Jose Espinosa

As some of you know I am not only a digital marketeer, but also a musician. Very early in my musical career I developed a refined taste for valve amplifiers. As a young struggling musician in the San Francisco Bay Area I had what you might call "champaign tastes on a beer budget". My first ever gear love was for a Fender Bassman 135. My double bass sounded fantastic through this magical piece of equipment... right until the capacitors exploded. On stage. 

The very next day I took the amplifier to a few guitar techs who would gladly fix it, for the equivalent of a weeks wages. OUCH. It was at that point my punk-rock attitude kicked in and I decided I would fix it myself. It couldn't be that hard, right? Wrong.

Turns out that if your want to learn modern electronics there is a treasure trove of information available to help. If you want to learn Valve (or vacuum tube) electronics, not so much. What started out on that cold, foggy San Francisco day as an effort to simply fix an amplifier has led to a lifelong love of working with valve electronics. I remember clearly it took me about 2 months to teach myself how to properly solder, read a schematic, then read a valve electronics schematic, then how to do basic troubleshooting, then how actually replace the capacitors and resistors that blew on my amp. It was hard but I loved that I could do it.

I've moved on a bit since then. I've completely restored at least 6 guitar amplifiers bought cheaply and in non-working order on ebay (A 50s fender bassman, a fender champ, 2 fender twins, my original 135 that I still own, and a ampeg rocket bass 100). i've also built 4 different valve hi-fi amplifiers from schematic only, and restored (again from non-working completely knackered condition) my current hifi rig of 2 mackintosh mc30 mono amplifiers, and a what used to be my garage audio system, The Fisher SA-100. I've even designed my own analog echo pedal (using the classic Panasonic MN3005) and much to my surprise it works and sounds great.

What brings all this to mind is that I've decided to try and pass on this love of electronics to my two sons. I've been spending the better part of the last 3 months putting together a syllabus so that I can teach them in a structured way. The first step was to form the core knowledge base:

How To Service Your Own Tube Amp by Tom Mitchell
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Service-Your-Own-Tube/dp/0962817007
This is actually the book I started with. It does a good job of teaching the beginner basic electronics and valve troubleshooting. Contains some reference charts for common amplifiers and valves. Excellent for beginners, but doesn't go into much electrical theory (see Art of Electronics for that). I'll probably start my sons on this book.

The Tube Amp Book by Aspen Pitman
http://www.amazon.com/Tube-Amp-Book-Revised-Hardcover/dp/0879307676/ref=sr_1_...
This is written by Aspen Pitman, who if memory serves me correctly founded Groove Tubes. Its a fairly nice and handy book. Gives some history on guitar amplifiers, provides some background on amplifier circuits and gives a good heaping helping of schematics for valve guitar amplifiers. Its a bit of jack of all trades master of none, but this between this book and my first recommendation I was able to repair my Bassman 135. Again, for the beginner but also handy as a reference.

RCA Receiving Tube Manual
http://www.amazon.com/Rca-Receiving-Tube-Manual/dp/9995135582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=U...
Simply a must for anyone working with Valves. This actually taught me the most about how valves (electron tubes) work, the parts of a valve, valve applications and installations. Covers some nice theory in the beginning, and the has reference material for a large number of valves. Unfortunately its out of print, but you should be able to find a copy online or on ebay.

The Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz Winfield Hill
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957
Forget anything else this is the book to teach you a solid, fundamental foundation in electronics. Its written from the point of a circuit designer and covers both analog and digital methods. For those afraid of maths it treads fairly lightly on them, but working with electronics maths can not be completely avoided. This book will teach you everything you need to know about troubleshooting electronics. HIGHLY recommended.

General Electric Essential Characteristics
http://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/books/B-377
You are not going to learn anything from this book as it doesn't cover teaching electronics at all. This is purely reference for the components you will find in most 40s-early 70s electronics. Indespensible when troubleshooting or designing your own electronics.

One other book that I found indispensable when I was learning was the Electronics Technician 3 Training Course Manuals by the US navy. It showed me basic, applicable testing of equipment, components and how to use test equipment. My 1963 copy has long since deteriorated into dust, and I have been trying to find another copy for the last 5 years. If you run across one buy it and keep it as I have yet to find another book that is so simply straightforward.

Look to future posts for the rest of the electronics course I will be taking my sons through. 

 

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You can now find me on technorati. YAMZCJ496ZZV

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One of the top contributors to the death of the newspaper is Really Simple Syndication (RSS). RSS allows a site/blog/media source to syndicate its content, well really simply. What this means is that people with feed catchers such as google reader, can get a nice simple and clean feed of the sites updated content without (usually) ads and other chrome that distract from the news item. 

I primarily use RSS to catch up with a variety of topics all throughout the day. I'll grab my iphone and quickly skim the headlines from my favorite sources. It's what helps me be the alpha geek that I am! 

Here is my top RSS feeds of the moment: 

The Knight Science Journalism Tracker | http://ksjtracker.mit.edu/ 

This site publishes scientific papers, news items and general academia. Sometimes it's emerging science, sometimes it's a new view on old science, and sometimes its just a news story that might have a scientific slant. Whatever it is, its covered with a few that I think is unique to MIT. Always informative, sometime boring but always worth reading 

The Consumerist | http://consumerist.com/ 

This one is primarily for the Americans - its a site dedicated to consumers. Everything from morning deals to how to Email Executive Carpet Bomb (EECB) your favourite corporation to help you get the customer service you deserve. I first heard of the Dominos booger pizza fiasco here, as well as the first discussion of the Toyota recall. 

Engadget | http://www.engadget.com/ 

Gadgets, Gizmos and technology. This is consistently one of my favorite blogs. Being a big fat geek, I am naturally drawn to gadgets and this site provides some of the best info on them around. The commenters on this site are generally pretty good, with a low troll to opinion content. 

Valleywag | http://valleywag.gawker.com/ 

This is the OK magazine of the silicon valley. Treats Web 2.0 people like celebrities and gives you all the salacious gossip a geek could want. Part of the Gawker Network 

Gizmodo | http://gizmodo.com/ 

The gawker networks version of Engadget. Covers mostly the same stuff, but usually has a humours slant. Warning: the commenting on this site tends towards troll territories. Still well worth a read for any gadget lover. 

io9 | http://io9.com/ 

There is geeks and there is nerds. This one is for the nerd in all of us. It covers science fiction and fantasy - comics, books, movies and tv shows. Probably the best blog of its sorts. Part of the Gawker network. 

Kotaku | http://kotaku.com/ 

Part of being a big fat geek is also being a gamer. This is hands down my favourite video game blog. Excellent coverage and fequently scopes the competition. In general it has a very high journalism standard. Famous for being one of the few blogs to stand up to Sony and its draconian blog practices. Also part of the Gawker network. 

Lifehacker | http://lifehacker.com/ 

In general the hacker mentality is to take something common and make it better. This blog is all about giving you little lifehacks to make your life better - everything from software, hardware and homemade. I've been following this blog ever since I first discovered RSS. 

Online Marketing Blog | http://www.toprankblog.com/ 

The name says it all. A blog for the digital marketeers out there. The blog isnt as active as some of my other feeds, but the coverage is always quality and always seems relevant. 

Read Write Web | http://www.readwriteweb.com/ 

Another blog relevant to the digital professionals out there. Covers many of the same things the Online Marketing Blog does, but is more active and even more relevant to the digital marketeers out there. 

Slash dot | http://slashdot.org/ 

News for nerds. Stuff that matters. I LOVE this site. Covers everything from science to technology to polics to anything else a big fat geek would want to read about. It also has the best user commentary around. Back when 9/11 happened this was the only online media source I could find with breaking coverage. For that alone this site will always have a place in my feed catcher. A must read. 

Wired | http://wired.com 

A little glitzy, a little too magazine style for me generally, but it seems to be the most above the line popular magazine of its type. I generally skim the articles then go look for better coverage on one of my other sites. Warning this feed only gives you a summary, then makes you visit the site for more. 

Thats my A-list for RSS. Hope you found something in that list you will like!

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Or "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" 

 

I admit it - Im a data junkie. I love statistics, and have been known to pull over in heavy rush hour traffic to review an infographic. The subtle beauty of quantitive information communicated in the printed form whilst conveying complex statistical data hold allures for any man surely? 

It is with that innate love of the infographic that I often review and re-read one of my all time favourite books - "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Edward R. Tufte. My love affair with this book started when I was a eCommerce Programme Manager for a well known consultancy house. My business unit manager at that time took pity on my sorry attempts to visualise web traffic data for our clients. A quite word and an amazon order later I was able to significantly increase the quality of my data graphics. 

Although Tuft has little in common with storytellers such as Stephen King or Walter Mosely he does help you to be a better story teller through data. The book is set on a few simple premises - Keep it simple, show the truth and Graphics should reveal data. Words to live by! 

Although the book is primarily about how to display data - it does offer insight (by way of reverse psychology) on interpreting data. The insight on how the viewer is easily misled will help inform you from being misled by data. Once you have read this book some of the simple things we marketeers deal with everyday become more clear - everything from google analytics to the latest user metrics on facebook. Even better, it will help you translate those metrics to something that is effective (and truth filled) for your audience. 

In closing I would like to second something an anonymous Amazon commenter says: "No professional or technologist can afford not to read Tufte's work". Truth indeed. 

Visual Display of Quantitative Information 

Author: Edward R. Tufte 

Publisher: Graphics Press [1992] 

ISBN: 0-9613921-0-X

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OK I admit it - I had a personal search problem. You see my given name, Jose Espinosa, is very very common among Hispanics. It's almost like being named John Smith. There are millions of Jose Espinosas in  real life, and on the web. Even worse there is that infamous Jose Espinosa who engineered a jail brake and was a wanted fugitive. The  relative commonness of my name, combined with the newsworthy nature of the the other Jose Espinosa's jail brake meant that when friends, family and clients Googled me they didn't find me.

As a digital marketing professional I found that unacceptable. I have  a very active digital lifestyle and regularly use social sites such as myspace, twitter, facebook, Linkedin, etc., but none of that was contributing to my goal to own my namespace.

*Google To the Rescue*

Back in December google added a whole new set of search functionality to bring you "the real time web" ( http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/relevance-meets-real-time-web.html ). What this means is that it is starting to crawl sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, and showing the results mixed in with "normal" search  results. Suddenly my digital lifestyle started contributing to my quest to own my namespace. I watched as I went from appearing on page 18 of search results for my name to 6, then finally page one (position 2 thank you!). Now as the most "vocal" of the Jose Espinosa's on the web Google has ranked my twitter site higher. Hooray!

Phase one compelte I decided I needed another page to gather my online activities in one place. After searching the web for something I could set up quickly and at low cost I decided to use http://flavors.me as my social network aggregator. I had a personal website up, running and linked to my joseespinosa.com domain within minutes. This further added to my ownership of my namespace and that page is now currently
setting at #8 on page one!

So now when friends, family or clients google me, they find me easily and have some good information on my background, interests and activities rather than an endless list of Jose's that may or may not be me.

UPDATE: Since posting this yesterday my twitter feed is now ranked #1 for the search term Jose Espinosa. Victory at last!

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