I don't know why I let it annoy me, but it does. I regularly
get emails requesting help (some in a very demanding tone) from
people who are apparently utterly clueless and incompetent.
They're almost always from India, Korea, or occasionally
somewhere else in South/East Asia or even more occasionally
Eastern Europe.

The emails always read something like this:

Hi, I am <name here>,

I am working on project using <X cpu or Y board>. I have
<doubts|problems|confusion>. Plz help me. Plz send me
<code|step-by-step-instructions> urgently.

No problem description at all. It's not "I'm trying to do X
with Y, and when I to Z here's what happens and heres what I
expected/wanted to happen". These people seem to have
absolutely no idea where to start or what to do.

They apparently google a processor type or OS name and find my
name. Today's example: I spent a few weeks about 5 years ago
playing with Linux on an Intel IXP425 eval board. I apparently
posted a question about JFFS somewhere. Now I get an email
from some guy in India that says "I am trying to use IXP425 and
have problem. Plz help me."

Are these some sort of weird internet-scam/phishing
expeditions, or are they really embedded systems engineers and
students who know absolutely nothing about embedded systems and
even less about how/where to get technical information and
help?

Some of them have state quite clearly that they are design
engineers who have been assigned a project by their employers,
and yet they appear to have absolutely no idea what to do. So,
they send e-mails to almost randomly selected strangers asking
for step-by-step instructions on how to do their work.

Sometimes I ignore them, sometime I send a link to ESR's "How
To Ask Questions The Smart Way" page. Maybe I should send them
a consulting quote at $150 an hour, pre-pay only, paypal
accepted.

There. I know that's not going to change anything, but I feel
better.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! I will SHAVE and
at buy JELL-O and bring my
visi.com MARRIAGE MANUAL!!

Grant Edwards wrote:

I think the worst ones are the same people who post the same stuff to
newsgroups, and who perhaps don't have a clue about the difference
between email and a newsgroup posting.

The best of them make me think, and I answer them. Often I'll suggest
that the correspondent post the question on a newsgroup so that _you_
can fill in any gaps where _I_ left stuff out...

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Posting from Google? See http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" gives you just what it says.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

As a matter of policy I no longer waste time answering such questions.
If I am in a particularly good mood I will send a one-liner saying
"post in comp.arch.embedded" - if it does appear there, I may or may
not answer.

larwe wrote:

I typically use a template with a polite answer that the cost of this
question is such and such.

VLV

On 2007-03-29, Tim Wescott <tim@seemywebsite.com> wrote:

I do also get detailed questions about topics where I have
particular knowledge. If it's something which is not likely to
be of interest to anybody else, I usually answer them. For
reasoably researched questions of more general interest I
usually suggest that they post to the appropriate usenet group
or mailing list (which is obviously where they found my name).

Of course private consultation is always available for a fee.

That's one of the reasons I prefer to answer questions in a
public forum -- if I'm wrong, someobody is there to correct me.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! I need to discuss
at BUY-BACK PROVISIONS
visi.com with at least six studio
SLEAZEBALLS!!

"Tim Wescott" <tim@seemywebsite.com> wrote in message
news:drCdnbUccfl_fpbbnZ2dnUVZ_sudnZ2d@web-ster.com...

I think what has to be said is that if they're meant to be engineers then
they will have that *spark* and *snap* to engineer.

Most of what I've learnt has taken years, of sometimes expense, and alot of
time. For the most part I'm self sufficient.

What maybe annoys me (and certainly has in the IT sector) is that I'm good.
Yes, I make mistakes now and then and have dropped a few clangers. Yet my
market, has become so highly competitive. And it's because of like this who
frankly know bugger all, yet have the mickey mouse paper qualifications.

They don't actually know anything. God knows what they would be doing with
their paper qualifications in the event of a nuclear war. They certainly
wouldn't be building RF transmitters and wind turbines from old car
alternators.

My view is that these OPs aren't engineers. And they shouldn't be either.
They're just a product of this easy-get-qualifications-quick world we live
in.

"Become an embedded software developer in 1-week, earn $$$'s."

Sod em. Unless they stand out, or their posts cover relatively sensible
topics which can't be researched in a matter of hours by searching. Sod em.

And I never thought I'd take that approach with people. But I'd be helping
them all the time; to get their 1-week qualifications. And with them
becoming competition.

Look at my mail address here. It's deliberate. Out of necessity.

*rambles* over.

Is this an accurate summarization of your question?:

What part of the human psyche thinks that it is acceptable to ask a total
stranger a vague question and expect an immediate detailed answer ?

I say we corner one, interrogate, and make'em cry.

Thomas

On Mar 29, 11:09 am, Grant Edwards <gra...@visi.com> wrote:
I'm glad you feel better. I know what you mean, I get them too. They
are not always quite so rude, but it can be odd that they write such
vague descriptions and often are asking for code!

Once I was asked rather politely about 1-wire driver code. I ended up
providing it just because I got tired of thinking that evey snippit of
code written needs to be considered a precious gem and every penny
needs to be extracted from it.

It is not infrequent that I reply to these messages with some amount
of help. But I try to distinguish the ones that seem to be looking
for someone to do their homework rather than actual requests for
help.

I am also on the other end of these requests at times. Of course I
normally do that here or in a Yahoo group, not by direct email. When
I am starting out in a new area, I like to get some helpful advice on
the best places to read rather than to just start reading data sheets
and searching groups. But I guess you would prefer that to direct
emails.

Right now I am trying to come up the learning curve on the ARM9/11
processors so that I know them as well as I know the ARM7 parts. Not
so much the details of the instruction sets, etc; but more about what
is out there and what they are good for. I may prepare an ARM9/11
compilation like the ARM7 MCU data I put up at www.gnuarm.com.

Grant Edwards wrote:

This is not the only group where clueless engineers
and/or students from India, China and neighboring
countries are asking us to do their homeworks /
study projects.

Is the tuition so bad that the students do not have
the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to
complete the tasks themselves?

I just wonder whether they understand what it means
for them after the studies. Maybe we can regard this
phenomenon as limiting the future competition from
those countries ...

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

On 2007-03-29, Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@INVALIDiki.fi> wrote:

I suppose there would be some level self-serving motivation to
actually do their homework for them so that they can graduate
without learning to do anything useful. Presumably they won't
be in the Engineering job market for long.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! Used staples are good
at with SOY SAUCE!
visi.com

"Grant Edwards" <grante@visi.com> skrev i meddelandet
news:130nllbd77cbhe2@corp.supernews.com...
I get most of such requests from the U.S ;-)
But they seems to be real engineers facing real troubles.
At least they mostly ask me questions for which I need to
understand the answer anyway.

--
Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
This is intended to be my personal opinion which may,
or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB

I am working on project using <AT91SAM9260 cpu on AT91SAM9260EK board>. I
have
<doubts|problems|confusion>. Error message below:
$ bash: /usr/local/arm/gnuarm-4.0.2/bin/arm-elf-gcc: cannot execute binary
file
Plz help me. Plz send me
<code|step-by-step-instructions> urgently on how to run Linux GNUARM on my
OpenSuse 10.1 system ;-)


--
Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
This is intended to be my personal opinion which may,
or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB

Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com> wrote:
Worse is when you get headhunters assuming you're passionately
interested in working in an area you mentioned in passing in one post
five years ago

The response then is usually *very* short.

pete
--
pete@fenelon.com "how many clever men have called the sun a fool?"

Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@invalidiki.fi> wrote:
Professor has set me halting problem solving. Plz 2 b helping. thx.

pete
--
pete@fenelon.com "how many clever men have called the sun a fool?"

On 2007-03-29, Ulf Samuelsson <ulf@a-t-m-e-l.com> wrote:

Hey, he included an error message, so that's an order-of
magnitude more specific that the e-mails I was talking about.

Again, how to run GNUARM (whatever that is) on an OpenSuse 10.1
system. A very specific, technical question. A question that
can be answered (even it's not quite in the right forum or
worded very politely).

The emails I'm talking about are more like:

I am to design a project using ARM processor. Please tell
me how to start. Send what steps I need to do.

And that's _it_.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! This ASEXUAL
at PIG really BOILS
visi.com my BLOOD... He's
so... so... URGENT!!

On Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:12:32 GMT, in comp.arch.embedded "Thomas Magma"
<somewhere@overtherainbow.com> wrote:

http://www.instructables.com/id/ETEQ8HYHEYEZ7BEWKP/


martin

On Thu, 29 Mar 2007 21:00:37 +0100, in comp.arch.embedded Pete Fenelon
<pete@stratos.fenelon.com> wrote:

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/7...rengsigen9.gif


martin

"Grant Edwards" <grante@visi.com> wrote in message
news:130nllbd77cbhe2@corp.supernews.com...
I find providing a little information the worst thing to do, once you start
spoon feeding then the emails come in faster.

My standard response to the question 'how I can get Linux on an 8051, plz
send me src code' when it is really 'urgent', and from somebody purporting
to have a 'masters in embedded engineering' is to reply saying that all the
answers you need are on one of the following two links:

http://www.amazon.com
http://www.google.com

Occasionally, if I type the same question that has been asked to me into
Google and the first link it comes up with is a direct and simple answer, I
simply shortcut the above and reply with the Google search URL and nothing
else. Its amazing how many masters of embedded engineering have no clue how
to use a search engine.

If I'm in a particularly bad mood, and the question is full of u r, and plz
and such I will write a full response but leave out all the vowels.

Having said that I am always happy to provide help to considered questions
where the author has made a bit of effort on their own first. We all have
to start somewhere, but please make an effort!

--
Regards,
Richard.

+ http://www.FreeRTOS.org
A free real time kernel for 8, 16 and 32bit systems.

+ http://www.SafeRTOS.com
An IEC 61508 compliant real time kernel for safety related systems.

"Grant Edwards" <grante@visi.com> skrev i meddelandet
news:130o6tveaona73f@corp.supernews.com...
Just couldn't resist ...

I remember:

I have been told by my manager I need to design a GSM/GPRS radio
basestation.
Anyone got any VHDL code they can share?



--
Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
This is intended to be my personal opinion which may,
or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB

Grant Edwards wrote:
A worthwhile rant. It's existance may avoid some of those clueless
incompetents. The worst are the idiots who cc the newsgroup and
you, combined with foolish geek speek abbreviations and
mispunctuation. Then they run it all into one massive paragraph
challenged blob.

--
Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
<http://cbfalconer.home.att.net>



--
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