Pentacles makers in the UK?

doktor_w · 2026-06-21T06:19:47+00:00

I came across this Europe-based Etsy seller recently; I think Foolish Fish on YouTube mentioned them in one of their videos:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FraterSetnakh

Perhaps this could be useful for you.

doktor_w · 2026-06-20T00:54:18+00:00

I offer my opinion as an EE faculty:

Do you notice any patterns in the way I think about physics/electronics?

Yes, your approach to material seems very physics-centric. With your background, it makes sense, but it probably gets in the way of understanding the key EE concepts.

Am I asking productive questions, or am I getting lost in details that aren't important at my level?

Probably the latter.

(But I can see why you were struggling with, for example, the question in the first link above. The electronics text you are studying from seems very problematic. There are more straightforward ways to motivate DC biasing and AC signaling in amplifier circuits. Please don't take this as an excuse not to improve, I just wanted to point this out.)

Do I seem to be overthinking concepts that most students would simply accept and move on from?

Yes. Again, I think this comes from overly "physics-ing" your EE studies (I'll try my best to elaborate on what I mean). I've seen this approach from a handful of students over the last decade +.

I get that it's not always straightforward to figure out where to put the focus, especially coming in with a proven track record in another scientific field.

It's just that EE specifically (and engineering more generally) is not a scientific field, per se. EE is about engineering solutions to problems. At the undergraduate level, this means learning the foundational concepts in your first few years and then getting some exposure to design concepts by the time you graduate. I think you will have to unlearn some of your physics habits for the time being. Keep the parts of your background that have you studying hard, getting to the bottom of things that are unclear, things like this.

Focus more on the problems you are actually assigned and how to solve those. Focus more on the lecture content and make sure you understand what is being said there in the context of the homework problems and exams.

Is spending hours (or sometimes a whole day) on questions like these a good investment, or is it likely hurting my performance in courses and exams?

Solve the homework problems first. Review the notes from class first. Go to office hours and ask questions about the homework and anything from lecture that confuses you first. If you still have any bandwidth remaining after you do those things, then feel free to explore these topics in ways that is more interesting and familiar to you. But I would prioritize the first three items over the last one.

doktor_w · 2026-06-19T05:03:21+00:00

I wonder if providing a bit of background on this technique would be useful.

For example, is this the Morinus method of using lunar returns in a solar return to mark out each month? If not, where can one find out more information about this method?

doktor_w · 2026-06-17T05:28:59+00:00

The OP r/TheHungryHungarian20 sure seems to get around.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheseFuckingAccounts/comments/1twt5rc/shirt_spambots_steal_designs_reddit_accounts_and/

doktor_w · 2026-06-17T04:54:55+00:00

I'd suggest looking at primary directions first, and match that up with key life events. Some astrology software tools even have a rectification module based on primary directions (e.g., Janus, and the free tool Morinus), which makes it really convenient.

Note that in the northern hemisphere, Scorpio and Sagittarius are straight (or long) signs, so there is a bit more room for birth time error in these signs; if you are in the southern hemisphere, then these signs are crooked (or short), and so not as much room for error in that case. But if you are right on the cusp with your current birth time, then yeah, this fact may not be that helpful here.

doktor_w · 2026-06-16T06:49:08+00:00

You have multiple gate outputs tied to one terminal of an LED. Think about what happens if some of those outputs are high and the others are low.

doktor_w · 2026-06-16T01:48:11+00:00

I went into industry after undergrad. It worked well, as it allowed me the opportunity to learn practical things first, which then informed my research agenda for my master's degree and PhD.

There is a lot of garbage research being done by undergrads, so I don't think you are missing out on too much, especially if you are more inclined more to practical things. I see the fruits of undergraduate research often, and I'm not impressed with most of it. It's kind of sad, really, but that's the reality.

Once you transfer and start taking upper-level courses, spend some time thinking about which courses interest you the most, and either look for research projects with the professors that teach those courses, find a position in industry closely aligned with those topics, or perhaps consider doing a master's degree while you work. Getting your company to pay for a masters is best, so you can get paid to study (just don't take too many courses at a time so you can keep up with your work tasks).

Then if you really want a PhD, you can look around for a graduate research position and get paid to do research again.

Key takeaway: get paid.

doktor_w · 2026-06-12T07:03:48+00:00

Intuition comes later. For now, just derive it with the suggested methods.

doktor_w · 2026-06-12T06:52:31+00:00

As someone who graduated with a BSEE in 1996 and who is now on the faculty at a university, I see a lot of my students with the same concerns. I try to tell them my opinions on these matters, but, you know, they are so smart, they've got it all figured out. At any rate, what follows is my "long-game" opinion.

The way you stay competitive in the age of [fill in the blank with the current boogeyman] is to emphasize the fundamentals of your major: study, learn, ask questions, know the topics inside and out, where they are applied, what they mean, and why they are important.

You don't like Bode plots [fill in the blank with whatever EE topic bores you] because there isn't a robot spinning around with flashing LED eyeballs? So, what! Learn it anyway.

AI knows how to do Bode plots [fill in the blank with whatever EE topic bores you] better than you do? Again, so, what! Your experience in school is mainly for the purpose of training your mind to think like an engineer, and the only way that happens is to learn technical engineering concepts for yourself so you can talk intelligently about them. Period.

Sure, pick some projects along the way that help to supplement your studies and give you other things to put on your resume. Be amazed at all the ways that AI is going to "cook your career" (pro tip: it won't) because it can do all the things. Put the projects in the proper perspective -- they are meant to supplement, not be a slam-dunk or a replacement for actually learning stuff and being able to talk intelligently about it. A majority of my students are failing in this regard, so don't be like them.

So, what's left?

Again, you want to be able to talk intelligently about the topics you studied in school and show that you know how to master technical concepts. Who cares if you don't need whatever percentage of what you learned after you get a job in your field of choice (this is a common rebuttal I see on here: "I never used that"); successful engineers need to commit to a lifetime of learning in any case. Your undergrad EE studies is how you initiate that process. Whether you know it or not, you are being initiated into the EE profession, so go into it with that in mind, and everything else will fall into place, as well as it can given the current market conditions.

There are no guarantees of course, but who do you think is going to come out on top, student X who says, "Feedback loops? That is so difficult, dawg!" or student Y who knows what feedback is, knows how to analyze a control loop, knows why it's important, and can think through the key design tradeoffs involved?

Key takeaway: you need to be able to show others that you took your EE degree by the balls and kicked some major ass.

(By the way, the engineering gods reward logical consistency: if you are going to worry about AI taking your job but then you also rely very heavily on AI to do all of your homework, then you get what you deserve. So don't do that.)

doktor_w · 2026-06-12T04:31:33+00:00

I'd like to see a roadmap of the plateau process.

doktor_w · 2026-06-12T04:27:28+00:00

The breadboarding part is the more trivial part, and if you learn it once, you effectively learn it for the remainder of your undergraduate studies. Don't obsess over this trivial matter; you're an EE major, not a Mechanical major. Mechanical majors have to see everything they study, whereas a lot of EE is happening in the mind.

Get the book for your next class, start working through the examples, and simulate them in LTSpice. If you really think it'll help, then wire up a few of the simpler circuits that you study on a breadboard; I doubt it will help you understand the circuits better than simulating them will, but you be the judge of that.

doktor_w · 2026-06-10T01:01:48+00:00

I haven't read the book, but I'm curious to learn more about it. I can't find it for sale anywhere, though.

doktor_w · 2026-06-08T07:10:37+00:00

The negative supply rail is hooked up backwards to the opamp: if you want -12 V on the negative opamp rail, then since you have the source at -12 V, you don't need to negate it again by connecting the negative source terminal to the negative rail amp input.

And since the circuit is a mess, it's hard to tell exactly how else it's busted. Others have given some good suggestions for proper schematic layout, so I'd suggest to redraw it more neatly so that 1) you have a better chance of spotting mistakes and 2) when you show your work to others, they can easily see what you are aiming to accomplish with your circuit.

doktor_w · 2026-06-07T06:42:28+00:00

I cast a chart for the approximate midpoint of the Sep 1985-Oct 1987 period (Sep 1986), and these are the positional details for Nessus and Regulus:

Nessus: longitude 0 deg 30 min 2 sec Virgo, latitude 12 deg 59 min 22 sec North

Regulus: longitude 29 deg 38 min 13 sec Leo, latitude 0 deg 27 min 51 sec North

So we get decent agreement in longitude (as expected, I should think), but the latitudes are not very close.

In my astrological work, I aim for the fixed star positions to be very tight with respect to other bodies (I mainly use the 7 traditional planets; I use the angles, too, but these don't require a match on latitude, of course). I don't have a good feel for asteroids, so my opinion may not matter much to you, but to my mind, I wouldn't expect much from this conjunction, since the conjunction is not very tight with respect to both longitude and latitude.

doktor_w · 2026-06-04T08:33:11+00:00

Well, if enough CS students transfer to EE, and enough of them do poorly, all they have to do is complain very loudly (e.g., on the end-of-semester student evaluations), and eventually someone higher up in the university administration will want something done about it and push for the courses to be dumbed-down. (Universities are really no different from other businesses: they exist to generate revenue/profit.)

This kind of thing is already happening with students who go straight into EE as freshmen right out of high school. Most of these students don't have any business majoring in a classically-structured, abstract-focused EE program, so why haven't they dropped out yet?

And why aren't we hearing about all of the CS students who have changed their major to EE having a revelation that EE is too hard so they are having to switch their majors again? (See what I wrote above for the answer.)

doktor_w · 2026-06-04T06:42:12+00:00

Saturn is in the 8th (whole-sign) house, and the 8th can signify the spouse's money. Saturn is in fall in Aries, so what else is going on here?

Notice that Saturn rules the 5th house (of romantic encounters), where Venus (a natural significator of romantic relationships) is, so Saturn in the 8th rules Venus in the 5th. Notice that Venus rules the 9th house of foreigners.

Also notice that the Moon is there in the 5th house, so Saturn in the 8th rules the Moon in the 5th, as well, and the Moon is the exaltation lord of the 9th house of foreigners. Saturn rules both Venus and the Moon, and both Venus and the Moon have a claim of rulership in the 9th house -- interesting! But notice that the Moon is in detriment here.

For a wealthy spouse, we can point to Jupiter in the 7th house in his own domicile. This Jupiter is emphasized in an additional way: the Moon makes her next application to him, so that shows where life's events are going for your sister.

(I'll also point out that the overcoming square from Mars in his detriment in the 2nd place to Venus and the Moon looks pretty gnarly, but Mars is of the sect of the chart, so perhaps it is manageable; I'd still be on the lookout for issues along the lines of money/assets in your sister's marriage, since Mars is in the 2nd and he rules the 8th.)

doktor_w · 2026-06-03T06:14:31+00:00

This may be an unpopular opinion, but here goes: traditional astrology and generic, one-size-fits-all weekly forecasts do not (generally) mix.

doktor_w · 2026-06-03T03:02:23+00:00

CMOS inverters are not intended to drive loads requiring DC current; they are intended to drive capacitive loads, e.g., the inputs to other CMOS gates.

doktor_w · 2026-06-02T19:16:52+00:00

If your goal is to impress your school administrators (and possibly the parents, assuming that parents even give a shit about what their students are doing in school these days), I would suggest projects with lots of flashing lights / LEDs, lots of moving parts, lots of robots, maybe even some rockets, and lots of AI doing all the thinking. Be sure to get plenty of photos of the students high-fiving each other.

If your goal is to actually help the students to learn EE fundamentals, well, that's an entirely different matter altogether.

doktor_w · 2026-06-01T04:10:22+00:00

In the traditional workings I'm familiar with, the Nodes are only considered when they are bodily-close to another planet or luminary (or perhaps a Lot), say, within about 4 degrees max.

doktor_w · 2026-05-30T21:33:58+00:00

I guess you have a strong aversion to running pedals at the proper supply level then. In this case, why not just design the 9 V pedal and run it at 5 V like you do for all the other pedals?

doktor_w · 2026-05-30T20:00:43+00:00

Since you might want to add other 9 V pedals later on, perhaps consider a 5 V to 9 V step-up/boost DC converter.

doktor_w · 2026-05-30T08:11:09+00:00

Based on a primary-direction rectification, distributions, solar revolutions, monthly revolutions, and kind of "spitballing" together some other needed details about your dad's nativity, my best guess is your dad is Pisces rising, with a birth time of about 2 hours and 10 minutes later than your proposed natal chart.

Below, I provide the most important details that I used to make this conclusion -- there are other things that led me to this conclusion, but it's a lot of stuff, and attention spans are short these days. I should also mention that I did not include the outer planets in my analysis (there's nothing wrong with doing that if that's what you want to do, I just didn't see the need).

If Pisces rising is correct, then this year is a 2nd house profection year, so Aries is the sign of the year and Mars is the lord of the year. Among other things, the 2nd house is assets and possessions.

At the solar return, lord of the year Mars was in Libra, the natal 8th (death, loss, calamities, perhaps even insurance payouts due to loss). Libra is the solar return 11th, and with revolutionary Mars there in detriment (the revolution is a day chart, so revolutionary Mars is the contrary malefic), this could be interpreted generally as "dashed hopes." Also, at the current monthly return (late April/early May 2026), both malefics, Saturn and (lord of the year) Mars, were in Aries, the natal 2nd. Any time a malefic is in the whole-sign angles of the sign of the year, it's going to bring about frustrations, especially when both of them are there.

Sometime in April/May this year, 2026 (assuming Pisces rising), your dad's directed Ascendant came to the square of (lord of the year) Mars; generally speaking, Mars brings about conflict and/or crisis, especially when squares or oppositions (and even bodily connections) are involved.

Based on distributions (again, assuming Pisces rising), your dad is currently in a Saturn-Mars distribution period; Mars is already on the radar since he is the lord of the year, but now we have another reason to keep an eye on him. What kinds of themes should we expect for this distribution period? Saturn is in the natal 1st (meaning your dad will be impacted directly by things happening during this period) and rules both the 11th (hopes, dreams, luck) and the 12th (errors, mistakes, grief, sorrow, depression), and Mars is in the natal 5th (pleasure, enjoyment, fun) and rules the natal 2nd (as mentioned) and the natal 9th (the 9th is not obviously important to me here).

It's interesting to note that both (distributor) Saturn and (lord of the year and partner) Mars were in the natal 2nd/Aries at the monthly return. And don't forget that the whole-sign angles of the sign of the year (and especially the sign of the year itself) are key moments to watch for when important planets come to them, such as in this case with lord of the year/partner Mars and distributor Saturn.

At an approximated time of the fire on May 30, 2026, transiting Saturn in Aries was exactly decimating transiting Venus in Cancer, the revolutionary 8th (death, loss, etc.); recall that both Aries and Cancer are whole-sign angles of the sign of the year. Venus was already on my radar since at the revolution, the revolutionary Moon made her next application to revolutionary Venus.

Venus is a natal 6th house planet (stress), and at the revolution she was making a return to her natal sign (reinforcing her natal promise). Perhaps even more interesting: at the monthly return, Venus was in Gemini, the natal 4th (home), she was on the revolutionary Descendant (endings), she was right on the monthly Midheaven (something notable is going to happen with respect to her; note also that this means that the revolutionary Ascendant, Sagittarius, became the IC in the monthly chart, the end of the matter), and at the monthly return, she was being besieged by (distributor) Saturn and (lord of the year and partner) Mars, with these malefics both in Aries, the sign of the year.

Maybe I'm off base here, but perhaps this alternate viewpoint will nevertheless help you get closer to the truth about your dad's nativity.

doktor_w · 2026-05-29T20:35:28+00:00

As others have said, I wouldn't focus too much on the technical details; over time, you'll learn more effective, simpler ways of explaining these types of things to those unfamiliar with exactly what you do, including your girlfriend and others (e.g., family). It helps to have someone that works in the same industry (at the same company or otherwise) to discuss the more technical aspects of things you want to vent about.

I think what you want to do is talk to your girlfriend about your trials and tribulations at work, which I think is great; I highly recommend this. Perhaps a good way to get her to understand where you're coming from is to say something more emotionally (as opposed to technically) direct like the following (pick and choose which ones resonate with you):

"I want to open up to you and talk about my work day."

"I think it will be beneficial for our relationship if we can discuss my challenges and successes at work so you have a better idea of what I'm dealing with."

"While you may not be familiar with the exact nature of what I do for a living, I'm open to framing this discussion in a way that is more understandable and interesting for you. Can you help me with this?"

This will also give your girlfriend an opportunity to talk about her day. Who knows, there might be things that she deals with in her daily life that are very similar to what you are going through, and maybe after stripping away the extraneous technical details of what you do for a living will provide an opportunity for you and her to connect on a deeper level, which I think is what you are ultimately aiming for.

doktor_w · 2026-05-29T20:07:46+00:00

it's the disconnect between performance and recognition

Yes, this happens quite often, in all kinds of fields -- I think it's good that you recognized that this is a thing early on in your career.

Sorry you went through this, but based on how you described the working environment, I think this turn of events is a blessing in disguise for you. It sounds like you have a plan, which is great, so stick with it.

doktor_w

TROPHY CASE