Engineering Management News

The recently announced alliance between smartphone handset maker Nokia and software giant Microsoft has raised more than a few eyebrows. Nokia has decided to hitch its fate to the Windows Phone 7 operating system, which has earned praise from industry pundits, but has yet to make many inroads into the market. This report and video from BBC News examine both companies' motives for taking this controversial step. An accompanying commentary from BBC correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones suggests that he, at least, is less than impressed by the move.

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The Bachelor of Science, Electronics Engineering Technology degree is accredited by the Technology Accreditation Commission. ABET is a specialized accrediting agency recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

Rochester Institute of Technology can help you earn the Master's Degree in Software Development & Management you want on a schedule that meets the challenges of your everyday life. The program investigates contemporary and classical approaches to enterprise-wide software development with an emphasis on improving the probability of successful outcomes.

Did you ever get the feeling that project delays are inevitable — that you can never complete a project on time? You're not alone, as this item from EE Times columnist Chuck Hill attests. Although which particular frustrations will hold you up, Hill contends that something always will. In response, he has adopted the motto, "The only way to finish sooner is to start sooner."

What do you need to get your projects done quickly and efficiently? Some companies embrace Facebook, instant messaging, and social-interaction tools because younger employees are accustomed to relating in that way. This article from Information Week sets out to discourage such reasoning, contending that the problem is not that the tools are inherently ineffective, but that they are often implemented in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons.

We sometimes think that the enormous impact of technological change on the way we work and live is a new phenomenon. In fact, it has always been thus. This fascinating paper provides us some insight by examining the fundamental sociological shift that occurred when movable-type printing was invented more than five and a half centuries ago. Both the parallels and the differences are quite striking.

Few situations can prove as frustrating as having your primary computer system go down. According to this video from Aberdeen.com, the average company loses nearly $100,000 for every hour of downtime, and some companies lose much more. Aberdeen Senior Researcher Dick Csapler reports that companies invest in disaster recovery primarily to avoid the consequences of business disruption. The page includes links to several white papers that provide additional information.

The Swagelok® Modular Platform Components (MPC) Configurator is a software application with an interactive tool to build sample modular systems prior to purchasing. The result is a complete bill of material and an assembly schematic with exact placement of each individual component. Find out more on Swagelok.com.

Bureau Veritas helps you assess, plan, manage, and maintain safe and healthy workplaces. From individual programs to comprehensive systems, we help you address both immediate and long-term Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) issues delivering solutions that add value today, and sustainable management strategies.

We've all sat through presentations requiring toothpicks to keep our eyes open. Yet some people can present without causing such distress. The success of Steve Jobs' presentation style is well-known. This white paper provides some reasons why — such as dividing the presentation into three parts, emphasizing how it benefits the audience, and revealing one "holy smokes" moment.

Regardless of your feelings on the matter, virtualization is here. For servers, a single physical server may behave exactly as though it were a number of separate servers, each handling a specific part of the overall computing load. This discussion begins with a virtualization primer, then explores its benefits and the reasons for its rapid growth. If you are not already running a virtualized environment, you will be very soon.

Minnesota's junior Senator and one-time comedy writer Al Franken will be taking his next assignment very seriously. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont recently announced that Senator Franken will chair a new Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law. The subcommittee will address laws and policies concerning commercial dissemination of personal data, privacy within the social-networking world, and related issues.

Macintosh users have long attributed their machines' immunity from viruses and Trojan horses to a superior operating system, rather than to hackers taking aim at the architecture with the largest market share. Well, Macintosh's increasing visibility has earned some unwanted attention. Network World has reported that an "easy-to-use" Trojan has emerged. Although no incidents have yet been reported, someone must be concerned. The video mentioned in the article has been removed.

Texas Instruments' 6 A, 14.5 V TPS84620 achieves a power density of greater than 800W/in³ with up to 95% efficiency and 30% better thermal dissipation than competitors do. This integrated step-down solution combines the inductor and passives onto one device and is available at www.digikey.com.

Do you need a professional document and can't find the time or resources to complete it? At Wunsch Technologies, we can prepare for you top quality documentation. All that we require is a sample assembly, bill of materials, and/or production notes of your product.

Many years ago, author Isaac Asimov remarked that whenever he wanted to learn something new, he would write an article or a book about it. By teaching, he codified his own knowledge. In the same vein, this New York Times interview with Royal Caribbean Cruises CEO Richard Fain contends that to convince an audience about a particular issue, you sometimes have to play devil's advocate.

Fans of scores of movies like Star Wars and TV shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation can attest to the imagination of George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic studio. But until now, they have never made an animated feature film. This article and video from CNET show how ILM's animators and model builders made the transition from live-action to animation. It turned out more difficult than they expected.

How Private are You?

How much do you value your personal privacy? Where do you draw the line between parts of you that you reveal on Facebook and Twitter and the parts that you keep to yourself?