Leland Teschler • Executive editor The National Academy of Sciences recently released its conclusions about what sickened dozens of American Embassy diplomats in Cuba, a phenomenon dubbed the Havana Syndrome. Though the panel reached no definitive conclusion, it found pulsed RF (a.k.a. directed microwave energy) was the most likely cause. Panel members could not rule […]
Editor's Blog
Will your Good Samaritanism in the pandemic buy you a lawsuit?
Leland Teschler | Executive Editor If you are one of the individuals voluntarily spending your time on technology to help abate the COVID 19 pandemic, consider the experience of the vacuum cleaner company Dyson in the U.K. Company founder James Dyson estimates his firm spent about $25 million and about 10 days to develop a […]
Will high test instrument costs keep the next Steve Wozniak out of the tech business?
LEE TESCHLER EXECUTIVE EDITOR Back in the heyday of personal computing, it was possible to do state-of-the-art work without making a big investment in test equipment. To see what I mean, consider the development of the first 5.25-in. floppy disk drive for the Apple II PC. Introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in early 1978, […]
No, you can’t detect ghosts with a gauss meter
Leland Teschler – Executive Editor lteschler@wtwhmedia.com On Twitter @DW_LeeTeschler WE’D like to think that the average viewer who tunes into a TV show on the SciFy channel called Ghost Hunters might get a laugh out watching investigators prowl around places that are reported to be haunted. But the show participants seem to be completely serious […]
End of an era at National Instruments: Dr. James Truchard, CEO and co-founder, to step down
National Instruments, best known for its LabVIEW program and platform-based instrumentation systems, says Alex Davern, age 49, will serve as Chief Executive Officer and President, effective January 1, 2017. Davern will succeed Dr. James Truchard, age 73, who has served as the Chief Executive Officer of NI since the company’s founding in 1976. Dr. Truchard […]
Student Loan forgiveness petition
As promised in my blog, I have an update on student loans. There is an online petition to reconstruct the current student loan repayment system. These changes entitled,”The Student Loan Fairness Act (H.R. 1330)” would create a new “10-10” standard for student loan repayment, in which an individual would be required to make ten years […]
DAQ Series: Podcast: miniSystems for Engineering Excellence
In this DAQ Series, we discuss how DAQs are scaled down for educational purposes. National Instruments is dedicated to teaching engineering fundamentals beyond theory and mathematical applications. Its target is to teach students engineering concepts as a whole. The idea of teaching students hands-on, visual applications came from the suggestions of professors and teachers at […]
DAQ Series: Methodology associated with data acquisition
In the previous DAQ series, What is a Data Acquisition (DAQ), and How DAQs Work at a High Level, terminology that is analogous with DAQs was mentioned. To delve further, this series will discuss the some of the methodology associated with data acquisition. Transducers, Sensors, Actuators: As we know, data acquisition begins with a physical […]
DAQ Series: How DAQs work at a high level
As Daniel Carnes (Facebook reader) said, “As more and more data acquisition systems make their way into our lives it is good to know how they work at least at a high level.” Taking a cue from Mr. Carnes, engineers are no longer stereotyped as the person wearing the white coat in a lab. We […]
DAQ Series: What is a Data Acquisition System (DAQ)?
Data acquisition systems (DAQ) are getting a lot of engineers’ attention lately. Pondering minds would like to know what is a DAQ? To clarify, it is simpler to explain what a DAQ “does” than to answer, “What it is”. The DAQ was invented circa 1964, with the purpose of doing something with software. Initially, DAQ’s […]
