You are well known for your modesty, Jim :-)
-- "Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it." (Stephen Leacock)
I've run into patent attorneys, as well as the USPO, that simply did not understand what was being described, so I can understand that Jim's assertion ( while not eloquently stated :>))) ) might be valid.
Patent attorneys are lawyers, few are engineers, and NONE are experienced design engineers. They became lawyers, in my opinion, because they were not able to experience the elation that comes with building something that actually works....... just an opinion tho....
My disclosures were far better documented and illustrated than the normal, and I have had very very few requests for clarification. They just took my stuff, added about 2 pounds of redundant description that was, to me, pretty damn incomprehinsible, and submitted it to the USPO..... My first submission was the only one that has ever been denied.... but , to this day, I can't understand about 2/3 rds of the crap that the patent guy submitted, or the reason for it...... No matter, I still got my patent awards, and I don't really care if the next guy that reads it understood it or not --- he could always call me up for the real scoop.....
Patents are things you hang on an " I love ME" wall to stare at when you get depressed, or to send Xerox copies to Mom and Dad to show them that you turned out OK in spite of their accusations of being the Anti-Christ in your teenage years......
Other than that, and maybe a few monetary rewards (if you are very lucky and some manager doesn't get them instead), I've found that patents don't mean much. I even stopped putting reference to them on my resumes.... It seems that hiring managers and HR weenies don't know a damn thing about it, and it makes the applicant look like an egomaniac anyway.....
So, my grandchildren may be suitably impressed someday, but I doubt that anyone else, except myself, will.....
:>))))) Andy
I prefer: "We all have our bears to cross!" ;-)
-- Link to my "Computers for disabled Veterans" project website deleted after threats were telephoned to my church. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida
I was recently hired to oversee rework of a badly done design, because I "was no nonsense, and go straight for the throat" ;-)
Actually, all of the patent attorneys at Motorola were educated first as engineers... keeping in mind that this was 40 years ago.
[snip]Sno-o-o-o-ort! ROTFLMAO! Ain't that the truth ;-)
[snip]...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
ISBN: 0070417237
I bought a hardcover version, US$3.95 about 6 hours ago :)
It'll go nicely with my collection of SEEC books. and others.
Any more bookshelf recommendations? I've gar(d)nered (sorry, couldnt help that) all the PLL books you mentioned a while back, a worthwhile exercise.
Cheers Terry
I did that fifteen years ago for a manager that I'd worked "next" to for several years. My report wasn't pretty and the (incompetent) guy soon left in a hissyfit. As an example, he had a byte-wide port on a "chip" (to be named later) called "display". He had no clue that the display he'd specified (an *old* HP LED matrix) and long cast into the product by the mechanical guys, had a vertical bitwise serial interface and there was nothing in the "chip" to do the conversions, much less the multiplexing of that sort of power. I got it done, but it wasn't pretty (it got uglyer after I accepted the job).
On the good side, I was allowed to do it right on the next system and had a big hammer to beat the mechanical and human-factors people into line. ;-)
They are in IBM too. In fact, I thought that was a requirement (relevant science and law degree). The USPTO tends to hire newly minted engineers though. They soon leave to make (much) more money on the other side.
I think mine is in a box in the garage somewhere. Pay me the money.
I hear some employers find them interesting. Other than that, it's still money. ;-)
-- Keith
I *am* going to remember that one! Thanks.
BTW, you never answered me about the PC-for-vets thing. Your responder said that you would get back, but needed time. Well! ;-)
-- Keith
Win, I think I had better not...he didn't give me permission to publish it. And it was close enough to the RF Design version that they wouldn't be too keen either.
Steve
keith wrote:
I apologize. There have been too many thing going on, and I missed a few things. I started this week of with an electrical fire in my home, and spent the week before dealing with the problem caused for my church. I now understand why I have never seen a breaker box signed off by an electrical contractor who is still in business around here. The breaker box was mounted 20 inches from the floor in an outside wall of a bedroom with no insulation around or behind it. That let moisture condensed on the buss bars. Then, there was no "No-Ox" on the breaker tabs so they corroded. I was expecting company in a couple weeks so I turned on the air conditioner for the family room because it is rarely used. 20 seconds later I heard a loud buzzing noise and limped to the master bedroom to see flames coming out of the breaker box. I beat the flames out with my hand so I could shut the main breaker off. The 20 Amp 240 AC breaker for the AC burnt, and one of the tabs to the buss bar burnt off at the main breaker. I have power in one side of the house for now, till they replace the box and some damaged wire. If I hadn't walked to the other side of the house I wouldn't have heard the arcing, and would have likely lost the whole house. Its a good thing that the bastard who wired the house is already dead, because he would wish he was before I was was finished dragging him through the court system. I still haven't got the odor of burnt bakelite out of the house. Its a good thing I spend most of my time in the cottage behind the house.
E-mail me at snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net for information on the project, or take a look at
-- Link to my "Computers for disabled Veterans" project website deleted after threats were telephoned to my church. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida
No need. I figured you were busy.
Oh, my! Your luck could use some improvement! Al wire, without "No-Ox", in FL? Yikes! I have a little Al wiring in my house (entrance and range) and there is no No-Ox on the terminals, at least on the range. They look clean, should I worry? I'll be pulling it all apart again in a couple of weeks to replace the floor, so that would be a good time to inspect the whole thing again.
Thanks, I'll take a look when I get some time. I'll ask around to see if there is any interest in such things here. I have friends in a local VFW, where I've been invited to suck down a few brews in an hour or so. ;-)
-- Keith
I bought a new house in 1969. ALL wiring was aluminum since we were in the midst of a multi-year-long copper-workers strike.
A few years later we had a receptacle fire. Fortunately I was home.
Until then I had no idea that aluminum wire was problematic.
So I disassembled EVERY joint in the house, applied sandpaper and then No-Ox.
Never had another problem. Lived in that house for 25 years.
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
It was all copper wire that burnt in the breaker box. Now there isn't enough left to hook some things back up until new wire is pulled. I refused to allow them to put a hidden junction box under the crawl space where I can't physically inspect it, and I don't like splices right at a "Romex" clamp.. The house had two boxes, a breaker box and a fuse box. The main fuse box was replaced five years ago, and the box that replaced it has enough spare spaces for the other circuits. The new box is fed from the one that burnt, so the main breaker was replaced with a 50 amp lower in the box. Till the repairs are finished I won't have central air conditioning, or lights in three rooms. It may be fall before I have the money to pay for the rest of the work.
As far as the "No-Ox", it doesn't hurt. Any aluminum wire needs to be re-tightened from time to time, and the "No-Ox" helps prevent the aluminum from forming an insulating layer that will heat up as the aluminum cold flows in the clamp or lug.
The fuse box in the detached four car garage was mounted eight inches from the floor in the center of a side wall. It was replaced when the fuse box in the house was replaced. It is three feet inside the door now, and at eye level with most of the "Romex" wiring replaced with EMT. Its obvious there was never a spark there, because the previous owner was a "Florida snow bird" who let her friends store their cars for the summer.
-- Link to my "Computers for disabled Veterans" project website deleted after threats were telephoned to my church. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida
Usually range connections are under heavy compression, so they should be OK.
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Our house was built in '86 (by a moron, but that's another issue). I've heard the No-Ox thing two ways. If Al-Cu (or whatever they're called) are used, and that's what's in there, then No-Ox isn't required. ...and of course the opposite. I'll be taking the outlet box apart when I replace the floor, so I can use the No-Ox then, if it's recommended (and of course the other end too). I pulled it apart when I replaced the range a couple of years ago and everything looked good, so I left it be then.
-- Keith
That's what I thought, but others have said otherwise. The last time I pulled it all apart everything was *clean*. If it was clean after 15+ years, I didn't thing it was a major problem. Thanks.
-- Keith > > ...Jim Thompson
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