USB microscopes for very small SMT

Yes, but unfortunately not in the Netherlands. We always envied you for the dumphandel shops (surplus outlets). The closest one was in Margraten, Zuid Limburg, so we made regular treks. Four guys to a car, coming back with the bumper almost scraping the road. Then I moved to Zuid Limburg myself and life was good!

I'm still a couple of years from graduation, but the real problem is we are litterally an ocean apart. But thank you, i might just do it anyway!

I apologise.

I said book, but is not really "book" "book", sorry, for that, i wanted to transmit an idea, that's why i mentioned the HP Journal, instead of a full blown hard-cover book, i sugest someting like "articles", small snipets, that are self contained, whith a whole story, tutorial, insider look, aproach, whatever, that you can write in a few hours and put it on the web, or on your hard disk with instructions for it's release. That way it's done while it's fresh and you have the details on your mind.

Setting yourselves to write a real book is a task that will be delegated until "i have time" but, by then many ideas will have faded/forgotten to provide enough material.

Best Regards Steve Sousa

Well, is not really the teachers, but i've only met only one or two analog guys, it's got a lot to do with the market, where i see everything going to "software". I'm convinced that analog skills are much more valuable, any EE can program, but few can draw an analog circuit. And i find it very interesting, but i'm afraid of serious circuits being too complicated.

Yes, that was the idea, please see my reply to JL for that.

Best Regards

Steve Sousa

The economy in the US is pretty bad right now. I've had several SW/firmware/FPGA/uC guys call me. They all need contracts or jobs. None of the analog guys ever called so far ...

Yes, the web is best for publishing these days. No censoring from peer reviewers or editors and not much in cost. But right now I am using my free time for other stuff, like ministry and tech help at church etc. Some things are way more important than electronics can ever be ;-)

I switched jobs (contact to different permanent position in a another state) in August. I occasionally get calls, even though I pulled my resume from the usual places. I've had a few for FPGA work in the past couple weeks. The market isn't dead, at least if one isn't tied to one area of the country.

Hard to make money though.

Bite your tongue! ;-) electronicss make other things possible. ;-)

True. In CA there seems to be a wait-and-see effect, especially after the major tax grab announcements by the dems here. If they really do the source tax thing we might see some form of exodus and more biz closures.

I wouldn't do that for the money.

Yes, even at church. That's why the IT guy and I will do a major re-design of the audio/video booth after Christmas. The payment for those kinds of jobs is of spiritual nature :-)

Who can say that Joerg wasn't put here specifically to write books on electronics so as to indirectly bring people closer to God. :-)

Back in the '80s there was a guy with a small company selling Commodore 64 software with all of two products: Big Blue Reader, which let you read PC format floppries on your C-64, and a bible search program. I always kinda wondered which he sold more of... Oh, hey, he's still around! Michael Miller,

---Joel

few

program,

I'm surprised there is anyone left. There are so many better places to do business.

Some are independently wealthy. Others aren't. ;-)

Having fun isn't the way to heaven. ;-)

Got any hints there? Two requirements:

a. Property taxes >>>>> When I begin to (partially) retire I will. But not as a book, it'll be on

I am not. Wealth is not the way to heaven. Or as the apostle Paul said "You came onto the earth with nothing and you sure can't take anything out of it".

It can be :-)

Lots of places to stay away from, but yes.

Percentage is a poor measure of property tax. That said, mine is about .5% (about 1% with a 50% homestead exemption).

It's been in the 70s all week. ;-) It's been kinda rainy lately, but we seem to get about 6 days of sun a week.

on

Money isn't everything, unless the cupboards are bare. There are so many things to do, an effort like that had better pay well on the monetary scale. A couple of friends wrote a SOI text and paid dearly for the effort with spousal grief. If they got paid it was a minisule amount.

Do you have to pretend it isn't? ;-)

I wrote a book because (a) most of my optics colleagues were suddenly gone, and (b) I'd seen the amount of waste and pain that resulted from people making the same mistakes over and over again, and I thought I could help.

The other two benefits are business development if you're a consultant (see Howard Johnson) and job portability if you aren't. Anyway, you guys should complain--there are at least 10 times more electronics folk than optical ones, so your customer base won't be too shabby by comparision. ;)

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

I wrote a book because (a) most of my optics colleagues were suddenly gone, and (b) I'd seen the amount of waste and pain that resulted from people making the same mistakes over and over again, and I thought I could help.

The other two benefits are business development if you're a consultant (see Howard Johnson) and job portability if you aren't. Anyway, you guys should complain--there are at least 10 times more electronics folk than optical ones, so your customer base won't be too shabby by comparision. ;)

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Where, where?

Do you have a hard cap on that where politicos can't suddenly reach deeper into your pockets?

Where?

on

Agreed, you can't let that stuff take over your life. Especially not family life.

No. Once I asked our pastor whether there would be beer in heaven. "I sure hope so!"

So true. I am involved with optics stuff now. Five things I observed:

a. A lot of stuff is in the gray zone. You've got to know or be surrounded by people who know. I guess some people feel about analog the same way.

b. Many companies in the laser/fiber/optics world are rather short-lived. Me, feeling like the hero of the hour: "Hey, I found a part that might just be the ticket" ... "Oh, forget it, that company croaked last year, it's probably a parking lot by now".

c. Even when high level experts of the trade say it can't be done, that does not mean that it can't be done. I found a really nice saying on a web site: Man who says it cannot be done must not slow down man who is doing it.

d. Disconnect between electronics and optics engineering. I've seen controller eval boards where I slapped my forehead. Stuff with large heat sinks that us dudes would do with a handful of 3-cent transistors, the el-cheapo TO-92 plastic variety. And then us dudes are completely lost when they talk about nanometers and picometers and we must frantically translate all that into the Hertzian domain. To many optics engineers, except for line width Hertz must be a car rental place.

e. Optics folks love freaking expensive butterfly packages that are an utter nightmare from an RF point of view. Gimmee a TO-package, any TO package, and I'm happy.

Great list. One of the things about starting out in electronics as a kid and then doing physics and astronomy in university is that I picked up the all the math I needed along the way, with the result that my training centres on that gray area. There's a _lot_ of low-hanging fruit still there.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

And pretty soon we'll both be "senior gleaners" ;-)

I never liked math, only learned what I really needed. Sometimes that still haunts me. I had to calculate an elliptic filter with a weird load on there this morning. Boy, had that math stuff become rusty. Almost took a pick-axe to get it going again.

Nah, I just turned 49. Besides, I possess the fountain of youth--my beloved wife is older than I am. ;)

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Pretty much anywhere the weenies are outnumbered. I now live in Eastern Alabama.

Where there is a "hard" cap, 1) it's there for a reason, 2) it's never "hard". You're seeing the results of this in CA now. It's better to stay away from weenies so such things aren't needed.

Auburn Alabama area. Auburn is a small college city (small city, large college) so is more a bit more weenie-ish than the surrounding area but still nothing like the Northeast or West. I live in the next city so prices are lower and get more land for the dollar (schools are quite as good but the brat is long past that).

There isn't much technology in the area but Atlanta is only 100mi up I85. AIUI, Atlanta is pretty cheap too. Airport to everywhere too.

be on

Writing books takes time. If one isn't a professional writer that time tends to come from time the family also claims.

Obviously not Catholic. ;-)

That works for me too. ;-)