Change of Plan

Readers who're following my blog are aware that I am in the process of writing my third book on the subject of PCB-RE, a sort of trilogy to the two books I've written.

In the process of drafting the chapters outline, I decided that a book that solely focuses on my own PCB-RE experience is not adequate to give an overall feel to the practical aspect of this niche skillset. Therefore, it is in the interest of the readers that I should again invite practicing engineers to share their personal journeys.

I have just sent out invites to five engineers which I feel have the right combination based on the works they had done. I have also notify Marc Hickling of ENA Electronics Inc. of my intention to include a case study from their side of the story as well, and received a positive reply. There is still room for 2-3 more so if there are readers out there interested to showcase their PCB-RE works, don't miss out on this opportunity: drop me a note in this post!

Looking to hear from you soon...

Goodreads @ Google

While Googling 'PCB reverse engineering', the following ad turned up right beside the search results:

Quite a nice surprise to see my book and name appearing. Hopefully, engineers who are looking for this subject will find something helpful and informative through what I shared, both in the printed pages as well as my online blog!

Trilogy - Foreword & Preface

Was overcome with the urge to write, so I sat down in front of my PC and gave some thought on the Preface for the trilogy. After about two hours...

...and that's only the first half.

As for the Foreword, well... in response to a request from a reader who left a comment on my post Trilogy to PCB-RE dated March 16, I have reserved it for Amir Pasalic, CEO of ENA Electronics Inc. When the third book is firmed, I will write to him. Hopefully, he will be kind enough to pen the words...

Case Studies in Musing...

While organizing the materials for my third book on PCB-RE, I revisited the archives for the second book and found a rare gem. There was one chapter that I had initially intended to include but had to lay aside because two of the contributors were not available. I had done some preparation work on that chapter and it would be a pity if I leave it half-baked. Here's a glimpse of two sample pages:

If the trilogy works out, readers will get to see three other real world examples showcased in brief in one chapter. It is too early to set a date as to when the third book will see the light of day. If interests in the PCB-RE topic picks up (as indicated by the sales of the two books), I might consider setting aside more time to work on it.

For now, I will have to attend to other priorities, though...

Windows 10 BSOD on Cold Boot

Lately my desktop PC has been plagued with the dreaded BSOD (blue screen of death) problem on cold boot up with random reported issues. It would, however, go away upon restart and functions well for the rest of the time.

I suspected that it could be due to the new RAMs that I installed previously not too long ago. After researching online, I was more or less certain that some older motherboards could not reliably handle 8GB of memory or more. To confirm this fact, I removed two 2GB sticks and replaced with two 1GB modules, reducing the RAM to 6GB total. It was spot on! Now the PC boots up normally.

Looks like I'll have to be content with this configuration for now. On a positive note, the two extra 2GB sticks can serve as spares, just in case.

70 Countries and Counting...

As of today, my blog has hit 6,066 page views with readership spanning 70 countries:

Considering that I started posting just over a year ago, this is quite encouraging. I'm sure, however, that more can be achieved if existing readers and visitors do their part to help spread the word and share the link (visio-for-engineers.blogspot.com) to friends, forums and the engineering communities which they belong. It's a small favor to ask in return for the many hours of efforts put into writing the articles.

To those who have done so or will do so, I convey my heartfelt thanks.

Inside Cover Page (Trilogy)

Had some time off my busy schedules and commitments to take a breather, so decided to work on the inside cover page of the third book:

Reminds me of the 'for Dummies' series books with the same shaded page background for their inner cover pages. Haha, had wanted to do something like that for a long time...

ENA Electronics Laboratories

Among the readers who bought my books, there are quite a number who work in the PCB-RE industry. One example is Amir Pasalic, the CEO of ENA Electronics Laboratories in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Though his company's main business is in industrial electronics and servo motors, it is interesting to note that PCB repair and reverse engineering are two important services listed.

Readers who want to find out more can go over to the ENA website to better understand the PCB-RE process and other capabilities this company offer. Just click on the graphics above to get teleported to the destination.