Element 14 - Tosh!

[logictom]

Every time I go back to the element 14 website it annoys me more!
The interface/design is useless - makes it difficult to find the simplest of things.
Links that link back to the same page, why do they exist?
Webinars - I 'attended' one of these and you had to ring up, that's right use a phone, to hear what was being said?!? It's on the internet, WTF?
Plus they insist on putting the time in, what I consider, 24hr format - 00:00 but then they put 15:00 as 03:00 pm ?!
Ben Heck - the content is interesting, I like seeing the concept through to design with the 360 laptop, man that thing is UGLY, but there is so much pissing around in the videos, the minute long intro followed by a long explanation of what is going to happen - just get on with it! But no, let's piss around with 'story lines' oh so and so called me up and asked me to do this, cue video of staged conversation. JUST BUILD THE DAMN THING!!!
And I'm sure I remember him using a blow torch in one of his videos instead of a soldering iron, no excuse, but a throw-away iron instead of using a blow torch?!

And I see the Renesas Rulz site is using the same software as element 14, why? CRAP!

Rant over back to making leds flash

[Zyvek]

I'm with you, I hardly check what is going on at Element 14 anymore.

I like the concept of the Ben Heck show, but the first two I watched really didn't show the real details of what he was building (enough for me anyway) so I haven't bothered to watch again.  I get more from Dave taking nearly  anything apart than I do from Ben Heck....

Then again I'm somewhat of an avid motorcyclist and I hate the show American Chopper, so it could just be me.

 

[johnboxall]

I only check in to see what new roadtests are up for offer - they can be surprisingly generous.

[EEVblog]

I'm starting to lose count of the numbers of times I've ranted about this on The Amp Hour!

Dave.

[Bored@Work]

I'm starting to lose count of the numbers of times I've ranted about this on The Amp Hour!

Maybe only three times. In hope there is coming more rants.

These Element14 tossers now do some geocoding on their website. They think they can guess my native language from my IP and come up with the page in non-English. Nice try.

And these wankers apparently use machine translation of the worst kind (or the worst human translator they could find, maybe at rent-a-coder?). This translator must have messed up the dictionary. A good bunch of words sound as if they are from one of our neighboring countries. Other are brain dead 1:1 translations of technical terms, instead of using the correct native technical terms. Some translations aren't even words. What the fuck should 00E43t be, or 'FV??'? Completely retarded. And they can't be bothered to translate text in images. And don't get me started on the grammar. Because, well, whatever grammar they use, it isn't the one for that language.

So the whole page is a complete mess.

This Element14 is done by a bunch of incompetent, retarded clueless wankers showing their disrespect for their users and non-English languages.

[Zad]

The problem I have with Ben Heck is that, by his own admission, he is an artist not an engineer. Visually he is a cliché, slightly ill looking, balding and ginger, pretty much what the average school child would describe as a typical engineer. He is feted in the modder community, but this is like calling a kid who puts lights and stickers on his car a powertrain development engineer. If you want to give engineering a good image, you use people like Jeri and Dave. People who actually ARE engineers, look healthy and as if you would want to talk to them at a party (although admittedly I would probably want to talk to Jeri more for some reason - sorry Dave!) The problem is that to do real engineering takes time, and often isn't very photogenic or thrilling.

Element14 need to get a grip on their web site and work out what they want from it. They seem to have 3 different versions of forums, each presented in a slightly different way, and forums that duplicate and triplicate existing coverage. It also seems to be impossible to list the forums in any clear and logical way. Still, Premier Farnell's profits are up 70% this quarter so they must be doing something right!

[EEVblog]

The problem I have with Ben Heck is that, by his own admission, he is an artist not an engineer. Visually he is a cliché, slightly ill looking, balding and ginger, pretty much what the average school child would describe as a typical engineer. He is feted in the modder community, but this is like calling a kid who puts lights and stickers on his car a powertrain development engineer. If you want to give engineering a good image, you use people like Jeri and Dave. People who actually ARE engineers, look healthy and as if you would want to talk to them at a party (although admittedly I would probably want to talk to Jeri more for some reason - sorry Dave!) The problem is that to do real engineering takes time, and often isn't very photogenic or thrilling.

No offense taken!, she's much better looking than me :->

Yes, Ben Heck isn't really in the same gig as Jeri and myself, so at least I don't feel threatened!

Ben's stuff is fodder for the gamers and the like. His stuff is massively over produced which is why Element 14 lap it up.
Jeri appeals to the more hardcore science and hacker/maker types
And I like to think I appeal more to the traditional electronics hobbyist and professional market.

Looks like there is room for all of us, but if any more try to muscle in we'll gang up and beat the crap out you 

Dave.

[tyblu]

Just need an RF 'babe' with an HD camera.