You like mysteries, do you? How about this place? The two guys show up, wheelchair athletes, paint it these colors, then board it up and leave. They must be from around here, everybody knows them, and they’ve got a real beauty of a caregiver courtesy the taxpayer. No, they are not Irish. Unless the national language in Belfast is Bulgarian or something.
Repair day. Lots of old cables, jacks, and this time a DVD player. Quality is so last century. Let me do an estimate here. Bingo is three hours of music, so that’s 160 hours per year. I get two years out of a player, so 320 hours. In terms of DVD movies, say 1-1/2 hours each, you get 200 movies. And these players are kept in ideal conditions. What usually gives out is the laser alignment, followed closely by the cheap headphone jacks. Those are the ones (jacks) I use the most.I’ve not succumbed to the temptation to replace everything and start over. That’s because when I returned to music for income as well as recreation back in 2007, it cost me $2,100 at a time I could hardly afford it. Kids, learn a musical instrument even if you are as talentless as I am. Thanks to music, I’ve never gone hungry, never been really, really broke like I’ve seen. Music has saved my neck more than I care to say, and though I’ve never resorted to playing on the sidewalk, I know I’d do well at it. Read the addendum.
A good rainstorm keeps the streets quiet in this town, though nearer the freeways the sound of over-turning SUVs is fairly constant year-round. It’s times like this the breakthroughs happen in electronics. Once you learn to treat every source as a liar who knows he’s giving you the wrong answer and deliberately leaving out important details, you can actually learn a lot in a shorter time. Today, I found out about ROM. Yes, good old read-only-memory, like in your computer. Are you ready for the non-tech description? Good, that’s how we learn things with the least pain.
Once again, Chapter Seventeen of my old red textbook with the upside-down cover provided the lead. They wrote a paragraph in the wrong chapter mentioning a one-bit memory cell. Within several hours, I concluded I could build a ROM. I know, I better explain the hell out of that one. First, ROM is not memory because it cannot store information. It is simply hard-wired to do one job and that job usually takes the form of a look-up table. We’ve all done this, so it got me to thinking more.
ROM is, at the simplest, a chip where electricity can flow out only a certain way depending on the input. (ROM is therefore combinational, not sequential, another clue it is not memory.) If something depends only on input and a one-way flow of juice, it can be built from the two simplest electronic components: resistors and diodes. This is what hit me like that regular slap in the head I need a woman around the house for. I began to ponder the following in the harsh overhead light of what I’ve learned.
When I push say, the number five, on my calculator, how does the thing know to display a “5”? All the workings are in binary, so how does it know that binary 101 is decimal 5? Obviously, or at least obviously since calculators don’t cost $500 each, it must look up 101 on a “table”. That table tells it what LEDs to light up on the display. That reinforces that ROM is not memory, it only “remembers” what to do when it sees 101 but does not store [changeable updatable] information like real memory.
I’m probably getting ahead of those with no background in this matter, but the bottom line is that ROM, while expensive, is still the cheapest way to do certain things. To prove or disprove my concept, I’ve sketched out a small ROM circuit I can use to display the numbers from 0 to 9 in binary. And I’m working on utilizing that binary code to light up a 7-segment LED to display it back into decimal.
If my brainwork is right, I should be able to hit one of ten ordinary “dumb” switches and have the correct number show up. And, to do so without using any integrated circuitry. This has become such my firm opinion as the ONLY way to really prove one knows electronics. I await the day to challenge some know-it-all if he’s ever built what he’s talking/writing about. Because I know the answer is no.
Toward that end, I have ordered $84 worth of switches (not all for this project, but due to EOQ, or economic order quantity). To date, there are still no electronic component suppliers on the east coast, or if so they don’t advertise. So I have to ship from Arizona. There is very little support for any intellectual pursuits east of the Mississippi, and it gets worse as you approach the Atlantic. By the time you get to Florida, buddy, you are on your own.Here’s a pretty picture of a car I don’t know from. Except, I was surprised it was not a Cadillac, or at least had no Cadillac symbols on it. Said “Coronet” or something similar. I’ll leave it for you to follow on if you so desire. This was over near Dekka, which has not appeared here in probably a year. The city has dug up the street and built parking spots, trying to emphasize the “design district” aspect of the area. We know who was behind that, and I’ll drop in to see her soon. But the bakery makes better coffee.
ADDENDUM
Ah, the eternal question. Does music require talent? If I have no talent, how come I make more than many of the talented? These are good questions since the answer is yes and no. I have to struggle learning every note where others effortlessly play anything. Music definitely requires talent if you intend to become a star and sell your own music. I play mainly covers, that is, copies of other people’s music. I must resort to “figuring out” each song, but I do a respectable job of it. Therefore, I get paid.
If you play only for fun, expect conflict if you ever decide to seek money or fame. This field is not full of happily married, contented fellows. The job of music is complex and competitive. Mistakes are easy to make. Biggest mistake they don’t warn you about? Learning a style or instrument where the places that hire you don’t match your social needs. This happens in other occupations but none will disappoint you as much as music if you want to meet Taylor Swift and the only gig you can get is a watering hole in East Yuckamuck.
Technically, I’m a recent vet of that situation. Read about it here over the years, but without a guitarist, I’ve been stuck playing joints I would never set foot in otherwise. I never did meet a woman on this job in, how long have I been on Dixie, six years on the 26th? Yeah, it bothers me and I’ve said so. You meet a lot of ordinary folk, but absolutely nothing else. My alternative was not to play at all. Your results may differ.
There’s another bad side to music, the second thing they don’t warn you about. Real talent in the human population is historically restricted to a ratio of 1:10,000. Since roughly one man in five in America plays the guitar, there is a huge probability that they have neglected other important parts of life to do so. Don’t make this mistake. Stay in school.
Let me flip through the books for any stats of note. Here’s one, on March 16, 2007, I drove 48.6 miles to practice. That was Brian Khe Sahn, I made that trip twice more before admitting he was not practicing at all. Typical guitarist, you do all the work and all he does is show up and play. There it is, first gig, Jimbos, May 26, 2007 for tips only. Five bucks. It was a start. My highest tips ever was 11/03/07 at $114, in Florida I mean. All records (for tips) get swept away once bingo starts in 2009, ah bingo. Account number 7042.
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
