Semiconductors

I can hear thunder in the distance and the wind gets up from time to time but still there is not rain. I tell myself that I can almost smell rain and dust, but it may simply be my imagination longing for a nice spring downpour.
I called a guy about an estimate for a tin roof last week. I'm not sure if it currently fits in our budget, but you never know until you ask. You have put then intention out there. Once you intend for something to take place, the universe begins to send things you way to make it happen for you.
On another subject, I listened to a story by Tom Wolfe about Bob Noyce, one of the founders and the brains behind Intel. He came from a small town in Iowa and attended Grinnell College there. By a fortuitous chain of events, he was one of the first people to consider the power and uses for the solid state transistor which was invented by scientists working at Bell Labs - John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley.
Bob Noyce and several other start engineers worked for Shockley who left Bell Labs to pursue a career in semiconductors, but Shockley's style of management didn't suit Noyce and some of the other star engineers so they set out on their own and the results of what they accomplished touches almost every corner of the world and almost all area of life including transportation, agriculture, medicine, and many other fields. I won't bore you with the details, but anyone having an interest in the genealogy of Silicon Valley should have a look at the biography of Robert Noyce.
I've almost gotten my new computer up to speed now and I hope to complete that work tonight.
I hope I can finish it to the sound of rain on my roof.