From: bill.sloman@ieee.org   
      
   On 31/01/2026 12:43 am, Liz Tuddenham wrote:   
   > Bill Sloman  wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 30/01/2026 9:15 pm, Liz Tuddenham wrote:   
   >>> Bill Sloman  wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>> [...]   
   >>>> The only electronics I did as a kid was to build a completely passive   
   >>>> crystal set   
   >>> [...]   
   >>>   
   >>> I think we may quote that in replies to some of your future posts.   
   >>   
   >> It didn't include any parts with gain, or any power source. What's your   
   >> preferred description of the classic crystal set?   
   >   
   > The part that caught my eye was: " The only electronics I did as a kid".   
   > Many of us spent our childhood teaching ourselves electronics - so we   
   > may remind you of this difference next time you start making disparaging   
   > remarks about other engineers' knowledge and abilities.   
      
   John Larkin seems to think it gives you some kind of advantage.   
      
   If you taught yourself when you were a kid, you didn't have a   
   well-qualified teacher. At least when I got into it, I did have a   
   university library and book-shop to draw on and did get some advice from   
   people who really knew what they were doing.   
      
   I learned a lot when I started doing electronic engineering as my main   
   job, and had some really skilled teachers and examplars, as a well as   
   lot of colleagues who merely thought that they knew what they were   
   doing, and earned a few disparaging remarks. A few disparaging remarks   
   got published as comments in the Review of Scientific Instruments.   
      
   The English Journal of Scientific Instruments (now Measurement Science   
   and Technology) was less pretentious, and much less prone to publishing   
   bad electronics - the fact that I got roped in to referee articles for   
   them once or twice is probably an indicator of the fact that English   
   physicists are a more practical bunch than their American equivalents.   
      
   --   
   Bill Sloman, Sydney   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)