Tech Smorgasbord Archives - 9

RF Cafe University"Factoids," "Kirt's Cogitations," and "Tech Topics Smorgasbord" are all manifestations of my ranting on various subjects relevant (usually) to the overall RF Cafe theme. All may be accessed on these pages:

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An Enigma - or is it a Paradox?

It occurred to me the other day how in mathematics, we define

π radians = 180°

Well, according to Merriam-Webster, the definition of an irrational number (π) is "a number that can be expressed as an infinite decimal with no set of consecutive digits repeating itself indefinitely and that cannot be expressed as the quotient [or fraction] of two integers." A rational number (180) is any number that is not irrational. So have we not declared that an irrational number is equal to a rational number?

 

Acceptable Gifts for

Foreign Countries

(source: Inc Magazine Aug 2007)

India: Chocolates, dried fruits, sculptures. Present in social setting.

China: Pens, small electronic devices. Nothing white since bad connotations in superstition. Present at social event, offer 3 times.

Brazil: Personal gifts - jewelry, sports mementos. Present in social setting.

Russia: Liquor, what else? (not vodka, though). Gifts not expected in Russia.

Nigeria: Luxury items expected, but who cares? Nigeria is a hub of massive corruption and identity theft. I say give a set of strong handcuffs. Do so in a public setting.

Anyone Know What Kind of Gas Mileage a Prius Gets at 100 MPH?

Mr. Gore's son must not have gotten the memo. Looks like the family will need to purchase a few more carbon offset credits.

 

Top Mobile Web Domains March 2007 (source: Telephony 5/21/07)

1

US: google.com

UK: google.co.uk

2 US: yahoo.com

UK: bbc.co.uk

3 US: msn.com

UK: orange.co.uk

4 US: microsoft.com

UK: three.co.uk

5 US: live.com

UK: o2.co.uk

6 US: go.com

UK: google.com

7 US: cnn.com

UK: mobile-favourites.co.uk

8 US: weather.com

UK: ebay.co.uk

9 US: myspace.com

UK: msn.com

10 US: passport.net

UK: yahoo.com

Top Ranked Engineering Colleges for 2006

(source: graduateshotline.com)

1 Mass. Inst. Tech.
2 Stanford U.
3 U.C. Berkley
4 Cal. Inst. Tech.
5 U. of IL, Urbana
6 Georgia IT
7 U. of Michigan
8 Cornell U.
9 Carnegie Mellon
10 U. of Texas, Austin
15 Princeton U.
19 Harvard U.
24 Johns Hopkins U.
30 Duke U.
31 Rensselaer (RPI)
38 Yale
My alma matter, U. of VT, did not place in the top 50...go figure.
2006 Top Electronics

R&D Spenders

(source: Electronic Business)

# Company % $M
1 Cadence 31 460
2 Broadcom 31 1117
3 Agere 28 445
4 Maxim 26 481
7 AMD 21 1205
9 AnalogDev 21 537
12 Qualcomm 20 1538
22 STMicro 17 1667
25 Infineon 16 1585
26 Ericsson 16 4080
28 TI 15 2,195
40 Agilent 13 655
57 Motorola 9.6 4106
58 Nokia 9.5 5145
59 Samsung 9.5 6083
87 Murata 7.1 295
93 IBM 6.7 6107
123 EPCOS 5.4 90
214 Tyco 2.2 914
% = % or revenue

 

2007 Salary Survey

(source: Design News)

These results are primarily from mechanical engineers. Overall average is $78k. By comparison, EE Times' 2006 survey showed base of around $76k for EEs.

% Base Salary Range
2 $150k-250k
3 $130k-$150k
5 $110k-$120k
4 $100k-$100k
9 $90k-$100k
11 $80k-$90k
14 $70k-$80k
18 $60k-$70k
15 $50k-$60k
10 $40k-$50k
2 $30k-$40k

What's Your

Internet Speed?

  Average download

  speeds in the U.S.,

  according to the

  Communications

  Workers of America:

The Fastest (Mbps)
1 Rhode Island, 5.01
2 Kansas, 4.17
3 New Jersey, 3.68
4 New York, 3.44
5 Massachusetts, 3.00
The Slowest (Mbps)
46  North Dakota, 1.31
47 Iowa, 1.26
48 Wyoming, 1.25
49 West Virginia, 1.12
50 Alaska, 0.55
National Average, 1.97
Other Places (Mbps)
Canada, 7.60

Japan, 61.0

Test Yours Here