[TenTec] "End of an Era"

[Duane - N9DG]

--- Craig Roberts <crgrbrts at verizon.net> wrote:

> Younger generations "bottle fed" on computers may find this
> statement laughable, but for those of us whose formative
> years were analog-only, this is true.

well I'm in my mid 40's and I grew up in an analog only world
and do find such a statement laughable too. I simply have
chosen to extend my "formative" years until the day I die. As
such I will always consider new ideas, even ones for old
problems. If they make sense in concept and fit my needs I'll
at least try them. And if they don't quite fit my needs "as
is" then I'll try to figure out way to modify them until they
do.

>  Of course, Ken's opinion might just be a perpetual truism.
>  We may always have a need for direct, tactile interfaces.

This is partially true, consider though that the best tactile
feedback mechanism for the future might not always be the
same ones as before. And in the case of radio forcing the
interfaces we use for something that is inherently abstract
as radio and spectrum are into a mechanical interface I would
argue actually more unnatural. Everyone is just conditioned
to be used to it. But in the old days there were no other
choices, today there are, now we just need to exploit them.

> I read just
> yesterday, for instance, that the "eBook" is essentially a
> dead concept.  We still, young and old alike, prefer the
> look and feel of the printed page.

I would suggest that this is the case for the many of the
same reasons that many find "picture of a radio" on a
computer screen "unnatural" as well. I think it is a mistake
to try and make a computer emulate a book, just like it is a
mistake to make an SDR only emulate a traditional radio. FWIW
I do a majority of my reading from a computer screen, and by
gosh it doesn't even try to look and feel like a book either,
I wouldn't even want it to. And given the near universal
decline in printed newspaper readership I would conclude that
many others don't do the majority of their reading on paper
anymore either.

> So, we may, as Ken
> postulates, always prefer knobs and switches and dials and
> lights.

For certain use environments and styles knobs and buttons do
make the most sense, that will never change. 
 
> I liked my Pegasus, but I love my Corsair.

I love my SDR-1000.
I really like my Pegasi.
I like my Corsairs.
I mostly like my Omni VI. 

Duane
N9DG


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