Smorgasbord Archives - 14

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These items are an archive of past Smorgasbord topics that have appeared on the RF Cafe homepage.

Security Clearance = $$$

IEEE's Spectrum magazine did a special feature in November 2007 that covered engineering jobs requiring a security clearance. Military systems, Homeland Security, and aerospace offers a lot of opportunities for people holding a security clearance. You cannot obtain a clearance for yourself, however; only a company contracting with the government can submit you for one. The cost, covered by the employer, can run in the tens of thousands of dollars. Once you obtain your clearance, it is portable - and that makes you very valuable to employers, including the one that paid for it.

Note to subversive or ill-behaved types: Don't waste your time - your dirty little secrets will be revealed during the background investigation.

Read OPM's overview.

4-7-2008

Green Websites?

The carbon offset credit scam has really gone too far now. This website provides a free device to insert into your page code that somehow ostensibly determines how green - or not green - your website is.

If you feel badly about how large your web-based carbon footprint is, fret not. For a mere $9.95 per month you can assuage your guilt and earn an honored position on their "Greenest Sites" list - all while not reducing your personal CO2 emissions by a single ppm.

3-31-2008

Semiconductor Engineer Cures Cataracts

Rajiv Bhushan is an Indian-born mathematician and semiconductor engineer. Four years ago he began looking for a way to improve his father's failing vision due to cataracts. Cataracts shroud the eyes in a hazy fog, creating sensation of both blur and glare. Using himself as a guinea pig Rajiv developed eye drops that dissolve the milky formations in just a few days. His discovery is expected to dramatically reduce surgeries.

3-26-2008

Australia's Top Five Ways to Accidentally Damage Mobile Phones

According to Telstra customer service consultants, the five most commonly reported ways to accidentally damage a mobile phone are:

#1 Driving off with a mobile left on the car roof

#2 Damaged by water - including dropping it in the toilet and taking calls when in the rain

#3 Sitting on the handset

#4 Dropping a phone - most often on the footpath

#5 Throwing a mobile - either on a desk, in a drawer, or to a friend

(Cellular News)

3-20-2008

Australia's Top Five Ways to Accidentally Damage Mobile Phones

According to Telstra customer service consultants, the five most commonly reported ways to accidentally damage a mobile phone are:

#1 Driving off with a mobile left on the car roof

#2 Damaged by water - including dropping it in the toilet and taking calls when in the rain

#3 Sitting on the handset

#4 Dropping a phone - most often on the footpath

#5 Throwing a mobile - either on a desk, in a drawer, or to a friend

(Cellular News)

3-20-2008

EDN's 2007 Worldwide
Engineering Survey
(source: EDN Business)

  Here are reported
  salaries by region:
Region$k USD
Canada80.0
Europe69.0
Japan63.5
U.S.A.91.1
  New England96.6
  MidAtlantic90.0
  Southeast90.0
  South76.3
  Midwest75.3
  Mountain89.0
  Southwest97.0
  Pacific NW95.8
  California110.0

3-13-2008

Handset Preferences Influenced by Age, Income Factors

(source: Cellular News)

RF Cafe: iSuppli's ConsumerTrak phone features surveyIt comes as no surprise that teenagers list a different set of priorities for their cell phone features than do their RF Cafe: iSuppli's ConsumerTrak phone features surveyparents. In February 2008, iSuppli's ConsumerTrak service conducted a survey of  users to determine the extent to which mobile-phone preferences vary by demographic group.

3-7-2008

Build Your Own Nuclear Bomb, Kill an Enemy Agent, etc.

You don't need to find a terrorist to obtain a RF Cafe: Uranium 238 on Amazon.comchunk of uranium - just buy it on Amazon.com. "Radioactive sample of uranium ore. Useful for testing Geiger Counters. License exempt." It might even qualify for free shipping. Click on the above image and read some of the comments posted by people - they are absolutely hilarious!

OK, not building a nuclear bomb today, but maybe you would like to poison somebody KGB-style? No problemo, United Nuclear will sell you some Polonium 210 for under $100. That's right, the same stuff that reportedly did in poor Alexander Litvinenko. Just a pinch will do.

Don't try to buy garden fertilizer and ammonia from Home Depot at the same time, though, or somebody just might get upset.

3-1-2008