5:13 PM
http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=055&ACCT=0000100&ISSUE=1010&RELTYPE=IN&PRODCODE=00000&PRODLETT=DT&source=&CommonCount=0
A single hardware failure appears to have prevented launch control officers from communicating or monitoring the status of *50* Minuteman III nuclear missiles for 45 minutes. One Air Force officer is quoted as saying that he has heard of 3 or 4 missiles having a communication problem but never 50 at once:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/communications-dropped-to-50-nuke-missiles-in-icbm-snafu/
Article about how China's engineering power has been demonstrated by their fastest train ever (220 mph top speed) and reaching the maximum electricity generation of the Three Gorges Dam (84.7 billion kilowatt hours is supposed to be its peak):
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2010/10/Manufacturing-Engineering-Fast-train-big-dam-show-Chinas-engineering-might/
Robot gripper runs on everyday ground coffee and a latex party balloon:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-10/cu-rgr102510.php
The FCC's estimate of the number of smartphone users has been inflated--they have been saying 42% while around 23% is the actual number. Instead of looking at the real numbers, the FCC was citing a survey of 4,068 early adopters and professionals in business, technology, and medicine:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/10/fcc-report-inflates-smartphone-usage-estimate-researcher-says/1
AT&T says that its first LTE device will be released this year but will *not* be able to roam onto Verizon's LTE network. Even though both Verizon and AT&T are using 700 MHz, Verizon is using band class 13 and AT&T is in band class 17. I don't know why the media asked AT&T about this--since when do AT&T and Verizon share their data networks?
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/ts-first-lte-capable-device-wont-roam-verizons-lte-network/2010-10-26
Survey found that Electronic OEM employees averaged a salary increase of 1.2% this year, better than the 3.6% decrease that the average engineer in the survey had last year. Since salaries have stagnated, non-salary compensation (stock options, bonuses, etc.) increased to 8-9% of an engineer's paycheck. 29% of engineers surveyed said that their company plans to increase the number of engineers they have in the coming year (up from 20% last year) and 42% say that their company is having trouble finding qualified candidates for open engineering positions. I am actually looking for a new position now and have seen a significant increase in the number of positions advertised this month compared to previous months when I checked the market conditions:
http://electronicdesign.com/article/careers/2010-Salary-Survey-How-Much-Bounce-In-The-Rebound-.aspx