"Mike" <nomtrxspam@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:itc8t35vreosomtdm44c9imm592o90q5q0@4ax.com...
There are 37 million persons classified as poor in America.
Of that 37 million:
43% own their own homes.

That is a rather surprising number to me.

The average poor person in America has more living space than the
average non poor person in the major cities of Europe.

This has more to do with the amount of land available in the U.S. (and how
long the U.S. has been "settled" by Europeans for) than income, I think.

80% of poor households have air conditioning.

Yeah, but due to technology buying an air conditioner is cheap today. You can
find small window units for well under $100 used, and I've even seen plenty of
people give them away on, e.g., freecycle.com. On the other hand, if you're
living in a place like Arizona *running* the air conditioner is pretty hard
for the poor... although perhaps not that much worse than paying for heating
in, e.g., Minnesota during winter...

Almost 3/4 of poor household own a car.

31% of them have 2 or more cars.

This too reflects a bit more about the size of the U.S. and the price of
gasoline (still less than half of what most Europeans pay) than income: We
don't have particularly good inter-city public transport in the U.S. and only
the largest cities have anything approaching "full coverage" by busses and/or
trains. Hence a car is a pretty high priority, even if you're poor... and
hey, if you lose your home, it does serve as a place to live as many poor
people are all too well aware.

97% of poor households have color televisions.

Over 1/2 have 2 or more color TVs.

78% have a VCR or DVD player.

Again, due to technology all these items are pretty dirt cheap today. You can
easily find, e.g., 25" color TVs for, say, $20 at garage sales as
morel-well-heeled people are upgrading to huge plasma or LCD TVs.

62% have cable or satellite TV.

That one has always surprised me a bit, I guess because cable or satellite TV
don't seem like particularly good value for the money if you're short on
money... although it has been pointed out to me that ~$40/mo for "expanded
basic" that you can plop your kids in front of and keep them out of your hair
all day is a lot cheaper than childcare.

89% own microwave ovens.

50% have a stereo.

Also dirt cheap used.

Over 2/3 have an automatic dishwasher.

Probably not one they bought themselves but rather one that came with the home
or apartment. (AFAIK, pretty much all new apartments in the past 20+ years
have dishwashers...)

All in all, I'd have to say that our poor are doing pretty well.
I doubt that we or you folks in the UK have anymore than a
handfull of people who know real poverty.

The biggest problems for the poor in the U.S. seem to be health care
(completely unaffordable if you're working at close to minimum wage) and the
fear that, if your car does die, you won't be able to afford to fix it or get
another one and this will prevent you from working which then gets you kicked
out of your home for failure to pay rent or mortgage. Childcare is another
biggy if you're a single parent. (A single parent with young children who has
nothing better than a high-school diploma has a *very* deep "hole" to get out
of in this country!)

---Joel

You obviously haven't been near an emergency room in a while. The poor
use the E/R as their health care. They come in for all reasons, and pay
absolutely nothing for their care and prescriptions (given as samples).

It is now hard to get emergency care at the E/R's in Maryland.

I don't think I'd blame the poor for bad triage? Every ER I've been to
(granted, not that many -- fortuntaely!) had a triage nurse who spend about

one minute with you sizing you how bad off you really were, and priotized
your

On Mar 10, 10:27 am, Leon <leon...@btinternet.com> wrote:





On 9 Mar, 22:55, Marra <cresswellave...@talktalk.net> wrote:

My software seems to have numerous checks.

1/ Clearance check.
2/ Continuity check.
3/ Integrity check which compares PCB and schematic.
4/ Unconnected pin checks.
5/ Single ended nets warnings.

If a PCBCAD package has one or more of these missing you could end up
with an expensive mess !

Your software seems to be pretty good at generating a mess, judging by
the schematic on your web site.

Leon

I have at least 2000 buyers who dont agree !
I rarely get asked for help on the helpline so it must be intuitive
and the manual holds up.
Most comments are along the line of "A huge piece of software for very
little money"

The customer is always right !- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

"Mike" <nomtrxspam@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:itc8t35vreosomtdm44c9imm592o90q5q0@4ax.com...
There are 37 million persons classified as poor in America.
Of that 37 million:
43% own their own homes.

That is a rather surprising number to me.

The average poor person in America has more living space than the
average non poor person in the major cities of Europe.

This has more to do with the amount of land available in the U.S. (and how
long the U.S. has been "settled" by Europeans for) than income, I think.

80% of poor households have air conditioning.

Yeah, but due to technology buying an air conditioner is cheap today. You
can find small window units for well under $100 used, and I've even seen
plenty of people give them away on, e.g., freecycle.com. On the other
hand, if you're living in a place like Arizona *running* the air
conditioner is pretty hard for the poor... although perhaps not that much
worse than paying for heating in, e.g., Minnesota during winter...

Almost 3/4 of poor household own a car.
31% of them have 2 or more cars.

This too reflects a bit more about the size of the U.S. and the price of
gasoline (still less than half of what most Europeans pay) than income: We
don't have particularly good inter-city public transport in the U.S. and
only the largest cities have anything approaching "full coverage" by
busses and/or trains. Hence a car is a pretty high priority, even if
you're poor... and hey, if you lose your home, it does serve as a place to
live as many poor people are all too well aware.

97% of poor households have color televisions.
Over 1/2 have 2 or more color TVs.
78% have a VCR or DVD player.

Again, due to technology all these items are pretty dirt cheap today. You
can easily find, e.g., 25" color TVs for, say, $20 at garage sales as
morel-well-heeled people are upgrading to huge plasma or LCD TVs.

62% have cable or satellite TV.

That one has always surprised me a bit, I guess because cable or satellite
TV don't seem like particularly good value for the money if you're short
on money... although it has been pointed out to me that ~$40/mo for
"expanded basic" that you can plop your kids in front of and keep them out
of your hair all day is a lot cheaper than childcare.

89% own microwave ovens.
50% have a stereo.

Also dirt cheap used.

Over 2/3 have an automatic dishwasher.

Probably not one they bought themselves but rather one that came with the
home or apartment. (AFAIK, pretty much all new apartments in the past 20+
years have dishwashers...)

All in all, I'd have to say that our poor are doing pretty well.
I doubt that we or you folks in the UK have anymore than a
handfull of people who know real poverty.

The biggest problems for the poor in the U.S. seem to be health care
(completely unaffordable if you're working at close to minimum wage) and
the fear that, if your car does die, you won't be able to afford to fix it
or get another one and this will prevent you from working which then gets
you kicked out of your home for failure to pay rent or mortgage.
Childcare is another biggy if you're a single parent. (A single parent
with young children who has nothing better than a high-school diploma has
a *very* deep "hole" to get out of in this country!)

---Joel

On Sat, 8 Mar 2008 09:50:58 -0800 (PST), billcalley
billcalley@yahoo.com> wrote:



Protel/Altium will certainly let you delete track segments, or even
whole tracks, without deleting the net - DRC will report the net as
unrouted or partially routed. It will also let you delete components
(but you can "undo" the deletion if you realize your error in time).

I'm not sure what DRC will do if you delete all pins and track
segments related to a net - I'd hope it would still report it as
unrouted. However, I never consider a board "finished", until the
program reports "no changes" when updating the board from the
schematic, and there are no unexplained DRC errors remaining
(occasionally, a design will have strange things that are reported as
DRC errors, but that I know are what I want.)

If you delete a component from the PCB, the "update from schematics"
step will restore it.


--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

I have seen that stat list previously, highly suspect. My first suspicion is
that very few homeless or down & out people fill out census forms.

Hey Leon,

"Leon" <leon...@btinternet.com> wrote in message

news:dde3974a-f6d3-4cf5-bd6d-7c9c51af07c1@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

I've used Pulsonix for years, it is infinitely easier to use than
Autotrax, and gets the job done very easily and quickly. It's a
comprehensive professional package, which definitely isn't the case
with Autotrax.

As a Pulsonix beta tester, do you have access to Easy-PC as well? Perhaps you
could write up a comparison between Easy-PC and Pulsonix one of these days?
Pulsonix is of course a little spendy for most hobbyists, yet I'm quite
curious (and I'm sure others are too) what all you're giving up by taking that
"step down" to Easy-PC... and for that matter what you gain: From the brochue
athttp://www.pcb-sw.com/uploaded/files/Version%2011%20Details.pdf, the
"Design Calculators" appear to be a feature that Pulsonix doesn't have.

Hi Leon,

"Leon" <leon...@btinternet.com> wrote in message

news:5590dc66-95cc-40cf-9955-3e64431b12a9@e39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

I think that their general policy is to keep the products as distinct
as possible, with Easy-PC intended for the hobbyist and educational
market and Pulsonix serving the needs of the professional PCB
designer.

The standard gameplan in the U.S. then, would be to be handing out Easy-PC to
universities for free or almost free to get the students "hooked," making sure
they're aware that the "professional" version of the software is Pulsonix so
that's what they should be purchasing when they begin working professionally
and have some capital to blow. :-)

Pulsonix has *lots* of stuff that will
probably never be in Easy-PC like paired-track routing and microwave
track mitering.

Yeah, but if you're doing serious microwave work you're going to be using ADS,
Microwave Office, etc. anyway and then importing the Gerber output back into
Pulsonix as one complete "stamp."

---Joe

On Mar 10, 3:27 pm, Marra <cresswellave...@talktalk.net> wrote:





On Mar 10, 10:27 am, Leon <leon...@btinternet.com> wrote:

On 9 Mar, 22:55, Marra <cresswellave...@talktalk.net> wrote:

My software seems to have numerous checks.

1/ Clearance check.
2/ Continuity check.
3/ Integrity check which compares PCB and schematic.
4/ Unconnected pin checks.
5/ Single ended nets warnings.

If a PCBCAD package has one or more of these missing you could end up
with an expensive mess !

Your software seems to be pretty good at generating a mess, judging by
the schematic on your web site.

Leon

I have at least 2000 buyers who dont agree !
I rarely get asked for help on the helpline so it must be intuitive
and the manual holds up.
Most comments are along the line of "A huge piece of software for very
little money"

The customer is always right !- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

    Oh, common Marra -- just put some bloody screenshots up on your
web site to show people, at the very least, as to what your software
*looks* like!!!  If PCBCAD at least *looks* good, you'd sell ten times
more product (whether it functioned well is another matter entirely --
in fact, that's why most other companies have a thing called a
"demo").  For heaven's sake, you programmed an entire piece of complex
software; is it so damn hard to take some clear screenshots???  And,
as I said, people get REALLY turned off and worried if you cannot even
put up a presentable web site; these potential customers then, quite
sensibly, wonder just how your software will look, and function, if
they purchase it -- no matter how low the price.  Come on, this stuff
I'm saying is basic -- it's not marketing rocket science!!

-Bill- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

On 11 Mar, 17:11, "Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgro...@yahoo.com> wrote:





Hi Leon,

"Leon" <leon...@btinternet.com> wrote in message

news:5590dc66-95cc-40cf-9955-3e64431b12a9@e39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

I think that their general policy is to keep the products as distinct
as possible, with Easy-PC intended for the hobbyist and educational
market and Pulsonix serving the needs of the professional PCB
designer.

The standard gameplan in the U.S. then, would be to be handing out Easy-PC to
universities for free or almost free to get the students "hooked," making sure
they're aware that the "professional" version of the software is Pulsonix so
that's what they should be purchasing when they begin working professionally
and have some capital to blow. :-)

Pulsonix has *lots* of stuff that will
probably never be in Easy-PC like paired-track routing and microwave
track mitering.

Yeah, but if you're doing serious microwave work you're going to be using ADS,
Microwave Office, etc. anyway and then importing the Gerber output back into
Pulsonix as one complete "stamp."

---Joe

It's still very useful for a lot of users that don't need to get to
grips with those sort of packages, and are just designing a simple
circuit.

Leon- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I think that their general policy is to keep the products as distinct
as possible, with Easy-PC intended for the hobbyist and educational
market and Pulsonix serving the needs of the professional PCB
designer.

Pulsonix has *lots* of stuff that will
probably never be in Easy-PC like paired-track routing and microwave
track mitering.

On Mar 11, 4:46 am, billcalley <billcal...@yahoo.com> wrote:



On Mar 10, 3:27 pm, Marra <cresswellave...@talktalk.net> wrote:

On Mar 10, 10:27 am, Leon <leon...@btinternet.com> wrote:

On 9 Mar, 22:55, Marra <cresswellave...@talktalk.net> wrote:

My software seems to have numerous checks.

1/ Clearance check.
2/ Continuity check.
3/ Integrity check which compares PCB and schematic.
4/ Unconnected pin checks.
5/ Single ended nets warnings.

If a PCBCAD package has one or more of these missing you could end up
with an expensive mess !

Your software seems to be pretty good at generating a mess, judging by
the schematic on your web site.

Leon

I have at least 2000 buyers who dont agree !
I rarely get asked for help on the helpline so it must be intuitive
and the manual holds up.
Most comments are along the line of "A huge piece of software for very
little money"

The customer is always right !- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Oh, common Marra -- just put some bloody screenshots up on your
web site to show people, at the very least, as to what your software
*looks* like!!! If PCBCAD at least *looks* good, you'd sell ten times
more product (whether it functioned well is another matter entirely --
in fact, that's why most other companies have a thing called a
"demo"). For heaven's sake, you programmed an entire piece of complex
software; is it so damn hard to take some clear screenshots??? And,
as I said, people get REALLY turned off and worried if you cannot even
put up a presentable web site; these potential customers then, quite
sensibly, wonder just how your software will look, and function, if
they purchase it -- no matter how low the price. Come on, this stuff
I'm saying is basic -- it's not marketing rocket science!!

-Bill- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I have updated the website and got rid of the obsolete products.
There are a few shots now.