Ok, let's have all the quiet ones come out of the woodwork...(off topic, I suppose)

[Jonathan Lippard]

>I think there are some of us on this list that remain pretty silent (like
>myself.)  I've only been on the list for a couple of months (spawned by the
>hunger of to learn about modular synths, and hopefully someday build my
>own.)  

I've been on and off(usually not by my choice) the list several times since
the summer of 1998, and I don't post very often at all.  This is mostly
because unlike the talkative people on list who have a lot of electronics
experience, I don't know anything.  This is something I can really only
learn as much as I can in the time I have free from other activities, so
most often I'm listening to everyone else.

That being said, the thing that keeps me on the list is the fact that I
learn more from the discussions and designs posted here than from any
electronics textbook. This is not to say that I learn little from books,
but that the discussion here is much more directly applicable to what I try
to do as a hobby.

That also being said, emulating the work of others is about all I can do
right now. Replicating it would take me a long, long time to do, and I'd
probably give up eventually.  It's very valuable to have this list as a
resource, and I really appreciate the fact that I have a bigger base to
stand on then some of the youth challenged members of the list got. ;)

>I probably couldn't draw a VCO off the top of my head, in fact, I
>know I couldn't, but I could draw a very simple oscillator. I don't have
>enough knowledge to start getting into bigger designs yet.  I have learned
>quite a bit from following different threads, and find this list to be quite
>fun.

Exactly. And I tend to take it personally when someone else
(*cough*Doepfer*cough*) does poach a design (yes, one that doesn't even
belong to me), because a)it takes away from what people have contributed
here and b)it pisses off the people who worked on it and will eventually
chase them away, too--and we're seen multiple complaints. Which leaves the
rest of us standing in a slightly emptier room. Argh! Stop it, vultures!
Don't make me get out the shotgun! ;)

>There might be people on the list that are planning on stealing designs for
>profitable reasons, but I know there are probably quite a few here like me,
>who are just hoping to someday assemble something of their own.

Exactly.  That's all I want right now.  Maybe sometime down the road I'll
be enough of  a sadist to want to turn my hobby into a business, but by
*then* I"ll know enough about electronics to spin out designs of my own.
I'm doubting I'll ever do something like that, but if I do it would feel
totally wrong to have something in a product that I didn't create or
comission from someone else.

>Well, to sum it up, I just appreciate having this list.

Yes.

By the way, TomG---thanks! You helped me figure out how the Moog oscillator
works! Just today, even! ;)

-Jonathan Lippard