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From: Rafael Deliano on 15 Jun 2010 05:41
> doubt very much that _I_ could come up with an interesting article the like of
> Pease Porridge every month.
> But even if I can't do it, I can still critique it!

Victim of his success. For the original 12 article
series in EDN 1989 ( roughly covers the Troubleshooting
book ) they got so much reader response that together
with his answers they made another article out of it
in 1990 and both EDN and National were keen on pressing
on. Despite Pease already telling them then he needed
to go slow to keep up quality. But writing as an employee
of National saying no was probably not possible.

MfG JRD

From: rickman on 15 Jun 2010 11:41
On Jun 14, 9:56 pm, Tim Wescott <t...(a)seemywebsite.now> wrote:
> On 06/14/2010 03:20 PM, Al Clark wrote:
>
>
>
> > Tim Wescott<t...(a)seemywebsite.now>  wrote in
> >news:MZOdnTlMb9jXyYvRnZ2dnUVZ_uSdnZ2d(a)web-ster.com:
>
> >> On 06/13/2010 06:42 PM, Randy Yates wrote:
> >>> Does anyone remember these? I used to love reading these, apparently in
> >>> Electronic Products, way back when. I find one on the web just tonight
> >>> and thought I'd share it in case anyone had similar warm feelings for
> >>> these old chestnuts from Bob.
>
> >>>http://www.national.com/rap/Story/0,1562,18,00.html
>
> >> I liked that shtick at the beginning, but when then he started digging
> >> through the nice rich compost and into the fresh manure, and I started
> >> thinking someone need to write a critique titled "What's all this
> >> 'What's all this Stuff' Stuff, Anyway?"
>
> >> Stories about analog design -- very interesting.
>
> >> Stories about life as an app engineer -- interesting.
>
> >> Stories about engineers vs. management (if he did any) -- interesting.
>
> >> Stories about his stupid Volkswagen bug, and how clever he is to keep it
> >> running -- heard em' all from better raconteurs, boring as hell.
>
> >> Ditto on brags about climbing in the Himalayas with his own personal
> >> native guide, stories about near-retirement, etc.  I don't know if I
> >> ever saw one with details of his lower intestinal function, but I
> >> wouldn't have been surprised (I just would have forgotten it as quickly
> >> as possible).
>
> > I have met Bob Pease. He is a very pleasant man.
>
> > I think that National Semi were idiots laying him off. They got way more good
> > will than his salary expense and probably lost a few customers who were upset
> > to see him go.
>
> I wouldn't be at all surprised if he were a great guy -- I doubt very
> much that _I_ could come up with an interesting article the like of
> Pease Porridge every month.
>
> But even if I can't do it, I can still critique it!

Perhaps, but are you any better at critiques than you would be writing
an article? A restaurant reviewer doesn't just go into a restaurant
and write what he liked and didn't like. He considers the broader
spectrum of who might dine at a given restaurant and what is
expected. I think that Bob Pease is at least a 4 star writer for what
he does and who reads him. His personal life stories can be
significant to me even if they just give me a point of comparison to
my own. He deals honestly with his motivations and reading about his
helps me understand mine.

Rick
From: Les Cargill on 15 Jun 2010 12:22
Tim Wescott wrote:
> <snip>
>
> Stories about his stupid Volkswagen bug, and how clever he is to keep it
> running -- heard em' all from better raconteurs, boring as hell.
>

You never owned John Muir's book, didya?

I disagree. At least the one about how clean he could get a tailpipe
test was precious. The high EGT of a(n aircooled) Bug completely
violated the instrumentation assumptions of the CARB tests. A
properly tuned Bug put out very little but CO2 and water.

It stands as a sort of Public Choice Theory object lesson -
one of the ways that the Big Three bought into catalytic converters
was when they realized that catalytic converters would knock Beetles
out of the US market.

Maybe you hadda be there.

> Ditto on brags about climbing in the Himalayas with his own personal
> native guide, stories about near-retirement, etc. I don't know if I ever
> saw one with details of his lower intestinal function, but I wouldn't
> have been surprised (I just would have forgotten it as quickly as
> possible).
>

I always took those as "keep moving or you'll rust" stories.... Pease
is one of the Old Guys. They're dwindling in number. This is Bad.
Exhibit A is the financial crisis. Exhibit B, the Gulf oil spill.

--
Les Cargill
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