When AOE 3rd ED to be published?

[Spehro Pefhany]

I do wonder whether or not authors' royalties are based on the country of
the sale -- most U.S. textbooks are available overseas and -- particularly
in lower income countries such as India and China -- sold for next to
nothing compared to the U.S. edition. Granted, they're paperbacks rather
than hardbacks and the paper is much lower quality, but we're talking a
factor of often 4-8x reduction in retail price here too.

Lately, I've bought the US-only editions of a few new hardcover books
and have been quite disappointed by the low quality of some of the
paper, compared to Canadian or even printed in India "low cost
edition" technical books. The latest one was "Intelligence in War,
Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to al- Qaeda" by John Keegan,
from Knopf. A fair bit cheaper than the Key Porter edition, and for
good reason. Why make a throw-away quality hardcover book?

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Fred Bloggs <[email protected]>

No- it will just be used for more criticism of the US- we can laugh at
ourselves, but it's not funny when foreigners do it.

That's because you are an enchantingly young nation. When you get as old
as Britain, the chattering of foreign fools will come into better
perspective. (;-)

 

[Paul Burridge]

They're supposed to be obvious, if perhaps requiring a little
thought. But maybe we assumed too much. Is there one that's
stumped you that you'd like an explanation for?

No, it's a general observation on all of them. It is, after all,
supposed to be an instructional book on electronics. Those who are
already engineers presumably don't need explanations or see the
solutions as self-explanatory. But those people are not the target
audience for this book, one assumes. You presumably aimed this at
those of us who are studying the subject and can't be expected each
and every time to see precisely what it is you're driving at. Even if
I *suspect* I know what the problem is with a 'bad circuit' I'd still
like some confirmation in the back to refer to just to be *sure* I've
got it right. A brief explanation for each won't use up much paper.

All in all it's a *great* reference work of which you should be justly
proud, and packed out with stacks of useful info. This particular
omission, however, always struck me as its weak point.
Just my 2p worth.

 

[Paul Burridge]

In British English, it's not exactly complementary. Chambers glosses it
as 'the rabble', 'the vulgar'. How about 'helotry', then, if you feel
that a stronger term of endearment is justified.

No insult can ever be derogatory enough for old Bloggs' liking. His
spiteful vitriol and contempt for all men know no limits.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

"Yawn" is a euphemism for "get ya tongue outta my arse!"
jmc

Maybe in your circles, but around here it means you're tired, or
boring.

 

[Wouter van Ooijen]

Moreover we've had many complaints saying, what's wrong with

They're supposed to be obvious, if perhaps requiring a little
thought. But maybe we assumed too much. Is there one that's
stumped you that you'd like an explanation for?

Actually I think the bad circuits sections encourage me to think.
After all, when a computer program or electronics circuit does not
work there is nobody around who will point you to the problem, so
finding what is wrong is a good training.

Actually there was one bad circuit that I could never 'debug'. For
this post I collected my copy and tried to find it. After some
searching (my main complaint is that the index is missing many
pointers!) I found it: p389 nr15. And now I immediately see that the
diode bridge is connected wrong! I hope that *is* the problem, because
in my younger days I often used this circuit! (with the diodes teh
right way).


Wouter van Ooijen

-- ------------------------------------
http://www.voti.nl
PICmicro chips, programmers, consulting

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Wouter van Ooijen (www.voti.nl)

Actually there was one bad circuit that I could never 'debug'. For this
post I collected my copy and tried to find it. After some searching (my
main complaint is that the index is missing many pointers!) I found it:
p389 nr15. And now I immediately see that the diode bridge is connected
wrong! I hope that *is* the problem, because in my younger days I often
used this circuit! (with the diodes teh right way).

In my copy there are indeed Bad Circuits on page 389, but they are A to
H, and only C has an incorrect diode bridge.

Maybe you have a copy of the 3rd edition, dropped by a time-traveller.

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

In Winfield Hill typed:

Hah! Actually sales are still very strong, but down a bit, about 50%
off the peak. We're just not so proud of the book as we were, and
get a flood of letters asking for a new one.

Is Paul Horowitz working on it too?

 

[Winfield Hill]

Tom Del Rosso wrote...

Is Paul Horowitz working on it too?

Of course, even more than I, and we work also together.
Right now we're working on getting all the 1000 figures
edited and redrafted in Freehand.

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com

 

[N. Thornton]

Fred Bloggs wrote...

What am I missing here, it looks all correct to me

Regards, NT

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

In N. Thornton typed:

What am I missing here, it looks all correct to me

I think the issue is that the kid was believed by ignorant adults to
have discovered something new. I don't know what method they teach in
school now. A few days ago I helped a 9 year-old with his math
(subtracting 2-digit numbers -- in grade 4???) and the instructions on
the homework sheet were to use a method I never heard of.

 

[artie]

Paul Burridge wrote...

They're supposed to be obvious, if perhaps requiring a little
thought. But maybe we assumed too much. Is there one that's
stumped you that you'd like an explanation for?

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com

The bad circuits are one of my favourite parts of the book! They're
expecially handy when doing candidate technical interviews -- I have a
few of the bad circuits pages tagged, and I'll open the book, and ask
the candidate to pick one out and tell me what's wrong.

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Tom Del Rosso

A few days ago I helped a 9 year-old with his math
(subtracting 2-digit numbers -- in grade 4???) and the instructions on
the homework sheet were to use a method I never heard of.

Can you please tell us what it was?

 

[Terry Pinnell]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Wouter van Ooijen (www.voti.nl)
'Bad Circuits', on Mon, 26 Jan 2004:

<snip>

Win: That would probably be my main gripe - the index is not as
comprehensive or easy to to use as I'd like.

 

[Wouter van Ooijen]

In my copy there are indeed Bad Circuits on page 389, but they are A to

H, and only C has an incorrect diode bridge.

I don't know where my fingers went when I typed that 15, C is the one
I was referring to. Consider it a case of 'bad posting', you have
identified the problem correctly




Wouter van Ooijen

-- ------------------------------------
http://www.voti.nl
PICmicro chips, programmers, consulting

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Wouter van Ooijen (www.voti.nl)

I don't know where my fingers went when I typed that 15, C is the one I
was referring to. Consider it a case of 'bad posting', you have
identified the problem correctly

I think all the examples on that page are 'no-brainers', IF you just
happen to spot the mistake. As such, they are perhaps more of a test of
pattern recognition than electronics, at least for people with some
experience, who tend to see what they expect rather than what is
actually there.

 

[Fred Bloggs]

Fred Bloggs wrote:



-1
I think you changed a sign between step 2 and 3. --
-1 3
changed to + -
3

Or was that the point?

Maybe I missed the point of the story. The student's math teacher was
quoted as saying he checked the result over from every angle and
couldn't find anything wrong with it.

 

[N. Thornton]

Actually I think the bad circuits sections encourage me to think.
After all, when a computer program or electronics circuit does not
work there is nobody around who will point you to the problem, so
finding what is wrong is a good training.

Actually there was one bad circuit that I could never 'debug'. For
this post I collected my copy and tried to find it. After some
searching (my main complaint is that the index is missing many
pointers!) I found it: p389 nr15. And now I immediately see that the
diode bridge is connected wrong! I hope that *is* the problem, because
in my younger days I often used this circuit! (with the diodes teh
right way).

I wouldnt worry too much about it, I used to do some awful things
until I learnt why not, like when I was about 13.... things I dont
think I'd post in an ng

There are many poorly thought out circuits being used in commercial
products every day. I think people active in s.e.d. have much better
odds as its a good learning forum.

I also think realistically that we have all missed something at some
point, it would be unrealistic to expect all engineers to spot all
issues from day 1, and to be beyond the usual human issue of
imperfection. Myself and present company excluded of course


Regards, NT

 

[Tim Shoppa]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Tom Del Rosso


Can you please tell us what it was?

One neat trick is 9's complement to do subtractions. Do a
google search on "nine's complement". It's related to "casting out
9's".

You may laugh, but I've had to teach this to grad students in
introductory computer architecture/arithmetic classes.

Undoubtedly some people lump this into "new math" but I'm 99% sure
that my father (who learned arithmetic in a one-room schoolhouse
in the 1930's) taught this method to me when I was in grade school.

Tim.

 

[Winfield Hill]

Terry Pinnell wrote...

Win: That would probably be my main gripe - the index is not
as comprehensive or easy to to use as I'd like.

Sheesh! We spent an entire summer on the it, and surely it's
far better than most other book indexes. It takes up 25 pages
of three-column fine print and has over 10,000 references with
about 4000 word entries. It even includes lots of words we
didn't write but thought someone else might use when seeking
the alternate word we did write.

I worry that we won't be able to do as well next time around.

But I have seen lots of complaints here. What can I say, does
this just illustrate the futility of creating a perfect index?

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com