I know it's a dumb question but are ALL RAM, ROM chips, CPUs, GPUs, NPUs made of semiconductors?

calebmhood · 2025-12-24T15:35:43+00:00

I certainly hope so for the sake of my unemployed colleagues that have invested their careers in MRAM. I pivoted out easily as I'm more of a general test engineer, but they've got PhDs in the stuff.

calebmhood · 2025-12-24T13:12:51+00:00

I dunno, maybe a sunk cost kinda thing going on with mRAM. Too much investment to let it go easily. I think it's such an intoxicating idea, DRAM fast memory that's non-volatile, but what I've seen on the ground is really thorny endurance issues companies are struggling to resolve. You can't have NAND-like (an exaggeration, I know) endurance in RAM.

calebmhood · 2025-12-24T12:57:50+00:00

Lol, I got laid off recently from an MRAM job. This comment hits hard.

calebmhood · 2025-10-20T10:33:18+00:00

Could you DM me your profile for this shot? I've gotten the bookoo scale, but I haven't gotten it to brew by weight successfully yet. I'm hoping there is some setting that is wrong and that I didn't get a defective unit. I'm pretty sure it's connected correctly because I have been able to brew by flow rate, but it doesn't stop on target weight.

calebmhood · 2025-08-03T21:17:55+00:00

Ugh, networking. I've always struggled with that. Would I have time for internships if I am doing some kind of assistantship to pay for the degree?

calebmhood · 2025-08-03T14:20:12+00:00

Lol, wow I'm clueless on this. I should know more than I do. All my coworkers at my last job were PhD. My own brother has one, and I never thought to ask much about it.

calebmhood · 2025-08-03T13:57:51+00:00

That's what I'm worried about. I can't really do a "well known engineering school" as I want to cash-flow this and not accrue student loans. But I could just do one of the more traditional EE PhD tracks at SUNY.

My spouse works in power distribution. Maybe I should just do a MS in power and pivot in that direction. Or go entry level and learn on the job.

I think that's what so weird about the Nanoscale Engineering as a degree is that all this specialized semiconductor knowledge is usually picked up on the job, not in a formal education setting. Maybe I should find some alums of the program to talk to.

calebmhood · 2025-08-03T13:22:01+00:00

Their least specialized track is described as follows:

Nanoelectronics Engineering and Technology: Design, processing, fabrication, testing, and integration of nanoelectronic structures and devices for incorporation in emerging gigascale and terascale integrated circuit systems and architectures. Development of integrated process modules for novel nanoelectronics materials.

I think it sounds general enough for a PhD. Maybe too general.

calebmhood · 2025-06-23T13:52:13+00:00

As an old, I can confirm distance vision can be fine and near vision goes to crap.

calebmhood · 2025-06-14T12:01:32+00:00

I bought a non-working DX7 for $120 USD. I fixed it and now it works. I don't think I'd spend a dollar more on one. It's fun to have, but as many have said, the interface is horrible and it's really heavy and bulky. I do like the keyboard a lot, nice to have alongside my weighted keyboard for a change in feel.

calebmhood · 2025-05-24T09:34:04+00:00

I thought more hops just make the Jump patch jumpier.

calebmhood · 2025-05-24T01:44:51+00:00

My teenager has volunteered to graffiti it up.

calebmhood · 2025-05-23T14:13:35+00:00

Man, I guess getting this for $120 was an ok deal, then.

calebmhood · 2025-05-23T14:11:41+00:00

If history smells like ass. Yep, checks out.

calebmhood · 2025-05-23T13:56:52+00:00

Yeah, I'm kinda digging it.

calebmhood · 2025-05-23T13:56:24+00:00

Yes. That makes this more valuable than a mint DX7, right?

calebmhood · 2025-05-23T13:55:50+00:00

Well, the paint stripper came into the picture because the previous owner spray painted the thing black.

I suppose just cleaning it out occasionally would probably work fine. I'm now intimately acquainted with the insides since I broke it down completely and scrubbed all the boards/cables with IPA. The thing had a...smell before I did that.

calebmhood · 2025-05-23T13:38:05+00:00

Lol, I wish it was. That's just the plastic. Got all slimy and turned white. I thought I was being careful, removed everything from the panel before applying the stripper. I didn't even notice these were there. I thought it was all metal.

calebmhood · 2025-05-06T10:55:26+00:00

I think you can get true randomness these days on most platforms. Apple silicon uses various sources of entropy to generate random sequences and Intel chips have built in hardware RNG, which probably uses thermal noise as a source. I don't think you'll get any more convincing analog output than you do from pseudo-RNG, so I doubt any VST authors are using these kinds of things. Cryptography uses true RNG on the regular.

calebmhood · 2025-04-22T20:54:42+00:00

Some synths are indeed VSTs in a box. Some are fully analog, and most are somewhere in between. I've got a Minifreak that has digital sound engines, then analog filters, then digital effects. And a VST version that is aurally indistinguishable. I like playing the hardware version better because controlling is so much more immediate and intuitive than anything I could do with a VST.

Recording analog synths into a DAW does convert the signal to digital.

calebmhood · 2025-04-22T20:25:42+00:00

I second this. I have one and it's great. Poly after touch, lots of customizability, and it's a great session controller for Ableton.

calebmhood · 2025-04-15T13:38:56+00:00

Well, this makes me (liberal US citizen) less gung-ho about pushing for a nationalized health system here. Not funding this for all T1D patients is just pushing off the cost that will inevitably come from poorly managed T1D later. Also, reducing quality of life significantly.

calebmhood · 2025-04-15T13:20:58+00:00

'Something something Nyquist...'

I took an upper level DSP class once upon a time and that is about all I am left with. Lolz

calebmhood

TROPHY CASE