2 Feb
2006
2 Feb
'06
1:52 p.m.
On Thursday 02 February 2006 04:12 pm, Marvin Johnston wrote:
One thing I've been concerned about for a while is
what seems to be the
lack of electronics building skills. *My* feeling is the desire to work
on this stuff is going away and I'm not sure why. I DO NOT BUY the
argument that components are so small now that nobody can build or hack
equipment anymore as I view that more of an excuse for not building.
I sure as heck know that *my* eyes aren't what they used to be...
Back around the time I closed up my shop (spring of 1992) I found that I was
increasingly using a lighted magnifier for more routine tasks. These days if
I want to read the numbers on a transistor or a chip I reach for a magnifying
glass. It sucks.
It also seems that most (not all) of the people I know
that collect
computers now (and used them in the 70's and early 80's) are fairly
competent at working on electronics.
Made my living at it, for a while. When there was a market for such skills,
which there doesn't seem to be any more. :-(
Are kits at all desireable to build by newer entries
into electronics
and computers? Or existing builders?
What kits I remember seeing any more are either way too simple, designed more
as learning environments than kits, or come with major portions of it
preassembled. The last one I put together was in 1978, and that was a
Heathkit H11 computer -- which came with the CPU board preassembled.
These days I have this massive collection of parts and I keep on salvaging
more, yet the simplest circuit board seems to be so _tedious_ compared with
the way I used to feel about it.
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin