2 Jul
2000
2 Jul
'00
7:28 a.m.
From: Richard Erlacher <richard(a)idcomm.com>
Look around your lab or work area at home . . . how
many of your
homebuilt
bits of apparatus have "real" legends or
printed labels for all the
knobs
and switches? How many of your projects end up in a
box that's screwed
shut? That's where the truth of the matter lies. Everybody has built a
thingie or two that never gets past the wirewrap board even though it's
been
used occasionally for 10-20 years. It often starts out
as an immediate
need, but ends up as a tool.
It's one habit I try to avoid and as a result I do have some boxes that
are
in one case 35 years old, labled, docs and all. At that age I'd have to
have been a child prodigy to be a PHD. I build tools for myself, a few
are
hand wired some wirewrap but neither are a bad thing only an idication of
cost to do a decent 2 or 4 layer board was out of reach. Then again
sloppy
work doesn't last. Call it a do it once and do it right mindset.
Now cabinetry, that eluded me for years how to get truly good looking
boxen
not made of wood with some metal.
I like my tools "finished", i.e. in a sealed
box with external knobs
that
don't require a screwdriver to operate them. I
like to be able to use
them
Drills sharp, wrenches clean and all that are part of completing a
project
as well.
but that's just what they are: unfinished. If I
build a tool to
completion,
you can bet there's documentation. . . particularly
for revisions, and
the
It was documentation, in depth that got me a lot of advanced credit. I
was
designing from the ground up by HS. The information and techniques are
not secret, or hard to learn.
The idea that a PHD is required to do something useful is bogus. It
reeks
of classism and ignores those that out there doing it on far less save
for
one skill not discussed, ability to learn for ones self and apply it to
other
technologies.
I'm sure there are both types, but my experience
has been that the PhD
types
are often working far outside their own discipline but
are able to
handle
the job because of their experience and training. They
understand how
I"ve found that there are many hacks out there too, fond of building
Rube Golbergian crap.
Allison