Re: IEE or IEEE

From: Trevor Barton (tmb_at_Xisotek.co.uk)
Date: 10/13/04 

Date: 13 Oct 2004 16:02:52 GMT

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 23:38:17 +1000, Al Borowski wrote:
> [...]
>
>> These days, radio is at least FM and increasingly digital, and in general
>> the level of technology (CDs, PCs, DVDs) in the home is so advanced and
>> cheap that you can't do much that doesn't look silly in comparison. That
>> makes it hard to get kids interested at the level of wanting to make
>> something.
>>
>> Also, it's expensive for a kid. Most of my early components were free,
>> because they were cut from old chassis and the like. Nothing in modern
>> electronics is reusable, so you have to buy stuff from new.
>>
>
>
> Its more expensive in some areas, but insanely cheaper in others. I'm
> still amazed that I can go to *** Smith (a very common Australian
> electronics store) and buy a computer on an 8 pin chip for under 5
> bucks. If I'm willing to wait a little while, I can order a better chip
> over the internet for under 2 bucks. How expensive would that have been
> twenty years ago?

Aahh, Tricky Dickys, I remember it well, I had to go all the way into
Sydney centre from Carlingford in my teens before they opened the
store in Paramatta. There was an article in Electronics Australia (?) at
the time about *** having ordered some metal boxes with the dimensions
in cm, and them coming back from the manuacturer in inches, doh.

So they're still going, then? There are very few hobbyist stores here
in the UK, although people can order from Farnell and RS, but the only
browsable store I know if is Maplins here in Leeds. Back in the 70's
there used to be a lot (relatively speaking) of "corner" electronics
stores both here and in Oz - there was another somewhere in Paramatta
which sold all sorts (transistors, passives, etc) out of bins in the back.
Even Tandy used to sell bits, albeit at well over the top prices and
in bubble-packs of 20, do they still do that?

That's another reason for the yoof of today not getting into electronics,
difficulty of finding parts. 

-- 
Trevor Barton
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