Little Cities

One of today's tasks has been to find a replacement circuit board for one of our engineers out on site in Hamburg and I've got the faulty one sitting on my desk.

No matter how many circuit boards I've seen over the years they always remind me of miniature cities with buildings and roads laid out before me.

This was made even more real to me when on a visit to lab in Japan, one of the test technicians allowed me to watch as he used a very powerful scope to inspect a board for damage. As he manipulated the lens back and forth it was just as if we were driving up a city street with tracks in front and components on either side until we hit a huge crater caused by a tiny spark of static electricity discharge.

By the way, asking price for the replacement board new .............$8,500 USD

On a lighter note I did enjoy the following article, especially if like me you're a fan of The West Wing;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-38991728

Have a good weekend blippers :-)))