DX-100B Problems - Final Rpt? Magic?

[Tom in N Texas]

Folks,

Don't forget Magic! In 1954, when I was going through the USAF Weapons 
Fusing Systems School, I knew a guy who seemed to repair radars by the 
"laying on of hands". He seemed to go right to the problem and fix it, 
while I struggled and struggled to get to the right problem area. It seemed 
like magic to me. He was a big, rough lumberjack from Washington or Oregon, 
while I was a farm boy from Springfield, Missouri.

I later became a graduate Electronic Engineer, and worked for an aerospace 
company as a Systems Engineer. I knew a technician who could write 
technical proposals and specifications much better and faster than I could, 
and faster than most or all of the engineers I knew. That, too, seemed like 
magic. (He also could fly the beta version of Flight Simulator like a pro, 
on a Mac SE, with only the mouse and keyboard. More magic! I was very good 
at crashing it.)

Finally, I did a lot of work with software, and took a college course in 
Lisp, a list processing interpreter. But, I knew another fellow who 
actually wrote his version of the Lisp interpreter itself. As I recall he 
wrote the Lisp interpreter in Pascal, an early parent of C+.  And he did 
the whole thing in a few days. Again, it was like magic to me.

I have never been good at repair. Seems the magic didn't rub off on me. I 
struggle along and manage to repair most stuff that comes my way, but I'd 
never call my work magic.

Finally, here's one of the signature files that I use:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable
from magic Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law

It seems to me that we need to allocate some percentage of the reasons for 
success to
MAGIC.   8>))

Tom in North Texas
-----------------------------------------
At 06:34 PM 2/10/08 , you wrote:
>| who provided help, especially to Ken who sent a series of step by step
>| emails that led to the "fix". The emails also reminded me that half of
>| trouble shooting time should be spent thinking, and the other half doing.
>
>I have to agree....Ken is a tremendous asset to this list and boatanchors in
>general. However, I disagree with the "half-and-half" comment.....actually,
>it's about 70%-30% if the truth be told. Understanding HOW things operate
>and WHY things go wrong is the major portion of troubleshooting. Anyone can
>pick up a soldering iron....but the trained technician/engineer (and there
>are VERY few of the latter) apply their brain before heating up the iron.
>
>73 Rich W3OSS

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