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From: john larkin <JL@gct.com>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: OT genetics
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2024 07:40:59 -0800
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On Mon, 25 Nov 2024 07:40:48 -0500, legg <legg@nospam.magma.ca> wrote:

>On Sun, 24 Nov 2024 07:46:32 -0800, john larkin <JL@gct.com> wrote:
>
>>On Sun, 24 Nov 2024 07:38:12 -0500, legg <legg@nospam.magma.ca> wrote:
>>
>>>On Sat, 23 Nov 2024 11:55:46 -0800, john larkin <JL@gct.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Sat, 23 Nov 2024 10:36:50 -0500, legg <legg@nospam.magma.ca> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On Fri, 22 Nov 2024 07:22:03 -0800, john larkin <JL@gct.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On Fri, 22 Nov 2024 08:26:17 -0500, legg <legg@nospam.magma.ca> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On Thu, 21 Nov 2024 15:40:41 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
>>>>>>>wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I was observing that some people can't stand mayonnaise (I like it)
>>>>>>>>and some people hate cilantro (I detest it. I carry tweezers to pick
>>>>>>>>small bits out of my Mexican food.)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>One of my guys is the opposite, hates mayo and loves cilantro. He
>>>>>>>>suggested that there may be a one common gene for both cases.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>OT? Is it EVER!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>RL
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Design any cool electronics lately?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I'm doing power dummy loads that simulate impedances, but I can't
>>>>>>discuss that in detail.
>>>>>
>>>>>The only kind of 'load' that's 'cool' is one that recovers 
>>>>>energy to the source. Loads that are cheap, disposable and 
>>>>>commonly used will be thrown together from off the shelf 
>>>>>crap drawing on HVAC catalog parts and operated by meat 
>>>>>puppets on the production floor, long after the 'designer' 
>>>>>blows his head off in an off-season motel room.
>>>>
>>>>Yes, an inductive or capacitive load has to at least pretend to return
>>>>energy it got from the customer. A good inductor simulator has to do
>>>>that, and tolerate bipolar PWM inputs, and behave like a real inductor
>>>>to diode or zener clamped flybacks.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>You may not have noticed it, with your mouth on the govt.
>>>>>military tit
>>>>
>>>>Don't be a jerk. All sorts of people buy our stuff. 
>>>>
>>>When I think about it, there weren't many projects I 
>>>worked on after 1909 that didn't involve government 
>>>money. That at least covered my hours - a lot of 
>>>record keeping under a program with an acronym, 
>>>as I recall ~ SRED. 
>>>
>>>Don't know that customers for the final product had 
>>>any similar advantage. Careful separation of 'research' 
>>>from (gasp) manufacturing.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>, but light mfring in North America has been in 
>>>>>the toilet for >30 yrs. New product development followed 
>>>>>mfring, off-shore; their domestic hulks stripped for assets 
>>>>>and property values by pointy heads that, having got the 
>>>>>value out and loaned it back to us, three times over, are 
>>>>>playing Barbie with the political body.
>>>>>
>>>>>I suppose there's at least some compensation; that you can 
>>>>>keep your kids and a few grads employed in your dotage.
>>>>
>>>>Jerk.
>>>>
>>>Sorry. I try to keep my mouth shut most of the time, but it 
>>>was failing to maneuver transformation into an 'employer' 
>>>role some years ago that really pointed out the generational 
>>>differences showing up in the industry.
>>>
>>>I envy anypne who managed it. Driving a single desk/bench 
>>>is kid's stuff.
>>>>>
>>>>>If the chinese are going to make it, then that's where the 
>>>>>new designs should be going, so we don't end up buried in 
>>>>>electronic kibble. You can put 300% tarrifs on chinese 
>>>>>stuff and the ticket value will still be half that of 
>>>>>local produce.
>>>>>
>>>>>We all spin our own legends, to some extent. Having no 
>>>>>access to silicon fab, I've pretty much given up on 
>>>>>normally-off self-driven synchronous rectifiers. 
>>>>>There's always something that needs fixing around the 
>>>>>neighborhood, or somebody building stuff around second-
>>>>>hand chinese batteries.
>>>>>
>>>>>Lately I've been working on a digital version of a vanity 
>>>>>publication (Y2K) covering cooperative beekeeping and 
>>>>>honey marketing organization/development in the '30s and 
>>>>>'40s. Cooperatives tend to get targeted by 'free enterprise' 
>>>>>money - few have survived. In the 30's, there were gov't. 
>>>>>departments (2-man) who's job it was to assist in their 
>>>>>development, as the then-current system was basically 
>>>>>beating primary producers to death.
>>>>>
>>>>>Perhaps similar thinking could be applied to secondary 
>>>>>industries. 
>>>>>
>>>>>Beekeeping itself is facing major threats from many different  
>>>>>directions these days, none of which are relevant in SED.
>>>>>
>>>>>Genetically determined preference for mayonaise? Give us 
>>>>>a break.
>>>>>
>>>>>RL
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Waning traffic on this forum simply reflects that lack of 
>>>>>involvement.
>>>>
>>>>And of civility. Hint hint.
>>>
>>>Holding hands under the moon in June never got product 
>>>out the door on time and under budget.
>>>
>>>RL
>>
>>Being stubborn, needing to be right, refusing to change course,
>>rejecting unorthodox ideas, always believing data sheets, all wreck
>>designs.
>>
>>There is at least a 5:1 ratio in productivity between good design
>>groups and pathological ones, and most are pathological.
>
>I judge only by delivery on time, to spec.

And selling price. And performance. A design engineer doesn't have to
just do what some spec is handed to him; that's no fun. I like Steve
Jobs' idea: Insanely Great Products.

>
>Has to be coordinated with production and test capability.

Certainly. Invite them to design reviews. Make sure they will let
engineering know when there are production or test problems.

We have a \NEXT\ folder on a network drive, where anyone in the
company can make suggestions or note problems with any product. 

We have another folder \IDEAS\ where people can discuss ideas for new
products.

>
>Sales? You've got no control over that.It's where I 
>found the most pathology, mainly because of a rift between 
>the guys who formulated the spec and the guys who ended 
>up having to flog the stuff - usually in the same dept.
>
>RL

I have a lot of control over sales. Partly by designing products that
we think will sell. More by making friends with influential,
Fellow-level people, and designing what they want.

In a small company, the engineers can work directly with product
launch customers and write the spec that people actually want.

Most of our business started with a cold call from someone who wanted
to talk to an engineer. Our decades of NMR business happened because
of an accidental introduction that happened in a men's room in Palo
Alto.

We've got lots of business from accidental encounters at trade shows.

The idea is to have our best engineers talk to their best scientists.