I probably watched more television than I should have as a teenager. Studying for better
grades would have been a much better use of my time. However, having had a bent toward things scientific
from my early days, even now there are certain episodes of the TV shows that stick out in my mind. A
while back I wrote about an episode of the 1970s television sitcom "Barney Miller," where Detective
Sargent Arthur Dietrich, the show's subtle and wryly humorous braniac, encounters a college student's
working model of an atomic bomb.
While working at RF Micro
Devices (now known as Qorvo)
on a project to improve the ESD ruggedness of our RFICs, I had to do a number of presentations on progress
over a span of about two years. I desperately searched online for this episode of Welcome Back Kotter
titled "Sweathog Clinic for the Cure of Smoking." It was not available at the time, but did show up
for a short time sometime around 2008. Then, it disappeared and was not available again anywhere until
a few months ago when a DVD set for the Welcome Back, Kotter television series went on sale at Amazon.com. I quickly
snatched a copy (~$85) and produced this clip. It's hilarious!
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools"
in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide
me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing
my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet)
was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity.
Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line,
and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...
