The Tek Pulse: The latest and greatest engineering and science posts

Informative, innovative and interesting articles from our favorite blogs and websites

1. Zombie Scopes: Deep in Vintage Tek, Mar 25 2013 – Jim Kobylecky, Scope Junction -- Along Hillsdale Highway in Portland, Oregon lives the vintageTek museum, full of – you guessed it – vintage Tek oscilloscopes and testing equipment. In his latest post for Scope Junction, Jim Kobylecky fondly recalls how he stumbled across the museum one weekend and paid a visit to these old friends, or what he jokingly refers to as, “Zombie scopes.” 

2. Micro-Chipping Humans. It Could Say A Lot About You! Mar 21 2013, Paul Whytock, London Calling -- Scientists in Switzerland have developed a microchip prototype that sits in the intestinal tissue and detects, measures, and monitors up to five different substances in the blood. In his recent London Calling blog post, Paul Whytock explores the possible benefits (like monitoring diabetes) and disadvantages (like the inability to keep information about your blood private).

3. Brown, Lead-Underpant Moments, Mar 19 2013, Rajan Bedi, Out-Of-This-World-Design -- The space industry is always looking for ways to take advantage of cutting-edge commercial-grade components. Many technologies however, are not designed with space applications in mind and must undergo radiation testing to de-risk parts before or during service qualification. In a post for the Out-Of-This-World-Design blog, Rajan Bedi describes how several of his component tests for the space industry ended in “Brown, Lead-Underpant Moments.” Head over to Out-Of-This-World-Design to read what Bedi learned from each experience, and don’t forget to check out his video while you’re there.

4. Solar-Powered Everything! Mar 25 2013, Chris Rendall, ECN -- For years we’ve heard that solar panels will soon be everywhere, although these predictions never really seemed to materialize. Now, thanks to new developments from Stanford, we may soon be surrounded by, “solar-powered everything!” In his latest blog post for ECN, Chris Rendall takes a closer look at the technology breakthrough that led to thin, sticky, flexible solar panels that can adhere to just about any surface imaginable.

5. How to Verify and Debug Next-Generation Memory, Mar 21 2013, Chris Loberg, Test & Measurement World -- With JEDEC’s release of LPDDR3 and DDR4 specifications, the move to the next generation of memory technologies has arrived. For design engineers working with electrical verification and debugging, these standards bring many benefits (improved signal integrity) and new challenges (denser packaging means signal access challenges). Tektronix’s own Chris Loberg gives an in-depth explanation of these new specifications over at Test & Measurement World, and advises reader on how to prepare for proper signal access to LPDDR3 and DDR4 memory systems.

6. Visualize Op Amp Noise, Mar 15 2013 – Steve Hageman, The Practicing Instrumentation Engineer -- Even with new advances in visualization tools, picking a low-noise op amp is still a tough process – there are SO many devices to choose from, plus noise data is not always presented in the same way. So what’s an instrumentation engineer to do? Head over to The Practicing Instrumentation Engineer blog and read up on Steve Hageman’s analysis of the issues encountered when selecting a low-noise op amp.

7. 10 Cool (and Uncool) Things About Scopes, Mar 13 2013, Michael Dunn, Scope Junction -- Over at Scope Junction this week, Michael Dunn pulled together a list of 10 reasons why he loves and hates oscilloscopes. Check out the list and add your own ideas in the comments section!

8. Mourning the Death of Google Reader (and Finding a Suitable Replacement), Mar 18 2013, Jason Lomberg, ECN -- From collecting fun blogs to organizing the latest news feeds, many rely on Google Reader for easy access to, and organization of, copious amounts of content. Which is why fans of the RSS feed, including ECN technical editor, Jason Lomberg, are distraught over the announcement that it will be no more come July 1, 2013. Fear not the end of this favorite RSS feed however, for Lomberg has found and listed some solid replacements in his latest ECN blog post.

9. Lightweight Embedded Multicore Task Management, Mar 15 2013, Bryon Moyer, Electronic Engineering Journal Editor’s Blog -- The Multicore Association recently released MTAPI, a multicore task management API. Those versed in multicore task management may be asking, “Do we really need another task management capability?” Head over to the Electronic Engineering Journal Editor’s Blog, to read why Bryon Moyer thinks that yes, another task management capability is necessary, but it may be creating a few problems in addition to solving some.

10. Are We Too Open to be Secure, or Too Secure to be Open?, Mar 2013, Author N/A, RTC MagazineIt seems that every week there is a major headline regarding hacking. Just recently there have been security flaws in Java, reports of the Chinese hacking major U.S. papers, and 250,000 Twitter profiles were supposedly hacked as well. In its latest editorial, RTC Magazine points out that in all of these examples, there is an attempt to balance the need for openness with a need for privacy and security. So how are we to successfully mix both?

Do you have a great article, blog or idea that you’d like to see featured in our series? Please be sure to share in the comments below. Stay tuned next week for another installment of The Tek Pulse, featuring more trending articles from the engineering, technology and science worlds.

 Image: © chrisharvey - Fotolia.com.