At times all the heavy technical training can become a drag, and one needs a lift. One of my favorite engineering blogs, The Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog, helped me with a fix of engineering humor:
I discovered the technical aspects of cat yodeling and aspect ratios. Have some fun!
Recently I had the opportunity to visit friends in Silicon Valley. While riding the light rail in Mountain View, I experienced a moment of revelation of how life differs between the shores of Lake Superior and Silicon Valley. Six young men boarded the train … all obviously geeks in their young 30's … their laptops (all Apples) were already fired up and ready. They proceeded to have a LAN party while riding the light rail on the way to work. Why was this possible?? You need to understand that Google provides free wireless to the entire town on Mountain View. The world is connected … and interacts in different ways … at least in Silicon Valley.
Now on to Lake Superior. I am sitting in my car while parked at the beginning of the Duluth Lakewalk. Lake Superior stretches out before me in her morning "blueness". I happen to know that I can hack into a wireless connection at this location. My thanks to the family which does not secure their wireless. I will not explore their hard drives, etc, but I will use their connection.
Thus, life is different on the shores of Lake Superior. I am a lone software nerd looking for a wireless hotspot … not a light rail rider with free unlimited access anywhere in my community. Out in Silicon Valley I tried Google's connection; it worked fine and did not ask for anything beyond my normal Google account.
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Do you Google? Would you like to be automatically informed of relevant Google results that match a query you pre-define? Does tracking those Google results via RSS appeal to you?
Assuming the answers to these questions are "yes", then you need to use Google Alert. This service allows you to create RSS feeds and/or email notifications against your Google query results. Over time, you may also track new content which satisfies your query options. A basic account to use Google Alert is free.
I've created an updated Google Alert tutorial / screencast which reviews the basic features and demonstrates how to create an effective alert. I use this service to track competitors, vendors, technologies, etc.
This is one cool robot … from Boston Dynamics. I was dumbfounded to see the terrain it could move across, and how it reacted when its "master engineer" kicked it! Watch the video. My dog, Spot, is friendlier! (thanks to Ted from Texas Instruments for the link)
Over the past few days I've been looking for some good engineering software tools tutorials. One of my better finds are some LabView courses which Professor Ed Doering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology has created. You've find both courses of high quality, with embedded videos which aide comprehension:
The second course is intriguing! I have found through the years that not only do huge number of engineers love music, but also perform with groups. Something about how our minds are wired! You may wish to see my prior post about the Rogarian Accordion Festival. You'll find some nice music. Use Google and you'll also find where I hang out with my accordion … in the country of Rogaria.
Finally, both of these courses have been added to the electrical engineering section of the Engineering Learning Wiki (and are indexed in the courses search engine). Although this post has been about LabView and music, via Professor Doering Rose-Hulman profile, I learned about CLEO (Circuits Learning by Example). This service has over 250 examples covering engineering linear circuit analysis, including AC and DC circuits, phasors, op amps, transients, power, and Laplace-based analysis.