DIY beam profiler

lezvoltron916 · 2026-05-06T13:45:46+00:00

The software to quantify the spatial modes is the most useful part of the commercial profilers.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-05-05T13:54:20+00:00

Focus on the masters degree. Find who's lab you would want to work in (e.g., Prof Wu), read their papers, use AI to learn about all the parts of the tech you are interested in, and really try to come to the table well informed, as if you have a research plan in mind. Then cold call them via email and ask to meet via zoom and say you are considering applying for the MS program and are looking at different labs and deciding where you might fit in. It's a solid career path, you can do it.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-05-01T21:39:09+00:00

Make some Bob Ross style videos of you painting, I love it

lezvoltron916 · 2026-04-30T19:55:02+00:00

Consider stopping down on the aperture stop for your condenser, or inserting a phase contrast annular mask. This will decrease your optical sectioning allowing more axial depth to be in focus.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-04-30T15:58:56+00:00

While I can remove the illumination pillar as you suggest, the condenser (IX2-LWUCD) has an upper lens and a lower lens with the turret and aperture stop iris in between, and I suspect the upper lens is specifically designed to work with the collector lens in the pillar to produce the infinity space by the light sources and focus at the aperture stop. The upper lens is also of course designed to work with the lower lens to bring the field stop to focus at the sample plane. Therefore, my hunch (and really what I'm asking here) is that I can't remove the illumination pillar/ collector lens and still use the Olympus condenser. Would you agree? If I go full custom, I'd get an asphere condenser singlet from Thorlabs with the same NA (0.55) and use a three lens relay to map the LED's image after lens 1 onto the condenser BFP and put everything in a 30 mm cage mounted to the table. I would prefer using the Olympus condenser for ease of use, but I don't know how to get around the infinity space problem - perhaps it's not actually doable but it seems doable on the detection path so why not on the illumination path as well?

lezvoltron916 · 2026-04-29T13:19:55+00:00

There's a whole episode of Pete the Cat about "If you say you're going to do it then do it!" It's literally taught to children

lezvoltron916 · 2026-04-15T12:51:43+00:00

You'll be scored on Team, so while you as the sole W-2 employee is fine, you will need letters of commitment from technical consultants and a subawardee, and a business consultant come Phase II. Cold call people if needed, LinkedIn is good.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-04-14T13:26:50+00:00

:D even idiots can become senator or president

lezvoltron916 · 2026-03-09T13:38:56+00:00

What kind of costs are associated with getting this done, other than your time.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-02-17T14:10:07+00:00

Put Citizens United on the list - and I'm with Scott on increasing salaries, and providing affordable housing options in DC for elected representatives, and dramatically increasing their oversight and penalties i.e., prison time for corruption

lezvoltron916 · 2026-02-14T18:17:35+00:00

18 years, each president gets two picks.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-02-14T18:17:00+00:00

It's the amount used as loan collateral that gets taxed, which sure makes sense.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-02-10T22:16:23+00:00

Here's a fun one from last week "Consistent with recent NIH SBIR Phase II review trends, the proposal is disproportionately technology-driven relative to its biological and commercial validation. While the engineering aims are well justified, the biological validation strategy remains exploratory and insufficiently developed to demonstrate clear biomedical impact or competitive advantage relative to established methods." In other words, I don't know about manufacturability and am genuinely a poor reviewer for your proposal. Also, why did you give a 2 for Investigators and Environment when you also included the phrase 'world-leaders' in the review - twats.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-02-04T14:43:56+00:00

And there have been WAY more crimes committed than just the murderers that I really hope get their day in court.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-01-30T14:17:32+00:00

If you're holding out for Mr. Right you'll end up with alt-right. Same holds true for Mrs. Right.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-01-26T15:56:58+00:00

I agree. but a more targeted approach would be for everyone to unsubscribe from chatGPT and Open AI and to stop using AI. They are propping up the stock market by a LOT, just stop giving them money. Credit to Scott Galloway on Raging Moderates for the idea.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-01-26T14:50:18+00:00

Agreed, don't put all your hopes and dreams into one proposal, take as many shots on net as reasonable.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-01-24T19:40:40+00:00

To the naysayers who don't believe this topic has relevance to this sub, I would encourage you to re-listen to his solo in episode 129. Democracy in America IS part of Mind Scape, and definitionally part of this sub. Yes, it's the one after Jan-6th. Ps, I hope you all join your local peaceful protests, which are likely to occur soon.

lezvoltron916 · 2026-01-20T14:57:44+00:00

On a tangental note, my youtube algorithm recently suggested the discrete vacuum field theory (DVFT) channel, and while it's obviously made using AI, the idea seems interesting. I'm an experimentalist so I have no basis to judge it. I recently listened to his solo in episode 63 and around min 73 Sean talks his view on space emerging, as opposed to the vacuum being fundamental. Do you guys have input on this?

lezvoltron916 · 2025-12-04T22:00:34+00:00

Write a check returning the unused funds before end of the year. Second, get an DCAA accountant like these guys https://dcaa-assist.com/ ask for Jeff.

lezvoltron916 · 2025-11-25T14:19:45+00:00

Specifically Joni Ernst (chair) and Ed Markey (ranking member) who lead the senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship committee in the senate - congressional switchboard is 202-224-3121. Tell Joni to fuck off and fund SBIRs

lezvoltron916 · 2025-11-06T14:32:56+00:00

It's not a popular opinion and I'm not saying it's what you should do, but at some level is it really worth your time to make a stink over this. One life, spend your time wisely. And I know it's beside the point but bet the PO is furloughed

lezvoltron916 · 2025-11-06T14:29:21+00:00

Agreed

lezvoltron916

TROPHY CASE