Interesting & Funny

Called the Michigan Micro Mote, to tiny technology is a complete computer system. Its inventors say it can act as a smart sensor, and give everyday objects computing capabilities.  The Michigan Micro Mote is the first complete, operational computer system measuring as small as two millimeters across.  'To be 'complete,' a computer system must have an input of data, the ability to process that data - meaning process and store it, make decisions about what to do next – and ultimately, the ability to output the data.' Professor David Blaauw explained.




'The sensors are the input and the radios are the output. The other key to being a complete computer is the ability to supply its own power.'

The Michigan Micro Mote contains solar cells that power the battery with ambient light, including indoor rooms with no natural sunlight, allowing the computers to run perpetually.

This line of 'smart dust' devices includes computers equipped with imagers (with motion detection), temperature sensors, and pressure sensors.

They are the culmination of work initiated by Blaauw and Sylvester on very low-power processing for millimeter-scale systems.

A key breakthrough in the size/power matchup came with the Phoenix processor in 2008.

The Phoenix processor is miniscule at 915 x 915µm2, and boasts ultra-low operating voltage and a unique standby mode that results in an average power consumption of only 500pW. (Consider that 1pW is the average power consumption of a single human cell.)

Blaauw explained why Phoenix's extreme energy efficiency is so important: 'As you shrink down in size, the percentage of the system tends to be dominated by the battery.

'It's actually not hard to make chips small, but it is hard to make them low power.





'We could have very small chips, but we'd still end up with really large batteries.'

The solar system allows the computer to work under indoor lights without ever having to be charged.

'With a 1mm2 solar cell producing 20nW, the device can harvest enough energy under ambient light to run perpetually,' the team say.

The device's standby power consumption is 2nA.

That's about a million times less power than the average mobile phone consumes while on standby, or the comparative difference between the thickness of a sheet of paper and the length of a football field.

There are currently three different systems in the M3 family, focusing on several different applications: sensing temperature, pressure, and taking images.

'Down the road we want these sensors to be able to talk to one another,' says Blaauw, 'and we're currently working to extend their range to about 20m.'





One key application for this line of smart sensors lies in personal security and information.

Numerous specks of technology could be discretely placed to invisibly monitor a home, business, or personal device.

'We found that a lot of people were very interested in these devices, and that's why we went with the modular or stacked approach.' Blaauw explained.

'It's the key aspect of our design. If you need a different sensing modality you take out one sensor and replace it with another - like mix and match tinker toys.' 

Employment gives us a career, position, boosts our self-confidence and helps us pay our bills. Indeed, employment is very precious.
We spend a large proportion of our lives at work and therefore, it is important to be happy with our work.
Here is a rough estimation of the time that a full time working professional spends at work.
Regular work hours: 8
Travel to and fro from work: 1
Sleep: 7
Time towards work as a percentage of time we are awake: 9/17 = 53 percent at least
There could be times when it is best to move away from the existing job to another one. In this article, we explore the major signs that indicate the probability that you should change your job:


1. When you stop learning in the current role

More of the same thing is not growth necessarily.
I remember what a senior person I know used to say... ten years of experience of the same work, without improving skills is not necessarily 10 years of experience; it could be 1x10 or 2x5 years of experience.

2. When the role is not of your choice

You work as a programmer but your passion is training. Whether you perform well or not in the former, I suggest that you get out of it and make a transition to the latter.
It is important that we do work that we are passionate about so that we enjoy it.

3. When you feel that you are not the right fit for the profile

This is a situation when you feel that you are not able to produce results as good as you could. It means that you are not at your best in this role.
After joining work, if you feel that it is not the right fit for you, you should change. I remember what a supervisor had said to his team member, "I would be very sorry to lose you but I believe that it is important to be happy in your job. So, if you are not happy, then you must move on."

4. You feel underpaid

We should charge what we deserve. If you feel that you are grossly underpaid, move to a different profile.
Of course, the condition here is that you should have the correct information about compensation as rarely anyone feels that s/he is paid enough; we could always do with more money.
At the same time, look at the entire gamut of opportunities that the organisation offers you -- learning and training, promotion and growth, onsite, role enhancement, business performance of the organisation and a realistic evaluation of the value that you add and can add to the organisation.
I remember a colleague who was given an onsite opportunity for over two years, which was not only highly lucrative but also wonderful from a learning perspective. Yet, he was disgruntled that he did not get promoted in less than one and a half year's time.
Since, the expectation was unrealistic; it only caused him stress, without any significant gains. My suggestion is to avoid such traps.

5. The company offers no extra training or learning opportunities

I recall the story of the woodcutter, who was very sincere and hardworking. He cut lot of wood every day. His employer was very happy with him.
With time, he gained practice and he started cutting even more wood. But later, gradually, his output started falling.
When the output became unbelievably low, his employer asked him what the reason could be.
The woodcutter had no idea! Then the employer asked, "Are you sharpening your saw regularly?" The woodcutter responded, "Where do I have the time to sharpen my saw. I remain so busy cutting woods that there is no time left for sharpening the saw"!
Don't let this happen to you. If the organisation does not facilitate learning new skills, you may want to evaluate whether you want to continue working there.

6. No clear career path

If the role or organisation has no clear plans for you, please switch jobs. It is YOUR career and you should know the next possible options for you.

7. Always doing the mundane job

Are you in the team, who always gets the mundane work while you have the capability to do better work?
Remember, that everyone needs to do regular transactional work but if it is only mundane work, then you should look at alternatives.

8. It is impacting your personal life

The boundary between professional and personal life has dimmed significantly. In all fairness, everyone gets 24 hours a day. We need to decide what our priorities are and spend this time accordingly.
If you happen to be in a job that is sabotaging your personal life (after you have tried all other options), it is probably time to move on. Of course, the assumption here is that you want a life outside work as well. It is another matter when all that you want to do is work.
I have a friend, who by choice likes to work 14 hours a day and has therefore chosen a profile, where he can do this. If this is the category you fall in, then it is fine. As long as you are happy about the work-life balance or the lack of it, it is fine.

9. When you feel the lack of respect

Without being excessively sensitive, if you feel that you are not being respected as an individual, please take the exit.
No matter what work we do and at what level in the hierarchy, we all deserve to be treated with respect

10. Are you excited to go to work?

The final question that you should ask yourself is: do you look forward to go to work every day or is it just a drudgery that you go through? If it is just a routine, then there is definitely something amiss.
It might not be the right job for you or probably you are not approaching your job with the right attitude, or some other factors. You are the best person to adjudge what the relevant reason is but whatever it is, it needs attention and action.

Mercedes - This was actually the financier's daughter's name.

Adobe - This came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.

Apple Computers - It was the favorite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 O'clock that evening.

CISCO - It is not an acronym as popularly believed. It is short for San Francisco .

Compaq - This name was formed by using COMp, for computer, and PAQ to denote a small integral object.

Corel - The name was derived from the founder's name Dr. Michael Cowpland. It stands for COwpland REsearchLaboratory.

1. Set a duration of how long you think it should take to solve a problem - C'mon, admit it! I'm just as guilty as the next programmer. I've seen programmers sit in front of a monitor for eight hours at a time trying to solve a particular problem.

Set a time table for yourself of 1 hour, 30 minutes, or even 15 minutes. If you can't figure out a solution to your problem within your time frame, ask for help or research your problem on the Internet instead of trying to be super-coder.

2. A language is a language is a language - Over time, once you understand how one language works, you'll notice similarities between other languages. The language you choose should provide you with a suitable "comfort" level, the ability to produce efficient (and clean) code, and, above all, allow the language to suit the project and vice-versa.

3. Don't over-"design pattern" applications - Sometimes it's just easier to write a simple algorithm than it is to incorporate a singleton or facade pattern. For the most part, it even allows for cleaner, understandable code. :-)

4. Always backup your code - I've experienced a complete hard drive failure and lost a lot of code when I was younger and felt horrible because of what had happened. The one time you don't back up your data may be the one time where you have a strict deadline with a client and they need it tomorrow. Source code/version control applies here as well.

5. You are not the best at programming. Live with it. - I always thought that I knew so much about programming, but there is always someone out there better than you. Always. Learn from them.

Case 1

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink won't flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They dev eloped a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

And what did the Russians do...?? They used a pencil.

Case 2

One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly! line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap t o the delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soapbox passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Moral
Always look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problems

It’s obvious that Google’s 2010 April Fool’s prank, by changing its famous logo to “Topeka”, isn’t exactly the most brilliant idea that would make everyone’s jaw dropped. In fact, it was criticized by some pundits as something “average”. Anyway, for this year, Big G really made a show by introducing several pranks for their Google service, and one that caught the attention of the whole world is its Gmail Motion service, which is exactly what it sounds like – control your email using human gestures instead of a keyboard.

Here’s a sample.
Actually, this move was something unexpected from the same company that made a mediocre prank last year, and this made everything really special.

For those who are dreaming if this was actually true, sadly, it isn’t and it still only exist in the fantasy world. However, it doesn’t mean some 3rd party developers wouldn’t be interested to try and make this concept a reality – even just a little. And yep, a team on ICT MxR Labs responded with the prank and made something more real.