My first blog

Well it looks like the gang in Boston has foolishly given me a place to blog. How soon they will regret this move. Frank Zappa once prefaced a speech to a bunch of academics with the warning that “I talk dirty”.  Well, I have made a sincere effort to clean up my language since my locker room days and I hope I don’t offend anyone inadvertently.  No the Boston Gang won’t regret giving me a blog because I talk dirty.  They will regret it because I just won’t shut up.  I will probably double the cost of their server farm.

A lot of the early stuff I turned at EDN was in the first person.  Kind of like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas only it was the IMS RF convention.  I found out EDN does not publish articles in the first person as a rule, but they did say I would have this blog to reach out to my fellow earthlings.  This will be an informal thing and I will probably say some things that are wrong.  I hope you write in and correct me.  I also will not be too careful about hurting the feelings of a company’s marketing department if I think they have it coming.  That is sort of a tradition here.  Santarini explained the hollowness of Mentor’s latest product release and was excoriated in public by them.  No big deal, he’s tough and he can take it.  Here at EDN we feel a huge responsibility to give you the truth.  I have never seen a bunch of people with such a high standard of integrity.  As a guy that worked for Ford Motor at one time you can understand how refreshing this is to me.

I am trying to come up with a theme for every day here.  I like the idea of Website Wednesday so I figure today I will give you a link to a cool website (in a separate blog).  I also like the sound of Technology Tuesday and Miserable Monday.  Monday is when I will talk about software.  I also like the concept of Fun Friday.  That is when I will talk more about “lifestyle” issues.  You know, things like my pal Danny taught me.  Dan has a big boat on the (SF Bay) Delta.  I gave him an old copy of the Chapman’s Guide To Piloting and Seamanship.  I told him it would teach him boating etiquette.  He asked: “Boating etiquette?  What’s that, the right side to throw the empty beer cans over?”  So yeah, Friday will be a little loose.  You should expect rants about my eight Harleys and the good places to get a gin and tonic in Silicon Valley.  Just like Easyriders was “Entertainment for Adult Bikers” I expect Friday to be “Entertainment for Adult Engineers”.  Thursday, well Thursday I am having a problem with.  I was thinking Tools Thursday and I could talk about test equipment and software.  It just doesn’t roll off the tongue as nice as the other ones.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.