Black Hole

Career in electronics design in the defence and security industries, and latterly as a technical author. My self-selected role on the Forum is to filter and collate the information being generated in technical discussions, re-present it in a manner which (I hope) is more easily understood by the less technical, and direct new enquiries to it rather than have the same stuff repeated over and over again.

I am committed to the highest possible standards of accuracy (including error by omission), literacy, readability, and presentation. Written English is not the same as spoken English, it does not contain clues about the author's intent that are conveyed by intonation or body language, and the audience for written material is not present at the delivery to indicate a need for clarification. Consequently I believe it is vital that writing conforms to the best practices of spelling, grammar, and punctuation to minimise opportunities for misunderstanding, although it is not possible to eliminate them entirely.

Further, while it has become commonplace in modern life for people to represent opinion as fact (either deliberately for effect, or because such practice is now so widespread that it goes unnoticed), I endeavour to separate opinion from fact in anything that I write.

Points of information are welcome; in the event of any error or omission of fact in my writings, I want to know about it. Disagreements of opinion are also welcome and are the stuff of forum debate. Where I will not take kindly to criticism is when the critic has clearly not understood the precise use of language, or criticises but shows no commitment to similar standards.

PLEASE DO NOT make technical enquiries to me (or anyone else) through the Conversation (private message) system. The forum is a public resource of information to which we contribute in the knowledge that it will benefit the public. Enquiries posted and replied to in private do not contribute to the information pool, and any messages received which I deem to abuse these ethics will be deleted without reply. An enquiry posted on the forum receives the attention of many minds and will receive a collective opinion, and is not dependent on any one person being available to comment.