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Tech Smorgasbord Archives - 25
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Forbes just released their new list of business and career friendly cities.
Des Moines, the leader, has a cost of doing business that is 15% below the national
average. 33% of adults there have college degrees and 92% a HS diploma. Median home
price is just $149k. Not far away in Cedar Rapids are
RFMD, Skyworks,
Rockwell Collins, and other electronics companies. Notice that
most of the best locations are in "flyover country."
| 1 |
Des Moines, IA |
Canton, OH |
| 2 |
Provo, UT |
Youngstown, OH |
| 3 |
Raleigh, NC |
Stockton, CA |
| 4 |
Fort Collins, CO |
Detroit, MI |
| 5 |
Lincoln, NE |
Utica, NY |
| 6 |
Denver, CO |
Salinas, CA |
| 7 |
Omaha, NE |
Flint, MI |
| 8 |
Huntsville, AL |
Modesto, CA |
| 9 |
Lexington, KY |
Vallejo, CA |
| 10 |
Austin, TX |
Merced, CA |
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5-13-2010
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| We encounter many company names on a daily basis, but usually do not give a
lot of thought to the origins of those names. Since the advent of the Internet,
a lot company names were constructed as a phonetic variation of the original spelling
in order to allow a unique domain name to be procured; e.g.,
3Gmetalworx and
Fotofab. Others are a form of "portmanteau,"
which is a combination of two words to create a new word.
Anatech (analog technology)
is a good example there. Sometimes the name has a meaning of personal importance
to the founder like with Adobe, which named after Adobe Creek running behind the
house of co-founder John Warnock (not after a clay brick hut). Here is a more
extensive list of tech companies I have compiled. |
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4-15-2010
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(source:
CNNTech)
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 A while back
I posted an article titled "Science in Music" that pointed out examples of where themes of
scientific topics either completely dominated songs or were a significant part of
them. CNN just posted a story titled The Top 10 Geek Anthems that covers
the same sort of thing. It includes such songs as Thomas Dolby's 1982 Top 40 hit
"She Blinded Me with Science," Jonathan Coulton's "Code Monkey," and M.C. Frontalot's
2005 "Nerdcore Rising." M.C. Frontalot... Jonathan Coulton? Who are they? |
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3-18-2010
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(source:
Popular
Science)
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 We are used to thinking in terms of electric and electromagnetic
fields for communications (NFC and radio, respectively). However, neither of those
media are very efficient at penetrating dense earth, rock and metal, such as with
collapsed buildings and mines. Even sites with LF emergency radio systems suffer
from slow data transfer that restricts use to simple text messages.
Ferro Solutions is developing a system that
transmits voice signals with magnetic waves which travel through solid matter more
easily than does RF. A composite that melds piezoelectric material with a magnetostrictive
metal (which changes shape when it's exposed to a magnetic field) is used on both
the Tx and Rx ends. |
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5-20-2010
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As with most other forms of manufacturing in the U.S., the share of passive
components made here is dwindling significantly. Crippling regulations make it nearly
impossible to compete with countries like China that put its economy's - and thereby
is citizens' - well being ahead of the whims of special interest groups. Of course,
those special interest people are happy to consume the products made in those other
countries. Total overall dollar value decrease is due to price erosion, not decreased
usage.
| Passive Component Consumption $B US |
| |
07 |
08 |
09 |
10 |
11 |
| SEA |
10.8 |
12.8 |
11.3 |
11.6 |
12.2 |
| Jp |
3.97 |
4.08 |
3.67 |
3.30 |
3.17 |
| Eu |
3.95 |
3.95 |
2.55 |
2.08 |
2.39 |
| Am |
3.30 |
3.12 |
2.16 |
1.89 |
2.19 |
| Tot |
22.0 |
24.0 |
19.6 |
18.9 |
19.9 |
SEA = Southeast Asia,Jp = Japan, Eu = Europe, Am = Americas & ROW
Tot = Total |
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4-22-2010
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U.S. companies are falling wayyyy behind in patent awards for electronics. The
the highest one - Microvision - ranks #13. Japan's Hitachi has the #1 slot. Japan
also owns #3, #4, #5, and #6. Oh, and #13, #16, #17, #19, and #20. Get the picture?
The report covers many industries other than electronics, like aerospace, telecom
services, semiconductor manufacturing, and computer systems.
| Electronics Patents |
| Rank |
Company |
| 1 |
Hitachi |
| 2 |
Hon Hai Precision |
| 3 |
Sony |
| 4 |
Casio |
| 5 |
Panasonic |
| 6 |
Kyocera |
| 7 |
LG Electronics |
| 8 |
Sharp |
| 9 |
Samsung |
| 10 |
TDK |
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3-25-2010
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 Maybe
you missed this news. I did. On April 1st of this year, British online retailer
GameStation added this
clause in the Terms of Use for all purchases: "By placing an order ..., you agree
to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your
immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your
immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of
receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised
minions..." 88% signed w/o reading it. Lawyers(like the green guy)
will likely cite this as cause for invalidating any online agreement. |
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5-27-2010
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 Unless you visit the Dilbert.com website regularly, you might have
missed these couple comic strips dealing with the lost & found 4G iPhone. Per
Dilbert creator Scott Adams, "I found this story too delicious to resist, but I
worried that the story would become stale before my comics would work through the
pipeline. I think the soonest I can get something published is in about a month.
I drew two comics while considering my options." Adams figures it would be June
18th before they ran in their normal position... So here now, exclusively for you
blog readers, the totally unfinished first drafts of those comics. You will never
see these in newspapers." You're welcome. |
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4-29-2010
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 Radar
detectors are marketed not as an enabler to speeders, but as a tool to remind motorists
that they are unintentionally exceeding the posted limit. Right. Now this GPS signal
jammer is being sold as a means for protecting your privacy (whereabouts) in vehicles
equipped with GPS reporting systems. Maybe. Whatever the intended end use, they
are being used by auto thieves to prevent law enforcement from exploiting the capability
of the likes of OnStar from tracking and even shutting down the vehicle. GPS signals
are highly vulnerable and easily jammed - even the differential GPS signals used
for landing commercial airliners. |
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4-1-2010
| Top 20 Defense Contractors in 2010
(source:
Defense Systems) |
| Since the 1980s, defense contractors have been under increasingly extreme pressure
to deliver top-notch systems under conditions where employees - particularly salaried
ones like engineers - are pressed to the edge of human tolerance in terms of budgets
and demands on personal time. It is only the love of the work that keep many mission
critical people in the game, and I am thankful for them. These companies are at
the top of a list of 100. See the report for details.
| 1 |
Lockheed Martin |
| 2 |
Northrop Grumman |
| 3 |
Boeing |
| 4 |
Raytheon |
| 5 |
General Dynamics |
| 6 |
KBR (who?) |
| 7 |
SAIC |
| 8 |
L-3 Communications |
| 9 |
Computer Sciences |
| 10 |
ITT |
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6-3-2010
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| CareerRookie.com and Apartments.com have printed the results of their third
annual "Top 10 Best Cities for Recent College Graduates" survey. A primary consideration
was the cost of living like the price for a 1-BR apartment, but it also included
culture and lifestyle amenities for personal development. Tip from RF Cafe: Consider
income tax-free states like AK, FL, NH, NV, TN, TX, WA & WY.
| 1. Atlanta |
$723 |
| 2. Phoenix |
$669 |
| 3. Denver |
$779 |
| 4. Dallas |
$740 |
| 5. Boston |
$$1,275 |
| 6. Philadelphia |
$938 |
| 7. New York |
$1,366 |
| 8. Cincinnati |
$613 |
| 9. Baltimore |
$1,041 |
| 10. Los Angeles |
$1,319 |
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5-6-2010
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 It is a good
thing government programs are so well designed and implemented that the opportunity
for fraud is miniscule. Surely this "air cleaner," a space heater with a feather
duster strapped to it, is a rare exception. After all, it took a full 11 days to
get it approved and listed on the
Energy Star website. It qualifies for a tax refund. Oh, wait,
there are a lot more. How about a gasoline-powered alarm clock, non-existent computers
and appliances, and much more - all approved post-haste compliments of the EPA.
These extreme examples were part of a test by the GAO and illustrate the ease with
which fraud is committed. Real cases are not given... there probably aren't any,
right? Right. |
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4-8-2010
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"