Why the hell is everything on allocation?

The economy is recovering ...

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

RS just ****ed me.

Ordered 50 ethernet modules ex-stock. They gave me the runaround for a week chasing them, waiting for email responses from a department that "did not have a phone line", telling me they were on the carrier etc. Now they say they never had them, meanwhile everyone else has sold out too.

For non-UK readers, RS is a very expensive catalog based component distributor whose *only* virtue is good stockholding and customer service...

Another company to add to my List. .

But no executives have the balls to take some of the excess cash that the companies are accruing, and put it into 2nd- or 3rd shifts.

I note huge stock issues with Farnell. Many lines are out of stock and others are very low levels.

Because no one knows how much adding 40 million new people to the health care entitlements will cost. And it will cost.

Very simple. They just add them in Malaysia, then that problem goes away.

Mostly because manufacturers screwed up. They throttled back way too much and now can't get the stock rooms filled. Plus lots of purchasers have resorted to squirreling away stashes and stashes into inventory, and I even recommended same to some of my clients where unique parts were involved. I know CFOs hate this but it sure is better than a full-blown line stop in production.

Be _very_ careful that you get the genuine diodes and not some re-labeled stuff. I have even heard of cases where the first few in a tube were the real McCoy and then all the rest were fakes.

Digikey has 47 of them. Doesn't look good. Other than them only Allied carries it and no stock. That sure looks like it ought to be designed out, and prontissimo.

1. 40 weeks means that they have yet to dig the mines for the basic materials. 2. The Chines can get anything...all they have to do is re-brand dead parts pulled from our scrap.

There is a VERY simple run-around solution to that dictatorial BS. Simply lay off EVERY employee and then pay (at higher rate) them to do their original jobs as consultants. The higher rate will be equal to the original total cost of wages plus benefits not directly paid plus "unemployment" plus whatever else is in the hidden mix. Arrange independent insurers already set-up for small businesses to be available, group programs, etc to be available for them. This way, everyone is working for themselves and there are a LOT of "taxes" bypassed - including union abuses i might add.

I don't think it's so simple -- the main sticking point, as I understand it, is that per the IRS consultants must be "largely" able to set their own work hours and work places. While that actually works for a lot of people who currently have to show up at a desk everyday, it certainly doesn't work for, e.g., manufacturing jobs and even when technically it could many businesses just aren't willing to "let go of the reins" with their employees.

That being said, for those who end up buying a lot of computers, test equipment, etc. at home for their own hobbyist uses, there's a certain attraction to those items being turned into legitimate business expenses that can be purchased with pre-tax dollars! Even with people who aren't doing engineering, many workers today end up doing some work at home, and at present they're paying for a laptop, monitor, desk, chair, etc. with what really "should" be pre-tax dollars, IMO.

In many cases health insurers can't even work across state lines -- and that was one of the few health care reform proposals that most conservatives did support.

---Joel

I chose the SBT150 for a tidy up of a design where I am building 50 off. Distributors seem to stock that sort of quantity. SO it was an obvious choice for a new unit.

Today I've just got the first prototype on my desk to test. Customer then says 1000 before Christmas. Not too late to change the diode but it needs to be a stock part.

I found a nice ON Semi diode. Ooops, not available either.

I'll have to settle for an ST part which isn't quite as low loss but should work well enough.

It seems to me that US distributors are holding much better stock levels than those in the UK. Most of the parts seem to be in stock with Mouser and Digikey.

One rule is that they make most of the decisions themselves. What to work on when, how to go about it, and so on.

The real problem is that, unless you get some (expensive) group plan going, they will turn down everyone who has the slightest speck of uncertainty on their health history. That can be as simple as part of your health history being in another country and language. BT :-(

Is that the design you had discussed here a while ago? Meaning you've got all the issues licked? That would be great!

Nowadays I always open the Digikey page before the first part goes onto a new design, with the "In stock" box checked. Then I look at the stock number. If that ain't in the serious four digits I move on until I find a part that is.

Yep. I know people in Europe who simply had it with the splintered up situation over there and order everything from Digikey. IIRC Digikey has even set up pre-pay accounts in some EU countries to dodge the usual conversion charges by banks.

Blows my mind. Digikey is eating the lunch of many EU distributors who don't seem to realize what's happening right underneath their noses.

Nice idea, but it won't work. Take a GOOD look at the definition of independent contractor. This is a good way to go out of business very quickly! The penalties are quite high!

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Consultant arrangements were attacked in one of the Reagan tax "simplifications".

Crackdowns come from another administration:

That can really snuff out jobs.

No, this is a design I started a week ago. It is a variation on a theme so not really that new.

I used to be able to do that with Farnell. But now even with the Farnell/Newark link up it doesn't work.

Agreed. Digikey and Mouser are usually cheaper and they have better search facilities.

Yes, but if I had to guess I would say that more often than not businesses knowingly classify someone as a contractor when they aren't than truly believing they are (...but with it arguably being unclear to others due to poorly-written laws...).

Do you think the guy in one anecdote they give -- "Mr. Elienberg said he and a dozen other installers reported to an RCN office six mornings a week, shortly after 6:30, where they received their daily assignments and the equipment to do installations." -- could be properly classified as a contractor under current law? It sure doesn't sound that way to me, given that he's being given assignments (rather than finding them himself) and using RCN's equipment (rather than his own).

---Joel

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I believe that was how the crackpot that killed him self crashing a plane into and IRS building lost all his money. twice ...

-Lasse