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Comment by leeoniya | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if in 50 years only quantum physicists will truly understand how technology works. Perhaps the days of cheap tinkering with electronics are numbered, in the future requiring multi-million dollar quantum labs.

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This is how things have been in the physical science fields. Chemistry, biology, you name it--capital intensive.

The computing and theoretical fields (so long as they're non-experimental and require no more than simple simulations) are the exception to the rule rather than the rule itself.

Also, until a space is commoditized, working in it is expensive and time-comsuming.

Thirty years ago, the most advanced multi-million dollar laboratory in the world would not have been able to understand or tinker with the computer you're sat at currently.

I think it'll be more akin to the situation with through hole and SMD components. The former allowed one to tinker with PCBs with a simple soldering iron, while the latter require a reworking station no matter what you want to do.

Thankfully, these stations have dropped in price a lot - you can easily buy a good one for ~$200-300, which would allow you to repair your phone, modify your motherboard, resolder memory chips and whatnot...

I have a rework station but almost never use it for SMT. I find a good pair of tweezers and chip quik makes working SMT easy and fast.

http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/EROPAASA/EROPAASA-ND... http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/SMD4.5NL/SMD4.5NL-ND...

I've broken and overheated countless SMDs with tweezers - I guess my hands are too shaky for this kind of work :-)

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