May 15, 2008

CE industry makes consumers stupid
The consumer-electronics industry makes consumers stupid--at least the young ones. That's the conclusion one might infer from Mark Bauerlein's new book, "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future." Read More

The future of robotics
Robots are always seen as part of the future, so getting the next generation interested in science and technology is a logical way to make our vision of robots a reality. Read More

Upgrades raise blood pressure
Episodes like this one make you wonder why you even bother to upgrade a working system. Read More

GPIB remains in heavy use (Guest Commentary)
Despite the emergence of new instrument-control bus technologies, GPIB remains the foundation for instrument-control systems. "It just works," is the top response from engineers when asked why they use GPIB for instrument control. Read More

Asset InterTech focuses on embedded instrumentation
Responding to the increasing momentum in the electronics industry toward embedded instrumentation, Asset InterTech announced it is positioning the company, its products, and its technologies to provide open tools for embedded instrumentation in design validation, test, and debug applications. Read More

Keithley releases new edition of ATE switching handbook
The sixth edition of Keithley Instruments' "Switching Handbook: A Guide to Signal Switching in Automated Test Systems" covers the fundamentals of the switching function in test and measurement applications. Read More

SVS-VISTEK 16-Mpixel camera gains GigE interface
A high-speed version of SVS-VISTEK's 16-Mpixel svs16000 industrial CCD camera integrates a Gigabit Ethernet interface to achieve a maximum frame rate of 4 fps at a full resolution of 4896x3280 pixels. Read More

JDSU's field tester analyzes CWDM wavelengths
Developed for CWDM network installation, maintenance, and surveillance teams, the OCC-55 optical channel checker from JDSU serves as a low-cost alternative to optical spectrum analyzers. 
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T&MW's Top Articles for April 2008
Readers chose "Putting teamwork on the radar" and "How does a Smith chart work?" as their two top picks from our published articles. Chris Grachanen's guest commentary on Metrology was our most popular Web-exclusive article, and Rick Nelson's "Engineers to be supplanted by domain experts" was the most popular blog entry. See our other top articles for April 2008. Read More

What do you know about rise time?
Answer our May oscilloscope challenge question correctly, and you could be eligible to win a prize.

Question: Why do the rules for rise time differ in analog and digital oscilloscopes?
Prize: TomTom ONE GPS
Sponsor: Yokogawa

Take the Oscilloscope Challenge

May issue looks at communications test
Our May cover story explains how engineers at Crossbeam Systems test security platforms that are used by financial institutions to protect their networks and your data. Another May feature discusses WiMAX chipsets and explains how test equipment is evolving to keep pace with this emerging technology. A third feature explains how one company modified a thermal chamber to cut electromagnetic inteference. 
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Industry calendar of events
Upcoming events include The Vision Show (June), Semicon West (July), and the EMC Symposium (August). For more information about these and other test-related events, visit our online calendar.