Where did everyone go?

[Oliver]

@ OSS542 I recall you have quite some experience in robotics engineering, right? I am an enginee in Perth. It is pretty tough now. I know when the resources boom was on, there were a lot of electronics jobs from the Eastern states advertised in WA - I guess that would be drying up somewhat, as engineer migrate back out of WA. There may still be some opennings though. Also, have you considered working in an academic environment?

@ the_leander - Hope you don't mind me asking, but how are you going with your home life now? I remember being quite concerned when you brought up some issues in a couple of previous threads? Are you back on your feet alright? Anyway, really hope things are well with you.

[Oliver]

the_leander wrote:
...{bleep} happens, simply a case of accepting, moving on and rebuilding. :shrug:

tl;dr

Nothing to see here, move along.

Damned rough though.

Hope there are better things coming.

[Oliver]

Well, I sold all my Amigas a while ago. In the end, I actually wanted to break away from the old girls.

I still love the community here though, for all the same reasons as when I first encountered the Amiga cult back in the 80's.

I still love all the principles of the early Amiga designs, too, and consider the approach truly admirable and appropriate for the computing of that period.

I used to aim for similar design methodology in my limited resource, low cost embedded systems work.

Of course, my personal and professional computing moved on a long time ago, but now with really good value for money, low cost Arms, RAM, flash, and such, I prefer to apply quite different design methodologies, more in line with workstation computing systems, though still streamlined, of course. My professional development is more concerned with concepts from oop, abstraction, virtualisation, modularity, etc. I feel that I don't really think like an Amigan any more.

Not sure if this makes much sense. Somehow, when working on older limited resource environments, my work would often remind me of things I had learned about when studying how the Amiga's worked. I felt more inclined to use my Amigas, quite happy to make efficient and productive use of the limited resources. As technology moved on, the extents of the efficient and productive use just fell to far behind current developments, at least as much in terms of cost and convenience as in capabilities.

Oh, damn it, I'm rambling. I just came home after a 20 hour stint at work. Should have known better than to start typing. Nostalgia will do that to me when I'm tired.

@Bloodline  Are you thinking of a new MX-5? Are you interested in performance driving? I think the MX-5s are a great platform to develop an understanding of advanced driving principles. I am also considering an MX-5, but will probably go for a 1989 AW11 Mk1 MR2, for which there are some really cheap recently depracted race engines. It will probably work out similar price as an old MX-5, and I love the opportunity to tinker.

[Oliver]

Hey Karlos, really sorry to hear the news. My father died a few years back - it just shakes your world. My heart goes out to you, of course.

Hopefully, you can take some time off, and just be with your family.

I think I know what you mean about having something to do. Sometimes the focus on managing the situation can at least keep some things moving for the time being, when the pain is most harrowing. My father died in an unexpected emergency, and being the person on hand, in charge of the emergency first aid allowed me to at least contain myself for a while. I think the envolvement in a process in that immediate time at least partially served me to maintain some congisance of the situation. I felt more comfortable in dealing with the grieving after working somewhat through the period of shock.

Well, you and your family have my best wishes, of course.

[Oliver]

cecilia wrote:
...never let anyone tell you how long you are supposed to grieve. It just takes as long as it takes.

Hm, that sounds right. When my father died, it was all just uncharted territory. I had had friends die, but that's just not the same thing. I think it took some time for me to conceptually become OK with the fact, and then quite a lot more time to reach some peace emotionally.

By the way Karlos, I hope I'm not being too forward, in writing about my own experiences here. Of course I realise we don't know each other as well as you would know some of the longer standing members here, but I found it somehow comforting and refreshing to talk with my friends who had also lost family (some I hadn't even realised had gone through that).

All the best.