开云体育

-----Original Message-----

From: Harvey White <madyn@...>
Sent: Jul 7, 2018 1:18 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] Owon SDS7102 Deep Memory Digital Storage Oscilloscope

On Sat, 7 Jul 2018 00:04:05 -0400 (GMT-04:00), you wrote:

Harlan Ellison always came across as too self important. I saw him interviewed a few times, and he always came across as an ass. He loved the line, "I don't owe my readers anything!"

And he often delivered.

And often, he didn't. I read a few of his works, and never picked up anything else. Different tastes for different people. :)

Have you ever read Venus Equilateral? It is about a system wide communications system, and it was written by George O. Smith. It was written in the early 1940s, and for its time the science wasn't too bad.

Got several copies, including "the complete venus equilateral" which
had a story or so not in the hardback.

That is what I posted a link for.

You might also want to find a copy of "Lost in Space" by George O.
Smith as well, somewhat technological, but from a different viewpoint.


One of the few (classic) authors who was an electrical engineer, IIRC
and showed it, and allowed the story to be about technology as well.
Completely missed computers, as did Smith (until about the mid 50's).

Computers were analog when he wrote the stories that became 'The Complete Venus Equilateral', so that is understandable. What use would most people ever have for an analog computer, outside of a lab, or a battlefield?

Know about Skylark of Valeron, but that was a recreation of a brain,
not really a computer). Unlike Doc Smith, who was a chemist (hence
the Skylark series).

Also his Lensmen series and other books.

and I think we've blown the thread out of the water....

You're right, but those old stories lead a lot of us into electronics. I got into repairing test equipment as a kid, because TV shops had piles of junk. They were afraid to work on it, so they would give it away. A lot was from companies that no longer existed, so a tube data book and a VTVM taught me to repair things without a manual while I was still in high school. This was at a time when it was rare not to have a factory manual or a Photofact for the chassis on your bench. My first scope had a shorted power transformer, but a Stancor filament transformer with a good HV isolation allowed me to get it going. Others had bad resistors in the focus string, and other problems that made it much easier for me to repair the first Tektronix scopes that crossed my bench. That, plus an old TV tech that taught me to troubleshoot logically allowed me to repair a lot of equipment that others had given up on. Always verify the power supply. Then keep splitting a problem in half until you isolate the problem. That takes it from hours, to minutes in many cases.

The important thing is that there were many influences to enter the field.

Harvey

I had built a radio three years earlier, but I didn't start working in electronics for another two years.

Here is a link to the Venus Equilateral story in RTF:

<>


Michael A. Terrell