Can an electronics student join?

[Joerg]

amdx wrote:

On 7/18/2014 11:31 AM, Joerg wrote:
amdx wrote:
On 7/17/2014 7:06 PM, Joerg wrote:
krw@attt.bizz wrote:


I've interviewed many engineers. Among the freshly minted ones the
absolute best impression was when people dumped a bunch of circuit
boards on the table and explained what each does, and how. One client's
VP of Engineering saw me coming out of an interview after just 15
minutes or so. She wanted to know why I broke it off. "Oh no, this it
_the_ guy, do not even let him get back to his car without an offer
letter in his hand". That was probably around five years ago, he got
hired and is still there.


I applied for a mechanical/electronic assembly position, and for my
interview I took an antenna phasing unit that I built at the kitchen
table/workshop. It was one of my nicer in presentation projects that I
ever built at home. (is that cheating It just happened to fit in
perfectly with the type of work I would be doing. During the interview
the interviewer pointed out that I didn't need to use nylon screws to
hold the toroid inductors, I said I used them instead of iron out of an
abundance of caution. I got the job and had the "abundance of caution"
line fed back to me from him many times over the years. Don't know if he
realized it.
Mikek


That abundance of caution is a good thing. I know a guy who almost lost
his ring finger when accidentally shorting out something like that. I
guess the wedding band is one of the risks of being married


I quit wearing mine many, many years ago, just because of the
conduction possibility. The wife was not pleased, she showed me!

Same here

A couple years later she stopped wearing hers. Somewhat different
though, I don't wear any jewelery, not even a watch. She wears all
kinds. Going on 34 years, I guess she's going to keep me.

You never know. One couple was close to 50 years and then got divorced
because of irreconcileable difference. Whatever those might have been.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[Tim Williams]

"Joerg" <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:c2t0ekFe9v5U1@mid.individual.net...

That abundance of caution is a good thing. I know a guy who almost lost
his ring finger when accidentally shorting out something like that. I
guess the wedding band is one of the risks of being married

Definitely not something you see (or, should hope to see) in an induction
shop!

Tim

--
Seven Transistor Labs
Electrical Engineering Consultation
Website: http://seventransistorlabs.com

 

[rickman]

On 7/18/2014 4:02 PM, Joerg wrote:

rickman wrote:
On 7/18/2014 12:35 PM, Joerg wrote:
rickman wrote:
On 7/17/2014 8:06 PM, Joerg wrote:

When I showed up for my first interviews I brought a thick binder with
all my project documentation and photos in there. Couldn't bring much
gear because it was way too big and heavy. Folks at the university said
that would be ridiculous and hiring managers wouldn't take me serious.
Little did they know. It's too long ago but I believe out of six
interviews I got six offers. A few months later I gave one of the
hiring
managers who interviewed me a ride home because his car had a problem.
"Hey, George, can we go by your house? I want to see that monster amp
you talked about back in summer."

I'm not sure 100% offer rate is much of an indicator. But I guess it
does indicate that you get the offers which means you can cull the
employers.

I used to get 100% offer rate. The headhunters always wanted me to
either accept or turn down an offer quickly without more interviews, but
I wanted to see what else was out there. But now that I am over 50...
well over 50 it is actually hard to get an interview much less an offer.
Age discrimination is real... very real. Fortunately I am not in need
of a job.


I am finding the opposite. Once I approached 50 the number of headhunter
calls increased but because I was already self-employed I had to turn
them all down. From my resume which is on the Internet it is very easy
to gauge my age. The usual, army service, year of degree, etc. when they
look for consultants it becomes even more pronounced, they ideally want
someone who has seen it all and that requires having a few decades of
engineering under the belt.

Oh, there is no shortage of headhunter calls. lol That is a universal
constant even more-so than the speed of light.


Those were real jobs and we talked about them in some detail. In the
area of analog companies are sometimes desparate.

I'm not sure what your point is. Headhunters contact me all the time
about real jobs. That is what they do, find people for real jobs...
they get paid for that. That is very different from landing an offer.

--

Rick

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:45:03 -0700, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid>
wrote:

amdx wrote:
On 7/18/2014 11:31 AM, Joerg wrote:
amdx wrote:
On 7/17/2014 7:06 PM, Joerg wrote:
krw@attt.bizz wrote:


I've interviewed many engineers. Among the freshly minted ones the
absolute best impression was when people dumped a bunch of circuit
boards on the table and explained what each does, and how. One client's
VP of Engineering saw me coming out of an interview after just 15
minutes or so. She wanted to know why I broke it off. "Oh no, this it
_the_ guy, do not even let him get back to his car without an offer
letter in his hand". That was probably around five years ago, he got
hired and is still there.


I applied for a mechanical/electronic assembly position, and for my
interview I took an antenna phasing unit that I built at the kitchen
table/workshop. It was one of my nicer in presentation projects that I
ever built at home. (is that cheating It just happened to fit in
perfectly with the type of work I would be doing. During the interview
the interviewer pointed out that I didn't need to use nylon screws to
hold the toroid inductors, I said I used them instead of iron out of an
abundance of caution. I got the job and had the "abundance of caution"
line fed back to me from him many times over the years. Don't know if he
realized it.
Mikek


That abundance of caution is a good thing. I know a guy who almost lost
his ring finger when accidentally shorting out something like that. I
guess the wedding band is one of the risks of being married


I quit wearing mine many, many years ago, just because of the
conduction possibility. The wife was not pleased, she showed me!

Get a plastic wedding ring. Cracker Jacks sometimes has them.


--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

 

On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 14:09:49 -0500, amdx <nojunk@knology.net> wrote:

On 7/18/2014 11:31 AM, Joerg wrote:
amdx wrote:
On 7/17/2014 7:06 PM, Joerg wrote:
krw@attt.bizz wrote:


I've interviewed many engineers. Among the freshly minted ones the
absolute best impression was when people dumped a bunch of circuit
boards on the table and explained what each does, and how. One client's
VP of Engineering saw me coming out of an interview after just 15
minutes or so. She wanted to know why I broke it off. "Oh no, this it
_the_ guy, do not even let him get back to his car without an offer
letter in his hand". That was probably around five years ago, he got
hired and is still there.


I applied for a mechanical/electronic assembly position, and for my
interview I took an antenna phasing unit that I built at the kitchen
table/workshop. It was one of my nicer in presentation projects that I
ever built at home. (is that cheating It just happened to fit in
perfectly with the type of work I would be doing. During the interview
the interviewer pointed out that I didn't need to use nylon screws to
hold the toroid inductors, I said I used them instead of iron out of an
abundance of caution. I got the job and had the "abundance of caution"
line fed back to me from him many times over the years. Don't know if he
realized it.
Mikek


That abundance of caution is a good thing. I know a guy who almost lost
his ring finger when accidentally shorting out something like that. I
guess the wedding band is one of the risks of being married


I quit wearing mine many, many years ago, just because of the
conduction possibility. The wife was not pleased, she showed me!
A couple years later she stopped wearing hers. Somewhat different
though, I don't wear any jewelery, not even a watch. She wears all
kinds. Going on 34 years, I guess she's going to keep me.
Mikek

I quit wearing mine 30 years ago. We weren't allowed to wear jewelry
in any of the labs and I had a problem wearing watches anyway so just
stopped wearing any. When the kid was young hers got hung up in
playground equipment, her finger swelled up and she had to have it cut
off. She had mine resized and wore it for several years. We then
bought new ones for our 25th. I lost the second one a few years
later. I couldn't sleep with it on so left it on the dresser. I have
no idea where it went from there. She still wears hers (and her
grandmothers engagement ring). We just passed 43 years so she's (I'm)
stuck too.

 

On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:16:37 -0700 (PDT), meow2222@care2.com wrote:

On Friday, July 18, 2014 5:26:09 PM UTC+1, John Larkin wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 02:31:13 -0700 (PDT), meow2222@care2.com wrote:
On Thursday, July 17, 2014 11:57:55 PM UTC+1, michaelco...@gmail.com wrote:

Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am thinking it would be a good way to learn more from others with more experience and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I can't get answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I joined.
Thanks,
Michael

This ng is a good way to learn. Ask, try things and suggest things. Build lots of stuff too. If your budget isn't generous, lots of bits can be had from electronic scrap. Why pay?

Read the cluster of sci.electronics newsgroups, they all have something to offer, though s.e.repair can get stupid on occasion.

Phil Allison seems to have decided everyone in the world is worth hating. Just ignore it. Take it as a lesson not to go down that path.

He does get a little cranky now and then. Maybe it's the weather.

I think its his view on the world.

Build, build, build. I did, and by the time I left uni the difference between me and the folks that didn't do that was, what's the word, very evident.
yes! See below.

And finally, understand that engineering is ultimately about money. Its all about how can we achieve this AND do it for less than the competition. Its not about all the bs people say it is to get folks' approval, its about money.

For some people, it's about building beautiful things that work, and letting
somebody else (employers, customers) pay for it.

Yes... I was aware when writing it there are exceptions. 99% of the time its money though, so a strong eye on the bottom line is a real asset.


There are 2 goals in engineering: better and cheaper. Cheaper takes precendence 99% of the time. The adverts, packaging, sales talk and politician spew are 99% bullshit. Or is it 100.

If the OP is pre-college age, a ton of analog build-build will create good
qualtitative instincts. Then, when he gets hit with the college EE courses, a
heap of deliberately abstracted circuit theory and signals-and-systems math,
bells may ring for him that the other student miss. That's what happened to me.
The other guys kept taking notes and solving equations, but the math behind the
familiar circuits was a revelation to me.
Avoid a lot of coding. Everybody is doing that.

Yes, analogue is the area to go into now. Its an easy choice. The fashion is to think analogue is fast becoming obsolete, but its not and there's no likelihood of it doing so any decade soon. The result is a shortage of analog folks ahead. But if your skills/interests lie elsewhere, so be it.

While analog isn't becoming obsolete, there is less demand (and, yes,
even less supply) for analog circuits. If you're looking for a
specialty with huge demand and little supply, it's RF. Either of
these specialties will probably mean that you'll be moving to where
the work is, though.

 

[rickman]

On 7/18/2014 3:16 PM, meow2222@care2.com wrote:

On Friday, July 18, 2014 5:26:09 PM UTC+1, John Larkin wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 02:31:13 -0700 (PDT), meow2222@care2.com wrote:
On Thursday, July 17, 2014 11:57:55 PM UTC+1, michaelco...@gmail.com wrote:

Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am thinking it would be a good way to learn more from others with more experience and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I can't get answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I joined.
Thanks,
Michael

This ng is a good way to learn. Ask, try things and suggest things. Build lots of stuff too. If your budget isn't generous, lots of bits can be had from electronic scrap. Why pay?

Read the cluster of sci.electronics newsgroups, they all have something to offer, though s.e.repair can get stupid on occasion.

Phil Allison seems to have decided everyone in the world is worth hating. Just ignore it. Take it as a lesson not to go down that path.

He does get a little cranky now and then. Maybe it's the weather.

I think its his view on the world.

Build, build, build. I did, and by the time I left uni the difference between me and the folks that didn't do that was, what's the word, very evident.
yes! See below.

And finally, understand that engineering is ultimately about money. Its all about how can we achieve this AND do it for less than the competition. Its not about all the bs people say it is to get folks' approval, its about money.

For some people, it's about building beautiful things that work, and letting
somebody else (employers, customers) pay for it.

Yes... I was aware when writing it there are exceptions. 99% of the time its money though, so a strong eye on the bottom line is a real asset.


There are 2 goals in engineering: better and cheaper. Cheaper takes precendence 99% of the time. The adverts, packaging, sales talk and politician spew are 99% bullshit. Or is it 100.

If the OP is pre-college age, a ton of analog build-build will create good
qualtitative instincts. Then, when he gets hit with the college EE courses, a
heap of deliberately abstracted circuit theory and signals-and-systems math,
bells may ring for him that the other student miss. That's what happened to me.
The other guys kept taking notes and solving equations, but the math behind the
familiar circuits was a revelation to me.
Avoid a lot of coding. Everybody is doing that.

Yes, analogue is the area to go into now. Its an easy choice. The fashion is to think analogue is fast becoming obsolete, but its not and there's no likelihood of it doing so any decade soon. The result is a shortage of analog folks ahead. But if your skills/interests lie elsewhere, so be it.

Heck, that has been the perception for a long time. I used to talk
stocks with a friend and when I suggested that Analog Devices might be a
good buy at one point she demurred saying they sounded a bit obsolete.
lol Not only is analog far from obsolete, she didn't realize that ADI
was one of the premier digital signal processing companies at the time.

--

Rick

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Saturday, 19 July 2014 05:17:20 UTC+10, amdx wrote:

On 7/18/2014 12:19 AM, Reinhardt Behm wrote:
John Larkin wrote:
On Thu, 17 Jul 2014 19:36:12 -0700 (PDT), jurb6006@gmail.com wrote:

"This goddammed delusional narcissist again!"

You say that like it's a bad thing. I am used to it. If you think people are bad here, try alt.revisionism.

Isn't there a newsgroup just for flaming?

Other than SED?

Try rec.boats, much worse than here.

They also have a knee jerk liberal that hates any conservative thought.

"Conservative thought" has to be an oxymoron, comparable with "military intelligence".

> Lots of name calling from him.

Conservatives do tend to react to objective description as if it were name-calling.

Like Jim-out-of-touch-with-reality-Thompson.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 19:19:08 -0400, rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> wrote:

On 7/18/2014 3:16 PM, meow2222@care2.com wrote:
On Friday, July 18, 2014 5:26:09 PM UTC+1, John Larkin wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 02:31:13 -0700 (PDT), meow2222@care2.com wrote:
On Thursday, July 17, 2014 11:57:55 PM UTC+1, michaelco...@gmail.com wrote:

Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am thinking it would be a good way to learn more from others with more experience and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I can't get answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I joined.
Thanks,
Michael

This ng is a good way to learn. Ask, try things and suggest things. Build lots of stuff too. If your budget isn't generous, lots of bits can be had from electronic scrap. Why pay?

Read the cluster of sci.electronics newsgroups, they all have something to offer, though s.e.repair can get stupid on occasion.

Phil Allison seems to have decided everyone in the world is worth hating. Just ignore it. Take it as a lesson not to go down that path.

He does get a little cranky now and then. Maybe it's the weather.

I think its his view on the world.

Build, build, build. I did, and by the time I left uni the difference between me and the folks that didn't do that was, what's the word, very evident.
yes! See below.

And finally, understand that engineering is ultimately about money. Its all about how can we achieve this AND do it for less than the competition. Its not about all the bs people say it is to get folks' approval, its about money.

For some people, it's about building beautiful things that work, and letting
somebody else (employers, customers) pay for it.

Yes... I was aware when writing it there are exceptions. 99% of the time its money though, so a strong eye on the bottom line is a real asset.


There are 2 goals in engineering: better and cheaper. Cheaper takes precendence 99% of the time. The adverts, packaging, sales talk and politician spew are 99% bullshit. Or is it 100.

If the OP is pre-college age, a ton of analog build-build will create good
qualtitative instincts. Then, when he gets hit with the college EE courses, a
heap of deliberately abstracted circuit theory and signals-and-systems math,
bells may ring for him that the other student miss. That's what happened to me.
The other guys kept taking notes and solving equations, but the math behind the
familiar circuits was a revelation to me.
Avoid a lot of coding. Everybody is doing that.

Yes, analogue is the area to go into now. Its an easy choice. The fashion is to think analogue is fast becoming obsolete, but its not and there's no likelihood of it doing so any decade soon. The result is a shortage of analog folks ahead. But if your skills/interests lie elsewhere, so be it.

Heck, that has been the perception for a long time. I used to talk
stocks with a friend and when I suggested that Analog Devices might be a
good buy at one point she demurred saying they sounded a bit obsolete.
lol Not only is analog far from obsolete, she didn't realize that ADI
was one of the premier digital signal processing companies at the time.

TI decided, maybe 10 years ago, to stop battling for zero-margin cell
phone chip business and emphasize analog and data conversion. Picked
up Burr-Brown and National, too. Looks like a smart move.

I see lots of demand for precision analog, photonics, and picosecond
digital stuff, which is really analog.

LTC does good charging premium prices for analog chips, dollars per
opamp. Huge dollars per square mm of silicon ratio.

I think the IC houses are soaking up a lot of the analog-oriented EE
grads, which makes more demand for us parts-on-boards guys.



--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

 

On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 16:35:14 -0700, John Larkin
<jlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> wrote:

On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 19:19:08 -0400, rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> wrote:

On 7/18/2014 3:16 PM, meow2222@care2.com wrote:
On Friday, July 18, 2014 5:26:09 PM UTC+1, John Larkin wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 02:31:13 -0700 (PDT), meow2222@care2.com wrote:
On Thursday, July 17, 2014 11:57:55 PM UTC+1, michaelco...@gmail.com wrote:

Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am thinking it would be a good way to learn more from others with more experience and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I can't get answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I joined.
Thanks,
Michael

This ng is a good way to learn. Ask, try things and suggest things. Build lots of stuff too. If your budget isn't generous, lots of bits can be had from electronic scrap. Why pay?

Read the cluster of sci.electronics newsgroups, they all have something to offer, though s.e.repair can get stupid on occasion.

Phil Allison seems to have decided everyone in the world is worth hating. Just ignore it. Take it as a lesson not to go down that path.

He does get a little cranky now and then. Maybe it's the weather.

I think its his view on the world.

Build, build, build. I did, and by the time I left uni the difference between me and the folks that didn't do that was, what's the word, very evident.
yes! See below.

And finally, understand that engineering is ultimately about money. Its all about how can we achieve this AND do it for less than the competition. Its not about all the bs people say it is to get folks' approval, its about money.

For some people, it's about building beautiful things that work, and letting
somebody else (employers, customers) pay for it.

Yes... I was aware when writing it there are exceptions. 99% of the time its money though, so a strong eye on the bottom line is a real asset.


There are 2 goals in engineering: better and cheaper. Cheaper takes precendence 99% of the time. The adverts, packaging, sales talk and politician spew are 99% bullshit. Or is it 100.

If the OP is pre-college age, a ton of analog build-build will create good
qualtitative instincts. Then, when he gets hit with the college EE courses, a
heap of deliberately abstracted circuit theory and signals-and-systems math,
bells may ring for him that the other student miss. That's what happened to me.
The other guys kept taking notes and solving equations, but the math behind the
familiar circuits was a revelation to me.
Avoid a lot of coding. Everybody is doing that.

Yes, analogue is the area to go into now. Its an easy choice. The fashion is to think analogue is fast becoming obsolete, but its not and there's no likelihood of it doing so any decade soon. The result is a shortage of analog folks ahead. But if your skills/interests lie elsewhere, so be it.

Heck, that has been the perception for a long time. I used to talk
stocks with a friend and when I suggested that Analog Devices might be a
good buy at one point she demurred saying they sounded a bit obsolete.
lol Not only is analog far from obsolete, she didn't realize that ADI
was one of the premier digital signal processing companies at the time.

TI decided, maybe 10 years ago, to stop battling for zero-margin cell
phone chip business and emphasize analog and data conversion. Picked
up Burr-Brown and National, too. Looks like a smart move.

TI was still in the phone CPU business until they got kicked out
recently. Those processors still live on, though they laid off much
of that business line. TI is pretty much in everything. ...though I
agree that National was a good purchase. It was cheap enough and
filled out their analog line very well.

I see lots of demand for precision analog, photonics, and picosecond
digital stuff, which is really analog.

LTC does good charging premium prices for analog chips, dollars per
opamp. Huge dollars per square mm of silicon ratio.

Yep. They're charging for support. Their market is more of a niche,
where support can be sold for big bucks. LTC isn't so strong in the
high volume markets.

I think the IC houses are soaking up a lot of the analog-oriented EE
grads, which makes more demand for us parts-on-boards guys.

I don't think there are than many to go around, in the first place.

 

[rickman]

On 7/17/2014 6:57 PM, michaelcovington670@gmail.com wrote:

Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am thinking it would be a good way to learn more from others with more experience and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I can't get answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I joined.

Thanks,

Michael

Very typical of a thread in s.e.d. The OP asks a simple question and
the thread is hijacked and goes on and on and on...

--

Rick

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Friday, 18 July 2014 19:31:13 UTC+10, meow...@care2.com wrote:

On Thursday, July 17, 2014 11:57:55 PM UTC+1, michaelco...@gmail.com wrote:

Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am thinking it would be a good way to learn more from others with more experience and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I can't get answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I joined.

This ng is a good way to learn. Ask, try things and suggest things. Build lots of stuff too. If your budget isn't generous, lots of bits can be had from electronic scrap. Why pay?

Read the cluster of sci.electronics newsgroups, they all have something to offer, though s.e.repair can get stupid on occasion.

Phil Allison seems to have decided everyone in the world is worth hating. Just ignore it. Take it as a lesson not to go down that path.

But do pay attention to the technical content of his posts. He's rarely wrong, if intolerant of people who don't share his priorities as well as his insights.

> Build, build, build. I did, and by the time I left uni the difference between me and the folks that didn't do that was, what's the word, very evident.

Good advice. Mathematical modelling (with Spice) is cheaper, but you do need to build examples of your more promising models, because no mathematical model is perfect and sometimes the imperfection do do create real problems.

> And finally, understand that engineering is ultimately about money. Its all about how can we achieve this AND do it for less than the competition. Its not about all the bs people say it is to get folks' approval, its about money.

One definition of an engineer is somebody who can do for one dollar what any fool can do for two. The stuff I've done has been more about doing it more precisely for reasonable amounts of money than doing the same thing more cheaply than anybody else, but engineering is a broad church.

> There are 2 goals in engineering: better and cheaper. Cheaper takes precedence 99% of the time. The adverts, packaging, sales talk and politician spew are 99% bullshit. Or is it 100%?

99%. Total bullshit lacks the hooks that catch the buyer's interest.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Saturday, 19 July 2014 02:26:09 UTC+10, John Larkin wrote:

On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 02:31:13 -0700 (PDT), meow2222@care2.com wrote:
On Thursday, July 17, 2014 11:57:55 PM UTC+1, michaelco...@gmail.com wrote:

Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am thinking it would be a good way to learn more from others with more experience and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I can't get answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I joined.

This ng is a good way to learn. Ask, try things and suggest things. Build lots of stuff too. If your budget isn't generous, lots of bits can be had from electronic scrap. Why pay?

Read the cluster of sci.electronics newsgroups, they all have something to offer, though s.e.repair can get stupid on occasion.

Phil Allison seems to have decided everyone in the world is worth hating.. Just ignore it. Take it as a lesson not to go down that path.

He does get a little cranky now and then. Maybe it's the weather.

Wrong. Sydney has a very nice climate. California's weather is memorialised in the song "The Lady is a Tramp" - hate California , it's cold and it's damp.

Could explain John Larkin.

Build, build, build. I did, and by the time I left uni the difference between me and the folks that didn't do that was, what's the word, very evident.

yes! See below.

And finally, understand that engineering is ultimately about money. Its all about how can we achieve this AND do it for less than the competition. Its not about all the bs people say it is to get folks' approval, its about money.

For some people, it's about building beautiful things that work, and letting
somebody else (employers, customers) pay for it.

Or things that you think are beautiful - an element of narcissism helps there.

There are 2 goals in engineering: better and cheaper. Cheaper takes precendence 99% of the time. The adverts, packaging, sales talk and politician spew are 99% bullshit. Or is it 100.

If the OP is pre-college age, a ton of analog build-build will create good qualititative instincts. Then, when he gets hit with the college EE courses, a heap of deliberately abstracted circuit theory and signals-and-systems math, bells may ring for him that the other student miss. That's what happened to me.

But nowhere near often enough.

The other guys kept taking notes and solving equations, but the math behind the familiar circuits was a revelation to me.

Avoid a lot of coding. Everybody is doing that.

It's still a useful skill. You can get analog do do a lot more if you back it up with the right digital hardware. Self-calibration and auto-calibration can make some very dodgy high-speed circuits work very precisely for minutes at time (which is an eternity for a high-speed circuit).

Then again carpentry and lathe-work can also be useful. I was a tolerably competent glass-blower for a while ...

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Robert Baer]

Tim Wescott wrote:

On Thu, 17 Jul 2014 16:12:34 -0700, Joerg wrote:

michaelcovington670@gmail.com wrote:
Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of
learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am thinking
it would be a good way to learn more from others with more experience
and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I can't get
answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I joined.


No need to join. There is no formal membership in Usenet, no initiation
rituals, hazing, or any of that.

But ... for more basic questions there is sci.electronics.basics and
also people really do not like it when students try to get their
homework solved here. However, if you've made a serious effort and can't
figure something out or if you get stuck with a hardware project, by all
means ask.

To clarify: Questions where you obviously just typed in a homework
problem from the book will piss us off. Questions that go something like
"I'm doing this homework problem and I can't figure out what XXX means",
or "I'm in a Circuits& Systems class and I just can't figure out what
this 's' thing is" will get you help.

Questions like "I'm taking E&M and I can't get my head wrapped around the
curl operator" will _definitely_ get you lots of sympathy, but I'm not
sure how many of us will be able to jump in and help you, at least not
without hitting the books ourselves.

....meaning, all of us at times need to CURL up to a good electronics &
math reference.

 

[rickman]

On 7/18/2014 7:35 PM, John Larkin wrote:

TI decided, maybe 10 years ago, to stop battling for zero-margin cell
phone chip business and emphasize analog and data conversion. Picked
up Burr-Brown and National, too. Looks like a smart move.

Yes, TI decided to add analog including power to their line up some time
ago. But that had nothing to do with an idea of quitting the cell phone
market. No one cares about razor thin margins as long as they can sell
millions of a chip. Heck, I remember an FAE talking about a job where
they were selling chips to use as fuses, the ultimate one time
programmable, lol. Not much margin there but they have to keep buying
new ones.

TI decided *recently* to get out of the cell phone CPU market because
their customers are making their own CPU chips. That only makes sense
if you think about it. Apple and the other phone makers can put in the
chip just what they want and have better control over the process not to
mention saving even those razor thin margins. If your customers become
your competitors it is hard to stay in business.

--

Rick

 

[Neon John]

On Thu, 17 Jul 2014 15:57:55 -0700 (PDT),
michaelcovington670@gmail.com wrote:

>Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am thinking it would be a good way to learn more from others with more experience and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I can't get answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I joined.

Hi Michael, welcome aboard.

Your thread has shown you the bad side of SED. Don't let that
discourage you. There are some mighty fine and knowledgeable folks
here who are willing to help.

This group is vastly more enjoyable once you filter out about a dozen
hecklers. I see you're using Thunderbird. Learn to use its filters
or better yet, buy a copy of Forte' Agent (cheap). It has a wonderful
filter facility that will let you use regular expressions. I wouldn't
do Usenet without Agent.

Anyway, ask your questions and we'll see what we can do to answer
them. We won't do your homework but we will point you in the
right direction when possible.

Again, welcome aboard.

John
John DeArmond
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.fluxeon.com
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
See website for email address

 

[Mike Perkins]

On 19/07/2014 00:44, rickman wrote:

On 7/17/2014 6:57 PM, michaelcovington670@gmail.com wrote:
Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of
learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am
thinking it would be a good way to learn more from others with more
experience and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I
can't get answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I
joined.

Thanks,

Michael


Very typical of a thread in s.e.d. The OP asks a simple question and
the thread is hijacked and goes on and on and on...

The posters in this thread seem to have frightened him away, shame.

I guess he's now on a very long holiday!

--
Mike Perkins
Video Solutions Ltd
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

 

[rickman]

On 7/18/2014 10:40 PM, Neon John wrote:

On Thu, 17 Jul 2014 15:57:55 -0700 (PDT),
michaelcovington670@gmail.com wrote:

Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am thinking it would be a good way to learn more from others with more experience and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I can't get answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I joined.

Hi Michael, welcome aboard.

Your thread has shown you the bad side of SED.

Does SED have a good side? Nearly every discussion I have read here has
had it's share of hostility and infantile argument. The more seriously
technical the discussion the more infantile the arguments.

Don't let that
discourage you. There are some mighty fine and knowledgeable folks
here who are willing to help.

There are some knowledgeable people posting here. But you would have a
hard time realizing that by reading many of their posts. The signal to
noise ratio is rather low which makes it hard to tell what they are
actually saying.

This group is vastly more enjoyable once you filter out about a dozen
hecklers. I see you're using Thunderbird. Learn to use its filters
or better yet, buy a copy of Forte' Agent (cheap). It has a wonderful
filter facility that will let you use regular expressions. I wouldn't
do Usenet without Agent.

Anyway, ask your questions and we'll see what we can do to answer
them. We won't do your homework but we will point you in the
right direction when possible.

I hope he does stay, but my guess is we won't see him again. We'll see.

--

Rick

 

[Clifford Heath]

On 19/07/14 02:31, Joerg wrote:

That abundance of caution is a good thing. I know a guy who almost lost
his ring finger when accidentally shorting out something like that. I
guess the wedding band is one of the risks of being married

Lol - I initially read that as "welding band". Hopefully not.
I haven't removed mine since my wedding day in 1981.

 

[Sylvia Else]

On 18/07/2014 8:57 AM, michaelcovington670@gmail.com wrote:

Hello everyone. I am an electronics student and in the process of
learning, and I was wondering if I could join this group? I am
thinking it would be a good way to learn more from others with more
experience and maybe help me if I have a problem in school that I
can't get answered easily. LOL. I wanted to pop in and ask before I
joined.

Thanks,

Michael

Hmm...

No further response from Michael.

I smell a troll.

Sylvia.