Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ;

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon Jun 21 17:53:36 2004

>
> Whoa! Hold it! Let's get out of the extreme cases. We're not talking
> about specialized knowledge such as how to build a vacuum tube that only

Incidentally, I bought a book last year which describes some experiments
in home-made valves (vacuum tubes). Yes, they're pretty poor devices,
but I applaud the author for actually having a go (using filaments taken
from light bulbs, and pumping the thing down with a rotarty pump he
repaired himself). At least he's trying which is more than most people do.

> specialists knew even in the heyday of the vacuum tubes. We're taling about
> evveryday practicle things such as how to remove the cylider head of an

First did that about 25 years ago.

> engine and replace a valve or how to use something as simple as a single
> transistor. Sure we've lost the knowledge of how the Egyptians moved blocks
> to built the pyramids but it hardly matters. What worries me is that fact
> that I see almost no one growing up today that can repair ANYTHING other
> than plug-n-play much less design anything. It's the same case in simple

I think what bothers me (and it sounds much like what you're saying) is
not that people can't design with ECC83s/12AX7s any more, but that they
can't design -- period. They just don't know how to think. They're not
interested in finding out how things work, how to repair them, how to
improve them, and so on.

'PC modding' (I beleive that's the term) depresses me. Modifying a
computer used to mean a lot more than installing random flashing lights
on the cooling fan!

How many people do you know who have a reasonable multimeter (not just
something suitable for testing batteries)? An oscilloscope? An engineer's
lathe? And how many people do you know who spend their spare time working
with such things for fun.

> mechanics, electronics, programming (how many college students today can
> program in machine langauage or even Fortran?) and probably every other
> technical field.

Hopw many can program in _any_ language (I include things like
spreadsheet macros here) and can also justify the algorithms that they
use?

There have been discussions over here about teaching maths in schools,
in that with the common use of calculators it's not necessary for
students to understand things like long multiplications (the fact that's
_exactly_ how every calculator I've ever examined does multiplication is
another matter, but anyway). To some extent that's true, but then you
should teach the correct use of calculators. Why some statements that are
mathemetically correct are not suitable for machine calculation. The
problem with itterations that converge far too slowly, or are unstable.
Things like that.

Problem is, that's _not_ what's taught. Actually, I am not convinced
anything worthwhile is taught in schools any more :-(

-tony
Received on Mon Jun 21 2004 - 17:53:36 BST