From: bill.sloman@ieee.org   
      
   On 2/12/2025 5:00 am, Joerg wrote:   
   > On 11/29/25 9:30 PM, Bill Sloman wrote:   
   >> On 30/11/2025 8:13 am, Joerg wrote:   
   >>> On 11/26/25 7:01 PM, Edward Rawde wrote:   
   >   
   > [...]   
      
   >>> Exactly. Either that or have an electronics hobby. In my case that   
   >>> was ham radio but I also repaired lots of radios and TVs. The point   
   >>> is, if someone isn't doing any of this and thus hasn't acquired basic   
   >>> skills such as soldering or trying to figure out how a circuit is   
   >>> supposed to work but doesn't, maybe he or she should not head into an   
   >>> engineering career.   
   >>   
   >> Graduate students learn this kind of practical stuff later than   
   >> hobbyists, but there's no reason why they wouldn't learn it just as   
   >> well. ...   
   >   
   >   
   > The point is that there is a "too late". Once they have their degree and   
   > apply for jobs it is too late.   
      
   There shouldn't be any too late point. Most of the integrated circuits I   
   designed into products hadn't been invented when I was getting my   
   education, and every time I ran into a familiar problem somebody had   
   invented a new part that let me solve the problem in a different way.   
      
   The thermostat circuit that's described in my 1970 Ph.D. thesis is   
   wildly different from the one I published in Measurement Science and   
   Technology in 1996.   
      
   Don't get me started on surface mount components.   
      
   The first time I used one is documented in   
      
   Ghiggino, K.P., Phillips, D., and Sloman, A.W. "Nanosecond pulse   
   stretcher",Journal of Physics E: Scientific Instruments, 12, 686-687 (1979).   
      
   and ten years later I got stuck with introducing them at Cambridge   
   Instruments because Gigabit Logics parts only came in surface mount   
   packages.   
      
   --   
   Bill Sloman, Sydney   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)