EDITORIAL
Issue 4

By now you will have seen our different approach to presenting information. 
It's styled along the lines of efficiency and getting right-to-the point and comes from the author's years of handling components, designing circuits and teaching classes. 
One thing that escapes most students is the need for handling components and building circuits. 
They have the impression that reading and copying circuits will suffice in learning a new topic.  This may be satisfactory for many fields of learning but is not suited to electronics. 
In electronics, no circuit will perform if it is 99% operational. It must be 100% correct. Unless you strengthen your understanding to the stage of 100% you cannot expect complete success. 
That's where a hands-on approach comes in. You must carry out the steps of putting things together to experience the problems you will encounter.
There's a lot more to getting a circuit to work than connecting wires to components, or soldering parts onto a printed circuit board.
It's the recognising of components, soldering them quickly and correctly, checking for faults, eliminating solder-bridges and a host of other minor faults that creep in.   
These are the hidden skills that come with construction. 
We have made it as easy as possible for you to build things by providing kits for almost every project. 
It is reliant upon you to carry out the practical side of the course(s) so that your mark will be absolutely genuine.
You are now half-way through the first 6-months of some of the courses and you should be working towards the goal of getting at least two of the certificates that will be available at the mid-year point. 
These certificates were described in the Diploma animation and it's always pleasing to display certificates of success.
Two more things to look forward to at the end of the 6-month period are:
1. The first book for TALKING ELECTRONICS Interactive in the form of TALKING ELECTRONICS Interactive Notebook 1. This is a printed version of all the web pages we have presented. It will be over 200 pages in large-format and give you a hard-copy of all the material. 
2. This will also be available on CD.
 Undoubtedly you will want both formats as the CD provides all the animations and links that have been such a feature of the web-site and the book provides the speed and efficiency of the printed page.
It will be the cheapest and best electronics course on the market, so keep up with the articles and we will have more information on the release-date in a month or so.

For now,
Colin Mitchell
Editor - TALKING ELECTRONICS Interactive