just your usual computer geek with 12 Macs, 7 peecees and the odd Silicon Graphics and Sun workstations. On a whim, I bought a Boe Bot kit and things changed!

    Now my floor is littered with boxes of resistors, capacitors and assorted nuts, screws, and plastic moldings. Scattered across my desk are numerous blinky, flashy, clicky and whirry things along with the lab power supply, two VOMs and oscilloscope..

    I know the feeling! My computer book shelves used to have all books - now it is plastic boxes of ICs, displays, components, sensors, etc. And I have to drag them all out when breadboarding circuits!

    bookcase.jpg
    parts.jpg
    ICs.jpg
    parts.jpg
    800 x 600 - 117K
    bookcase.jpg
    600 x 800 - 106K
    ICs.jpg
    800 x 600 - 113K
  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2011-06-17 16:31
    Very nicely organized, Ron!
  • schillschill Posts: 741
    edited 2011-06-17 16:59
    Ron Czapala wrote: »
    I know the feeling! My computer book shelves used to have all books - now it is plastic boxes of ICs, displays, components, sensors, etc. And I have to drag them all out when breadboarding circuits!

    I've had to start hanging parts bins (drawers) off the front of my bookshelves, doors, etc.

    It started with a BS1.
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2011-06-17 17:34
    I have actually been doing this kind of stuff since long before Parallax existed, and I've even been getting paid to do it since before they existed. I was hacking industrial control firmware in the 1980's and using early Basic Stamps and Blue Earth Controllers to glue things together that shouldn't have been able to talk in the 1990's. I still have parts in plastic drawers that I salvaged from vacuum tube TV sets in the 1970's as a teenager.

    But a few years ago I was surfing Hackaday when I saw the YBox2 as a featured hack. It was a mini web content mining appliance that fit in an Altoids tin. As I asked myself, how do you fit ethernet, video generation, and a CPU into an Altoids tin? I followed the link back to Parallax, from which I'd been buying the occasional Basic Stamp for years, to find they had made this amazing microprocessor. As the implications dawned on me I realized that my gradually dwindling career in hardware hacking was about to undergo a major expansion. There were several projects of dear importance to my corporate masters which are much, much easier to approach from Propellerland.

    But that doesn't explain the BOE-bot on my desk. OK, I got the BOE-bot from the freebie table at UPEW (I took the one that had obviously been returned without a box, not the new one) and I'm just sure I can write a navigation system for this thing that will outperform anything you usually see on this scale. Not that I need another thing to do, but it's just so... seductive... hang on, I think I've figured out how to mount the 5th battery holder to the Proteus PCB...
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2011-06-17 17:37
    HollyMinkowski wrote: »
    It is a kind of addiction...
    Duane Degn wrote: »
    .... I don't think my addiction would have been quite as intense...




    This's the most pathetic buncha self-pitying losers I've ever seen!

    You people are weak! Weak-minded, I tell ya.

    A strong will, that's all it takes. Me, I can quit this stuff any time I want.

    nick_nolte.jpg
  • icepuckicepuck Posts: 466
    edited 2011-06-17 18:13
    Heathkit gets the blame for my addiction, it started with the wireless mic kit , then the logic probe kit, then to the Hero1 robot that I still have to this day, some 24 years later.
    -dan
  • icepuckicepuck Posts: 466
    edited 2011-06-17 18:13
    Heathkit gets the blame for my addiction, it started with the wireless mic kit , then the logic probe kit, then to the Hero1 robot that I still have to this day, some 24 years later.
    -dan
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2011-06-17 18:47
    On the subject of storage for stuff, I ran across this Stanley Sortmaster at Home Depot. It's pretty big (see Parallax screwdriver for comparison) so not really good for small stuff like ICs and resistors and such, but perfect for larger items like transformers, spools of wire, motors, etc. The center six compartments are fixed but you get ten removable dividers (that fit tightly) for the area around the outside. The lid fits good with three separate latches and has recessed grooves for the dividers to fit up into so small things won't slip from one compartment to another.They were less than $10 so I bought four of them.

    StanleyBox.jpg
    StanleyBox.jpg
    1024 x 681 - 237K
  • schillschill Posts: 741
    edited 2011-06-17 18:48
    localroger wrote: »
    I have actually been doing this kind of stuff since long before Parallax existed...

    My electronics hobby certainly started before Parallax existed, but my first microcontroller was a BS1. I was soldering by 6th grade (mid-late seventies), had additional electronics hooked up to the TRS-80 Model I a few years later (does a Z-80 count?), and it just grew from there.
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2011-06-17 19:40
    Amanda,

    Admitting that you have a problem is the first step...
  • wjsteelewjsteele Posts: 697
    edited 2011-06-17 20:03
    Talk about a problem! I pay $1000 a month rent for an office to house all of my prop projects!!! (Well... I guess I did turn it into a paying hobby, so it's not all bad.)

    Bill
    Sr. Certified Propaholic, 1st Class
  • Roy ElthamRoy Eltham Posts: 3,000
    edited 2011-06-17 20:23
    Problem? What Problem?
  • HollyMinkowskiHollyMinkowski Posts: 1,398
    edited 2011-06-17 20:46
    ElectricEye

    OMG!
    Is that you?
    At the last Parallax get together perhaps. :innocent:
    nick_nolte.jpg
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2011-06-17 20:50
    I'm glad I'm not a Propaholic. I could never give up Spin!
    sio.str(string("Cheers!"))

    -Phil
  • HollyMinkowskiHollyMinkowski Posts: 1,398
    edited 2011-06-17 20:57
    PhiPi... Go, and Spin no more! LoL

    (obscure paraphrased Torah reference)
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2011-06-17 21:02
    Say what? The gospels are in the Torah now? This brings ecumenicalism to a whole new level! :)

    -Phil
  • HollyMinkowskiHollyMinkowski Posts: 1,398
    edited 2011-06-17 21:10
    LoL, I guess that's right...it is from the new and not the old testament.

    I don't know my Torah very well it appears :innocent:
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2011-06-17 21:34
    HollyMinkowski wrote: »
    PhiPi... Go, and Spin no more! LoL

    As the son of a minister... Groan!!! That's gotta be the best pun ever...

    OBC
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2011-06-17 22:06
    Ministers, priests, and pastor's daughters (my wife), we're an eclectic bunch. Science and religion, co-mingled. I can't be the only fan here of "A Canticle for Liebowitz" and "Angels & Demons"... please tell me otherwise.
  • markaericmarkaeric Posts: 282
    edited 2011-06-17 22:36
    If it wasn't for these forums, I probably would have never purchased a handful of SXs, and Prop kits after my Basic Stamp. The community on these forums is just as important as the Parallax staff, IMO.. Thanks everyone! And after all, there are a lot worse things one could be addicted to. :)
  • HollyMinkowskiHollyMinkowski Posts: 1,398
    edited 2011-06-17 23:16
    markaeric wrote: »
    And after all, there are a lot worse things one could be addicted to. :)

    That's so true.... a person could grow up and develop an embarrassing
    addiction to twitter and photography. <shudder>
    images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS32mnuRtFWE9ncdvWyLq2h7PgbJYn8lfO2d-ZREkKavAOPXXyB4g
  • markaericmarkaeric Posts: 282
    edited 2011-06-17 23:30
    HollyMinkowski wrote: »
    That's so true.... a person could grow up and develop an embarrassing
    addiction to twitter and photography. <shudder>
    images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS32mnuRtFWE9ncdvWyLq2h7PgbJYn8lfO2d-ZREkKavAOPXXyB4g

    lol... Irony overload!
  • HollyMinkowskiHollyMinkowski Posts: 1,398
    edited 2011-06-17 23:43
    markaeric wrote: »
    lol... Irony overload!

    LoL

    With that name the jokes just write themselves :lol:

    Still, it could be worse...much worse.

    "It's so nice to meet you Mr Weiner"
    "Please, call me Harry"
    "And this is my unfortunate wife, Ima."
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