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Forbes' 2011 Listof World's
Billionaires
 Forbes just published their annual list of
the world's billionaires (1,140 of them). It has not changed much at
the top. Here are the high tech winners. Mexico's telecom magnate Carlos Slim remains
king of the hill with $74B, while Bill Gates plays second fiddle. Warren Buffet
takes slot #3. #5 is Oracle's Larry Ellison. Googles wonderboys share #24. Amazon's
Jeff Bezos is #30. India's Wipro software guy Azim Premji sits at #36. Michael Dell:
#46; Steve Ballmer: #38. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg ranks #52, but soon he might
drop to sharing somewhere around #150 if a lawsuit by alleged co-founder
Paul Ceglia is successful. Malaysia's telecom giant
Ananda Krishnan owns slot #93. The Wal-Mart Waltons occupy #10, 20, 21, and 22,
323, 409 (importing everything from China is good business). Un-PC
Alert: Bill and Warren have given away a lot of their wealth the last couple years,
which affected their rankings. Maybe Mr. Slim should offer some of his wealth to
fellow countrymen to return from their illegal residences in the U.S., then let
us see how he fares.
4-14-2011
2010-11 Best Colleges
for Big Paychecks
 PayScale.com released the results of its survey
of college statistics for 2011. It covers topics like which school averaged t he
highest beginning salaries, best salaries by degree type, and most popular career
choices. Harvey Mudd College always seems to come out tops for pay (#1 this year,
too), and I'm not sure why since I had never heard of Harvey Mudd College prior
to reading these surveys. HMC calls itself a Liberal Arts school, but it does offer
a BS in Engineering degree. Anyone out there who is an HMC alum and wants to enlighten
me about why such a degree is worth more than, say, an EE degree from MIT, please
write. Beginning salary (bs): $68.9k, mid-career (mc): $126k. Runner up was Princeton:
bs $58.9k, mc $123k. Harvard: bs $57.3k, mc $121k. CIT: bs $69.9k, mc $120k. MIT:
bs $68.3k, mc $119k. More
here. OK, so which degree is pulling down top dollars (yen, euros,
etc.)? The top 7 are in engineering, with Petroleum at #1, bs $93.0k, mc $157k.
Aerospace: bs 59.4k, mc $108k. Electrical is #3 at bs $60.8k, mc $104k. Physics
#8 at bs $50.7k, mc $99.6k. More
here.
3-17-2011
America's 25 Fastest-
Growing Tech Companies
Forbes just released is list of the 25 fastest-growing companies
in America. I personally have never heard of most of them, but evidently the right
people have. Here are what appear to be the top electronics type companies.
1 First Solar (semiconductors)
2 Neutral Tandem (telephone comms)
3 Riverbed Technology (data
processing) 4 Illumina (analytical
instruments) 5 Cavium Networks
(semiconductors) 7 Rackspace Hosting
(Internet software) 16 Apple Computer
(hardware/software) 17 Google
(Internet services) 19 Red Hat
(Software) 25 Dolby Laboratories
(motion pic/audio) 2-17-2011
The UnemployedNeed
Not Apply?
 Until recently,
I believed that given the extended depressed condition of the job market that employers
were sympathetic to the plight of its innocent victims (not all are innocent).
Surely a hiring manager or human resources staffer would not shun an otherwise qualified
candidate simply because he has not had any luck in securing a new position within
a few months of having been laid off. That is probably the way you see it too, right?
Wrong. As it turns out, there is no mercy being shown. According to articles widely
available on business websites and magazines, the prevailing attitude is that this
is an employer's dream scenario because the market is flush with highly qualified
prospects (read stories
here,
here,
here,
here, and
here). This is not new; it
happened as recently as the late 1980s / early 1990s. The difference this time is
that employers now are able to exploit people's willingness to expose everything
about their personal lives on social media websites like Facebook to vet for risky
traits. Even without being "friended" there are ways to dig into posted content
for revealing facts about you. That has had a huge impact on many of the unemployed's
attempts to find new work. The situation is so dire that there are now services
like Socioclean available
for helping to assimilate all the locatable references to you on the Internet and
help scrub the party animal or radical activist reputation you have been so erstwhile
proud of.
4-21-2011
2011 CamaroAntenna
Solution
 I have often said that some of the most capable
and enthusiastic engineers and technicians - and even managers - I have worked with
in my 30-something year electronics career have been amateur radio operators. They
are the rare few who are able to combine a hobby passion with a profession that
pays for the hobby... kind of like the airline pilot who flies model airplanes or
the druggie who works at a pharmacy. Oh, wait, scratch that last example.
Here we see a video from Chevrolet where two engineers, one of them a Ham, took
up the challenge to replace the AM/FM whip antenna originally planned for the 2011
Camaro convertible with a blended, inconspicuous antenna. Leaked photos of the prototype
car showed the whip, which caused Camaro aficionados to descend upon Chevy requesting
its removal. The flexible, folding rear window prevented an embedded solution as
is the norm for many cars. The ultimate solution? Embed the antenna in the spoiler.
<more>
3-24-2011
IMS2011 StudentCompetition
- Prizes!
 Each year student technical paper and design
contests are held as part of the MTT-S show. This year's categories include a
Student Paper Competition,
Student Design Competitions, and new this year a
Graduate Student Challenge. Eight separate circuit design areas
are available for selection -
Power Amp,
ASH Rx,
LNA,
Packaged Triplexer,
Wideband Balun,
SDR,
Optical-to-Microwave Converter, and Innovative Modeling Techniques. Winning any of these competitions
would be a shining star on anyone's resume.
Applied
Wave Research (AWR) will be sweetening the deal by giving away fully-functional,
one-year, personal-use licenses for
Microwave
Office and
Visual System Simulator to the top 3 winners / winning teams of
the
High-Efficiency Power Amplifier and
Wideband Balun competitions. The value of each package will be
worth as much as $10kUS... a nice bonus on top of gaining celebrity status!
2-24-2011
Say Goodbye to America's
Manned Space Transportation Program
 Space
Shuttle Endeavour (named after the ship of British Lt. James Cook)
lifts off for the last time tomorrow (April 29). Atlantis flies next
month, marking the end of the USA's manned space flight vehicle program for the
foreseeable future. Henceforth, we will be hitching rides on Chinese and Russian
craft that still land in the desert using parachutes.
Here are some stats on the Shuttle program.
Number of shuttles: 5 - Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour; expected
launches: 500; actual: 135; total flight time (as of Jan 2011): 1289
days; shuttles lost: 2 (Challenger, Columbia); total passengers: 836;
failure rate: 1:67.5; fuel consumption rate: 660,000 lbs/min solid, 45,000 gpm liquid
hydrogen; 17,000 gpm LOX; time to orbit: 8.5 min.; orbital speed: 17, 500 mph; touchdown
speed: 220 mph.
As with our oil drilling industry, politicians have chosen to trash our domestic
space transportation industry and send that money to countries that yearn for our
demise. We pass on cutting edge technology, lend money (which rarely gets
repaid), and even pay for the privilege <more>
4/28/2011
Unusual Units
 While reading through
the Old Farmer's Almanac, I saw an article on units of measure. It included examples
from nuclear physics like 1 barn = 10-28 m2 and 1 shed = 10-24.
The BB (as in BB gun) is 0.18 in. Ø because it is between a size B and a BBB lead
shot. A Garn is a level of space sickness adopted by NASA in honor of astronaut
Jake Garn's infamous episode in 1985. If you will be back in a jiffy, you had better
be fast, because 1 jiffy = 10 ms (1 cycle of a computer clock when it was
coined). 1 beard-second = 10 nm, about how much facial hair grows in one
second. A milliHelen [of Troy] is the amount of beauty needed to launch
just one ship. Don't forget the
Smoot unit
of length, which I recently covered, which equals 5 feet, 7 inches. In 1957, Mad
magazine issue #33 published an entirely new system "Potrzebie System of
Weights and Measures," where, for instance, 1 potrzebie = the thickness of Mad
issue #26. If you Google these units, there will likely be disagreement about some,
but who really cares?
3-31-2011
One Heck of An Issue
 For ten years I have been scanning all the
major engineering magazines each month for content that I think will particularly
benefit RF Cafe visitors. You see links to those articles frequently in the homepage
Recent Additions list, plus they are
archived for later reference. While looking through the February
2011 edition of MicroWaves & RF (anyone notice the new title style?)
two things greatly impressed me. First, nearly every article is worthy
of linking to because of the relevance to everyday circuit and systems designers.
Second, many RF Cafe advertisers have large ads for your edification. That goes
for both MicroWaves & RF and the
Defense
Electronics magazine insert. An interview with Analog Devices' Barrie Gilbert
(of Gilbert cell fame), articles on
Cellular Trends,
Understanding Dynamic Range,
Prevent PCB Problems in ISM-Band Designs, and
VCSO Technology Silences Synthesizers are among the many that will keep you
in rapt technical bliss. That doesn't even include the plethora of great Defense
Electronics articles. Don't be selfish -pass your copy on to a fellow engineer...
or at least leave it in Wally's "other" office.
3-3-2011
A Cornucopia of Secrets
 When I heard about the helicopter that went down during the raid
at the bin Laden compound, my first concern after the safety of the crew was that
now a high technology aircraft would be available to the enemy for inspection. Even
after learning that the craft was "blown in place," I was still worried that unless
some high temperature incendiary material like white phosphorous was used prior
to the explosion, the pieces remaining would be in-tack enough to glean useful info.
My worst fears were confirmed with the release of photos by
Reuters
(always sure to post images that could harm the U.S.) showing not just
this large section of the tail boom and rotor, but also smiling kids walking around
with scrounged parts of airframe and electronics gear. As an engineer who spent
many years tearing down other company's designs to figure out how they designed
and implemented leading edge circuits (and also checking for patent infringements),
I can tell you that a circuit or system does not have to be in full functioning
order to yield critical information. Material samples are now available for the
stealth skin composition, lamination and attachment methods, and facet angles. Super
quite airfoil and blade shape data is <more>
5-5-2011
UK's Best UFO Hoax
by Engineering Students
 Pranks by engineering students are a big part
of the legacy of some schools. Caltech students famously replaced the hillside Hollywood
sign their alma mater's name, and MIT students launch objects from beneath the AstroTurf
on the football field during games. Canadian engineering students dangled a VW Bug
from the Golden Gate bridge. That was all child's play compared to a 1967 hoax played
on all of England by Royal Aircraft Establishment engineering interns. UFO sightings
were at fever pitch. "The hoax caused panic among intelligence agents, senior police
officers and top-flight mandarins. And it put Britain on alert for a full-scale
interstellar invasion." The students constructed six oval flattened objects, 54"
long, 30" wide and 20" deep, molded from fiberglass and laced with artist's graphite
to give them an other-worldly sheen. Read the hilarious story, including how a policeman
was reprimanded for bringing one of the saucers to the station and risking contamination.
4-7-2011
AWG FAQ
 Do you ever find yourself using a common word
or saying, and then suddenly realizing that you have no idea of its meaning or origin,
even though you have used it often? Then, you ask if anyone else knows the etymology
and all you get is deer-in-the-headlights stares. Try this one in the lab later
today: How did the AWG (American Wire Gauge) system decide on wire sizes, and why
are smaller wire sizes given larger numbers?
Brown & Sharpe, a metrology tool
company founded in the mid 1800s, standardized wire diameters. They decreed that
No. 36 wire would have a diameter of 0.0050 inches, and No. 0000 ("4-ought") is
0.4600 inches in diameter. That leaves 40 wire sizes, with a diameter ratio between
largest and smallest of 92. Therefore, the geometric formula that governs in-between
wire sizes (in inches, for solid wire) is:
Conversely,
OK, so why do small wires have larger numbers? It is because smaller wire gauges
need to be drawn through the forming die a larger number of times.
3-10-2011
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