As an educator I can tell you that there are, as Syd mentions, some very
basic (and fairly eternal and broadly applicable) ideas that are not
well covered anywhere. Oh, there are plenty of sites and texts that
will tell you what an RC time constant is or what input and output
impedances are, for example, but what is really lacking are insights
that only practitioners like yourselves can shed light on. That is the
real problem, how to express practical insight that is also broad and
far reaching. Another way to look at it is as I alluded to in my
previous note, "What is really important and essential for someone who
would like to follow along most of the discussions on the forum?" I
realize that such knowledge is only half the challenge, but the other
half as I see it is having enough interest to look up the application
specific details of what chip does what and so on. But that latter half
is also the easy part in my opinion. Getting a good feel for discerning
the true issues underlying a problem is the hard part. You guys are
good at this. And I've been reading the forum for (how long has it
been?... 8 years?) quite a while now and as far as I can tell those
essentials have not changed a lick.
I suppose that this question is a specific example of a much larger and
daunting problem ... how to convey experience? Is it possible?
Jim
Syd H. Levine wrote:
Indeed, component level techies are a dying breed; almost extinct already.
I survive in a niche market as does Declan apparently.
As for websites, there are probably several with all sorts of arcane
information about electronics. Mine is way over 300 pages, but deals with
an extremely limited range of material. Anybody can do such a site, but it
takes huge amounts of time. Interestingly, despite the arcane nature of the
material, my site receives around 5,000 hits every day. This page
consistently gets over 1,000 unique visitors every month:
http://www.logwell.com/tech/components/resistor_values.html
(There are apparently some very basic things not covered well on the web.)
Syd H. Levine
AnaLog Services, Inc.
Phone: 270-276-5671
Telefax: 270-276-5588
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
URL: www.logwell.com
----- Original Message -----
To: "Multiple recipients of list CHIPDIR-L" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2005 1:49 PM
Recently, Somebody Somewhere wrote these words
Hi Jim,
I think it would be a great idea. I tried - a while ago - to put stuff
onto my own homepage, but it's hard to do such things alone.
The ChipDir itself - which brought us together here - was a great
repository at its time, but I myself cannot even remember when I
visited it last in order to get some information.
I guess the same holds true there - it's an (mostly) impossible task
to keep such a big project running and alive. Despite the fact that I
am not a fan of online fori, I am convinced that much can be done in a
Wiki environment - with many contributors. Of course it can be easily
ruined by just a few, or put to death by no contribution at all. But
perhaps this is something Japp should consider to keep the ChipDir
alive...
Uwe.
I think that's going to be a huge challenge. Wikis are so bad in my
experience that I myself will never consult one now, because I want an
answer today. Also the electronics business is changing: The days were
when anybody could design and manufacture electronics, and someone with
the backside out of his trousers (Like Clive Sinclair at the beginning)
could make a commercial success from being an electronics whizkid.
Now it's much more multinationals developing hugely complicated projects
with a colossal number of man years in them, approval after approval,
standard after standard. compatible with a, b, c, d, & e and using the
very latest kit, and ASICs. An engineer can design in these places, but
the sensible thing for a techie to do is assemble complete units
(counters, plcs, sensors, timers, even pcs) into whatever he wants. If
there isn't going to be 50,000 of them, it's no longer worth building.
If there is going to be 50k, they should be built in China. And if they
break, the parts are not on the market except in volume.
That leaves ordinary mortals looking into their misbehaving electronic
investments and wishing they could be fixed. But it's a dying art.
The techie could even go the way of the cooper, the loom tuner, the nit
picker, and other extinct trades.
--
With Best Regards,
Declan Moriarty.
--
Author: Declan Moriarty
INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fat City Hosting, San Diego, California -- http://www.fatcity.com
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