Silicon Chip magazine

[quietguy]

how long did it take you to undertake this mamoth task? And who paid for it?

My "exaggerating a bit" was based on the reasonable assumption that if
only one science teacher had made the ridiculous statement that
Simpson attributes to them then several hundred people would know
about it. There would have been a scandal, and Simpson could, and
would, have behaved like a journalist by backing up his editorial with
some facts.

David, I wrote my post with my tongue firmly in cheek - I was being sarcastic - what
you wrote was plainly ridiculous and I was gently taking you to task with the hope
that you might think a little more about things before making silly claims. But I
don't really care all that much

It is not up to the group to provide or disprove anything, and the whole thing is
not really important enough to spend much time debating it.

cheers and good wishes

David

 

[Mr.T]

...

If enough people do it, then he sure doesn't, especially with
subscriptions because they get all the money.

Obviously enough people haven't done it yet, but all the other Australian
electronics mags have gone to the wall, so it's probably just a matter of
time I guess.
I doubt the editorials have much to do with it though!

MrT.

 

[John_H]

Obviously enough people haven't done it yet, but all the other Australian
electronics mags have gone to the wall, so it's probably just a matter of
time I guess.
I doubt the editorials have much to do with it though!

Leo's self opinionated editorials had me give up buying SC years
ago... so long ago I've even forgotten the one that became the last
straw!

 

[Poxy]

Leo's self opinionated editorials had me give up buying SC years
ago... so long ago I've even forgotten the one that became the last
straw!

I get SC mainly out of habit, and 'cause there's nothing else Australian
available. I do get mildly irritated by the odd looney editorial, and the
often shallow level of knowledge exhibited in their responses to people's
letters. That said, I came *very* close to giving up on it a few years back
when the published an amp project that was housed in a breathtakingly ugly
PC case.

 

[Phil]

Hi again Julian,

Well, sorry I got that bit wrong about being 'cut off' and ASSuMEd way
too much (ASS == ME).

I'm sure that both Leo and yourself have developed a great relationship
and support both ways over the years, and although workmates may have
major disagreements at times, can have a bit of a yell at each other
and get over it (even though the business 'force fields' are up on both
sides).

I for one appreciate your candour, and in no way suggest that anything
you've posted here could be considered over-the-top. In fact it gives a
rare insight into the problems faced by people who do their best
putting in way too many hours of their own personal time and yet still
have to endure strange business decisions.
Also, (as I've seen in other postings) to add to your headaches, there
are likely way too many 'fools armed with solding irons' who think they
deserve infinite technical support - for free.

Anyway, I think It's great work you've done mate, and hope to see some
more articles again from you (somewhere) soon.

Cheers, Phil.

 

[David Segall]

how long did it take you to undertake this mamoth task? And who paid for it?



David, I wrote my post with my tongue firmly in cheek - I was being sarcastic - what
you wrote was plainly ridiculous and I was gently taking you to task with the hope
that you might think a little more about things before making silly claims. But I
don't really care all that much

Stating the bleeding obvious that you were being sarcastic does not
justify your first post nor is it a response to my follow up. If you
don't want to defend your post and you don't care about the issues it
seems particularly foolish to post once, let alone twice.

 

[quietguy]

Be cool David - we are just having fun you know

However, I would comment that my experience with teachers is not very positive - I have
employed a dozen or so and not one of them could write a simple business letter that was
not filled with grammatical errors. And some had quite strange ideas about life and
people in general.

And at the local high school they have no idea of how to write simple behaviour
modification programs

Some were nice people though - just not competent professionally

David - who enjoys stirring sometimes

 

[Terryc]

Some were nice people though - just not competent professionally

Therewere twqo events that cuased me to stop going to the wife's school
xmas party and any other teacher-spouse social event.

The most relevant was watching at the end of a party as they tried to
divide the bill by 13. All i could think of was they probably didn't do
13 in primary schools and since, in my experience, most (almost all)
teachers have little experience of the world other than school, perhaps
not surprising.

 

[atec77]

Therewere twqo events that cuased me to stop going to the wife's school
xmas party and any other teacher-spouse social event.

The most relevant was watching at the end of a party as they tried to
divide the bill by 13. All i could think of was they probably didn't do
13 in primary schools and since, in my experience, most (almost all)
teachers have little experience of the world other than school, perhaps
not surprising.

Try talking to a group of Tafe' teachers , they do have plenty of
experience and I am certain /13 wont be a problem

 

[Terryc]

Try talking to a group of Tafe' teachers , they do have plenty of
experience and I am certain /13 wont be a problem

that was what attracted me to TAFe to do some hobby studies. Sadly, it
is no longer the case in IT subjects, where deep real world experience
is not required.

 

[atec77]

that was what attracted me to TAFe to do some hobby studies. Sadly, it
is no longer the case in IT subjects, where deep real world experience
is not required.

Shame you aren't in Brisbane

 

[Bob Parker]

Now Bob, you know those bad comments from the US were trolls. Those
sneaky Canadians, on the other hand? ;-)

You know I bought and built the kit, and that I have advised a lot of
others to buy it, as well. The only thing I didn't like was the 9 Volt
battery, so I added a jack for an AC adapter. I use it only on one
bench, with switched outlets that are turned off when I leave the shop.
This way, I never have to worry about a dead battery. I can still
install a battery, if needed, but so far, I haven't needed to go that
route.

Howdy Michael,
I need to clarify what I meant. Nearly all the Americans and
Canadians I've dealt with have been very friendly and easy to deal with
(including you of course!), even when there have been problems with the
kits they built. I've been happy to put their hints and suggestions
about the ESR meter on my website.
Conversely there have been just a few aggressive ones who've made
those kinds of accusations by e-mail, though there was a Canadian who
made them on the sci.electronics.repair newsgroup, a long time ago.
Like you said, there are trolls everywhere. :-(

Rgds
Bob

 

[Kralizec Craig]

It saddens me to read you have been treated so unfairly. Regrettably, it
would appear that company loyalty (in some circles) counts for nothing these
days, as does your rights to intellectual property. :-( I'm glad you
mentioned a number of projects in the pipe that you had initial suggestion
or involvement with. I will keep an eye out for them, albeit in view of the
poor treatment and apparent disrespect shown by SC towards you I'm reluctant
to purchase future issues of the magazine on principle alone.

Obviously there are two sides to this story. Perhaps Leo may care to add
his perspective? In any event I have no doubt a man of your talent and
ability will go onto bigger and better things and reflect back on this as a
learning experience. Good luck.

It seems that the lack of competition from another publication is affecting
the way that people who have a say in the direction of Australia's only
remaining locally-produced electroncs magazine perceive the electronics
marketplace. The fact that Leo purchased the rights to Electronics Australia
(and therefore ETI), means that all the previous publications now belong to
one group, perhaps even to one person.

That's probably over 100 years of electronics publications if you take into
account EA in it's various forms, ETI, AEM and Silicon Chip and sum it all
together.

The only other electronics publications are foreign (to Australia), such as
Elektor, etc. Not that those publications are not excellent in quality -
they are!

I haven't bumped into Jim Rowe for a number of years, but I wonder how Jim
feels about the way the electronics industry's primary general-audience
publication in Australia is having free-reign over publishing and
distributing projects, etc.

Had Federal Publishing not decided to downgrade EA to a trash-heap glossly
techno-rag in order to deliberately make it fail, we might still have EA
going as a seperate magazine and that would, to some degree, be keeping SC's
'charter' operating in a somewhat more transparently ethical fashion.

Regards,

Craig.

 

[Kralizec Craig]

Leo Simpson remains a man of tremendous capability in many areas. I
seriously encourage others to write freelance material for Silicon Chip
- especially when contributing just an occasional article here and
there, I found the relationship to be very fruitful. If you do the
articles as a hobby, it can pay quite well too.

In the main, Silicon Chip magazine is extremely good - I think in the
presence of John Clarke they have an electronics engineer who performs
brilliantly in the niche of designing for a hobbyist electronics
magazine.

Yes he certainly is talented. Much like the engineers that used to produce
projects for EA and ETI (and a few for AEM) back when there was something
other than SC on the newsagent shelf to compare against.

But I think that anyone who writes for the magazine long-term and in
bulk should insist on being appointed to a staff position, if only so
that ideas like ownership of intellectual property and suchlike are
clearly resolved.

Yes that's a good point. Before any non-casual authorship is taken up
investigation of how to ensure the the author retains sole ownership of all
intellectual property should be mandatory.

Leo Simpson is the driving force behind the magazine, in addition to
being (with his wife) the owner. He has achieved a great deal in
starting the magazine from scratch and knocking out the competition.
However, in a way he is a victim of his own success - a very big fish
in a very small pond.

He he well the competition he knocked out is the place where he used to
work!

Craig.

 

[David L. Jones]

I haven't bumped into Jim Rowe for a number of years, but I wonder how Jim
feels about the way the electronics industry's primary general-audience
publication in Australia is having free-reign over publishing and
distributing projects, etc.

Well, he (happily?) works for SC now...

Had Federal Publishing not decided to downgrade EA to a trash-heap glossly
techno-rag in order to deliberately make it fail, we might still have EA
going as a seperate magazine and that would, to some degree, be keeping SC's
'charter' operating in a somewhat more transparently ethical fashion.

I greatly doubt that the current market could sustain two electronics
publications, it was inevitable that we'd be left with one I think.

I don't know SC's current circlation, but it would be interesing to
know if it has increased since the demise of EA, held steady, or
declined.

Dave