Counterfeit MIL SPEC semiconductors

Yet another Aviation Week article on the dangers of counterfeit chips finding their way into US systems such as THAADS anti missile, C-130J transport, Apache and Chinook helicopters.  The article goes on to scary speculation with counterfeit chips might have concealed backdoors allowing an enemy to disable US weapons systems in time of war thru a sneaky internet attack.
   This is largely a self inflicted wound.  The military wants to approve each semiconductor device that goes into a weapons system.  They take so long to approve a device that it is out of production by the time the Pentagon finishes doing the paperwork.  Since the makers can not obtain approved MIL SPEC devices from the OEM manufacturer, instead they deal with a world full of shady wholesalers/distributers,  who for a price, will offer any old MIL SPEC chip you might need.  And  the wholesalers/disti's will find the needed chips anywhere.
    The solution is to require defense contractors to use current production commercial chips from reputable US makers.   A box  of commercial grade chips shipped from the likes of Intel, Analog Devices, Texas Instrument, Micron, Xylinx or Altera will be what the maker says they are.  A shipment of chips from Midnight Semiconductor Supply might be damn near anything , from damn near anywhere. 
   Current production commercial chips are 10 to 100 times more reliable than any kind of  MIL SPEC device.  Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.  Built a brassboard system with commercial devices, it worked fine.  Built the deliverable system with MIL-SPEC devices which were terrible.  A couple of dead devices in every box.  Electrical performance so low that we had to redesign circuits that worked fine with decent commercial devices to work with the cruddy MIL-SPEC devices.
 

A looming threat

A dock from Japan washed up on an Oregon beach the other day.  It had been washed out to sea by the terrible earthquake and tidal wave that hit Japan last year. USA Today called it a looming threat.
   Wow.  Japan suffered an earthquake, a flood, tens of thousands of deaths, even more still homeless, power shortages, rolling blackouts and radiation leaks.   But one piece of flotsam washing up on a west coast beach is a looming threat. 
   Is not something out of proportion here?

Chartres can't borrow money

Yes that Chartres, the one with the famous cathedral in France.  It's the custom of European municipalities to finance public works projects with bank loans, rather then by selling bonds, as is customary in the US.  Chartres (and a lot of other municipalities) are having trouble finding a bank that will make them a loan.  Chartres sent people as far away as China looking for loans. The point of the Wall St Journal piece is that the Euro financial hangup is slowing the European economy.  Perhaps.
   Of course you have to wonder about some of these projects.  Chartres managed to build a really nice water park and a 10 screen movie theater a few years ago with a 500 million Euro loan.  Is it appropriate for government to build recreational facilities? As opposed to letting private enterprise handle it?  Up here in darkest New Hampshire we have some really nice water parks and movie theaters and they are private operations, privately owned, privately operated, and privately financed.

Yet More Presidential Leadership

And Obama wants to hike the minimum wage.  What a great idea.  Would you rather have $10 a hour or unemployment?
   Minimum wage workers are the entry level, the summer worker, the less than diligent, the not very employable.  They are hanging onto their jobs because the little they produce brings in a little more money to the business than their pay and benefits cost the business.  
   Raise the pay and suddenly these workers cost more than they bring in.  And they get laid off. 

Don't get cocky Dept

Going into the Wisconsin recall election, all the polls predicted "Too close to call".   Instead, Scott Walker, the Republicans and the Tea Party scored a 6 to 7% victory,  somewhere between really decent and land slide. 
Right now the national polls call the Obama-Romney race "Too close to call".  Suppose those polls work out like the Wisconsin polls? In that case Romney gets a solid win. 
  Save this warm thought.  But don't count on it.  This is the year to work really really hard on beating Obama.  Any slacking off and he might win.

Innumeracy on NPR

The clock radio came on at the usual time this morning with news that Scott Walker had won in Wisconsin.  That's a good thing, I have been hoping that would happen.
But.  I listened to the same news item repeated three times.  They never did gave the vote totals.   That would require dealing with numbers, something that strikes terror into the hearts of journalism majors.  Part of the story is how much did the winner win by.  Was it a skin of the teeth squeaker, a decent margin, or a landslide?
   This was an important election, said by many to foreshadow outcome of the November presidential election.  Was it just a fear of numbers or was it a bunch of democratic NPR newsies so unhappy about a Republican victory that they decided to conceal an important part of the story?
   Follow up.  I never did heard the vote count on the radio, but the Manchester Union-Leader gave the margin of victory as 6%, which is a solid win.  Not a landslide, but decent.

Is it a typo or a ripoff?

Flemington NJ.  Nice place, I've driven thru it quite a few times on my way to Pennsylvania.  At Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington they are working on reducing hospital caused infections.  They are into housekeeping, scrub everything down to kill off lurking bacteria.  They have a fancy new scanner that can detect  bacteria on doorknobs, bed railings, tray tables, water faucets etc.  They are issuing stronger cleaners and disinfectants, trying to kill nasty bugs like Clostridium difficile and MSRA. 
  Not a bad plan.  Better to kill 'em off with Clorox on the mop than with antibiotics inside patients.
  Then we get to the "hard-to-clean" stuff like computer keyboards.  According to the Wall St. Journal article, Hunterdon is paying $15,000 EACH for washable computer keyboard.
   Wow.  $15,000 for a KEYBOARD!
   Google tells me I can get a washable computer keyboard for $19.99. 
   Either the WSJ has a typo or Hunterdon is getting ripped off big time.