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Vote and Comment: SRPP vs. Aikido vs. Grounded Grid

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Well,if it's not a White cathode follower, at least spell it correctly with a capital W, in honour of Eric White, a colleague of Alan Blumlein.

Nah, it's like SI units; it's become a non-person thing in its own right, with its own name, so no need to capitalise. I think its about time we gave up capitalising things like zener diode or darlington pair.:)
 
SI took a decision not to use initial capitals for unit names, even though most of them are based on peoples' names. Their decision should not be treated as a precedent because they were not using people's names, but inventing new names which may just happen to be identical to a relevant person's name. For examples: power is measured in watts (Mr. Watt), but capacity in farads (Mr. Faraday) and potential difference in volts (Mr. Volta).

I suppose strictly we should talk about a Zener's diode, but 'zener diode' has now become a compound noun in technical English. Personally I would prefer to see Mr. White retain his capital when talking about his circuit (just as we do for Mr. Miller) but I don't get worked up about it. I can't decide which I prefer for Mr. Darlington's circuit.
 
Personally I would prefer to see Mr. White retain his capital when talking about his circuit (just as we do for Mr. Miller) but I don't get worked up about it. I can't decide which I prefer for Mr. Darlington's circuit.

Heh, you're also showing your age by putting a dot after Mr, when us cool hip youngsters have abandoned it! I'm all for letting English evolve to be more efficient, not hanging on to illogical usage. You used to be cool, man.;)
 
Mr. is an abbreviation. All those boring English rules (apart from the split infinitive one - which is a carry-over from Latin!) are intended to aid communication. I find some cool hip youngsters (including, sometimes, my own nephews) write or say things which are either meaningless or ambiguous so time has to be wasted getting them to explain exactly what they mean. Efficiency in communication requires closer following of rules, not abandonment of them.

I never was cool. This will not surprise people. I was once young, which may surprise people.
 
Mr. is an abbreviation.Efficiency in communication requires closer following of rules, not abandonment of them.

Yeah, but a lot of the established rules are silly and arbitrary. They need to be rewritten (and slowly are being so).
Abbreviations like Mr only need a dot when they don't include the first and last letter of the full word, i.e. it's a contraction. Although, this rule may well die out with the influence that American English has on computer software (they use dots for everything).

The split infinitive thing is a good rule, but seldom taught these days. :( Really shows people up too, when writing formally.
 
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Nearly all modern usage guides disagree with you- splitting infinitives is perfectly acceptable. See Columbia, Merriam-Webster, Oxford Guide, University of Chicago, et al.

I can't speak for your particular Third World island, but here in the largest English speaking country in the world, one places a period following Mr., Dr., Ms., and Mrs. The White cathode follower does not use "White" as a unit, and to avoid confusion ("What makes it white and how do I make a pink cathode follower?"), one capitalizes the proper name. After all, does one write "bose-einstein statistics" when discussing integer spin particles?
 
Zener and Darlington are proper names. When you spell them without capitals they don't mean anything else. White when written with a capital letter is a proper name, but if you write it without a capital letter it changes its meaning, either to an adjective meaning "without colour" or a noun meaning the transparent part of an egg or an eye. Hence the phrase "white cathode follower" is basically meaningless.
There is presumably a similar reasoning behind spelling Aikido with a capital A to refer to Broskie's noise-nulling techniques, as "aikido" is just a noun designating a Japanese martial art and doesn't have a capital letter.
The "split infinitive" rule was devised by grammarians who thought English should be like Latin (in which it is impossible to split an infinitive) but it isn't so you can, if you wish to.
 
Is it cool to talk of Bose-Einstein condensation?

I have a gadget here which converts electrons into bosons, then allows B-E condensates of the delicate musical signal at room temperature. This improves the articulation and texture of the sound, revealing previously unheard detail and increasing intertransient silence and broadening the soundstage. Instruments take on a more three dimensional aspect, rather than sounding like cardboard cutouts.

But you engineers wouldn't understand. You only listen with oscilloscopes.
 
Nearly all modern usage guides disagree with you- splitting infinitives is perfectly acceptable. See Columbia, Merriam-Webster, Oxford Guide, University of Chicago, et al.

*shrugs* So? Most grammar books have never been very useful. Like I say many of the rules are plain silly. But going by logic along, not splitting the infinitive, wherever possible, is unarguably the neatest, clearest way to say something. It's a good rule. And it doesn't come from Latin, either.

I may have to concede the White CF since it can indeed be confused with the colour white, but for stuff like darlington pair I can't agree. Ohms law is the law of Ohm, it belongs to him, so it gets caplitalised. But a ten-ohm resistor does not belong to Mr Ohm, so it makes sense not to capitalise the units. Likewise, Darlington could once lay claim to his circuit, but it has since become the common property of all of us, so keep the name but lose the capital.

America doesn't speak English, it speaks American. I have often wondered why it continues to call it 'English' when it is so traditionally patriotic and xenophobic about practically everything else!:confused: C'mon Americans, this is your chance to have your very own language!

And you're in no position to call us third world until you have a free healthcare system too. Zing!
 
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I'll grant you that Texan is a separate language, but we don't want to (by analogy) imitate the Belgians and call perfectly good Dutch "Flemish." I suspect the Quebecois, whose French differs from what is spoken in Paris by a greater extent than New York English differs from London English, would go to war if you referred to their language as "Canadian."

All those extra "u" letters added in your words are the reason that you're a Third World country- while you were busy with the redundant orthography, the Empire slipped away.
 
The "split infinitive" controversy is just a question of taste really. The locus classicus is "to more than double" which it would be hard to say without splitting the infinitive. Some people would argue that the infinitve is actually just "double" and the "to" is a "marker" which is quite common in Germanic languages. Obviously you can't "split the infinitive" in Spanish or French or Italian.
We reinserted the "u" in words like "labour", "honour", etc. in Renaissance times before we acquired the Empire, so perhaps they helped us so to do. It was that pesky Noah Webster who tried to make English look more like Latin.
 
I'll grant you that Texan is a separate language, but we don't want to (by analogy) imitate the Belgians and call perfectly good Dutch "Flemish." I suspect the Quebecois, whose French differs from what is spoken in Paris by a greater extent than New York English differs from London English, would go to war if you referred to their language as "Canadian."

All those extra "u" letters added in your words are the reason that you're a Third World country- while you were busy with the redundant orthography, the Empire slipped away.



More please. this is Hilarious
 
At the cost of seeming recklessly arrogant for daring to question the "authority" of the elders and betters, Broskie amongst them, to my personal taste Aikido stages sound dull and in some ways constrained.
Like most people on this forum, I am no electronic superguru, I have simply followed the well treaded paths and have experimented with stages of all types, cathode followers, srpps, White cathodes and of course Aikidos. With the greatest respect for Mr. Broskie's outstanding output of design and logic and sheer work, I feel that it remains a brilliant example of innovative theoretical design, but possibly, specifically BECAUSE of its noise nulling function, it kills the explosive thrill of music. To my very personal way of hearing, the simple common cathode stage, when interstage coupled and beautifully "supplied" offers a listening experience that few other human inventions match.

I stand to be chastized !!! :headbash:
 
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