I'll commend the added effort on this one and give it another once-over.

>Before the DC-X, nobody believed rockets could land themselves with precision and reliability.

I will have to mark this one with a big fat [citation needed]. Although I can't quite speak for the folks who worked rockets in the 90's, in principle I see little reason why seasoned experts would be inclined to think of the task as impossible. Intriguing perhaps, difficult certainly, but the problems involved in that kind of landing functionality are well-defined in the propulsion and control theory literature from which a solution must be derived.

What the DC-X provides is an important proof of concept - I see little benefit in trying to analyze how useful that design is relative to any other given one. Although, as a point perhaps of historical interest: there was a "Delta Clipper" full-size vehicle in the plans as a follow-on to the DC-X, with some rather familiar promises of low-cost access to space and large savings through reusability. Some things are just posters, some things become prototypes, and some things end up as something more - that's the reality of aerospace designs if not engineering designs in general. I do have to say that based on the studies I've seen from the 90's, shelving the Delta Clipper concept was definitely the correct decision at that time.

>At this point, reuse was likely not saving over a couple million per launch, as pre-B5 boosters were not optimized for reuse.

I would like to draw attention to a pattern of thought I've coined "the refinement fallacy." That is, the general assumption that the next version will iterate away the relatively fundamental problems with this one. Although the next version could certainly support improvements, it's easy to assume that such improvements will lead to radically different performance even when there is little evidence to support that that is the case. Bottom line: improvements and refinements do not by default resolve fundamental problems.

For the next segment, I'd like to start by collecting a couple of questionable assertions:

1.

>Musk said that reuse was 50% cheaper, however, by the end of this, it would likely be more accurate that the final pre-B5 reuse only saved up to 30%, and that was the expectation from B5.

2.

>Block 5 is the final version of Falcon 9. It is reportedly built for 10 flights with minimal refurbishment and 100 flights over its lifetime, although there is speculation that B5 will be used through 200-300 launches IF Starlink becomes a thing.

3.

>All of these help improve rapid reusability and the amount of times a booster can be used. it is likely only now, when B5 is being mass-produced (in rocket terms) and reuse is down that reuse of the booster can create cost saving with reuse being worthwhile. This is also the point where that 50% savings over making a new one can be reached, which would probably give up to 25% total cost reduction (this takes into account the costs of maintaining and using the ships and their respective equipment).

The problem with each of these claims is largely the source material: not what the average individual would describe as credible. The first and third claims seem relatively tame on their face - statements of economics and of the efficiency of a certain project. The second one is significantly more absurd - one that couples absurdly optimistic performance assumptions with associated claims of economies of scale. Generally, it's easy to make anything seem feasible if you take highly optimistic assumptions about future growth and best-case performance, and that can honestly be somewhat meaningless.

In truth, we have a credibility problem to address here. We don't have detailed financial information about a private company's business, so we have to look at the evidence we do have:

1. Significant economic benefit is claimed. It's not a bad first-order assumption to take such claims at face value, although it might not be a bad idea to have some degree of skepticism, especially if the company in question is known for hyperbole and showmanship.
   
   
2. Known financial results do not paint a particularly flattering picture. Incomplete a metric though this may be, very large and important efficiency gains would generally lead to a very healthy bottom line. This doesn't seem to really be the case at the moment.
   
   
3. Studies from other individuals external to the claimant on the viability of the approach. Although there is some contention here, the external studies largely seem to be far more reserved in their claims on economic benefit. Though individually there is some question of credibility, when many parties independently reach the same conclusion it might beg the question of, why? Although it is far from proof, multiple experts corroborating the same story do make a case.
   
   The lack of verifiable numbers, and the consistent rightward shift of the "next iteration will wave a magic wand and erase the problems" mentality is a key facet of the refinement fallacy approach to these topics. Although there is not exactly hard proof available one way or the other (which does leave lots of leeway for speculation), the partial evidence provided does provide sufficient room to warrant significant skepticism.
   
   >A common rebuttal to reuse and SpaceX making money is that ULA makes way more profits than SpaceX. While true, this statement does not take into account the lower prices that SpaceX offers compared to ULA and where that money is going.
   
   What is perhaps more meaningful here is the matter of structural profitability. Generally, more budget services do make a smaller per-unit profit than the more expensive units; the former makes up for the difference in volume. But more meaningful is the more fundamental factors: is the business, including its forward-looking development plans, funded primarily by its operating profits, or by an influx of external capital? Investment is always a staple of large capital expenditures, but there is a massive difference between supplementing a healthy business profit with some external cash for faster development and relying on that money to just keep on top of the current batch of tasks without clearly achievable milestones to turn the trend around (often depending instead on pie-in-the-sky promises of grand successes). One may ask, which do we actually see here?
   
   >Currently, SpaceX is the only launch provider with commercially viable reusable launch vehicles. But it won't be that way much further into the 2020s. Future competitors include: Blue Origin's New Glenn, ULA's Vulcan-Centuar, and possibly China and India.
   
   Launch vehicle reusability has been a long-pursued topic in well-developed space programs all over the world. That has been the case for many decades, it will continue to be the case for years to come. However, two things become quickly clear:
   
   
4. It doesn't mean that it will prove to be a value-added pursuit; they could just as well explore that option until it becomes clear that the benefits are not sufficient to implement it further.
   
   
5. It doesn't mean that the task is a priority; research and opportunities for potential improvement that may only materialize years or decades into the future are staples of the R&D core of space, but it's no guarantee that any certain approach matters sufficiently to emphasize it right now. For example - the detachable engine idea had long been theorized and explored in detail, and may even prove to be viable, but is a far lesser concern than many more immediate factors of rocket design.
   
   Bold claims about a radically different future generally are far too presumptuous, assuming a world of highly optimistic possibilities without sufficiently considering the more immediate (and generally more mundane) economic and political conditions under which they operate. Again, some things end up as just proposals or prototypes, some things become something more; what a different world we would live in if all the promises of the past decades came true. The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
   
   Sources
   
   Just me, but I do have a book recommendation: Fundamentals of Astrodynamics - a fairly elementary, but highly informative, book on the principles of orbital mechanics. Great both for learning the basics at an engineering (as opposed to hobbyist) level, and as a reference if you happen to work with the stuff on a daily basis.

Hey! I can relate exactly to where your'e coming from. I, some years ago, decided I wanted to get into building synths. I ended up getting a job at a pedal company and have spent more time learning to build and repair pedals than synths. I don't work there anymore, but it gave me a lot of perspective into the field as we also made euro-rack modules.

First up: I don't want to scare you off from this, but just want to give you a realistic perspective so that you go into this knowing what you are getting into. Making synths is hard and it's expensive. As far as electronic projects go, making a synthesizer is up there on the list. I've repaired powerplant turbine controller circuitboards that were simpler than some of the synths I've owned. This isn't to say, "don't do it!" but, expect to learn a lot of fundamental and intermediate stuff before you ever have something like a fully-featured synth that you built in your hands.

It's also expensive. A cheap synth prototype is going to cost a couple hundred bucks, easy, while a more fully-featured prototype could cost into the thousands to produce, and that's just to build one working prototype. If you want to make a run of products you're going to need money up front, and not a small amount. So, just be prepared for that inevitability.

One final note is that my perspective is broad (digital and analog) but is rooted in analog electronics because that's where I started. This isn't the only path you can take to get to where you want to go but honestly in my opinion, even if you're going to go mostly digital later, you need to understand analog.

If you have never messed with electronics much before I highly recommend the Make: Electronics book. I'm a hands-on person and this was the most effective book I found that let me study electronics fundamentals the way I wanted to; by making stuff! No matter which direction you go on (digital, analog, hybrid, DSP, SID, etc) you're going to want to know how to pick the right resistor, or how to pop an LED into a circuit, and this book will teach you that.

Solid follow-up books from there are Make: More Electronics, Practical Electronics for Inventors, How To Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic, and The Art of Electronics. All of these books are good books that touch on different concepts you will find useful, so I encourage you to look through them and decide for yourself which of these interests you.

Around this same time, I'd encourage you to start getting into kits. Honestly, before you build anything synth, I'm going to recommend you build some pedals. Effects pedals are fun and rewarding to build without being too hard. Start with a distortion circuit and work your way up from there. Once you can build a delay pedal without freaking out, move on to euro-rack kits, or other synth kits. While you're building these kits, don't just build them, play with the circuits! Try swapping components where you think you can, or adding features. One of my first kits was a distortion pedal with a single knob, but by the time I was done tweaking on it it had five knobs and two toggle switches!

Once you're feeling somewhat comfortable with electronics, then you can dive into the holy grail of analog synth design: Make: Analog Synthesizers this amazing book was written by the brilliant Ray Wilson who recently passed away. His life's goal was to bring the art of building analog synths into the hands of anyone who wanted to learn, and there is no better place to receive his great wisdom than this book. You should also check out his website Music From Outer Space along the way, but the book covers so much more than his website.

If you make through most or all of those resources you are going to be well-equipped to take on a career in synth-building! I'm personally still on that last step (trying to find the time to tackle Make: Analog Synthesizers) but hope within the next year or two to get that under my belt and start diving in deep myself. It's been a fun journey of learning and discovery and I wouldn't trade the skills I've gained in electronics for much.

Hope this helps, good luck!

> code things into real life seems like a blast

It is! :-) And it's so easy compared to starting with a bare microcontroller.

> 0 experience whe nit comes to working with hardware

Kits usually explain a bit about resistors and such, but I'd strongly recommend to also pick up a beginner electronics book. These are simple and fun to read! :-)

• Getting started in electronics
  
  
• Notebook doodle style, super simple. Not only for kids despite the electron smileys showing you how electricity works. Electronics in an intuitive fashion, from winding a coil around a nail to build an electro magnet to simple circuits (and beyond).
  
  
• Practical electronics for inventors
  
  
• Still an easy read, but more background info :-)
  
   
  
  > sensors and motors and stuff
  
  > laserpointer
  
  Laser modules cost $0.15 or so at Aliexpress, Servos $1... Everything is so inexpensive it's great to build all sorts of crazy machines ;-)
  
  
   
  
  > What arduino
  
  Most guides and books will probably talk about the UNO. You can get a compatible board for around $3, but a Nano also works in the same fashion and sits nicely on a breadboard.
  
  For the UNO, you have all sorts of modules/shields, but there's nothing you can't hook up to one of the smaller boards.
  
  Also order an ESP8266 based board, like the $3 Nodemcu or D1 Mini. The ESP8266 has wifi built in and can run stand-alone, as it's a microcontroller with more memory as the UNO/Nano :-) But it's 3.3v, has only one analog input, and it's a bit more work when starting out.
  
   
  
  > What
  
  You could get a kit if you would like all sorts of sensors and modules.
  
  The Chinese starter kits are super cheap ($22 with UNO compatible, $26 with MEGA). As Aliexpress links often trigger the spam filter, search for 1207150873 or 32543887265.
  
  The differences are subtle, some kits lack the ultrasonic sensor (<=$1), etc.
  
  What's also a LOT of fun is a 2wd robot car kit, you can get them for $15 or so. Two geared motors, dual H-Bridge, put an Arduino + Ultrasonic sensor on it, and with ten lines of code, it will be an obstacle avoiding car or line follower ;-)
  
   
  
  These kits usually don't have great instructions. If that's what you want, get the official Arduino starter kit, or something from Sparkfun, Adafruit etc.
  
  The Arduino site, instructables, and all kind of blogs have examples for almost every module/sensor/device you can find :-) Find a good guide, such as t
  h
  [e](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYutciIGBqC34bfijBdYch49oyU-B_ttH
  )
  s
  e, and see if that would work for you.
  
   
  
  The only down-side when going with the compatible Arduino boards: You will have to install a different driver manually (oh noes).
  
   
  
  If you don't have one already: A soldering iron.
  
  I know, when starting, soldering sucks. You want to do everything on a breadboard, reservable. But I found out way too late how great and time saving soldering is once you use a decent soldering iron ;-) Most will recommend something like FX888D or better, but a $15-$20 adjustable soldering station can work as well for the occasional soldering job. And there's a soldering comic :-)
  
   
  
  A multimeter is a must-have as well. $3 ones work for simple resistance and voltage readings. For high voltage / high current tasks, they might burst into flames and double as fire-starter, ideal in the cold winter time.
  
  Part testers for $15 can be neat, they identify parts (is this a NPN or PNP transistor... or something else?).
  
  Cheap regulated $20 power supplies can be nice as well.
  
   
  
  Edit: Bunch of capacitors, resistors, transistors (Bags of 100-500 for $1-$2 via ebay), and whatever sensors you need ;-)
  
   
  
  
  Sorry for the long post :-) It's always difficult to tell how much experience and equipment someone already has.

Sure, I’d be happy to share.

I’ve only selected courses for semesters 1 & 2 for now. If there’s interest, I can update my list later on.

To give some context, my intention is to specialize in International Trade at the level of small to medium sized business. So while these first couple semesters are pretty standard business fundamentals, in semester 4 you’ll notice I start to choose courses based on developing specific skill sets that are applicable to my objectives.

I’ve ignored several courses which would be important for someone looking to get a complete and well rounded business education, but don’t seem critical for my goals.

Some courses I’ve skipped: Ethics (lol), Information Systems, Project Management, Calculus, Econometrics, Corporate Finance, Political Economics, Cyber Security, Human Resources.

Okay, on to the curriculum...


---

Academic Foundations (Optional Prep Courses)

I am about to embark on a lengthy 1-2yr education so for me it makes sense to brush up on academics skills as force multipliers for my efforts later on. This section is totally optional though and not part of any business school curriculum.

Academic Foundations - Memory & Effective Learning

Courses:

• Learning How to Learn @ UC San Diego or…
  
  
• Mindshift @ McMaster University
  
  Books:
  
  
• The Memory Book - Harry Lorayne, Jerry Lucas
  
  
• The Four Hour Chef - Tim Ferriss
  
  
• How to Read a Book - Mortimer Adler
  
  Other Resources:
  
  
• Anki (spaced repetition software)
  
  

  Academic Foundations - Productivity
  

  
  Books
  
  

• Getting Things Done - David Allen
  
  Other Resources:
  
  
• Pomodoro Technique
  
• How To Read A Book In A Single Day (short article w/ actionable speed reading tips)
  
  

  Academic Foundations - Writing
  

  Book
  
  

• Elements Of Style - Strunk & White
  
  ---
  
  

  Semester 1
  

  
  

  Business 101
  

• Business Foundations @ UBC
  
  

  Math - Algebra
  

• Kahn Academy Math Tutorials
  
• Maths Essentials for MBA Success @ Imperial College London
  
  

  Accounting
  

  
  

• Financial Accounting Made Fun @ Babson
  
• The prof has had a long and impressive career and he truly does make the subject more engaging through telling the story of a fictional business in little movies
  
  
• Alternative 1: Accounting: Principles of Financial Accounting @ IESE Business School
  
• The prof is engaging and likeable and also teaches through the story of a fictional business. I like this one too.
  
  
• Alternative 2: Introduction to Financial Accounting @ Wharton
  
• This seems to be the most comprehensive of the accounting courses but not as engaging. I figured a more comprehensive course is not going to benefit me if my enthusiasm and retention of information suffers so I skipped this one. If you are naturally smarter than me or have a longer attention span, this is probably the best introduction to accounting course for you.
  
  

  MicroEconomics
  

• [Principles of Microeconomics @ MIT] (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/economics/14-01sc-principles-of-microeconomics-fall-2011/)
  
• This introductory microeconomics class is one of the most popular that MIT has made available, and is taught by Prof. Jonathan Gruber. He’s been teaching there for 20 years and is an extremely prominent economist who helped design Massachusetts’ groundbreaking health-care reform.
  
  ---
  
  

  Semester 2
  

  
  

  Marketing
  

• An Introduction To Marketing @ Wharton
  
• Taught by three of Wharton's top faculty in the marketing department, consistently ranked as the #1 marketing department in the world, this course covers three core topics in customer loyalty: branding, customer centricity, and practical, go-to-market strategies.
  
  

  MacroEconomics
  

• Principles of Macroeconomics @ MIT
  
  

  Finance
  

• Finance for Everyone: Smart Tools for Decision-Making @ MIT
  
• Not sure this course is going to be sufficient for business school but I really wanted to learn from Prof. Gautam Kaul and since his Introduction To Finance course seems to have been discontinued at Coursera I am going to roll the dice on this one. Look for something else if you want to make sure you’re prepared with a solid finance background for business.
  
  

  Math - Statistics
  

• Analytics For Decision Making @ Babson
  
• I chose Statistics instead of Calculus after watching this TED talk and reading this article
  
  ---
  
  

  Semester 3
  

  
  

  Operations Management
  

  
  

  Supply Chain Management
  

  
  

  International Business
  

  
  

  Game Theory
  

• Game Theory @ Yale
  
  

  Strategic Thinking/Decision Making
  

• Effective Problem-Solving and Decision-Making @ UC Irvine
  
  ---
  
  

  Semester 4
  

  E-commerce
  

  
  

  Product Design
  

  
  

  Opportunities in Developing Economies
  

  
  

  Management/Leadership
  

  
  ---
  
  

  Semester 5
  

  Negotiations
  

  
  

  Entrepreneurship
  

  
  

  Global Supply Chain Management
  

  
  

  Pricing
  

  
  

  International Business Law
  

  
  

I'm 21, 6'2" and 190. Before the MSF class, I had never ridden anything, so I know exactly how you feel. Let me see what I can do:

> So, besides taking the MSF course, what can I do to learn more?

After the MSF class, read or watch Twist of the Wrist 2
(note: you can find these elsewhere for free) TotW 1 is good too, but 2 is more focused on practical street riding.

> What should I know (I realize this may be early since I haven't had any experience yet)?

Before you even touch a bike, you should know that motorcycles are in fact dangerous when compared to other methods of transportation. Be knowledgeable of the studies that prove it. Also, understand that while the activity is inherently dangerous there are many ways to reduce risk. The MSF class should cover most of this, but here's a couple that should be drilled into your head:

• Gear up. All of it. Helmet, Jacket, Gloves, Boots, and something on your legs with more protection than a pair of Levi's.
  
  
• Gear up ALL THE TIME
  
  
• Don't ride in blind spots
  
  
• Always be aware of your surroundings
  
  
• Ride like every car is trying to kill you, because they are
  
  
• Don't be a squid
  
  >Here in Arizona passing the MSF course waives your skills and written test for a license and I have a hard time believing that 2.5 days of experience is enough for me to feel comfortable riding around without more practice.
  
  I took the MSF class and picked up a Ninja 250 a month later with no practice in between. I puttered around the neighborhood streets for a while (about 200 miles worth of residential and <40mph streets) before I took it out on the highway. Mostly, work on your coordination. Keeping track of what gear you're in and what order you pull levers and push pedals can be confusing when you're also making sure you don't get run over. Practice until you're confident.
  
  > Also, I was looking around some dealers this past weekend and almost unanimously they said to ignore the MSF teachers' advice to go for a 250cc bike for a learner because I would "outgrow" it within a few months.
  
  Wrong. Well, Kind of. It's less the amount of time you own it and more the amount of technically challenging miles you've put on it. One piece of advice I love to give to people considering the 250 is this: Don't ever let anyone tell you that you need to have a big bike to be a good rider.
  
  I had my 250 for 3 months and put 3800 miles on it and I was still working on my form when I wrecked it. The people that get bored with a 250 in a couple months are the ones that go fast in straight lines. They upgrade to a 600 supersport, lowside it once and get scared shitless. It's why there are so many cosmetically damaged supersports on the market.
  
  > I've seen a lot of testimonials to the contrary and I mentioned that and then they said that it would be a safety issue, where a larger bike could accelerate out of accidents that a smaller one would get trapped in. Really, I just get the feeling that they are trying to upsell me on a larger bike but I was curious if these things are true.
  
  Plausible, but unlikely. Power is no substitute for safe riding. I feel a little safer in traffic on my 600 than I did on my 250 simply because I can get out of blind spots faster, but all I'm doing is accelerating to get out of someone's way instead of braking.
  
  And yes, the dealer is definitely trying to sell you a bigger bike. Bigger bike, more money, more commission.
  
  > Finally (wow this is a lot of questions) I was looking at a Ninja 250R, probably a used one since the refresh a couple of years ago. Any input on that as a starter bike?
  
  You should check out r/250r for fellow redditors with the 250r. Also, ninja250.org has one of the biggest knowledge databases on the two-fiddy.
  
  > I know it's a "sportbike" but it seems more like a standard bike with rider positioning. Also, would a guy of my height have an issue with one? I sat on one and compared to other bikes I felt like I was sitting very low and wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
  
  Inseam matters more than height. Cycle-ergo is an awesome tool that can tell you roughly where your knees will be and how much you have to lean. Honestly, at 6'2", the 250 was a little small for me. I had one of the older ones which was slightly different, but the new ones I sat on at the dealer were also cramped though there are guys taller than me that ride them comfortably. Next time you go to the dealer, sit on one with your hands on the handlebars and stay there for a while. If it seems a little small don't worry, there are a handful of things you can do to change the ergonomics of the bike. If you're completely uncomfortable after 10 minutes, you may want to look at a bigger bike. (Not a supersport.)
  
  > Basically, any advice you can give me would be great!
  
  I know I threw a lot at you and it may be a little overwhelming. You did the right thing by signing up for the MSF class to see if you're truly interested. If you don't make it through the class, don't worry; riding isn't for everyone. It's dangerous, it's expensive and it's certainly a lifestyle change. You'll find yourself going out of your way to hit the twisties and showing up late to things. You'll neglect other projects on the weekends so you can get some seat time. You'll shave your head to avoid helmet-hair. You'll hear the sound of an engine and whip your head around trying to see what kind of bike it's coming from. You'll lean into turns in your car.
  
  But riding is also one of the most rewarding experiences in the world. Getting over the fear, accepting the danger and finally throwing a leg over a bike is a feeling like no other. Once you do that, you get to experience the silent camaraderie of "the wave," the butterflies in your stomach just as you lean into a corner, the feeling you get whenever you see one of those 'curvy road ahead' signs, the exhilaration of completing a perfect set of twisties, and much, much more.
  
  Riding is awesome, and I'm sure you'll love it. Good luck in your class!
  
  EDIT: Downvotes? Seriously? I sure hope that was a bot.

Why your plan is awesome

I know I'm a little late to the party, but I really like this topic. Hopefully this isn't so late that it's useless.

Most people will tell you that a home simulator is useless or worse than useless for PPL training. I disagree, provided you use it correctly. Let me break it down a bit. When you're flying, this is basically what's going on:

1. Every 10ms: Adjust control inputs in response to the feeling of the controls.
   
2. Every 100ms: Adjust control inputs in response to the sight picture of the cowling and wings relative to the horizon.
   
3. Every 1-5s: Adjust the sight picture you're trying to achieve based on the information on your instruments.
   
4. Every 1-5m: Check engine instruments, navigation, talk to ATC, etc.
   
   So, that basic model isn't exactly accurate in all phases of flight, but it's a reasonable approximation. Here's the thing. A good desktop sim can teach you all of those but the first one. Why wouldn't you want a tool that can mostly teach you how to fly for $0/hr after setup costs? I did this for my PPL training and had excellent results.
   
   

   How to use a sim effectively
   

   
   You can definitely build terrible habits in a home sim, and that's why they have a bad reputation for PPL students. However, there are some easy things you can do to avoid that.
   
   

• Get your feet wet with the XPlane Learn to Fly tutorial. You'll make lots of mistakes, but starting with something fun will keep you motivated.
  
• Read the PHAK.
  
• Read the AFH. The AFH details all the maneuvers you'll need to learn during PPL training. Learn how to do them in your sim!
  
• Learn how an airplane actually flies. I recommend Stick and Rudder and See How it Flies.
  
• Do not fixate on your instruments! Practice maneuvers with the instruments covered or failed, then check to see how you did. E.g. cover the instruments, do a 360 degree 30 degree bank turn, and then uncover the instruments to see if you gained or lost altitude. Do this until your error is < 50ft. You MUST learn to fly by looking outside.
  
• Don't fly with trim. This is hard in a sim because our yokes are dumb. In a real airplane, you set the yoke where it needs to be and trim until the pressure goes away. The yoke never moves. In a sim, it's a tricky dance where you hold pressure and then slowly ease it back to the center while trimming. It sucks, but it's way better than flying by trim, which will cause endless pitch and altitude oscillations.
  
• Once you can fly a pattern without embarrassing yourself, get online with PilotEdge. Trust me, it's a fantastic training experience and just plain fun.
  
• Once you start real flying lessons, ask your instructor what you'll be covering in each lesson a few days before. Then practice those tasks in the sim beforehand. This will save tons of time in the air because you'll be polishing and transferring skills instead of learning them fresh. For bonus points, practice until you can meet the Airman Certification Standards in the sim where applicable.
  
• Use the sim to practice things that would be unsafe in real life. Engine failure on takeoff? No problem in the sim. Elevator failure? Sure, why not. Lost coms procedure? Hop on PilotEdge and do it.
  
  

  Hardware recommendations:
  

  
  

• Yoke / Joystick: If you'll be flying something with a yoke, I'd get a yoke. I 100% agree with XPlane's recommendation of the CH Eclipse unless you're ready to drop $1500 on an Iris. Saitek's yokes look nicer, but their pitch axis sticks, which is infuriating. It basically makes precise pitch control impossible, which is the single most important part of a yoke.
  
• Rudder pedals: I have the CH rudder pedals and have no complaints except I wish they required a bit more force. I've also used the Saitek pedals, and they're fine too.
  
• Trim Wheel: Unfortunately Saitek discontinued their trim wheel, and it's now a bit pricey used. You definitely need one. I don't have experience with other options.
  
• Throttles: The Saitek throttle quadrant is great, and I love the fact that it comes with a nice row of buttons underneath. Alternately, you can use the throttles built into the yoke. I did that for a while, but found that reaching over the yoke to adjust the throttle was causing strain on my shoulder and giving me headaches.
  
• Head tracking: Not sure if you'll need this with 6 displays. I've got 3 set up for a 180 degree FOV, and I definitely need it. For pattern work, you really need a 270 degree FOV so you can look back at the runway. Also, it's really helpful to be able to lean forward, backward, and side to side so you can spot things that are behind the pillars. Obviously you won't go wrong with a TrackIR, but I've had great success with the DelanClip which is much cheaper.
  
• Switches and radios: Once again, Saitek makes some reasonably nice gear here. IMO this is completely optional for PPL practice.
  
• ATC: A subscription to PilotEdge is AMAZING for learning radio work and how to navigate airspace.
  
  Since you said money is not an issue, you might consider some more expensive hardware options. I have no experience with any of those, but they sure look nice :)

Some of the best I've used:

Story by Robert McKee -- As its title indicates, this book takes a look at story construction from a more theoretical perspective. McKee works mostly in the realm of screenplays but the ideas he puts forth are universally applicable and have already helped my writing immensely -- story itself was one of the big areas where I was struggling, and after reading through this book I'm able to much better conceptualize and plan out thoughtful stories.

Stein on Writing by Sol Stein -- if McKee's book is written from a theoretical perspective, Stein's takes a practical look at how to improve writing and editing skills. The mechanics of my writing have improved after reading this book; his examples are numerous and accessible. His tone may come off as a bit elitist but that doesn't mean he doesn't have things to teach us!

On Writing by Stephen King -- A perennial favorite and one I'm sure you've already received numerous suggestions for. Kind of a mix of McKee and Stein in terms of approach, and a great place to start when studying the craft itself.

Elements of Style by Strunk & White -- King swears by this book, and although I've bought it, the spine still looks brand new. I would recommend getting this in paperback format, though, as it's truly meant to be used as a reference.

Writing Excuses Podcast -- HIGHLY recommended place to start. Led by Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells and Mary Robinette Kowal, this is one of the places I really started to dig into craft. They're at Season 13.5 now but new listeners can jump in on Season 10, where they focus on a specific writing process in each episode (everything from coming up with ideas to characterization and world building and more). Each episode is only 15(ish) minutes long. Listening to the whole series (or even the condensed version) is like going through a master class in genre fiction.

Brandon Sanderson 318R Playlist -- Professional recordings of Brandon Sanderson's BU writing class. Great stuff in here -- some crossover topics with Writing Excuses, but he is a wealth of information on genre fiction and great writing in general. Covers some of the business of writing too, but mostly focuses on craft.

Love this idea - hopefully I've sent a couple you haven't received yet!

Okay, you're definitely at the beginning. I'll clarify a few things and then recommend some resources.

1. Places to buy components: Depending on where you live in the world, the large component suppliers are almost always the way to go, with smaller suppliers like Adafruit/Sparkfun if you need development boards or specialised things. I buy almost exclusively from Digikey -- they have $8 flat shipping to Canada, which typically arrives the next day, with no customs fees. They have some sort of agreement in place where they cover these costs. This *always* saves money over going to my local stores where the prices are inflated. It's crazy how cheap some things are. If I need a few 2.2K 1206 resistors for a project, I just buy a reel of 1000 because they are so cheap.
   
2. "Steer a joystick with an app" Do you mean connect motors to it and have them move the joystick for you? You're going to want some sort of microcontroller platform, along with a motor controller and way to communicate with a smartphone app. You mention you know C++ so it will be easy to switch to C. This is both true and false. Programming for microcontrollers is not the same as programming for computers. You are much closer to the hardware, typically manipulating many registers directly instead of abstracting it away. Each microcontroller vendor has their own tools and compilers, although *some* do support GCC or alternatives. You mentioned PIC, which is a line of microcontrollers by a large company called Microchip. There are 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit PICs, all at different price points and with hugely differing capabilities. Selecting the microcontroller for a project can be half the battle sometimes. Or, like me, you can just go with whatever you have on hand (which is usually MSP430s or PIC32MX's)
   
3. A lot of people will recommend the book The Art of Electronics. It's decent, but it's not for everyone. Some really like the conversational style, others don't. Many people who want to get into microcontroller programming and embedded development want to skip over the fundamentals and just get something working. For those, I point them to Arduino and let them on their merry way. However, if you actually want to learn something, I highly recommend buying an actual microcontroller development board, learning the fundamentals about electrical circuits, and programming in actual C with actual IDEs.
   
4. As far as resources go, again it depends on your actual goal. Whenever I want to learn a new tool (like a PCB layout software, or a new IDE) I always start with a simple project. Having an end point to reach will keep you motivated when things seem complicated. Your controlling a joystick with motors is a great starting point. I would buy a development board, Microchip PICs are popular, as are ST32s, and MSP430. It doesn't really matter that much in the long run. Just don't tie yourself too hard to one brand. Then pick up some stepper motors, and a stepper motor control board (grab one from Sparkfun/Adafruit, etc). Get yourself a breadboard, and some breadboard jumpers, a cheap power supply (there are tons available now for cheap that are pretty decent), and then jump in head first!
   
5. I highly recommend the book Making Embedded Systems by Elecia White, once you've covered the basics. It's a great way to learn more about how professionals actually design things. For the basics, you can watch *EARLY* EEVBlog videos (anything past around video 600/650 he gets progressively more annoying and set in his ways, another topic entirely, but the early stuff is decent). I'd also recommend picking up your choice of books about the fundamentals -- Electronics for Dummies, the aforementioned Art of Electronics, Making Embedded Systems, The Art of Designing Embedded Systems, and even stuff like Design Patterns for Embedded Systems in C. Again, it all depends on what your goal is. If you want to do embedded design, then you'll need to focus on that. If you're more into analog circuits, then maybe check out The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design. Either way, grounding yourself in the fundamentals will help a LOT later on. It will make reading schematics way easier.
   
   I feel like I've gone off on a few tangents, but just ask for clarification if you want. I'd be happy to point you towards other resources.

Howdy, and welcome to the wonderful world of motorcycling. Good luck on your quest.

First off, does that $2,500 include riding gear or is that just for the bike? Assuming the former, you could spend $500 on a helmet, jacket, and gloves with $2k left over for the bike purchase. For riding gear, I recommend checking out motorcyclegear.com, especially their closeouts. They also have deals called 'almost free' where you receive a gift card for nearly the full price of the garment. You can sign up for their sale emails, check it out.

The bike you posted looks good, but given the age it would be helpful to take a knowledgeable friend along before buying. There is a lot to inspect to prevent unforeseen costs. As /u/DantesDame mentioned, rubber bits get old, brittle, and dry rotted. Think leaky carb boots, fork seals, brake hoses, things like that. Also you should check the valve clearances and ignition timing; personally I find these things fun but I did grow up wrenching on things.

A CB350 would be good, really anything from Honda's CB lineup would be fine, though the 750s and up get pretty heavy for a beginner. If there are many dirt roads near you, maybe consider a dual-sport such as a Honda XR or CRF230L (-R is offroad only, -L is street legal), Yamaha TTR, Suzuki DR-Z. They tend to be light and easy to handle, they're single-cylinders and generally pretty easy to work on.

Back to maintenance--whichever bike you get, get yourself a copy of the service manual. This is a how-to book with detailed instructions for all types of maintenance, including how to take the bike apart down to the last nut and bolt and still put it back together again. If you have that and a friend who knows how to change their own oil, you're off to a good start.

Of course take the class, but if you can meet seasoned riders to talk to or ride with, even better. Just be sure to take your advice from safe, responsible folk. If you can't find people like that, check your local library for this book. If they don't have it, you might be able to get it on inter-library loan:

http://www.amazon.com/Proficient-Motorcycling-Ultimate-Guide-Riding/dp/1889540536

• "On Writing," by Stephen King (http://amzn.com/B000FC0SIM) - The first half is a good biography, and the second half is great insight into how Stephen King comes up with his stories. Not just the genesis of the story, but that actual "I sit down and do this, with this, in this type of environment." And then what to do when you finish your first draft. He is very critical of plotting, though. If you disagree with him about that, it's still good for everything else.
  
  
• "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White (http://amzn.com/020530902X) - This is a handy little book for proper grammatical and prose rules. How to write proper dialogue, where to put punctuation, and how to structure sentences to flow in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
  
  
• "Stein On Writing" by Sol Stein (http://amzn.com/B00HFUJP5Y) - I just picked this book up, so I haven't finished it--but it seems to be a little more in depth than Stephen King's On Writing. For instance, it looks more at not just what makes a good story, but what makes a good story appealing to readers. So whereas Stephen King preaches a more organic growth and editing process to write a story, this one seems to be more focused on how to take your idea and make it a good story based on proven structure.
  
  Honorable mention:
  
  
• "The Emotion Thesaurus" by Angela Ackerman (http://amzn.com/B00822WM2M) - This is incredibly useful when you're "showing" character emotions instead of "telling" the reader what those emotions are. For example, "He was curious," is telling the reader the character is curious. "He leaned forward, sliding his chair closer," is showing the reader that he is curious.
  
  
• I think it's easy for writers (myself included) to get too wrapped up in studying writing, or reading about writing. The best way to improve your is to write more, whether it's fiction or non-fiction, articles or short stories, novels or book reviews. The same principle applies to most skills, art especially. While reading about the activity certainly helps and is probably necessary at some point, you're going to just have to perform the activity in order to improve. Imagine reading about running more than actually running to practice for a marathon. Or reading about flying instead of getting hours in. Or reading about piano theory instead of actually playing piano. But if you're coming from nothing, it would probably help to read those three books before starting in order to start practicing with a good background right away, instead of starting with nothing and winging it on your own.

This is novel, I get to post on this sub as an answerer instead of a questioner lol.

So, I've got 6 VW busses. They are not really for sale so to speak but those are the credentials. I bought my first bus in 1998 for a $300 while still in high school with 0 mechanical knowledge other than changing my oil.

As some have said here the best way to start is to just jump right in! Find one you like and go for it. When I started buying VWs they were still trash vehicles, everybody had an old one in the backyard and they were just looking to get rid of them. Now they are a bit more precious, you will pay much more for a poor condition bus than I would have for a great one back then. But the upside is there are many more aftermarket places for things that were harder to find then. NADA, Edmunds and the like are useless to find out what busses are worth. It's best to get familiar with online VW communities like the Samba they also have an excellent classified section.

I used a book 60% of the time to figure things out on my bus. Two books you REALLY NEED are The Idiot's Guide and the Bentley book. Between these you are pretty much covered. The Idiot's Guide is similar to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I would recommend reading it cover to cover.

For the other 40% of my VW learning curve I utilized people's advice. Air cooled VW enthusiasts are the best people to get to know. They will always wave and stop to chat when you finally get to drive your bus. Find your closest VW auto club and start joining in activities, make connections and offer to help people fix their cars, it will be a huge help and you will make friends.

Now just a quick final observation and opinion. You said you wanted a "camper van". From that description I can point you to a a '68 to '79 Westphalia. Those are what most people picture with that description. There are three main body styles for busses; Splitty, Bay Window and Vanagon all fall under the general model number Type 2 (beetles are type 1). I don't want to write a novel here so I'll cut it short. If you have any other questions feel free to ask here or PM me, if I don't know I'll know where to look.

I did learn all of this stuff from experience. Honestly, I had a little bit of a tough time right out of college because I didn't have much practical circuit design experience. I now feel like I have a very good foundation for that and it came through experience, learning from my peers, and lots of research. I have no affiliation with Henry Ott, but I treat his book like a bible . I refer to it just about every time I do a board design. Why? because it's packed with this type of practical information. Here's his book. I bought mine used as cheap as I could. At my previous job, they just had one in the library. Either way, it was good to have around.

So why should you care about electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)? A couple reasons:

1. EMC compliance is often regulated by industry and because a product requirement. The types of tests that your product has to pass is dependent on the industry typically, but in general there are tests where bad things are injected into your board and tests where they measure how noisy your board. You have to pass both.
   
2. EMC compliance, in my opinion, is very well correlated with the reliability and quality of a product. If a product is destroyed "randomly" or stops working when the microwave is on, you're not likely to have a good opinion of that product. Following guidelines like the one I did above is the path to avoiding problems like that.
   
3. EMC design is usually not taught in schools and yet it is the most important part of the design (besides making it perform the required product function in the first place). It also is very hard to understand because many of the techniques for improving your design do not necessarily show up on your schematics. Often, it's about how well your layout your board, how the mechanical design for the enclosure of your board is considered, etc.
   
   Anyways, it's definitely worth looking at and is a huge asset if you can follow those guidelines. Be prepared to enter the workforce and see rampant disregard for EMC best practices as well as rampant EMC problems in existing products. This is common because, as I said, it's not taught and engineers often don't know what tools to use to fix it. It often leads to expensive solutions where a few extra caps and a better layout would have sufficed.
   
   A couple more books I personally like and use:
   
   Howard Johnson, High Speed Digital Design (it's from 1993, but still works well)
   
   Horowitz and Hill, The Art of Electronics (good for understanding just about anything, good for finding tricks and ideas to help you for problems you haven't solved before but someone probably has)
   
   Last thing since I'm sitting here typing anyways:
   
   When I first got out of college, I really didn't trust myself even when I had done extensive research on a particular part of design. I was surrounded by engineers who also didn't have the experience or knowledge to say whether I was on the right path or not. It's important to use whatever resources you have to gain experience, even if those resources are books alone. It's unlikely that you will be lucky and get a job working with the world's best EE who will teach you everything you need to know. When I moved on from my first job after college, I found out that I was on the right path on many things thanks to my research and hard work. This was in opposition to my thinking before then as my colleagues at my first job were never confident in our own ability to "do EE the right way" - as in, the way that engineers at storied, big companies like Texas Instruments and Google had done. Hope that anecdotal story pushes you to keep going and learning more!

1. Definitely. Personal experience: I have less than a year of industry experience and was offered a position starting at $59K + full benefits + stock options in from a fairly large commercial aeronautics company in TX.
   
   
2. Maybe not those skills specifically, but hiring managers will be very impressed (and maybe intimidated) by "nuclear operator" and military experience in general. I was friends with a nuke guy similar to you who was in my aerospace program and he's miles ahead of me in terms of opportunity.
   
   
3. Nope, as long as you go to a top 50 (hell, even a top 100) institution you'll be fine and won't be at any sort of disadvantage. I know you're riding the GI bill and can probably go to an expensive private institution like Embry-Riddle (barf), but I urge you to instead choose a university that will make you happy as a person, located in a city that has lots of fun stuff to do.
   

• NOTE: you might want to investigate whether your choice of university has a good VA program (esp. since it sounds like you were discharged for medical reasons). I was friends with a few Navy guys that developed macular degeneration from working around diesel motors on ships, and the VA office at their university sucked which kind of made everything else suck.
  
  

4. Brush up on algebra, trigonometry, vector calculus, and classical physics, and you should be solid. I recommend purchasing this book as it covers nearly every topic taught in an undergraduate engineering program, plus you can use it to prepare for the FE exam if/when you decide to take it.
   
   
5. The best advice I can give you is to get hands-on experience while attending school. Any respectable astronautics program will certainly have a rocketry, robotics, and/or satellite group, and I strongly encourage you to join at least one of those groups. Learn how to weld, put subsystems together, code, and most importantly learn what it actually means to work in a group of engineers under a deadline.

Pros:

"Description"s are great - I do NOT think you should spend more time talking about how the games work. Your little blurb gave me a perfect idea of the type of game that each is. If I want to know the rules, then I will click on the included links to the PnP games.

Beer Recommendations - I always enjoy people's thoughts on beers, and it is a nice unique feature.

Thoughts section - I think you do a good job of capturing some of what you felt while playing the game. I like that you compared it to Roll for the Galaxy, and think that comparing the game to the feelings caused by other games is great. I will say that this is the one area that I think you can write a lot, as it is the most "reviewish" and thus interesting part.

Overall Presentation - Good use of images, bold text, and links.

Cons:

Writing style/grammar/spelling errors - Too many commas! You have a habit it seems of breaking up your writing a lot. Let the sentences flow more. Vary up your transitions. There were a couple spelling errors, but I find that those don't impact the readability of an article as much as proper use of grammar.
If you want to improve your writing The Elements of Style is a classic, good, and cheap book that has plenty of excellent writing tips. It is a pretty quick read as well.

Lack of "Rating" - I understand both sides of this argument, but I like when reviewers are bold enough to throw a rating of some sort. Whether a # system or something like (Into the Recycling Bin) --> (Good game) --> (Awesome game), I think either is very helpful.

Hopefully this was helpful. Overall, it was a nice read that serves its purpose well. I also think I'll check out Deep Space D-6 :)

A couple of recommendations:

First, there are the classic Forrest Mims books they are the quintessential beginner level books. Radio Shack used to sell them. They are very introductory and tend to be rather brief for easy consumption. I'm not a huge fan of the style personally but others LOVE them a lot. Many many many hobbyists and engineers got their start with these books.

Another option I like a lot is Practical Electronics for Inventors, 3rd Ed. by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk. This book is a great beginners book that will take you nicely into circuit theory and things like that. Not as advanced as an academic tome but advanced enough for you to learn a good amount and establish a solid foundation.

Lastly, there is the very advanced Art of Electronics 3rd Ed. by Horowitz and Hill. This is the classic introductory text for engineers and hobbyists alike. It is very math heavy but you will have a very very good understanding of what's going on.

One non-book recommendation is the AllAboutCircuits online textbook tutorial. It is pretty well enumerated and detailed, though it is a bit lacking in sample problems. A great free resource that you can start learning now.

Beyond this, once you get a solid foundation. You can start focusing in specific areas like digital, power, precision measurements, etc.

(1) Ok so licensing and basic training is pretty easy in the US but it still varies state to state.

All states use a rider training program, the majority of them being of the MSF curriculum, a small handful of them being run by the MSF themselves. other states will have their own, but the process is usually more or less the same.

you take a 2 day course that takes you from the point of never having sat on a motorcycle to being a licensed rider (some states will still make you take the DMV written exam however) some states will REQUIRE you to take this class if you are under 21. best to check with your state on the process.

This is where you should start. this is not where you should end however. these courses will give you the skills you need to operate the motorcycle, but before being road ready they need to be drilled down in a parking lot. after getting your bike hopefully you can ride it home in a light traffic hours or have it delivered, and be prepared to get out to an empty parking lot and practice the exercises taught before getting into full blown traffic.

in addition to this, your rider education should not stop. i advise you to check out some books from your local library if not purchasing a copy yourself. i will link below

(2) the clutch in a manual car is more difficult than on a bike, but the same interplay between the clutch and throttle applies. most bikes are also designed with wet clutches which allow them to slip more and take more abuse than dry clutches, also gives them a more linear release (although some Italian bikes have dry clutches) . Bikes can also move off easier without throttle which makes things easier in the beginning. hills starts are not as much of a problem on a bike than a car. one advantage a car has however is a mental one, you dont have to worry about keeping the vehicle upright while you are learning. doing this plus learning the clutch could make things challenging. for the most part, though, a motorcycle will be easier than a car.

(3) at your height most bikes will fit well. there's only a few bikes that you can be too tall for, most of the time its the other way around, where as a beginner you want to be able to flat foot the bike. so a lot of this comes down to which bikes you like.

the other things is that a lot comes down to body geometry so not all 6'2" are going to be equally comfortable on the same bike. best it to go and sit on a few bikes. if you are into sportbikes/sport standards, most of the entry level 250cc-300cc bikes actually fit taller people better than say, a 300cc cruiser.

that being said, when you go to take the course. expect to be slightly uncomfortable. a lot of these bikes used at courses tend to be bikes with very low seat heights so that shorter people can still flat foot them...while you are learning you will have to put your foot down a lot, which can be make a taller person feel cramped on the bike. once your riding, these bikes are mostly fine for us taller folk but in the course with so much stop and go, and bike walking exercising, with such a low seat height, its kind of uncomfortable.


Recommended reading:

Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well
by David L. Hough
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1620081199/
This book is pretty popular and its VERY good. your local library probably has it. I was actually able to get an ebook from the library to read on a tablet in full color without getting off my butt.


The Follow up:
https://www.amazon.com//dp/1935484869/

If you are into sportbikes:

Lee Parks Total Control https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R31222S

Nick Ienatsch Sport Riding Techniques https://www.amazon.com/gp/1893618072/

1. I never went to one of the pilot mill schools, so I don't really have an opinion. I did call them once a few years ago to ask about their multi engine rating program - which I believe has since been discontinued as an a la carte option - and the guy on the phone was a prick who seemed to think that a $6,000 multi engine rating was the cheapest I would find and that everyone takes out loans so I should too. That didn't sit well with me at all. Anyways, I have heard good and bad things about them. From what I have heard, you will do better there if you are very self-driven and can put up with sleeping, eating, breathing, and pissing airplanes for 6 or 7 months straight. They don't seem to be too bad of a deal in this hiring environment.
   
   
2. Glass cockpits are just more expensive. Some people will argue that "Everyone is going to glass and to stay competitive you need to know how to use it..." and to that, I say that you can go buy Microsoft Flight Simulator for $30 and you will have glass cockpits in there that are nearly identical to the real deal and you can learn them that way for now. More importantly though, for you Private Pilots License, you need to spend nearly all your time looking outside the airplane. The glass will invite you to stare at it because it is cool and powerful, but that will only hinder your abilities right now. IF you do want to go glass, wait until your instrument rating... and even then I would encourage you to get your IR in an airplane with no glass. It is MUCH easier to go to glass on instruments than to try to figure out how to fly a DME arc on analogue when you learned on glass. Heck, I did my IR training in an airplane with no glass, no GPS, and no distance measuring equipment, so we had to time all of our approaches or use cross radials and beacons. No, that was not in 1960 either - that was in 2015. I didn't care for it at the time but I am much more confident because of it.
   
   
3. All the Private Pilot books located here as well as Stick and Rudder. In that first link you can also find free PDFs of the FAA publications or buy them (which I would personally recommend, as having the physical book is much better).
   
   
4. Other questions would be anything that you are curious about. Let them know your priorities and see if they think you would be a good fit. When you get with an instructor, also let them know your priorities. If they are able to and are decent people, they will try to accommodate you. For example, I told my instructor during PPL training that money was very tight and that I wanted to be as efficient as possible so she told me that she would do what she could to minimize billable hours so long as I showed up 150% ready to go and studied up. Your instructor won't be able to help you with your needs - whatever they are - unless they know about them.
   
   
5. My John Travolta status dream would be to own and fly a battleship gray United 737-500 and I think that is because that was my earliest memory of airplanes, what I grew up on, and what flew over my house as a kid. That color scheme just wins and there is nothing today that even comes close to looking that cool. If I were to have a realistic dream flying job... I am not too sure. I've learned that the specific airplane is not so important. I would rather have good quality of life that involves being home nearly every night (maybe Hawaii/South Pacific/Europe a few times a year) and live somewhere like Central Oregon while being paid well. If I had those requirements met, it doesn't matter what I am flying, though I would prefer a jet of some kind. I think Falcons are cool, as are Globals, CJs, BBJs, and Gulfstreams.

I remember doing 2 years of almost solid maths, thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, solids, materials etc. It was so uninspiring that I started teaching myself programming (C++) and playing around with 3d graphics (ah, good old days when Quake was the shit!)
I got good grades, but I was not a model student. So, although my 3rd and 4th year focused on 'mechatronic' subjects, I graduated not really knowing what a transistor was or how to solder anything. I was a decent programmer though.

Luckily, I got a job with a really patient, knowledgeable guy who helped me fill in the gaps. I coded stuff, but he explained how the hardware worked, I sometimes understood (or pretended, and when I couldn't figure it out later we went over it again).

I highly recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

So here's what worked for me: (eventually :) )

• Get a practical grasp of basic electronics. Thevenin and Kirchoff and all that are important, but ...
  
• No matter how good the book/teacher, the best way to learn something is to actually DO IT.
  
• Learn C or C++
  
  So, as far as practical stuff goes:
  
  Start basic.
  
  
• Get a LED. Turn it on or off with a switch. Make it brighter. Make it dimmer.
  
• Use a transistor/FET in the switching circuit.
  
• Use a GPIO / micro controller to turn it off and on.
  
• Make it turn on for 1 second, off for 1 second. Repeatedly.
  Bonus
  
• Make the duty cycle dependent on a trimpot / variable resistor
  
  Get More Practical:
  
  
• Get an old printer.
  
• Take the stepper motor out of it. (Don't throw anything else away yet)
  
• Make a circuit to drive the motor from GPIO/ microcontroller
  
• Figure out how to make the motor turn. Both ways.
  
  
  
• Make an assembly where the motor drives a "crane arm". You can make it a rotating crane or a linear crane arm (eg, like how the printer heads move). You may need a gearbox.
  
  
• Hang a small weight (load) on the crane.
  
  
• Figure out how to make the crane move from/to a certain position. With minimal load movement.
  Bonus:
  
• Figure out how to move the crane from/to ANY position with minimal load movement.
  
  Old computer power supplies are great if you are on a budget.
  

/u/another_user_name posted this list a while back. Actual aerospace textbooks are towards the bottom but you'll need a working knowledge of the prereqs first.

Non-core/Pre-reqs:

Mathematics:

Calculus.

1-4) Calculus, Stewart -- This is a very common book and I felt it was ok, but there's mixed opinions about it. Try to get a cheap, used copy.

1-4) Calculus, A New Horizon, Anton -- This is highly valued by many people, but I haven't read it.

1-4) Essential Calculus With Applications, Silverman -- Dover book.

More discussion in this reddit thread.

Linear Algebra

3) Linear Algebra and Its Applications,Lay -- I had this one in school. I think it was decent.

3) Linear Algebra, Shilov -- Dover book.

Differential Equations

4) An Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations, Coddington -- Dover book, highly reviewed on Amazon.

G) Partial Differential Equations, Evans

G) Partial Differential Equations For Scientists and Engineers, Farlow

More discussion here.

Numerical Analysis

5) Numerical Analysis, Burden and Faires

Chemistry:

1. General Chemistry, Pauling is a good, low cost choice. I'm not sure what we used in school.
   
   

   Physics:
   

   
   2-4) Physics, Cutnel -- This was highly recommended, but I've not read it.
   
   

   Programming:
   

   
   

   Introductory Programming
   

   
   Programming is becoming unavoidable as an engineering skill. I think Python is a strong introductory language that's got a lot of uses in industry.
   
   

2. Learning Python, Lutz
   
   
3. Learn Python the Hard Way, Shaw -- Gaining popularity, also free online.
   
   

   Core Curriculum:
   

   
   

   Introduction:
   

   
   

4. Introduction to Flight, Anderson
   
   

   Aerodynamics:
   

   
   

5. Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, Fox, Pritchard McDonald
   
   
6. Fundamentals of Aerodynamics, Anderson
   
   
7. Theory of Wing Sections, Abbot and von Doenhoff -- Dover book, but very good for what it is.
   
   
8. Aerodynamics for Engineers, Bertin and Cummings -- Didn't use this as the text (used Anderson instead) but it's got more on stuff like Vortex Lattice Methods.
   
   
9. Modern Compressible Flow: With Historical Perspective, Anderson
   
   
10. Computational Fluid Dynamics, Anderson
    
    

    Thermodynamics, Heat transfer and Propulsion:
    

    
    

11. Introduction to Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer, Cengel
    
    
12. Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Propulsion, Hill and Peterson
    
    

    Flight Mechanics, Stability and Control
    

    
    5+) Flight Stability and Automatic Control, Nelson
    
    5+)[Performance, Stability, Dynamics, and Control of Airplanes, Second Edition](http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Stability-Dynamics-Airplanes-Education/dp/1563475839/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315534435&sr=8-1, Pamadi) -- I gather this is better than Nelson
    
    

13. Airplane Aerodynamics and Performance, Roskam and Lan
    
    

    Engineering Mechanics and Structures:
    

    
    3-4) Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics, Hibbeler
    
    

14. Mechanics of Materials, Hibbeler
    
    
15. Mechanical Vibrations, Rao
    
    
16. Practical Stress Analysis for Design Engineers: Design & Analysis of Aerospace Vehicle Structures, Flabel
    
    6-8) Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures, Bruhn -- A good reference, never really used it as a text.
    
    
17. An Introduction to the Finite Element Method, Reddy
    
    G) Introduction to the Mechanics of a Continuous Medium, Malvern
    
    G) Fracture Mechanics, Anderson
    
    G) Mechanics of Composite Materials, Jones
    
    

    Electrical Engineering
    

    
    

18. Electrical Engineering Principles and Applications, Hambley
    
    

    Design and Optimization
    

    
    

19. Fundamentals of Aircraft and Airship Design, Nicolai and Carinchner
    
    
20. Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach, Raymer
    
    
21. Engineering Optimization: Theory and Practice, Rao
    
    

    Space Systems
    

    
    

22. Fundamentals of Astrodynamics and Applications, Vallado
    
    
23. Introduction to Space Dynamics, Thomson -- Dover book
    
    
24. Orbital Mechanics, Prussing and Conway
    
    
25. Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, Bate, Mueller and White
    
    
26. Space Mission Analysis and Design, Wertz and Larson

I'm no physicist. My degree is in computer science, but I'm in a somewhat similar boat. I read all these pop-science books that got me pumped (same ones you've read), so I decided to actually dive into the math.

​

Luckily I already had training in electromagnetics and calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra so I was not going in totally blind, though tbh i had forgotten most of it by the time I had this itch.

​

I've been at it for about a year now and I'm still nowhere close to where I want to be, but I'll share the books I've read and recommend them:

• First and foremost, read Feynman's Lectures on Physics and do not skip a lecture. You can find them free on the link there, but they also sell the 3 volumes on amazon. I love annotating so I got myself physical copies. These are the most comprehensible lectures on anything I've ever read. Feynman does an excellent job on teaching you pretty much all of physics + math (especially electromagnetics) up until basics of Quantum Mechanics and some Quantum Field Theory assuming little mathematics background.
  
• Feyman lectures on Quantum Electrodynamics (The first Quantum Field Theory). This is pop-sciency and not math heavy at all, but it provides a good intuition in preparation for the bullet points below
  
• You're going to need Calculus. So if you're not familiar comfortable with integral concepts like integration by parts, Quantum Mechanics will be very difficult.
  
• I watched MIT's opencourseware online lectures on Quantum Mechanics and I did all the assignments. This gave me what I believe is a solid mathematical understanding on Quantum Mechanics
  
• I'm currently reading and performing exercises from this Introduction to Classical Field Theory. . This is just Lagrangian Field Theory, which is the classical analog of QFT. I'm doing this in preparation for the next bullet-point:
  
• Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell. Very math heavy - but thats what we're after isnt it? I havent started on this yet since it relies on the previous PDF, but it was recommended in Feynmans QED book.
  
• I've had training on Linear Algebra during my CS education. You're going to need it as well. I recommend watching this linear algebra playlist by 3Blue1Brown. It's almost substitute for the rigorous math. My life would've been a lot easier if that playlist existed before i took my linear algebra course, which was taught through this book.
  
• Linear Algebra Part 2 - Tensor analysis! You need this for General Relativity. This is the pdf im currently reading and doing all the exercises. This pdf is preparing me for...
  
• Gravity. This 1000+ page behemoth comes highly recommended by pretty much all physicist I talk to and I can't wait for it.
  
• Concurrently I'm also reading this book which introduces you to the Standard Model.
  
  ​
  
  I'm available if you want to PM me directly. I love talking to others about this stuff.

That's an awesome bike, I almost went with one for my first bike. Is this your first motorcycle? If so, let me throw a quick couple thoughts out. If you are a seasoned rider, you'll agree these are good points.

1. Look for a motorcycle safety course through the motorcycle safety foundation. They are offered in the area and can be very valuable.
   
   2. If this is your first bike, read this book. I've been riding for years and I still read this every spring. it's a very easy read and catches you up on the basics of riding - it's not the same as driving a car. I cannot say enough praise about this book. If you don't want to purchase your own copy, I'll let you borrow mine, it's that essential. I recommend this book to seasoned riders, so this recommendation is equally valid if this isn't your first bike. Improving your knowledge on the road is always important, and this book is a great tool to do that.
   
   Just remember, motorcycles demand a healthy level of respect. There is no reason to fear them, but ignoring safety practices with them is foolish. Always wear your full safety gear; /r/motorcycles calls this All The Gear, All The Time (ATGATT). Speaking of the motorcycles sub, we'd love to have you join.
   
   You should also check out the Michigan moto club on Facebook. I don't have a bike any more, so I can't offer to ride with you, but there are always people on that page looking to ride with other students.
   
   Honestly, just explore the city on your motorcycle. Need to go run and grab a notebook in the middle of the day? Take the scenic route down to the Meijer on carpenter (East on Geddes -> South on Huron Parkway -> East on E Huron River Drive -> South on Hogback Road which will turn into carpenter). The most mindless tasks just got very fun!
   
   
   Finally, enjoy the ride. You've got a great bike in a very fun city and the freedom to explore. Take the most of it!

/u/legeng Thank you for such s terrifically detailed reply. I will be going through each section in detail.

I think I mentioned it, but I'm a huge John Gruber fan, perhaps not so much his content, as I know Macs well on my own, but for the pieces he writes. Well researched, putting him at a huge time disadvantage, which seems to matter little to hostesses and me.

I would rather read a well trusted article, something I brliebe I can cite as he doesn't write much conjecture, except when he clearly is/does.

He has the advantage of many willing people who work within the walled garden of Apple to feed him data.

I seem to recall he lives by a book called The Elements of Style

I wonder: How important a book like this is?

Part of me says "get writing", get pre-releases into the communities I will be targeting. Then the programmer in me says, always read the documentation first :)

Thank you /u/legeng and /u/everyone-else-who-helped-me-out-here. I truly appreciate the honesty and candidness of your replies. Great sub-reddit.

Your spelling and grammar need a lot of work, especially around the website. Clear spelling and grammar allow the reader to understand what you are saying. You can have the best story in the world, but if no one can understand it you won't get far.

Working on your spelling will also help to create an air of professionalism. People are entrusting you with their finances when you ask them to buy your comic online. Proper spelling and grammar will help you seem dedicated, trustworthy and serious about your series and its readers.

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White are a nice and easy to read introduction to things you should or should not be doing grammatically. As you write, try to read the sentences out-loud to yourself as a narrator would. Make sure they still make sense and are easy to understand even when spoken out loud. Most desktop office software has spellcheck included, along with most web-browsers. Even if you can't get Word, there's a program called "Open Office" that you can download for free, and it works the same way. See if you can hire a friend to check over your writing for you after you have finished your own edits.

I don't intend to be overly harsh, but I don't want to be disrespectful by mincing words with you either-- the artwork is poorly executed and generic looking. It's not the worst art I've ever seen, but you could be doing a lot more. Anatomy, perspective, composition design, character design and paneling are all things that you need to work on, and it's great that you're getting experience by doing this comic. Just do as much reading as you can (go to the library in addition to looking up tuts online) and get as much practice as you can get. I think that doing something like life drawing would help you a lot with your action poses...Have you seen the different things on the sidebar?

Digital Calipers are really cool to own.

There's that book POCKET REF which is interesting, it has all sorts of information in it, lots of specific reference tables and whatnot.

If he likes to make his own projects, a gift card or shopping spree on adafruit might be cool, you could help him get set up with kit for a new project that he otherwise wouldn't do.

If you're best friends, why not do something cool together? Spend a day at the museum (maybe there's an air and space one near you), go on a wilderness adventure, stuff like that. Experiences and memories often last longer than gifts.

A really nice pen or pencil perhaps - many people like Rotring I think - you can check out /r/edc for some pretty examples. The brass and titanium machined models are extremely nice looking.

There are also some very cool rubik's cube like puzzles if he's interested in mechanical things that would make good desk ornaments - like the mirror cube or the ghost cube.

I like my leatherman style PS as an everday multitool. It doesnt have a knife so I can carry it in schools, government buildings, on planes, etc. and I've found it extremely useful. It's also the first thing I grab when I take apart something I shouldn't be on my desk.

You could also get him a high-end fidget spinner. Again, /r/edc has many different nic-nacs that they like to play with.

I think I disagree, but guess I haven't read a ton of books about writing. In my experience, they can be helpful, especially to people who are just starting out. Maybe not as helpful as reading the types of books that you want to write (and reading the stuff you don't want to write—it's important to read widely), but I don't know if I'd call them a waste of time. King's book is great (but that might be because I got the impression that I'd like him as a person while I was reading that), Strunk and White Elements of Style and Zissner's On Writing Well are helpful for tightening beginners' prose, Writing Fiction: a guide to narrative craft has great exercises at the end of every chapter, and I'm reading Benjamin Percy's essay collection Thrill Me right now, and it's great. I feel like a large part of /r/writing would really connect with the first and titular essay in that collection, actually. He talks about reading a lot of so-called trash genre fiction before being exposed to literary fiction and how he kind of overcorrected and became a super-fierce advocate for that-and-only-that before he realized that you can take the good parts of both to create amazing stories. I've also never read any other respected literary person mention reading R. A. Salvatore, which was cool to see since I forgot I was a big Drizzt fan when I was younger.

Saff and Snider is great for applied complex analysis. In my opinion it strikes a perfect balance between accessibility and rigor for a first course on the subject.

Visual Complex Analysis is another good choice, but it might be a little more advanced than what you're interested in.

The first half of Lang might also be a good choice, but Lang takes a slightly more formal, proof-based approach.

I've also skimmed through Brown and Churchill, which looks quite good but is prohibitively expensive.

Finally, you can find many cheap (~$10) books on the subject by Dover. The only one I've looked at is Knopp, which is quite formal and light on computation, but might be a good supplement. Here's another Dover book with outstanding Amazon reviews.

Complex analysis is both very elegant and very useful. Best of luck with your class!

Griffiths is the go-to for advanced undergraduate level texts, so you might consider his Introduction to Quantum Mechanics and Introduction to Particle Physics. I used Townsend's A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics to teach myself and I thought that was a pretty good book.

I'm not sure if you mean special or general relativity. For special, /u/Ragall's suggestion of Taylor is good but is aimed an more of an intermediate undergraduate; still worth checking out I think. I've heard Taylor (different Taylor) and Wheeler's Spacetime Physics is good but I don't know much more about it. For general relativity, I think Hartle's Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity and Carroll's Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity are what you want to look for. Hartle is slightly lower level but both are close. Carroll is probably better if you want one book and want a bit more of the math.

Online resources are improving, and you might find luck in opencourseware type websites. I'm not too knowledgeable in these, and I think books, while expensive, are a great investment if you are planning to spend a long time in the field.

One note: teaching yourself is great, but a grad program will be concerned if it doesn't show up on a transcript. This being said, the big four in US institutions are Classical Mechanics, E&M, Thermodynamics/Stat Mech, and QM. You should have all four but you can sometimes get away with three. Expectations of other courses vary by school, which is why programs don't always expect things like GR, fluid mechanics, etc.

I hope that helps!

I'm not one to make an effort when it isn't needed, but I see a chance here to help. Don't care about the context of the original post. You're post "Literal fake news." why not just "Fake News", why use literal? Is that an effort to insure what you're saying is the bye god truth? When a writer's statement is prefaced by literally or honestly my first inclination is to think the writer is trying to impress the reader with their wordsmithing prowess. My second inclination is to assume that anything this person says that is not prefaced with literally or honestly is specious. Less is better in the written word, yes, you did use 'literal' correctly but you didn't need to use it at all, it only muddled what you were saying. There is a great book that will help your writing and really help your readers understand the information you're trying to convey. I've published one book and countless magazine, newspaper and short story articles and Strunk And White was a catalyst to get me going, here's a link https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk/dp/020530902X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=531Z✌

I'm assuming you're looking for things geared toward a layman audience, and not textbooks. Here's a few of my personal favorites:

Sagan

Cosmos: You probably know what this is. If not, it is at once a history of science, an overview of the major paradigms of scientific investigation (with some considerable detail), and a discussion of the role of science in the development of human society and the role of humanity in the larger cosmos.

Pale Blue Dot: Similar themes, but with a more specifically astronomical focus.


Dawkins

The Greatest Show on Earth: Dawkins steers (mostly) clear of religious talk here, and sticks to what he really does best: lays out the ideas behind evolution in a manner that is easily digestible, but also highly detailed with a plethora of real-world evidence, and convincing to anyone with even a modicum of willingness to listen.


Hofstadter

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: It seems like I find myself recommending this book at least once a month, but it really does deserve it. It not only lays out an excruciatingly complex argument (Godel's Incompleteness Theorem) in as accessible a way as can be imagined, and explores its consequences in mathematics, computer science, and neuroscience, but is also probably the most entertainingly and clearly written work of non-fiction I've ever encountered.


Feynman

The Feynman Lectures on Physics: It's everything. Probably the most detailed discussion of physics concepts that you'll find on this list.

Burke

Connections: Not exactly what you were asking for, but I love it, so you might too. James Burke traces the history of a dozen or so modern inventions, from ancient times all the way up to the present. Focuses on the unpredictability of technological advancement, and how new developments in one area often unlock advancements in a seemingly separate discipline. There is also a documentary series that goes along with it, which I'd probably recommend over the book. James Burke is a tremendously charismatic narrator and it's one of the best few documentary series I've ever watched. It's available semi-officially on Youtube.

I can recommend you a few things, speaking as a CS/EE double major :)

• Hands on skills are quite important. Learn how to solder, use a DMM, strip wires, etc. There's a lot of tutorials on Youtube and such that show you how to solder well,etc. Watch them and practice.
  
  
• If you're still in school, you may want to consider taking a intro EE course as an elective or similar. If you're not in school but have the time and money, you may want to consider taking a few classes at a nearby college (ie. community college). Alternatively, get a few books/online tutorials and such and self study. I believe MIT OCW has a quite a few EE courses available.
  
  
• Books wise, i recommend the following: Beginning Arduino, Practical Electronics for Inventors, Arduino Cookbook (excellent refference book). Website wise, I recommend t ro n i x s t u f f.
  
  
• Start with the basics. This includes both theory (understanding and applying Ohm's Law) and practice (building actual circuits). Play with the Arduino and LEDs, motors, servo, ultrasonic sensors, etc. Follow tutorials for these BUT know WHY certain things are done in a given way and the reason those things are done. For example, understand why you need a resistor(s) when using LEDs.
  
  
• Once you have the basics down (ie. how to hook up and drive a motor), start a small project. I personally recommend something like an obstacle avoiding or line following robot as it's quite cheap, lots of online help available, easy to understand, etc. Read my post here for more details.
  
  
• Equipment wise, you'll need a few things. Take a look here: http://redd.it/1hoc03 You don't need everything on that list, but get the basics like resistors, capacitors, wires, general purpose PNP/NPN MOSFETs, etc. Then get a few sensors (ie. ultrasonic sensors, photo detectors, temperature sensor, etc) and a few other useful things like shift registers, LCD, piezo buzzer, etc. Also, check out this from /r/electronics.

You sound like a great audience for the series I recommend to everyone in your position: Lenny Susskind's Theoretical Minimum. He's got free lectures and accompanying books which are designed with the sole purpose of getting you from zero to sixty as fast as possible. I'm sure others will have valuable suggestions, but that's mine.

The series is designed for people who took some math classes in college, and maybe an intro physics class, but never had the chance to go further. However, it does assume that you are comfortable with calculus, and more doesn't hurt. What's your math background like?

As to the LHC and other bleeding-edge physics: unfortunately, this stuff takes a lot of investment to really get at, if you want to be at the level where you can do the actual derivations—well beyond where an undergrad quantum course would land you. If you're okay with a more heuristic picture, you could read popular-science books on particle physics and combine that with a more quantitative experience from other sources.

But if you are thinking of doing this over a very long period of time, I would suggest that you could pretty easily attain an advanced-undergraduate understanding of particle physics through self-study—enough to do some calculations, though the actual how and why may not be apparent. If you're willing to put in a little cash and more than a little time for this project, here's what I suggest:

• Pick up a book on introductory physics (with calculus). It doesn't really matter which. Make sure you're good with the basic concepts—force, momentum, energy, work, etc.
  
  
• Learn special relativity. It does not take too long, and is not math-intensive, but it can be very confusing. There are lots of ways to do it—lots of online sources too. My favorite book for introductory SR is this one.
  
  
• Use a book or online resources to become familiar with the basics (just the basics) of differential equations and linear algebra. It sounds more scary than it is.
  
  
• Get a copy of Griffiths' books on quantum mechanics and particle physics. These are undergrad-level textbooks, but pretty accessible! Read the quantum book first—and do at least a few exercises—and then you should be able to get a whole lot out of reading the particle physics book.
  
  Note that this is sort of the fastest way to get into particle physics. If you want to take this route, you should still be prepared to spread it out over a couple years—and it will leave a whole smattering of gaps in your knowledge. But hey, if you enjoy it, you could legitimately come to understand a lot about the universe through self-study!

I took a look at your previous posts, here some pointers.

First: Basics.

• Formatting - make your text readable by using paragraphs. Press Enter TWICE to make a line break on Reddit - else most people will just skip over your posts.
  
• Use proper grammar and sentences - e.g. a slash doesn't belong in your story ("restaurants/fast food places"). Use an "and" or "or" instead.
  
• Spellcheck - "resturaunts". If you want people to read your stories you have to do them the favor of proofreading your own posts. At least use Word, LibreOffice or Google Drive to write your stories, they have a spellcheck built in.
  
• Make it a story. Think of books; a book never starts with "Alright. So a little backstory" and then goes on to excuse that "The backstory is longer than the actual story, sorry." Instead start the way a tale would be told. Start with action or at least an image that the reader can see and feel.
  
• Use written language, not spoken language and style. Cut out words like "alright", "so", that are mere oral filler words and shouldn't appear in written text (unless appropriate). Words that don't add meaning should not be in your writing.
  
  Second: Writing.
  
  
• Story flow. Honestly I don't understand your last story. There are too many breaks in continuity and too many unnannounced location and character switches.
  
  > Mom walks up to me and says I looked a little disoriented, and I just say its nothing. I don't know why, but that creeped me out.
  
  What creeped you out? Your mom's asking you? Or the events before?
  
  
• It would be good if you read some more fiction and try to look out for basic writing standards. Again line break, this time for dialogue. Dialogue without line break is very hard to read.
  
  > "Hey! I thought it would be fun to go see a movie, so we are going to the 10 o'clock showing of the new star trek movie tonight. I can't wait to see you and your brother again." He said. "Wow. Okay..." I said. Not even a hello or goodbye.
  
  much easier:
  
  > "Hey! I thought it would be fun to go see a movie, so we are going to the 10 o'clock showing of the new star trek movie tonight. I can't wait to see you and your brother again." He said.
  
  > "Wow. Okay..." I said.
  
  > Not even a hello or goodbye.
  
  Lastly: Make us hear and feel things. Give us a chance to feel what you feel
  
  > When I hear tapping. And then water. Then, without warning, the toilet flushes in a bathroom that has always been manual flush. I hear walking, she shadows, the lights flicker, and I hurry up to wash my hands and get out.
  
  This should be three or four paragraphs rather than four sentences. Where does the tapping come from? How loud is it? How did you notice it first?
  
  What does "And then water" mean? You heard water flowing somewhere? You saw water on the floor, running into your stall?
  
  You hear WALKING and you tell us nothing about it? Silent? fast? did you see feet? Did it sound like bare feet or hard soles?
  
  You need to paint a picture that we can see, hear, smell and touch.
  
  That is the actually my main point: How to format your writing and spellcheck should be the minimum and are required for any story to be worth reading. Learn that, there is no way around it. Look at stories you like and see why they are good - your formatting should never be in the way of your story.
  
  But what you need to practice is to paint that picture. Try to sit down and describe one simple mundane thing. Try to describe, as in-depth as possible, what it feels like to sit on your chair. Describe the scene you see out of your window - not just "there's a house", instead make that house visible for someone thousands of miles or hours away. Try to describe what your mother's footsteps on the corridor sound like. Where are they? How does the volume change? Are they hurried or does her heel strike the floor hard? Are they louder if she carries heavy objects?
  
  When you are able to do that you can take the stories you wrote and develop them from a summary of your experience into a full-blown story. Tell the tale, and of course feel free to add some more fiction to make it creepier. Maybe you did see feet, or maybe you did hear something soft rubbing along the window or door or maybe even your stall. Don't limit yourself to "reality".
  
  tl;dr (1) Learn proper formatting - simply by reading more and by trying to figure out when and where it works and when and where it doesn't. Look at a book or story you enjoy and see how the paragraphs are layed out. Also get yourself a copy of Strunk & White. (2) Practice painting that picture (in all senses, not just visually). Then you will get places :)

I'm surprised people haven't said much about the actual writing itself. Tone is an issue, but the actual structure of your writing needs work. I'll pull a few examples that way you can see what I mean.

"Unless you’re a member of an isolated ancient tribe living under one of the six remaining trees in what used to be the Amazon rainforest, you have almost certainly heard the term “Machine Learning” floating past within the last few years."

Your first sentence is almost a paragraph. This is a problem. Writing should be succinct and to the point. Clarity and strength of word usage will make what you say much more meaningful.

"In fact, personally, I’m convinced that if humanity doesn’t eradicate itself prematurely, there won’t be anything left humans can do that can’t be done much better, faster and cheaper by a suitably designed and programmed computer (or a network of them)."

This is a sentence in your third paragraph, which is again almost an entire paragraph by itself. You also severely diminish the strength of your sentence when you use things like 'In fact', 'personally', 'I'm convinced'. Your readers know that you are convinced because you are the one writing it. You need to convince them.

"Even though a computer can do just about anything, making it do what you want it to do can be very hard indeed."

Adverbs are not your friend. - Stephen King

Strength of sentence structure is impacted when you use adverbs like 'very'. And throwing on an 'indeed' doesn't do you any favors either. Make a point to think about what you are adding to your sentences with these words. Is the answer "I am adding nothing with these words."? Then those words should not be there.


I'm going to leave you a list of books where you can learn from writers that will help you with these things. Try not to get discouraged. We all have a lot to learn, so just think of it as part of the process. I would HIGHLY suggest you at least look into Elements of Style.

Sol Stein's On Writing

Stephen King's On Writing

Elements of Style

I got my car in rural Pennsylvania. I did a lot of searching online and found the advert. It was a long drive (300 miles round trip).

The only reason I took the chance and made the drive was because the miles on the car were reasonable (91.5k), the idle hours were exceptionally low (295h), and the price was reasonable (dealer was asking $4,250, I bought it for $3,750).

The car was in immaculate condition because it was a Sheriff's car in an extremely rural area (population about 1,000) with zero crime. I looked up the Sheriff and there was only one guy in the entire department and he is an 80 year old guy.

This is probably the best criteria for buying a CVPI - get it from a rural area with little to no crime and low population. That means that the car probably wasn't beaten on because there wasn't much police work to actually do.

The opposite would be a car that was used by a state trooper or highway patrol. That pretty much guarantees high idle hours and lots of operating the car at WOT to run down speeders.

My friend, I don't mean to be hard on you for the way that you write. But I have to tell you that if this is the best you can do, you are severely limiting yourself in terms of future employment opportunities. If I got a job application from someone with your writing skills, I wouldn't hire them to pump gas.

What school teaches children to put a space before a comma? Also, is it really that hard to type the word "you"?

I'm not trying to be hard on you man. I just have a really hard time putting any effort into communicating with someone who has little to no respect for the English language.

That said, you did seem to try to put some effort into a coherent reply, so I responded. But even at that your grammar is atrocious.

Do yourself a favor: get better. Put in the work to learn how to properly communicate with adults.

This may sound harsh, but it is the best advice you have ever received towards bettering yourself, but I doubt this is the first time you are hearing this from someone.

I wish you the best with your quest to find a good car. And if you are interested in learning how to properly use the English language, here is a 100 page book for less than $10 that will truly help you.

Again, I'm not picking on you. I'm trying to help you - because you need the help unless you are ok with working minimum wage jobs for the rest of your life.

I found that Stick and Rudder is a good book on actually flying the plane. There are some technical inaccuracies (I'm an engineer so this bothers me, but others it might not so much) but it is a great for pilotage and helping with getting a feel for the plane. It's also a very good introductory book for flying, nothing too technical, just flying.

You can always study and take your written exam, many people think this should wait till you have some flight experience and that definitely helps, but you could still take it. The FAA manuals linked by /u/theygoup are good and free but boring. Rod Machado's PPL Book has similar information but is a little easier to read and has lots of really corny jokes, only $40 or $60 bucks, I refer to it much more often than the FAA manuals.

Sims could never hold my attention very long but I imagine there is some benefit to them, even if it's just instrument prep.

EDIT: I forgot, get a copy of the FAR/AIM from sporty's or someone (I prefer a print copy) or just refer to the online version. A lot of good information is there

Here is an actual blog post that conveys the width of the text box better. Here is a Tufte-inspired LaTeX package that is nice for writing papers and displaying side-notes; it is not necessary for now but will be useful later on. To use it, create a tex file and type the following:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tufte-latex}

\begin{document}
blah blah blah
\end{document}

But don't worry about it too much; for now, just look at the Sample handout to get a sense for what good design looks like.

I mention AoPS because they have good problem-solving books and will deepen your understanding of the material, plus there is an emphasis on proof-writing when solving USA(J)MO and harder problems. Their community and resources tabs have many useful things, including a LaTeX tutorial.

Free intro to proofs books/course notes are a google search away and videos on youtube/etc too. You can also get a free library membership as a community member at a nearby university to check out books. Consider Aluffi's notes, Chartrand, Smith et al, etc.

You can also look into Analysis with intro to proof, a student-friendly approach to abstract algebra, an illustrated theory of numbers, visual group theory, and visual complex analysis to get some motivation. It is difficult to learn math on your own, but it is fulfilling once you get it. Read a proof, try to break it down into your own words, then connect it with what you already know.

Feel free to PM me v2 of your proof :)

While I understand the desire to make something and see the fruits of your labor, true understanding will come best through reading and research. I mean, you could start making circuits of someone else's design and then play around with the arrangement and values of components, but at best you are really just generating a case-by-case feel of how a particular circuit operates. Doing some calculations with many sets of hypothetical circuits (rather than building a bunch of circuits and playing around and taking measurements) will be a much more efficient way to really get understanding of how these things work.

I would recommend the discrete electronics bible, Horowitz And Hill's The Art of Electronics as well as Malik's Electronic Circuits. (Edit: actually, it's been a while since I've used these books and I can't remember what scope they really cover. I know Malik is a little more advanced and concentrates on state devices like diodes and transistors. Really, a basic engineering circuit analysis textbook might be best)

You should also check out this java applet. It is surprisingly powerful and gives a really good general idea of what electronic components do ('visually' and numerically)

So, judging by the comments is this actually you or is it your friend? Either way, 90% of us (myself included) went through the squidly phase of "trying" to drag knee, and posting evidence of such transgressions on reddit is not going to end well.

Kudos to whoever that is for at least doing it in a more controlled environment than a two-lane road. Now that he has got it out of his system, as others have said, he needs to work on the actual techniques that will make dragging knee more of an option than a goal. Getting a knee on deck should be the consequence of proper body position, decent lean, and a knee slightly extended. What he is doing looks and feels unnatural, but optional kneedown territory looks and feels natural, and the knee only needs to be out a tiny bit to touch. Now, the fledgling squid may say in their defense "No way man I was barely trying to stick my knee out". However, the dead giveaway is the distance from the foot-peg to the ground. A "natural" knee down comes when the pegs are just about touching the ground.

He didn't crash so his technique can't be too terrible, but I would say; his head needs to be more towards the inside of the turn, he should probably scoot his butt back and lean his upper body more forward/down, his foot needs to be more towards the inside of the peg, and his knee to be to be in a lot more.

If your friend is interested in becoming a proficient, quick, and safe rider, two excellent books are Nick Ienatsch's "Sport Riding Techniques" and Keith Code's "Soft Science of Road Racing Motorcycles" Nick's book is more of an all encompassing road/track guide that has tons of good information including proper body position. The "Soft Science" book is a bit more advanced and goes a more into theory and what one can do to make themself a more adaptable and competent decision maker on the bike.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Sport-Riding-Techniques-Develop-Confidence/dp/1893618072/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541093996&sr=8-1&keywords=sport+bike+riding+techniques

​

https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Science-Roadracing-Motorcycles-Procedures/dp/096504503X

​

Lastly, don't necessarily listen to the more "refined" riders who tell you not to drag knee. Riding a motorcycle is about fun, and sticking a kneedown is fun as hell, even if you don't need to. The point is to make sure you FIRST learn the techniques that allow you to do it safely, and to do it in a controlled environment (the track).

​

​

I picked up my bike for $2200 with a clean title but definitely had been laid down. Then I put about $200 and a few weekends of time into it to make it road legal and safe to drive. I had my parents buy me a nice helmet and MSF class for my birthday as they didn't want me to skimp on the most important safety items, if you're young I'd highly suggest this route. I put about $200 more into a jacket and then I pay $350 annually for insurance, split with my dad on the policy to reduce costs since I'm a 23 y.o. male. All in all I put in about $3000 and I think I'm pretty well set.

I'd also highly suggest buying this book. I thought it was very informative on the risks of riding and helped me approach motorcycling with a more mature attitude than I would have otherwise. I read it before I'd even set foot on a bike and then also read it again after I had started to learn the basics.

All in all good luck! And know that once you start, you won't be able to stop... I'm still hoping it gets to over 50 degrees here in Ohio this year...

Please dont take offense to this, but from your post, I honestly cant tell if you are serious or a troll. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you are serious.

If so, I would strongly advise starting on a smaller displacement bike. Too much power applied at the wrong time could result in a very expensive pile of twisted metal and broken plastic, not to mention a twisted and broken rider. A smaller bike will give you the time to build up your skills and confidence before you get the growling beast you really want.

Chances are you're going to probably ignore that advice. When I was buying my first bike, I knew I wanted something that I'd be able to ride for a long time without out-growing it in a couple of months. Plus I knew I didnt have the money to buy another bike later. I wanted the big machine NOW. But trust me, starting small is MUCH better than starting big and trying to get used to it as you are learning how to ride. Not to mention that starting small means a less expensive bike, so you can spend some of that budgeted money on gear and training without feeling quite so broke.

As for the MSF, TAKE THE CLASS. Its a structured environment, showing you exactly why and how you should ride. Unless your friend is an instructor, chances are they are going to give you some advise that will probably end up getting you hurt the minute you encounter something you were't told.

Just know that after taking the MSF course, you are really only skilled enough to ride in a parking lot. The transition from classroom to street can be a real eye-opener. Dont think you know everything there is to know because you have the endorsement on your license. Its going to take a lot of practice to even begin feeling confident.

Start reading. Get a copy of "Proficient Motorcycling" and read it cover-to-cover. Then read it again.

You might also want to get a copy of the DVD "Ride Like A Pro". The skills shown in this video are very helpful for new riders. Especially if on a cruiser.

Practice Practice Practice! Spend some hours in a parking lot working on your aggressive braking, slow slalom, and all the other stuff shown in the Ride Like A Pro video. The time you spend in the parking lot will greatly improve your survival chances on the road.

If you are hard-set on getting a cruiser, understand a little about the concept of rake and trail. The longer the rake (the more the front wheel sticks out from the bike) the more difficult its going to be to turn. Especially when you are a new rider. Shorter rake = quicker turning with less effort. This is not to say that turning a cruiser is going to be tough, but its much different than a bike with a shorter rake.


And finally, GET SOME GOOD GEAR. Dont buy into the idea that since you are a cruiser you have to look like a typical cruiser rider. You probably see lots of guys riding in the standard cruiser uniform: denim vest, half helmet, etc. IGNORE THAT. Understand that when you go down, you are going to want something that is going to keep you out of the hospital as much as possible. Armor up.

Good luck!

Not sure if you've played then, but haven't: Kerbal Space Program is the best way to get an intuitive understanding of orbital mechanics. If you like to play God you should also try the Universe Sandbox, and if you want a really really hardcore space sim you should play (or wait, it's still in alpha) for Rogue System.


As for actual books, OpenStax recently published their free astronomy book, and it's quite good for an introduction. From there, it depends entirely on what you're interested in, there's literally a universe's worth of information about
Astrophysics,
Astrochemistry,
Astrobiology,
Astrometry and
Orbital mechanics (for the aspiring galactic navigator),
Cosmology,
Planetary geology and
Cosmochemistry (careful, these last two lead to geology and meteorology which are equally disastrously addictive fields!)


Also, feel free to follow NASA's, ESA's, and JAXA's blogs. And spend a minute each morning checking the astronomy picture of the day.


Just don't end up llike me and annoy all your friends.

This is a really good question and I'm not sure why exactly you were downvoted. I suspect the elephant in the room is that it's a question but it needs some in depth thinking rather than shitposted to the bottom in two minutes.

As for reading material, I'd go for paper every time myself.

Practical Electronics for Inventors 3e has a lot of nice analog material that's easy to get into and well explained: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071771336/

It doesn't hit digital at all until about 70% of the way into the book and is in very small chunks of information you can read and think about for a bit. It's huge and cheap for what it is.

You will come out of it with "yay I managed to design a common emitter RF amplifier and filter" rather than "yay I connected to an LED to an arduino and it's flashing!"

Well worth the investment IMHO as one comprehensive and well written text.

After a dive into analog, the best thing is experimenting. Nothing quite works exactly how the textbooks say it does.

Shigley's is great for learning how to design and why you design the way you do. It's the book I used in college and still reference at work. I'm not so sure it'd be great for a novice engineer. For a more practical approach, I'd recommend a few below (not necessarily in this order):

1. Machinery's Handbook - This is regularly seen as the [mechanical] engineer's bible. It has nearly everything you'd need to know for design. Most of the machinists used this in a shop I used to work in. Nearly every engineer in my current job (and there are a hundred or more) have a copy of this at their desk.
   
2. Pocket Reference - This is kind of (loosely) like Machinery's Handbook but much more broad. It covers a little bit of everything from engineering, to vehicle maintenance, to plumbing. I like it for it's all-around information.
   
3. Handyman In-Your-Pocket - this is by the same author as #2 but is tailored to the building trades. I also have this but I haven't used it much yet. Not because it's not useful, just because I haven't gotten around to it.
   
4. Marks' Standard Handbook for Mech. Engineers - I have an old copy of this book from the 80s, I believe, that my dad gave to me. It is also on the same order as Machinery's Handbook, but instead of covering EVERYTHING, it goes into more depth about the topics it does cover. If I remember correctly, it covers topics ranging from how to make a weldment to how to design a power generating steam boiler and turbine.
   
5. Solutions to Design of Weldments - This is a new one to me. I recently went to the Blodgett Welding Design Seminar and this was one of the reference materials they handed out. I had a few text book sized design guides by Omer Blodgett that I've often used, but this one seems to take all of the info from those books and condense it down to a handbook. Best part is that it's only $3.50 for a copy and I think (but I'm not sure) that it ships for free.
   
   A nice free reference manual that includes all sorts of design equations is the NCEES reference handbook. I used it back when I took my FE exam (the first exam you take before you become what's call a "Professional Engineer" in the US). It's a nice PDF to have around, though it doesn't go into a lot of explanation as to what the equations are.
   
   A few web resources I use are: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/, http://www.roymech.co.uk/
   
   I'm sure I'll think of some more and, if I do, I'll update this post.
   
   Hope that helps.
   
   

If all of the black trim is original, that is very likely a 110 "very stripped" standard edition. Originally would have come with partial headliner, cardboard door cards and more. It does look as though the seats have been replaced with something else, but otherwise not bad.

New running boards will improve the visuals by quite a bit.

As you've never owned an aircooled beetle before, the first step should be reading the owners manual cover to cover. Pay particular attention to pages 16, 17, 20, and the tick marks on the speedometer seen on page 12. The tick marks go with page 17, and are one of the tricks to keeping the engine running more than a week. A PDF of your owners manual can be found here: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/74beetle/1974_Beetle_Owners_Manual.pdf

Two books you should buy are the Orange Bentley manual. This is the factory repair manual, and should be your first stop for any repair steps: https://www.amazon.com/Volkswagen-Beetle-Karmann-Official-Service/dp/0837616239/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543597712&sr=8-1&keywords=Beetle+repair+bentley
You can find these used on thesamba.com, craigslist, used book stores or a VW show. But get one before you need it. I pay $15-20 for pristine used ones, $5-10 for ones that look used.

The second book a lot of people will recommend you is "How to Keep your VW Alive". It's a fun read, has a lot of good information in it, but should ONLY be considered a secondary source to the orange book. How to keep your beetle alive does have a fair bit of incorrect information in it. BUT if you're just starting out with cars, it is quite helpful. I do think new VW owners should read the book, but double check all his repair procedures against the orange book. The artwork inside is worth the $25 to buy a new one: https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Volkswagen-Alive-Step-Step/dp/1566913101/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1543597922&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=how+to+keep+your+volkswagen+alive&psc=1

If that right front headlight is filled with water, swap out both headlights for H4 lamps. They use a replaceable bulb, and are significantly better than what came with your car. A little bit of rewiring is required (I can help with that remotely), but otherwise they are drop-in. You can buy these from your Friendly Local AutoParts Store (FLAPS), a number of the VW online vendors or often Amazon. Heres the kit you want: http://www.myhellalights.com/index.php/products/auxiliary-lamps/sealed-beam-conversion-headlamps/vision-plus-7in-conversion-headlamp/ Order it at Autozone, Pep Boys, NAPA, etc by the part number. Often they have them in stock.

If you ever want to upgrade your car to chrome bumpers, trim, handles, etc. There are guys (like me) who will pay for your black stuff. It's generally undesirable except to the German Look guys.

It's a fun hobby. Biggest learning curve is learning how to code. I didnt know a thing when I first started but the arduino community (link below) is really helpful with the process. They will even go over code you've written if your having issues.

Arduino community forum:
https://forum.arduino.cc

Book for learning arduino program language:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1430247762/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jqgLBbP544HBT

A good starter kit. Comes with alot of goodies like the program used to write the code and compile it, the arduino itself, super sonic sensor, DC motors to name a few as well as data sheets for each piece:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EWNUUUA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_krgLBbN85GPHF

Book recommended to me that helps with the more complex builds: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259587541/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_UrgLBb7STEDSA

My first project I made/wrote was to make a couple LEDs blink in specific intervals. May not seem like much but like I said, biggest learning curve is learning to program the arduino itself.

Good luck

Your best bet would be a VW, a chevy, or a ford. Chevy's are super easy to work on and parts are easy to find and relatively inexpensive. Pretty much same with Ford. VWs are also great for beginners. The parts can be a bit more difficult to find, but they're great to learn on. Just get "how to keep your volkswagen alive" http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1566913101/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/185-8215834-7045105 it is the best car repair for noobs guide out there. Try to find something that is solid and runs 1970 or older and you'll be set. I also recommend you go to some car shows and meet & greet with people who have similar tastes in cars. Most car guys are more than willing to help out the new guys.

It's definitely because you haven't figured out how to handle it yet. I'm an instructor with Doc Wong Northwest. It's a free riding clinic & covers the finer details of sport riding. We teach the concepts covered by Keith Code's Twist of the Wrist 2. I personally help run the clinics in Albany, but they originally started in PDX. You should check them out. They meet the first Saturday of every month at BMW Motorcycles of Western Oregon in Tigard. Not only is it a great way to learn more advanced riding, but it's a good reason to get out and ride & a great way to meet other riders in the area.

I'd also like to recommend a few books to get you started:

• Twist of the Wrist 2
  
• Sport Riding Techniques
  
• Total Control
  
  Seriously, when you know you'll be in Eugene with your Bandit...PM me. There are a lot of great roads around here.

Arduino is a great learning tool and to go from idea to finished project is quite fast. I definitely recommend starting with arduino and see if you like it. If you continue, you'll find that you have to purchase an arduino for each project you start, which can get quite expensive, or you'll be ripping apart old projects to get the arduino.


I purchased arduino and a few shields, but I felt like I really didn't know how everything was working electronically. I really enjoy programming, learning about electronics and making devices, so I decided to stop using arduino and just use the atmega microcontroller, which is the MCU that arduino is based on.


If you wanted to go this route then I would suggest buying an AVR ISP mkii programmer and downloading atmel studio. It's much easier to program the chips than any other method I've tried. Less fiddling. If you have experience in C programming then it will be really easy.


This is the best beginners tutorial I've found for atmel AVR:
https://www.newbiehack.com/


This book is an excellent follow up to that tutorial:
http://www.amazon.ca/Make-Programming-Learning-Software-Hardware/dp/1449355781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398472387&sr=8-1&keywords=make+avr+programming


A good book on electronics - 1000 pages:
http://www.amazon.ca/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

digikey.ca or .com has lots of parts and next day shipping for $8.


how to make an arduino on a bread board:
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Standalone


Breadboard, Schematic and PCB layout software
http://fritzing.org

Soon you'll be etching PCBs at home

Coax publications! Their books are decent, I wouldn't say the best, but decent. I'm 2/3rds the way through studying for my Advanced as well and I've found it very helpful. Nice thing with their books is access to a practice exam site that got me through my Basic Qualification exam.

Full disclosure I have a computer engineering degree and have a pretty strong background in electronics as well, so I'm able to fill in some gaps. I've found a couple of errors or gaps in the edition I'm studying from. So I'd possibly recommend some supplementary material. Good book for electronics if that's the area you're struggling with is The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill: https://www.amazon.ca/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521809266/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542256671&sr=8-1&keywords=art+of+electronics

Beyond that study and good luck! I'm hoping to take my test early 2019. Been distracted with getting my HF station up and running.

If you want reliability.. I'd respectfully spend the extra on an engine case that doesnt need line boring. Line bored engines tend to have a shorter life, it's hard to do right (most use a handheld tool) and it usually costs 200-400 to get it done, plus 150-200 for cylinder boring. A new aluminum case (They are a bit heavy compared to as41 mag...) is roughly 830 dollars shipped, and it would include boring for larger cylinders. (aa performance, use code AASAVE15 )

As for the build, it has gone VERY simple. I used gasgacinch everywhere, and aviation permatex on the jugs for the most part. I replaced a LOT of parts with aftermarket ones, including my heads (the old ones might be rebuild-able, but i found a pulled out spark-plug thread in one..) That said, This is my second re-assembly of this engine. I did a non sealant full assembly to check fits, bearings, clearances, etc.

There's lots of little gotchas with measuring this, that, and the other. Some parts are only available in inferior versions, etc. If you can find a complete vw engine for 200-300, you're saving a lot of money on things like the distributor drive pinion, tin, 1.1 forged rockers, cooling fan, oil relief valves, alternator, etc.

Whatever you do for the engine case, do look into 'full flow' modifications. These permit you to add an external spin on oil filter, which is a big improvement. I'm doing a filter pump.. which isn't amazing, but works. Also look into a sand seal to keep crud and moisture out of the oil, and have a proper crankcase ventilation setup (basically, vac hose to air filter, consider a catch can.) When you go to build the engine, measure everything, including stuff that 'should be' correct. Consider having the crank, crank pulley, flywheel, pistons, rods balanced, then the clutch pressure plate (yup..) balanced. That way, you can replace the pressure plate without hosing the balance on the engine. It's really not super required, but it will help make for a longer life engine. Make sure to get a forged crank, cast cranks are problematic in VW engines because they only have 3 real main bearings. If you're not stroking, it's REALLY hard to beat original forged German cranks, unless you want counterweighted (not needed unless you're revving to the moon...)

All of this is really building up to.. make sure you're basically running a cleanroom on final assembly. Wash even new parts, chase threads carefully, then wash again and bottle brush the oil passages. If your build table is dirty, lay down some paper to keep it clean, etc. Then learn to love the assembly lube. And have all the torques on hand. and torque patterns. You're probably going to be about 1.5-2k into the engine, to be totally honest, tack on another few hundred for your choice in carbs, and whatnot. You can do it all cheaper if you find an engine in fantastic condition that just needs some cleanup, and new P&Cs. Those really do not exist, to be honest, outside of finding an older person's projects when they pass...

ALso: Go get a book. Good overall and excellent for engine building. Saves you money.

Jeesus. I was in college when you were born. Anyway... It's hard to give general tips without sounding like a broken record, but here goes:

Get decent gear and wear it, people will tell you that you have to spend $1,000 on gear but that's BS, just keep an eye on closeouts, my favorite site is http://www.motorcyclegear.com/ a few hundred bucks will get you everything you need if you're not fussy about having the best, latest or flashiest stuff.

Take the MSF if you haven't already.

Get this book and read it, it's the best book there is for teaching rider safety on the street. http://www.amazon.com/Proficient-Motorcycling-Ultimate-Guide-Riding/dp/1889540536

Take short, easy rides at first, your riding brain is like a muscle that you have to work out to build up over time.

Get out there and have fun!

First, congratulations on having written something. Many of us end up thinking about ideas and never taking the time to get them down. My critique is rather heavy in tone, but I want to be clear: that doesn't mean your piece is without merit. Keep writing.
I think you can safely call the piece fiction.
Your grammar is generally fine. That's based on a quick read-through. Your best friend here is a copy of The Elements of Style.

"An" instead of "a" in the last sentence, paragraph six. That sentence is also a rather long, clunky fragment. I don't mind fragments, especially if they have a certain punch to them. This fragment does not. Avoid it and others like it.
The only other grammatical change I'd recommend is in paragraph five: "They would've to do..." While "would" and "have" do combine to make that contraction, it feels out of place with the infinitive "to do." Instead, try, "They'd have to do..."

It's difficult to critique something both unfinished and this brief. I will say that the opening is generic and uninteresting. It strikes that unpleasant balance of being unimaginative and over-reaching. Your idea, when you start writing about it, is more engaging. Would you consider shaving the first few paragraphs down to one or two? Alternatively, you could open with a very short (I'm talking 1-2 sentence) exposition on the technology.
I hope that is helpful.

Especially if your primary communication in English is written, Strunk and White's The Elements of Style is really your indispensable resource. It's much more about composition than grammar specifically, but the two topics are so closely linked that you'll benefit from it.

The Well-Tempered Sentence is another good resource, with a much more lighthearted approach. It's also primarily focused on written forms.

Neither of these are deep resources for grammar structure or usage rules, but understanding and implementing them will put you head and shoulders above a great many native speakers. I think if you're more interested in speaking than writing you'll want a language course of some kind. I've no personal experience with them, so I can't recommend one on that basis.

Good luck.

Learning electronics is a lot like music. There is an insane amount of information, but if you get an economic working knowledge under your belt, you can really do some amazing things. In order for you not to get lost in the rabbit hole, I will provide you these methods of learning practical hobby electronics.

First, is simply just a suggestion. There are two "domains" of electronic thinking and analysis: digital and analogue. Fuck analog right in its dumb face. The math used in analog is fucking super duper hard, and analog circuits are prone to interference problems. Digital is where you want to be. It's vastly simpler to use programmable digital parts, and analyze digital circuits. Don't get lost in AC equations of capacitor, or the god damned transistor equation (seriously, fuck that. )

Okay here is how I learned hobby digital electronics:
First buy this, and go through all the examples in the workbooks. When you learn electronics you 100% HAVE TO DO HANDS ON LEARNING! DONT LEARN IT FROM A BOOK! MAKE CIRCUITS!
https://www.amazon.com/Radio-Shack-Electronics-Learning-20-055/dp/B00GYYEL8I

At the same time, read this (which is a good topical explanation, and free):
http://jacquesricher.com/NEETS/

And buy and read this (which is an EXCELLENT formal introduction into the physics):
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336

Also you are going to learn how to program, which is an entirely different topic. Programming and hobby electronics make you a master of the universe, so it's worth it. I learned programming in the electronics domain and it was awesome. I made a microcontroller FM synthesizer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TvuzTK3Dzk

So basically, the way I learned programming in general was self-teaching with books. Again, you have to do it hands-on. Actually complete the examples in the books, and you'll be fine.
First, learn procedural c programming using C primer plus. Buy an older version so it'll be super cheap:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0672326965/ref=sr_1_3_twi_pap_1_olp?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465827790&sr=1-3&keywords=c+primer+plus

Next, learn Object oriented programming using head first java. They do a great job of tackling OOP, which can be a difficult thing to learn.
https://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Java-Kathy-Sierra/dp/0596009208/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465827860&sr=1-1&keywords=head+first+java


You're overwhelmed because they're deep topics. But, seriously, its the most fun shit ever. You'll love learning how to do it.

The how/why are directly related. I mean here are my basics on texting:
>Start with a flirty text, preferably commenting on something from the bar, like "Had a great time dancing but it's going to take ages for my ankles to heal from being stepped on, know how they got that way?" or another classic "So I found this weird number in my phone... Who is this? :P" or you could be straightforward "Enjoying this crazy day? Meet me at [bar] at [time]" or since you like hiking, hiking but I'd be careful using that for a first meeting just the two of you.

>All of those start a conversation and if you tease her, she's going to want to defend herself a little. The last one though just tells her that you are a decision maker, that you're going to go regardless of whether or not she's going, and that you have confidence to just assume that she's going to go with your plan. I've found that even strong, independent women appreciate a man who takes charge.

>You should have sent her a text immediately after you got her numbers saying "Good meeting you last night. I'll see you soon unless [tease]" where [tease] is referencing something from the night like stepping on your feet, getting swallowed by a large handbag if she had one and you teased her about it, etc...

>Banter

But seriously dude, type like someone who has a solid grasp on the English language. I'm not im, know when to use no or know, when to use they're, there, and their, I not i, punctuation and general grammar rules. Buy The Elements of Style, learn it, love it. NO ONE is attracted to poor grammar.

• Aerodynamics: Anything written by John Anderson. Specifically Fundamentals of Aerodynamics is a good general text. I have every book he's written and they're all pillars of excellent teaching. If you're just looking to get started, I teach incoming freshmen from his Introduction to Flight book which is very easy to pick up regardless of your level of knowledge.
  
  
• Jet Propulsion: Aircraft Propulsion by Saeed Farokhi. Don't let the name scare you away. This book is my engine bible. He's an excellent professor and his book is a labor of love.
  
  
• Rocket Propulsion: Rocket Propulsion Elements by Sutton & Biblarz is the standard and is the reference I keep on hand for rocket data and theory.
  
  
• Aircraft Design: Jan Roskam's Aircraft Design Series (8 books) contain an amazing wealth of information and serve as a 'cookbook' for aircraft design. Some of the information is dated and it's not always easy to read, but it's the only place you'll find a lot of the information. As a second reference, I keep Nicolai's Fundamentals of Aircraft & Airship Design Part 1 on hand as well. It's very easy to read and I feel it's superior in approach and presentation to Raymer's Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach which is what I originally learned from.

A few more come to mind, less literature but more about stylistic and analytic skills you'll require in your advanced years in the Humanities.

People say to read a good style guide like Strunk & White, which is just okay. But I'd highly recommend Pinker's A Sense of Style--he also unpacks some of the problems with Strunk & White's core edicts.

Stanley Fish is just a great person to read in general. From his op-ed stuff in the NY Times to his class How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One. I'd also highly recommend reading the full introduction of the Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism or the introduction to Rifkin & Ryan's Literary Theory: An Anthology. When it comes to the lit theory stuff there are some good torrents with a lot of anthologies and canonical texts lumped together as PDFs. I also find a lot of good stuff with my Scribd membership.

So I got this bug from my wife's best friend. She is moving and she couldn't take it with her. She knew I've always wanted a bug and she didn't want to scrap it so she gave it to me. I'm super excited to finally own one and I can't wait to learn all about it. I've been a mechanic most my life (I'm only 33) but never worked on older cars. I ordered a copy of https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Volkswagen-Alive-Step-Step/dp/1566913101 because everyone said it's a great book. I'm not 100% sure what style I'm going to do, but I was thinking Baja/hot rod(exposed front wheels, lowered not raised). I just really want to strip it down and see what I'm working with. The motor is locked up supposedly so I may just look into a new/rebuild one. I hear 1600 duel port is a good place to start? If I want to go highway speeds(65-70mph) would that be enough, or would a 1700+ be better to look at? Anyway, I'm happy to be apart of the Beetle family and I'll be posting pictures along the way. So excited to get working on this bug!

Strunk and White's The Elements of Style.

A guide to communicating in written English. It covers mechanical details like comma placement, but also philosophical opinions about what makes good writing.

As programmers, we write a lot of emails and web posts explaining our decisions, philosophy, details of a particular system, etc. It's important to write clearly because we are discussing complex ideas and we are often trying to convince someone. Clear and punchy writing makes a big difference. Silly mistakes can make you look unprofessional.

Even in code comments, good writing style is important. We must be precise and unambiguous.

Many good programmers are not native English speakers. This book encourages simpler structures and more common words, which are easier for non-native speakers to understand.

(I posted the Project Gutenberg link earlier, but it was the original edition from 1919. It might be pretty limited compared to later editions.)

Wow, thanks fro the great answers /u/crb3 ! Really interesting stuff.

Number 3 I'm going to read through really slowly again to try to makes sure I get it all. Reverse protection diode makes sense. I think I can leave it out since I am using only 9v DC from the wall wart so it'd be hard to get it backwards like a battery. It seems like increasing the value of C3 would allow a larger reservoir of power and less sag?

One question, why does it matter it it is a 0.1 uF MLC cap vs some other type of capacitor, i.e., What desirable properties are exclusive to MLC?

This is exactly what I has hoping for. I'm slowly working through this book now to get a better understanding of this stuff, but practical explanations like the ones you provided are really interesting and provide an awesome supplement to what I have learned so far from the text book!

Next step is the breadboard to try some of this stuff out!

During the satellite pass, the direction that you ideally should point it at is constantly changing.. At first the ideal direction at near the horizon where the satellite first appears, then over an arc in the sky until it hits the other horizon disappearing below the rim of the earth. So it can be, worst case, at position that are ultimately 180º opposite in the sky over a period of 10 or so minutes.

The actual direction is determined by the orbital mechanics of the satellite (which can be calculated with a computer but it's a hot mess if you don't have STEM-level math). With this you'd use that data to control the azimuth and elevation of the antenna under robotic control from the computer. The math is algebra, geometry, trigonometry plus calculus. I can point you to the math but it may not mean much.

http://web.aeromech.usyd.edu.au/AERO4701/Course_Documents/AERO4701_week2.pdf

http://www.space.aau.dk/cubesat/documents/Orbital_Mechanics.pdf

Fundamentals of Astrodynamics

This last book is my "go-to" partly because it's relatively easy and because it's the book I learned orbital mechanics with when I was a "rocket scientist" working at this place.

LOL it's fascinating that they are serving a different web site outside the US. Not surprising but fascinating to see.

• First you determine the orbital ellipse from the satellites "orbital elements"; the GOES uses a "polar orbit" - you have to get the actual specific elements
  
• Then you determine the approximate time when you are interested in viewing it from your particular position on the earth
  
• Then you determine the range of times when the satellite is actually viewable - this then enables you to know what the ellipse is in space that defines the satellite's position during that time
  
• From that you can then do a coordinate transform from that ellipse in the sky to a local earth-referenced coordinate frame for your position on the earth
  
• And then using that, you can drive a "mount" for your antenna similar to a telescope with an Az-El or Equatorial mount. The actual coordinate transform differs depending on the mount you are using. Az-El is probably the more intuitive to a newbie (though it's not ideal for actual astronomy - an equatorial is better because it removes a degree of freedom (which gives more accuracy) required to track an orbiting object or an object in the sky).
  
  Instead of that you can get by by being "close enough" to cover most of the path. That's typically what people do. You point at the mid-point of the path and try to catch the extrema of the path in the antenna "side lobes".
  
  When you see people asking about the edges (top or bottom) images being noisy and not being right, it's usually because these extremes and the gain of the antenna doesn't have enough gain in the side lobes to assure noise-free reception using a fixed pointing direction or with the amount of directionality the antenna has.
  
  This is part of why simpler, less directional antennas can sometimes give better results because they receive over a broad range of angles than a direction antenna like a parabolic.
  

I definitely would not have a test ride of someone else's scooter be your first experience.

I recommend everyone, even if you never plan on riding a motorcylce, to take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's Basic Rider Course. It's a 2.5 day course that will teach you everything you need to know to ride safely and it does it in a relatively safe, controlled environment. Depending on your area, they may even offer the Scooter Safety Course. Having to learn how to operate a manual bike at the same time may seem intimidating, but operating the controls is one of the easier parts of the course. The majority of it is how to handle the bike when things go wrong and that is something that translates directly to scooters as well.

Since you are looking at a freeway legal vehicle, you will really be doing yourself a favor to be properly trained. I have had incidents while riding that I know would have resulted in a crash had I not taken the course.

If you don't have a center in your area, I would recommend picking up the book Proficient Motorcycling. It won't replace hands-on instruction, but it will teach you the concepts that you need to understand.

Also, if you want a learner bike, go with something in the 150-200cc range. Buy it used and once you feel comfortable, you can sell it back for basically what you paid for it and purchase a bigger scoot.

Good luck and ride safe.

I took the Motorcycle Safety Program for free through my state DMV. That got me my license, but I knew I was just getting started as far as actually learning to ride. I like to read a lot and I found a book titled, “Proficient Motorcycling” by David L. Bough that was really good. Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well https://www.amazon.com/dp/1620081199/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_PmADDbC4VZWVX

After that it was just a matter of riding more, riding farther from home and going on bigger (busier) roads. After a couple of months, I did a weekend trip across the state (about 270 miles) and surprised my folks with my new purchase. (And boy were they surprised,) Good luck!!

Quite literally, it means change of velocity. When people talk about "needing enough dV to get somewhere," what they mean is that, they need enough fuel to get there. I'm going to use arbitrary numbers right now because I'm too lazy to look up the actual ones, and simple is better anyhow.

Lets say you have a craft in low kerbin orbit. You want to go to the Mun. You're currently traveling 2300 m/s. In order to intercept the Mun, you need to be going 2900 m/s. Once in the Mun's sphere of influence you're traveling at 800 m/s, and you need to burn retrograde until you're traveling at 200 m/s to achieve orbit. The opposite is true to achieve escape velocity, and then once you escape, you're traveling 3000 m/s and need to reduce your speed to 2700 m/s for your periapsis to allow re-entry to kerbin.

(Again, these numbers are ball park, not exact).

So, the dV you need to get to the Mun's SoI is 600 m/s (from 2300 to 2900). A capture burn is 600 m/s, and an escape burn is 600 m/s. A final burn for entry is 300 m/s of dV. So, the total dV your ship needs in this scenario to go for the whole trip is 2100 m/s of dV.

Now, this does get a little more complicated when in an atmosphere, because you'll burn more fuel trying to escape than you would in a vacuum. Also, the effect of gravity on your craft is going to change the efficiency of your rocket depending on how much vertical and horizontal velocity you have at various points of your burn. When people say they're building a ship with ideal dV, what they typically mean is "I did the math and found that if I manage to fly the most optimal flight path available to use my fuel the most efficiently, I need enough fuel to perform dV burns at various points in the trip totally this number." The math behind all these variables gets a lot more complicated, and if you really want to nerd out, "Fundamentals of Astrodynamics" will help you to understand what the hell is going on just a bit better. I like that book because it has the math, a brief explanation, and diagrams all in one package. You'll learn all about various transfer types too!

...or you can just download mods that do the work for you, like many people! Or, you can just wing it and hope for the best like even more people! I mean, worst case scenario it's time for a rescue mission, right?

As already recommended, DanDan's Youtube is a wealth of good information. I'd also check out MotoJitsu's channel. Both of them do a great job of explaining concepts and giving you visual examples.


While some people think they're antiquated in these days of streaming video, I'm going to recommend a couple of books as well. I've read pretty much every motorcycle book ever published. These two I reread regularly.

https://www.amazon.com/Total-Control-Performance-Street-Techniques/dp/0760343446/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_

Lee's basic curriculum has replaced MSF in several states, including CA, which has the most riders. The sooner more states follow that lead, the better, IMO. MSF is better than nothing, but it leaves a LOT to be desired. Read his book. He's from Chicago. He gets back home and teaches a few classes a year in the area. https://www.totalcontroltraining.net/

​

https://www.amazon.com/Proficient-Motorcycling-Ultimate-Guide-Riding/dp/1620081199/ref=sr_1_1

Just a TON of great street-oriented info in this book (and its sequel). Covers a lot more than just the physical skills of riding.


Good luck. I'm up in the FAR north suburbs. Gimme a shout when you've got wheels, we'll go on a ride.

Been riding here for two and half years and other places for more years. Cycle gear has Dainese mesh armour for under 200. It has held up well, but it smells awful if you don't wash it. Full face helmets with tinted or mirrored shields are your friends and keep you from feeling like an ant under a magnifying glass when the sun is out.

The HOV is your friend. The people on the HOV and pretty much anywhere else are fucking terrible drivers. Any day I'm only merged into twice each commute is a good day. Take it slow, give yourself space, check your mirrors often and watch out for idiots on their fucking phones. I've never had anything thrown at me, but that's probably because I'm all black and people don't see me. Friday and Saturday are the worst nights for riding in town. Sunday, people are not aware enough to care. People are terrible, and you might as well be a tin can in the highway for them to run over. Just be cool and let them by.

The heat is terrible if you are stuck in it. Soak your head, your shirt, a bandanna around your neck to help keep you cool. When you get more miles under your belt, I recommend filtering when traffic isn't moving. Most people won't see you/won't move over, don't give a shit. Some people will honk, or move to block you so keep your levers covered and watch people's mirrors. Go slow, but keep moving. I won't do it around cops, but any time traffic's under twenty and congested, or there's a long line at the light, or morons on the HOV are at a standstill because they want to check out a wreck all the way across the freeway from them, I'll split. Just don't be a douche about it. Be respectful and most people will ignore you. I've been honked at a few times, and yelled at/followed by an angry lady once, but it doesn't get to me. I'm gone by the time most people notice me, and if they're that angry, they should get a bike and boil on it, too.

Get gloves with pockets behind the knuckles, you can fold your toll money in there and pull it out fairly easily to pay tolls. Don't ride tired. Don't drink and ride. Don't be a douche around cops (or in general) and they'll pretty much leave you alone.

Pick up a copy of Proficient Motorcycling by David Hough. Take the MSF course, it's like 200 bucks and worth it. And fun.

The city is not great to ride in, but riding makes commuting in the city bearable. Highways are best. FM roads and back roads are fantastic.

Be Safe!

You can do that with the Ninja 250. It's all practice. Like V_Glaz_Dam mentioned you should watch the Twist of Wrist 2 series.

Here's something I wrote for one of my friends.

For books, I personally like this one the most. I feel like Nick took a lot information from the Twist of the Wrist books and made it more modern.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1893618072/ref=oh_o02_s01_i00_details



But I also learned a lot from Lee Park's book. Lee Park hosts a rider school where he runs over all the drills in his book and helps with rider technique. You have to google the class schedules but he comes around California at least once or twice a year.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0760314039/ref=oh_o04_s00_i00_details



The there is the Twist of the Wrist series
http://www.amazon.com/Twist-Wrist-Motorcycle-Roadracers-Handbook/dp/0965045013/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330372612&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Twist-Wrist-Basics-High-Performance-Motorcycle/dp/0965045021/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1330372612&sr=8-2

I haven't read those books but the Twist of Wrist II videos are on youtube so you can check them out.



The last book I would recommend is Proficient Motorcycling. I highly recommended reading that one because it focuses a lot on general riding. Techniques that everyone should learn just to stay alive riding on the road. The book can be found at some libraries so you can save some money by just loaning it.
http://www.amazon.com/Proficient-Motorcycling-Ultimate-Guide-Riding/dp/1933958359/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330372534&sr=1-1-spell

The rest is all practice.
Also youtube "ninja 250 track" and you'll see a bunch of videos of guys racing their 250s on the track.

I wouldn't get on a track until you are at least familiar with your motorcycle. Get some miles under your belt before you decide to do it. After you are comfortable on your bike I would try to hook up with some local riders who are better than you. That way you can talk to them and learn from their experience. But remember to take most advice with a grain of salt. I personally use meetup.com to meet a lot of other guys to ride with.

As a student, I can recommend "Practical Electronics For Inventors, Fourth Edition" by Paul Scherz, accompanied by the occasional youtube video and reddit question :)
You can buy it from Amazon here

I havent read any others, so I cant compare the quality, but you can go through it like a book and be able to understand everything. You may run into some problems in the real world that requires some fairly advanced calculus, which the book doesn't cover. (It does cover where to apply it, just not how). It is really extensive (1256 pages on my desktop e-reader), so if you have an idea for something specific you want to build, there might be something more efficient out there :)

I would think that not a lot of electronics books, if any, explain the math in full, so I would suggest that you find an online source for whatever specific piece of math you've run into. I can recommend Kahn academy.

Good luck :)

Glad you're alright!

As a new rider, I highly suggest you pick up Proficient Motorcycling by David L Hough. It's an amazing book that is very honest about the risk, and lays out tons of techniques to handle stuff like different road hazards that you'll eventually run into, and how to basically perfect defensive riding.

A lot of this stuff isn't in the MSF manual, and the book goes into great detail about how to safely navigate through stuff like gravel on the road, around train tracks and any edge traps, oil on the road, slanted roads with bad traction, deers and dogs, etc. This kind of stuff will make you eat shit if you don't know how to handle it - it did me. We all have instincts for these emergency situations, instincts that can often be the wrong thing to do, like cutting your throttle as soon as you hit an oil patch and start slipping. You can't always trust your instincts and experience.

I've googled for a while trying to figure out these tips but it's really hard to find a good deal of information on the internet on this stuff. This book really puts it all together and teaches you how to be a safer rider. Highly recommend it.

Welcome to the club! And remember, about two years in when you're feeling much more confident as a rider, you're actually at a higher risk because riders get more cocky. stay safe

Hey there! Welcome to the hobby!
For reading, I recommend Practical Electronics for the Inventor. If you're brand new and want something a bit less dense, the Make series is a good place to start.
The box you've got looks a lot like a component kit a friend of mine gave me. He tried the electronics program at ITT before they went under and this is what they gave him. It's got some nice stuff in it and it's great for a beginner.
Now, you want to know what's in there? Google is your best friend. Everything has an identifying code on the side. Punch that into the search bar and 90 percent of the time you'll find everything you need to know about it. It's tedious, but it's the way of things.
Good luck and have fun!

It sounds like you're after the basics of how mechanical things work. These aren't bike specific but the principles remain the same.

Engine basics

How oil systems work and what your engine oil does

Gearboxes and what gears do

Early braking systems and what brake fluid does

Cooling system

Yes these are old but I think explain things in such an easy to understand method. Some things are far outdated by today but all basic principles are exactly the same.

If you're after some books. How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive by John Muir is one of the best mechanical guides around. Sure it's about VW stuff but it explains things is such a great way and how to think when working on something, mechanical problem solving etc. It's helped me when I worked as a race car mechanic and it just provides advice that sticks with you and applies to anything mechanical.

Audio Books are your friend, like seriously pick up something to listen to.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard P. Feynman


The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman

"What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character


The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene


The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene


The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene


Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration by Michio Kaku

Einstein's Cosmos: How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time: Great Discoveries by Michio Kaku


The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind (This one I recommend on the highest degree, personally I have read it 3 times)


A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe by Stephen W. Hawking


Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan


Contact by Carl Sagan


Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan

All these books I've listened to or read, and I recommend all of them some more then others, I have tons more about Quantum Mechanics, Physics, Biology, Cosmology, Astronomy, Math etc. But I'm to lazy to list all of them here.

> How do I improve my writing (both critical and creative)?

Read more, write more. In your case, I think you probably want to focus less on creative writing and more on technical and business writing, which are very different beasts.

> What books should I look at to help me do this?

The Elements of Style is a good start. You might also get some use out of Understanding Rhetoric

> When trying to interpret and "look into" a text how do I do that very well?

You need to consider the text on several levels: What is the text telling you? How is the text telling you that? What does the author want you to take away from the text? Is there a subtext (i.e. an implicit message in the text that is not spelled out) or any symbolism in the text?

> What would you say is the greatest misconception about the process of creative writing?

That there is one process. Creative writing is as varied as the number of creative writers there are out there, and not every technique and approach will work for you. From the sound of it, just in terms of a college application essay and a desire to enter the business world, you don't really need to focus on creative writing - you want to focus on rhetoric, persuasive writing, and technical communication.

Constructive criticism accepted? If you're trying to live up to your blog's name, then you're succeeding. Lines like "The cinematography was pretty decent. Nothing really ground-breaking, but it was a really pleasant movie to look at during some scenes." do very little to tell your readers anything. Who was the cinematographer? Did they do anything else of note? IMDB is your friend. In this case, Spanish cinematographer Oscar Faura; probably not many American readers are familiar with his work, as I believe it's his first English-language film. Same goes for the Norwegian director Morten Tyldum. What was interesting, or can you use more evocative language? Do you understand the visual language enough to recognize and describe things like tracking shots, handheld shots, framing, lighting? "I only have one minor complaint about this movie, which is the CGI." Cut off the "which is the CGI" part. I'm pretty sure no one calls it CGI anymore (just CG), and the phrase isn't necessary because you spend the rest of the paragraph talking about that very thing. Don't sound like Perd Hapley. Remember that it's not just about your impression of the movie, but why you felt that way. And, too, that you're writing about the film, not about how you felt about it. It's your opinion, sure, but there's a balance between putting yourself on the page and putting your recommendation or lack thereof on the page - the line between being Harry Knowles or Roger Ebert. Make the reader feel your joy...or pain...or indifference.

I used to be a semi-pro film critic and editor of other people's reviews. I learned a lot from reading the great critics - Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert - and from books about film. A Short Guide to Writing About Film, Film Art: An Introduction, How to Read a Film. All books I remember reading. And not just those, but books about writing. Particular favorites are The Elements of Style and Stephen King's On Writing. If you want to brush up on your knowledge of what you're seeing, Every Frame a Painting is a stellar look at film's visual language.

Hopefully all writers feel this at some point as it is the entire point of communicating through writing: how to accurately express how you feel and what you wish to say intelligently and accurately so your audience understands.

One book I've found has helped immensely is Elements of Style (I'll provide a link below). It is a short little book that has numerous invaluable tips; for example, how exactly do you use those pesky little commas? It's in there. And it helps that it's fairly inexpensive.

The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/020530902X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_BPvNxbYTAJ38M

PS. My friends and I are doing a podcast on writing called Pints and Prose (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pints-and-prose/id1133056624?mt=2) in which we talk about all things literary including grammar. I would love to see what you think and if you have anything you would like to hear about. Hope you like it and hope the book helps!

Congrats on making it this far!

Here's my constructive criticism: Your concept is cool, but your prose is stilted, clunky, and awkward, and you need a more evocative cover to draw a buyer's attention.

I really think your book would benefit from a professional editor's touch; the feedback would vastly improve the quality of your writing, and it'd help you achieve your goals of learning and developing as a writer.

If you can't afford an editor's services, please buy a copy of Strunk and White's Elements of Style for your personal reference. It's 90 pages of wisdom that will change your writing for the better; it won't be the same as getting an editor's feedback, but it will be a distinct improvement.

Glad to see you're approaching this from the correct angle. We get this sort of question here all the time, but it's usually "how do i electronics" and they get upset when they find out math is involved.

Definitely follow the math up through precalc, calculus, and differential equations. Learn Laplace transforms if you have time. You'll also want to explore physics pretty far, much of it will apply when you least expect it. Electronics is a mix of applied physics and chemistry. Finally you'll want to learn some thermodynamics. Understanding heat transfer and energy will be pretty useful. For all of these, I would just hunt down some college textbooks and some related Schaum's outlines.

While you're doing that, make sure to dabble in electronics to keep you focused. Build up some assembly, soldering, and possibly circuit layout skill. Definitely find this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957

A little advice from one writer to another, you gotta chill on the excessive double quotations and exposition.

Double quotations are typically used to show speech. You seem to be using it for emphasis, which is fine for casual conversation but in script writing is best achieved via italics or single quotations, i.e. 'apostrophes.' Otherwise the quotations alongside the parentheses and other forms of punctuation leave your paragraph looking cluttered and disjointed.

As for the exposition, if you have to explain your phrasings to readers, then they're likely ineffective and shouldn't be used in the first place. For example in another comment you explained what you meant by 'no name' which was unnecessary. I say this because A) it's a commonplace phrase and B) you explained what it meant anyways which defeats the purpose of saying it in the first place. It seems apparent to me that you're falling into a trap a lot of writers do when they first start out, myself included, which is assuming that readers won't figure out what you're hinting at unless you explicitly say it in the text. Assuming your analogies are sensical and your name isn't James Joyce, nine times out of ten your audience will figure out the meaning of your wordplay without an issue.

I don't mean any of this as some sort of attack, just sharing honest advice I've picked up over the years that've helped sharpen my own skills. In that same vein, you should check out The Elements of Style and The Lexicon of Comicana. They've both helped me obtain a better grasp on language and comics as art forms and I'm sure would be of great help to you as well. Good luck! :)

Let me add, that I bought this game back in 2012... Looking at my email receipt:


>Aug 6, 2012 19:29:07 EDT | Transaction ID: 0XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

>Hello Derfherdez,

>You sent a payment of $18.00 USD to Electro Chango S.A. de C.V.

So, yes it was worth $18 USD back then, and it sure is worth that today. At the same time I've gifted about 5 copies of this to friends/family over the years so I've spent way more on KSP, and it's totally worth it.

If you have ever seen the right stuff, Apollo 13, or even been inspired with the idea of the next frontier... This is an incredible buy. It's realistic enough that it's nothing retarded like pressing 'F' to pay respect, but enough that people here have even bought books like Fundamentals of Astrodynamics to get a better idea on how things 'work'.

The game will challenge you in ways that nor mindless button masher ever will. And maybe, just maybe inspire people to take us to that next great leap for mankind.

10/10 I'd buy this game over and over.

Get the demo, build a rocket, try to get it to do something, then get the game before the sale runs out!

Warning long post.

It sounds blasphemous on a Motorcycle thread to suggest getting a car first, but I completely agree that a cage will help in learning street and vehicle laws which is the foundation of any good driver or rider. An automatic car is simple to drive. You push the pedal and the car goes forward. I understand you're a bit terrified of driving a car but on a motorcycle you have to deal with staying in the proper gear, utilizing the clutch lever, balancing your bike at low speeds, while avoid crashing with blind drivers that say they didn't see you. Also bike theft is pretty common if you live in a city. Learning in a car first removes all the stress factors you will encounter on a bike to fully understand road and safety laws.

Can I suggest a motorized scooter? They are easy to handle and forgiving in power and they will still get you from point A to B while removing the clutch and gear factor. It will also prepare you for when you do upgrade to a motorbike because you will have had experience dealing with cars on the road. It was a scary experience when I transitioned from car to motorcycle because I no longer felt protected by several feet of steel.

If you're dead set on getting a motorized bike read below:

Buy the book Proficient Motorcycling by David Hough. Take an MSF class, usually $250 USD but since you're under 21 you can take it for $150. I also believe MSF is mandatory for those under 18 in several states and even if it wasn't, it's a 100x easier than taking the behind the wheel test at the DMV. Completing the MSF course is your behind the wheel test. Not only do you get to ride for two days, it will help you decide whether you want a bike or not. I knew biking was for me because I was practically speeding with a grin on my face during the bike exam. It was during the quick-stop test but I really wanted to know how fast I could brake since we were in a controlled environment.

For your first bike, please please please buy it used, don't be stupid like me, I didn't drop my bike but it is very possible and I had a few close encounters (at low speeds no less). Also I outgrew the power, I commute on highway a lot and half the time I couldn't keep up with traffic. You maybe lighter than me so a 250 could definitely serve your needs. I'm not sure of your height but if you want to be able to flatfoot a bike (which does give confidence to new riders) a Honda Rebel 250 cruiser could good. For sportbikes I suggest a CBR250R or Ninja 250. If you like the cafe racer/standard look try to find a Suzuki TU250X if it's legal in your state.

TL;DR: You should get a car first otherwise read Proficient Motorcycling and take MSF.

Not sure which version of the TV series you are getting, but on my DVD copy, at the end of each episode they have either Carl or Anne Druyan (his wife) giving an "Update Since Cosmos Was Aired". These were filmed somewhere close to 94 when he passed, so they're still a bit out of date from today, but still nice to see him realize some of the fascinating discoveries since.

Edit: If you enjoyed Cosmos, I'd highly recommend Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. It's pretty much a sequel to Cosmos, where Sagan contemplates the far future, and some of the possible means for mankind to explore the universe.

Well, electronics is a huge field, and especially if you're going to get into software radio, basic fundamentals of amplifiers and modulation techniques is a must. Don't get discouraged though, internet is abound in information.

Here are some books that may help to start:

The Art of Electronics

Especially if you can get the used Cambridge Low Price Edition. Either way, it's a good book for fundamentals, a classic too.

This book is ok:

Communications Receivers

For general electronics knowledge, some undergrad EE textbooks are solid gold.

Here's one that's great:

Circuits, Devices and Systems

Edit:

Another excellent resource for folks dabbling in electronics are these free simulators:

Paul Falstad's Circuit Simulator

Hades

The above are great before one gets to dip into SPICE.

I'm sorry if this is not what you asked, but if you have at the very least high school or ideally some university level knowledge of math it sounds like Fundamentals of Astrodynamics might be at least part of what you are looking for? It's focus is orbital mechanics and maneuvers in space, including interplanetary trajectories. While i have not finished it, it is so far really good and widely used. Bonus points for being really cheap. Although again, you do need math to really appreciate this book. Without going through the math you can still learn some things from it, but i am not sure if this book would still be that fun to read.

The FE is actually pretty easy with like a 75% pass rate. I took the test two years after graduation with about two weeks of studying and passed (mechanical engineer with a strong gpa).

You HAVE to get the official reference manual. You get this in the actual test and the more you are familiar with it the easier it is to find the relevant equations. That's like half the test--plugging numbers into the relevant equation. I used this review book and felt it did a good job.

Good luck and don't sweat it. Study through the main sections and make sure you understand basic math and physics.

If cost is a concern for your prototype, there's OSH Park. They pool and panel orders and make the boards at a place in Illinois I believe. I haven't used them yet, but will be placing an order in a couple days. For layout help, you might ask on the EE stack exchange site or the Sparkfun forum. Before laying out your board, be sure to set the design rules in your software to those from whichever fab you select. Here's a comparison of boards ordered from OSH Park and two other inexpensive options.

The Art of Electronics has a section on board layout, and there are a bunch of application note PDFs out there from semi companies:

• Circuit Board Layout Techniques (from Op Amps for Everyone)
  
• PCB Design Guidelines
  For Reduced EMI
  
• Using Decoupling Capacitors
  
  These guides are specific to certain microcontrollers, but still have good info:
  
  
• System Design Guidelines for Stellaris Microcontrollers
  
• Getting started with STM32F10xxx hardware development
  
  As someone who recently transitioned a prototype from Arduino/breadboard to a custom board, I'd also suggest you take a look at ARM if you aren't tied to Atmel. The performance for STM32 and Stellaris chips is great considering the cost, and they are almost price competitive with PIC and Atmel chips. TI has a Stellaris launchpad board now, and ST has several cheap eval boards. There is a gcc toolchain for ARM, and the MikroE ARM compiler is a reasonably-priced commercial option (demo up to 8k program space).
  
  What software are you using for layout?

Modern Recording Techniques for actual audio. Professor was a wealth of information, so we used a lot of handouts, but he did give us a recommended reading list:

Assistant Engineer's Handbook

Mastering Audio

Master Handbook of Acoustics

personally, i found having a copy of Practical Electronics for Inventors laying around super useful, as it explains circuits and what different diagram symbols mean and how to build basic circuits - awesome if for some reason you need to troubleshoot a piece of gear or you're just curious about what's going on under the hood

Great advice.

Just be aware- what is taught in the basic rider course is the most basic elementary stuff. It's also not really everything you need to know- it's just enough to give you a fighting chance of not being killed immediately, and hopefully gives you a solid starting point to improve your skills.

It takes conscious effort to learn riding techniques, and it takes continuous practice to improve. Simply putting on miles without understanding that you need to put focused effort into improving will get you miles under your belt without developing superior skills. Staying alive on the street is a combination of riding skill and observation & planning skills. Some of this you can learn from books, I recommend David L. Hough's books "Proficient Motorcycling" and "Mastering the Ride: More Proficient Motorcycling", and also his "Street Strategies: A Survival Guide for Motorcyclists" book.

And there are many others who have written good books on riding, but those are the ones I own. When my wife and later our kids decided to ride, those are the books I strongly recommended to them.

Take more formal instruction after you have a little experience on the street. The MSF advanced rider course, or a dirt bike school, a police motor office course, anything with a pro instructor. Track days can be good too, if there is good instruction and coaching available. Right now, you don't really know what you don't know.

1. Get a small bike to start with. Most bikes are really overpowered, and frankly dangerous for new riders. A 1000cc Bolt probably isn't the best bike to start on, even if it is marketed as a "starter" cruiser. A lighter weight bike will be easier to handle and learn on, and much more enjoyable to ride as you start. You simply don't need that much displacement or weight. Start with a lightweight, low displacement bike that is easy to handle. Think easy to ride, reliable, inexpensive and easy to get parts for when you inevitably take a spill. Here is a good summary of better options. I've been riding for 30 years, and still prefer small, lower displacement bikes.
   
2. Buy good gear. Invest in a full face helmet, jacket, gloves, pants and boots. The cost of gear will be far less than the cost of medical care, and gear is especially important for a new rider. You will fall early on. Brain bucket style helmets don't cover the part of your head that is the most common point of impact. Impact Zones.
   
3. Take the MSF beginner course. It offers good practice in a controlled environment and will teach you basic safety.
   
4. Read up. There are some outstanding books that discuss the importance of the right approach to riding. Not so much technique, which is important, but the right mindset of riding defensively. [David Hough's Proficient Motorcycling] (http://www.amazon.com/Proficient-Motorcycling-Ultimate-Guide-Riding/dp/1933958359) books are outstanding.
   
5. Read more. There are some important motorcycle safety studies out there that can tell you a lot about safe riding techniques. Read [the Hurt Report and the MAIDS Report] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_safety) and see what you can learn.

> Thanks so much for the lesson!

Strong, active voice construction. Good start.

> This is going to be a huge help.

Avoiding passive voice will make a huge difference in your writing. But it does take conscious effort. "To be" just comes too naturally to people.

If you don't already own a copy, pick up [this book](http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Style-Fourth-Edition /dp/020530902X) ASAP. It reads fast, and will improve your writing ten generations overnight. Keep it as a reference manual. Refer to it often.

Good luck!

I'm going to recommend something a little unconventional around here: an actual paper book.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0760313318/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_6wgwybXHCREVS

I bought this sort of on a whim when I started riding and was in the same position as you, and it was unbelievably informative and interesting to read. Its slightly out of date in that it precedes the advent of common electronic aides, but 100% of the stuff in the book is useful.

Also, while I'm recommending books for new riders, Lee Park's "Total Control" (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0760343446/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_Mxgwyb3MVM3CF) is an absolutely brilliant book. Its specifically about street riding (as opposed to track) and is targed towards newish riders. This book basically singlehandedly changed me from a hesitating novice to a confident (though a little reckless, it taught me to ride well but doesn't teach thoughtfulness the way Keith Code does) rider.

And, of course, the great grand daddy of them all, Twist of the Wrist 2 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0965045021/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_aygwyb1BB573F). This book is so good and so dense that I still find new things to practice every page or two. The definitive riding technique book for good reason. No, you don't need to read part 1.

The original Cosmos book by Sagan might be good here. If your friend likes that, follow up with The Pale Blue Dot.

If you want to to give your friend a taste, direct him to the Sagan Series, specifically, part 3: A reassuring Fable.

Your friend might also benefit from seeing Science Saved My Soul.

You probably want this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Keep-Volkswagen-Alive-Step-Step/dp/1566913101

It is about air cooled VWs, but it goes through all the automotive systems. Later chapters cover things like VW disc brakes and fuel injection in the 1960s. It's a clear book with pictures and a humorous approach to the basics of a car. You can start from a point of no knowledge and get a pretty good idea of internal combustion principles.

Good luck!

Who cares? You're 17! Whatever happens, you'll have a great story to tell for the rest of your life. I would have LOVED to go on an adventure like this at your age. Remember, "Adventure is misery recounted at leisure."

The car may be able to go about 65-70mph on the freeway but I wouldn't recommend running it at that speed for long. This car was made before the national 55mph speed limit but 60-65 is probably about as fast as you want to go on a sustained basis if the car's top speed is 73. Running ANY car at or near its maximum speed for any length of time stresses it pretty badly.

I *would* recommend that you carry a spare alternator belt, ignition points, spark plugs, and condenser. Know how to change those out at the side of the road, and how to set dwell and timing. Get a copy of How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive by John Muir. Carry a rudimentary set of tools: assorted screwdrivers, assorted pliers, a set of metric combination wrenches, a metric socket set, a dwell meter and timing light.

It's not unlikely, if you get towed to a shop, that yours will be the first Bug the mechanic has seen outside of a museum or a car show. Mechanics who know how to work on those cars aren't that common, any more.

If this is a *literal* cross-country drive, like, you're starting out on or near the West Coast...be aware that we're heading into the time of year when roads and passes through the Rockies can get shut down because of snow conditions. If you're traveling through desolate areas, don't count on cellphones to work. If you'll be traveling through the desert, read this.

ETA: Hopefully you can get your parents to agree to all of this. Also, if this is a multi-day trip, at 17, you may have problems doing things like getting a motel room, because you're a minor. I'm not sure how that would work even if your parents were to authorize you to use one of their credit cards.

What you seem to be not understanding is that using a simulator is far and away the quickest, easiest, and because it is completely free, the cheapest way to learn how rocket science really works. Using a simulator will save you countless hours when it comes to making a rocket over just shoving some chemicals into a tube and crossing your fingers. And speaking of fingers, it just might save you some of them, too. Because people do lose fingers playing with rockets.

Since you seem to be familiar with electronics, I'll make a comparison with LTSpice. Instead of spending hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on a parts library and expensive test gear you test all of your designs on a tool that is completely free.

This isn't gatekeeping. It is exactly the opposite. It is enabling.

As to sources to learn, one of the best resources is linked right in the sidebar:

https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248

There is even a copy available on archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/RocketPropulsionElements8thEditionByOscarBiblarzGeorgeP.Sutton

This is also something that gets mentioned almost daily in discussions here. Pretty much any thread on motor construction has referenced it.

And has already been mentioned numerous times in this thread, Nakka's website is
pretty much the de-facto standard when it comes to sugar propellants. But seriously, any google search on sugar propellants should bring that up so it really shouldn't even need to be said in the first place.

Syntax as Style by Tufte is the best for sentence level mechanics. By far.

On Writing Well by Zinsser is the best for non-fiction.

If you're interested in fiction, Story Engineering by Brooks is the one I usually recommend for structure. But you might use Knight's Creating Short Fiction for that purpose. Or Save the Cat by Snyder.

People often recommend Elements of Style by Strunk and White. It has the benefit of being very short and direct. It will make your writing better, if you're a beginner. Your essays will read more smoothly. But I don't like recommending this book because it lacks nuance and is sometimes wrong. If you just want to improve your writing as quickly as possible, get this book. If you actually care about language, get Virginia Tufte's book instead.

Fast assumption: you sound insufferable. When someone tells you that this post is useless and you get defensive, it makes you seem disingenuous. Next time you're wondering what to post, look at what is successful in this subreddit and see if you can figure it out yourself before resorting to navel-gazing. Hint: the other commenter is right. Post articles, media, and questions relating to the living world or its study.

Professors aren't trying to trick you. Some of the questions are extremely challenging because they are supposed to find the students with the deepest grasp of the concepts. If you can't answer, the problem is usually your understanding of the material.

As for formatting, you need to work on your writing skills. Your sentences meander and they're difficult to read because your grasp of when the comma should be used is tenuous at best. You can buy The Elements of Style, or you can write short, active sentences. Don't make the mistake of thinking that long and complex sentences make you seem smarter. Readable and coherent work is what makes you seem smarter. A nice bonus is that working on writing will also help you with your reading comprehension. No more getting caught up in the wording of tricky questions!

Oh, and ask your professors for help with exam questions, not the internet.

I started with circuit bending. I took a student-taught class as part of the Oberlin College ExCo, which is the Experimental College, where any student can teach a class for a single credit, provided they can demonstrate to a faculty panel that they have something to teach and a plan on how to teach it. That got me started on instrument building, and also on circuit design. I worked on that as a hobby for several years, until eventually I was friends with some people who were getting into Eurorack manufacturing: the 4MS crew, when they were still in Austin. Ralph and Dan encouraged me to move from bending (and breaking) toys into creating circuits, and gave me a few good starting tips (and copies of a few Forrest Mims books, which are absolutely invaluable). Another year or two after that, I was talking with Mickey, and he mentioned that he had the good problem that his modules were selling too fast, and he was bored of soldering, and wanted more time to design. I piped up quick. "I know how to solder! I'm very good at it." The second part was a lie. It's true now, though! Everything more advanced that I know about circuits I've learned from Mickey, the internet, and a bit more book learnin', especially from The Art of Electronics. I told the story of getting started on the pedal (which was my first commercial pedal) elsewhere in this thread.

The biggest hiccup was finding ROHS compliant vactrols! But we're cool on that now. Thanks, XVIVE!

I'm going to be frank here: your grammar is bad to the point of distraction. I know that grammar is relaxed in fiction, and a lot of people will argue that "if you know what I mean, then grammar shouldn't matter". The problem though is that, as an experienced reader, when I see what appears to be a grammatical error, I expect there to be a reason: maybe the author is trying to tell me something about the narrator's level of education or background, or maybe he's trying to create a sense of authenticity in dialog, or maybe he's engaging in some clever wordplay. If the author doesn't know the rules, then it creates a sense of uncertainty that interferes with suspension of disbelief and undermines the work in general, sort of like if a sci-fi writer contradicts the rules of his own universe.

If you want me to step through and help you edit, I can, but it would take some time, so I want to make sure you're interested. In the meantime, I would strongly advise you to pick up a copy of Strunk and White and give it a thorough read. It isn't long, nor is it particularly dry (at least as style guides go), and I promise your writing will improve for the effort.

Also, it's "in / with regard to", not "in / with regards to".

Edit: Just to offer a quick example...

> I don’t want to get out of bed, I’ve turned my phone off and I’m ignoring my messages for a reason, I want to be normal, I want to be happy.

This is a pretty severe run-on sentence: you need to introduce new independent clauses with a conjunction and comma, except where list rules apply. A grammatically-correct revision might look like...

> I don't want to get out of bed. I've turned my phone off, and I'm ignoring my messages for a reason: I want to be normal. I want to be happy.

OK, you seem like you are trying to learn, and are asking questions, that is a good thing, and even if someone cringes at your terms, that's OK, you have gotten some good links for the terms and how to use them. Don't be put off.

Now I am going to recommend you see if you can get The Art of Electronics 3rd ed and Learning The Art of Electronics, get the ones with the gold covers. They are expensive, but you will learn huge amounts by working through the Learning book. When I was teaching college labs, I would recommend students get these books (2nd ed at the time). You can find all this information online, and you can learn it that way, but these books are excellent and well worth the cost if you can pull it together.

I highly recommend this book for prep. I took the FE in October using this as a review and passed, after being out of school a couple of years. This book just covers the morning session. For the afternoon session I would just review your thermo, heat & mass, and design class notes. Also, thinking about buying the equation manual. It was super helpful knowing exactly where equations were while taking that test. They also have topic outlines for the exam on the NCEES webpage. I would also get the practice exam NCEES sells, that was really the only prep I did for the afternoon session. Keep in mind that the test is electronic now, not written, so review materials might vary.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll do great if you are just finishing school, because everything will still be fresh.

Read read read and experiment!

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336 is one of my favorite books that explains in great detail the workings of components, without getting overly mathematical. (Math is critical in understanding the behavior, however.)

Then get a basic scope/dmm (or get access to a lab) and build circuits to exercise your knowledge. It won’t work on the first couple tries, but google is your friend, and thats when the learning really materializes — when you understand why something didn’t work, and when you understand how to fix it.

Youtube is a great reference too. Here are some channels I’m subscribed to. Good luck!
https://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew
https://www.youtube.com/user/engineerguyvideo
https://www.youtube.com/user/LearnEngineeringTeam
https://www.youtube.com/user/sutty6
https://www.youtube.com/user/msadaghd
https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog

>practice practice practice. Take those practice exams.

where are these practice exams? i only know of 1 (and the free one someone gave me where they already paid the $50 from when they took it) all the others just make claims that its "FE exam material"


>hardest part was the general section for me, ChemE part was long but quite a bit easier.

yeah the material i am using is the https://www.amazon.com/Review-Manual-Preparation-Fundamentals-Engineering/dp/1591263336 the subjects in it, at the very least, FELT like my uni courses. this practice exam i am taking is NOTHING like it. once i look at the solution, it is really easily solved, except, the equation they used isnt even in the FE reference manual, nor ones i even recall back in school. an example is the definition of work in terms of pressure and volume. i forgot the exact question of that form so i had to look it up.... except... they conveniently left that one out. (the w = ∫pdv one)

>don't over think it, lots of people are in the same situation (and still pass)

yeah i hear online that the cutoff to pass is somewhere in the 60% range. of course,there is no proof of this as the committee doesnt share it. but i mean, its a $200+ test.... i cant really see myself going to take it while my confidence level is so low after this practice exam....)

That's a beautiful bike. Treat her with respect and she'll last a long, long time.

In case you're interested, this is my favorite book on motorcycle concepts and technique. That book and a MSF course will put you well ahead of the curve (no pun intended).

Ride safe and enjoy!

Buy yourself of copy of the art of electronics. Pick one or two topics from that book every day and read about them. It covers pretty much every aspect of EE without going into an insane amount of detail. Use that to narrow your focus once you find something that really interests you. EE is a huge area of engineering and you’re not gonna like all aspects of it but the art of electronics is a great start.

The Art of Electronics https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521809266/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_FeY5BbNKDNXSF

Edit: to add on to this. Adafruit has a ton of more entry level friendly tutorials and stuff. Find a component on their store and they’ll have tons of projects and tutorials using those components. They don’t get much in to how it all works. You’re going to have to read for that. Kahn academy is pretty good at explaining stuff too.

I highly recommend reading this book . I'm a beginner too, and have learned a lot from it, I know people will say practice is the only way to learn, but reading from veteran riders is also good for you. Like many here suggest, make sure to get your gear, license, driving courses and insurance (both for you and your motorcycle) beforehand. Read thoroughly all your local traffic laws applicable to motorcyclists and make sure you have a place to keep your new baby safe. Go for it :)

Wow, I'm seeing a lot of "I studied the reference manual the night before" comments. I think I may be the only one who studied for the damn thing!

I'd say go ahead and study still. You are paying $100 and will commit a day to an 8 hr test, and you do not want to go through that process more than once. I'll go ahead an assume you are civil, where pass rate is 72% overall and 68% for those that choose the other section. You don't want to be the 30% that has to take it again.

You may have heard this already, but what you'll need three things:

$76 The FE Review Manual. This is the review text nearly everyone uses to study for the test. It covers every subject, works out the problems, and has a practice exam. I'd strategize by looking through the book and working on what you feel you are weak in.

$24 NCEES FE Reference Manual or free download here. This is a the book they will provide you during the test. It has many formulas. It's important that you study with this beside you so you are familiar with the layout and organization of the book. You'll be flipping through it during that test. Now, I noticed that this book really has everything you need, and can even deduce a few things without having studied.

$14-$25 Calculator of your choice, it's restricted so here's a list . I used the Ti-36X Pro because I am more familiar with Ti's and the learning curve was better. Study with the calculator beside you and only the calculator you will take with you to the exam. How to do inverse sin? How to do matrices (oh yeah, these calculators will find determinate, solve systems, and so many other things for you, you just have to find out how).

Apart from that, find videos on youtube for topics you are having difficulty in.

There you have it, my two cents. You will hear often that it is an easy test, but I've heard that from people that have failed the test too (Yeah, trust me I question their train of thought). You are taking an admirable initiative in choosing to study for this test. Good luck and best wishes!

Complex analysis, my friend. If you can understand even the basics intuitively it can smooth out a lot of the higher classes. I like Needham's Visual Complex Analysis but I've been told it's not a good introduction. I'm not really sure what would be, but you might want to look at Introductory Complex Analysis by Silverman (Dover books are cheap and awesome).

Graph theory certainly wouldn't be too bad either. It's actually pretty fun and has applications in programming and algorithms. Dover publishes this book which I expect would be excellent to read at work (pretty basic, moves slowly). Same goes for linear algebra if you can find a book on it (look for one with "matrix analysis" in the title).

Learning advanced set theory or category theory will probably not be useful at all. (*ducks*).

The Lively Art of Writing is absolutely amazing. It's enjoyable to read and the techniques can really help you write well. It gave me a great understanding of how to write a persuasive essay.

After that, Elements of Style is also an excellent reference on the finer points of writing, and can help you clear up some confusions you have.

I'd recommend working through The Lively Art of Writing first, just to put some practice and thought into how to communicate effectively. The second book is more for polish, but nevertheless still very good.

It sounds like you’re looking to be a spacecraft orbital analyst, or a mission analyst and trajectory planner as we call them at my company.

If this is your dream, choose aerospace engineering and choose a school that has a strong focus on space, because some are better for aircraft. CU boulder is a great example of a school that invests just as much if not more in their space systems research.

You want to start looking into spaceflight dynamics and astrodynamics. The best book for this would be “fundamentals of astrodynamics” by Bate, Mueller, and White. That book is a classic, it’s almost 50 years old but it’s the gold standard of this field. And it’s cheap as hell. You can find it here:

it’s only $15 with prime one day shipping!

I also highly recommend looking up beginner videos on YouTube to supplement the text. Once you have the basics down (orbit and conic geometry, rocket equation, etc) I’d download NASA GMAT (it’s free) and start waking through some tutorials on that software. If you go to college for engineering, usually the school will have STK (systems tool kit) available for free download as well. Both softwares are used heavily throughout the industry.

And play kerbal space program, it’s a fun way of learning and visualizing some of this stuff.

There's definitely something to be said about being self-employed. If you can pull it off, being your own boss is probably pretty liberating. I was actually having a conversation with my roommate last night about work and money, etc. He graduated college a few months back with a 4-year degree and now he's making $30k/year at a job he already hates after working there for a month. It does suck to feel like a pawn of the system - you work for pennies while other people profit immensely off of your productivity. So going freelance might ameliorate that problem for you.

In regards to printing PCBs, yeah, that's electrical engineering. There's a book my EE friend made me buy that you might find useful for that endeavor: Practical Electronics for Inventors. Though that link to American Amazon might not be the best based on your usage of the word "flat." I've been working my way through a different one - Essentials of Computing Systems, which I've found pretty cool. Starting with NAND gates (in a hardware simulator) it has you build up a fully functional computer, which you then write software for. Pretty cool stuff. For context I'm a 23 year old chemical engineering graduate who's 2 years into a 7 year MD/PhD program. So lots of tests left to take and reports to write for me at least.

A wonderful source for those that want to know questions better: Naive Lie Theory by John Stillwell

(Google excerpts)

This book is a wonderful read and it jumps into quaternions very early on. It really helps one learn about them and other spaces. Is also a remarkably Easy to access book on Lie Theory — (basic calculus, linear algebra only real read. Having seen group theory before is nice, but not necessary)

I’m about half way through and just love it.

Also, somewhat related, Visual Complex Analysis by Tristan Needham is a ridiculously good and powerful book.

(Google excerpts)

Anyone that has to interact with complex numbers should read at least the first two chapters in my opinion.

maybe check out this book and see if you can do a little better with it. it still has math, but you can't really get around all of it: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Paul-Scherz/dp/0071771336


you at least have to be able to do some ohms law and some basic calculations. A lot of other things have seemingly impenetrable calculus behind them but I've found a lot of the time you can just read a data sheet and they'll give you some simple formulas that you can just plug into that work well enough. You don't need to know how they came up with the formulas, just plug in your parameters and go.


You should go on youtube and watch some videos of people repairing amps. there's lots of good ones and you can pick up a lot of stuff through osmosis. also check out EEVblog.


lastly, instead of messing with your nice guitar amp, build a cheap one yourself and mess with it. there's tons of schematics online you can use and it's pretty fun to build one. I put this one together and I really like it: http://www.runoffgroove.com/ruby.html You can buy all the parts from digikey.com

Electronics is both easy and hard. The easy parts are following a schematic and plugging existing circuits together. This is usually much easier with digital electronics since all the electronics are doing are turning the current on and off or bringing the voltage high or low. The hardest part is making sure you connect all the wires correctly, and most devices are protected, and voltages are low, so crossing wires won't fry the device (though LEDs are easy to burn out). You can get very far with this "lego" mindset to circuit design. If you want to understand how current flows through an electrical network, and why resistors need specific values, how analog circuits work, and why digital signals need certain components like capacitors, then you'll need to invest more time in understanding electrical theory. This book is really good for that: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

Here's a list, off the top of my head - I know all these are on my bookshelf, but I'm probably missing a few more:

Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club by Sonny Barger

Freedom: Credos from the Road by Sonny Barger

Ridin' High, Livin' Free: Hell-Raising Motorcycle Stories by Ralph Sonny Barger

Dead in 5 Heartbeats by Sonny Barger

Under and Alone by William Queen

No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels by Jay Dobyns

Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library) by Hunter S. Thompson

Street Justice by Chuck Zito

The Original Wild Ones: Tales of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club by Bill Hayes

Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart

The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa by Neil Peart

Against the Wind: A Rider's Account of the Incredible Iron Butt Rally by Ron Ayres

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford

Honda CB750: The Complete Story by Mark Haycoc

Shovelhead Red The Drifter's Way by Roy Yelverton

Shovelhead Red-Ridin' Out by Roy Yelverton

A Twist of the Wrist 2: The Basics of High-Performan​ce Motorcycle Riding by Keith Code

Total Control: High Performance Street Riding Techniques by Lee Parks


Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig - Still my favorite. A high school english teacher bought it for me when he found out I had just passed my motorcycle road test. I've read it at least 15 times, and get something new from it each time.


But the best recommendation - Buy the FACTORY SERVICE MANUAL for your bike and read it. Read it often, until you can almost turn to the exact page for each procedure.

Sorry that other people are being harsh critics, but yeah man. Respectfully, a couple of these are pretty overpriced.

Thing is, most people would rather buy a new book from the store than buy a used book for barely less than retail. I suggest you lower the prices, especially keeping this in mind:

Astrodynamics sells new for $17: https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Astrodynamics-Dover-Aeronautical-Engineering/dp/0486600610

Propulsion sells new for $25: https://www.amazon.com/Mechanics-Thermodynamics-Propulsion-Philip-Peterson/dp/8131729516/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526807320&sr=1-2&keywords=mechanics+and+thermodynamics+of+propulsion+2nd+edition

Your edition of COE 3001 sells new for $113: https://www.amazon.com/Mechanics-Materials-James-M-Gere/dp/1111577730/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526807508&sr=1-2&keywords=mechanics+of+materials+goodno and it's also not the current edition

Best of luck. And if you find someone looking specifically for the current edition of the Mechanics of Materials book, please send them my way!

Totally get it. I have had these moments myself. The world IS huge but more important, we are tiny. Very very tiny. Read Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. If you think you’re tiny compared to the Pacific, just imagine how tiny we are compared to the rest of our galaxy... or our universe!

Once we come to acceptance of our existence, we can come back down and live our life with a purpose to love and help each other. Think about how insignificant every war ever fought on earth is to the rest of the universe. But if we can help make each other’s lives better, that’s pretty cool.

Here are a couple of books and a few other things you can do to help you improve. Generally speaking I would only use books to learn the nuts and bolts of writing (grammar, passive vs. active voice and Point of View - stuff like that). Everyone writes in a different way, there are a thousand paths up the mountain as the saying goes, so learning how Stephen King writes (On Writing) may not help you understand how you write.


If you only read one book on writing, make sure it's Elements of Style by Strunk and White - It's short and covers all the basic mechanics of writing.


As others have said, read widely. This is probably the most important thing you can do. Read and then read reviews and critiques. You will begin to see common themes to what people like and dislike. If you can spot these in the work of others, you will learn to spot them in your own work.


Join a critique group. This is basically the same thing as reading Goodreads or Amazon reviews, but supercharged. You see the raw material, warts and all. You will probably get more from learning to critically assess the work of others than you will from their critiques of your work. Lots of libraries have writers groups or you can join one online like Critters.


I would suggest not to jump straight into a novel. Learn to write short stories and polish your craft there. A 3000 word short story is less of an investment in time than a 100,000 word novel. You will make mistakes in the beginning, best to make them quickly and get them over with, learn and move on.

You have to "bootstrap" somewhere. At the VERY bottom is generally NOT a productive or practical way to do it. We used to have a joke in EE school: "If want a good laugh, ask a physicist to design a circuit for you". The reason it's funny is they'll start designing from quantum mechanics or Maxwell's equation as they usually don't ever learn all the tricks we have in EE to "short-circuit" the process.

Basically start with analog circuits (Ohm's law) for DC, advance to AC and then to circuits and systems. You can go deeper but at the start frankly most people will get wrapped around the axle and give up first.

Everything from Grand Unification up to your iPhone is built on approximate models with assumptions that are not strictly correct all of the time if ever. In electronics you have circuits bounded by Quantum Mechanics and Maxwell's Equations as "actual physics". You can't actually use these for 99% of anything practical so these are not the best starting points.

Instead you use approximate models like Lumped Equivalent Model (which is what resistors, capacitors and inductors are: that resistor in your hand - it's not real - just an approximation). But you don't really want to learn that up front.

However if you want a reference that goes into the physics of electronics I'd recommend The Physics of Information Technology. Not cheap so borrow it from a library first.

But ONLY use it when you get that itch to naively dig into the physics for a quick dip or overview or orientation. Otherwise use regular electrical engineering (EE) intro analog circuit textbooks or something like Horowitz' Art of Electronics

Unless you have a physics or engineering degree TPIT will still go straight over your head mostly (the author is an MIT professor and he relatively gentle by BSEE/BS Physics standards on the math but it's brutal if you haven't had several years of university math).

OK. I got a really weird suggestion. Go buy this and read it cover to cover:

http://www.amazon.com/Keep-Volkswagen-Alive-Step---Step/dp/1566913101/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420493624&sr=8-1&keywords=john+muir+complete+idiot+VW

I know. That sounds weird as hell. But that is the single best technical manual for any motor vehicle, and an air-cooled classic VW is actually very similar tech to a Harley or a lot of other air-cooled motorcycles.

This book is the ancestor of the entire concept of the popular "idiot's guide" books, but none ever did it better.

If you want a true and proper "feel" for wrenching, this book is an awesome place to start. I know about it because I built a Baja Bug as the last "fun car" I ever owned before getting into motorcycles nearly 30 years ago.

Pocket Ref by Thomas Glover (Amazon link)

Basically a small handbook of all kinds of useful reference data, especially engineering and automotive related (need to calculate the pressure drop of a given fluid through a pipe of a given diameter flowing at a given speed? Need to re-jet a carburetor? Determine the maximum safe loading of a soft pine floor vs. an oak floor?) in addition to miscellaneous data (zip codes, how to perform CPR on babies and small animals, major poison and burn centers for your region of the US, names of various groups of animals like hamsters and crows). I got these as gifts for my groomsmen, since I prefer to give "useful" items like tools and books.

For basic (non-electronic) electrical stuff, I've heard good thing about the Navy's training materials, but I haven't read it myself.

For electronic circuits, I recommend The Art of Electronics by Horowitz & Hill. They just came out with a new version that's apparently more focused on modern digital circuitry (microcontrollers). This is the book that I used when I was learning analog circuits; it gives good descriptions of things like resistance/reactance/impedance, LCR circuits, transistors, oscillators, op-amps and other amplifiers, as well as RF circuits. I think my edition also covered some 7400 series logic and ancient microcontrollers.

• In short, there's nothing you can say or do now that will ease her mind.
  That all comes with time. Save up and pay for your own bike and gear, take the safely course. Try not the crash in your 1st year of riding. Show her you're responsible adult.
  
  
• Don't ride in the rain, Take public transport. But sometimes it can't be helped. Just take it slow, wait for the rain to die-down if it get too heavy (what's heavy? you have to make a judgement on that)
  You can get riding gear that's water proof, but my experiences with them is that they don't work. Just carry a water proof backpack with a change of clothes in there, Kriega makes great stuff. The bike should be fine in the rain, but it's best to find a shaded area to park.
  
  
• Just keep in mind that you're a beginning and know your limits. A twist of the wrist 2. Read it or Watch it.

Your post has too little context/content for anyone to give you particularly relevant or specific advice. You should list what you know already and what you’re trying to learn. I find it’s easiest to research a new subject when I have a concrete problem I’m trying to solve.

But anyway, I’m going to assume you studied up through single variable calculus and are reasonably motivated to put some effort in with your reading. Here are some books which you might enjoy, depending on your interests. All should be reasonably accessible (to, say, a sharp and motivated undergraduate), but they’ll all take some work:

(in no particular order)
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (wikipedia)
To Mock a Mockingbird (wikipedia)
Structure in Nature is a Strategy for Design
Geometry and the Imagination
Visual Group Theory (website)
The Little Schemer (website)
Visual Complex Analysis (website)
Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos (website)
Music, a Mathematical Offering (website)
QED
Mathematics and its History
The Nature and Growth of Modern Mathematics
Proofs from THE BOOK (wikipedia)
Concrete Mathematics (website, wikipedia)
The Symmetries of Things
Quantum Computing Since Democritus (website)
Solid Shape
On Numbers and Games (wikipedia)
Street-Fighting Mathematics (website)

But also, you’ll probably get more useful response somewhere else, e.g. /r/learnmath. (On /r/math you’re likely to attract downvotes with a question like this.)

You might enjoy:
https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/2mkmk0/a_compilation_of_useful_free_online_math_resources/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mathbooks/top/?sort=top&t=all

It was a long time ago, but yes, I recall something similar. I just want to add a word of warning that while you may feel more relaxed now, you must never become complacent. "They" say that the 2nd year of riding can be the most dangerous simply because of the situation you outlined. You get comfortable, relaxed and think "hey! I haven't crashed! I think I have this 'riding' thing down!" So keep your guard up and start practicing the next level of riding.

Oh, and if you haven't yet, I highly recommend reading Proficient Motorcycling - excellent reading no matter what your riding style/skill level.

PPS - nice bike - I have two of them (Gen I) ;-)

I would highly recommend Art of Electronics. I've read dozens of books on this category and it is by far my favorite; useful both for initial instruction as well as later reference. Yes, it is expensive, but IMHO is well worth it.

The other book I'd recommend is "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Scherz and Monk. Best breakdown of capacitor types and applications that I've seen. Link here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0071771336

Proficient Motorcycling by David L Hough is available in both print and Kindle. This is the best book you'll ever read about how to become a better rider; it explains the basics and dynamics of a motorcycle and how to put the best skills to work for you. It's a great read for both Novice and Skilled Riders; no one will disagree on this.

Now for pointers: LOOK into the turn to where you want the bike to go; don't fixate your eyes on a single object. Slow down BEFORE the turn and roll the throttle into it.

Watch this ridiculously directed training video; once you get past the goofy characters, it teaches a lot of good riding habits.

Edit: Got name mixed up - Thanks for the heads up.

It's best to learn by doing, but sometimes those kits don't cut it. Like others, I recommend toying with a breadboard, but I also think getting your hands on these books will also help. They're beginner's books, are easy to follow, and have some interesting circuits to play around with. Additionally, there is a tiny bit of theory in it. If you want to go hardcore into the theory without having to do much math, go for the electronics bible, Horowitz and Hill.

> I gotta look at some orbital mechanics books

If you really want to go through with that I highly recommend "Introduction to rocket science and engineering". It goes reasonably into depth but is still accessible with a decent highschool math and physics background. Besides orbital mechanics it covers the basics of pretty much all aspects of rocket science (history, thermodynamics, orbital mechanics, propulsion elements etc.) It is a bit pricey though, you probably want to find it somewhere cheaper.

If you're a bit more advanced (primarily in math) you could also checkout "Fundementals of astrodynamics" which is nice and cheap or "Orbital Mechanics for engineering students" if you really want to make it your job.

I am a mechanical engineer by trade but I am really interested in spaceflight and orbital mechanics so in the past months I have been catching up with those books.

It's a big topic, and rocket engineering can't be summed in a reddit post. Buy yourself some books.

If you want more knowledge on the design and analysis of rockets, get a copy of Rocket Propulsion Elements By Sutton. (http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462063371&sr=8-1&keywords=rocket+propulsion+elements) - You don't have to buy the newest edition, thermodynamics hasn't changed.

I believe for vehicle design the best reference is SPAD (Space Propulsion Analysis and Design) (http://www.amazon.com/Space-Propulsion-Analysis-Design-Website/dp/0077230299/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462063423&sr=8-2&keywords=space+propulsion+analysis+and+design) - Wow, that's more expensive than I thought.

Both books are intended for upper level college courses so you will need to learn other stuff too - like thermodynamics. But if you are interested in the subject then It will keep you motivated to learn the prerequisites as you go.

To start, learn the rocket equation, if you don't know it already. It is easy to do your first order analysis with just that, and add ~1km/s for air + gravity drag. Also, Wikipedia has an astounding amount of information. /u/danielravennest Wrote this wikibook, I haven't read it myself but he is always raving about it so you might find it useful.

Feel free to PM me. I am currently the lead engineer on a small bipropellant in-space propulsion system which is in early development.

Everything in that warning is true, but IMO, Hill Country is a great place for a novice to practice their technique. He needs to be careful, of course, but a rider who learns out there won't get into the habit of out-riding his sightlines.

Maybe you could pair the Butler Map with a copy of Hough's Proficient Motorcycling, which is a great manual for riding safely in real-world situations.

EE yes. If you can EE than you can program. Taking a few CS courses will teach you the finer points of programming. But if you want to play with hardware than EE is the way to go.

Between EE and CS, both types learn programming. Focus on EE if you are thrilled by hardware. Focus on CS if you love logic puzzles and high level abstractions. FYI EE pays more and you can always get a programming job with an EE. The reverse is not true.

(Although I have to say that most EE's I know are terrible programmers. But that doesn't seem to stop them.)

I think a book that would be perfect for you is
The Art of Electronics
. The first half is all basic electronics. Then it gets into logic circuits and finally simple computer circuits.

One nice thing about this book is that the chapters are very well organized. So if you don't want to learn everything there is to know about transistors, just read the first few pages of the transistor chapter and the move on.

It's all calculable, but quicks starts needing a lot of math once you include orbit changes and air resistance.

An easy start is to determine your desired orbit's dV requirements, then plug your engine's Isp into the rocket equation to determine its propellant-mass fraction. Then you can use the weight of the engine plus fuel tanks and payload to estimate the fuel required to reach orbit in an ideal rocket.

There are quite a few online calculators like this one, that give you a sense of what order to calculate things and the terms to look for in equations.

If you're really interested in deeply understanding the maths behind launches and orbital mechanics, I can recommend this book which is a commonly used aerospace engineering text: Fundamentals of Astrodynamics.

I had purchased this book to brush up on the general stuff since EE/CompE wasn't as versed in the general mechanics stuff. I liked it and passed. The Computer stuff seemed trivial in 2011.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591263336/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can see if I still have it but I remember selling a bunch of stuff to half priced books a few years ago.

edit: Found it!
Seems like most of it is pseudo code and excel manipulation.
Part of it may just be picking up a language and sitting down and getting comfortable with it. I know from my friends who ended up not specializing in CompE they hated programming because they took fortran or something ancient so C/C++ is a little friendlier since it can be read more easily.

edit 2: I bought this book for $48 back in 2011 why is it worth $200 today?

I would recommend Introduction to "Elementary Particle Physics" by David Griffiths

Its generally considered a higher-level undergrad book, but as a PhD student I still look at it from time to time, especially if I want to teach a specific subject. He will review the SR and Quantum for you, but at a level that you'd want to have seen it before. There's calc and a little bit of linear algebra, but at such a level that you could learn them for the first time through this text (assuming you've had SOME Calc before)

From there, the next level is sort of "Quarks and Leptons" by Halzen and Martin, which people are generally less excited about, but I enjoyed it.

After that, the top standard that even theorists seem to love is "High Energy Hadron Physics" by Martin Perl, where there are parts of that text that I still struggle with.

https://learn.sparkfun.com

https://learn.adafruit.com

This is not Arduino specific though there is a chapter on it but it's a very good how to reference book: Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259587541/

It's sort of like getting a $20 textbook except with less theory and more about how to do various things, what parts to use, etc.

There's also a free textbook here that is pretty good:

• http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/direct-current/
  
• http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/digital/

assuming you have all the fundamental physic, you can start with the textbook from allaboutcircuits's textbook. A introduction to electronic book. It is about 2000 pages covering all basics of electronics. I think it is a great read and easy to understand, written for beginners.


After that you should read Make:AVR programming. It is quite enjoyable read and I read it in 2 sitting. A computer engineering book specifically targeting microcontroller. And as the name imply, it is about 8 bit AVR which is easily the most popular arduino variant. It covers a lot of detail on microcontroller basics and underlying electronic concept and working principles.

To supplement the above book, read a atmel datasheet on one of their microcontroller (atmega328 is a good choice).


For optional knowledge you can try Make's Encyclopedia Of Electronic Components It basically covers all electronic components and introduce you to it. I didn't like too much because you cant read it as a book but should use it as a reference to a particular component you are interested it. It is a great way to broaden your scope on what components is available to you.


Then for the advanced stuff you can read the The Art of Electronics By many it is consider the holy grail of electronic textbook. But I think it is difficult to read without an formal EE education.

This looks like a good book

http://www.amazon.com/MAKE-Electronics-Learning-Through-Discovery/dp/0596153740/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769926&sr=8-3

This IS a good book but deals with advanced theories.


http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769926&sr=8-16


And this looks pretty good.

http://www.amazon.com/Circuitbuilding-Yourself-Dummies-Ward-Silver/dp/0470173424/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769941&sr=8-21


Go to the book store, pick up some books. Go the the library and see what they have. Pick up old radios and junk off of the street take them home and pull them apart but be careful of the capacitors, if you dont know what a capacitor is then read one of the above books.

Look on craigslist for free electronics and start taking them apart. Be careful of anything that uses Alternating current, anything that plugs into a wall deals with large voltages so be sure to start small.

I'm coming up on my fourth year of doing this so here's what I picked up on:

1. Check your Permalink settings for better SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In WordPress it's Settings -> Permalink. Doing custom and /%category%/%postname%/ will get you better SEO
   
2. Fill out your about page
   
3. All your social media links work, good. Facebook is a megaphone talking to people who probably won't see it unless you pay for it. Twitter is a conversation tweet regularly and reply to tweets!
   
4. I can't see much of that picture, looks like an empty glass and a bottle. Try and include a full glass of beer so we can see the beer.
   
5. I'm not going to get into grammar though there are a couple issues I saw. Check out the Grammarly Chrome Plugin. I thought I had a good grasp on things but that changed my view. I now pay for the advanced features too.
   
6. As general writing rules check out The Elements of Style
   
7. Beer reviews are a good start, but people already go to BeerAdvocate, RateBeer, or Untappd for that so you may not pull in a lot of traffic that way. Also, I bet you'll get worn out on it in a few months. Diversify your content with opinion, interviews, history, education, new releases, whatever you enjoy reading/learning/writing about.
   
8. I'm totally jealous you can get Short's :) I have a friend whose family vacation in Michigan and he always brings a bunch of Short's back.

Personally, I think the best place for a lay-person to start getting a technical grasp of electronics is from the "Navy Electricity and
Electronics Training Series" (NEETS) modules. The modules don't always describe the electrical behavior in a rigorous physics/engineering based way, but instead, they provide more practical explanations and applications. The best part is that they are freely available here.

As a next step, the standard go-to book is The Art of Electronics, which while it is a little pricey, covers a greater breadth of topics at a greater depth.

edit: typo.

I'm a fan of my old copy of Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, by Bate, Mueller, and White. It was, by far, the cheapest textbook I purchased for my Aerospace degree (~$7; Amazon has it for <$3 used) but it is one of the primary texts in the field--most other texts wind up referencing this 1970s book. I seldom reference it anymore, though. FoA primarily focuses on how to calculate the motion of a spacecraft. It covers the Patched conics approach, various basic maneuvers, and interplanetary trajectories. It also covers how to figure out the orbit of an object based on ground measurements as well as perturbations--how things like uneven gravity, solar wind, and magnetism can affect an orbiting craft.

I also have read some of the AIAA edition of Space Vehicle Design, but it is considerably more expensive. It goes over more advanced concerns for the design and operation of practical, real-world space craft. If you have the coin and are interested in such things then you could pick it up. I've found the AIAA editions of Aerospace books to be well written in general. That book is only really worth it, though, if you have enough money that you won't miss the $70+ to buy or if you need it for your degree.

I've also had some luck with MIT Open Courseware, but I don't see much on aerospace that would be terribly relevant to KSP.

I am a current EE student right now and saw you ask in another comment about book recommendations so I thought I would throw a few in:

• a frequently recommended electronics book is :Art of Electronics
  
• A frequently used (us included) electronics book is Microelectronic Circuits
  
  
• For introductory circuits we use (and i enjoy) : Fundamentals of electric circuits
  
  
• I am hoping to get through : Signal Processing and Linear Systems
  
  
• instead of the above the smartest professor I know recommends anything by : Oppenheim
  
  
• a couple good books for brushing up/learning engineering mathematics: Engineering Mathmatics and Advanced Engineering Mathmatics
  
  
  You should probably throw in some electromagnetic and semiconductor physics for good measure as well.

You're not going to find one 'decently priced'. Just give up on that ideal right here and now.

VW Nerds like myself, and those who are packed to the rafters at VW Vortex, The Samba, TDI Club, etc, etc. are always on the hunt for aircooleds. You can pretty much rest assured that anything that approaches 'steal' territory will be snatched up within a few days, if not hours.

You're almost guaranteed to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a project, just due to the demand and the market price.

So if you're serious about buying one - set aside an appropriate amount that you're ready to spend at the drop of a hat, and search ads as often as possible. When something pops up, you'll be ready to go.

In my area a $300 Squareback was posted, and it was sold within 2 hours - just as an example.

That said - figure out which generation you want.

Do you want aircooled, or watercooled?

Do you want a T1? T2? T3? Westfalia? What about a Doka?




Aircooled engines are the easiest things you could ever rip apart. This book is the holy grail for aircooled VW's. Anything you could ever want or need to know lies within those pages - or on the Samba.

Watercooled VW engines are all covered by Bentley manuals - just seek one out, and you're golden.

Also, if you're interested, join us over on /r/Fahrvergnugen !

Stick and Rudder is an old classic that really explains well the basics of why airplanes fly and how to fly them. I also enjoyed Bob Buck's North Star over my Shoulder and Wind Sand Stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery for some good armchair flying.

As others have mentioned, the FAA publications are indispensable. They are available for free from the FAA website, and cheap hardcopies are available on Amazon. Get yourself copies of the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and the Airplane Flying Handbook. I think it's really worthwhile to get the hardcopy.

There are many useful websites related to general aviation. You can listen to air traffic control radio at liveatc.net, look up airport information at airnav.com, watch IFR flight paths on flightaware.com, and browse aeronautical charts in a google-maps-like interface at skyvector.com.

Read Proficient Motorcycling. It's a great book, and will give you exercises to practice and advice for how to ride safely and more confidently. Good luck.

http://www.amazon.com/Proficient-Motorcycling-Ultimate-Guide-Riding/dp/1889540536

The Mis-Education of Mathematics Teachers made a huge impression on me, in particular its emphasis on content knowledge and the fundamental principles of mathematics. More recently, the following comment by Ian Stewart has persuaded me to put more emphasis on the visual aspects of the subjects I teach:

> One of the saddest developments in school mathematics has been the downgrading of the visual for the formal. I'm not lamenting the loss of traditional Euclidean geometry, despite its virtues, because it too emphasised stilted formalities. But to replace our rich visual tradition by silly games with 2x2 matrices has always seemed to me to be the height of folly. It is therefore a special pleasure to see Tristan Needham's Visual Complex Analysis with its elegantly illustrated visual approach. Yes, he has 2x2 matrices―but his are interesting. (Ian Stewart, New Scientist, 11 October 1997) (source)

I took and passed the FE exam this past April. Honestly the best way to prepare for the exam is to a.) be familiar with the reference handbook and b.) review most (not necessarily all) the subjects on the exam by doing practice questions from the FE Review Manual (it's the one everyone uses.)

I studied for a solid 3 weeks reading the review manual and had the reference manual by my side. It helps to know how the reference handbook is organized so that when you take the actual exam you don't have to keep flipping to the index.

Oh and get a TI36X PRO. It can solve derivatives, integrals, matrices, and a crapload of other things.

TL:DR Study the FE Review Manual by Lindeburg, know the reference handbook like the back of your hand, learn how to use your calculator.

Practice and doing it is the only way. Just like you said it needs to become muscle memory and the only way to make that happen is to do it over and over and over. Like u/Some_Old_Man_Fishin said, find an empty parking lot and practice there. Do the drills you learned in your BRC again and again. Once you are comfortable enough just doing the basics, try adding some 'emergency' stops and lane changes and what not.

Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well is a great resource and has tons of great information.

Also 150cc is a pretty small engine, with your weight + the weight of your gear, I wouldn't recommend any highway riding.

I don't know of any decent online particle physics resources. But there are two good books at the undergraduate level I can think of Griffiths and Halzen and Martin

For superconductivity you want to learn many body quantum mechanics, ie non-relativistic quantum field theory. The most common recommendation is Fetter and Walecka, but I might consider Thouless to be superior on account of it being 1/3rd the length and probably only covers core topics. If you feel like dropping a lot of money, Mahan is very good, but also somewhat exhaustive. Might be worth having as a reference depending on how serious you get. I would get F&W and Thouless simply on account of how cheap they are.

On Writing Well by William Zissner and Elements of Style by Strunk and White will help you write with clarity and succinctness. King's On Writing and Lamott's Bird by Bird will give you good general advice (and the reading list at the end of King's is great), but yeah, they don't get into the nitty gritty details too often (which is why some people like them and why some people don't).

Thrill Me by Benjamin Percy is a great collection of essays on fiction. It's somewhere between On Writing's and Bird by Bird's generalness and the specificity of On Writing Well and Elements of Style. You might even disagree with some of Percy's essays but he tackles topics that are important to think about regardless.

And I can't recommend Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Barroway and Elizabeth and Ned Stuckey-French enough. It's a little pricey—look for it at your local library before you buy—but it's basically a undergraduate class on writing, complete with readings and exercises.

Read the FAQ, and this. If you are still interested take a class. Assuming you have a license getting a permit is as simple as taking a test, and depending on the state the MSF might work to get you a M1 straight away.

Pro: Fun as hell. Getting to your destination will likely end up being the best part of you day.

Cons: Weather, shitload of gear to carry around, and if you have a car it's an added expense.

If you treat it as a commuter only and get a small bike there could be cost savings. If you love riding and spend a lot of time on the bike then you found yourself an expensive hobby(gas/tires/oil/maintenance).

It's a hefty initial investment. Even with a cheap bike($1500-2000 range) you have to add in gear, insurance, and taxes/title transfer. You are realistically looking at a $3000 minimum entry fee, and most would recommend not going into debt over something that is essentially a toy(if you don't have a car).

Sounds though you still have the mindset that you are responsible for your driving and they are responsible for theirs...On a bike this is shit. You are responsible for your self and any other traffic. You have to assume they WILL cut you off they WILL not see you etc.
It's a part of a defensive strategy. I would suggest a good book on motorcycle safety:
https://www.amazon.com/Proficient-Motorcycling-Ultimate-Guide-Riding/dp/1889540536

Again, I am not saying I don't run into issues or that I am the perfect rider or that I never have road rage. None of that. But I do now realize that If I don't account for bad drivers ACTIVELY I will eat dirt one day. KNOW that cars are out to get you and just maybe you can prevent it. Just my take on it.

Okay.

Checking for spark: Disconnect one of our spark plug wire boots and hold it against the engine block while you have a friend turn the engine over. If you see a spark, you know the ignition system is correctly getting spark to your engine.

Checking for fuel: Take the fuel hose that runs from the fuel pump to the carburetor off and put it in a clear container. Again, have a friend turn the motor over and see if gas squirts out of it.

Check to make sure you didn't accidentally disconnect any wires or anything else while you were changing the oil.

If you own an air-cooled and intend on working on it yourself, you would be well advised to buy this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Volkswagen-Alive-Step-Step/dp/1566913101/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503889652&sr=8-1&keywords=idiots+guide+volkswagens

That book is the Bible for air-cooled backyard mechanics.

Now that the 3rd edition has been published, used copies of the 2nd edition of The Art of Electronics is super cheap. I think this is the best intro circuits book for self study. Alternatively, I've really enjoyed Practical Electronics for Inventors too, and it covers more modern stuff (like it has a chapter on arduino). Both of these start with the basics, though Practical Electronics written for a more general audience so it is easier on the math.

For electromagnetics, I've heard Electricity and Magnetism is pretty good. It does cover some circuits stuff, but so much of circuits is about electronic components that you really need a dedicated circuits book to understand them.

I read a bunch of different answers. I only use the brakes for slowing or stopping. When I've accomplished that, I let them go or let up. I try to be as efficient with my controls as possible, only using what I need, when I need it. That gives my brain more time to process the "big picture". I used to think of the bike as an extension of myself. Now, after experience and practice, it is :)

There is a lot that needs to be paid attention to when riding, so taxing your brain in a pseudo "ready mode" or other taxing thought processes isn't as good as fully paying attention to the present. Definitely practice any riding skills until they become natural. My goal is to have total awareness of my surroundings as much of the time as possible, but instantly focusing 100% on any potential emergencies while spending as little time in that state as possible, then going immediately back to total awareness. For example: I'm sitting at a stop light, swivel my helmet and see some one coming up fast. I then take action. Could be tap the brake, turn on my turn signal, or grab the bars and make my best effort to move to safety if needed depending on the situation. Then reset and scan.

With more practice, one can grab the clutch, twist the throttle, shift to 1st, and start releasing the clutch in well under 1 second or seemingly simultaneously. I've been riding for 21 years and it's 2nd nature, (I don't think about it) which allows for they key to being on the road in any vehicle = pay attention.

--

This is an absolute must for ANY rider weather you're racing, riding , or driving:
http://amzn.com/0965045021
http://www.amazon.com/Twist-Wrist-II-Keith-Code/dp/0965045072

The list provided by david is good, and I'm just going to point out two that are really good for understanding rockets and spaceflight:

One is Rocket Propulsion Elements, which I hear is great if you actually want to build your own engine. The other is Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, which helps to explain orbital mechanics, controls, and some other important facets of spaceflight like how we track a satellite from the ground.

If I could give you one piece of advice and no other it would be this....

Make absolutely CERTAIN all your engine tin is in place and that your engine seal is in fantastic condition. You really want to keep all of that heat out of your engine compartment. Here's a pic of a beetle seal http://beingwolfy.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dscf3758.jpg. but that's the idea

I chased so many other things to attain good cooling on my last motor, got everything fixed with my new hot rod engine though. The air cooled design only works well when every piece of the system is there. Probably any parts shop could show you anything that is missing and they'd be happy to sell it to you.

Also get the Idiot Guide, it helped me survive driving a $0 beetle to college and making it run right.
http://www.amazon.com/Keep-Volkswagen-Alive-Step---Step/dp/1566913101/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371515944&sr=1-1

Oh I have so much else to say...

Have fun, keep an open mind and get ready to read and get greasy!

I'm a sap for personalized gifts.

What about a nice, high quality monogrammed passport holder or wallet?

Also, I just ordered this handy book for some men in my life. I figure it's a good stocking stuffer and I sense they'll use it quite frequently!


Most of my Christmas List WL is for other people...the makeup and foot spa are for me though :)

Good luck!

You’ve got most of the basics. You’re starting out a lot more informed than most.

Not sure what country you’re in but if you have local training classes available, take them. Always keep learning.

Always remember that being in a hurry almost never gets you there that much faster. A couple minutes (if that) is not worth the risk of hurrying and not paying attention.

Even if you have the right of way, that will not console you from the hospital bed. Sure, you may have been in the right and they should have stopped. And yes they will hopefully cover your medical bills and totaled bike. But wouldn’t you rather just avoid all of that in the first place? We cannot afford to hold our own while riding. Make yourself visible and always use your lane space to your advantage, but give way if needed.

These two books have an amazing amount of practical knowledge for street riding:

[Street Strategies](Street Rider’s Guide: Street Strategies for Motorcyclists (Motorcycle Consumer News) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1620081326/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ijwaCb4M23P86)

[Proficient Motorcycling](Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well https://www.amazon.com/dp/1620081199/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_DlwaCbBZ1YK5Q)

Congrats. As an unemployed redditor searching desperately, it's good to know that even somebody with such little attention to grammar can get a job.

If you used capital letters as superfluously as you have above, and then went on to misuse apostrophes to indicate plural nouns in the same words, then there must be hope for a pseudo-grammar nazi such as myself.

In closing, good luck, godspeed, and if you happen to get the jobs for which you're interviewing and they involve writing anything ever, check out this book.

...And if you don't get the job, care to pass on the employer's info?

Hey brother, there's a little book (seriously pocket-sized!) many would call the quick reference bible for English grammar:

Strunk and White's The Elements of Style - under $5 for a new physical copy! I use it every single time I'm editing... basically, whenever I have a shadow of a doubt about any rule.

One quick read through can help immensely with formatting and editing, and I think you could very well find it informative and beneficial :)

Keep writing, my man! Always happy to see people getting involved in creative pursuits.

While the above is nice, if you are at all interested in rockets, get Rocket Propulsion Elements. Read it and love it, it is pretty much the bible of rocket engines and serves as a good foundation

I'm 2 years into a part time physics degree, I'm in my 40s, dropped out of schooling earlier in life.

As I'm doing this for fun whilst I also have a full time job, I thought I would list what I'm did to supplement my study preparation.

I started working through these videos - Essence of Calculus as a start over the summer study whilst I had some down time. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDMsr9K-rj53DwVRMYO3t5Yr

Ive bought the following books in preparation for my journey and to start working through some of these during the summer prior to start

Elements of Style - A nice small cheap reference to improve my writing skills
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/020530902X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Humongous Book of Trigonometry Problems https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1615641823/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Calculus: An Intuitive and Physical Approach
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0486404536/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Trigonometry Essentials Practice Workbook
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1477497781/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Systems of Equations: Substitution, Simultaneous, Cramer's Rule
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1941691048/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Feynman's Tips on Physics
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0465027970/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Exercises for the Feynman Lectures on Physics
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0465060714/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Calculus for the Practical Man
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1406756725/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Feynman Lectures on Physics (all volumes)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0465024939/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I found PatrickJMT helpful, more so than Khan academy, not saying is better, just that you have to find the person and resource that best suits the way your brain works.

Now I'm deep in calculus and quantum mechanics, I would say the important things are:

Algebra - practice practice practice, get good, make it smooth.

Trig - again, practice practice practice.

Try not to learn by rote, try understand the why, play with things, draw triangles and get to know the unit circle well.

Good luck, it's going to cause frustrating moments, times of doubt, long nights and early mornings, confusion, sweat and tears, but power through, keep on trucking, and you will start to see that calculus and trig are some of the most beautiful things in the world.

Luckily it's never been easier to start learning electronics. I know you want hands-on experience but you gotta learn some theory first - I'd recommend a book like Practical Electronics for Inventors to learn the basics (some people swear by The Art of Electronics but it is not a beginners book, rather more of a intermediate-advanced reference). Then something like the Arduino Starter Pack that will start you on the path to building circuits!

Along the way, watching electronics tutorials and teardowns on youtube, and taking apart stuff to see how it works would also really help.

I had the same approach as you when I first started learning electronics; I'd recommend Practical Electronics for Inventors. While it does explain just about every topic in great detail, it does so at a pace that's neither too slow nor too fast; you can easily skip the more technical chapters, and stick to the easy bits too.
However, if you want to do more than create simple signal clipping distortion pedals, I would suggest that you read the technical stuff as well, to learn what actually goes on in a circuit, and to understand how you might modulate your guitar's sound.

I think it is dependent on the field. For several areas in experimental astronomy you deal with extremely large datasets. Advanced statistical methods and 'machine learning' can be very valuable tools. Whereas for someone studying solid state experiment this would be a waste of time. Better time would be spent on learning the physical hardware and electronics and noise (I think, never done solid state myself). Although you would be surprised, I knew someone who was using neural networks for a project involving solid state and transitions.

As a whole, compared with theorists, you may want to develop a better understanding of statistics, computing/programming, electronics, hardware, and several fields I'm not thinking of. However which of those are most applicable depends on the work you are doing. Although a solid foundation in statistics is most likely useful for all scientists.

To add a text, The Art of Electronics is practically an experimental bible for many people.

Okay, the ELI11 made it sound like the simplest approach would be best. The rocket equation link still applies.

As for canned aspects of orbital mechanics, Kepler's 3rd law and the Vis-Viva equation still apply.

More generally, I like braeunig for a website and Fundamentals of Astrodynamics for a textbook. It's probably best to look into exponential functions and Algebra (with an eye towards Calculus) as soon as possible, though.

Parts are best ordered on line unless you live some place where there's a lot of VWs and some specialty retailers/parts houses.

Internet:

http://www.wolfsburgwest.com/
http://www2.cip1.com/
http://www.socalautoparts.com/
http://www.jbugs.com/
http://www.mamotorworkstv.com/vwgclid=CNzrraP14LMCFQSg4AoduisA_w

The Samba is a great community and source for info, etc.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/

A couple of books that you should have.

http://www.amazon.com/Volkswagen-Beetle-Karmann-Official-Service/dp/0837616468/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371863777&sr=8-1&keywords=1968+vw+beetle+bentley+manual

http://www.amazon.com/Keep-Volkswagen-Alive-Step---Step/dp/1566913101/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1371863840&sr=8-15&keywords=1968+vw+manual


Hope this helps. CiP has good quality parts and if you wait for a sale, they're not to expensive.

There's a book I recommend...

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White It's a very useful reference and probably a good place to start.

Cheers and good luck!

I'm sure we'd all be willing to help, but you need to ask better questions. I work in the telecommunications industry for a company that develops carrier networking products, and yet I've little idea what you're really wanting. So for now, I'll answer the question that you have asked, though I doubt you'll like the answer.

>So what I would like is some books that explain what parameters affect the energy consumption at the telecommunications infrastructure.

The parameters that effect energy consumption are resistance, capacitance, and inductance. As far as books on the subject? I don't know. Maybe The Art of Electronics?

I noticed you mentioned having Grammar and style errors, if you want some help with grammar and style let me link you two extremely helpful books that are very low bullshit for their price:

The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition: https://www.amazon.com/dp/020530902X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-YyyCbQ6NC2R1

This is the best book for grammar help in my opinion, it's especially helpful if you still have to write essays.

On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439156816/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_L0yyCb9D4H4SE

The first half of this book is a memoir, but the second half is absolutely packed with good advice for novels, regardless the genre.

The first book will help you catch those Grammar errors before you go back with another story, and the second will help you with Style. IE your "The elf walked with grace to the door." Sentence and how to avoid Adverbs.

Congratulations are in order, to you as well as lysa_m, shizzy0 and all the other helpful redditors here. It must feel really great to get over this hurdle!

I just wanted to add a link to the book of Tristram Needham, Visual Complex Analysis. As lysa_m pointed out, you are not the first person in history to find "imaginary" numbers baffling. You can read the first 5 or 6 pages of Needham's book online at the Amazon page above. There he outlines the history of the subject and explains some of the same points made in the comments here.

Think of it like a mountain lake and a river. Volts are like the lake. It is a bunch of stored water that potentially could do work. Once the dam is released the water can flow, like a river. Current, or amps, is like the river.


A battery has a certain voltage that you can measure. Once you put it into a circuit, or attach a load, that will pull a certain amount of current which you can measure.

Resistance is all the rocks and stuff that limit the flow of current, or the speed of the water flowing in the river.


Watch youtube videos, and read The art of electronics


Another good thing to remember is volts are pushed and amps are pulled.