8 Jan
2009
8 Jan
'09
4:33 a.m.
On Wednesday 31 December 2008 12:54:53 pm John Foust wrote:
At 10:22 AM 12/31/2008, Dave McGuire wrote:
"One of the celebrated things Widlar did was to put a "hassler" in his
office.2 When a person came in to his office and spoke loudly, this circuit
would detect the audio, convert the audio to a very high audio frequency, and
play back this converted sound. The louder you talked, the lower the pitch
would come down into the audio spectrum, and the louder it would play. So if
you really hollered, it would make sort of a ringing in your ears. Of course,
if you noticed this "ringing" in your ears, and stopped for a while to
listen, the "hassler" circuitwould shut up. He gradually got people to stop
yelling at him. I mean, Bob really was almost always a soft-spoken person. He
didn't have to yell or shout to get his message across. When he did speak,
and softly at that, people would soon realize that it was a good idea to
listen to him."
I *want* one of these...!
--
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
On Dec 30, 2008, at 6:14 PM, Philip Pemberton
wrote:
http://www.national.com/rap/Story/widlar.html
"We still have a sign around our lab, "This is not a black-smith shop."
But
there were times when Bob would discover he had wasted a day or two, just
because one bad part had screwed up his circuit. He would bring this bad
part -- a capacitor, a pot, a transistor, an IC, or whatever -- over to
the vise and lay it on the anvil part. Then he would calmly, methodically
beat it with a hammer until the smallest remaining part was
indistinguishable from the dust on the floor. Then he would go back to work
and get the right answer. He explained that it makes you feel much better
if you do this, and, you know that bad part will never come around again
and goof you up. He was right. And I recommend that you join me in doing
this "Widlarizing" when a bad component fools you. You will feel a lot
better."
- John That said, Widlarization is a great way to deal
with parts like
that. :)
YAY!! Someone else knows of Widlarization! I sure wish I
could've met him.