Technical web sites, good and bad examples. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: janaf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 11:58:11 am
content: There's a discussion on the new Analog web site elsewhere on the forum. So I'm curious of what others think of various technical web sites. Good (apart from evvBlog) and bad.I find I visit the digi-k site daily so I suppose I like it.So shoot!

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 12:06:05 pm
content: Anything specifically to do with computing and/or programming are prime examples of the bad. Every single one.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 12:39:07 pm
content: Almost all websites from the People's Republic of China.I had a friend who tried to start a business helping the Chinese improve the quality of their websites by helping them explain themselves in modern English. There was no interest. His business failed.Many of their manufacturers don't bother engaging someone fluent in English to translate their packaging, hence the following...http://www.engrish.com/My friend said he suspected they have crap websites on purpose - if it did look professional, it might convey a higher price mentality.

author: janaf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 01:06:11 pm
content: Of the big IC manufacturers tend to use TI, LT, ST, ON sites.Anything that starts up with a Flash animation splash falls very fast. Beyma loudspeaker site, great products but every generation of websites

author: BlueBill
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 01:17:03 pm
content: edit: Aaroncake.net

author: janaf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 01:30:21 pm
content: You mean Aaroncake.net?

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 01:58:26 pm
content: good: digikey, on-semi, ti, maxim, freescale.bad: ST - I'm convinced that they hired NXP to develop their website. IRF and Fairchild are there too.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 01:59:36 pm
content: Quote from: mojo-chan on February 26, 2015, 01:49:09 pmI'll never get my head around spoken Chinese of the dialects (sublanguages?) I know of. I can't seem to get myself to understand tone and pitch changes changing meaning...QuoteNumber of words/syllables a second yes, not the amount of information imparted. Humans have a hard limit of how much information they can take in how fast, no matter your language. Spanish and English are great examples. To an English speaker a Spanish speaker sounds like they are talking very very fast, but the English speaker will impart just as much information in the same time. Spanish just uses more syllables to impart the same amount of information. English is a rather terse language, with a stupid amount of words.

author: BlueBill
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 02:14:41 pm
content: Quote from: janaf on February 26, 2015, 01:30:21 pmYes. That's the site.

author: janaf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 02:27:35 pm
content: nxp, not intuitive, too many sub-levels, not even elementary comparison tables?, just long lists with pdfs? They lost me years ago.IRF and Fairchild both used to be better imo. Now flashy design won over functionality.

author: janaf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 03:01:17 pm
content: Everyone wants dynamic update parametric searches, until they realize that they will always, always be slower and buggier compared to "old school update on final SEARCH click" only. You ever hit browser Back on those dynamic pages? Ever worked? Sometimes. Ever fast? Never.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 03:57:10 pm
content: Quote from: janaf on February 26, 2015, 03:01:17 pm...with the data been pulled from the Cloud

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 04:16:58 pm
content: Microchip fails at searching appnotes or datasheets. Google finds datasheets better for parts than Microchip.Parametric tables seem to be terribly slow on all retailer or manufacturer websites. Not sure why - because they are some IT sites (like tweakers.net) that also have a big catalog for IT parts pricewatch, and responds very fluently.Quote from: 3roomlab on February 26, 2015, 02:28:14 pmRS is worst IMHO. Try importing a BOM from your CAD project into RS - forget it..I did it once. Had 30 items to order in for 8 prototypes, so took the RS catalog numbers + Quantity*8 from the BOM export in Excel. Pasted them into RS:"This item can only be ordered in multiple of 50. Please change your order quantity to match"So I really have tomanuallyupdate 30 lines?! You can't like.. round stuff up for me like the other retailers do?And then if you have finally done (10 minutes later) so you click Update Cart : sorry session crashed, you have to start over from an empty cart.Their site "crashes" also quite a lot if you're doing parametric searches,especiallyif you do more than 1 at once (because you do at any retailer site that's as slow as theirs).. nope, crashed again.So instead, I just took the Farnell numbers, pasted them into their site.. got the MOQ complaint, clicked order and it was OK.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 04:38:38 pm
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on February 26, 2015, 01:59:36 pmDo you know how do you say "No." in Spanish?"No, no no nononono."

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 04:42:25 pm
content: Quote from: mojo-chan on February 26, 2015, 04:16:09 pmWhich is funny because we all (subconsciously) miss most letters when reading words because we basically look for the starting letter and basic shape of a word as if it was a picture. It's one of the reasons we read something quicker if it isn't in ALL CAPS, as we learned when designing motorway signage. <-- That may be why the Japanese have some equally "fussy" looking sites even though the language is sooo very different to Mandarin. Yes the Kanji may be pictographs and based on the Chinese's but at the end of the day they use it like their other 2/3 systems, more like an actual alphabet.But I prefer text heavy sites myself, textual links instead of icons etc so meh.Back on topic, Mouser's site isn't bad.

author: mrflibble
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 06:26:18 pm
content: Good examples: digikey, mouser, TI, old Analog, National before being gobbled by TI.Bad example: new Analog.Golden reference: timecube.

author: mrflibble
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 06:36:51 pm
content: Quote from: Mickey Mouse the Quote RandomizerST ... almost forgot that one. ST definitely is on the list of bad example. Information on that site is impressively hard to find without google.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 08:14:23 pm
content: Good sites:www.picaxe.comwww.hilberling.dewww.cableorganizer.comwww.mouser.comwww.digikey.comwww.http://sound.westhost.com/Bad sites:www.powerwerx.comwww.arrl.orgwww.nxp.comwww.wired.comand, the worst site in the world:www.rtl.deNote: I browse with Adblock enabled which makes things much more tolerable.

author: atferrari
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 11:08:01 pm
content: Quote from: BlueBill on February 26, 2015, 01:17:03 pmUnderstand you consider it good. Isn't it?

author: janaf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 11:13:58 pm
content: Do I sense some irony here?I have to like he's using the old Snitz forum code. The best. 15 years ago.Quote from: atferrari on February 26, 2015, 11:08:01 pm

author: BlueBill
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2015, 11:48:18 pm
content: Quote from: atferrari on February 26, 2015, 11:08:01 pmNo. Opposite of good.

author: atferrari
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2015, 02:58:04 am
content: Hola Bill,I find it simple to navigate, loading quite quickly and you know where to go for what is offered. Aestethics? Possible bad but I prefer that as long I can go back and forth with no hassle.What is bad there for you? Being ironic is not part of my usual attitude.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2015, 04:23:19 am
content: BAD:1. Anyone around long enough (at least 10 years) will remember trying to find datasheets on the Motorola website. It was dreadful - anarchy by design. The modern day TI and ST websites are dreams compared with the Motorola one.2. Next one, IBM's website. Full ofglossy sales talk, without much down-to-earth content. They lost the plot years ago.3. Altium. Horrible.GOOD:1. Digikey definitely has a great website, except if you are trying to upload a BOM from a spreadsheet (good but not great). Maybe I do it the hard way, but their search could improve to sort on the lowest to highest price AND qty 1 AND are in stock. I love how they link to the datasheets and link in with Altium Designer.2. The EEVBLOG. Well thought out, easy to find old video blogs, plenty of value add and entertaining. IBM could learn a thing or two from the EEVBLOG about sharing useful information rather than talking marketingad nauseum.

author: Richard Head
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2015, 06:42:10 am
content: Molex--Terrible

author: janaf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2015, 07:30:51 am
content: Millmax, different from most. Good but somewhat slow. However structure of part search makes it bearable. But it could be more snappy.