Is Electronics Addictive?

I'm still nearsighted, just less than I used to be, so I'd probably fool him.

When I get my lenses replaced one of these years, I think I'll elect to stay nearsighted. Nearsighted is handy for electronics.

We're working on a laser timing controller that will be used for opthalamic treatment. One use is cataract surgery. The other, more interesting, is to use a laser to un-stiffen lenses in old people and restore their range of focus.

John

Old people, does that mean you and me alike?

Jamie

I don't think it's the same one. There are a couple of links on the web:

which gives an idea of the scale of the thing and:

gives a brief description. It cost 750,000 ukp to build in 1950-54 at taxpayers expense and consumed 690Kw running. It was designed to model aircraft and missile motion in real time in 3 dimensions.

Soon to be overtaken by digital computing no doubt, but what a machine :-)...

As for tsr2, I had friends at Oxford Uni Engineering lab in the 60's and the light current lab had a load of tsr2 bits donated. A couple of the autonetics RECOMP digital navigation computers and a load of slant range and other analogue computer assemblies. Servo motors, resolvers and early brush type shaft encoders. Probably all got binned later, sadly.

Sort of thing you never hear much about, but it would be interesting to see the manuals for TRIDAC, if anything still survives...

Regards,

Chris

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=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Mikek

IIRR men typically need bifocals from when they hit 50, women from 45. Varifocal lenses are less obvious, if you don't want people to know when you hit these age-groups.

My father went for tri-focals - the third focal range was good for reading meters a foot or so away in a control panel. I find I use the intermediate focus in my vari-focal lenses when I'm looking at my computer monitor.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Three EE's that I know have all given up on electronics as a hobby. One rebuilds old tractors and other farm machinery with the Historical Society, one is into woodworking, and the other has started a furniture repair/refinishing business. I guess doing it for a living for 35-40 years ruined it as a hobby for them.

I'm an ex chemist turned computer programmer. I always claimed I didn't go into electronics as a job because I didn't want to ruin a good hobby. I have noticed that I did more hobby programming when I was doing architecture design or project management at work rather than actual programming.

Pretty much. I've been doing it for 37 years now (41 if you count the years I was in college, working as a technician). I never did much electronics as a hobby after graduation. As I said, I've gotten enough at work. Actually, I took my current job so I could do more design and less BS. ;-)

I haven't done any "hobby programming" since high school (well, I did a little in the early '80s when PCs came out). Icky stuff! ;-)

That I would pay mucho good money for. Establish company or startup?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

John, for the love of DeForest, SNIP already.

Thanks,

Jim

Snip posts yourself if it matters to you.

John

"Bill Sutton" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@news.tpg.com.au...

Humans can become addicted to electronics like they can to every human activity even live itself. And yes, I know men that once did electronics and later got other interests.

petrus bitbyter

I also think that if done early enough in life, it's a great way to confuse/annoy ones parents. For example, they have no idea what you really want as a birthday gift, and even when you tell them, they still have no idea what a volt- ohm-milliamp meter is... :)

Or in my case, you can wire the toaster to the doorbell. (kidding, but just barely)

I can tell you this: When the big ship comes in (if if comes), my "plan" is to ditch all my soldering irons, contribute my PC's to the artificial reef system, and go enjoy life for a while.!

One of the big problems EE's seem to have is that technology moves so fast that if they take a few years off they have a lot of catching up to do before they can do anything other than legacy problems. Plus the fact that there are more whiz kids (non-degree, highly competent) than ever.

There are a lot of enterprises that use the EE for certification and a few whiz kids to get the job done. Some get tired of studying while others enjoy it!

BTW, I like old tractors, woodworking (have pretty good shop), RC model airplanes, dogs, guns, metal working, Micro Processors....etc... John Ferrell W8CCW

It's hard to find good circuit designers, at any age. The kids tend to be CS/java/digital types, so few of them can do "real" electronics.

Every kid should be required to do a little machining and a little welding and a little electronics before they can graduate from high school. There is one private high school near me, tuition around $40K per year, where welding is a required course.

John

My position was open for at least a year before I interviewed. They couldn't find anyone who could tell them the gain of a simple op amp circuit or even what a P-FET switch did.

I'd have liked to learn those skills. Don't know what I'd do with them, though.

$40K?! Yikes! When I lived in VT, the local public high school had a county-wide "Technology Center", where they taught the trades (50% trades, 50%

Any idea how many applicants and/or interviews they conducted during that time?

Coupla dozen, or so I'm told. Enough to be willing to pay something like $50K to the head hunter and movers. ;-)

"Addiction" is a label applied by the self-righteous so that they can feel superior to people who do what they enjoy that the self-righteous disapprove of.

Well, actually, I kinda got left in the dust some time ago when everything turned to invisible surface-mount parts and DSP chips. )-;

Thanks, Rich

My folks supported me to the point where when I was in fifth grade, they got me a one-transistor experimenter kit (ca. 1959). I upped the output with another transistor that I got from Allied, and won the blue ribbon at the science fair. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

My mom opened a revolving credit account with Allied.

John