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I’ve always been uneasy about the whole immigration debate because it’s tough to figure out which side I’m on. On one hand, we are a land of immigrants and opportunity, so slamming the door on the next wave of highly-motivated laborers, professionals, and entrepreneurs that have historically done much more good than harm to our economy is a distasteful idea. On the other hand, I regularly meet highly-qualified programmers, engineers and other tech workers who have suffered severe salary erosion, or have been unable to find work in their field at all because the local tech industries have managed to staff-up with imported labor made possible by the H-1B process. From a quick glance at the situation, it would be easy to blame the problem on the immigrant engineers who are apparently soaking up American jobs but a closer look reveals that it might not be quite that simple.What if the real villain was not the immigrant tech workers but the H-1B visa process? That’s what Newsweek editor Far...

What a great country America is. Consider one Daniel Sadek, a pathetic bearded 30s-something punk with a third-grade education. Nonetheless, Sadek's perspicacity fathomed a way to join his peers who were turning $5000 a week selling sub-prime (we should say sub-sub-prime) mortgages to over-eager would-be homeowners in southern California. Sadek the opportunist turned hundreds of millions of dollars in no time with his mortgage-for-free gambit.%IMG_left_full_710%Now consider Bernard Madoff. A reprobate Charles Ponzi would be proud of, outwardly respectable Bernie rubbed shoulders with the best on Wall Street, even as he leveraged his clever $50 billion accounting schemes. His standing in the New York financial community included positions on elite commissions and securities boards. The well-educated scoundrel even held a coveted seat on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Madoff bought the whole enchilada.%IMG_right_full_711%Sadek, on the other hand, started out as a two-bit used car salesman. Drifting from car lot to ...

The Constitution of the United States of America has been sorely troubled over the last eight years of the Bush administration. Hopefully, but not yet fully clearly, the Obama-led team will play more honestly with the American people, and the world. It would be nice to hear, for example, that the harsh interrogation techniques used on detainees are not only being stopped but are also going to be investigated for potential indictments against those that ordered them, allowed them, and administered them in contravention of international law against torture.Bush makes his first trip out of the US in March 2009. It is a soft trip in that it is unlikely that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will arrest him on landing in Alberta, Canada, but woe betide him if he decides to go further afoot at some time to a country like The Netherlands. It is extremely likely that there are countries out there who have in-camera indictments already filed against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others.And while a return to Constitutiona...

The recent announcements by Altera and Xilinx of their respective 40-nm FPGA families was a welcome bit of good news shining amidst the grey mists that dominate today’s bleak economic landscape. If there had been any doubt until now about whether FPGAs would ever be a cost-effective alternative to ASICs, the capabilities, power consumption and value that these new programmable devices offer has now laid that to rest. Indeed, FPGAs have hit a new stage of maturity where the same market dynamics that govern other mature high-stakes, high-tech products like silicon foundries and airliners will shape their evolution from here on.The competition between Altera and Xilinx is reminiscent of the struggle we’re seeing play out between the two big airframe makers, Boeing and Airbus, as they roll out their massively-complex next-generation aircraft. With development costs for a next-gen aircraft running into multiple billions, each aircraft maker can only afford to roll out a single new design, a design...

As we spiral towards the Epic Depression of the 21st Century, politicos and pundits rattle on about funding for infrastructure. President Obama and politicians talk about repairing roads, bridges, and levees. What about railroads?When Eisenhower's visionary Interstate Highway system was built, and gas was cheap and bountiful, everyone thought America's transportation limitations were overcome. But, have you traveled over any busy Interstate these days? I hit I-93 in New Hampshire recently during the commuter rush to Boston. It was a 50-mile long parking lot.Clogged RoadsThe scene is repeated daily across America. What should be an hour's drive along some Interstate routes can take many hours. Drivers pay a big price for clogged roads, too. The US Department of Transportation reports that Interstate traffic congestion costs highway users more than $65 billion a year in lost time and fuel.Air travel isn't all that much better. Interminable delays are rampant these days. Air travel is subject to the vagaries of ...

Everyone is having it tough. It is not just the world of electronics; it is tough for everyone except, perhaps, fast-food chains, thrift stores and pawnbrokers. When I was a kid it was assumed, if you were from a moneyed family (I was most certainly not) or if you had an inherited title in your lineage, that you would go to boarding school. Your parents expected the dormitory life, cold water showers, harsh discipline and lousy food to toughen you up so that you could all the more appreciate the good things in life.Almost all of us are going through that kind of back-to-basics scenario now. But at EN-Genius we will still strive to go beyond just the basics with real editorial coverage, weekly publication, and expert credibility, even through these gloomy days. That is because we realize that you need us in order to turn out the top-notch technology that will play a role in un-digging the deep economic hole we are all in. And we in turn need you: to share your message with the industry on this site, yes...but ...

As automobile companies in the US clamor for taxpayer bailout dollars, they’re extolling the virtues of hybrid vehicles and imminent electric cars such as the Chevrolet Volt. In spite of the fact that test drivers adored General Motors' ill-fated EV1 electric vehicles, GM contends its predecessor design was unworkable and too expensive. %IMG_left_full_692%So, while GM and other carmakers pitch their wares and thrash about for funds, developers elsewhere in the world are implementing some sensationally different techniques for powering vehicles.Simply PneumaticOne of the most fascinating developments is the compressed air engine. In France, University of Orleans students are already building prototypes. These hybrid pneumatic engines use conventional fuel, but contain an extra intake valve dedicated to compressed air. If a car is braking or coasting, the engine's cylinders use this valve to pump air into a pressure tank. When not braking, this compressed air is fed back into the engine to help drive the ...

Whether it's Ethernet, USB interfaces, or Velcro, the real value of a technology can often be measured by the number of applications it finds that were never anticipated by its inventor. While only a few of us can aspire to entering a home-built spaceship or 100-mpg vehicle in an X-Prize competition, there are a whole lot more electronic engineers out there (yes, I mean you!) who can put their talents to work finding new and innovative ways to put existing technologies to work. That's why I'm so excited to have the opportunity to help judge Vitesse's VScope Engineering Design Challenge.Vitesse has asked EN-Genius to help them organize a contest that unleashes your engineering talent on their new family of VScope devices. Intended for high-speed serial data applications, VScope’s scope-on-chip and signal integrity capabilities give designers a new, powerful tool for taming the unruly behavior of multi-Gigabit data streams in challenging real-world environments like backplanes, printed circuit boards...

At this writing (January 26, 2009), the US Senate unanimously passed the DTV Transition Date Bill (S.328) to delay the shutdown of analog TV signals (on higher power, main station transmitters) from the long-announced date of February 17 until June 12. The Bill has been passed to the House of Representatives, and although action was expected today, it now looks like there will be a vote tomorrow, January 28.A similar bill was introduced in the House earlier in January, but it was blocked by Republicans on the basis that delaying the channel availability that would be freed up would endanger first responders and confuse the public. A two-thirds margin is required on a bill passed from the Senate, so the Republicans will block the first vote. But with the massive Democratic majority in the House it is virtually guaranteed that the Senate version will pass with no problem whatsoever when it gets voted on again within a few days – certainly before February 17!I really, really hate to admit this but, on bala...

Unabashed promotion is nothing new. Trade shows and advertisements abound with freebie samples, but few companies really give away anything of great substance. Yes, you can score an evaluation or development kit occasionally or grab some free technical notes. You might be lucky enough to sample some limited-usage software, or glom an occasional chip or two, but real utility remains elusive until you dig deep.%IMG_left_full_682%It was with a measure of surprise then, that I learned about an intriguing announcement from Amherst Systems Associates, a Massachusetts-based test-and-measurement company that focuses on clock and timing engineering. ASA will be giving away a copy of its very useful M1 Oscilloscope Tools (Standard Edition) to every attendee that stops by booth 733 at DesignCon 2009 in Santa Clara, California, at the Convention Center. We reviewed this fabulous product  when it debuted in December of 2007.A Meltdown GestureAs company president Mike Williams points out, this is offer is potentially ...