| General > General Technical Chat |
| Was Don Lancaster really a "guru"? |
| << < (18/39) > >> |
| JPortici:
--- Quote from: Simon on November 09, 2018, 04:57:35 pm ---I grew up in italy so understand how it was because although i am only 35 things in italy are 10-25 years behind. I was over the moon when a friendly TV repairer gave me old RS catalogues and transistor databooks. The RS catalogue went with me on every car journey and i would pour over each page in a quest to find out what parts could be found in the wild. --- End quote --- Nope, that's not what i meant, at all. Even though i had simillar experiences (only it was my teacher who gave me his old RS catalogues.. and to this days i still use paper catalogues for certain distributors because of their godafwul websites. Namely RS and TME) What i meant was that we are still learning from books from the 70s, but in the last 10 years i saw power converters design becoming so much more affordable and reliable that it could be taught in high school! I don't remember if you ever told from which part of italy you came but i can assure you the north east was and still is on par with the rest of the world :) |
| MK14:
--- Quote from: rsjsouza on November 09, 2018, 05:59:21 pm --- --- Quote from: MK14 on November 08, 2018, 11:03:02 pm ---Don Lancaster's website, is well worth a visit, if you are interested in that type of thing. Since this thread started, I've probably spent too long, going through the website and some of the resources on it. --- End quote --- Bad publicity is better than no publicity at all! :-DD Due to the language barrier as a kid, I did not get to experience firsthand Don Lancaster's writings but we certainly had our share of local writers that, in retrospect, seem a bit exaggerated and puerile (may have even been disciples of Don Lancaster's style). However, as others have mentioned, they were certainly catering to the audience and the style that grasped our attention as kids/teenagers and kept us going despite the usual hardships and troubles that are part of this electronics journey. After all, what they presented was the absolute source of information from the unreachable manufacturers. --- End quote --- I agree. Good or bad publicity, can be good for business, either way. As others have said in this thread (or similar), the accessibility of electronics, has changed, massively, over the last 50 years (and longer). Computers, perhaps 50 or more years ago, cost perhaps £100,000 or even £1,000,000+ in today's money, needed a massive room, huge amounts of electricity and a big team of long white lab coat wearing engineers/mathematicians/scientists/etc, to keep it ticking along. Whereas, they start at $0.03, now. :-DD The internet potentially replaces the old paper books, datasheets, needing to ask 'gurus' in person, etc. I'm glad that the OP's thread, has apparently/probably gone spectacularly wrong for them! :-DD |
| In Vacuo Veritas:
I still don't think he's a guru. A shameless self-promoter, sure. All I'm saying is no one ever said "Do it like Lancaster did it". Notice no one is using PostScript as a general purpose language and solar power and electric cars seem to be doing just fine, no matter what this windbag said decades ago... --- Quote from: MK14 on November 09, 2018, 08:46:21 pm --- I'm glad that the OP's thread, has apparently/probably gone spectacularly wrong for them! :-DD --- End quote --- How do you figure? I still have seen no evidence of "guru" status, just that he wrote a lot of stuff. Even one person agreed with me on my main point. So great, he wrote a lot of stuff that people read... because there was nothing else to read! |
| MK14:
--- Quote from: In Vacuo Veritas on November 09, 2018, 08:51:54 pm ---I still don't think he's a guru. --- End quote --- That's fine. You are welcome to have your own opinion. But if I ever bumped in to him (unlikely), and he/we had time and wanted to have a great long chat about electronics. Both now and in the past. I would thoroughly enjoy the experience. The electronics industry has created a lot of heroes and gurus, over the years. |
| EEVblog:
--- Quote from: In Vacuo Veritas on November 09, 2018, 08:51:54 pm ---I still don't think he's a guru. A shameless self-promoter, sure. All I'm saying is no one ever said "Do it like Lancaster did it". --- End quote --- Why do you care what he calls his website? Why keep digging your hole further? You're no doubt now embarrassed to find out he's one of the industries pioneers in education, oops. What have you done for engineering education that makes you even remotely qualified to criticise someone like this? All I see is some anonymous shit poster who is jealous of someone else's hard work, prove me wrong. --- Quote ---How do you figure? I still have seen no evidence of "guru" status, just that he wrote a lot of stuff. Even one person agreed with me on my main point. So great, he wrote a lot of stuff that people read... because there was nothing else to read! --- End quote --- He wrote a lot of stuff that helped educate, entertain, and inspire hobbyists and engineers. Wow, one person agrees with your main point, congratulations, you win the internet. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |