AVR-Chat

> People these days tend to forget The Bad Old Days when most every IC was
> super sensitive to static discharge during handling. They are still
> sensitive but not anything nearly as bad as they once were when one
> could almost zap gates with ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception, just by
> thinking).

Yes.. Many of the little details are getting lost. The interesting
failure mode of most three terminal regulators, how to properly select
a crystal and it's caps for a micro, proper PCB layout..

> There is/was an Atmel appnote on building an electric power meter where
> 240 VAC was connected directly to an input pin through a 1 or 10 megohm
> resistor, stating the protection diode was safe up to 1 mA. And then the
> appnote went to lengths disavowing the safety ...

YIKES!   I suppose if the circuit were entirely within a
non-conductive enclosure, and the user had NO way to touch it at
all...

Engineering IS the art of compromise, but sometimes you do wonder what
the hell they were thinking.