A Better Way

You can't glamorize technology development, but you can have fun with it: A Better Way. This is what goes into developing electronic products.

The point of the video is that designs with large parts with hundreds of pins whose function is completely programmable don't lend themselves to schematic diagrams. Schematics are best for parts with few pins that always do the same function.

Thank an Engineer

It seems like engineering gets less respect than other professions. Even things attempting to be positive about engineers come off stupid:

Obama is an Out-of-the-Closet Intellectual

From NYT article: Obama and the War on Brains

The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual.

He's hardworking, progressive, and intellectual. We have elected a president who represents Madison.

NYT Comment on the Election and "Real" America

From NYT article: It Still Felt Good the Morning After

The actual real America is everywhere. It is the America that has been in shell shock since the aftermath of 9/11, when our government wielded a brutal attack by terrorists as a club to ratchet up our fears, betray our deepest constitutional values and turn Americans against one another in the name of “patriotism.”

Listen to the Engineers on Energy

From an Electrical Engineering Times article: The Energy Imperative

"Drill, baby, drill!" That's the mantra of those who would continue down the well-trodden path of oil addiction, global warming and national insecurity.

Hopefully we rejected that thinking and electected a batch of politicians who will listen to the engineers. Our economy runs on energy, and we don't have a solid plan for where we're going to get energy just a few years from now. The time to act is now.

Is Hope Moving the Market?

The stock market is up today and so is the Treasury. Usually stocks and bonds move opposite each other. The idea is that when stocks are down, investors are willing to hold Treasuries with lower yields (i.e. higher prices) b/c they don’t want to hold stocks. This inverse relationship is why some investors maintain a balanced portfolio to reduce volatility.

It’s certainly not a rule that stocks and bonds must move inverse of each other. There could be any number of reasons.

I am not knowledgeable enough to tell you what the real reasons are, so I’ll give you a blatantly political guess. Investors are considering the effects of the possibility of Obama winning the election. They think that his policies will improve the economy though domestic spending initiatives aimed at the working poor. They think he will be able to rein in federal spending and reduce the budget deficit, which would result in lower interest rates (i.e. higher bond prices). So, in this story, people foresee better times and it’s driving up stocks and bonds together.

That story is about as logical as typical Wall Street Journal Op-Ed page piece, except it’s coming from the left and I admit it’s just a guess. I really have no idea whether today’s small market fluctuations having anything to do with politics. The fact that this story is plausible to me and hopefully others shows that expectations for Obama (if elected) and the new Congress are incredibly high.