In the Works...

I've just been notified by Michael that he had received the proof copy, but owing to tight work schedules, he might not be able to come back soon on the review. He did say he'll try his best to squeeze out some time to do it, though. Well, as the Chinese saying goes: everything is in place, what we lack now is the east wind...

Anyway, to keep my readers' anticipation going, here's another two sample pages from Chapter 7 on  the JTAG-RE technique:

Enjoy the read!

Are We There Yet...?

The latest update on the delivery status by DHL:

The way I see it, there's no way it's gonna be delivered by end of the day on November 15. Looks like I'll only get a response from Michael Dunn sometime next week, at the very least. Well, as they say: better late than never.

21 and Counting...

To date, my blog has slightly over 2400 hits since it started on February this year. Not a big deal really going by the numbers. On the other hand, unique readership has jumped to over 20 countries in just a month and this is quite encouraging, though.

Hopefully, there'll be more awareness of this blog created after Michael Dunn review and publicize my book on EDN online. As of now, the courier DHL is still in delivery orbit for who knows how long. If this is the best they can do for priority shipping, I can't imagine what it's like for standard:

Notice there's no update since last Friday till today. Over here, we used to joke that DHL stands for 'Deliver Halfway Lost'. Let's hope it is not going to happen now, not at this critical juncture... 

Preface to My New Book

Just been informed that the delivery of the proof copy has been delayed on the courier's side, for whatever reason. Urrgh...! Looks like the wait's not over yet. Anyway, to fill the void, here's the Preface to my new book for your reading pleasure:

Note:

As readers might have notice that I've recently placed a new gadget Visitors with Flags of their countries at the right hand bottom column of the blog. Currently, USA is leading in unique readership with Singapore (surprisingly) coming in at second place. Google's Blogger statistics listed some other countries but they did not get registered by the flag counter. Probably the numbers predated the app installation.

It'll certainly be interesting to see which countries have the most engineers interested in this niche subject of PCB-RE, though...

Content at a Glance

Frequent visitors of my blog will already have a foretaste of the various sample pages of my upcoming book, PCB-RE:Tools & Techniques. The completed book now stands at 368 pages with seven main contributors taking up about 40% of the content, and the remaining 60% contributed by me. For a sneak preview, here's the table of content:

There are a total of three sections and an appendices:

The first section introduces the fundamentals of PCB-RE and also an expanded treatment of the manual approach for digital, analog, mixed-signals and power supplies, less the Microsoft Visio stuff in my first book. The second section focuses on the various tools and techniques used by the PCB-RE industry, and the third section provides interesting and useful resources such as DIY projects, short write-ups on PCB-RE related freewares, as well as more information on PCB-RE equipment and their vendors.

There are five appendices, each serving different purposes with relevant materials and references that should give the PCB-RE topic a run for your time and money, if you expend the effort to go through them.

There are plenty of nice photos and top quality illustrations, interspersed with rich, juicy footnotes and some fun anecdotes (as usual).

Well, hopefully you're all geared up to get a copy when it is released in probably two weeks' time or less.

Latest News

The first draft of the book is finally completed, after a grilling six months of writing, drawing, liaising, collating and editing works. For a book of this magnitude in terms of field scopes and authorship, it is inevitable that challenges and setbacks abound every now and then. Thankfully, there are kind and like-minded people among the contributors to nudge me on, and given me the support when I needed it.

Now that I have the content sorted out and the book cover updated and improved, I've registered and gotten the ISBN number for publishing:

It won't hit the store just yet, until I get Michael Dunn to go through the proof copy and pen the Foreword. Moreover, ScanCAD International's fantastic staff will also be meticulously reviewing through and sifting out typos and grammatical errors. I'm grateful for the strong support and belief both Bill Loving (CEO) and Jeff Rupert exhibited towards my work since they came on board and contributed an invaluable chapter, in fact the largest among the contributors.

There's much to be thankful for, as well as anticipation, much like the birth-pangs experience by any woman with child——a mixed feeling of anxiety and joy. It's been a long wait for those who're following my blog, but I can confidently assure you that it will be worth it.

Stay tune and keep watching... and please help spread the word too! Thanks.