This is one of those "infrequent commercial postings" :) Or maybe I'm just trying to stay abreast with Tim Wescott. Anyway, some of you may be interested to know that my latest book has been released. I'm rather proud of it - I think it's my best to date - and here's the Amazon.com link:
[The listing does not currently have Amazon's "search inside" feature. I've asked my editor about this, since my other books DO offer that feature].It's aimed mainly at people who are seeking to migrate into the embedded engineering field; it talks about the pros and cons of being an EE in a freelance capacity, at a small company, or at a large company. I tried to include lots of humor and real-world anecdotes to make the book an enjoyable read. You'll likely detect a strong dash of both Douglas and Scott Adams in my humor, which is probably inevitable.
If your kids want to become EEs (or maybe if they don't...) this book may be useful. It is roughly divided into three sections:
- discussion of education paths that lead to the field (including unusual routes and advice to the nondegreed)
- a large section covering "hardware guys" who want to start working with small micros, and high-level "software guys" currently working on desktop OSes, who want to start working with large micros (this section tries to give some answers to the "what micro do I learn on?" type of question and as such it describes several architectures at both ends of the size spectrum)
- a description of what it's like to work as a freelancer, at a small company and at a large company - stresses, benefits, survival tactics, and how to land a job of this type.
As I warn in the book's introduction, a lot of what I say in the text is argued hotly in Usenet (and anywhere else where engineers gather). I'm presenting my viewpoints from the trenches as a contractor, a small-company engineer, and a large-company engineer.
(ObDisclosure: The above link collects referral fees for me if you use it. If that bothers you, just search for my name - see below - on amazon.com).
-- Lewin A.R.W. Edwards
I'm always looking for feedback. If you have comments, please feel free to email me (this return address is real).