Buy versus Build

[Jim Brain]

Tony Duell wrote:
> Of course things are different when we're talking about a hobby (and to 
> be honset, for most people on this list, classic computers are a 
> hobby). You do things them because you enjoy them, not because it makes 
> financial sense. It doesn't amke financial sense to spend several months 
> writing the repair manual and then restoring a desktop calcaultor when 
> you canbuy a much more powerful pocket calculator for less than the 
> repair parts for the old machine cost. But none-the-less I did just that 
> a couple of years ago, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It's a hobby, so 
> why not :-)
>   
I concur.  My original point was not to apply work-related decisioning 
to a hobby, merely to note that those you mentor may not notice you have 
two sets of rules. (hobby rules, and work rules)  At least for me, they 
are significantly different (I use a $2.00 AVR programmer I made because 
I'm evidently too cheap to buy a good one, but I'd fire myself if I did 
that at work.  The cheap programmer sucks CPU and fails every so often, 
which is fine for hobby use, but useless for work.  Since I'm aware of 
the difference, I try to point it out to folks whom I mentor.  Although 
one might assume the person I mentor would know the difference, I've 
learned such assumptions are often invalid.

Jim

For good or bad, my hobby is turning into a side business, which 
complicates things further.  And, it means I really need to buy or build 
a good AVR programmer :-)