Soap Box:
There are practical limits to safety. I know this runs counter to everything
you have been told, but it is true. Take the case of passenger jet flight,
if they truly were interested in safety it would seem that rather than
providing you a seat cushion that floats, they would provide a
PARACHUTE Duhh...
They go even farther than that, try to smuggle a parachute on board a
passenger flight and see what happens when you go through X-ray, they just
don't seen to understand. In truth although most of us at first brush would
think that a parachute would be a reasonable precaution, even if you could
get to the door of a plane, jumping out of a plane traveling half the speed
of sound would flatten you like a bug against the tail section, probably
further damaging the plane, insuring even less control of an already crippled
aircraft.
People who use parachutes, and survive their first use, have received a lot
of training on how to exit the plane, and what to do after they are out.
Then there is the logistical problem of being the only person on the doomed
plane, with a parachute, standing at the door waiting for the proper time
to exit the plane. By the time you are ready to do so, you will have picked up
several hundred pounds of added weight in the form of frightened passengers.
Finally passenger jets are not designed to jump out of, nor have procedures
been written that pilots would have to be trained to execute in the event of
a mishap, that would allow passengers to depart such a crippled plane while
in flight. Parachutes are an example of a safety precaution that actually
increases the risk to passengers.
In my heart of hearts, I honestly believe I will save more lives, than
I kill. Writing a book, the author has to wait for the next edition to print
revised safety information, a web page offers me an opportunity they simply
cannot ever attain. I can make revisions as soon as an error comes to light.
I assure you that safety information, tempered by the reality that I want
the web page to actually teach electronics, will be given proper attention.
The risk is still, and will always be yours, I cannot be responsible for
your mistakes, and I will not cater to every "goodie two shoes" self
appointed safety expert that would make any kind of experiment involving
electricity impossible. They will kill more people than I do, by preventing
information about reasonable safety precautions from reaching the hands of
fledgling electrical engineers. To paint with the broad brush of
just say no never worked, and never will. Sooner or later
those who are curious, will always experiment, this is simply human nature,
by providing factual, and reasoned, guidelines, that still allow the
experiment to be performed, I not only teach electronics, but I save more
lives than I kill.