Design News Search Engineer
Friday, April 30, 2004
This 'n' that
Gibson Guitar (which won an engineering quality award in 2003 from Design News magazine) is launching a new digital guitar, which uses computer chips to clean up the signal. But the good news for guitar players is that it looks and feels like a "traditional" Gibson.
A new trend in NASCAR? Hiring engineers...Roger Penske's Alltel Dodge team has two -- a driver and crew chief both with mechanical engineering degrees. The Chip Ganassi team has an engineer who used to work for TRW Space Systems Group.
Driving for the rest of us, especially during road construction season (March - November) is a always difficult. But how about highway barrels and cones that can move out of the way from computer commands made miles away. The innovative cones came from the University of Nebraska.
Long promised, Walmart will begin using RFID tags to track 21 products distributed in Texas, using HP technology.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
End of the road for Olds
It will be a sad day for motor heads tomorrow when the last Oldsmobile rolls off the line in Lansing, MI. An Alero, the only model still in production, is the last one to roll off the line. The final Olds is destined for a museum.
For a nostalgic look back, the Lansing (MI) State Journal has a great place on its website. There's also a photogallery on the site with some great Olds...
Monday, April 26, 2004
Supersize that!
GM is now building a new computer...no, they aren't diversifying per se, but are networking parallel processors as a way to shorten design time.
And now for something completely different to quote my friend Monty Python, have you ever thought of just chucking everything and having a second life? Now you can, if you don't mind a virtual second life. Create your own avatar to look like you in first life or totally different in second life. Buy, sell, work, meet people, do everything online that you don't do offline, or vice versa. Everything is created online -- animals, homes, cities, government, etc. There is a subscription fee of under $10 a month. Maybe I'll see you there!
