A book I had almost forgotten about until reading some of the comments on this blog is, "The Universal Traveler, A soft-systems guide: to creativity, problem solving and the process of reaching goals," by Don Koberg and Jim Bagnall. This was one of several books used in a freshman engineering class in college on the design process.
The book describes problem solving in general and ways to get from defining the problem to implementing a solution. It's an easy and entertaining read. I often wondered how much of it was written while the authors sat around discussing philosophy in a smoke filled VW bus!
I might have that Wurth manual, or at least similar books from other manufacturers. A well-written data/apps manual can really go a long way towards a good practical understanding - often missing from more theoretical tomes. Especially for something as mysterious as magnetics :-)
I also have Basic Electronics and Basic Transistors from NYIT IIRC. The fact that the first of those concerns mainly tubes gives away its age!
scopehandler 3/22/2012 4:04:29 PM User Rank Apprentice
Re: Of Books...
I recall there was one book on Transistors I think by TI ( I really do not recall) but it was excellent book. I do have copy somewhere....Electronic Circuit and Devices by Millman also Switching Circuit by same author and there no longer printed. Magnetics by Wurth Electronik which has excellent source on the ferrite beads, chokes etc. The explain in nice way on EMI stuff though it is more tailored to ttheir product. But still worth keeping it.
On software side then there was a book on C by Herbert Schildt. I guess it waas out of print.
Michael, yes, the operating system was minix. You bring back old memories.
I just googled minix today, and learnt that some years ago there was a controversy that Linux is based on minix. Also, minix has actually grown out of the classroom, and is available at http://www.minix3.org/other/read-more.html
On hardware design, back in 1989, I read Hill and Peterson's "Digital Systems: Hardware Organisation and Design". In the book, they had developed a rudimentary language AHPL (A hardware Programming Language). That helped me understand how do describe a circuit in words, ie document a design in text. It gave me a feel for what is accomplished today by verilog and vhdl, though personally I have not used them much.
The classic Horowitz book, "The Art of Electronics", good to know about the rumour that a new edition may be out next year.
I was studying for my Master's in EE when the previous (1988) edition came out. Our professor said that if you are going out of town for an interview, and have room for only one book, then the book he recommended that we carry was "The Art of Electronics". Hence, I held on to it as a reference book, and look it up sometimes. It really covers a broad range of topics and Horowitz comes accross as a really clever engineer.
For Computer Networking I read Andrew Tanenbaum's book. It is so easy to read, and Mr. Tanenbaum has an excellent sense of humor! He also authored a book on Computer Organization (architecture) in which he develops his own operating system, similar to unix, but I did not read it after graduating from university.
Yes - I envy anyone who can move around easily! Moving across town would be an ordeal for me, let alone cross-country, or to a different country. And it's not just the old data books :-) But there are quite a few of those.
Why keep old books? I'm not sure. They're useful when you need to fix some old gear (not everything is online). They're nostalgic. Hmm, maybe they won't all survive the next move. I did dispose of quite a bit during my last move...
For a very readable introduction to signal and power integrity, check out Eric Bogatin's book ("Signal and Power Integrity Simplified"). Eric has great talent for making an esoteric subject come to life.
Then of course there is the classic Horowitz textbook "The Art of Electronics". Rumor has it a new edition (25 years after the most recent one!) will appear in a year or so.
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