Wow, sounds like the guy that said these horseless carriages were a passing
fancy!
Dave K5WNV
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tommy" <aldermant@alltel.net>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 3:57 AM
Subject: [TenTec] Re: Open Source
> Duane wrote:
>
> "If you hang around here long enough you notice that
> there are some not so "forward looking" guys too.
> That's fine, it gives this reflector a wide dynamic
> range, the futuristic thinkers (like me) can always
> learn something from the past past and fold it into
> what we propose for the future without becoming bogged
> down by "this is the way it used to be" style of
> thinking. It's fine to live and learn from history,
> but don't try to continually relive it every day and
> systematically exclude all new ideas. "
>
> The 'futuristic thinkers' line is interesting. But I've always wondered
how one can be a 'futuristic thinker' if they don't know anything about the
past? Maybe instead of being a 'futuristic thinker' you really meant a '
reinvent the wheel thinker'?
>
> The cry for open source firmware is also very interesting. Can't you just
visualize hundreds of wanna-be-ham-programmers sitting in front of their
Orion, writting code, with their 'Programming For Dummies' book in their
lap, (and hams ARE going to do this because they LOVE to tinker). Let's say
the wanna-be-programmer writes some fantastic code to make the receiver more
sensitive. (And you CAN do this, because software is the answer to
everything, you know) When the wanna-be-programmer loads his code into the
Orion, reboots, and the receiver is dead! NOW WHAT? Oppps, there is no
troubleshooting procedure in the Programming For Dummies book that shows you
how to fix a dead receiver...so of course the first thing you want to do is
call Ten Tec and yell to Paul Clinton "YOUR radio is broken, can you fix
it?". If I were Ten Tec my response would be "Certainly we can do that, we
charge only $800 bucks per hour for troubleshooting your firmware. If we
find your receiver to be dead with your code, but works fine with our
original code, we charge a flat $800 bucks for testing". Or are you
proposing that Ten Tec be available to troubleshoot your well written, error
free code, for you?
>
> Since software is the answer to all problems, for 'futuristic thinkers'
that is, while suggesting Ten Tec release the source code for their rigs,
why not also suggest Ten Tec get rid of all of their circuit design
engineers and replace them with a software engineering group? Heck, the
state-of-the-art in circuit design has already been maxed out so there
surely is no further requirement to develop 'futuristic' old analog receiver
and transmitter circuit designs. Or maybe you really can develop a receiver
with a 0.18 microvolt sensivity with just software...where's my Programming
for Dummies book? Can you really get a digital circuit to switch with better
than about a 50dB on/off ratio? Hmmmm...some old codger once had the brass
to tell me that with those ancient old analog filters that they could
sometimes even achieve 90dB ultimate rejection. Why doesn't my Programming
For Dummies book tell me how to write code that will achieve even better
than that?
>
> I think to be a 'futuristic thinker' you must know all there is to know
about the past.
>
> Tom - W4BQF
>
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>
>
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