4 ms·
"The Secret Life of Circuits" is here
- tdiff 21d ago> It gives real answers but doesn’t demand a year of calculus beforehand. Oh yes, these kinds of shortcuts have always worked great.
- rramadass 21d agoHa, Ha, True. That was a silly statement by the author; just say that this is "less theoretical" and not a textbook. Looked at the contents/sample chapter and it seems just like many of the books published by make magazine.
- fuzzfactor 21d agoMy objective has often been to build & test as many experimental circuits as I could in the shortest amount of time. One of the real good shortcuts is to just start soldering parts together according to a plan in your head, without taking the time to make a schematic drawing beforehand or do any advanced calculations. There might be more emphasis on the properties and ratings of each component this way, this is not something to skip over, you should be very familiar with each component you use. Well in advance, and loads of hours of component study needs to be behind you, otherwise you may not do too good at just whipping something up on the bench that's electrically sound to begin with. As pointed out, with math it can be the same way. If you just want to quickly start picking up parts and soldering them together right away without doing any advanced calculations, the best shortcut is to have already become quite familiar with the equations including calculus when necessary, so you can bring to bear endless hours of mathematical study and use it to intuitively guide your soldering iron for every hour at the bench. Edit: upvoted because your message should not be less than neutral, not greyed out at all. Obviously, I'm on the fence, sometimes I use math, other times not at all ;)
- CamperBob2 21d agoThey have. When you need more math -- and you will if you stick with this business for very long -- it'll usually be obvious, and you can pick up those skills then. It's never been easier.
- AmazingEveryDay 25d agoI looked at sample chapter, the fonts and layout are visually repulsive.
- _Microft 21d agoThis made me have a look and I do like it a lot. The wide margins remind me of university coursebooks.
- amelius 21d ago> The wide margins remind me of university coursebooks. What I want is a paperback where the margins are chosen such that you can read the text when you fold back the facing part of the book.
- polotics 21d agoSir, you have a knack for inspiring commentary: the exact opposite of damning with faint praise! Also 0% slop it made me pre-order the book immediately.
- JKCalhoun 21d agoThat would (of course) be praising with faint damnation. (Or is it praising with generous damnation?)
- HPsquared 21d agoLike a double negative.
- fuzzfactor 21d agoIt can get hard to follow after a while :) How about a triple-play, damning with damn damnation?
- deleted 21d ago[deleted]
- ChuckMcM 25d agoThis is a much better introduction to circuits than most. You actually get a bit of depth rather than a cookbook of "do this to get that" sort of prose.
- dgellow 21d agoThat’s also what I really like about “Practical Electronics for Inventors”, the authors explains the underlying physics for each component. Though the theory chapter can be heavy if you want to follow everything. “Secrets Life of Circuits” seems to be a bit more approachable
- ExtremisAndy 21d agoI'm hoping you're right. I enthusiastically bought PEFI but found it to be way over my head. I'm eager to get SLOC because I'm hoping it can be sort of a bridge between my "MAKE: Electronics" book and PEFI.
- dgellow 21d agoPEFI/PE4I as a technical reference when you need details about a specific topic, SLOC as an overall introduction to give a good intuition, and M:E for more practical project tutorials, if that’s what we (hobbyists without any formal training) end up with that would be awesome :) AlphaPhoenix YouTube channel is also a great source of information to clarify theoretical topics. I find it very helpful to just see how he think about electricity in his various projects: https://youtu.be/X_crwFuPht4 https://youtu.be/X_crwFuPht4. And his enthusiasm is contagious! One personal note: as someone coming from software I find learning electronics pretty hard as it requires a completely different mental model and way to approach systems. Took me years of various failed attempts to finally internalize I have to stop relying on metaphors and shortcuts, and instead understand the actual physics at play to develop an intuition that makes sense. That looks daunting and I thought I would hate that part but in fact after pushing through the first weeks it becomes really satisfying! Accept things take time and that you will be uncomfortable for a while, and move at your own pace. And here LLMs are actually really helpful to clarify topics you’re not sure you understand fully, once you start to learn the terminology (I use instructions that makes it clear they shouldn’t solve things for me and instead evaluate my understanding)
- moiriad 21d agoSuper looking forward to it. Got it on preorder in Europe! Will still be a bit of a waiting time. Always enjoy reading the blog posts, and this seems like a great way to support work that gives me joy. Who knows, might start picking up actual electronics as side projects. Hardware work seems like such a great way to get code into the physical world.
- hermitcrab 21d agoI like the 'certified clank free' logo. It that a standard thing now?
- annex-winged-cr 21d agoThe barrage of "X not Y" almost made me think that this was AI-generated. But I guess some people just talk like that.
- Sharlin 21d agoI just read a Quanta article from 2015 and literally had to check the date after the third "X not Y" I encountered. But the models have learned that from somewhere, too.
- jgeada 21d agoWhy do you think AI "talks" like that? It is pervasive in a lot oof the training material. Most people writing scientific literature are not English majors nor even great communicators, their primary competencies are elsewhere. Expecting everyone to write literature is just odd & reductive. Yes, it helps to be a good writer, but the primary objective for science papers is to convey information; that it is well written or enjoyable is a nice bonus but not essential.
- TeMPOraL 21d agoI'd counter that AI usually writes way better than typical person, definitely way better than any commenters here (myself included). What's jarring about AI content is seeing the mastery of English applied in mundane contexts, where people are used to see more basic, pedestrian language. (That, and overuse of patterns, which is more of an artifact of how people use LLMs - specifically that 90%+ of the AI output you see is the first response to the prompt in a fresh session. For AI, each time is the first time it's using this pattern, for user it's the 10th time they saw it within the span of an hour.)
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- illwrks 21d agoThe artwork on the cover should come with a health and safety notice :D
- hermitcrab 21d agoI like the pop art style. But what is she going to do with that soldering iron - stick it up her nose?
- _Microft 21d agoMaybe it should look like someone in a Western movie blowing smoke from a pistol?
- poulpy123 21d agoLooks like that
- JKCalhoun 21d agoHuff flux (like we all do), duh.
- mathgeek 21d agoLike the best art, it's left up to the viewer to decide!
- diydsp 21d agoThat alone makes me think it was drawn by AI. They say it's not...but that iconic pic sits directly in the uncanny valley.
- fuzzfactor 21d agoSshh. Her lips are sealed. It's just a stylistic thing, same with the smoke, which represents heat more so than fumes. Normally you hold the iron horizontal under the nose and of course don't breathe during the heat test. And you don't actually kiss the soldering iron until it's cooled all the way down, and usually not unless the experimental circuit you came up with works the first time you plug it in :) So you can relax as intended and unplug the damn iron, without having to keep on hammering til all hours. One thing she's not telling is the way you should be effective enough soldering using (very inexpensive) uncontrolled soldering irons, that you can eventually solder two pieces of solder together. Before you graduate to a "pro-grade" soldering station.
- janice1999 21d agoJust ordered. Love these kinds of books. Any others like this one people are aware of?
- twizod 21d agoPre-ordered mine(hardback). Yeesh....I have no impulse control because this looks like so much fun,
- yu3zhou4 21d agoMichał Zalewski (the author of this book) is goated. His book Silence on the Wire was very inspiring to me and the techniques he described often come to my mind years after reading the book
- deleted 21d ago[deleted]
- tclancy 21d agoThis thing is a tome. And I like it like that. Functions as a nerdy coffee table book when not in use.
- skybrian 21d agoIt would be nice to see a similar book devoted to sensors. Anyone have recommendations?
- dgellow 21d agoPE4I (“Practical Electronics for Inventors”) has a whole chapter dedicated to sensors
- andrey_chmerev 21d ago[flagged]
- rramadass 21d agoMake: has a 3-vol series Encyclopedia of Electronic Components one of which is on Sensors - https://www.makershed.com/collections/books-on-electronics/products/encyclopedia-of-electronic-components-volume-3 https://www.makershed.com/collections/books-on-electronics/p... Also see Sensors and Signal Conditioning by Ramon Pallas-Areny and John Webster for a theoretical combination treatment.
- gadrev 21d agoIf you're ordering from Europe, be sure to check if it's available in your local Amazon page first, I almost got slapped with like a 50% shipping/import charges because I went straight to the main link (the US amazon). The ones that have it are listed in the blog post.
- Xiol 21d agoI find it crazy that Amazon haven't implemented a feature that will take you to the same product in your local store easily. I had the same issue and had to go find it manually.
- mejutoco 21d agoone cool feature amazon implements is that if you change the .com for .es (and nothing else) for a product link it will do exactly that. I know it is not automatic but it works.
- dsunds 21d agoGot mine. And I'm a former EE. Looking forward to it, maybe inspire my daughter a bit.
- quickthrowman 21d agoThis looks like it’ll be a good book for me to learn more about electrical theory and circuit design, I know a bit about AC and DC electricity from working in electrical construction which should help me dive right in, thanks for sharing this book release!
- tzs 21d agoI see some discussion of which books are good for people with various levels of electronics knowledge. I'd like to add one that I've never seen mentioned here: Agarwal and Lang's "Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronics". This was the book used by MIT in 2007 for the first course in the EE and CS programs. It is that year's course that is on their Open Courseware platform [1], and the readings list there links to a full PDF of the book. (Edit: click the book title on the readings page, not the "View e-book version" link. See my response to groos' comment below for details). This is not a link to a pirated copy BTW. Agarwal is a pioneer in the open-education movement and the authors intentionally arranged for an open access PDF. The lecture videos on Open Courseware are very good too. [1] https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-002-circuits-and-electronics-spring-2007/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-002-circuits-and-electronics-s...
- groos 21d agoThe PDF no longer appears to be there or at least is well hidden.
- tzs 21d agoOh, I see the problem. You clicked the "View e-book version" link. That goes to the publisher's store. As far as I know they never had a PDF, just a special web version. Click the book's title in the paragraph above that, where it says this: > Agarwal, Anant, and Jeffrey H. Lang. Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Elsevier, July 2005. ISBN: 9781558607354. That takes you to a PDF. Sorry for not being more specific. I didn't even notice the "View e-book version" as I only went to the site to remind myself of the name of the book, saw the title was a link, and clicked it. Then I thought "Why is MIT linking to a pirate copy of a book from one of their own professors?", and did a little Googling to get some backstory.
- leoc 21d agoAlso, "Readings" is hidden behind a "Menu" menu button on the mobile-device version of that page.
- ur-whale 21d agoLove the "certified clank-free" logo
- chris_wot 21d agoAlready purchased, looking forward to getting it!!!
- philsnow 21d agoA couple clicks through to older lcamtuf posts and I came across this in the "what is electricity" post: > Once again, we don’t have a satisfying explanation why. We know that these quantum numbers correspond to standing-wave solutions of a three-dimensional wave function that we pulled out of thin air. We also know that the model works better than any alternatives. But we don’t know what any of it really means — or if it means anything. It is so refreshing to see this explicated thus; physics textbooks are generally coy about "know this for now, and there will be deeper insights available later" but they typically never level with readers and say "we don't know".
- analog31 21d agoOddly enough, one of my upper level math textbooks (maybe real analysis, don't remember) said the same thing about the definition of a set, except that "later" meant graduate school.
- dekhn 21d agolcamtuf is one of the smartest people I've ever seen. When you read his work you realize he's only sort of putting about 1% of his intelligence on the page.
- whatshisface 21d agoThat answer is not representing the last hundred years of progress fairly. You give an answer like that now at least one level deeper. :-)
- triilman 21d agoI am from software engineer background and how I learn Circuit is just watching the best 3 video from "Captive Aire" channel: 1. https://youtu.be/pDELW2pIvWw?si=BNsURdXrGLlaAfF3 https://youtu.be/pDELW2pIvWw?si=BNsURdXrGLlaAfF3 (Digital Electronic) 2. https://youtu.be/RG3eljmqyq4?si=Pnbvf6P6HbFcIa1v https://youtu.be/RG3eljmqyq4?si=Pnbvf6P6HbFcIa1v (Alternating Current, Motors, & control) 3. https://youtu.be/nYuVSG89vg0?si=Oe3ZdJojS7T_iGxK https://youtu.be/nYuVSG89vg0?si=Oe3ZdJojS7T_iGxK (Electric Basic Made is Easy), and the episode of "Nand to Tetris"
- raincom 20d agoTheir refrigeration 101 is a good one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U-XG7cY7bI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U-XG7cY7bI
- davb 21d agoThis book looks like it’s targeted squarely at people like me! I’ve been a software engineer for the last couple of decades and I’ve tinkered with microcontrollers as a hobby but always been limited by my lack of electronics knowledge - very much trial and error to get a project far enough to be able to focus on the firmware (which is more my domain). I want to bridge the knowledge gap there. My only formal electronics education was first year introduction to analog and digital circuits module at university two decades ago, led by a lecturer who assumed students had a huge corpus of pre-existing knowledge (and who I now suspect would have preferred to be supervising his PhD students and conducting research but had to make up the teaching hours - which I do understand). I will definitely pick up a copy. However, Amazon UK (to avoid the NoStarch UPS shipping cost of $24) won’t get it to me until November. I’m excited to receive it.
- throwaway219450 21d agoHave a look at Blackwells rather than Amazon: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Secret-Life-of-Circuits-by-Michal-Zalewski/9781718504806 https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Secret-Life-of... But are you trying to ship out of the UK? Amazon UK also says they will ship in October and not November.
- sprayk 21d agolooks like a great book, but the cover is hard to look at after having a few painful soldering burns
- qazwsxedchac 21d agoThe cover art is a gross error of judgement, and it stops me from buying this book for the next generation of hackers in the wider family. Adults will understand that the "shush" gesture with the soldering iron is supposed to be a play on the "secret" in the title, but a large part of the target audience is 12-15 years old. There will inevitably be some who'll imitate the picture, with painful results.
- krallja 21d ago"She's a child!" shouted Albert. "IT'S AN EDUCATIONAL TOY." "What if she cuts herself?" "THAT WILL BE A PAINFUL LESSON."
- bithammerthunde 21d agoLooks like a brilliant book. If you ever write another I think a "hands-on experiments" would be a great follow up
- so-cal-schemer 21d agoThis book looks amazing. Last month I put in a purchase request for a copy at my local library. I may end up buying a few copies: for myself and for gifts; especially if I could get them signed by the author.. :D