Forrest Mims on Amp Hour - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: kaz911
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2013, 09:07:53 am
content: Hi Guys,just wanted to say thanksfor the great Amp hour show today - Forrest Mims interview was excellent - and could have been just as long as Vincent's(or should have been *G*) - Vincent interview was great as well!.THANKSOhh and Chris - did you know your surname means "old" in Middle English (very old English) & Scandinavian?In German it is a nickname for "Junk" though

author: ChrisGammell
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 13, 2013, 08:38:32 pm
content: I've been told it means lots of different things, no clue which ones are correct. I do know Gammell is a Scottish name, though I'm 100% mutt

author: JoannaK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 12:00:17 am
content: Excellent show. I'm sure Mims has had a lot more stories to tell, so I'd like to hear him again on some later show.Kaz911: IIRC the Swedish have word Gammalt, that means old, so may well be related since swdes/norwegians did quite a lot bisness with brits in old times.

author: hammy
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 12:07:05 am
content: Yes, great show!Quote from: kaz911 on November 13, 2013, 09:07:53 amYou mean: "gammel"Yes, this means some old and obsolete stuff. Not directly junk, but also not far away from it.

author: Orpheus
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 01:28:40 am
content: Aw, was disappointed that Dave didn't remember that Gene Shoemaker as a former NASA astronaut and astrogeologist. Okay, not an astronomer, but hardly an amateur. Youngsters may not remember, but he was disqualified from walking on the Moon, due to an adrenal condition -- heartbreaking!David Levy was the amateur astronomer whose formal background was in English Lit (However, after discovering 22 more comets and writing 34 books, he finally got a PhD in some branch of astronomy -- can't remember which)Twas Brilliant and our Slithy TwoDid trademark "podcast overfill"All Mimsy was the Amp HourAnd the Mims fans were thrilled

author: ChrisGammell
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 02:00:43 am
content: Quote from: hammy on November 14, 2013, 12:07:05 amAh...so like old analog crap. Sounds good to me!

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 02:23:16 am
content: Hmm this is the third reference to Forrest Mims today for me. I mentioned him in a thread about what to do with a 556 chip, and one on LEDs and Phototransistors.

author: Kryoclasm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 03:22:41 am
content: Great show, I hope you can have Mr. Mims back on in the future!I had all of the engineers mini notebooks when I was a kid in the 80's.Awesome collection of projects and simple, to the point education for those of use who are math disadvantaged.Now, I no longer have those booklets.... I might have to but them again just to support his royalties.

author: kaz911
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 03:45:41 am
content: Quote from: JoannaK on November 14, 2013, 12:00:17 amJoanna - I'm Danish - and my wife is British - from "Up North" UK - and in the North of England there are a LOT of Scandinavian words most likely from the Vikings went on their "raids"- and a lot of the towns have Viking names. I have one of their local dialect "dictionaries" and at least 80% of the words there are from old Scandinavian (norse) influence.

author: creyc
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 03:58:11 am
content: Very great show with the legendary Forrest Mims, he seems like a guy with plenty of stories! I must admit I waited (quite impatiently) for this episode to air.I particularly liked his suggestion of getting Woz on the showC'mon how can we make this happen!

author: pickle9000
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 05:27:17 am
content: Hope you can get him on again that was very entertaining. I'd be interested to hear what he thinks about the eevblog teardowns and so on.

author: casinada
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 05:55:01 am
content: I grew up too with the Forrest Mims the IIIrdThey still sell his books at Radio Shack.I like his didactic style. I'm sure Forrest CAD predates Dave's CADDavid Levy is a local here in Tucson, Arizona. This town is big in astronomy. I listen to him on the radio from time to time. He and his wife are still looking at the sky and finding new comets. It seems that on November 16 we are going to have big meteor showers, it should be interesting to watch.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 06:20:10 am
content: Quote from: Orpheus on November 14, 2013, 01:28:40 amYes, I think I confused the two.

author: ResistorRob
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 07:09:16 am
content: Here is how the inventor of the 555 says ithttp://www.semiconductormuseum.com/Transistors/LectureHall/Camenzind/Camenzind_AudioClip1.mp3

author: timb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 07:11:14 am
content: Quote from: Kryoclasm on November 14, 2013, 03:22:41 amGrowing up in the early 90's I bought them all as well. Taught me a ton about basic electronics.FYI, they merged all of them into three bigger books a few years back. They sell them on Amazon for lest than $10 each. I bought them a couple of months back and it really brought back some memories.Haven't listened to the show yet, hopefully I'll have a nice long drive coming up soon.

author: Tepe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 07:11:57 am
content: Gammel is the Danish word for old

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 09:57:35 am
content: Before there was Grumpy Cat, there was Sad Diode.

author: timb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2013, 11:05:08 pm
content: Good episode. The religious aspect was kinda interesting, I wasn't aware he was Christian. I'm sort of surprised that Scientific America did that, but then again I know a lot of people in science who have a bias towards anyone that's not an Atheist. I asked a well known professor about it once and his take was, "If they don't have enough intelligence to see through religion then they can't be smart enough to be in *real* science." Which I thought was a bit pretentious and presumptuous.

author: Towger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2013, 08:24:11 am
content: Quote from: timb on November 14, 2013, 11:05:08 pmI found that interesting as well. I thought Dave did well not to express his views on the subject. You can hear him catching himself when Forrest first mentioned it.

author: rolycat
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2013, 11:45:51 pm
content: Quote from: timb on November 14, 2013, 11:05:08 pmScientific American's problem was not that he was Christian, but that he was (and is) a creationist.While Mims is clearly a very intelligent guy, he is not rational on the subject of evolution. His religious beliefs have led him to become a fellow of the Discovery Institute, which is a deeply unpleasant organization devoted to replacing scientific thought and critical inquiry with pseudo-scientific religious claptrap, particularly in schools. One can see why Scientific American thought that employing him could have been a problem, even if the science in his chosen fields of research is impeccable.

author: timb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 17, 2013, 12:24:56 am
content: Oh shit...Yeah, I know all about the Discovery Institute. This is really depressing... It's like when you have someone you really look up to, perhaps even idolize, then one day find out they're a child molester. Only, this is worse; he's a...CREATIONIST!Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against people that are religious, as long as you're not hurting someone else knock yourself out. But to find out that someone who's so smart (a scientist even) believes Genesis is a factual account of how we came to be... How can I trust anything else they say?I mean, I know a couple of real scientists who are Christian, but they believe everything in the Bible is more allegorical, i.e., people trying to explain the unexplainable in a way that made sense to them at the time. For instance, one person I know thinks Adam being created out of mud is a metaphor for evolution (we all started as primordial ooze). I can at least respect that, but Creationism? Damn...My fiancé is the organizer of a local Skeptic Meetup Group; we're having a regular meeting tomorrow (Skeptic Sunday Brunch) so I'll have to bring this up. So depressing.

author: AlfBaz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 17, 2013, 01:17:49 am
content: I particularly enjoyed his implantation of electronic skills in the measurement field and probably more about the collating of data over time and seeing patterns. Then deducing and following up the deduction with more data gathering.We all know, for example, that temp changes throughout the day but to see it over several days and noting patterns is fascinating. Even more so for the type of data he's collecting

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 17, 2013, 01:49:02 am
content: Quote from: wilfred on November 17, 2013, 12:31:43 amI blame it on rationalism at least as far as relatively intelligent biblical literalists is concerned ... a non sociopathic atheist is generally a romantic, you embrace the irrational and personal meaning you attach to life. Those who neither want to embrace romanticism nor nihilism have to live a lie ... and that is easiest by embracing one big lie (God) from which the supposedly objective standards around which you want to base your life can all stem. Once you embrace God for those reasons it becomes hard to allow subjective interpretation of your crutch, so literalism is the natural follow up.

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 17, 2013, 03:42:19 am
content: Quote from: Towger on November 16, 2013, 08:24:11 amThere's only like a billion in the world. You're bound to run into a few now and then.

author: Vgkid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 17, 2013, 06:18:36 am
content: This was a very interesting podcast. I only started watching them this week. My first electronics book was oneOf Mr. Mims books. My parents actually marked circuits that I could do (mains voltage). Btw I always knew he was a Christian, not that it bothers me.

author: timb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 17, 2013, 07:37:06 am
content: Quote from: wilfred on November 17, 2013, 12:31:43 amI think most people would rather take the easy road. Growing up surrounded by religion and then becoming an Atheist as an adult means you have to start asking questions; very tough ones that make you very uncomfortable. Most people go down that road by noticing the fallacies and inconsistencies of religion and then seeking out answers, which requires critical thinking skills and intelligence. This is what makes me so in awe of him being a Creationist. He's obviously got the skills to see it's BS () but he just can't see the Forrest through the trees. (That was awful, I know.)Adults don't believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny, but they do believe in God. People take the easy road, the shortcut to information, by looking around and noticing that everyone around them believes in God, so they assume it to be true. After all, how could *everyone* be so wrong, right? That's part of the social pressure. The other part is that nobody wants to be an outsider, so even if they have doubts they go along with it anyway to keep up with the status quo.Quote from: Marco on November 17, 2013, 01:49:02 amI don't think most Atheists are sociopaths. I think there are two distinct groups:1) The Romantic Atheist: Like you said, these are the ones that generally go with the flow and are live and let live. In my experience, these are people who grew up either loosely religious or with no religion.2) The Angry Atheist: These are the people that are angry at religion and the religious. I personally think the anger stems from being controlled by religion from an early age; people that had overly strict or fundamentalist parents, were forced to attend church daily, went to Catholic schools and so forth. Instead of just moving on and living life, they harbor a deep seated resentment towards anything religious and seek to punish anyone connected to it.

author: JoannaK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2013, 01:13:37 pm
content: Quote from: kaz911 on November 14, 2013, 03:45:41 amThere's been some discussions of the northmost parts of UK resigning fro,m the brits and perhaps even jionming the Nordics .. Humon has made some nice comics about..http://satwcomic.com/part-of-the-gang

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2013, 09:39:32 pm
content: QuoteI respectfully disagree with your choice of comparisons.But I was glad that Dave didn't engage him on his personal beliefs like he tends to do.My mother's side of the family was Lutheran, my father's side was Catholic. My grandfather (on my mom's side) was an avid fossil hunter and even discovered a new species of trilobite but the museum mysteriously lost the sample he sent to them after they confirmed it was a yet unknown species. My guess is some scientist wanted the credit and swiped it.I was never raised thinking the world was only 6000 years old and I've never met anyone personally who did, but I never had any problems reconciling religious beliefs with scientific theories of creation either. I've always been fine with the big bang being the way it was done. And it wasn't until my teenage years that I met someone who didn't think that way and that's the only person I have met in person that was like that.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2013, 12:11:16 am
content: Please let's not ruin the topic by talking about religion.I grew up on the 90s and have most of his books. I like his friendly style and it's a good introduction to electronics and enabled me to understand many concepts even though my maths wasn't very strong back then.On the downside I don't rate him as an engineer. I find the books a bit repetitive (the same circuit is often shown several times), they contain too many errors and inadequate explanations of many of the circuits.I still have the books somewhere but I've also got them in PDF format on my hard drive.