I would suggest a project that is simple enough to understand, yet has a demonstrable practical circuit that they may choose to use after the class is over. One idea that quickly comes to mind is a simple (2-3-transistor or 2-3-per-channel (stereo)) audio amplifier, suitable to powering a small speaker, with a jack to connect to MP3 player.
It demonstrates one of two basic modes of operation for transistors, one of the most important semiconductor devices (diodes and ICs are others) that is a building block for analog (and digital) electronics. The other mode is when the transistor acts as a switch BTW.
You can cover electron and conventional current flow, waves (sound), and feedback as physics topics.
For the parts, using a mail-order suppler like Digi-Key, Mouser, or Jameco (US / Canada) you should be able to buy the parts for about $5 including the connector and a small speaker.
It may not gather a lot of steam in terms of office desktops, too many MSCE-certified types are employed as Computer System Administrators, called "CS'es" because of the abbreviation of their job classification who are not experienced Linux administrators, but I think areas such as embedded systems, and servers, systems that don't have user's calling a helpdesk for technical support, are likely areas where the adoption over time is possible.
Presently groups tend to be isolated or have insightful, competent management willing to fight to their use Open Source / Free Software within the Government of Canada, but those are rare, internally led experiences, often from smaller, newer teams of people already with appropriate skills.
One side-effect is that if government adopts Open Source Software, it may change their closed culture of treating soft resources as scarce, and actually promote sharing within departments across geographical regions and groups, as well as inter-departmental sharing of resources, which could have a significant impact on reducing spending on custom development. Personally, I think the cultural changes of infusing Open Source could be vastly worth more than the lisense / CALs they would not have to buy.
One example is not accepting binary / executable only deliverables from an private-sector contractor, in an Open Source culture that appears insane and unsafe, but too often currently binary deliverables are used as leverage into a form of black-mail which makes the government department at the mercy of the contractor(s).
Treasury Board and nearly everyone in Ottawa (nation's capital) uses MS Office as a corporate standard.
The department I've associated with uses MS Office nationally, but my small group uses OpenOffice internally. I don't even run MS-Window on my desktop or laptop.
Environment Canada, Department of National Defence, Communications Security Establishment, and I believe the Coast Guard have groups or divisions that use Linux or *BSD (OpenBSD for certain), and tools like KDE, GNOME, Apache, Tomcat, Perl, PHP, GCC, netfilter, pf, OpenSSH, Squid, bind, and plenty of other common open source / Free Software for desktops (think engineering workstatons, not too many office PCs), and servers.
The Government of Canada, has some position papers and related material on Open Source Software available from Treasury Board of Canada, here, also there the Getting Open Source Logic INto Government / aka GOSLING / OISILLON (Options Innovatrices et Synergiques pour l'Introduction du Logiciel Libre dans les Organisations Nationales) which advocates adoption within government.
A somewhat related project (web2.0) is the internal GCpedia (Government of Canada own internal wikipedia), here is the Wikipedia entry.
As far as delivering a stable platform, in my professional Linux experience, open source video drivers have been more consistently stable and keep up to date than binary drivers from either nVidia or ATI/AMD.
We dropped using $1000+ ATI FireGL cards for nVidia Quadra cards because the nvidia binaries drivers were better than ATI's frglx binary drivers.
Once open source drivers are available, I expect we will again follow reliability and switch "back" to AMD/ATI FireGL video cards, regardless of pricing, because the quality of open source drivers will pay for any purchase price difference. And I'm talking 12-200 graphic workstations with multiple displays using 2 video cards, so up to $200,000 (two $1000 cards in 200 systems) in potential sales could be the results for one small organization. This is just a single case of how this could reward AMD/ATI for their efforts.
It replaces and expands upon Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneier, and Practical Cryptography by Ferguson & Schneier to make a more holistic approach to security encompassing the entire system, not just using the latest (coolest) encryption techniques. Most real-life systems are broken by going around or ignoring the encrpytion.
Another classic is
TCP/IP Illustrated by the late Richard Stevens Most people need/read only Volume I: The Protocols, but there is also Volume II: The Implementation which is wonderful albeit with a smaller following, though Volume III which is considered a big disappointment to many (I've never read the vol 3) isn't worry buying unless you're specifically interested in its contents.
The only serious alternative to TCP/IP Illustrated is Douglas Comer's series Internetworking with TCP/IP which is the series I learnt about TCP/IP programming with. Still highly recommended.
For Software development, The Mythical Man-Month by computing pioneer Frederick Brooks should be required reading, and Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister should be handed to every new IT/IM or software manager with their promotion or hiring (if they haven't read it already). Computing would suck so much less if we all held ourselves accounting to the basic ideas in these two books.
For historic, 3 books + bonus item that would have to be included are:
It has been a while since I've been involved in interviewing / hiring anyone in IT, but here's my opinion and experience. Disclosure: I have a (4-year) degree with an area of concentration in Computer Science.
I'm not so interested in the piece of paper of the degree, but I am interested in the (typically 4) years prior where you spend your time learning, and developing an understanding of computing, computer architecture, computer science, software engineering, problem solving, and time management. One small but critically important lesson is learning how finite your knowledge is. That they are people who know "more" than you do. Other lessons include dealing with success, failure, pressure, and interacting with others.
In my experience the self-taught IT person may be capable, but at least as many are not. Interpersonal skills are probably the biggest unknown. Some are insecure or "have a chip on their shoulder" about the differentiation between degreed and not. Some may have excellent knowledge of all-but-obsolete technology (DOS batch files wizard?) and try to solve every problem with what they know, rather than looking for a "proper" solution (one that is better suited).
So if you have a decent understanding of the fundamentals and a desire to learn more, then you're a good potential candidate.
The biggest problem is that you are not likely to get hired through an advertised job position. The competition between candidates with degrees and HR staff who are risk adverse will likely throw out your resume along with the 200 other people not short-listed to give to the hiring manager. So you likely want to learn about business 'networking' to find unadvertised jobs, often through friends and colleagues who know that you are capable and worth considering. In this case your resume is given directly to the hiring manager, without the HR 'filter' process.
If/when you can afford it and have time, you may want to seriously consider getting "something" for post-secondary education or 'professional' training in IT to show not only education, but genuine interest and initiative.
The Atmel AVR Butterfly is a $20 microcontroller on a board intended to be an introduction to AVR microcontrollers or microcontrollers in general. Low cost of entry, plenty of real world I/O (temp sensor, LCD, speaker, light sensor, ADC) and easy to program (free tool-chain, including gcc C compiler). Available from Digi-Key or Mouser online.
Finally, for free, teach the lessons that freedom comes with the price of responsibility, and that knowledge and understanding are powerful (physics jokes aside) tools. Also honesty and integrity, include admitting to making mistakes and being unsure are valuable currency for building a reputation that can lead to being trusted (and respected). And that it is okay to be curiosity (though sometimes some tact is also needed). -- My parent's tolerance and patience were important factors in developing my good "geekiness" qualities, so I encourage an environment that is supportive not punitive about failure (mistakes).
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein
I don't know enough about Bill Joy's personality (versus his software contributions which I think many here are familiar with) to have an opinion either way.
I do think David Farber is politically astute and familiar with dealing with government enough that he could make a productive contribution to USA as a solid adviser on technology, based on his track record of "getting it" with historic technologies like that Internet thing, Plus he is a EFF trustee, Fellow of the ACM and IEEE, Oh, and he is a interesting people.
Why not read a op-ed piece from someone who both knows about electrical engineering and doesn't have a vested (i.e. profit) interest in the outcome one way or the other?
Re:Every hear of the IEEE Computer Society and ACM
on
Should IT Unionize?
·
· Score: 1
See the US-ACM which has been active in lobbying (which is rarely covered by the IT trade rags) in the US, presenting to the US Senate (IIRC), and trying to tackle both political and legal issues such as H-1B visas.
And yes, I did mention them, in reference to legal, rather than political lobbying. Sorry for the confusion.
Every hear of the IEEE Computer Society and ACM
on
Should IT Unionize?
·
· Score: 1
Seriously, these organizations already do much of what the ABA does in terms of a) being a professional society, b) providing professional education from books, journals/ magazines, courses, and conferences, c) contribute to recommended education curriculum, d) have a global presence, with chapters around the world, e) provide some services (e.g. insurance) for professionals who are working on their own, f) have been present, and try to be vocal about legal issues (i.e. USACM), g) provide standards that industry really do use, think IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n as one of many.
These organizations are not perfect, but they are respectable profession associations that do merit consideration. (Disclosure: I am a member of IEEE Computer Society, ACM, and the IEEE itself)
Getting Started in Electronics is starting to show its age, in so far as some of the parts used (UJTs) in the projects are not so easy to find, and neglects the large growth area of microcontrollers which can be cheaper than discontinued ICs.
Practical Electronics for Inventors suffers from a large number of errors, mostly typographical, but as a self-taught learning aid, this is frustrating.
My personal favorite beginning book for electronics suitable for adults is Guide to Understanding Electricity and Electronics by Randy Slone (ISBN 0071360573). Not without its own flaws, but contains a nice balance of theory and hands-on practical learning exercises that I feel comfortable recommending it. Another which I do not have a copy of myself, is Understanding Basic Electronics by ARRL. It may be somewhat geared towards RF topics, because it is published by the national USA amateur radio organization, but because they have most of the amateur radio topics covered in another textbook, it should be suitable for general electronics.
The next part is usage of discrete digital logic is now minimal being replaced by programming logic devices like PALs, FPGAs, or microcontrollers like Atmel's AVR and Microchip's PIC, to name only two of the most popular 8-bit microcontrollers available.
Jameco is maybe the most beginner friendly mail-order storefront. Their dead tree catalog is small enough you can find what you are looking for, even if you don't know everything about it. Their prices are reasonable, far cheaper than buying everything from Radio Shack, and you can easier expand to use Digikey, Mouser, Newark, and the hundreds of various surplus (typically new overstock / old stock, but not always) electronics websites. Octopart.com and FindChips.com help finding parts. There is another meta-search but I don't find as useful to amateurs.
Looking at hobbyist robotic, and amateur radio websites, as they have sub-interests within them that are oriented towards electronics. You may even find a local club in your area.
Magazines like Nuts'n'Volts, Servo, and CircuitCellar, Make magazine are good sources for hobbyist friendly resources.
No one kit, and no one book is enough to satisfy most people's self-taught education in electronics. Just as no one book will teach you everything to know about computers (TAOCP?)
... the steel that U.S. Steel makes now is high quality, special purpose alloys,...
Great, do you know of a commercial source of Invar that is better than the stuff made in UK or US in the early 1900s or the 1950s in Russia (Fedchenko?)? Seriously.
It is interesting to note that some of the design (not the neutron absorber Lithium-6) reminds me of the Canadian SLOWPOKE reactor, first built in the 1960's.
I know from talking to them at the Ottawa Linux Symposium a couple of years ago that the technical people within ATI were keen to support Linux the best that the could, but said they were mainly limited by management / legal to aim for competing with whatever nVidia offered the Linux community. If nVidia offered a complete open source driver, they would be pressured to do the same.
In Canada the largest employer would be Environment Canada and they basically look for someone with a B.Sc. in Physics, Mathematics (typical, will accept other science degrees typically) and an approved one-year diploma or certificate in meteorology. They pay you to attend a 9 month in-house training program (the pay isn't great, but it's free education).
Oh yeah, AFAIK they are looking for staff, and I think they have lots of openings. Plus they pay their Met staff better than their IT staff. You can make around 100k without going into management.
I can certainly understand why the systems administrators want to keep the CCRA machines in the best state. However, messing with them at this particular time is rather... well, let's go with skull-crushingly stupid. From what I have seen within the Government of Canada in general is that because the employee numbers tend be largest under the Desktop Support / Helpdesk sections of the IT departments, the managers from Desktop support tend to become the bosses within a governemnt department's IT branch.
It sounds like normal Desktop support managers approach to server maintenance.
The Canadian gov is a total MS and Oracle shop. Actually that is not 100% true. The Department of National Defense, Environment Canada, the Coast Guard, CSE, and other department and agencies do in fact use Linux, OpenBSD, Solaris, and IRIX in some areas or programs. Admittedly some of those are skunkworks type projects, but they do exist.
Didn't expect to see a PICAXE processor
on
DIY Laptop
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The PICAXE is in essence a Microchip PIC microcontroller with a custom bootloader to load programs into memory and execute them on reboot/reset.
I was sort of expecting a general CPU, even if a vintage chip like the ZiLOG Z80, MOS Technologies' 6502, Motorola's 6800 / 6802, or intel's 8088 / 8086 microprocessors.
It seems more suited to O'Reilly's MAKE magazine and their blog, then on Slashdot.
Actually in my own experiences I'd say, start small, and keep a low profile. It is easier if things falter, and you don't need a Microsoft (funded or employed) rep calling your boss's boss to ask them FUD-fueling questions like "what about the liability?"
I've seen low profile submission of patches being a great way to start. This is often easy to explain and justify to your manager, and no one else needs to know about it. The developers are glad to get a good patch, so they will welcome contributions on their technical merits.
Telling your manager that if you submit the patches to the project, you don't have to waste your in-house time re-applying those patches every time the open source project is updated. That makes it a simple benefit of direct (future) pay back in saving time in the near future, with little risk of exposing any in-house secrets or liability.
Screw the PR, I use open source / free software not to be cool, but because for my job it often the wise choice (i.e. better).
Most people are familiar with the 8-bit Atmel AVR microcontrollers, similar to the Microchip 8-bit PIC microcontollers. The AVR32 is a 32-bit microcontoller. I believe it was developed by Atmel to be a easy to mirgrate to target to compete with Freescale's 32-bit offerings, and various manufacturers' low cost 32-bit ARM processors.
Slashdot Mirror
I would suggest a project that is simple enough to understand, yet has a demonstrable practical circuit that they may choose to use after the class is over. One idea that quickly comes to mind is a simple (2-3-transistor or 2-3-per-channel (stereo)) audio amplifier, suitable to powering a small speaker, with a jack to connect to MP3 player.
It demonstrates one of two basic modes of operation for transistors, one of the most important semiconductor devices (diodes and ICs are others) that is a building block for analog (and digital) electronics. The other mode is when the transistor acts as a switch BTW.
You can cover electron and conventional current flow, waves (sound), and feedback as physics topics.
For the parts, using a mail-order suppler like Digi-Key, Mouser, or Jameco (US / Canada) you should be able to buy the parts for about $5 including the connector and a small speaker.
See Simple 3 Transistor Audio Amp (50 milliwatt) from Bill Bowden's hobby circuits web site.
Did you notice the shift? A couple of years ago they'd just shrug it off,
You mean this?
Let's see there is a position paper, a FAQ, a list of open source providers (from Industry Canada), and resources from Public Works and Goverment Services resource entitled Software Acquisition Reference Centre.
It may not gather a lot of steam in terms of office desktops, too many MSCE-certified types are employed as Computer System Administrators, called "CS'es" because of the abbreviation of their job classification who are not experienced Linux administrators, but I think areas such as embedded systems, and servers, systems that don't have user's calling a helpdesk for technical support, are likely areas where the adoption over time is possible.
Presently groups tend to be isolated or have insightful, competent management willing to fight to their use Open Source / Free Software within the Government of Canada, but those are rare, internally led experiences, often from smaller, newer teams of people already with appropriate skills.
One side-effect is that if government adopts Open Source Software, it may change their closed culture of treating soft resources as scarce, and actually promote sharing within departments across geographical regions and groups, as well as inter-departmental sharing of resources, which could have a significant impact on reducing spending on custom development. Personally, I think the cultural changes of infusing Open Source could be vastly worth more than the lisense / CALs they would not have to buy.
One example is not accepting binary / executable only deliverables from an private-sector contractor, in an Open Source culture that appears insane and unsafe, but too often currently binary deliverables are used as leverage into a form of black-mail which makes the government department at the mercy of the contractor(s).
And as it happens, the government, or at least parts of it, still use WordPerfect extensively.
Actually I don't know any Canadian federal department that still uses WordPerfect, heck I don't even know if the last version works under Windows XP. That's not to say some underfunded group like Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Parks Canada, or Canadian Wildlife Service doesn't.
Treasury Board and nearly everyone in Ottawa (nation's capital) uses MS Office as a corporate standard.
The department I've associated with uses MS Office nationally, but my small group uses OpenOffice internally. I don't even run MS-Window on my desktop or laptop.
Environment Canada, Department of National Defence, Communications Security Establishment, and I believe the Coast Guard have groups or divisions that use Linux or *BSD (OpenBSD for certain), and tools like KDE, GNOME, Apache, Tomcat, Perl, PHP, GCC, netfilter, pf, OpenSSH, Squid, bind, and plenty of other common open source / Free Software for desktops (think engineering workstatons, not too many office PCs), and servers.
The Government of Canada, has some position papers and related material on Open Source Software available from Treasury Board of Canada, here, also there the Getting Open Source Logic INto Government / aka GOSLING / OISILLON (Options Innovatrices et Synergiques pour l'Introduction du Logiciel Libre dans les Organisations Nationales) which advocates adoption within government.
A somewhat related project (web2.0) is the internal GCpedia (Government of Canada own internal wikipedia), here is the Wikipedia entry.
As far as delivering a stable platform, in my professional Linux experience, open source video drivers have been more consistently stable and keep up to date than binary drivers from either nVidia or ATI/AMD.
We dropped using $1000+ ATI FireGL cards for nVidia Quadra cards because the nvidia binaries drivers were better than ATI's frglx binary drivers.
Once open source drivers are available, I expect we will again follow reliability and switch "back" to AMD/ATI FireGL video cards, regardless of pricing, because the quality of open source drivers will pay for any purchase price difference. And I'm talking 12-200 graphic workstations with multiple displays using 2 video cards, so up to $200,000 (two $1000 cards in 200 systems) in potential sales could be the results for one small organization. This is just a single case of how this could reward AMD/ATI for their efforts.
Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems by Ross Anderson, professor at Cambridge University.
It replaces and expands upon Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneier, and Practical Cryptography by Ferguson & Schneier to make a more holistic approach to security encompassing the entire system, not just using the latest (coolest) encryption techniques. Most real-life systems are broken by going around or ignoring the encrpytion.
Another classic is
TCP/IP Illustrated by the late Richard Stevens
Most people need/read only Volume I: The Protocols, but there is also Volume II: The Implementation which is wonderful albeit with a smaller following, though Volume III which is considered a big disappointment to many (I've never read the vol 3) isn't worry buying unless you're specifically interested in its contents.
The only serious alternative to TCP/IP Illustrated is Douglas Comer's series Internetworking with TCP/IP which is the series I learnt about TCP/IP programming with. Still highly recommended.
For Software development, The Mythical Man-Month by computing pioneer Frederick Brooks should be required reading, and Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister should be handed to every new IT/IM or software manager with their promotion or hiring (if they haven't read it already). Computing would suck so much less if we all held ourselves accounting to the basic ideas in these two books.
For historic, 3 books + bonus item that would have to be included are:
Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs by Niklaus Wirth
Cybernetics: Or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine in 1948 by Norbert Wiener
Computing Machinery and Intelligence, by Alan Turing and published in 1950 in Mind
Computer Lib/Dream Machines by Ted Nelson in 1974, is most often pointed to as the "birth" of hypermedia.
The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, which featured the Altair 8800 on its cover.
It has been a while since I've been involved in interviewing / hiring anyone in IT, but here's my opinion and experience. Disclosure: I have a (4-year) degree with an area of concentration in Computer Science.
I'm not so interested in the piece of paper of the degree, but I am interested in the (typically 4) years prior where you spend your time learning, and developing an understanding of computing, computer architecture, computer science, software engineering, problem solving, and time management. One small but critically important lesson is learning how finite your knowledge is. That they are people who know "more" than you do. Other lessons include dealing with success, failure, pressure, and interacting with others.
In my experience the self-taught IT person may be capable, but at least as many are not. Interpersonal skills are probably the biggest unknown. Some are insecure or "have a chip on their shoulder" about the differentiation between degreed and not. Some may have excellent knowledge of all-but-obsolete technology (DOS batch files wizard?) and try to solve every problem with what they know, rather than looking for a "proper" solution (one that is better suited).
So if you have a decent understanding of the fundamentals and a desire to learn more, then you're a good potential candidate.
The biggest problem is that you are not likely to get hired through an advertised job position. The competition between candidates with degrees and HR staff who are risk adverse will likely throw out your resume along with the 200 other people not short-listed to give to the hiring manager. So you likely want to learn about business 'networking' to find unadvertised jobs, often through friends and colleagues who know that you are capable and worth considering. In this case your resume is given directly to the hiring manager, without the HR 'filter' process.
If/when you can afford it and have time, you may want to seriously consider getting "something" for post-secondary education or 'professional' training in IT to show not only education, but genuine interest and initiative.
I don't know if that explains / helps any.
The Atmel AVR Butterfly is a $20 microcontroller on a board intended to be an introduction to AVR microcontrollers or microcontrollers in general. Low cost of entry, plenty of real world I/O (temp sensor, LCD, speaker, light sensor, ADC) and easy to program (free tool-chain, including gcc C compiler). Available from Digi-Key or Mouser online.
Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments from O'Reilly and Make-zine. Check out the author's associate website, HomeChemLab including their small but friendly and supportive forum.
Finally, for free, teach the lessons that freedom comes with the price of responsibility, and that knowledge and understanding are powerful (physics jokes aside) tools. Also honesty and integrity, include admitting to making mistakes and being unsure are valuable currency for building a reputation that can lead to being trusted (and respected). And that it is okay to be curiosity (though sometimes some tact is also needed). -- My parent's tolerance and patience were important factors in developing my good "geekiness" qualities, so I encourage an environment that is supportive not punitive about failure (mistakes).
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein
I don't know enough about Bill Joy's personality (versus his software contributions which I think many here are familiar with) to have an opinion either way.
I do think David Farber is politically astute and familiar with dealing with government enough that he could make a productive contribution to USA as a solid adviser on technology, based on his track record of "getting it" with historic technologies like that Internet thing, Plus he is a EFF trustee, Fellow of the ACM and IEEE, Oh, and he is a interesting people.
Why not read a op-ed piece from someone who both knows about electrical engineering and doesn't have a vested (i.e. profit) interest in the outcome one way or the other?
EDN editor Paul Rako wrote this edotiral recently, "White spaces and black hearts".
See the US-ACM which has been active in lobbying (which is rarely covered by the IT trade rags) in the US, presenting to the US Senate (IIRC), and trying to tackle both political and legal issues such as H-1B visas.
And yes, I did mention them, in reference to legal, rather than political lobbying. Sorry for the confusion.
Seriously, these organizations already do much of what the ABA does in terms of a) being a professional society, b) providing professional education from books, journals/ magazines, courses, and conferences, c) contribute to recommended education curriculum, d) have a global presence, with chapters around the world, e) provide some services (e.g. insurance) for professionals who are working on their own, f) have been present, and try to be vocal about legal issues (i.e. USACM), g) provide standards that industry really do use, think IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n as one of many.
These organizations are not perfect, but they are respectable profession associations that do merit consideration. (Disclosure: I am a member of IEEE Computer Society, ACM, and the IEEE itself)
IEEE Computer Society
ACM - Association for Computing Machinery
Getting Started in Electronics is starting to show its age, in so far as some of the parts used (UJTs) in the projects are not so easy to find, and neglects the large growth area of microcontrollers which can be cheaper than discontinued ICs.
Practical Electronics for Inventors suffers from a large number of errors, mostly typographical, but as a self-taught learning aid, this is frustrating.
My personal favorite beginning book for electronics suitable for adults is Guide to Understanding Electricity and Electronics by Randy Slone (ISBN 0071360573). Not without its own flaws, but contains a nice balance of theory and hands-on practical learning exercises that I feel comfortable recommending it. Another which I do not have a copy of myself, is Understanding Basic Electronics by ARRL. It may be somewhat geared towards RF topics, because it is published by the national USA amateur radio organization, but because they have most of the amateur radio topics covered in another textbook, it should be suitable for general electronics.
The next part is usage of discrete digital logic is now minimal being replaced by programming logic devices like PALs, FPGAs, or microcontrollers like Atmel's AVR and Microchip's PIC, to name only two of the most popular 8-bit microcontrollers available.
Jameco is maybe the most beginner friendly mail-order storefront. Their dead tree catalog is small enough you can find what you are looking for, even if you don't know everything about it. Their prices are reasonable, far cheaper than buying everything from Radio Shack, and you can easier expand to use Digikey, Mouser, Newark, and the hundreds of various surplus (typically new overstock / old stock, but not always) electronics websites. Octopart.com and FindChips.com help finding parts. There is another meta-search but I don't find as useful to amateurs.
Looking at hobbyist robotic, and amateur radio websites, as they have sub-interests within them that are oriented towards electronics. You may even find a local club in your area.
Magazines like Nuts'n'Volts, Servo, and CircuitCellar, Make magazine are good sources for hobbyist friendly resources.
No one kit, and no one book is enough to satisfy most people's self-taught education in electronics. Just as no one book will teach you everything to know about computers (TAOCP?)
The Heathkit company no longer makes kits, but the name is used for some overprices CBT or course material.
So that won't be much help. Old unbuilt kits are now collectibles, and typically sell for inflated amounts.
... the steel that U.S. Steel makes now is high quality, special purpose alloys, ...
Great, do you know of a commercial source of Invar that is better than the stuff made in UK or US in the early 1900s or the 1950s in Russia (Fedchenko?)? Seriously.
More about SLOWPOKE:
- University of Toronto
- Dalhouise University
- University of Alberta
- Ecole Polytechnique (Montreal)
- Royal Military College
- CANDU
- Research Reactors Canadian Nuclear FAQ
Damn those safe, smart Canadians. They might quietly run the world, or at least keep it running.I know from talking to them at the Ottawa Linux Symposium a couple of years ago that the technical people within ATI were keen to support Linux the best that the could, but said they were mainly limited by management / legal to aim for competing with whatever nVidia offered the Linux community. If nVidia offered a complete open source driver, they would be pressured to do the same.
In Canada the largest employer would be Environment Canada and they basically look for someone with a B.Sc. in Physics, Mathematics (typical, will accept other science degrees typically) and an approved one-year diploma or certificate in meteorology. They pay you to attend a 9 month in-house training program (the pay isn't great, but it's free education).
Meteorologist - Environment Canada
Oh yeah, AFAIK they are looking for staff, and I think they have lots of openings. Plus they pay their Met staff better than their IT staff. You can make around 100k without going into management.
Or Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach by Hennessy & Patterson
Is there much 64-bit like Intel's Itanium (1 and 2), DEC's Alpha (early 1990s), AMD64?
It sounds like normal Desktop support managers approach to server maintenance.
The PICAXE is in essence a Microchip PIC microcontroller with a custom bootloader to load programs into memory and execute them on reboot/reset.
I was sort of expecting a general CPU, even if a vintage chip like the ZiLOG Z80, MOS Technologies' 6502, Motorola's 6800 / 6802, or intel's 8088 / 8086 microprocessors.
It seems more suited to O'Reilly's MAKE magazine and their blog, then on Slashdot.
Actually in my own experiences I'd say, start small, and keep a low profile. It is easier if things falter, and you don't need a Microsoft (funded or employed) rep calling your boss's boss to ask them FUD-fueling questions like "what about the liability?"
I've seen low profile submission of patches being a great way to start. This is often easy to explain and justify to your manager, and no one else needs to know about it. The developers are glad to get a good patch, so they will welcome contributions on their technical merits.
Telling your manager that if you submit the patches to the project, you don't have to waste your in-house time re-applying those patches every time the open source project is updated. That makes it a simple benefit of direct (future) pay back in saving time in the near future, with little risk of exposing any in-house secrets or liability.
Screw the PR, I use open source / free software not to be cool, but because for my job it often the wise choice (i.e. better).
Most people are familiar with the 8-bit Atmel AVR microcontrollers, similar to the Microchip 8-bit PIC microcontollers. The AVR32 is a 32-bit microcontoller. I believe it was developed by Atmel to be a easy to mirgrate to target to compete with Freescale's 32-bit offerings, and various manufacturers' low cost 32-bit ARM processors.