From: bill.sloman@ieee.org   
      
   On 2/12/2025 6:25 am, Joerg wrote:   
   > On 12/1/25 10:56 AM, john larkin wrote:   
   >> On Tue, 2 Dec 2025 05:07:57 +1100, Bill Sloman    
   >> wrote:   
   >>   
   >   
   > [...]   
   >   
   >>> Brainstorming is much less ambitious - it's just a mechanism for getting   
   >>> people to think of less obvious potential solutions to the problem that   
   >>> needs to be solved. There's a well known problem in multi-parameter   
   >>> curve fitting where the search algorithm latches onto a local minimum in   
   >>> the search space, and you can need to get the search process to check   
   >>> out a bunch of more or less arbitrary points to get a feel for how deep   
   >>> the minima may get.   
   >>   
   >> Even one brain has a lot parallel processing capability. The advantage   
   >> of brainstorming is that it randomizes searches to break out of   
   >> conventional wisdom, namely local minima. That's why an intern can   
   >> inspire a genius.   
   >>   
   >   
   > Or an external consultant. EMC issue, lots of head scratching. Only   
   > happened every few seconds for whatever reason. Thinking, gazing out the   
   > window. "What's that thing up there on top of the hill that glistens in   
   > the suns every few seconds?" ... "That? Nothing, it's just a military   
   > radar. Oh, OH DANG!" ... closed the metal blinds, no more EMI, opened   
   > the blinds, EMI was back.   
      
   The Cambridge Instruments story was about an electro-beam   
   microfabricator where the patterns written would shift at random by   
   about half a micron for a minute or two, then go back to the right place.   
      
   The chief engineer (who was an old technology buff) got shipped over to   
   America to solve the problem.   
      
   He had to ride a lift to get up machine, and noticed that it was a very   
   ancient hydraulic lift, which he knew meant that it had a big lump of   
   (magnetic) wrought iron as the floor of the bit that moved.   
      
   Problem solved. When the lift was up the magnetic field at the electron   
   beam microfabricator changed enough to move the electron beam by half a   
   micron.   
      
   The lift had to stay put while a pattern was being written, which was   
   manageable. It took a trans-atlantic air-fare to solve the problem but   
   with a million dollar machine that was okay.   
      
   --   
   Bill Sloman, Sydney   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)