[TenTec] Re: Open Source

[Tommy]

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