[RLK]

Engineering in this country has been dead for years and is getting deader with the exception of a few specialties. I was just telling Don Myers privately that I had just cut two cylinder lenses for my second personal laser-driven interferometer tonight. I elected to retire. I'm very good at what I do. I would work in research and development for expenses just for the fun of it. It's a dead field in this country. It's all being done elsewhere.

I'm an instrument machinist in the Swiss mode, a scientific glassblower, knowledgeable about electronic engineering, a real time data acquisition computer programmer, and about a dozen other things. There is now little use for any of it over here. The Washinton Post employment sections are as thin as toilet paper.

[SoDak]

I believe it. It's getting thinner here too. Especially for some of the things you do. I'm a jack of all trades. I've got a degree in Business Administration (basically worthless) and worked in sales for 10 years. 7 years ago I taught myself computers and began collecting certificates from IBM, Sun, Unisys, and Cisco while working for my current company who afforded me the chance to learn on the go. At this point, I'm in IT pretty darned solid and can fit into any organization, however I work for a very stable niche company that is busier than ever. If things go down the tubes though, I know how to use a hammer, a tractor, and a shovel, so I'll get by.

[apochromat]

Hi,

I was reading about all your talents and thought you might be interested in a telescope camera control project I'm thinking about. The unique twist I'm contemplating in a telescope camcorder combination is to use the large LCD screen on the newer camcorders as a surface for a removably attachable optical sensor made of a small number of photosensitive semiconductors, perhaps having 16 or 32 photosensors in total.

The main operating idea is to fix the telescope on any bright star, and physically plop the sensor down onto the camcorder LCD, over the star's image there. From there on, the sensors will maintain the star in the same place in the field of view, using a simple feedback control algorithm with amospheric turbulance averaging. I'm also thinking of using glass fibers at the connector to divide the sensor area and permit the sensor devices to be mounted on a location that won't weigh down the LCD. Software support for inputting the star's name to a redirection controller would be the next step.

It's just a hobby for me. I don't have any time to make money from it, so I'll leave that to whoever might want to try. Maybe you could let me know what you think. :)