Re: Question for Win Hill/ Athlon64

From: BFoelsch (BFoelsch_at_comcast.ditch.this.net)
Date: 01/01/05 

Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 18:30:08 -0500

"Guy Macon" <_see.web.page_@_www.guymacon.com_> wrote in message
news:10te4cftn1shi41@corp.supernews.com...
>
> (Why are you crossposting text maeesages to
> alt.binaries.schematics.electronic?)

Dunno. Just hit "Reply to group" without looking. I'll behave next
time......

> BFoelsch wrote:
>
>>A whole generation of what I will call "Radio Engineers" grew up, who
>>could
>>use tables to slap together a resonant circuit, figure out its Q, make
>>allowances for external effects and move on to the next problem. There was
>>really no "engineering" involved, just patching together bits and pieces
>>of
>>what had been done before. These people absolutely, positively had the
>>"hands on" experience that seems to be missing today, but I am ill at ease
>>to call them engineers. Think about how much of the consumer electronics
>>stuff of the 1950's worked "by accident," changing lead dress would throw
>>it
>>into oscillation, etc. Hell, think about all the truly rotten test
>>equipment
>>of the 1950's. This stuff was largely designed by the aforementioned
>>"radio
>>engineers." All experience and intuition, no real analysis or synthesis.
>>
>>Today we are at the opposite end, largely due to the fact that simulation
>>lets us instantaneously perform calculations that were impossible years
>>ago.
>>The student doesn't develop a sense for component values and functions
>>because exact calculations are painless and instantaneous, no estimates or
>>guesstimates are necessary. It's hard to force one's self to learn a hard
>>or
>>inaccurate way when the exact way is at you fingertip, and that is where
>>we
>>are today; hands-on is the hard inaccurate way, simulation is the
>>(arguably)
>>exact way.
>
> To my way of thinking, having one of each kind of engineer is an
> ideal solution.

Or one engineer who has both experience and theoretical knowledge.

>>Think about the chatter here a while back about the "decade boxes' being
>>offered by another poster. A perfect tool for gaining experience, a lousy
>>way to do engineering.
>
> I disagree. For example, I recently had to deal with a marketing
> department that wanted to have a series of meetings about product
> color, pacaging - and the brightness of the front-panel LEDs.
> Whether we like it or not, letting them see different brightnesses
> is just as much a part of engineering as giving them proposed
> box designs is part of graphics design.
>
> I rather suspect that any attempt to use simulation to decide
> how much current to send through those LEDs would have failed.

You are of course correct, but had the marketing department specified the
desired light output you would certainly have been able to calculate the
required circuit parameters.

Again, my original post took the position of devil's advocate. A successful
engineer must possess both theoretical and practical knowledge. I was just
commenting on my observation that, in the case of many EE curricula, the
pendulum has swung over 50 years from the "too little theory" side to the
current "too little practice" side.

 

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