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[3023.22 --> 3029.22] So I worked there and I cleaned the toilets and I cleaned the, you know, all the floors and the consoles
[3029.22 --> 3030.22] and everything for three months.
[3030.22 --> 3034.22] And then I, after working there for free, after three months I got to work in the tech room with the other people
[3034.22 --> 3038.22] working on SSL consoles and Eve consoles, do-do tape machines.
[3038.22 --> 3040.22] And that was that.
[3040.22 --> 3041.22] Cool. Sweet.
[3041.22 --> 3042.22] It was fun.
[3042.22 --> 3046.22] I think with that we are, oh no we have about ten minutes left.
[3046.22 --> 3049.22] Let's see if there's any actual topics to talk about.
[3049.22 --> 3051.22] No topics.
[3051.22 --> 3052.22] No.
[3052.22 --> 3057.22] Turns out recycling garbage in like the poor part of the thing, that's also a really good way to get technology.
[3057.22 --> 3059.22] That's how I got most of my first computers.
[3059.22 --> 3062.22] It's like let's Frankenstein stuff together.
[3062.22 --> 3066.22] I think, I feel like most people that are into computers have a similar story to that.
[3066.22 --> 3070.22] Like my favourite one is, I went to like a country high school.
[3070.22 --> 3073.22] We didn't have very much money, especially not in the tech departments.
[3073.22 --> 3078.22] And the way that we built a new computer lab, because we needed one really badly.
[3078.22 --> 3081.22] Because there's a lot of kids in the school that were interested in computers.
[3081.22 --> 3084.22] It was just designed as a country school, so it was the most trades and stuff.
[3084.22 --> 3090.22] The way we built a new computer lab was my teacher waited for the truck that went to all the different schools
[3090.22 --> 3094.22] and picked up all their broken computers, because they did it once every few years.
[3094.22 --> 3098.22] And called him, the guy directly, I don't know how he got his number, and diverted him to our school.
[3098.22 --> 3102.22] Which originally he wasn't planning to go to, because we had no computers to give up.
[3102.22 --> 3106.22] And he was like, yeah, yeah, we got some stuff. Just leave the truck for a little while.
[3106.22 --> 3110.22] And he left the truck and we offloaded everything that was on there, which was not supposed to happen.
[3110.22 --> 3113.22] I'm not going to say your name, but thank you very much, teacher.
[3113.22 --> 3116.22] Because I think the hard drives and stuff that were on there.
[3116.22 --> 3120.22] But we took everything, we shoved it all in one room, and then my teacher was just like,
[3120.22 --> 3122.22] OK, bye, thank you, leave now.
[3122.22 --> 3127.22] And we spent the next few months, that whole computer class, just like, we would lay out like,
[3127.22 --> 3129.22] oh my goodness, OK, this motherboard actually works.
[3129.22 --> 3133.22] Let's find all the CPUs and all the RAM and everything that can go into this board and test all of it,
[3133.22 --> 3137.22] and mark everything as good or bad, and like, find all the, use those,
[3137.22 --> 3140.22] find all the motherboards that work, and like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[3140.22 --> 3142.22] And we ended up building like, one and a half computer labs out of it.
[3142.22 --> 3144.22] That was a really, really cool project.
[3144.22 --> 3146.22] That was a lot of fun.
[3146.22 --> 3150.22] We had, I was accused, by the time I made it to high school, I was accused of black magic,
[3150.22 --> 3154.22] because the local repair place would always replace the motherboard whenever a PS2,
[3154.22 --> 3157.22] whenever a kid would something, the PS2 ports were really bad,
[3157.22 --> 3160.22] because like if you pulled the keyboard the wrong way, it would blow the fuse on the motherboard.
[3160.22 --> 3162.22] And so, it was not surface mount, it was through hole.
[3162.22 --> 3166.22] It was really easy to replace, and I would be like, well, let's just crack it open, take the motherboard out,
[3166.22 --> 3170.22] and replace the through hole fuse, and the local computer repair company was like,
[3170.22 --> 3174.22] Black Magic, Witchcraft, burn him, burn him at the stake, he's breathing.
[3174.22 --> 3179.22] We gotta replace the motherboard, we can't just repair them, that's like three cents, we can't do it.
[3179.22 --> 3185.22] So yeah, that was not fun in a poor high school where they can't afford a thousand bucks a machine to replace stuff.
[3185.22 --> 3188.22] And you, I'm just, I don't know why I'm jumping back to this now,
[3188.22 --> 3193.22] I kind of skimmed over it when you were first telling the story, but you built an amplifier, you said?
[3193.22 --> 3196.22] Yeah, it was a C-Moy, I mean they have all these guides in line on how to build them,
[3196.22 --> 3200.22] it's a headphone amplifier that you build into an Altoids can, that's powered off a 9 volt battery.
[3200.22 --> 3201.22] So what got you into that though?
[3201.22 --> 3203.22] I just enjoyed Hi-Fi audio.
[3203.22 --> 3206.22] Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, so you wanted to like kind of build some of the...
[3206.22 --> 3208.22] Yeah, I just thought it was something cool to do in my spare time.
[3208.22 --> 3214.22] And I've seen, if I remember correctly, you have those like the, I'm gonna use the wrong term, but the sound dampening panels?
[3214.22 --> 3216.22] Yeah, I have those sound dampening piles, panels.
[3216.22 --> 3217.22] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[3217.22 --> 3218.22] Piles of panels.
[3218.22 --> 3220.22] Yeah, in my office and at home.
[3220.22 --> 3223.22] Yeah, are you still into custom Hi-Fi stuff?
[3223.22 --> 3224.22] Yeah.
[3224.22 --> 3225.22] Yeah, cool.
[3225.22 --> 3227.22] What's like the most recent custom Hi-Fi project you've done?
[3227.22 --> 3230.22] Like just the Vanderstein set of speakers that I have at home.
[3230.22 --> 3232.22] You really don't need really expensive stuff to make it sound good.
[3232.22 --> 3237.22] You can find new stuff online like Vanderstein speakers for $400, a cheap amplifier,
[3237.22 --> 3240.22] and some of those Corning 703 panels and it'll sound amazing.
[3240.22 --> 3246.22] Yeah, I've actually been, for a while now I've wanted to copy your sound dampening panel project.
[3246.22 --> 3248.22] You just can't have a cat, because if you have a cat then...
[3248.22 --> 3250.22] Yeah, I don't have a cat.
[3250.22 --> 3255.22] Yeah, they use it as a scratching post, they've made it, that entire section of my apartment look like garbage.
[3255.22 --> 3256.22] That's not good.
[3256.22 --> 3258.22] The cat is cute so it gets away.
[3258.22 --> 3261.22] You worked in IT for quite a while.
[3261.22 --> 3266.22] I had several hats in that company, but I worked very close.
[3266.22 --> 3270.22] Well, I started actually doing energy audits and stuff within the company,
[3270.22 --> 3274.22] and we also wrote our own software to run on various devices,
[3274.22 --> 3277.22] either iPads or the Samsung devices I mentioned.
[3277.22 --> 3279.22] And we had major contracts with the power companies,
[3279.22 --> 3284.22] and then our IT department was extremely overworked in supporting all these devices,
[3284.22 --> 3287.22] upgrading them, getting ready to go, repairing them.
[3287.22 --> 3291.22] And we also had our in-house software development team.
[3291.22 --> 3295.22] And then the more they realized that I was the guy that was actually going around
[3295.22 --> 3298.22] in the field helping other field people.
[3298.22 --> 3300.22] So if you had a problem you had to call into the help desk, right?
[3300.22 --> 3304.22] And our help desk was three guys trying to support a company of 350 field agents.
[3304.22 --> 3306.22] And it was just like, that could get overworked really easy.
[3306.22 --> 3307.22] Yeah.
[3307.22 --> 3314.22] And that was the same, our IT department of three was the same guys also building and managing our three countrywide,
[3314.22 --> 3318.22] six major cities VPN that kept all of our offices in communications.
[3318.22 --> 3324.22] So if they were doing that or they were out at a data center or something, we were just like down in person.
[3324.22 --> 3325.22] Yeah.
[3325.22 --> 3329.22] So I was the guy that everyone started calling out in the field to come help them if they had tech problems with their equipment
[3329.22 --> 3331.22] or something was broken, needed it fixed.
[3331.22 --> 3333.22] When the company realized I was doing that, then they were like,
[3333.22 --> 3335.22] Hey, do you want to manage our help desk?
[3335.22 --> 3337.22] And I was like, I don't know. We'll see.
[3337.22 --> 3342.22] So because they knew I had all the end user experience as well as the technical know how to keep it all working.