u/Traditional_Bird2021

I recently sold my EC300 and plan to get a DS instead as a lightweight alternative to my 1300gs to hitch carry and Learn off-roading on a heavier than dirt bike but still lighter than a full size adv. also ride a little bit two up with the wife on our road trips (mostly paved or hard packed)

My dilemma is given the XR650l is discontinued, only a few dealers still have new ones in stock. I always kicked myself for not buying a new 4Runner on the outgoing 2024 model year and instead buying a used 2021. Trying not to have that same regret.

However, is Honda in the works to launch a modernized version of it? Will buying it hastily now at MSRP be a waste? DR650 is still in production and I know has more aftermarket support, so I can likely get a better deal.

I’ve been looking on FB marketplace usually I’ll see reasonably clean DRs but no clean or newish XRs, either they are very old or they have been beaten up.

Please talk me out of making a bad decision - would love to know the downsides of the XR or upsides of holding off and scooping either a DR or XR off season for a better price.

High level summary of my profile:

~10yrs experience - about 7 years worked at a major cloud provider as a DevOps engineer and enterprise solutions architect. Been in backend lead architect on a GCP and python stack for a media company for the last 4 years. My skills set is primarly in AWS and GCP for architecture, design reviews, security and operational reviews. I have 4 AWS certs that have expired at this point but I'm open to renew if that helps. CISSP is in the works.

Edit: I also have AI ML experience with managed models like Gemini and Github co-pilot. As well as working with open source models like Olama.

As for hands on I've mostly built with Terraform and Cloudformation, but my most recent job has been more with directing devs to be hands on and I would do code reviews and POC builds.

Given this background, is UpWork a good place for me to explore freelancing or is it primarily for people with consulting background?

I've recently faced jobloss and have some time to explore other things. I've always thought of self employment and branching more into a niche consulting field (media streaming ideally). But at this point I'm open to any industry vertical. Any tips or advice is appreciated! TIA

I know this topic is beaten to death and I’ve already watch the videos from Swanky cat on YouTube. However, just wanted fresh perspective given my specific situation and riding habbits:

I have 20 years of street riding experience - only a 5-6 sessions in total on dirt and dual track, decently good experience on fire roads in national parks etc.

I had a GasGas EC300 that I owned for a year and sold as in spite of my beleif that it could be a dual sport, it was just really bad to ride on the street (I know I was dumb). Though I loved the dirt performance, where I live it’s too hot most of the year to go dirt riding specifically and I personally enjoy more of street and riding in national parks.

So, my plan was to get something that is Hitch carry friendly and could do some short 2up rides. I weight about 250lbs with gear and 6ft. My primary motorcycle is a 1300gs but taking it for these long road trips means taking a trailer, would prefer a DS for quick hitch carry where we will be doing 4x4 driving mixed with riding.

Seems the DR and XR 650 are the only two I can find that tick most of the boxes - duke 690 is not on my radar, too expensive and don’t know about reliability and long term maintenance.

If DR and XR are the only options - what mods are need right off the bat for each and essential? That way I can compare costs. I read somewhere DR needs some engine mods to increase reliability or some flimsy components, is this true?

I saw these bikes have a fuel tap, if I shut off fuel and let the carb get empty and let the engine die, will it help with long term storage carb issues? I do this for my gas generator.

My usage will be sparse but 1-2k miles a year maybe for just this bike.

Happy to provide any other details

So something weird happened this morning. My car was parked in the driveway, locked all morning. When we walked by it, we noticed music playing inside it, the PCM display was just showing “Porsche”. Ignition was off, car was locked, it was likely playing a radio station as it wasn’t anything I ever listen to. My phone wasn’t connected or anything to CarPlay or Bluetooth at the time (wasn’t showing it on the phone).

As soon as I unlocked the car and opened the door, the music stopped. The PCM was still showing the Porsche logo. Turned ignition on and off, nothing abnormal afterwards.

I have a hunch it was installing an over the air update and there some kind of a bug - it’s a tad worrying if it continues to play the radio for hours and kills the battery

I've been fascinated (with a touch of GAS) about the Hasselblad systems for a while now, but have never had any other medium format camera before. I have been shooting with crop and full frame for 2 decades.

I shoot portraits, Sports and motorsport on the Sony system, latest being an A7V.

For Travel I use the Fujifilm X100vi and a Leica Q3 28 (Street, landscapes, nightscapes)

If I consider a used X1D II 50c or maybe the X2D (if I can stretch my budget), what will I exactly gain over what I currently have. I've not worked with 16-bit color, so dont know what I'm missing.

Would be great if some could show some side by side differences. Also how bad is the X1D II system from a quality of life, or is it better to just get the newest one which is much faster and snappier it seems.

With the newer Sony bodies like the A7V, the DR is class leading and I'm assuming same as medium format, so not sure if theres an edge there anymore.

Would I be better off exploring something like a digital back + 500c style camera? if so, would love to know some details on that config.

In a dilemma about where to focus - MU/MUU seems like the obvious choice, but with SKHY now trading, wondering if it will affect MU volumes and recovery trajectory?

Are we at the bottom yet? Just looking for theories and facts - seems most chip stocks are down likely a result of the war perhaps? Or is this a correction against a long bull run we had early this year?

I’m working with a third party company that my employer uses for FMLA and STD. I’ve only opted for FMLA as I go through my recovery - the company has been very slow and nitpicky - initially approved me with the wrong end date that was just 1week. My provider initially did not provide an end date as we were evaluating, but this company still went ahead and put in a wrong date and approved instead oof asking me for an end date.
I since followed up with more documentation this time indicating the end date but it’s been 2 weeks since I did that and they keep kicking it back for some random missing info (no coordination between case handlers, two people telling me two different things etc).

Long story short, my approved period is up, but the extension is still under review and don’t know how many more times they will want more from me (HR has been made aware of this situation). In this interim period could I be terminated? Or as long as there’s a pending appeal or extension case under review, it still falls under the 12week protection?

With the recent dip in all the memory/chip stocks - is MUU a good short term gamble or any signs of these chip stocks taking a plunge further? (I mean $MUU the leveraged ETF not MU)

I know no one can predict the future but looking for any educated signs of near term performance or focusing on something like SLS

(Posting here as suggested by someone form the FPGA sub)

I have a EE background and back in the day have played around with Basys2 and Xilinx ISE design suite for verilog. Had just about sort successfully built a basic Risc processor based on one our text books.

Since then, professionally I have been in Backend dev with Python and infra engineering, so completely out of touch with FPGAs or MCUs in the last 12+ years.

I have a passion for Audio and signal processing - and recently I've been wanting to go back to my roots and learn MCUs (currently starting out with ESP32) and FPGA designs again. My end goal is to look at building something like an ambient noise cancellation or dynamic white noise generation etc. No idea how to do it, but hope to at least invest in worthy hardware that could scale if I go deeper.

This being said would love to get some links on whats a good low cost way to start (I know vivado designs dont necessarily need a physical device to synthesize but I'm more motivated if I have the hardware in my hand).

How are FPGAs like Tang Nano or Tang Primer etc with tools and software support?

Is Digital Basys3 or Zybo still the gold standard for getting started with the most complete and documented tools and examples?

TIA

I have a EE background and back in the day have played around with Basys2 and Xilinx ISE design suite for verilog. Had just about sort successfully built a basic Risc processor based on one our text books.

Since then, professionally I have been in Backend dev with Python and infra engineering, so completely out of touch with FPGAs or MCUs in the last 12+ years.

I have a passion for Audio and signal processing - and recently I've been wanting to go back to my roots and learn MCUs (currently starting out with ESP32) and FPGA designs again. My end goal is to look at building something like an ambient noise cancellation or dynamic white noise generation etc. No idea how to do it, but hope to at least invest in worthy hardware that could scale if I go deeper.

This being said would love to get some links on whats a good low cost way to start (I know vivado designs dont necessarily need a physical device to synthesize but I'm more motivated if I have the hardware in my hand).

How are FPGAs like Tang Nano or Tang Primer etc with tools and software support?

Is Digital Basys3 or Zybo still the gold standard for getting started with the most complete and documented tools and examples?

TIA