Child Protective Services is the thing I've most feared as a parent. Getting caught up in that system is about the worst thing that can happen to a child.
There are plenty of types searches where I'm now viscerally afraid to click on the results lest it result in a clusterbomb of pages I can't close without multiple dialog boxes shooting out all over. Ublock helps but muscle memory is long.
If you create a system to measure butt-time in a seat coding, you're going to get lots and lots of butts in seats coding. This may not necessarily result in a product.
they have innate understanding that being observed working is more valuable than the results of their work.
I've seen coders who knew this by heart forget this less than 5 years after entering management and become champions of forcing everybody into the office for 8:30 stand-ups and time tracking systems that enforce minute by minute "project accountability".
I don't know exactly how this happens, all I know is its like a damn force of nature. The only thing I've ever seen kill morale and tank projects faster is random periodic layoffs.
People invariable ask a form of this question every time an impressive project like this is posted.
For what its worth(1), I think that "learn a bunch of stuff -> go build something cool on the first try" isn't quite the right approach. I think you have to set for yourself a series of tasks and then fight like hell to figure out how to accomplish them. Start with a single blinking led. Just google "how to blink an led" and try to do it a few different ways.
In short the only "material" you might use to get started is google, by typing in "how do I..." while chasing modest goals that look like they might be in roughly the right direction. If there is a magic book out there that will "teach you electronics", I haven't found it yet. It sounds a lot like the sort of book that might "teach you astronauting".
"Electronics" is broad enough that it might be more like learning a language than learning a skill.
Really? I've found the opposite. TP-Link has managed to match recent Ubiquiti's on performance and beaten them on price, but hasn't tried to ram a bunch of useless cloud crap down my throat when all I want is a simple AP.
Rolex, more than anything, makes me optimistic about the "rise of the machines" taking everyone's jobs. There is no reason whatsoever for Rolex watches to exist besides that they make people happy. As a timekeeper, a $20 timex beats them in every way, but as art they are unmatched.
Rolex is a giant art project that employs thousands and makes millions happy. That people are willing to pay for this art and the way it is produced is profoundly hopeful.
I'm literally going to print that page and hang it over the cutter. Thanks.
Note: That page does say in the second paragraph: "It is not always obvious which materials will work - for example: Polycarbonate/Lexan produces flames and lethal chlorine gas which will rapidly corrode this $40,000 machine into uselessness and which is extremely hazardous to the health of people nearby." That sounds like its in shouting distance of the Epilog guy's warning.
The Lexan inlays are laser cut to a precise, water resistant fit (from Rideye campaign page)
A little off topic but the Epilog guy told us never cut Lexan or any polycarbonate plastic because it makes a chloride gas thats dangerous to humans and destructive to the laser. But lexan rocks as a building material... So FUD? or does it require special considerations?
I'd second what others have said and go with a micro like an avr or a pic. Tons of open source support and a small system you can totally "own" will help you understand not just the code but how computers execute code at the lowest human-legible level.
Too Many Requests
Guru Meditation:
XID: 2262329
Props for an error page that tickled my nostalgia in a most geeky way.