Blogs
Preparing for the wrong catastrophe
October 17, 2012 9:26 am | by M. Simon | CommentsI was excited by a report at ECN saying that the world matched the hottest September temperature again this past September. Well that got me to thinking. CO2 is still rising and hot temperatures are only being matched? Doesn't the theory run - more CO2 makes the climate hotter? What happened?
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012 for Reprogramming Cells to be Pluripotent
October 17, 2012 1:46 am | by Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog | CommentsThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012 was awarded “for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.” The prize goes jointly to Sir John B. Gurdon, Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, UK and Shinya Yamanaka, Kyoto … Continue reading →
F-35 to make Hollywood debut in Superman flick
October 16, 2012 5:32 pm | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | CommentsAccording to Wired, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — the oft-delayed, oft-maligned, “backbone of America’s tactical aviation fleet” — is set to make its big-screen debut in the Superman reboot, Man of Steel. To be sure, this won’t be the first time the JSF has appeared onscreen. A computer-generated F-35 battled The Hulk in this summer’s blockbuster hit, The Avengers.
Fight Fall Allergies and Save Energy by Checking Your HVAC System
October 15, 2012 3:19 pm | by Energy Savers Blog | Comments
Filling the gap
October 15, 2012 1:53 pm | by M. Simon | CommentsGraphene has been getting a lot of press lately touting it as the electronics material of the future. It is a strong single-layer material with high electron mobility. All good things for a semiconductor material.But single-layer graphene lacks something very important for a semiconductor material: a band gap.
It (.3 mm) finally happened
October 12, 2012 6:27 pm | by Screaming Circuits | CommentsBack in January of 2012, I wrote about the possibility of 0.3 mm pitch BGAs being used here and there. I predicted that in a year, we'd see some 0.3 mm pitch BGAs showing up. I was about three month's off. Almost to the day. I delivered a session at PCBWest last month and asked if anyone had used a part with that pitch yet.
Computer-generated art that doesn't look computer-generated
October 10, 2012 10:09 am | by M. Simon | CommentsI went to a city wide art show this last weekend and ran into the most marvelous artists who does computer generated art that doesn't look like computer generated art - at least not the generic stuff you so often see. His name is Barry Reithmeier. He has a feel for the medium. He uses a tool called Bryce which is currently available for free.
2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka
October 10, 2012 7:44 am | by Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog | CommentsThe Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2012 to Robert J. Lefkowitz, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA and Brian K. Kobilka, Stanford University School … Continue reading →
Program Your Thermostat for Fall and Winter Savings
October 9, 2012 4:17 pm | by Energy Savers Blog | CommentsMissing Mars probes
October 8, 2012 11:05 am | by Screaming Circuits | CommentsBack in ancient times when multi-legged beasts ruled the earth, there were a lot more standards. Or maybe there were just fewer total things resulting in fewer total variations, which looks like more standards. In any case, if you got...
"Geek Out" on Your Pumpkins this Halloween
October 5, 2012 2:40 pm | by Energy Savers Blog | CommentsAdd Over-Fishing to the Huge Government Debt as Examples of How We Are Consuming Beyond Our Means
October 4, 2012 11:09 pm | by Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog | CommentsFish are hidden under the water so the unsustainable harvesting isn’t quite as obvious as the unsustainable government debt but they both are a result of us living beyond our sustainable production. You can live well by consuming past wealth … Continue reading →
A roundup
October 3, 2012 9:01 am | by M. Simon | CommentsGabtronicis has updated their micro e-scopes. You may recall I did an article on them a while back. They also have a Kickstarter project to raise money to do more interesting things. Gabriel (the "Gab" of Gabtronics) likes Atmel XMEGA microcontrollers. Daishinku Corporation (KDS) has been very helpful to me with some projects I'm working on...
Future Friday -- “Where are we going” in a world of DSP innovation
October 2, 2012 1:10 pm | by Arnon Friedmann, Texas Instruments | CommentsTo follow my colleague’s Throwback Thursday post last week celebrating DSP innovation over the last 30 years, my 'Future Friday' post describes some of the innovations I believe DSP technology is driving (literally). “Where are we going?” This is a common phrase in our family car these days as we’ve moved beyond the “are we there yet?” days.
A flywheel in the ointment
October 1, 2012 8:51 am | by M. Simon | CommentsI have been big on flywheels for electrical energy storage for quite some time. So it was quite a disappointment to me to hear that high tech flywheel company Beacon Power did a Solyndra and reneged on a government loan because it could not finance its debts from income.
