Why is John Larkin such an Asshole ?

On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 00:32:45 -0700 (PDT), Phil Allison
<pallison49@gmail.com> wrote:

jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

-------------------------------------------

Who designs electronics, the topic here?



** It's not really, the topic is simply the *discussion* of "electronics design".

You do not have to be a professional designer yourself to possess much useful knowledge about design issues.

** This is JL's big mistake and a major misunderstanding **.

Like one does not have to be a chicken to tell a rotten egg - working as designer does not even make you expert on your own designs.

Rather, the close personal involvement tends to make you blind to errors & shortcomings in your design and the ability to recognise better ideas than yours even exist. Your design is your baby and so you love it.

Good designs are more often the work of teams, with each member able to review and criticise the ideas of the others. Having a damn good look at competing designs never hurts too, in fact it is common sense to do so if only to learn from other's mistakes.

In all the cases of terrible blunders and plain bad design I have seen produced over the years - they turn out to be the work of just one person.

Typically smug egomaniacs, just like JL.

Our designs are good, extreme performance and near-perfect
reliability, and they almost always work and sell first pass, no
prototypes. One reason is that we have a lot of brainstorming before
we do the design, lots of informal discussion and whiteboarding, and
at least three formal team-based reviews.

I don't do the FPGAs or the C code, or the test stands, and I dole out
little side tasks to the kids on the hardware side. You are right,
electronic design is complex and hazardous and no individual should
trust himself to get everything right. There a few ways to get
something right and thousands of ways to get it wrong.

Team design is fun.

I work with one giant company that plans five iterations before final
release to production. They are slow by roughly a factor of 8, and
some designs are abandoned.

I also work with some giant companies that used to do electronic
design but don't any more. When their EEs retired, they didn't replace
them.

 

[Phil Allison]

tabb...@gmail.com wrote:

-------------------------

Calling him an "asshole" is being more than kind.



What happened to trigger all this?

** The "trigger" was a simple question about designing an audio output transformer.

The prior build up however had been going on for about 15yera.



..... Phil

 

On Monday, 16 September 2019 23:21:01 UTC+1, Phil Allison wrote:

Calling him an "asshole" is being more than kind.



.... Phil

What happened to trigger all this?

 

[Phil Allison]

jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

------------------------------------------

Who designs electronics, the topic here?



** It's not really, the topic is simply the *discussion* of "electronics design".

You do not have to be a professional designer yourself to possess much useful knowledge about design issues.

** This is JL's big mistake and a major misunderstanding **.

Like one does not have to be a chicken to tell a rotten egg - working as designer does not even make you expert on your own designs.

Rather, the close personal involvement tends to make you blind to errors & shortcomings in your design and the ability to recognise better ideas than yours even exist. Your design is your baby and so you love it.

Good designs are more often the work of teams, with each member able to review and criticise the ideas of the others. Having a damn good look at competing designs never hurts too, in fact it is common sense to do so if only to learn from other's mistakes.

In all the cases of terrible blunders and plain bad design I have seen produced over the years - they turn out to be the work of just one person.

Typically smug egomaniacs, just like JL.



Our designs are good, extreme performance and near-perfect
reliability, and they almost always work and sell first pass, no
prototypes.

** Fraid that load of drivel has not one thing to do my post !!!

JL completely ignores all criticism and any thoughts that he did not have himself, rates them as worthless along with the person who communicates them..

He does this for the exact same reason he leaves the room when friends arrive, cannot watch a film or enjoy music the way normal folk do.

BTW: these are all facts that JL posted here himself, unaware of what he was doing.

Calling him an "asshole" is being more than kind.



..... Phil

 

[John Larkin]

On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 15:33:01 -0700 (PDT), tabbypurr@gmail.com wrote:

On Monday, 16 September 2019 23:21:01 UTC+1, Phil Allison wrote:

Calling him an "asshole" is being more than kind.



.... Phil

What happened to trigger all this?

He goes rancid even when I agree with him.

 

On Monday, 16 September 2019 23:45:08 UTC+1, John Larkin wrote:

On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 15:33:01 -0700 (PDT), tabbypurr wrote:
On Monday, 16 September 2019 23:21:01 UTC+1, Phil Allison wrote:

Calling him an "asshole" is being more than kind.

What happened to trigger all this?

He goes rancid even when I agree with him.

He's not usually /this/ bad though.

 

[Anthony Stewart]

Professionals ought to know better than to write derogatory name-calling and ought to be aware of some of the 144 Rules of Bad Logic by Aristotle, called fallacies, before they jump to false conclusions.

JL wrote "Analysis of electronic systems is pure science. Design is almost pure emotion and personality. So, both matter. You need a design before you
can analyze it."

-----------

Perhaps some do well this way in isolation... but a good design might start with a paper napkin sketch but needs to develop into great specs 1st.

So often this is the hardest part of design to get right and requires collaboration, and R&D on best practices and handling of faults.

That only comes with lots of great experience: and lots of corrected failures. Specify everything that is important, (Must-have vs nice-to-have, budget, time and make sure it measurable.

Spec all the stress conditions , acceptable logic and tolerances of the process outputs.

-----
The 2nd part is research skills to find what has been already done, then make, buy or delegate on subsystem parts.


The 3rd part demands the creative skills but lots of experience for realization with DFM, DFC, DFT with margin tests instead of simply pass/fail. This starts at the beginning and is not an afterthought , but can be a final check of the design before build.

The 4th part demands test skills to verify form, fit function and fault detection and handling then validate the design with test margin measurements against accepted tolerances and accelerated MTBF, along with multi-vector testing.


The rest depends on your budget and schedule but Corporate practices demand closure of all problems logged before FCS.


Tony


EE since 1975.

 

[Phil Allison]

Anthony Stewart pontificated:

---------------------------

Professionals ought to know better than to write derogatory name-calling

** Genuine professionals never do what JL does here all the time.

He ain't one nor is any other regular poster.

This NG is a den of nutters.

and ought to be aware of some of the 144 Rules of Bad Logic by Aristotle,
called fallacies, before they jump to false conclusions.

** Err - like you just did ?

JL wrote "Analysis of electronic systems is pure science.
Design is almost pure emotion and personality. So, both matter.
You need a design before you can analyze it."

** Why did you pull that completely out from its original context?

Makes it look almost like something wise.

Put back in the original context, it appears quite absurd.


FYI:

Context shifting is evil.

Along with over snipping, it's the weapon of choice for trolls & nut cases.



..... Phil

 

[Rick C]

On Sunday, September 15, 2019 at 2:20:35 AM UTC-4, Phil Allison wrote:

Prick Cunt farted:

------------------



** Oh, but it is VERY much ON topic.

The health & welfare of any NG comes way ahead of the nominal topic.

That's what bullies, trolls and anonymous assholes always say when they
want to be bullies, trolls and anonymous assholes.


** What pathetic, irrational garbage.

Posters like Prick Cunt are part of the problem, so naturally do not want anything here to change.


NGs infested with bullies, trolls and anonymous assholes
publicly slandering identified posters are very unhealthy.

Like this one.

Yes, the only thing worse is when bullies, trolls and anonymous assholes respond to the other bullies, trolls and anonymous assholes.


** Mr Cunt has a real issue with making even the simplest effort at rational thinking. It completely alludes him.

Wot a worthless scumbag.


..... Phil

I wonder if Phil and DLU are actually the same person. I see a lot in common with their posts.

--

Rick C.

+- Get 2,000 miles of free Supercharging
+- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Rick C]

On Monday, September 16, 2019 at 10:10:53 PM UTC-4, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

Oh, I'm sorry I strayed from the original topic of this thread. My
bad.

Actually, every post you make in this thread is not only spot on topic, but proves the original thesis.

--

Rick C.

++ Get 2,000 miles of free Supercharging
++ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 15:20:56 -0700 (PDT), Phil Allison
<pallison49@gmail.com> wrote:

jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

------------------------------------------


Who designs electronics, the topic here?



** It's not really, the topic is simply the *discussion* of "electronics design".

You do not have to be a professional designer yourself to possess much useful knowledge about design issues.

** This is JL's big mistake and a major misunderstanding **.

Like one does not have to be a chicken to tell a rotten egg - working as designer does not even make you expert on your own designs.

Rather, the close personal involvement tends to make you blind to errors & shortcomings in your design and the ability to recognise better ideas than yours even exist. Your design is your baby and so you love it.

Good designs are more often the work of teams, with each member able to review and criticise the ideas of the others. Having a damn good look at competing designs never hurts too, in fact it is common sense to do so if only to learn from other's mistakes.

In all the cases of terrible blunders and plain bad design I have seen produced over the years - they turn out to be the work of just one person.

Typically smug egomaniacs, just like JL.



Our designs are good, extreme performance and near-perfect
reliability, and they almost always work and sell first pass, no
prototypes.


** Fraid that load of drivel has not one thing to do my post !!!

Oh, I'm sorry I strayed from the original topic of this thread. My
bad.

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Tuesday, September 17, 2019 at 11:25:25 AM UTC+10, Rick C wrote:

On Sunday, September 15, 2019 at 2:20:35 AM UTC-4, Phil Allison wrote:
Prick Cunt farted:

------------------



** Oh, but it is VERY much ON topic.

The health & welfare of any NG comes way ahead of the nominal topic.

That's what bullies, trolls and anonymous assholes always say when they
want to be bullies, trolls and anonymous assholes.


** What pathetic, irrational garbage.

Posters like Prick Cunt are part of the problem, so naturally do not want anything here to change.


NGs infested with bullies, trolls and anonymous assholes
publicly slandering identified posters are very unhealthy.

Like this one.

Yes, the only thing worse is when bullies, trolls and anonymous assholes respond to the other bullies, trolls and anonymous assholes.


** Mr Cunt has a real issue with making even the simplest effort at rational thinking. It completely alludes him.

Wot a worthless scumbag.


..... Phil

I wonder if Phil and DLU are actually the same person. I see a lot in common with their posts.

Rick C isn't as perceptive as he ought to be.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Tuesday, September 17, 2019 at 12:10:49 AM UTC+10, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 00:32:45 -0700 (PDT), Phil Allison
pallison49@gmail.com> wrote:

jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

-------------------------------------------

Who designs electronics, the topic here?



** It's not really, the topic is simply the *discussion* of "electronics design".

You do not have to be a professional designer yourself to possess much useful knowledge about design issues.

** This is JL's big mistake and a major misunderstanding **.

Like one does not have to be a chicken to tell a rotten egg - working as designer does not even make you expert on your own designs.

Rather, the close personal involvement tends to make you blind to errors & shortcomings in your design and the ability to recognise better ideas than yours even exist. Your design is your baby and so you love it.

Good designs are more often the work of teams, with each member able to review and criticise the ideas of the others. Having a damn good look at competing designs never hurts too, in fact it is common sense to do so if only to learn from other's mistakes.

In all the cases of terrible blunders and plain bad design I have seen produced over the years - they turn out to be the work of just one person.

Typically smug egomaniacs, just like JL.

Our designs are good, extreme performance and near-perfect
reliability, and they almost always work and sell first pass, no
prototypes.

In other words, they don't move forward very far. John has said that the typical period from concept to release is two weeks.

This is evolution by incremental change, not the creation of new designs.

One reason is that we have a lot of brainstorming before
we do the design, lots of informal discussion and whiteboarding, and
at least three formal team-based reviews.

Seems to be something of an overkill for such tiny tweaks.

I don't do the FPGAs or the C code, or the test stands, and I dole out
little side tasks to the kids on the hardware side. You are right,
electronic design is complex and hazardous and no individual should
trust himself to get everything right. There a few ways to get
something right and thousands of ways to get it wrong.

Team design is fun.

I work with one giant company that plans five iterations before final
release to production. They are slow by roughly a factor of 8, and
some designs are abandoned.

Which is to say that they are doing genuine innovative design, as opposed to incremental tweaking. When you take on a new challenge, or decide that you can do something routine in a decidedly different way there's a lot more design space to explore, and quite a few dead ends.

John Larkin doesn't seem to know about the rip-it-up-and-start-over moments that are part and parcel of innovative design.

I also work with some giant companies that used to do electronic
design but don't any more. When their EEs retired, they didn't replace
them.

Once the technology is mature, you can sub-contract the process of keeping up with technological change. You miss out when the technological change opens up new possibilities, like the railway executives who found out that they were in transportation, rather than railways, but that used to happen only once a generation, if that.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Phil Allison]

Bill Sloman wrote:

-----------------

I wonder if Phil and DLU are actually the same person.
I see a lot in common with their posts.

Rick C isn't as perceptive as he ought to be.

** Which I think is Sloman code for "the guy is self deluded".

FYI to all:

Bill *does* enjoy using understatement, with a fair sized dollop of irony.

I was slightly taken aback, a couple of week ago, when he made his first ever phone call to me. The fellow speaks slowly and softly - with a distinct, educated British accent.

I believe he was born and raised in Tasmania, so ought to have an Aussie accent like me - but it got over-written because of a long stint the UK.

That pommy accent is, however, enough to make many Aussies wary of him ...



..... Phil

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Tuesday, September 17, 2019 at 1:27:08 PM UTC+10, Phil Allison wrote:

Bill Sloman wrote:

-----------------


I wonder if Phil and DLU are actually the same person.
I see a lot in common with their posts.

Rick C isn't as perceptive as he ought to be.



** Which I think is Sloman code for "the guy is self deluded".

FYI to all:

Bill *does* enjoy using understatement, with a fair sized dollop of irony..

I was slightly taken aback, a couple of week ago, when he made his first ever phone call to me. The fellow speaks slowly and softly - with a distinct, educated British accent.

I believe he was born and raised in Tasmania, so ought to have an Aussie accent like me - but it got over-written because of a long stint the UK.

That pommy accent is, however, enough to make many Aussies wary of him ....

It only sounds English to other Australians, who don't notice the underlying Australian phonemic choices. I had to shift my vowel spectrum to get by in the UK - my father couldn't get his foreign audiences to distinguish between his articulation of the "sulphite process" and the "sulphate process" in paper making, and had to switch to other names.

Phoneticians - even Australian ones - don't make that mistake.

My nephrologist - who rejoices in the splendidly Australian name of Sevastos - shares Phil's perception.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Cursitor Doom]

On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 15:33:01 -0700, tabbypurr wrote:

On Monday, 16 September 2019 23:21:01 UTC+1, Phil Allison wrote:

Calling him an "asshole" is being more than kind.



.... Phil

What happened to trigger all this?

Phil: "the photo you posted is a bit fuzzy but I think that's a 0.1uF cap
there that's your problem."

Innocent bystander: "With all due respect, are you certain? I think it
may be 1uF."

Phil: "you fucking mentally retarded autistic cunt, you know fuck all
about anything let alone capacitors get your eyes tested (and your brain)
then go fuck off and die."

Innocent bystander: "well I never!"

It doesn't take much does it?



--
This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via
the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other
protocols, whether for profit or not, is conditional upon a charge of
GBP10.00 per reproduction. Publication in this manner via non-Usenet
protocols constitutes acceptance of this condition.

 

On Tuesday, 17 September 2019 01:01:04 UTC+1, Anthony Stewart wrote:

> Professionals ought to know better than to write derogatory name-calling and

this group seems to be going through a period of great childishness at the moment. Either it will improve or some posters will get plonked by nearly everyone.


> ought to be aware of some of the 144 Rules of Bad Logic by Aristotle, called fallacies, before they jump to false conclusions.

remarkable how many are not capable of such thinking, even among so-called experts.

JL wrote "Analysis of electronic systems is pure science. Design is almost pure emotion and personality. So, both matter. You need a design before you
can analyze it."

-----------

Perhaps some do well this way in isolation... but a good design might start with a paper napkin sketch but needs to develop into great specs 1st.

So often this is the hardest part of design to get right and requires collaboration, and R&D on best practices and handling of faults.

That only comes with lots of great experience: and lots of corrected failures. Specify everything that is important, (Must-have vs nice-to-have, budget, time and make sure it measurable.

Spec all the stress conditions , acceptable logic and tolerances of the process outputs.

-----
The 2nd part is research skills to find what has been already done, then make, buy or delegate on subsystem parts.


The 3rd part demands the creative skills but lots of experience for realization with DFM, DFC, DFT with margin tests instead of simply pass/fail. This starts at the beginning and is not an afterthought , but can be a final check of the design before build.

The 4th part demands test skills to verify form, fit function and fault detection and handling then validate the design with test margin measurements against accepted tolerances and accelerated MTBF, along with multi-vector testing.


The rest depends on your budget and schedule but Corporate practices demand closure of all problems logged before FCS.


Tony


EE since 1975.

Some of that lot depends on budget too. At the bottom end no-one cares about margins, if it works ok it's out the door. Too many companies ship it if it almost works.


NT

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Tuesday, September 17, 2019 at 6:27:38 PM UTC+10, Cursitor Doom wrote:

On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 15:33:01 -0700, tabbypurr wrote:

On Monday, 16 September 2019 23:21:01 UTC+1, Phil Allison wrote:

Calling him an "asshole" is being more than kind.



.... Phil

What happened to trigger all this?

Phil: "the photo you posted is a bit fuzzy but I think that's a 0.1uF cap
there that's your problem."

Innocent bystander: "With all due respect, are you certain? I think it
may be 1uF."

Phil: "you fucking mentally retarded autistic cunt, you know fuck all
about anything let alone capacitors get your eyes tested (and your brain)
then go fuck off and die."

Innocent bystander: "well I never!"

It doesn't take much does it?

Cursitor Doom hasn't post the date, time or subject line for this exchange, which does lead one to suspect that Cursitor Doom is relying on his memory rather than quoting something that was actually posted.

His perceptions aren't all that reliable, and his enthusiasm for fitting the reality he perceives to his idiosyncratic world view do shape what he thinks he sees.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney