Hello. I’m Andy (see my brief bio here), the new Technology Editor for Electronic Design. Thanks for stopping by to learn who I am and what capabilities Electronic Design has enabled by bringing me onto their august editor team.
First, let me preface my introductory posting here by stating that I’m not a writer, nor am I really an editor despite me being hired by Endeavor Business Media as one. I’m an electrical engineer with multiple decades of experience on stuff ranging from semiconductor process development, chip design, board design and system and product definition, apps engineering, and <gasp> product and strategic marketing, who has grammar skills and used to win spelling bees in Grade 2, which is apparently what put me over the top in the interview process.
I wouldn’t be much fun at parties if I couldn’t continue to be an engineer throughout my career. In this new technology editor gig, they happily agreed to let me continue being one when I’m not doing editor stuff for them during the day. I guess I’m now an EE Clark Kent. That’s great because any engineer worth their salt makes every effort to keep their axe sharp for times when called upon for superhero tasks by project need. And that means I can continue to deliver credible material to our readers with a practicing engineer’s eye for as long as my cardiovascular system holds out.
I’m being led out on a scary amount of leash in what they seem to be allowing me to do in this role. So let’s all have some fun and learn and stay informed with what WE decide (it’s important for you to provide feedback on the usefulness of the material, lend insight, and fill in information and experiences that the brevity of ~1000 words can’t do justice to, making this beneficial for all of us—that’s our goal here).
Lineage of Analog Legends
My editor beat for Electronic Design is “Analog,” stepping into the shoes of The Greats like Bob Pease, Don Tuite, Paul Rako, and others. I’m doomed to failure as an analog editor if held to those standards, so I’m hoping we can all agree to start fresh, and burn incense now and then to memorialize the thoughts and knowledge (one of my first assignments is to create Vol. 4 of our “Best of Bob Pease” series…I plan to do this next one a little out-of-the-box as compared to Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3) of these engineering gods (note the lower-case “G” please).
Try to give me a few months to get up to speed on this art form (“Dammit Jim, I’m an engineer, not a [word] doctor”) that I’m trying to pack densely with valuable and, sometimes, potentially controversial and thought-provoking engineering content, including generous, interesting, and useful links. The hope is to compel you to agree, disagree, share your own experiences, or hit the comment section to be brutally honest about how far out in the weeds I am.
As an ex-Canuck*, one of our cultural pastimes during our long, dark, winters is debate and taking the contrarian position now and then to not only pass the time, but also reveal new facts and be downright educational. Life is short, so learning something new, no matter how, is a good way to live it out.
What You Can Expect in the Nonlinearities Blog
Engineers never get anything done without a hard deadline, because we always find some way to improve things or have higher-priority, more interesting projects that capture our attention and time. With that in mind, I (foolishly?) stuck my neck out and announced to my boss that I plan to write my blog here, bimonthly, and for it to post on the first and third Monday of a month to start our readers’ weeks off during their first coffee of the week.
Sometimes technical, sometimes cynical, occasionally [ir]reverent, and at time brutally analyzing our work environments and public policies, my blog will hopefully be worth 10 minutes of your time to peruse, comment, and motivate you to follow some of the interesting links I plan to throw in. Bring an extra shirt to work if you read my blog during break—I don’t think Endeavor Business Media’s insurance policy covers spit-take damage.
As far as my role as “Analog” editor, my beat is really free-range, more than a dog run, despite my boss, Bill Wong, asking me to write about op amps. I’m pretty much good with any hardware that moves or throttles electrons, photons, and metal objects, and am open to being approached with product, eval board, and kit announcements (honoring embargoes, preferring them as it gives me time for a proper briefing by PMs, AEs, and product designers—I’m not a big fan of regurgitating press releases because I’m a sort-of-editor engineer) covering chips, boards, and systems. Please send a link to your work’s PR person/big-cheese, noting this and the next paragraph to them.
I’m also up for doing interviews with execs and star designers, so if you have something interesting, hmu** with a paragraph or two of what you have. I’m also open to doing plant and lab tours if not too arduous to get to. Show me what you have, but be brief and to the point as this gig gets a lot of fluffy stuff in the inbox. I’ll give it a good home with one of my colleagues if I can’t handle it.
If you have something you think might be an interesting teardown, please send a paragraph of what you have. If I do agree to have you send it to me and I do break it down and write about it, I’ll try to thank you by name and company, if that’s OK, in my piece.
As far as Social Media goes, I don’t care much for feeding The Zuckerborg, though you will find me troublemaking on LinkedIn. Feel free to follow me there (please don’t be offended if I don’t accept your networking request—I’m already drinking from a firehouse of info feeds) if you want a laugh or see me lambaste the fossil-fuel industry shills. It’s all my own opinions and posts, not Endeavor’s, though I will be posting announcements of my newly published Electronic Design stuff there.
All that said, go ahead and break out the incense and please comment here about what you enjoyed about my “Analog” predecessors and what kind of material and depth you’d like to see from OUR “Analog” corner of Electronic Design. It’s been about a decade since “Analog” had a dedicated editor here, so I get to start fresh, as well as resurrecting some great archived stuff that may be useful to the non-Boomers and hobbyists that frequent our site.
All for now,
*Canadian
**hit me up