Blumlein book

On Tuesday 2 January 2024 at 01:51:29 UTC+1, John Larkin wrote:
> On Mon, 01 Jan 2024 23:24:32 +0000, JM <sunaec...@gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> >On Mon, 01 Jan 2024 08:17:23 -0800, John Larkin <j...@997PotHill.com> wrote: 
> > 
> >>On Mon, 1 Jan 2024 11:25:25 +0000, piglet <erichp...@hotmail.com> 
> >>wrote: 
> >> 
> >>>On 31/12/2023 10:37 pm, John Larkin wrote: 
> >>>> 
> >>>> https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/ 
> >>>> 
> >>>> This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped 
> >>>> England win WWII. 
> >>>> 
> >>>> He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair. 
> >>>> 
> >>>He lives on in the trillion op-amps made each year! I think he used the 
> >>>long tail pair topology not only as linear low-drift diff amps but also 
> >>>as a fast current steering switch. Thanks for heads up, I will get the book. 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>>piglet 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >> 
> >>There is some philosophizing on the nature of genius and invention, 
> >>with comparisons to Edison and Marconi and some others. 
> >> 
> >>What's interesting is that Blumlein was very mathematical but could 
> >>barely read. And his hand-drawn schematics were awful. 
> >> 
> > 
> >It seems to be you that cannot read.
> Why do so many creeps, and so few electronic designers, post here? We 
> won't miss google groups.

SED has a lot of junk, but also occasional good stuff.

Any agreement on how to proceed after 22/2? (could we for once agree, or maybe agree to disagree?)

A Discord channel, or some other fancy site?

On Saturday, January 6, 2024 at 8:18:44 AM UTC+11, Fred Bloggs wrote:
> On Wednesday, January 3, 2024 at 10:45:46 AM UTC-5, John Larkin wrote:
> > On Wed, 3 Jan 2024 07:09:41 -0800 (PST), Fred Bloggs
> > <bloggs.fred...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >On Sunday, December 31, 2023 at 5:38:56?PM UTC-5, John Larkin wrote:
> > >> https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/
> > >>
> > >> This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped
> > >> England win WWII.
> > >>
> > >> He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair.
> > >
> > >The author is a bs artist with a very skewed outlook. There is nothing very profound there.
> >
> > Have you read the book? It's mostly doumented references, not much
> > opinion. Blumlein's work and patents are all real.
>
> Author is British.

Americans mostly don't know about Blumlein. They do seem to find the idea that any non-American could have invented anything askew with anything they've been taught.

> The analog computer link was there to give you an idea of what you think was brand new invention in electronics was in fact an adaptation of many techniques and function blocks that were common in the mechanical/ electromechanical- world, and those in turn were an adaptation of even older techniques.

All inventions can be characterised that way. Patents talk about "prior art". If it wasn't an adaption "obvious to those skilled in the art" you can patent it.

> One stunning example is Babbage's punched card programmable computer. Babbage consulted with Jacquard, a textile manufacturer, who perfected the punched card technique for his programmable looms. It took a lot of cards too.

Babbage probably never talked to Joseph Marie Jacquard, who was 39 years older than he was and died in 1834. Babbage's difference engine, on which he started work in 1822 had more to do with

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspard_de_Prony

> There is one example of a woven self-portrait of Jacquard seated in an early 19th/late 18th century library that took 28,000 cards to program IIRC. It was an incredibly finely detailed product.

And Babbage went to a lot of trouble to buy an example, and spent a lot of money to get it

> Most of the hyperbole over electronics originates with people looking for funding.

If you aren't trying to raise money, you can afford to more realistic about the prospects.

> > >For most of the so-called high tech gadgets developed in the 30s and 40s, they were lucky to get them to work 30% of the time, and usually much less.

Demanding projects frequently fail to get into production. A 30% success rate fits the more recent ones that I know about too

> > >https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer
> >
> > Tech isn't much better now. Most new ideas and companies fail, but now they burn billions of dollars doing it.

Our capacity to define and specify complex projects is much the same as it always was. We've got more elaborate technology, so we can now spend more money on finding out that we haven't got enough money to carry the project to completion.

-- 
Bil Sloman, Sydney 

On 6/01/2024 8:38 am, john larkin wrote:
> On Fri, 5 Jan 2024 13:18:39 -0800 (PST), Fred Bloggs <bloggs.fredbloggs.fred@gmail.com> wrote: 
>> On Wednesday, January 3, 2024 at 10:45:46?AM UTC-5, John Larkin wrote:
>>> On Wed, 3 Jan 2024 07:09:41 -0800 (PST), Fred Bloggs
>>> <bloggs.fred...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> On Sunday, December 31, 2023 at 5:38:56?PM UTC-5, John Larkin wrote:
>>>>> https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/
>>>>>
>>>>> This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped
>>>>> England win WWII.
>>>>>
>>>>> He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair.
>>>>
>>>> The author is a bs artist with a very skewed outlook. There is nothing very profound there.
 >>>
>>> Have you read the book? It's mostly doumented references, not much
>>> opinion. Blumlein's work and patents are all real.
 >>
>> Author is British.
> 
> Yeah, Brits talk and spell funny.

Americans do think that. Noah Webster did publish an American dictionary 
with oddly spelled words. His excuse was that he was rationalising the 
spelling, but it looks more like a scheme to squeeze English-published 
dictionaries out of the American market. There are a bunch of America 
accents, as there are a range of British accents. They all sound funny 
to Australians - we do have regional variations in accent, but it takes 
a phoneticians to pick them out.

> I guess you are a lot smarter and more inventive than Blumlein wa

Seems unlikely. Blumlein got his name on 128 patents and he died at 38.
It doesn't strike me that Fred was asserting anything of the sort.

The bit of the book that JM put on-line, about Blumlein's family, his 
education and first steps in his career, wasn't all that inspired and 
did put me off buying it, but it does cover an interesting bit of 
technical history.

> Don't read the book. You know everything already.
'
John Larkin being rude again.

-- 
Bill Sloman, Sydney

On January 5, Fred Bloggs wrote:
> Most of the hyperbole over electronics originates with people looking for funding.

Quantum computers.

Intel can't survive without money confiscated from the rich folks at Pizza Hut - 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEMATECH#College_of_Nanoscale_Science_and_Engineering_(CNSE)
$500 million /year
"Today, Sematech is in the midst of yet another transition. Under 
CEO Dan Armbrust, it has created and will manage a new Photovoltaic 
Manufacturing Consortium funded by the industry, the Department of 
Energy, and the state of New York"

https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-research-and-development-funding-programs

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/01/21/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-bringing-semiconductor-manufacturing-back-to-america-2/

Extra tax loot for persons of color and ovaries.  That's progress!

--
Rich