Greetings! Been lurking for a while, getting ready to build my first laser and thought I should officially stop in and say hello.
First of all, yes. I have my laser safety goggles already. Two pairs, one for me and one for my wife (who stubbornly refuses to let me weaponize the roomba).
With that out of the way, some background. I've been tinkering with things since I was a child, taking apart and reassembling anything my parents would let me to find out how it worked. My specialty is undeniably computers, though. My dad taught me to use DOS and Windows 3.0 when I was around 7 or 8 years old, and I just kind of ran with it from there.
I could never afford a computer of my own (lived with my mother, who didn't own one), but I lived in a small town and I knew more than anyone else about computers. So I started "consulting." Mostly charging octogenarians $10 an hour to teach them how to email their grandchildren. Mostly I think they just wanted somebody to talk to, which was fine by me.
Occasionally, though, I'd get people who needed a new computer, and I was always more than willing to dispose of their old computer when they no longer wanted it. And from those discarded pieces of mostly broken junk, I built my first computer. It was ancient and slow, but over the months and years, I accumulated more and better parts, and was able to keep the computer no more than a generation or two out of date.
By the time I was 15, I'd taught myself C++, learned to use Linux and had been hired on by the local chamber of commerce to manage their computer network (4 computers, lol). It was around this time that I began reverse engineering software. Was active in the game hacking community for several years (sorry for anyone who had the misfortune of running into me in StarCraft). Got a degree in software engineering, surprising precisely nobody, and worked for a few years as a defense contractor before switching over to the private sector.
So, what is an engineer to do when he has vacation time coming up and nothing planned? Build some freaking lasers, that's what!
First of all, yes. I have my laser safety goggles already. Two pairs, one for me and one for my wife (who stubbornly refuses to let me weaponize the roomba).
With that out of the way, some background. I've been tinkering with things since I was a child, taking apart and reassembling anything my parents would let me to find out how it worked. My specialty is undeniably computers, though. My dad taught me to use DOS and Windows 3.0 when I was around 7 or 8 years old, and I just kind of ran with it from there.
I could never afford a computer of my own (lived with my mother, who didn't own one), but I lived in a small town and I knew more than anyone else about computers. So I started "consulting." Mostly charging octogenarians $10 an hour to teach them how to email their grandchildren. Mostly I think they just wanted somebody to talk to, which was fine by me.
Occasionally, though, I'd get people who needed a new computer, and I was always more than willing to dispose of their old computer when they no longer wanted it. And from those discarded pieces of mostly broken junk, I built my first computer. It was ancient and slow, but over the months and years, I accumulated more and better parts, and was able to keep the computer no more than a generation or two out of date.
By the time I was 15, I'd taught myself C++, learned to use Linux and had been hired on by the local chamber of commerce to manage their computer network (4 computers, lol). It was around this time that I began reverse engineering software. Was active in the game hacking community for several years (sorry for anyone who had the misfortune of running into me in StarCraft). Got a degree in software engineering, surprising precisely nobody, and worked for a few years as a defense contractor before switching over to the private sector.
So, what is an engineer to do when he has vacation time coming up and nothing planned? Build some freaking lasers, that's what!
Well, if it's laser info you want here's a great place to look 