tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-321078847415937862011-10-17T05:54:22.737+01:00<b>Glimpses of things that might be from The Big-Picture ...</b>Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.comBlogger261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-8218283785006420332011-08-11T15:20:00.024+01:002011-08-23T18:17:33.391+01:00

In 2011 the NMI, instructed by its Board of Directors, announced an expansion of its remit to open membership to companies involved in Electronics Systems. In this article, Prof. Ian Phillips gives a personal account of why he sees it as a natural progression for NMI and what’s in it for existing and new members. NMI’s role has always been to deliver personal value to you, through the catalysis

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-32528192327619985242011-03-28T18:37:00.015+01:002011-03-31T14:55:58.999+01:00

Of course you love your new phone's cool, steel bound obsidian line. But any thoughts it might be cut from raw volcanic rock are soon dismissed when a gesture brings commanding images to its face. A few more and you talk 'through' it to people anywhere, or conjure up memories of your family and hobbies. Small print on the back reveals it was designed in American and assembled in China ... by

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-21400384842158971262011-01-14T13:53:00.010Z2011-01-21T16:45:39.049Z

The EngineeringUK 2011 Report highlighted that whilst 60% of people surveyed couldn't think of a single thing that engineers had done in the last 50yrs to effect their lives; more than 90% considered they would be instrumental in finding the cure for climate change! Clearly a significant failure of the education system ... Or is it? It has always been the case that more successful we are at our

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-21238099365887986862010-12-26T21:12:00.005Z2011-01-14T13:55:20.756Z

It's the last week before Christmas so time for me to put pen to paper (In a manner of speaking) once again ...As I sit here year after year whittling the still-warm core of another year's experience, I create personal punctuation marks in this billion year, day-follows-night-follows-day odyssey that we share. This semi-colon draws my attention to the recurrence of the counter-intuitive '

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-62823326017963990522010-09-15T12:20:00.014+01:002010-09-15T14:29:22.146+01:00

I'm just about to fly to Australia, a journey 10,000 miles horizontally but just 6 miles vertically?! To prove my SI credentials, I could build a 10km square structure, but a cubic one would be impossible?! With such a huge energy differential between the two horizontal dimensions and the single vertical one how can we really doubt that we live in a 2D world! I could settle for two-and-a-bit

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-55322083945329329382010-08-08T18:11:00.010+01:002010-08-09T10:11:11.831+01:00

I bought my 5yr old granddaughter a children's encyclopaedia; I was in Australia at the time so I was able to experience her first exploration of it. I've always loved Encyclopaedias, they are my favourite books (closely followed by Dictionaries). There is something very wonderful about holding a single book that contains knowledgeable answers to most questions. It's sad I know, but for many

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-89621771916159304732010-06-04T17:17:00.014+01:002010-08-09T10:22:55.754+01:00

Just Imagine living in a world where the behaviour of everything more complex than a tungsten filament light - is driven by magic!Imagine it, because that is the world where most people ... The Estate Agents, Teachers, Hairdressers, Shop Assistants, PAs ... Financiers, Lawyers, Accountants, Spouses, Mangers, Leaders and Politicians ... actually live today! [1]As science professionals our

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-66390048674224251752010-02-16T16:00:00.018Z2010-02-27T18:09:25.498Z

Apparently man's first experiments with tools took place about 1.5 million years ago. Though little more than shaped rocks with sharpened edges; they had been chosen to fit the hand and most significantly, had been made in advance of need ... I learned this from a specialist[1]. To give context to this: Wise Man (Homo Sapien) didn't appear till 100,000 years ago; and Modern Man (Cro Magnon) just

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-20339732595705660062009-12-22T18:45:00.003Z2009-12-22T18:56:03.727Z

Hi. It's me again ...Doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself. 2009 with all its trials and tribulations slipped by in an instant and once again I find myself levering this slot into my 'must-do before Christmas' list. Some of you will already realise that 60yr ago in Bradford Yorkshire a miracle happened that quite literally changed my life ... a little boy was born that turned out to be

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-57579723470103296632009-11-20T14:56:00.015Z2009-11-20T18:40:02.214Z

Last month I clocked 60; years that is, not MPH. All of a sudden I have my Bus and Rail Pass, and people offer me their seats ... I still joke, despite my advancing years. But it dawns on me that the reason old-people (choke) reminisce of days gone by is that there are definitely more of them, than days to come. It’s amazing how different things look, when you realise your next Microsoft Project

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-19837965352194087372009-08-11T14:33:00.004+01:002009-08-11T15:32:44.032+01:00

I just love the idea that if you step-out the perimeter of an arbitrarily small island with a pair of dividers, you get a larger answer as the size of the dividers get smaller! With tiny dividers the measured perimeter always approaches infinity, regardless of how small the island. Clearly the more closely you look, the more detail there is to be stepped around. It is an experiment that shows you

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-85068415488452681882009-07-05T12:44:00.002+01:002009-07-05T13:14:31.599+01:00

I've been sitting here for 30B years looking at this stone; I wonder how much longer I'll have to wait for someone to call me on it? We take the animation of the inanimate very much for granted today, it is after all a measure of the achievement of humanity. But for most of history, materials remained stubbornly inanimate until the female arrived on the scene. Armed with the most amazing creative

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-82677443733760716722009-06-12T18:53:00.009+01:002009-06-14T10:59:53.024+01:00

Recently encountering the Japanese concept of "The tall Poppy" (something or someone that needs to be cut down to size for no other reason than it stands out) it reminded me of my own early years. Growing up to be 6'1" in a nation of vertically challenged Celts, I was introduced to the children's game they called "The bigger they are; the harder they fall". On the whole I did not find it as

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-75295177640338559442009-04-01T16:28:00.004+01:002009-04-01T17:57:46.354+01:00

It's nice in the groove; you know where you are going. There's a comfortable inevitability about a groove that suits the soul. No need to plan, no need to panic; the future is laid out for you, further down the groove (and not much you can do about it).So what's your groove? A taste in music; Certain food; A certain man/woman; A life-style; A warm bath; Being British (Chose your own preferences

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-74731128758051219202009-03-06T13:15:00.008Z2009-03-06T15:14:42.596Z

It is now more than 40 yrs since I left school to become an Electronic Engineer. The guy across the road enticed me into his house to see his kit ... he was a Radio Ham and the magic and mystery of radio was entrancing. How did you make and receive this invisible stuff, and how could you use it to convey messages to similar secretive people lurking in their darkened bedrooms around the world? So

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-67691783362368453222009-02-04T15:59:00.006Z2009-02-04T18:23:55.477Z

Caught in the headlights of recent events, Governments are revealed naked huddling together for warmth; flustering and blustering, and trying to make us look away again. But whilst they have our attention it may be worth looking a little closer ... What exactly are they? What do they do and what should they do? On the face of it, these questions ought to be answered quite easily, but search the

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-38909219064981724542008-12-17T18:24:00.008Z2008-12-29T22:59:58.134Z

The year end was also approaching when the learned travellers met. Each had gifts of great value, so the company set forth on a journey. A star was born; and the three wise men followed it.History tells of their success ... The need was strong, their mission was pure, their roles were clear, and their trust was complete. Duly, the first customer looked upon their fruit and saw it was good. So

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-14201466344286223162008-11-07T23:37:00.004Z2008-12-15T00:13:39.555Z

I apologise to my regular readers as due to the sudden death of my mother, there is no regular November musing, just a brief epitaph ...My Mother (Kathleen Phillips) pictured in 2006 ...My Mother and Father (Douglas Lloyd Phillips) pictured on their Wedding Day in 1946 ...Mr Douglas Lloyd Phillips : 12 Nov 1919 to 6 Mar 1978Mrs Kathleen Phillips: 18 Jul 1922 to 27 Oct 2008Just gone on ahead ...

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-91415824801878429712008-10-14T10:31:00.007+01:002008-12-06T19:54:30.525Z

By the time it gets to half way through the month, I've got to recognise that this missive has blown its schedule ... I apologise to my regular readers, but normal service will be resumed in November.True to form, the financial crisis was holding its breath till I took my belated and ill planned vacation. So my lone 100ml back-packing sojourn from South to North Devon [1] across two major Moors

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-79722407050647887552008-09-01T12:02:00.023+01:002008-09-01T16:35:15.692+01:00

As a junior designer it all seemed straightforward ; I was putting a few hundred logic gates onto a chip to make a more compact/cost effective implementation of an electronic product. I remember it needed a A0 sheet of paper, a logic template and it always took 3 months [1]. But now I come to think about it, I suppose I was actually designing the circuit for the whole product, just putting

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-69826677854104237042008-08-01T01:17:00.010+01:002008-08-16T11:38:36.588+01:00

Our senses of sound, light, touch, smell, time and heat are our interfaces to the world; Life in all its psychedelic excess pours into us through them. Yet though we think of our nose as smelling, our eyes seeing and our ears hearing (etc), in reality they are just interface devices (I/O) converting physical phenomena into nerve-signals; it is inside our brains where these concepts are actually

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-84739659608370692112008-07-01T10:03:00.009+01:002008-07-01T10:41:46.216+01:00

One positive thing that you can say about Politicians is that they are natures survivors. It is a very sophisticated skill to always end up on the winning team, and to appear to have scored the winning goal. As early politicians would attest, those who got it wrong frequently made a swift exit from the gene pool; and in so doing reinforced the strong genetic line for the professionals of today.

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-4994499288601943672008-06-02T14:00:00.011+01:002008-06-03T12:07:14.387+01:00

Once upon a time, a long time ago, a beautiful Princess lived in delightful castle at the top of a sumptuous green, flower dappled hill. The soft perfumed air was filled with the restful sound of water burbling over stones. The deer and rabbits played together happily in the sun spangled glades in the nearby forest. She sat at the window; and as she sat she combing her long beautiful hair and

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-3227853950634057162008-05-01T08:00:00.007+01:002008-05-02T14:52:09.453+01:00

It must be a couple of thousand years since the Ancient Greeks outlined the Grand Challenge to changing Base-Metal into Gold. Not a guiding vision of high ideals to improve dentistry; the motive was unquestionably monetary! They had noted the similarity between lead and gold, and reasoned that gold might be what happens when you mix lead with 'something' ... the alternative of course was less

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-25393935710695357652008-04-02T11:19:00.020+01:002008-05-06T11:12:56.582+01:00

Between our ears are such wondrous things, I thinks we should all be as happy as kings. We ought to know more about the human brain than we do, but in any real sense we know practically nothing. It is after all the most sophisticated 'machine' in existence and it is hardly scarce, with more than 6 billion on the planet today working away 24/7/52/65 (ish) ... yet the vast majority remain

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32107884741593786.post-47051479059690784242008-03-01T01:00:00.020Z2008-05-07T10:19:53.051+01:00

It happened with a certain inevitability. I was strap-hanging on the tube in London when a young lady offered me her seat! Puzzled, I scrolled though the options in an instant; I wasn't pregnant, nor disabled? She was very pretty (but obviously deranged), so I thanked her kindly and declined ... one day when I am old I might be grateful of a similar offer!Getting home I looked in the mirror. That

Ian Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12771034207246661146noreply@blogger.com0