take a look below, please.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, March 31, 1999 5:40 PM
Subject: Re: Kits vs ready-made (was RE: Rebirth of IMSAI)
>>
>> Unfortunately, in today's climate ("NOTHING's MY fault!") people buy a
kit
>
>Yes, that attitude is _very_ annoying....
>
>> A degree in engineering isn't sufficient qualification, either. Some of
the
>> crappiest work I ever saw while in the aerospace industry, was by fairly
>
>Oh, don't get me started on that. I have no engineering qualifications at
>all, but, even if I say so myself, I could out-design, out-construct, and
>plain out-hack a number of people with degrees in engineering that I met...
>
>A few classic cases that spring to mind :
>
>One chap said 'There are no 362.8 Ohm resistors in the box'. I said I
>wasn't supprised and asked him what on earth he wanted it for. The
>answer : An LED current limiting resistor. That was the value that the
>formula had given, so that was obviously the value he needed.
>
>Another person had problems with a simple RC low-pass filter. And he
>certainly had no idea about making sensible approximations.
>
>The only problem that comes from this is that mangement-droids seem to
>think that qualifications imply competence/knowledge. So I'm stuck unable
>to get a job :-(
>
>> senior engineers. The excuse was that "it's not a deliverable," but
often
>> the shoddy technique (air-wires, etc) made for problems which couldn't
>
>If that's another name for dead-bugging, there's nothing wrong with it if
>used correctly. In fact IMHO it's the _only_ way to prototype
>high-frequency circuits with any sort of reliability
I have used dead-bug patches quite a few times myself. More specifically,
dead-bugging is typically gluing or taping an IC onto another's back and
running wires between it and the appropriate points in the circuit. I don't
mean that, so much, but using multiple feet of #40 magnet wire with the
shellac sanded or scraped off and having the scabbed-in IC floating on a web
of wires 3" above the board . . . ???
>And if you trust simulations to correclty predict the behaviour of even
>simple circuits, well, have I got some storys to tell you...
>
Yes, I have a few, too, but . . . Careful now . . . I've spend thousands of
hours in front of a big tube waiting for a simulation. I am a big believer,
and believe further, that anyone who claims that simulators don't have a
place, as some old-timers do, just hasn't investigated sufficiently.
>
>-tony
>
Received on Wed Mar 31 1999 - 20:12:40 BST