Do you think dave is good at what he does?

[TVman]

Do you think dave is good at what he does?

• Yes
• No
• Yes and No
• I haven't though about that  

Leave A comment on 1/2/3/4 ...
Hunor.

[8086]

Could always make a poll?

But anyway, my answer is of course yes.

[Rigby]

the answer is yes, but his personality can often mask his intelligence from people that don't know how to spot intelligence.

[TVman]

the answer is yes, but his personality can often mask his intelligence from people that don't know how to spot intelligence.

I just made A poll..

[T3sl4co1l]

Is this tasteful to post here? 

Meh, Dave would probably say "fuck it" and let it be

Dave doesn't strike me as, like, a highly analytical, hardcore, decades-experience analog/digital engineer kind of person; if that's required to be "good" at EE, then no, he isn't.  But there's more to EE than just that.  At worst, he's a talented tech with (was it a decade or two?) experience, which still puts him well ahead of a disappointing number of average EEs (let alone new grads..).  And being an EE, he's no tech.

Err, I mean, fukkim, dat lousy aussie bastad!

Tim

[Hydrawerk]

Well, there is nobody else like Dave who does this job, probably.

[TVman]

This is what I put in another post...

You are A great actor Dave!
You did very much fool me!
When I saw all those comments and that picture that's buried in the comments I looked back and saw the solder marks and I started laughing! 2 thumbs up Dave!
You are such A great teacher and A great joker too.
Your the BEST Dave!!!!   

Thanks for A great show!

Hunor.

[mcinque]

the answer is yes, but his personality can often mask his intelligence from people that don't know how to spot intelligence.

:

Meh, Dave would probably say "fuck it" and let it be

I've learnt a lot from Dave. Expecially that my knowledge is almost nothing. 

[BravoV]

Add choice no.5  please ... "Too many smileys !"

[dr.diesel]

Define does, like all of us he does lots of things?

[TVman]

Add choice no.5  please ... "Too many smileys !"

Can you put that in plain English,Please?

[Phaedrus]

TVman, no offense, how old are you?

[TVman]

TVman, no offense, how old are you?

11 why?

[TVman]

No no's so far :

[EEVblog]

Good at what? Video blogging or electronics?

[TVman]

Good at what? Video blogging or electronics?

Both,but mostly electroics!!
F.Y.I. this is the first time you have replied to one of my comments...

[TVman]

YaY!!!!!
No member has said no.

Then someone says no

[EEVblog]

Both,but mostly electronics

Well, I think I'm ok at it. Wouldn't have made a living from it since 1989 and made it to senior electronics design engineer at several companies if I wasn't at least competent I guess?
The problem is you've seen hardly any of my commercial work on the blog. I didn't start the blog until I was working at Altium, and then I couldn't / didn't talk much about what I was doing at the time. As for previous companies, well, most of that documentation stayed at the company, I have some stuff to show off, but only a very small percentage of stuff I've worked on.
And as for now, well, "doing the blog" whilst having a life etc means little time to work on meaty electronics projects. So it's not like I can easily say I'm going to spend a year developing some huge electronics system or product, and then show it off. It doesn't work like that.

[TVman]

I have been in electronics for many decades, and yes I think Dave is very good at what he does [both as an engineer and as a content provider].  He has different areas of expertise than I do, but for those areas that match his I can see that he has "been there and done that".  Every once in a while, when Dave gets into a fringe subject that I know little about-- I tend to learn something new-- even though I am older than Dave.  I am always learning-- and so should you be!  If there were not people like Dave around-- where would the young players get their knowledge and training from?  IMHO, Dave is providing an extremely valuable service to all of us, but especially those just getting started.  Go Dave!!!

That is some good advice especially since I am only 11...

[TVman]

Both,but mostly electronics

Well, I think I'm ok at it. Wouldn't have made a living from it since 1989 and made it to senior electronics design engineer at several companies if I wasn't at least competent I guess?
The problem is you've seen hardly any of my commercial work on the blog. I didn't start the blog until I was working at Altium, and then I couldn't / didn't talk much about what I was doing at the time. As for previous companies, well, most of that documentation stayed at the company, I have some stuff to show off, but only a very small percentage of stuff I've worked on.
And as for now, well, "doing the blog" whilst having a life etc means little time to work on meaty electronics projects. So it's not like I can easily say I'm going to spend a year developing some huge electronics system or product, and then show it off. It doesn't work like that.

O.K.(I think)

[EEVblog]

He has different areas of expertise than I do, but for those areas that match his I can see that he has "been there and done that".

And that's the thing. The field of electronics is so vast that no one can possibly know it all or have worked on it all.
For me, I've spent several decades designing automated production test systems, low frequency military sonar and seismic survey systems, PCB design (the companies "PCB layout guy"), and other miscellaneous stuff that has gone along with that. So those things I'm of course going to be pretty competent at.
Just like every electronics engineer, there is an awful lot I don't know. Ask me to design a discrete transistor 1KW RF power amp for example and I'd be just as clueless as any other electronics engineer who has never worked on that stuff. And likewise for countless other specific things I've never touched in my career.
Some people are lucky work on a vast amount of varied stuff in their career, others can work in very narrow fields for decades, all designers have vastly different experiences.

[TVman]

He has different areas of expertise than I do, but for those areas that match his I can see that he has "been there and done that".

And that's the thing. The field of electronics is so vast that no one can possibly know it all or have worked on it all.
For me, I've spent several decades designing automated production test systems, low frequency military sonar and seismic survey systems, PCB design (the companies "PCB layout guy"), and other miscellaneous stuff that has gone along with that. So those things I'm of course going to be pretty competent at.
Just like every electronics engineer, there is an awful lot I don't know. Ask me to design a discrete transistor 1KW RF power amp for example and I'd be just as clueless as any other electronics engineer who has never worked on that stuff. And likewise for countless other specific things I've never touched in my career.
Some people are lucky work on a vast amount of varied stuff in their career, others can work in very narrow fields for decades, all designers have vastly different experiences.

That is A very wise quote!

[dexters_lab]

i cant comment too much on Dave's EE skills because i dont know that much anyway, but i have learned a lot watching his videos and i have faith in everything Dave says 

but the point i want to really make is about where the blog has come from and where it is now. I own and run my own business, i can understand how hard it would be to walk away from a job and start something new like this. What Dave has achieved is inspiring from many perspectives.

[EEVblog]

but the point i want to really make is about where the blog has come from and where it is now. I own and run my own business, i can understand how hard it would be to walk away from a job and start something new like this.

Yes, although I'm doing an electronics blog full time, I have effectively walked away from commercial electronics design. I haven't worked on any serious electronics design projects for the last 3 years I've been doing this blog full time. I don't count the uSupply and a few other bits and bobs as any sort of serious design work. They are just hobby projects.
I've gone from working on 1200 pin $5K FPGA's, gigibit ethernet characterisation, and 10,000 data acquisition systems, to opening my mail, ranting, and tearing stuff down. Buy hey, it's a living 

[AG6QR]

I find it interesting that the poll allows you to select all four of "yes", "no", "Yay and nay" and "I haven't thought about that".  Shouldn't those choices be mutually exclusive?  What would it mean for someone to select all four?

Anyway, he's absolutely the best in the world at what he does.  If he retired from the blog, who else could step in and fill his shoes properly?  Nobody that I know of.

That doesn't mean I don't occasionally catch little mistakes, nor does it mean that I heartily enjoy the style of every video.  There are others who have some overlapping talents, and some who can explain certain concepts better.  There are some who can get a point across with more brevity.

But he's got a combination of natural teaching ability, real-world industry experience, integrity, and style that I haven't seen displayed anywhere else.

[8086]

I've gone from working on 1200 pin $5K FPGA's, gigibit ethernet characterisation, and 10,000 data acquisition systems, to opening my mail, ranting, and tearing stuff down. Buy hey, it's a living 

Speaking honestly and candidly (and I know you will have no problem with that!), which of these would you rather be doing?

[Tinkerer]

Dave doesnt need to know everything to be good at what he does. He can see a problem and know what steps to take to solve that problem even if he has to look up information for every step. In other words, he knows how to successfully apply what he does know, and what he researches, in order to get things done well. This is the basis of any good engineer, the application of knowledge.

[TVman]

I find it interesting that the poll allows you to select all four of "yes", "no", "Yay and nay" and "I haven't thought about that".  Shouldn't those choices be mutually exclusive?  What would it mean for someone to select all fou

sorry,but it won't let me change it!

[Corporate666]

if "what Dave does" is defined as being a YouTube content creator for electronics folks, then I think he is exceptionally good at what he does.

What strikes me is the absolute lack of really good electronics content on YouTube.  There are a few guys who obviously really have no clue what they are doing when it comes to electronics and are doing more equipment reviews and delving into irrelevant minutiae on spec sheets.  Then there are a whole crapload of people doing stupid shit with Arduinos.  And a bunch of people buying cheap Chinese eBay shite and doing teardowns but who don't really understand electronics or design well enough to offer any meaningful insight - they just narrate what we're already seeing in the video.   Nothing wrong with that, but it's not really electronics engineering.. it's people screwing around with stuff.

For people who are really in the electronics business and working on real products, Dave strikes the best combination of humor, knowledge, teaching-ability, insight and quantity of content produced to keep people interested.  I think that's why his subscriber base has grown at such a rapid clip.

I'd love to see Mike Harrison doing more videos - he has an amazing insight into so many varied areas of electronics (and just stuff in general) that I could watch his stuff all day long, but unfortunately he has a day job and his videos are fewer and farther between than I'm sure we'd all like

[EEVblog]

he's absolutely the best in the world at what he does.

I'm the only one in the world that does what I do 
There are other electronics video bloggers (only one other full time), but each has their own style and way of doing things, just like I have my own.

[EEVblog]

Speaking honestly and candidly (and I know you will have no problem with that!), which of these would you rather be doing?

Isn't that obvious? 
I do this because I enjoy it more.
But as far as actual practical electronics design goes, it's hard to beat working for a company that has a big budget, works on big stuff, and "forces" you to work on stuff you wouldn't ordinarily consider working on. When you work for yourself that breadth of experience is hard to get, unless you are a freelance designer and work with a wide range of clients. But then you are essentially "working for the man" anyway.

[G0HZU]

if "what Dave does" is defined as being a YouTube content creator for electronics folks, then I think he is exceptionally good at what he does.

What strikes me is the absolute lack of really good electronics content on YouTube.  There are a few guys who obviously really have no clue what they are doing when it comes to electronics and are doing more equipment reviews and delving into irrelevant minutiae on spec sheets.  Then there are a whole crapload of people doing stupid shit with Arduinos.  And a bunch of people buying cheap Chinese eBay shite and doing teardowns but who don't really understand electronics or design well enough to offer any meaningful insight - they just narrate what we're already seeing in the video.   Nothing wrong with that, but it's not really electronics engineering.. it's people screwing around with stuff.

For people who are really in the electronics business and working on real products, Dave strikes the best combination of humor, knowledge, teaching-ability, insight and quantity of content produced to keep people interested.  I think that's why his subscriber base has grown at such a rapid clip.

I agree with pretty much all of the above, but I do have one gripe about most of the blogger type videos.

If you look at the tutorial content on the eevblog and you look at the stuff in the projects section of the forum there isn't anything being discussed that needs test gear with fantastic accuracy. It's pretty much all student level stuff you could do with a few items of cheap used test gear and $2 crystal oscillator modules from Farnell.

But then when you watch the eevblog videos (or similar blogger videos from other people) it is always set against a backdrop of a bench that is littered with lab grade megadigit DMMs and calibration gear, flashy new scopes, new function generators, new programmable PSUs etc etc. There is also a HUGE
emphasis set against evaluating these (new)  products.

It's interesting (and entertaining) to watch reviews on this stuff but I don't think the balance is right. But I guess if the balance was better there would be fewer subscribers and far fewer people spending money on the products in the reviews.

[EEVblog]

if "what Dave does" is defined as being a YouTube content creator for electronics folks, then I think he is exceptionally good at what he does.

From my perspective I think I'm just ok at doing that.
Why?
Well, because I don't think I'm very efficient at doing it, consistent enough, thorough enough, and I'm inherently lazy and will almost always take the easiest and laziest approach. But most of that is not readily apparent from the audience perspective.
Hence my "off-the-cuff" approach. I won't spend a day researching something to make sure I know what I'm talking about, I'll just hit record and waffle on. And rarely will I go back and fix or refine a video. Sometimes that approach works, sometimes it doesn't.

For people who are really in the electronics business and working on real products, Dave strikes the best combination of humor, knowledge, teaching-ability, insight and quantity of content produced to keep people interested.  I think that's why his subscriber base has grown at such a rapid clip.

I won't argue that whatever I'm doing it seems to have worked.

I'd love to see Mike Harrison doing more videos - he has an amazing insight into so many varied areas of electronics (and just stuff in general) that I could watch his stuff all day long, but unfortunately he has a day job and his videos are fewer and farther between than I'm sure we'd all like

I would have liked to have done the blog when I was working on some of the more interesting stuff like Mike does, I would have had a ton of stuff to show and tell.
That's the disadvantage of not working in the industry any more.

[EEVblog]

If you look at the tutorial content on the eevblog and you look at the stuff in the projects section of the forum there isn't anything being discussed that needs test gear with fantastic accuracy. It's pretty much all student level stuff you could do with a few items of cheap used test gear and $2 crystal oscillator modules from Farnell.

That's because really advanced design usually has pretty niche appeal, or essentially no appeal in the real world.
At previous company I could have blogged the design of a 10,000 channel real time 24bit data acquisition system spread over 10km using fibre optic ATM switching, but who wants to follow that design through from go to whoa for a full year? Can they build it themselves? can they use concepts from it and modify it for something else? probably not, it's just too niche.

But then when you watch the eevblog videos (or similar blogger videos from other people) it is always set against a backdrop of a bench that is littered with lab grade megadigit DMMs and calibration gear, flashy new scopes, new function generators, new programmable PSUs etc etc.

Because we all have an obsession with test gear and our lab, it's a sickness 

There is also a HUGE emphasis set against evaluating these (new)  products.
It's interesting (and entertaining) to watch reviews on this stuff but I don't think the balance is right.

You said it yourself. The high end stuff is usually more interesting. I know it is for me. I've rather take apart or review a new $10K scope then a no-name $100 multimeter.

But I guess if the balance was better there would be fewer subscribers and far fewer people spending money on the products in the reviews.

What has people spending money on products in the reviews got anything to do with it?
I can't speak for the others, but I review the gear I personally find interesting, the end. I don't make any money from the sale of any gear from any reviews. At least not directly, perhaps through indirect advertising and adsense money on the views, but that same money is there regardless of what type of video I do.

[EEVblog]

Yes, although I'm doing an electronics blog full time, I have effectively walked away from commercial electronics design. I haven't worked on any serious electronics design projects for the last 3 years I've been doing this blog full time.

Actually, that's not true. I forgot early on in the full-time gig I did some investigatory design and PCB work for Cochlear, on their new generation hearing implants. I needed the money, so I whored myself out for a while

[G0HZU]

Because we all have an obsession with test gear and our lab, it's a sickness 

Yes, I guess the thing I see as being unbalanced is the emphasis on test gear worship

It's not a major gripe... I enjoy your videos and I think you are very talented and so are the other major bloggers. But my gripe is that they are also surrounded by high end test gear when they are in the camera view. The danger here is you will all end up creating a new breed of hobby EE who see a particular class of test gear as a kind of entry requirement to join the gang.

I'd love to see Mike Harrison doing more videos - he has an amazing insight into so many varied areas of electronics (and just stuff in general) that I could watch his stuff all day long, but unfortunately he has a day job and his videos are fewer and farther between than I'm sure we'd all like

Yes, I do find his videos to be very good too

[BravoV]

The danger here is you will all end up creating a new breed of hobby EE who see a particular class of test gear as a kind of entry requirement to join the gang.

Its already happened for while, especially in this forum.

Just stay longer in the forum and watch, once in a while there are always seasonal active posters, usually/mostly are in their teen age as they sound like (could be wrong though). And typically at the beginning they asked tons of questions, and very frequent on buying new T&M gears that may cost probably thousands of dollars like high end dmms (plural), 4 ch scope, SA, FG, bench PSU, high end soldering iron etc. 

Interesting part was at their other posts asking about basic electronics, they sound like they don't even know what a voltage divider is ?

From my faint memory, I guess I've recognized few for last few years, usually this type will pop out, overly active at the forum for certain period, once they've gathered their toys and probably getting bored with them, usually they will fade away from the forum and never heard again.

[Stonent]

Well I'll put it this way, Dave must be fairly good because there's a lot of people here who do this stuff as their every day job (EE Work) and I don't hear many people calling BS on stuff he says very often (at least not in regards to electronics  )

[Corporate666]

It's not a major gripe... I enjoy your videos and I think you are very talented and so are the other major bloggers. But my gripe is that they are also surrounded by high end test gear when they are in the camera view. The danger here is you will all end up creating a new breed of hobby EE who see a particular class of test gear as a kind of entry requirement to join the gang.

I think there are quite a few people who get into the hobby of electronics and don't really ever develop themselves beyond being test gear geeks.  There are people who will debate over whether an 6.5 digit Agilent meter is better/worse than a 6.5 digit Keithley, but then the extent of their electronics knowledge is checking the voltage output of the regulator on their Arduino.  Nothing wrong with that I guess, but I think that's where Dave is pretty good.  He has some very cool equipment (and I will admit his videos made me lust after some equipment after seeing it in his videos, which led me to spend a few thousand on gear I probably didn't really need - although it does make my job easier) but he also knows how to use it and what it's important for. 

But it seems to me there are quite a few people who are geared up to the max, but don't have anything to work on.

That's actually one thing I would say that I'd love to see Dave doing more of.  I miss the old days where there seemed to be more project stuff.  Like the one where he made LED strips for his deck, but went into the temperature calculations and took a very methodical/analytical approach to his design.  I'd certainly trade teardowns of cheap meters and mailbag segments for more of that.  I'm sure Dave would love to do more project based stuff - but he nailed it in his objection to that earlier.  That being, anything that is really in-depth and interesting is too long to do in just one video (or even 10), and anything that is short enough to do in a video can't possibly go into depth enough.

Although the fix-it videos where we get multiple segments I find to be fantastic.  It would be really cool to have some ongoing projects too - sort of like the Mu Current or the USB power source.  But again, you toss in a weekly teardown, a weekly mailbag, a weekly review and a tutorial each week - and we're asking the man to work 60 hours a week  if we expect him to be handling product development also.  That would be unfair.

Can't we clone Dave?

[TVman]

I am glad that most everyone likes Dave......

[EEVblog]

I am glad that most everyone likes Dave......

You are talking to a biased group here!
I get daily hate mail, and a couple of death threats a year.

[TVman]

I am glad that most everyone likes Dave......

You are talking to a biased group here!
I get daily hate mail, and a couple of death threats a year.

The hate mail makes sense but
Death threats??
What???

GN

[uprightsquire]

There are people who get violent when Dave says that you can never have too many oscilloscopes.

[han]

I am glad that most everyone likes Dave......

You are talking to a biased group here!
I get daily hate mail, and a couple of death threats a year.

The hate mail makes sense but
Death threats??
What???

GN

There are people who get violent when Dave says that you can never have too many oscilloscopes.

The hate mail is probably angry wife because her husband buy lot of Oscilloscope and DMM because of Dave?
But a death threats..that one just gone too far

[zapta]

Good at what? Video blogging or electronics?

And running a successful forum.

[pickle9000]

Threatening Dave that's one thing, but never threaten his test equipment. All the forum members on the planet will be after you. 

[SeanB]

I think Dave got the most hate mail from his using beer to clean his drain. I grew up in a brewery, so I know that there is very little difference from what is in the bottle to what is in the drain. ( cue the hate mail as well!!!!  ) As I no longer drink, and did not really like beer either ( but love the brewers yeast) I am ambivalent on the choice of Dave not to drink, if he does not like the taste it is HIS choice.

I use beer for cooking though, nice to put out the flames on the BBQ. Makes a good ingredient in a marinade as well, free invite to Dave if he ever is in SAfrica to come to a BBQ. No shrimp though, will get him some good game meat instead.

[Rigby]

You are talking to a biased group here!
I get daily hate mail, and a couple of death threats a year.

There are a few ways that I measure success:
1) Number of people whose comfort-zone I've invaded (in terms of things I've done that they don't approve of, technically)
2) Number of people I've angered because of comfort-zone invasion or because I "moved their cheese."
3) Number of people whom I've angered enough to get them to confront me personally.

I try to get at least two-people into #3 per year.  If I don't, then it is because I am not trying hard enough to get people to challenge their perceptions and let go of stupid tradition and habit.  I am not asking people to do silly things, just general procedural stuff that exists only because it exists.  I like to get rid of that BS and automate it, which pisses a lot of people off, because a lot of people have entire jobs dedicated to manual crap that could be done by a computer.

If I don't piss off several of these people per year then I simply am not doing my job.

Dave is doing his job.  But do not misunderstand me: anyone that threatens you is doing so because of a problem that THEY are having, not because of something YOU are doing.  If someone threatens you, they are doing so because there is a whole lot of other stuff going on that they can't deal with; it is not indicative of something you're not doing properly.

Dave knows this, I'm sure, but maybe not everyone understands these, so I type it.

[Corporate666]

I get daily hate mail, and a couple of death threats a year.

Is it people angry that you've banned them from the forum, or something?  I can see brand fanbois getting angry if you bash the product they just dropped a lot of $$ on, but death threats?  What on earth could you possibly do to someone to provoke such a response?  What a bizarre world we live in... sorry to hear about it.

[linux-works]

I am glad that most everyone likes Dave......

You are talking to a biased group here!
I get daily hate mail, and a couple of death threats a year.

you've openly said you are an athiest.  let me guess that that triggers quite a bit of hate mail?

I once had to leave a forum (my own choice) when the rednecks got too out of hand and started threatening me, personally.  there was a lot of political discussion going on and some people really can't accept that others don't think like they do.  it angers them to the point of violence.  I left that forum and never looked back.  (not electronics based, but technical in nature).

[pickle9000]

Dave and death threats.

Now be honest. What would happen if Dave took and old scope (even a dead one), tied it to the rear bumper of his car and dragged it down a dirt road?

The answer could very possibly be death threat's.

I wonder how many views it would get?

[miguelvp]

Nah, I bet is Atmel pissed that you had a bigger booth.

[TVman]

Dave and death threats.

Now be honest. What would happen if Dave took and old scope (even a dead one), tied it to the rear bumper of his car and dragged it down a dirt road?

The answer could very possibly be death threat's.

I wonder how many views it would get?

Funny!

[G0HZU]

Dave and death threats.

Now be honest. What would happen if Dave took and old scope (even a dead one), tied it to the rear bumper of his car and dragged it down a dirt road?

The answer could very possibly be death threat's.

I wonder how many views it would get?

Or get two scopes (Agilent vs Rigol?) and play a game of  scope conkers to see which one keeps working and comes out on top for overall build quality.

For those who don't know about conkers, see below:

[pickle9000]

I think there is a certain DSA that may qualify for conkers.

[zapta]

I get daily hate mail, and a couple of death threats a year.

This can be an interesting topic for a video.

[Rigby]

I get daily hate mail, and a couple of death threats a year.

This can be an interesting topic for a video.

A good idea.  he'd get new threats though because of the non-electronics content.  can't win, can't win fully, anyway.  A sure way to fail, though, is to try to please everyone.

[electronics man]

I don't think you could get a better person to do the blog than dave , he's enthusiastic, intelligent and just such great teacher, he's brilliant  O0 O0

[ErikTheNorwegian]

One, there is only one thing i don’t like about Dave.   
He claims to know my family, and clearly he doesn’t. Bob is not in my family. I actually only know one Bob, and he is in the USA, and i checked it very carefully, he is not related to my in any way. My mother has not had any other men either that has had a "uncle function".. So Dave, Your wrong, Bob`s is not my uncle!   

[zapta]

I like when he says 'sha-zee'.  I don't like the S-bombs and the bird flipping.  Overall a very good mix of information and entertainment.

We should have a thread for Daveism (similar to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushism) 

;-)

[linux-works]

a 'mouthy' engineer is one that I can trust.

people who are too worried about 'bad words' are not hardcore enough for me ...

[Macbeth]

What Dave does is what Dave does. I can't think of anyone who can do what Dave does better than Dave himself. 

[Dave Turner]

There are many electronic bloggers who have interesting content.

Being critical of many of the blogs in a hopefully constructive way I would make the following comments:-

1) Use a tripod, frame camera shots and don't continually wave the camera between them. Some otherwise excellent content is almost destroyed by inducing seasickness in the viewer.

2) Think about what you are going to say so that redundant verbiage e.g. er, um, like, and similar is reduced.

3) I couldn't do it in reverse so with the greatest of respect for those bloggers whose natural language is not English - if you are going to post something in English - then work a script out beforehand so that you don't have to try to recall words whilst recording, with the resultant discontinuities.

4) Being heavily self critical review your own video before releasing it - would you like to watch it?

Dave is superb at what he does and already knows all of the above; he is a natural both in front of the camera, with voice over and using the camera. He has his well deserved niche, long may he continue.
 

[Tinkerer]

I get daily hate mail, and a couple of death threats a year.

This can be an interesting topic for a video.

A good idea.  he'd get new threats though because of the non-electronics content.  can't win, can't win fully, anyway.  A sure way to fail, though, is to try to please everyone.

I agree, this would be a very interesting episode to watch. And he would piss people off even more when he makes fun of their rediculous threats. Dave is buff enough that he could probably beat the snot out of someone half his age.

[han]

I get daily hate mail, and a couple of death threats a year.

This can be an interesting topic for a video.

A good idea.  he'd get new threats though because of the non-electronics content.  can't win, can't win fully, anyway.  A sure way to fail, though, is to try to please everyone.

I agree, this would be a very interesting episode to watch. And he would piss people off even more when he makes fun of their rediculous threats. Dave is buff enough that he could probably beat the snot out of someone half his age.

Hate mail episode will be hilarious..  

My schedule suggestion:
Day 1: Fundamental theory
Day 2: Product Review
Day 3: Mail Bag
Day 4: Tear down
Day 5: Rant
Day 6: Repair / Dave Project
Day 7: Hate mail readout

anyone agree/disagree?

[TVman]

I get daily hate mail, and a couple of death threats a year.

This can be an interesting topic for a video.

A good idea.  he'd get new threats though because of the non-electronics content.  can't win, can't win fully, anyway.  A sure way to fail, though, is to try to please everyone.

I agree, this would be a very interesting episode to watch. And he would piss people off even more when he makes fun of their rediculous threats. Dave is buff enough that he could probably beat the snot out of someone half his age.

Hate mail episode will be hilarious..  

My schedule suggestion:
Day 1: Fundamental theory
Day 2: Product Review
Day 3: Mail Bag
Day 4: Tear down
Day 5: Rant
Day 6: Repair / Dave Project
Day 7: Hate mail readout

anyone agree/disagree?

I agree!


I also agree that day 4:Tear down was spelled wrong.

[ablacon64]

A hate mail readout series would be hilarious!

[zapta]

A hate mail readout series would be hilarious!

Good match for episode 666.  ;-)

[lapm]

A hate mail readout series would be hilarious!

Good match for episode 666.  ;-)

No, episode 666 should be something evil, like company trying to promote their really crappy product..

Hatemail is not evil, its just sign that you just cant please everyone... Good content creates motions, both of them, positive and negative..

[EEVblog]

Dave knows this, I'm sure, but maybe not everyone understands these, so I type it.

Yep, I know. Some don't know though and can't handle the hate that inevitably comes with having a public profile.

[EEVblog]

Is it people angry that you've banned them from the forum, or something?  I can see brand fanbois getting angry if you bash the product they just dropped a lot of $$ on, but death threats?  What on earth could you possibly do to someone to provoke such a response?  What a bizarre world we live in... sorry to hear about it.

It's usually the fanboys, not people I've banned, or simply people that hate my voice or something I've said. Almost certainly 40 year olds in their mums basement.
All of them seems to American, just say'n...   

[EEVblog]

4) Being heavily self critical review your own video before releasing it - would you like to watch it?

I don't necessarily agree here.
Being too critical of your own work means you'll second guess yourself, or try to overly perfect things, both of which will ultimately lead to less material or perhaps even no blog at all "because it's all too much work".
The only reason my blog exists, and continues to exist as it is is because I very specifically don't overly review my videos, and am deliberately not critical of my own material. Whatever "pops out" after hitting the record button is generally what gets uploaded. I rarely replay my clips after I shoot them, nor go back and reshoot something because I didn't like it. And of course, I don't write scripts or plan much if anything before I hit record.
Each and every video without exception I swallow my pride and release material that I don't think is the best I can do, because if I fussed over it I'd never release anything.

[Shock]

More drag soldering and PC assembly videos! Hehehe just kidding Dave.

Everyone knows the whinging Australian accent is fake. 
I've heard Dave speak away from youtube and He sounds like Magnus Pike.

If you don't believe me watch episode #1 again

[GeoffS]

At a recent gathering of electronics geeks, everyone had a least seen one of Dave's videos.  Only one person didn't like them because of Dave's presentation style. He called Dave the 'Steve Irwin of electronics'   

Nothing wrong with being passionate about what you do.

[EEVblog]

Hate mail episode will be hilarious..  

There is no way I can match Richard Dawkins at this, this is comedy gold:

[EEVblog]

At a recent gathering of electronics geeks, everyone had a least seen one of Dave's videos.  Only one person didn't like them because of Dave's presentation style. He called Dave the 'Steve Irwin of electronics'   
Nothing wrong with being passionate about what you do.

It worked pretty well for Steve Irwin!

[mrflibble]

There is no way I can match Richard Dawkins at this, this is comedy gold:

Thanks for sharing that one. Brilliant.

[Dave Turner]

Dave

I agree my that comment about 'being heavily self critical' was possibly worded too strongly. Nevertheless I stand by the basic meaning behind my comment which really meant "Look at your video - would you like to watch/listen to it, how could it be improved. Learn for the next one.

You Dave are a natural presenter and have polished your technique over the last 5 years. Hopefully others can learn from that whilst developing their own technique.

[KD0CAC John]

A pole / question like that does not represent much , if for no other reason , the vast majority of negatives would not be here to vote , its a rigged election .
Dave is very bad at what he does , what ever that is .
That's why I have been hanging out here for a few yrs. 
Oh and if I win big enough [ my last 4 lotto tickets , 1 won $1 and another won $5 ] I will send Dave on that past due vacation .

[pickle9000]

Hate mail episode will be hilarious..  

There is no way I can match Richard Dawkins at this, this is comedy gold:

Too funny, that made my day.

[Hypernova]

At a recent gathering of electronics geeks, everyone had a least seen one of Dave's videos.  Only one person didn't like them because of Dave's presentation style. He called Dave the 'Steve Irwin of electronics'   

Nothing wrong with being passionate about what you do.

I would count that as complement of the highest order.

[Shock]

If Sagen starts doing a song and dance routine in weekly shows I'm unsubbing 

[han]

still wait for hate mail episode ...
maybe 5 minute section in mail bag

[made2hack]

I've gone from working on 1200 pin $5K FPGA's, gigibit ethernet characterisation, and 10,000 data acquisition systems, to opening my mail, ranting, and tearing stuff down. Buy hey, it's a living 

Good on you Dave! That mail isn't going to open itself! 

But seriously, I find Dave an invaluable resource for us beginners in the field, if only for his unbridled enthusiasm and easy going attitude. If it weren't for the videos and the forum, I don't think that I would have had the drive to take on projects much more sophisticated than an led connected to a resistor.

As for others such as Martin Lorton, I find them very much an excellent resource, especially since we have similar backgrounds (IT guys diving into the hardware side).

So, keep it up Dave!

As for the death threats, they are a testament to your success. The bigger the success, the more haters!

As a famous poet once said:

You see, there are two kind of people in the world today
We have the playaz and we have the playa haters
Please don't hate me because I'm beautiful, baby

[Stonent]

At a recent gathering of electronics geeks, everyone had a least seen one of Dave's videos.  Only one person didn't like them because of Dave's presentation style. He called Dave the 'Steve Irwin of electronics'   
Nothing wrong with being passionate about what you do.

It worked pretty well for Steve Irwin!

Yeah, well just stay out of the water.

Since Dave is frequently barefoot, we've secretly introduced a leaky pipe into his wall. Lets see if he notices.

ZAP!  (Assuming the water provides a ground path back to the pipe)

[Stonent]

If you like the Dawkins hate mail, take a look at John Mcafee's video where he reads some of his hate mail and explains how to remove Mcafee Antivirus from a PC. (Warning, language, drug references, scantily clad women, and "suggestive content")

[SolarSunrise]

Hate mail episode will be hilarious..  

There is no way I can match Richard Dawkins at this, this is comedy gold:

How did you guys find this funny? I'm just depressed how many lunatics exist in this world we live in... And if you think I'm taking this way too seriously, then you are absolutely right. I don't really take religious jokes lightly since it is a very touchy subject, and also the source of all the conflicts right? But put these contradicting arguments aside, it is kind of funny, but um...

Sorry if I went a little off topic there! Back to the forum topic, since Dave is the only one in the world who does Off-The-Cuff Engineering blogs, so of course he is #1. His skills on designing high speed circuitry might have become rusty, but I'm sure that skill will come back once he spends few hours twiddling around with app notes and other resources.

[ignator]

To stay on topic with the question "Do you think Dave is good what he does": My observation is that his tear downs, he reverse engineers the products, indicating sub circuit operation, then describes the signal integrity that is required, and points these out in the design implementation. There are very few engineers I've ever worked with that are this broad band and see the many facets needed to implement a design.

It comes down to pattern recognition, and the intuitive thought process to convert the theory to full understanding of how it works.

[EEVblog]

How did you guys find this funny?

Because it's, well, funny.

I don't really take religious jokes lightly since it is a very touchy subject, and also the source of all the conflicts right?

Only for those without a sense of humor. And in that case, they have no right not to be offended.
Religion has existed for far too many generations by way of fear and intimidation about offending their "faith" or whatever. They deserve no such protection, and will not get it in today's society. The game is up.
If I didn't end up in electronics blogging, I likely would have ended up in the atheist blogging community, making fun of religion at every opportunity.

[BravoV]

If I didn't end up in electronics blogging, I likely would have ended up in the atheist blogging community, making fun of religion at every opportunity.

Geez Dave, by this post it self, probably more hate mails and death threats coming ? 

[electronics man]

Only for those without a sense of humor. And in that case, they have no right not to be offended.
Religion has existed for far too many generations by way of fear and intimidation about offending their "faith" or whatever. They deserve no such protection, and will not get it in today's society. The game is up.
If I didn't end up in electronics blogging, I likely would have ended up in the atheist blogging community, making fun of religion at every opportunity.

your quite right i totaly agree

[SolarSunrise]

How did you guys find this funny?

Because it's, well, funny.

I don't really take religious jokes lightly since it is a very touchy subject, and also the source of all the conflicts right?

Only for those without a sense of humor. And in that case, they have no right not to be offended.
Religion has existed for far too many generations by way of fear and intimidation about offending their "faith" or whatever. They deserve no such protection, and will not get it in today's society. The game is up.
If I didn't end up in electronics blogging, I likely would have ended up in the atheist blogging community, making fun of religion at every opportunity.

Very true. Actually the reason I don't take these jokes lightly is because it will generate a massive, offensive arguing and death threats by religious fanatics. I really don't want that to happen in the happy EEVBlog forum.

If I didn't end up in electronics blogging, I likely would have ended up in the atheist blogging community, making fun of religion at every opportunity.

Geez Dave, by this post it self, probably more hate mails and death threats coming ? 

Looks like I have opened up a huge can of worms...  Pardon me... Can I close the lid back?

[linux-works]

Religion has existed for far too many generations by way of fear and intimidation about offending their "faith" or whatever. They deserve no such protection, and will not get it in today's society.

fully agreed.  indoctrination has been given a 'free pass' for thousands of years and it does not seem that we are, overall, in better shape for it.  lots of arguments could be made that we have been held back by our willfull ignorance.  the 'us vs them' that is a natural byproduct of religion also does not help world peace, any.

[TheAmmoniacal]

As a person who only recently transitioned into electrical engineering as a hobby, I found blogs like Dave's, mike and mjlorton's to be a great source of encouragement and enthusiasm. It's not even that much about the factual content, because I could never understand much, but I would still lean back in my chair to watch a teardown of some expensive oscilloscope. A lot of it is in the way of thinking that comes with experience, just how you apply your intuition, you learn a lot from that. How you approach a circuit and try to reverse engineer the circuit in your head, and seeing which ICs do what etc.

Another thing, before I watched your tutorial in soldering I would literally melt the solder onto my iron and try to tap it on. Did never work.

[rollatorwieltje]

So, is Dave good at what he does?

Well, is that small battery powered switchmode pre-tracking linear uC-controlled power supply finished yet... 

_{Says someone with a whole pile of unfinished projects...}

[han]

So, is Dave good at what he does?

Well, is that small battery powered switchmode pre-tracking linear uC-controlled power supply finished yet... 

_{Says someone with a whole pile of unfinished projects...}

Same with me, with no deadline, many of persnonal small project is always be unfinished project

[tautech]

Well.....if it has anything to do with his website hosts, he needs to get his HV PSU out and start zapping them....