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His videos are an excellent educational resource that everyone can access easily. He's following that style (e.g. Applied Science) that is valuable for others w

by xor99 5y ago

His videos are an excellent educational resource that everyone can access easily. He's following that style (e.g. Applied Science) that is valuable for others wanting to learning how to build technologies without all of the fake complexity and grandstanding/secrecy that can sometimes accompany it. Nothing wrong with that!

xor99 5y ago
"One of Zeloof’s best finds was a broken electron microscope that cost $250,000 in the early ’90s; he bought it for $1,000 and repaired it."
- Avamander 5y ago
  A thousand dollars is an achievable amount of money for a smart kid in a poor family. I have had good friends from really poor families in Europe make more from bug bounty programs. If that's you're trying imply.
  - qayxc 5y ago
    > If that's you're trying imply. That's just one piece of equipment, though. Plus it's one of the cheaper parts and let's not mention the fact that this "spare garage" is bigger than many apartments in other parts of the world... So it's not insignificant at all. If you live in a rented apartment (e.g. about 60% of all Swiss people), not even money will make up for the fact that you simply cannot do something like that because there's just no space. It's many things that have to come together to make this possible - "will" or "talent" alone just doesn't cut it.
    - xor99 5y ago
      Yeah, no denying other factors but repairing that electron microscope is no walk in the park and it prob enables others to do it even cheaper given the walkthrough style tutorial. I'm just replying to a pretty flippant characterisation (see top comment) and not ignorant about other issues relating to circumstances and location like you mention.
  - goodpoint 5y ago
    > A thousand dollars is an achievable amount of money for a smart kid in a poor family This is a by-the-book example of privilege. And even if a poor "kid" has the combination of ability and luck to obtain $1K most poor people would spend such money on basic needs like food, clothing and house repairs than a hobby. And that would be the most reasonable choice.
    - Avamander 5y ago
      > This is a by-the-book example of privilege. Yes the privilege of living in a 430 sq ft apartment with your sibling and parent, with the family making approximately $12k a year in total. LOL
  - astura 5y ago
    No, It's not. I was a poor kid and didn't get financial support from my parents in young adulthood/college. I couldn't even fathom spending $1,000 on non-essential expenses during college. I was living entirely on student loans and minimum wage summer jobs - When that's your life you can't think about anything but pure survival. It's an entirely different mindset that I have now as a financially secure person. If I got a $1,000 windfall during college it would go straight to bills/food. It would be entirely unfathomable to spend it on anything else. $1,000 is more than my monthly income during my college years.
    - toomanydoubts 5y ago
      $1300 is my monthly income as software engineer with 9 years of experience(in a third world country).
      - sdze 5y ago
        toomanydoubts 5y ago
        I would be happy enough if I could find an affordable raspberry pi laying around.
        dang 5y ago
        You posted 8 or 9 of these comments. That's abusive. Would you please stop? If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful. Note this one: "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." Perhaps you don't feel you owe "rich kids" better, but you owe this community better if you're participating in it.
    - bradlys 5y ago
      Sorry. Posters here don’t understand. Why didn’t you have FAANG internships? Why didn’t you have an incredible scholarship that overpaid you and allowed you to spend $2000+/month on non-essential expenses cause everything else was covered. Not relatable! Not relatable! Does not compute! People here are incredibly out of touch. $1000 for a poor college kid is a huge amount of fucking money. I had a full ride, monthly stipend, and jobs. Yet $1000 would’ve crushed me in many of my years in college and definitely wouldn’t have been something I would just splurge on for one month. It’s also only $1000 to purchase, doesn’t include transport, doesn’t include repairs, and doesn’t include all the additional work to get it running. Peak HN out of touchness running in this thread.
  - DarylZero 5y ago
    What if you couldn't fix it? It wouldn't be smart to risk $1000 on a broken piece of equipment unless you had a lot more money to spare.
    - Avamander 5y ago
      True. Though I suspect the lack of garage would be more likely. I more meant the sum of money in general, I said it based on a very real experience.
- was_a_dev 5y ago
  Such find is niche, it doesn't happen outside of the US. I imagine it only happens in pockets of the US (say near a prominent university)
  - sdze 5y ago
- sdze 5y ago

by xor99 5y ago

xor99 5y ago

"One of Zeloof’s best finds was a broken electron microscope that cost $250,000 in the early ’90s; he bought it for $1,000 and repaired it."

Avamander 5y ago
A thousand dollars is an achievable amount of money for a smart kid in a poor family. I have had good friends from really poor families in Europe make more from bug bounty programs. If that's you're trying imply.
- qayxc 5y ago
  > If that's you're trying imply. That's just one piece of equipment, though. Plus it's one of the cheaper parts and let's not mention the fact that this "spare garage" is bigger than many apartments in other parts of the world... So it's not insignificant at all. If you live in a rented apartment (e.g. about 60% of all Swiss people), not even money will make up for the fact that you simply cannot do something like that because there's just no space. It's many things that have to come together to make this possible - "will" or "talent" alone just doesn't cut it.
  - xor99 5y ago
    Yeah, no denying other factors but repairing that electron microscope is no walk in the park and it prob enables others to do it even cheaper given the walkthrough style tutorial. I'm just replying to a pretty flippant characterisation (see top comment) and not ignorant about other issues relating to circumstances and location like you mention.
- goodpoint 5y ago
  > A thousand dollars is an achievable amount of money for a smart kid in a poor family This is a by-the-book example of privilege. And even if a poor "kid" has the combination of ability and luck to obtain $1K most poor people would spend such money on basic needs like food, clothing and house repairs than a hobby. And that would be the most reasonable choice.
  - Avamander 5y ago
    > This is a by-the-book example of privilege. Yes the privilege of living in a 430 sq ft apartment with your sibling and parent, with the family making approximately $12k a year in total. LOL
- astura 5y ago
  No, It's not. I was a poor kid and didn't get financial support from my parents in young adulthood/college. I couldn't even fathom spending $1,000 on non-essential expenses during college. I was living entirely on student loans and minimum wage summer jobs - When that's your life you can't think about anything but pure survival. It's an entirely different mindset that I have now as a financially secure person. If I got a $1,000 windfall during college it would go straight to bills/food. It would be entirely unfathomable to spend it on anything else. $1,000 is more than my monthly income during my college years.
  - toomanydoubts 5y ago
    $1300 is my monthly income as software engineer with 9 years of experience(in a third world country).
    - sdze 5y ago
      - toomanydoubts 5y ago
        I would be happy enough if I could find an affordable raspberry pi laying around.
      - dang 5y ago
        You posted 8 or 9 of these comments. That's abusive. Would you please stop? If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful. Note this one: "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." Perhaps you don't feel you owe "rich kids" better, but you owe this community better if you're participating in it.
  - bradlys 5y ago
    Sorry. Posters here don’t understand. Why didn’t you have FAANG internships? Why didn’t you have an incredible scholarship that overpaid you and allowed you to spend $2000+/month on non-essential expenses cause everything else was covered. Not relatable! Not relatable! Does not compute! People here are incredibly out of touch. $1000 for a poor college kid is a huge amount of fucking money. I had a full ride, monthly stipend, and jobs. Yet $1000 would’ve crushed me in many of my years in college and definitely wouldn’t have been something I would just splurge on for one month. It’s also only $1000 to purchase, doesn’t include transport, doesn’t include repairs, and doesn’t include all the additional work to get it running. Peak HN out of touchness running in this thread.
- DarylZero 5y ago
  What if you couldn't fix it? It wouldn't be smart to risk $1000 on a broken piece of equipment unless you had a lot more money to spare.
  - Avamander 5y ago
    True. Though I suspect the lack of garage would be more likely. I more meant the sum of money in general, I said it based on a very real experience.
was_a_dev 5y ago
Such find is niche, it doesn't happen outside of the US. I imagine it only happens in pockets of the US (say near a prominent university)
- sdze 5y ago
sdze 5y ago