Sep 15 2009 2:04PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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The original video of The Measurement Blues in Austin is in AVI format and I'd like to convert it to DVD. A search turned up several free and paid software packages, but I'd like to get a recommendation. If you've used any AVI-to-DVD software for Windows, please e-mail me at m.rowe@tmworld.com.

Sep 14 2009 7:26AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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The submission deadline for the 2010 Measurement Science Conference has been extended to September 31. Here are the instructions for submitting a paper.

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MSC is using a web-based system for abstract and paper submittals. Please follow the instruction below.
1. Visit www.edas.info .
If you already have an EDAS user's account, please log onto EDAS and skip to step 4 below. If you do not already have an account, click the "New User" button.
2. Create a profile. Only the five fields with the red asterisk are required. These fields are first & last name, affiliation (company or organization), country, e-mail address, and status. When the fields are filled in, check the "Privacy Policies" box and click the "Add Person" butto...Read More

Aug 25 2009 9:12AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |
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Many companies are faced with a knowledge gap between experienced engineers (roughly above age 45) and recent graduates (roughly under age 30). Experienced engineers have the practical knowledge to bring recent graduates up to speed, but may lack the time to do so. Once one engineer mentored one new graduate, but now experienced engineers are asked to mentor several younger engineers while having more engineering responsibilities themselves. Thus, engineers are finding it more difficult to pass on knowledge, even when they want to and are expected to.

Have you found a similar knowledge gap at your job? Why does the problem exist and what needs to be done to fix it.

Please reply here and send me an e-mail (m.rowe@tmworld.com) because I’d like to speak with you personally.

Related entries in: Electronics Careers & Training | Electronics Engineering Education | Test & Measurement | 

Aug 24 2009 12:05PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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PC World recently published a piece called "Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers" citing things such as VHS tape, phone booths, dial-in bulletin boards, holding up a lighter at a concert, and getting an AOL disk in the mail. Well, VHS is alive and well in my home, but holding up a light is certainly out, at least at the Bruce Springsteen concert I recently attended.

In the test business, technology takes a long time to become obsolete. Here's a list of things that I would call "obsolete" that are likely still in use somewhere.

* Parallel-port instruments
* Test equipment with red LED displays
* Resistance boxes with mechanical dials
* Digital oscilloscopes with CRT displays (new analog scopes still have them)

T...Read More

Related entries in: Data Acquisition | Instruments | Meters | Oscilloscopes | Test & Measurement | 

Aug 19 2009 4:55PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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Today at the EMC Symposium, Steve Ferguson of Washington Labs gave a demonstration on test setups for MIL-STD-461F Method CS116 for conducted susceptibility on cables and power leads. It uses damped sinusoidal transients at frequencies from 10 kHz to 100 MHz. He discussed the test setup and its calibration where he used an HV Technologies pulse generator to inject current into cables.

“There’s no such thing as a shielded power cable,” he noted, “because when you get to the AC mains, there’s no shielding.” In the demo, he injected a damped 100-kHz sine wave with a peak voltage of 260 mV into 50 Ω, which is too much voltage to comply with the test.

Ferguson used an oscilloscope to show the audience the ...Read More

Related entries in: EMC Test | Interference | Technical Standards |