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Book draft 2017 Jan 7
I’ll be releasing an updated version of the Applied Electronics for Bioengineers text on LeanPub today. I’ll probably raise the minimum price next week, to reflect the improved quality, but I’ll give...
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Thermistor lab graded
I just spent my entire weekend grading 37 design reports for the thermistor lab—it has not been a fun weekend. The coming week or two will be grading hell, as I have homework due for the 72-person...
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More writing advice from the electronics course
I spent the entire long Presidents’ Day weekend grading and still did not clear my backlog (the cold I’ve had for the past two weeks has really reduced my ability to work long hours). I did get a...
View ArticleSpike in views on Monday
I had double my normal readership on Monday 18 Sept 2017, which surprised me as I had not put out any posts recently. I checked the statistics and found that the bump was mainly from one post:...
View ArticleStarting new quarter
Tomorrow the new quarter starts, and I hardly feel like I’ve had a break—I was grading continuously through Monday, working on my book through Friday, and setting up Canvas with all the assignments...
View ArticleBook progress
I’m on sabbatical this fall, working on my textbook. I hope to have the next edition out on LeanPub in early December, at which time I will raise the price by 20% (from $10 suggested, $5 minimum to...
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Redrawing figure in SVG
There is a figure in my book of the cross-section of a power nFET. Originally, I used a figure from wikimedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_MOSFET#/media/File:Vdmos_cross_section_en.svg, but I...
View ArticleNote that
I’ve been making pretty good progress on my book: I have only 9 to-do notes left in the margins of the book (and one of those is in the solution set, not the book itself). I had well over 100 such...
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New book cover draft
I did a slight redesign of the cover of my book with the tentative new title. I’m not a graphics designer, so all I’ve come up with is a rather generic book cover: Tentative new book cover I’m open to...
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New book cover draft 2
Based on comments by gflint, I tried changing the colorway for my new cover: new blue cover The new colorway looks a little less generic, but it is still a boring cover. I’m still looking for...
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Another book cover design
A former student (a Danish exchange student) sent me an SVG file with a couple of book cover designs. I liked them better than what I came up with, but found them a little too grey (like some of the...
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New book cover draft 4
My best book cover design so far (Another book cover design) was based on a design by a former student. My son suggested that the schematic diagram was too wimpy, and that I should make it more...
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New book cover draft 5
Here are some tweaks to the book cover, based on blog-reader comments from New book cover draft 4: BEFORE: What people were commenting on AFTER: I fixed the spacing in the title, italicized the...
View ArticleProgress on editing book
I got all the to-do notes removed from the book by Thanksgiving and started doing the global editing: sweep through the index—standardizing entries, adding new ones, making sure that entries pointed to...
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New book cover draft 6
Here are some tweaks to the book cover, based on blog-reader comments from New book cover draft 5: This newest draft uses subscripts for the schematic labels and has the schematic slightly further to...
View ArticleSlow progress on editing book
On Nov 25, I listed the global editing left to do (except for the first step, which was done): sweep through the index—standardizing entries, adding new ones, making sure that entries pointed to all...
View ArticleI may be self-publishing forever
Sigh, just as I’m finishing my textbook, I find out that publishers don’t want new textbooks. I did have one feeler from Springer, whose book prices are high and royalties low, and they wanted me to...
View ArticleLatest book release
I released the new version of the book today, with all my edits from the summer and fall. I’ve also raised the minimum price (to $5.99 from $4.99). Anyone who bought the book or used a free coupon in...
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Textbook on sale
My textbook is part of LeanPub’s special holiday sale. For the rest of 2018, you can get it for only $4.99 (instead of the usual $5.99) with the coupon...
View ArticleBook is done (for now anyway)
I released the final version of the book today, with all my edits from the summer and fall. No more edits are expected until summer 2019—unless a big error is found that I need to correct quickly....
View ArticlePromote Your Book Party!
I am participating in January Promote Your Book Party! – charles french words reading and writing announced as follows: With 2019 well underway, I thought it was a good time to have the next Promote...
View ArticleMore typos than expected
When I released my textbook in December, I offered 25¢ for each typo or other mistake found in the book. I expected, based on how much material was new, to have about 50 typos in the book. My students...
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Why do I write?
O Why Do You Write? Charles French asks I have a question for all you out there who write, and that includes writers of books, poetry, plays, nonfiction, and blogs. If I left out any kind of writing,...
View ArticleBook progress update
At the beginning of the summer, I set myself the goal to clear the 161 to-do notes from the draft of my book by the first of December, which meant doing about 1 a day. I kept up for quite a while, but...
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Applied Analog Electronics price increase coming soon
I’m about 3 days behind my original schedule, but I have now cleared all the to-do notes out of my draft of Applied Analog Electronics. It will be ready to release when I have run the 62 files through...
View Article$1000 royalties!
I’ve finally earned $1000 in royalties on my textbook! Thank you to all my purchasers—especially those who chose to pay more than the required minimum. Incidentally, the royalties come to a little...
View ArticleBook Done!
I’ve posted the latest version of the book—the first version I think of as really completed, so I’m calling it Edition 1.0. The book is available at https://leanpub.com/applied_analog_electronics/ now,...
View ArticleGrading done
I’ve finally finished my grading for Winter 2020. It took me longer than usual—about 2 hours per paper. Partly this was because I had some trouble focusing on work with all the COVID-19 news, partly...
View ArticleRecycled writing
I’ve been reading a lot of coronavirus coverage on the Associated Press, and I’m getting very tired of seeing the same paragraph buried somewhere in every article: For most people, the coronavirus...
View ArticleEdition 1.1 released today!
I finally released the new version of the textbook today! (https://leanpub.com/applied_analog_electronics). The book is only slightly longer than the previous edition: 659 pages 337 figures 14 tables...
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Last to-do note in book done
I’ve finally removed the last to-do note from the text book. This one was an explanation of the threshold voltage for FETs as the transition between the subthreshold conduction, where the on-resistance...
View ArticleNext book edition almost done
Eleven days ago, I said Now all I have to do for the next release of the book is do the standard final checks (page breaks, spell checks, and URL checks). This will probably take me another week. I...
View ArticleEdition 1.3 released today!
I finally released the new version of the textbook Applied Analog Electronics today at https://leanpub.com/applied_analog_electronics. The book is a little longer than the previous editions: Edition...
View ArticleContract signed with publisher!
I’ve just signed a contract with World Scientific Publishing to publish my Applied Analog Electronics textbook. They first contacted me on 2021 Oct 7 expressing an interest in the book, we met on Zoom...
View ArticleHelp needed with writing blurb
I need to write a draft blurb for my textbook as part of the “promotional questionnaire”, and that is something I’ve always been bad at. I’ve not been able to make the book sound as good as I think it...
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Which cover?
My publisher has sent me 3 mock-ups of the cover for the book. Which of them do you think will sell best? (I know which one I like best, I think, but that is less important than how well the book...
View ArticleChatGPT
Like many other people (particularly in academia), I’ve been playing a bit with the new large language model from OpenAI, ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/chat. This artificial-intelligence program...
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Book printed!
I just received yesterday (2023 June 13) the first 4 author copies from World Scientific Publishing of my Applied Analog Electronics textbook. My initial contact with World Scientific Publishing...
View ArticleAmazon site live!
The Amazon link for my Applied Analog Electronics textbook (https://www.amazon.com/Applied-Analog-Electronics-First-Course/dp/9811254966) just went live (2023 June 19). They are selling the hardback...
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Amazon site actual launch!
The Amazon link for my Applied Analog Electronics textbook (https://www.amazon.com/Applied-Analog-Electronics-First-Course/dp/9811254966) just went from pre-release sales to fully live (2023 August 8)....
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