From: jl@glen--canyon.com   
      
   On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 16:25:29 +1100, Bill Sloman    
   wrote:   
      
   >On 31/01/2026 8:53 am, john larkin wrote:   
   >> On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 03:51:16 +1100, Bill Sloman    
   >> wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> On 31/01/2026 3:04 am, john larkin wrote:   
   >>>> On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 02:18:25 +1100, Bill Sloman    
   >>>> wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>> 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.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Of course it does. As there is a huge advantage to learning chess or   
   >>>> math or languages or soccer when you are young. Actually doing stuff   
   >>>> involves practical feedbacks and acquired instincts.   
   >>>   
   >>> Instincts are what you were born with. What you get from doing stuff is   
   >>> habits.   
   >>>   
   >>> Learning stuff too early can instill bad habits, and they are hard to   
   >>> unlearn.   
   >>>   
   >>> Languages aren't learned any faster if you learn them young, and some   
   >>> aspects of language can't be learned at all by very young kids.   
   >>>   
   >>>> University education seldom installs much in the way of instincts   
   >>>> either. It's too rigid and formalized, and too late.   
   >>>   
   >>> Since instincts are what you get with your genome, universities can't   
   >>> install them at all.   
   >>>   
   >>> Formal instruction at university is formal. It's mostly accompanied by   
   >>> practical classes, which are a lot less rigid.   
   >>>   
   >>> The complicated stuff that most people learn at university mostly can't   
   >>> be instilled into adolescents - some rare kids can learn it early, but   
   >>> they tend to be exceptionally clever and need exceptional power of   
   >>> concentration. About 30% of the undergraduate intake doesn't ever get   
   >>> any kid of degree, and probably shouldn't have started at all.   
   >>>   
   >>>>> If you taught yourself when you were a kid, you didn't have a   
   >>>>> well-qualified teacher.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> A mentor with instincts is great if you are lucky enough to have one.   
   >>>   
   >>> Instincts come from the genome. What good mentors have is experience,   
   >>> and some understanding of what that experience has taught them.   
   >>>   
   >>> Electronics has advanced a lot over the past fifty years, and mentors   
   >>> are correspondingly less useful as teachers.   
   >>>>> 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.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Obviously too late.   
   >>>   
   >>> What's obvious to you is what you want to see. Trump is even more deeply   
   >>> into wishful thinking than you are.   
   >>>   
   >>>>> 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.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> I sometimes read RSI when it's available. The circuits are hilarious.   
   >>>   
   >>> They tend to be functional, rather than elegant, and not always all that   
   >>> up-to-date. I once got very rude about a paper lauding the use of 1Ok   
   >>> ECL which got published after ECLinPs had been around for a few years.   
   >>>   
   >>> 10k ECL was about four times faster than TTL/CMOS, but ECinPS was four   
   >>> times faster again. The same paper described a ripple carry counter   
   >>> where the carry propagation wasn't fast enough to match the maximum   
   >>> count rate claimed. No mention at all of a synchronous counter.   
   >>>   
   >>> It was a particularly horrible example, quite the worst I've ever seen.   
   >>   
   >> A true ripple counter is as fast as its first flop.   
   >   
   >Rubbish. The state of the outputs of a  multistage ripple counter isn't   
   >useful until the increment has rippled through every stage.   
      
      
   Consider a frequency divider.   
      
   Your prime motivation is to contradict, not to think. That's very   
   common.   
      
   A true ripple counter is as fast as its first flop.   
      
      
   John Larkin   
   Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center   
   Lunatic Fringe Electronics   
      
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