IVP wrote:

>> Obviously it's not a strict, always 100% true example, but it's
>> definitely a strong, observable trend
>=20
> I empathise with your sentiments in some ways.=20

I maybe in some, but not that much...

> I'd compare it with home recording studios. Anybody with a PC can call
> themself a 'musician', even the most mediocre and untalented [...]=20
>=20
> Times change, [...]

However I agree with this, wholeheartedly. A while ago a good kitchen
knife was so expensive that only rich people or good cooks had one;
nowadays you get them in any department store, and many people have one
at home.=20

100 years ago having a car meant you either had mechanics skills or had
an employee with mechanics skills who was in charge of taking care of
the car. Nowadays, every (mechanical) "idiot" can drive a car -- and
many do, taking for granted that it "just works" and driving a year or
more without any major maintenance (other than changing the oil) is
considered normal.

Get over it... the times when cars were a "mechanics only" item are
gone; they are now commodities. So are the times when computers were an
"electronics specialist only" item; they have reached the commodity
status also. With the Arduino and similar concepts, smaller embedded
electronics are reaching the commodity status. Nothing new here; this is
just the way technology works.

If this pisses you off, you're probably in the wrong field. This is how
technology works. If you want to stay out of this, you need to stay
ahead of the commodity technology. Anything with any appeal sooner or
later will become commodity, that's what /we/ do (at least some of us,
in some cases): we improve the stuff, until it works /reliably/ without
messing around, until Joe Everybody can use it and it's ready to become
a commodity. Part of working in and with technology means being able to
use commodity technology to create new technology. That the existing
commodity technology is what 50 years ago was the new technology is
exactly the point.

Decrying the banalization of electronics is about 50 years behind the
curve. Back then electronics was an adventure (I wasn't there, but I
know enough about it to get the idea, I think :), nowadays it's just so
simplified. Three resistors, a cap and an IC and you get a useful audio
amp? Or a small computer? Get outta here... this is just like script
kiddies using an Arduino :)

So... get over it, and get into stuff that's ahead of the curve, if
that's where you want to be. I'm sure you'll be using commodity
technology without looking back when you're there.

Gerhard
--=20
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
.