The Best of Backscatter from Today’s Engineer – Volume 2

Only 99 Cents for Members – Until 21 August

By Sharon C. Richardson

The second volume in The Best of Backscatter series by Donald Christiansen are essays that were first published as columns in IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer Online,and exerpted in the print IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer Digest. Written in an Andy Rooney-type style, this collection of essays is fun, humorous and thought provoking.

About his essays, Christiansen wrote that his reward is in the feedback he gets from readers — “often extensions of an argument, sometimes disagreements, occasional compliments… It’s disappointing to write something and get no feedback.”

A former editor and publisher of IEEE Spectrum, an independent consultant, and an IEEE Fellow, Christiansen has written hundreds of essays, articles, editorials and columns over the years that are related to the engineering profession.

Topics in The Best of Backscatter from IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer- Volume 2 include: "All in a Day’s Work," an article Christiansen wrote in response to a question a high school senior asked him about a day in the life of an engineer. His response, had he thought of it at the time, he wrote, “would have been to suggest Tracy Kidder’s book, The Soul of a New Machine, which describes the trials and tribulations of an engineer.” In this essay, Christiansen writes a synopsis of that book.

"Black on Black Design," Christiansen writes, “is a metaphor I use to cover a variety of befuddling design shortcomings at the interface between otherwise sophisticated equipment and the user.” One design shortcoming he writes about is black knobs and buttons with washed out grey lettering that make it hard to read what they are supposed to be used for.

In the article, "Picking a Winner," Christiansen writes that “deciding which technologies will be successful, and how and when they will be incorporated into commercially viable products is a daunting challenge.” He includes such subtopics as Forecasting Flaws and The Tipping Phenomenon.

"The Hat Trick: Having It Both Ways" is about choices consumers have to make when purchasing the latest technology and the lack of existing compatibility. “If Ma Bell and W.K. Kellogg were still in charge, selections could be quickly made: “I’ll take the black phone and a box of corn flakes”, Christiansen writes, “But as you all know, we can spend hours walking through aisles of phones, DVD machines and iPods looking for the perfect one.”

In the article, "Credit Where Due," Christiansen writes “assigning credit to one individual for a particular technical development is harder than it used to be” Much of the difficulty is due to the fact that most work is now done by teams. He also shares his thoughts on the importance of publishing and changing times.

"Ephemera for Engineers and Scientists" is about missing information on the World Wide Web. He writes about articles that have URLs listed for references that are no longer active. “A study team from three major magazines reported that 3.8 percent of Internet references were inactive three months after journal publication, 10 percent after 15 months, and 13 after 27 months,” Christiansen writes.

The Collyers and the Web is about information overload, “discardophobia,” Christiansen writes, a syndrome that many of us suffer from today. In this article, he writes about information addiction, what to do, and help that is needed.

In the article, "About That MBA," Christiansen writes about the engineers who have earned MBAs atop of their baccalaureate or master’s degrees in engineering. And whether that makes good sense depends on who you speak with. “Engineers who intend to follow a research career path may disagree with the idea, believing that time spent in further education might better be devoted for specialty studies in a technical area,” Christiansen writes.

"Getting on Prime Time – Mission Impossible?" In this article Christiansen writes about the possibility of a television show about engineers. What kind of show would it be — comedy, scientific, biographical? Would it mimic Star Wars; Back to the Future; MacGuyver? “Most writers perceive engineers as out of the social main stream, and understandably, they have little idea what we do,” Christiansen writes. Viewers are enticed using characters who have direct contact with the public, like doctors and lawyers.

Christiansen writes about the disharmony between engineers and marketing people in "Irreconcilable Differences?" He notes that “sometimes the relationship between engineering and marketing becomes downright adversarial and, no surprise, counterproductive.”

On the article "Engineers – Mere Mercenaries?," Christiansen cited several cases where engineers and engineering schools are undertaking projects that employ technology for the public good, often on a volunteer basis.

The last article in the book, "Ghosts," is about places that engineers have worked that no longer exist. Christiansen reflects that “somehow we ought to be able to preserve more of our engineering heritage.”

As mentioned in the beginning of this article, Christiansen welcomes your thoughts and comments.

You can purchase your copy of The Best of Backscatter from Today’s Engineer – Volume 2 at www.ieeeusa.org/communications/ebooks. Until 21 August, the special price for IEEE Members is 99 cents. After 21 August , the IEEE Member price is $4.95; Non-Member price is $19.95.

Ideas for New E-Books

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