"Factoids," "Kirt's Cogitations," and
"Tech Topics Smorgasbord"
are all manifestations of my rantings on various subjects relevant (usually) to
the overall RF Cafe theme. All may be accessed on these pages:
Draining cellphone batteries is a new sport by hackers. By usurping control of communications
channels that a cellphone uses for broadband data transfer, an attacker repeatedly awakens
a victim phone from its low-power mode. Verification tests were run on a Nokia 6620 phone
at UC Davis that were able to reduce a battery's lifetime from 156 hours to a mere 7 hours
from a fully-charged state. The process was carried out through two commercial networks without
triggering any intruder alarms.
Unemployed Electrical &
Electronics Engineers EE Times Research
2006
Year
Qty.
%
2005
6000
1.8
2004
18,000
2.4
2003
24,000
6.3
2002
16,000
3.8
2001
6,000
1.6
2000
6,000
1.4
Planned Retirement
Income Sources by Age Group IEEE-USA Research 2006
Source
Ages
%
IRA and/or 401(k)
18-34
65
35-49
57
50-64
41
65+
23
Pension
18-34
29
35-49
37
50-64
37
65+
38
Stocks and/or Mutual Funds
18-34
42
35-49
33
50-64
27
65+
33
Social Security
18-34
24
35-49
29
50-64
44
65+
60
Semiconductor Component
Spending by Country Microwaves & RF
Research 2005
Country
$109
%Mkt
U.S.
58.70
33.5
Japan
45.72
26.1
Taiwan
17.34
9.9
Germany
10.21
5.8
China
9.514
5.4
S. Korea
9.233
5.3
Others
14.1
September 2005
Internet Statistics Scientific
American Research 2006
Every Day of the
Month:
94 million people use the Internet
77% wrote/read e-mail
63% used search engines
46% read online news
29% did job-related research
18% instant messaged
18% banked online
5% booked travel
3% read blogs
3% participated in an auction
2005 EE Salaries
U.S., E.U., & India EE Times
Research 2006
Title
$US Mean
VP of Engr.
128,079
Tech. Director
119,127
Principal Engr.
109,962
Consultant
95,085
Group Leader
93,514
Sr. Engineer
91,903
Systems Engr.
86,596
Sr. Test Engr.
85,222
Project Engr.
80,124
Software Engr.
74,235
Design Engr.
71,659
Test Engr.
69,649
Perfect 2-Carat Man-Made
Diamonds
Perfect single-crystal diamonds
of more than two carats are churned out in a single day. The gemstones are created using a
process called chemical vapor deposition (CVD), which grows diamond crystals one carbon atom
at a time. CVD is the same technique used to process many semiconductor circuits.
Gallium is a byproduct of smelting aluminum and zinc, and is more rare
than gold. It, along with mercury, cesium, and rubidium, are the only metals which can be
liquid near room temperature.
Arsenic is a deadly poison that is made by heating composite minerals
in the absence of air.
Acting together in compound form, gallium arsenide (GaAs) has been the basis of the
personal communications revolution.
Amount of Greenhouse
Gases (CO2) Emitted by Household Appliance Use
Item
lbs/yr
Heating
6643
Air Conditioning
4566
Hot Water Heater
2384
Refrigerator
2032
Dryer
1770
Dishwasher
840
Computer
430
Microwave
343
Washer
197
Television
196
VCR
90
Ceiling Fan
82
Printer
74
Alarm Clock
74
The world is running out of Internet addresses. No worries, however, because Internet
Protocol version 6 (IPv6) will solve that
problem by providing up to 2128 unique IP addresses. That is the equivalent
of roughly 2,000 addresses for every square meter on the Earth's surface. Question: If IPv6
replaces IPv4, what happened to IPv5?
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling
2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed
formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit
design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at
the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps
while typing up your telephone line, and a nice lady's voice announced "You've Got
Mail" when a new message arrived...
All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images
and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.
"
