Kurt Tomlinson's Blog

Entry-Level New Car Prices in America in January 2015

The table below might help you the next time you go shopping for a brand new car. Let's say your budget is $14,000. In that case, only four car brands offer vehicles in your price range, Nissan, Chevrolet, Ford, and Kia.

car-shopping | 2015.03.22 19:30 | Kurt Tomlinson

A Korean Language Observation

One of my favorite Korean words is 옷 (oas). I have a really easy time remembering this word because it's a little bit ironic. Notice how it looks kind of like a naked stick figure? Yeah, that guy/girl needs some clothes! 옷 means "clothes".

korea | 2015.03.15 17:16 | Kurt Tomlinson

Capital Gains and You

Follow this one simple rule to minimize your tax bill:

finance, life-lessons | 2015.03.09 04:23 | Kurt Tomlinson

Buck Converter Concepts Part 3 of 3: Switching Regulators

Buck converters work by switching on and off at very high frequencies. Examine the schematic below. The circle on the left is a voltage source at say 12V. The rectangle on the right is a load that we want to power with say 3V. Let's call the bottom of the load ground and define that voltage as 0V.

electrical-engineering | 2015.03.01 15:55 | Kurt Tomlinson

Buck Converter Concepts Part 2 of 3: LC Low Pass Filters

The LC low pass filter has just two components: an inductor and a capacitor. The inductor and capacitor are connected in series. The input to the filter is fed into the inductor, the output is taken from the node between the inductor and the capacitor, and the capacitor's other terminal is tied to ground.

electrical-engineering | 2015.02.22 07:04 | Kurt Tomlinson