We just completed the April issue, and as part of our 15th anniversary festivus, we're running articles from years gone by that retain a measure of timelessness to their content. This one, all about accuracy, was a notable venture. When we printed it in two parts in April and August 1999, we received more reader feedback about it than anything we had done in those first dozen or so issues.
Trouble is most of the letters pointed out a number of accuracy errors we had made, either in the copy or transposing formulae.
Famed controls expert Gene Shinksey wrote in part, "Technical publications these days seem to be unable to reproduce equations as well as they once did, which makes them less useful to readers as reference materials, and could be repsonsible for some miscalculations." He then included the correct equations with the comment: "As a test, see if you can publish these equations as written." Bela Liptak also scolded us, and the author wasn't happy with us either.
Needless to say, a little humbling made us better. A lot better.
Here's the web version to "Accuracy: Know What You're Getting."
