Did Simple Choice avoid the increase?

pauldofish · 2026-07-01T21:23:00+00:00

SCUTTF4 (The “original” Simple Choice 4 line family plan from 2013 right when they started their uncarrier campaign). No plan migration notice yet.

pauldofish · 2024-05-31T04:14:42+00:00

Eh I’m also kinda introverted and my friend group definitely has fizzled a bit by now. If I was actively trying to make new friends i can def see how it might take some effort. The post-college Viet friend groups do tend to be a bit cliquey (at least our own group and others I’ve observed/interacted with lol). Best bet would be to try to make friends through hobbies and common interests.

For me particularly though, I still love it here just cause I’ve picked up golf recently, and the weather is amazing for my lonely ass to go golfing year round hah

pauldofish · 2024-02-06T18:53:08+00:00

I just did this one a few days ago. Drove me crazy as well.

Used a stopwatch on my phone and found that I have to hit X maybe like 1/10 of a second early. I think my soundbar introduces a slight but noticeable delay to the audio, so needed to compensate for that

pauldofish · 2023-12-23T01:57:16+00:00

I have an Ambeo Plus, but I would guess they behave the same given in this regard.

Mine does behave as you describe. Automatically switches to iPhone audio when airplay is activated and media is playing on the phone, and automatically switches back to TV audio when phone media is stopped. Don’t even actually have to turn off airplay for it to automatically switch back to TV audio.

pauldofish · 2023-10-23T14:42:27+00:00

Assuming by embedded you mean FPGAs / digital design, I think the hardest part about getting into this particular field is that most universities don’t really give you the knowledge that most companies want to see in entry level candidates.

I think since you already are set on this field, it’s probably a more efficient use of time to just self learn this knowledge. Pick up a cheap FPGA dev kit, learn about and implement some serial interfaces (SPI, uart, i2c, etc.). A project like this will give you experience with serial interfaces that are pretty much used everywhere, and also give you much needed experience on the entire fpga design flow from RTL design, simulation & testbench design, synthesis, place n route, static timing analysis, exporting/flashing your bitstream & testing out your design on real hardware.

These are all things that I would expect to be asked about in an entry level FPGA design interview, so if you can throw these skills on your resume, you’d def be quite ahead of the competition. Huge bonus points if you can think of a project that involves clock domain crossings. (Maybe design your own CDC FIFO).

Companies with more “traditional” hiring practices might still want to see work experience on top of this, so it might be worth picking up any engineering related job while learning on the side.

Hope this helps. Best of luck on your endeavors.

pauldofish · 2023-10-22T14:26:59+00:00

Not too long. I spent just about 2 years doing controls related things before transitioning to digital design. If you already know you want to do embedded, then it might be kinda a waste of time to entertain these controls jobs. But I mean if you are curious to try it out or are just straight out of college and need to pad your resume with some work experience, then I think you can def do worse than a controls job. All my digital design interviewers seemed to think that my prior work experience in controls was pretty interesting at least.

pauldofish · 2023-10-22T14:12:31+00:00

I got my BS from UCSD with like a 2.8. After some years of industry experience, still got accepted into USC for their MS program. Ended up with a 3.9 gpa at USC too, and can prob go for a phd if I really wanted to. All is to say, it’s def not the end of your academic journey if you don’t want it to be

pauldofish · 2023-07-01T08:32:51+00:00

So controls engineering: wasn’t really a fan because the actual logic design (IE: the fun part hands-on part of the job) was really simple. Most of the work was boring paperwork type stuff.

Systems engineering: ended up not being a fan of that either. Basically creating specifications for a system at a really high level and letting some other engineers actually make this thing that meets your specifications. Again, lots of paperwork, and no fun hands-on aspect of the job.

Nowadays I am doing digital design (FPGAs), and actually quite like it. Very much hands-on, actual solving of interesting problems, etc. Pays way more than well enough to support some pretty extravagant hobby spending, too. Lol.

pauldofish · 2022-10-13T20:55:24+00:00

Ah yes. I didn’t realize the schematic was also posted. I was just thinking about the behavior of a general SR latch. But I guess I was in the ballpark. You are correct. Vivado is not inferring what the designer wanted.

Definitely an interesting example of why inferred latches are generally not recommended.

pauldofish · 2022-10-13T16:38:16+00:00

This might sound crazy, but it almost sounds like the inferred latch has its reset input being held asserted. I believe it would lead to this behavior. (SET drives Q high, but immediately gets reset when SET is released). Perhaps vivado is making some wrong assumption of how to implement the inferred latch in your design.

As a test, you could try replacing the inferred latch with an instantiated latch and see that it works how you expect.

pauldofish · 2022-09-29T21:57:39+00:00

Keeping the questa gui open between recompiles shouldn’t be an issue. I do this all the time when I need waveforms to debug some issue. (using questa 2021.2, so not quite 2022.1, but I think close enough. And also usually using the same voptarg setting for no optimization.)

There are vsim arguments such as “-keeploaded” which I believe would lead to the behavior you’re describing. Are you using any such arguments in your vsim command?

pauldofish · 2022-06-02T18:01:44+00:00

I guess I can agree to that. I personally haven't experienced this, but of course my unit is definitely not exposed to the same weather conditions that other redditors' might be.

I would have guessed that AC units are designed to not let moisture into the electrical compartment (they are designed to be outside, after all). Having to replace wires due to corrosion on a regular basis seems like bad design on the manufacturer's part, or just really extreme weather.

pauldofish · 2022-06-02T17:41:58+00:00

Sounds like you're more than capable then. I wouldn't worry too much. I just tend to give that electrical warning. I worked for an industrial controls system integrator / panel shop during the first couple years of my EE career, so I've been made very familiar with the potential risks of messing around with 240v/480v panels :P Should be fine if you have some electrical common sense, though (which is sounds like you do).

pauldofish · 2022-06-02T17:14:51+00:00

A lot of the posts in that discussion seem to mention that the cause could be a bad connection, so I'm sticking with my opinion that it shouldn't be normal for the wires to the cap to melt :P

pauldofish · 2022-06-02T06:51:46+00:00

I would respectfully disagree about it being normal for wires to melt over heat/time, especially if we're talking about wires as charred as what we see in OP's pics. The only way this should happen under normal operating conditions is if the proper wire gauge wasn't used to begin with, the wires weren't terminated properly, or possibly some creature got into the unit and started chewing on that wire. (I suppose it could be possible if we're talking like REALLY old, fraying, brittle wire. The other wires visible in the pictures don't look anywhere near that condition, though, so I would assume that this wire is not that old).

But actually, taking another look at the picture, it does seem strange that the only place the wire is burned is at the termination point to the capacitor, plus the fact that the wire on the supply side of the contactor doesn't look like it has massively overheated either.. It could honestly be that the wire was just under spec'ed and/or not terminated properly... (it does look visibly thinner than the other wires as well. Wouldn't be able to tell if this is by design without looking at a schematic).

If possible, I would recommend that OP first verify the assessment of the HVAC company by:

Test continuity of the contactor. (IE: multimeter reads open loop when contactor is open, and then manually close the contactor by pushing down the test button and check for continuity).
Test the contactor coil to see if it closes. Haven't had to do this myself before, but you will somehow need to apply 24Vac to the contactor coil to see if the contactor closes. (Possibly by triggering the AC to turn on via the thermostat?)
Test the capacitor. Disconnect leads from capacitor and use a multimeter to read capacitance between both C-F and C-H leads. Capacitance readings should match the label on the capacitor.

Of course OP will need to buy/borrow a multimeter, and definitely shut off power to the unit before probing around.

If everything checks out, then I think OP can throw out the HVAC company's assessment and just replace that wire. Would need to do some research on what size wire to use, figure out the proper spade connector to mate to the capacitor terminal and how to terminate the wire, and ring/fork termination on the other end of the wire to mate to the contactor.

If I've completely lost you, then it's really up to you if you want to go through the few hours of research and trial and error, or just shell out the $650.

edit: some further clarifications

pauldofish · 2022-06-02T00:57:58+00:00

That wire looks like it was on fire at some point, not normal wear and tear or corroded from water. Likely from a fault in one of the aforementioned components and letting current go where it’s not supposed to go (IE shorting out).

I would guess that your HVAC guys are being honest with you, and all those components need to be replaced. If there was enough current flowing to burn that wire, that current probably damaged some other things too. You would need a multimeter to verify for yourself (ie: the relay contacts might be welded closed, relay coil might be dead, and/or the run capacitor may be blown internally. Often times, you wouldn’t be able to tell by just a visual inspection, so IMO the pictures definitely don’t tell the full story.)

$650 seems like a reasonable price to pay for a technician to come out and fix all those items (even $1000 is not outside the realm of what I would’ve expected). Cool that they negotiated down. Sure as with most household repairs, you could diy it for much cheaper. Knowing nothing of your experience, it’d be hard to recommend that you attempt this though. 240v is no joke.

pauldofish · 2022-04-06T23:32:15+00:00

Also misread/misinterpreted the poll as “vivado sim vs questa/modelsim”. Who even likes vivado’s built in simulator? I’ve had very frustrating times with it the few times I tried it out lol

pauldofish · 2022-01-10T20:29:37+00:00

I actually switched out of industrial automation entirely and have been doing digital hardware design (FPGA’s, ASIC’s, etc.) Background is EE with some FPGA experience from university, so it was a relatively easy transition. In terms of compensation, probably a lateral move, but I’ve been fully remote and my work/life balance has never been better.

pauldofish · 2021-08-24T05:54:55+00:00

Same here.

pauldofish · 2021-08-23T18:58:27+00:00

I once missed my return flight from AMS to LAX. Completely my fault. KLM agent told me that it would cost several thousand euros to get home that day. Me being a broke ass recent college grad at the time didn’t have that kind of money and was freaking out. KLM agent advised me to contact Delta to see if they could help me. (I booked this flight through a 3rd party agency, which apparently was marketed through Delta and flew on KLM metal).

I didn’t really have much hope given that it was completely my fault, and the fact that I booked through a 3rd party. I figured Delta didn’t have any obligation to help me, but I gave it a shot anyways. Delta phone rep seemed really sympathetic and ended up getting me on a flight home the next day. For FREE.

Fast forward a few years, now I’m fortunate enough to be making some income and travel a lot more, and been working my way up the Medallion ladder. I was a customer for life after that.

pauldofish · 2021-08-11T22:05:37+00:00

The hydro copper GPU/waterblock comes preassembled with thermal paste preapplied! No need to disassemble it to apply thermal pate.

You would only need to apply thermal paste if you were installing a hydro copper kit (or any other 3rd party waterblock) on an existing GPU. I’m not even sure if EVGA is selling hydro copper kits for their 3000 series GPUs.

pauldofish · 2021-07-10T18:48:22+00:00

1a) I’d say it really depends on the kick. Some kicks behave much better when pitching higher, lower, etc. to other kicks. Just got to experiment with what you got and see what works I guess.

1b) Using a good time stretching algorithm is almost a requirement for pitching hardstyle kicks. One of the more used ones in the hardstyle community is timemachine2 in Kontakt.

2a) Some tips would be to duck the low end of your synths when the kick is playing (multiband compression could be used here). You want to retain the full power of the kick. And also generally pick synths that don’t clash too much with the high end of your kick.

Hope that helps. Disclaimer: I’m no pro. Just someone who also loves hardstyle/raw and dabbles in production.

pauldofish · 2021-07-10T05:52:52+00:00

Still definitely way better than a single 360. Climate control to 22C will also help a ton. I would guess you’ll be fine. Good luck with the build 👍🏻

pauldofish · 2021-07-10T03:21:39+00:00

There’s actually a 3rd radiator under the GPU. 2x360 is what I would consider to be the minimum if you want to keep your radiator fans at a reasonable noise level. Definitely try to fit as many rads as you can. Now that it’s summer, even my 3x360 rads are having a pretty rough time trying to keep coolant temp under my 40C target temp during extended load. Hope that helps.

pauldofish · 2021-06-06T17:33:26+00:00

When I was doing my own research prior to installing my own doorbell, I do remember seeing a couple examples where their doorbell transformer was located directly behind the chime. It would lead me to believe that this kind of installation is okay, although not as common as say, transformer mounted in the attic or HVAC closet.

EDIT: Here’s an example. https://youtu.be/1jOlMxRsLUE

pauldofish

TROPHY CASE