classiccmp-digest V1 #737

From: Andy Holt <andyh_at_netcomuk.co.uk>
Date: Thu Oct 4 11:59:34 2001

Tony stated:
> FWIW, I have never treated _anything_ as a black box where I don't have
> to care about what goes on inside. I find it's easier to do good work if
> you do understand the internals of the tools and equipment that you are
> using. And therefore I have little time for people who aren't prepared to
> learn about the insides of their computer/car/whatever...

>>>> start of OT rant
Although I like to be able to know about the "inside" of things, I am not
convinced that it is possible to have anything more than a simplistic view
(or even that much) for some things. GSM phones are, at best, borderline.
DAB ("Digital Radio") seems to have gone to the level where only a very
small proportion of the population (possibly less than a few thousand people
worldwide) can really and accurately claim to fully understand how it
works*. It worries me somewhat that such a technology is being deployed (as
also does the potential for control by government and big business that is
lacking in AM and FM radio), but possibly such complexity is inevitable.
* sure, I can waffle on about using a spread spectrum technique in Band III
to transmit a multiplexed bit stream than demultiplexes to several
compressed sequences of digital samples - I might even, with a little
research, be more convincing about how this bit stream is handled - but as
for really understanding the transmission mechanism, "pass"!
<<<< end of OT rant

Andy
Received on Thu Oct 04 2001 - 11:59:34 BST