Covid 19

[JeffH]

Are all baby boomers like that?

I am one, have a mobile phone (mostly used as a communications device, only when I am away from home and not used to interrupt face to face interactions -not sorry for that), am fully vaccinated and not just for Covid.

I am reasonably computer literate too. I was compiling mainframe programs before PCs were around and don't take any notice of "OK boomer". I can even understand circuit diagrams and repair appliances and electronic devices.

That makes me what I am, neither more or less selfish than most people of any generation I suggest. Beware of generalisations, they are usually not helpful.

Bring on the debate!

P.S. You forgot to mention our contribution to climate change.

[JeffH]

[video=facebook]https://www.facebook.com/themysterio1991/videos/603992730583726[/video]

[fred lever]

Seedyrom seems to have his tongue in his cheek in #30?
I hope so.
Like Jeff H i was working with computers, me as a tech when they had VALVES.
I worked (amongst other things) in the electronics industry for 40 years before I "retired" mainly helping Jaycar while they were growing.
I hardly use a smart phone now because they are a porous item security wise not because I may be a Luddite (google that if you do not know).
Todays users have no idea of the technology how it works, actually most people have no idea how ANY thing works!
I "work" in a shed in the back yard now with machine tools and electronic equipment  and do what I like on a whim.
Making vintage radios from scratch is one hobby.
You also know me for working on coins when I feel like it.

No seedy I do not think I am petulant or a child or a selfish prick.
I think that as I approach 80 years on this planet I have a broad knowledge of sciences, engineering and am probably finally getting to be a mature thinker.
Your rant "destroyed the world economy, kept kids out of schools etc etc" sound like a pretty immature view to me and a bit offensive.
That sort of attitude blaming a section of our society for perceived ills usually has a hidden agenda.
Cheers, everybody.
Fred.

[JeffH]

Hi Fred,
Valve radios are fun to work with and components are still available even if some substitutions have to be made. The trick is to camouflage the new, usually smaller, modern component to look like the vintage one. And piss off all the perished, rubber insulated wiring.
The one thing that is not fun is to get a "boot" from an undischarged anode supply capacitor (maybe I should say "condenser" in the valve context). That wakes you up.
Cheers,
Jeff
P.S. Of course transistors have many advantages over valves; we don't have to live in the past but it is good to remember it. My first major transistor project was the Playmaster Forty Forty amplifier. Not sure where I bought the kit but most likely one of the York Street electronic parts shops. That amplifier was just retired this year. My most ambitious project was the Jaycar electronic piano and, of course, mine has some modifications and additions to circuitry -us tinkerers can't help ourselves.

[fred lever]

Hi Jeff, you can check out my "valve" exploits, most of them are logged onto the Australian "Vintage Radio" web site hosted by Brad Leet.
The site is in a bit of a mess at the moment, sections of it dont work with but you can log on and open up the threads and take a look.
I put my work in the "special projects" section, i just about took over the whole topic on the forum in the last 5 years!

I suspect I am one of the few old farts left capable of building a piece of valve electronics from scratch, that is making the chassis, winding the coils, knock up a cabinet and so on.
The era i grew up in was very exciting that is the 1950's to the 1980's. The technology  went from black bakelite telephones and valves through transistors then chips.
Computors went from valve + relay through to chipsets. On the hobby front I was one of the guys who fixed Electronics Australia kit sets using the Motorola 6800 processor, the DREAM computor. At the same time up to my neck in mainframes, tape drives and god knows what else.

You will see the odd article in Silicon Chip now where I play with various devices, the current editor is allowing a more diverse range of vintage authors than the previous.
Hey this is rivetting stuff coin people!
Just to balance the topic you of course can laugh at some of the coin stuff I serve up in the "CAB" magazine.
I love getting into the nuts and bolts of any hobby, be it electronics, cars, coins or whatever.
Fred.

[nealeffendi]

Sorry guys, but baby boomers and older are the most selfish generation on the planet.

We've destroyed the world economy, kept kids out of schools, made individuals spend a fortune kitting out their home offices, decimated the tourism industry ... just to keep you alive. We will be paying off this debt via our taxes for decades.

What thanks do we get?
"I don't want to use a phone or data".

Stop acting like petulant children. Get your vaccinations, and stop being selfish pricks.

Boohoo.

Did someone get out of the wrong side of the bed?
Every generation is selfish and it is as much the soft younger generations with their "safe spaces" as the old farts who pushed for these lockdowns.
If you want to get the vaccine, then get it. If you don't then don't. If you are scared of a new strain of the common cold (the common cold is sometimes rhinoviruses, sometimes coronaviruses and sometimes other bugs; there was 4 strains of coronaviruses, now there are 5) then isolate yourself, if you want to take a chance then get out and live (and maybe die doing so).
As for taxes, I worked serious hours last week and for the week I had over $2600 taken out as tax :@. 
Yes, I know those taxes will go to pay for Fred etc to relax with his valves and whatnot, but then again he paid taxes for how many decades? Same with all the other old farts on this forum.

[JeffH]

And a lot of the old farts have a wealth of experience they would just love to pass on to later generations.
(Check my signature that was here before this particular discussion started.)

[fred lever]

Hi Neal, go for it buddy!
Your taxes will definitely keep me in clover for years!
Good for you putting in huge hours to protect us  from morons.
And yes, I reckon I paid so much tax over 70 plus years filling in tax forms I have supported heaps of oldies back then.

I worked several jobs at any one time and ran my own buisness from home as well.
I was proud to pay heaps of tax, the more tax you pay, the more you are earning.
Unlike the whining I hear from your usual "worker" constantly moaning about taxes and how unfair life is.
Most  "workers" would not work in an "Iron Lung". (Google it if you dont know).

Dont know how to do something? New technology?  hit the library, do a tafe course.
Then start a buisness about it once you work out how to do it.
Spend money, buy the gear, charge to do the work, get stuck in.
That is how you pay more tax and wind up comfortable in your dotage.

Now you know how to do it guys and gals go for it!
Fred.

[autocoupler]

Not able to contribute anything of worth to any conversation directed at computers or valve radios, apart from coiling the aerial wire around the broom stick. Also remembering my first foray into the world of sieber space, when being shown a sequence of key strokes and then prompted to hit "ENTER" by a tutor at my place of work in the mid eighties, I replied WTFT. 

I do recall as well though, the names Gates, Jobs, Wosniak etc. All Baby Boomers of course, who developed the playthings that current generations queue obsessively for. Really, the current generations have done nothing yet, they're still riding on the coat tails of what Mum and Dad achieved.

"I want it now", a saying associated with the younger generations, big house full of all the gadgets, new cars in the driveway and huge debt. No doubt, when the piper comes calling, it'll always be the fault of those dastardly Baby Boomers.

Hopefully, this China virus will be brought to heel eventually, then there'll be nothing left to whine about except for climate change. Man made climate change that is, the biggest con since the flat earth theory. Oh dear!! :huh:

[gweidion]

Hi Jeff, you can check out my "valve" exploits, most of them are logged onto the Australian "Vintage Radio" web site hosted by Brad Leet.

Hey Fred, can you give us a web address please? I'd love to have a look at your work. I tried googling but ended up here
https://www.avrs.org.au/
and couldn't see any special projects.

[fred lever]

That web address is"http://vintage-radio.com.au".
That will open up a front page with headings and then click on "special projects".
I log on as a member, I think non-members can peek but not poke.
Hope you get enjoyment from my many struggles with old tech!
I covered a lot of theory in most builds trying to understand how the hell things worked.
Fred.

[JeffH]

Vintage Radio & Television - Special Projects

Edit; don't use, see Fred's subsequent post.

[fred lever]

Oh Jeff, that link sends you to an out of date destination.
The site was nobbled and fragmented by circumstances and Brad Leet has restored operation, a long story.
That link takes you to a fragment still floating about but not part of the complete site.
My posts should be dated up to 2021 in that "special projects" forum page.
Fred.

[JeffH]

Thanks Fred, I will check the link you posted.
As an ex bass guitar player I read your series on that with interest. Back in the late sixties my amplifier was all of 40W -all valve of course. Came from A.C.E Radio with speaker box containing two MSP 12" woofers. I duplicated the box with a home built one.
I was in great demand from other band members to make effects units -fuzz box, wah wah pedal etc. Even an echo unit with a portable reel to reel recorder and a couple of extra heads.

[JeffH]

Gave your link address a go Fred and it took me to same place I already had. Latest post I could see is yesterday.
But go to Discussion Forums>Special Projects and latest post is one from you 10 October 2020.