From: news@analogconsultants.com   
      
   On 12/3/25 6:52 AM, Bill Sloman wrote:   
   > 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.   
   >   
      
   In John Larkin's previous company building there was a water-driven   
   elevator. That was cool.   
      
      
   > 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.   
   >   
      
   I had some of those. 20+ hours of travel each way, 2h work, problem fixed.   
      
   The best was when a boss became irate that I didn't show up at a   
   meeting. "I didn't know" ... "But I sent you a fax" ... "When?" ... "At   
   least 15h ago" ... "That's when our flight was over New Foundland" ...   
   "Oh!" ... "By the way, we just fixed the problem this meeting was   
   probably about so maybe we don't need the meeting anymore" ... "WHAT?"   
      
   --   
   Regards, Joerg   
      
   http://www.analogconsultants.com/   
      
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