Micro Contacts IC Test Sockets

Formed Micro Bump Contacts

The world of miniature contacts is quite amazing. Pictured above is a special test socket with formed micro contact bumps that are .005 inch (0.127mm) in diameter. There are quite a number of processes used in creating this miniature structure involving photo chemical machining and miniature “bump forming techniques” (for lack of a better word).

Micro Test Socket To give everyone a concept of how small these micro bumps really are, the picture on the left is the actual size (not a thumbnail image) of the test socket. Simply amazing how small things are getting. Many of these types of devices are used in products for the military, aerospace, communications, and a host of other high tech industries. Photos courtesy of E-FAB.

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Google Goes Solar Green Big Time

Solar Panel Arrays Atop the Googleplex


Google Solar Project Courtesy Blue Oak Energy, Inc.

Google now has a solar system on it’s roof tops and carports that will pay for itself in as little as 7.5 years. With the price of energy in the stratosphere, it makes economical sense to invest in a solar system that can supply a large chuck of the power required to run a commercial business or a residential home. The energy savings will immediately be felt in a reduction from the largest tier based electric costs. By designing a system that produces the brunt of the electricity requirements, a residential homeowner or commercial business can reduce their dependence on the electrical grid.

Most new solar systems are designed with the capabilities of feeding directly into the electrical power grid when the sun is out, and the panels are producing electricity. Where as in the evening, the consumer or business draws off the grid, when demand is typically low. New meters are installed that will operate in both directions. When the solar system is generating more power than is being used at the immediate location at that time, the meter will in fact run backwards. Alternatively, when using more electricity than is being supplied by the photovoltaic solar systems, the meter will run in the forward direction.

Some businesses and homeowners have gone and installed more solar arrays above and beyond what makes the most economical sense. This, while helping to eliminate the dependence on the power grid, will substantially extend the payback period.

Check out some of the slide shows of the photo voltaic, PV systems designed and installed by Blue Oak Energy Inc.

Also check out a couple of videos below.
The first one is a time lapse construction of the solar carports.

The second one is a conceptualized version using Google Earth and Google SketchUp to view the different installations at the Google facilities.

Article by: Jim Warholic
Professional Web Services, Inc.

Technology For The Masses

Everything Is Driven By Technology

The US and other developed countries are fueling the world with the power of hi-tech. This very same technology that consumers love to have in their homes here in the US, brings to the third world countries jobs by the millions. Due to the demand through out the consumer world for lower prices, more powerful computers, cell phones that have games, built in cameras and mp3 players, faster online access, Internet apps, satellite radios, smaller, faster, and bigger electronic gadgets, gamers, hybrid autos, GPS systems and a whole host of other built in electronic items has created the driving force behind the world’s economy.

Scores of jobs could be said to have been lost to China. But, has the US market place really lost those jobs to China? Would we really be buying all the stuff that we do today if the prices were ten times higher? If things were ten times higher would the US economy be better or worse? There certainly are two schools of thought here. If you talk to two economists, they can’t even agree on the facts. That is because the what ifs come into play and it is impossible to prove the facts beyond what already has occurred.

Internet technology has affected the world in both the good and the bad. Identity theft or just the stealing of credit card information has created a virtual web based crime ring that extends to all corners of the globe.

Businesses are finding that they can no longer operate the way they once did. Newspapers and publications are loosing market share to free online channels of information. Profits are being squeezed with manufacturers because of the pressures of cheaper and cheaper labor and electronic components. Large Super Stores like Wal-Mart are dictating lower pricing of their suppliers and forcing companies to build their products offshore to meet the lower pricing demands. Which means more lost jobs for the United States.

Everything is tied together. It is impossible to stop the universal flow toward the lowest prices in the world. The Internet may turn out to be both the biggest asset and our worst nightmare at the same time. The world is beginning to become as one.

So, where do we go from here? This requires wisdom and understanding.

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Car Of The Future

Is This The Future of Transportation?

Watch the entire video to see the GM Highwire Car of the future. The power plant is a hydrogen fuel cell with no batteries. The built-in hydrogen power station is said to be so powerful that a house or even half the block could be powered by it. They expect to have these cars available in ten to twenty years. The source for the hydrogen is said to be sea salt water. Just drive down to your local salt water station and Fill ‘Er Up.

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The Military HAARP Project

What Is The HAARP? High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program
By: James A. Warholic, President of Professional Web Services, Inc.

Antenna Farm Array
www.haarp.alaska.edu
HAARP Cam

What some might think is just a wild technology and an unbelievable story, is in fact based on some interesting research activities going on up in Alaska and other places.

Background Information

Remember the name Nicola Tesla? If you paid attention in some of those physics classes when the teacher was talking about electrical properties you might of heard of this guy.

Tesla, Nikola
(b. July 9/10, 1856, Smiljan, Croatia–d. Jan. 7, 1943, New York City), Serbian-American inventor and researcher who discovered the rotating magnetic field, the basis of most alternating-current machinery. He emigrated to the United States in 1884 and sold the patent rights to his system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers, and motors to George Westinghouse the following year. In 1891 he invented the Tesla coil, an induction coil widely used in radio technology.
www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla/bio.htm

So Nikola Tesla was the father of AC Alternating Current along with a number of other inventions. Some of the concepts such as, transmission and radiation of radio frequency energy, high-voltage high-frequency radio propagation, and X-ray microwave technology that Tesla and another scientist by the name of Guglielmo Marconi, are what the HARRP Project is based on.

Guglielmo Marconi

The “Father of Radio”

Radio waves were known as ‘Hertzian Waves‘ when Marconi began experimenting in 1894. A few years earlier Heinrich Hertz had produced and detected the waves across his laboratory. Marconi’s achievement was to produce and detect the waves over long distances, laying the foundations for what today we know as radio.

www.marconiusa.org/marconi

Currently there is research going on with the HAARP Project from the University of Alaska as well as DARPA. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense (DoD). It manages and directs selected basic and applied research and development projects for DoD, and pursues research and technology where risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions.

DARPA established an MOA, Memorandum Of Agreement, with the Air Force for this program in August 2002. The HAARP technology is planned for transition to the Air Force and Navy in FY 2006.
www.darpa.mil/tto/programs/haarp.htm

So What Does The HAARP Project Do?

For starters, it is a massive antenna farm in which high power radio waves are beamed up into the ionsphere. Major amounts of power are used to generate directional frequency waves into the ionsphere.

Tactical Technology Office

High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project (HAARP)

Program Manager: Dr. Sheldon Meth

Overview

The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project (HAARP) will develop new experimental research capabilities and will conduct research programs to exploit emerging ionosphere and radio science technologies related to advanced defense applications.

The FY 1990 Appropriation Act provided funds for the creation of HAARP, jointly managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Office of Naval Research to exploit emerging ionosphere and high power radio technology for new military systems applications.

Key to the current effort is the expansion of the experimental research facility that includes a 3.6 MW high-frequency transmitter and a variety of diagnostic instruments, to conduct investigations to characterize the physical processes that can be initiated and controlled in the ionosphere and space, via interactions with high power radio waves.

Among these are:

(1) the generation of extremely low frequency/very low frequency radio waves for submarine and other subsurface communication, and the reduction of charged particle populations in the radiation belts to ensure safe spacecraft systems operations;

(2) the control of electron density gradients and the refractive properties in selected regions of the ionosphere to create radio wave propagation channels; and

(3) the generation of optical and infrared emissions in space to calibrate space sensors.

To date, the facility has been developed to include a suite of optical and radio diagnostics and an advanced, modern, high frequency transmitting array that has a radiated power of 960 kW, about one-third of the 3.6MW called for in the original concept and plan. The current high frequency transmitting array has proven to be extremely reliable and flexible, and has shown the feasibility of the overall concept. However, results to date indicate that advanced applications-related research activities and new military system concept demonstrations envisioned under the program require that the high frequency transmitting capability at the site be increased from the present 960 kW level to the originally planned 3.6 MW level.

A recent study completed by an Air Force/Navy Panel also points to additional high-value functions that can potentially be accomplished with the a 3.6 MW capability, in particular, the exploration and refinement of scientific principles that could lead to the development and deployment of a system to provide protection for space-based assets from emergent asymmetric threats. DARPA established an MOA with the Air Force for this program in August 2002. The HAARP technology is planned for transition to the Air Force and Navy in FY 2006.

Program Plans

  • Complete the HAARP high frequency transmitting array at the HAARP Research Station, Gakona, AK.
  • Prepare the existing HAARP facility in preparation for ionspheric testing.
  • Conduct advanced ionosphere and radio science research and analysis of applications including space-based asset protection and phenomena related to its implementation.

In short, the government plans for HAARP are for research and testing out various Star Wars technologies along with the various related phenomenas associated with this techology.

That is quite an open-ended plan. Were it goes from here is anybody’s guess.

Some other thoughts on HAARP
www.haarp.net
HAARP Project News
HAARP Project Books
HAARP Project Scholar
HAARP Project Images

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Heat Staking The World Together

Metal and Plastic Heat Staking in Manufacturing and Assembly
By: James A. Warholic

Ever see the insides of a cell phone and wonder how it is assembled? How about the small metal battery compartments inside hi-tech toys? Ever taken apart the miniature memory modules that go in digital cameras? These products and others such as keyboards, laptop computers, cordless phones, SIMM cards, PCMCIA card modules, automotive parts, and even the remote controls are assembled with what is known as the heat staking process.

Heat Staking Process

When a manufacture wants to join metal-to-metal or plastics-to-metal via small plastic posts that protrude from the plastic housing a heat staking machine is used to apply controlled heat, time, and pressure through a heat staking head. Typically the head is heated up to a controlled temperature. Once heated to the proper temperature depending on the types of metals and plastics being staked, the head makes contact with the protruding plastic posts and are formed into various types of heat staked posts. Staked post types include: Flat, Profile, Dome, Hollow, Cross-Shaped, and Rosette Posts.

When an entire plastic side needs to be formed into a plastic lip to hold a metal device, glass lens, or another plastic assembly in place, this process is referred to as side swaging.

The heat staking process is found in the following sectors: aerospace, industrial, medical, dental, automotive, semiconductor, electrical, appliance, telecommunications, fixtures, electronics, house-wares, cellular, communications, memory module units, sporting equipment, PCB connector, PDAs, LCD connectors, computers, and more. Just about every type of manufacturing industry uses some form of heat staking to assemble their products.

Heat Stake Machines (Thermal Presses)

The equipment used for heat staking comes in a wide variety of types and styles. The heat stake machines are sometimes referred to as thermal presses. Many of these thermal press machines are custom made to accommodate various product sizes and product lines. Tooling can be custom designed to allow for various manufactured parts to be assembled via heat staking from one machine. Simply remove one tooling setup and interchange it with another.

Ultrasonic Staking Machines

Ultrasonics is also another form of product assembly, but due to the new tighter tolerance size constraints of the miniature products and the larger size head design requirements for ultrasonics to function properly, and typically a slower throughput with ultrasonic assembly equipment, more manufactures are heading to the heat staking machines route for their mass production parts and products assemblies. A key advantage is that heat staking heads (the portion of the equipment that makes contact with the plastic piece) can be designed to incorporate very small multi-point contacts to speed up the mass production assembly process. In essence, you can have a dozen or more contacts all making contact at the same time on a very small assembly component, and quickly stake the entire assembly all in one cycle.

Heat Sealing Machines

The same machines used for heat staking can also be used for the heat sealing process. For example, when LCD display units need to be applied to a circuit board assembly, a special conductive heat activated glue-like adhesive is activated with a heat press machine. For an example of how a heat staking and heat sealing machine and head function for a cell phone or memory module see YouTube for heat staking and heat sealing videos.

The heat staking process is known for its outstanding repeatability in the mass production environment. Heat staked joints in the miniature world of plastics assembly can withstand the rigors of vibration of heavy daily use of the assembled products. The process is also known for the mega machines that are involved in the large format automotive sector. Dashboard covers, door panels, and even the dashboard assemblies themselves are assembled with these mega heat staking machines.

No doubt about it, we live in a mass production heat staked world.

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Battery Powered Vehicles

My, how have we progressed since the horse and buggy days!

New Battery Powered Vehicles

NEW BATTERY POWERED ELECTRIC SCOOTER VEHICLESIn the early days of self propelled vehicles they ran on steam. Now we have a whole new generation of self propelled vehicles using battery technology and super efficient high powered motors. A number of these electric scooter vehicles are starting to be used at large warehouses and even at car racing events for pit crews to use from one end of Pit alley to the other.

Even Detroit Automakers are trying to play catch-up to the Japanese Automakers by getting into the picture of designing hybrid cars based on battery technology. Though the leader appears to be Honda in the race for bringing top fuel efficient engines in hybrid cars to the market place.

See story at HybridCars.com

Last week, however, Honda “leaked to the Wall Street Journal its progress on developing a new type of more efficient, cleaner-burning engine: a four-cylinder gasoline engine that uses Homogeneous Charged Compression Ignition. Read full hybrid cars story

Currently the Honda Insight holds the top mileage for hybrids.

The new technology being talked about is the hydrogen fuel cell engine. The one major hang-up with hydrogen fuel cells is the fact that the fuel is more expensive to produce and store than the traditional hydrocarbons.

Maybe the next generation of vehicles will run on something that has not even been harnessed yet. I guess we will have to wait and see.

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Flock Blogging

I’ll never forget the first time I used a browser for web navigation. It was called Mosaic and was originally loaded on my Mac PowerPC 6100 computer. Wow have Internet times changed! Now I am using a MacBook Pro.

Out of the old technology days and browsers of yesteryear web navigation came the Netscape Mozilla and Internet Explorer browsers, with others following. Now comes a brand new start-up with the attempt to turn the world upside down as far as web browsing is concerned.

Meet The Flock

Flock is a creative new browser that is doing things in a different and unique way. In fact their statement on their about page sums it up:

Who are you people, anyway?

Well, we’re pretty much a bunch of regular folks trying to shake things up.

To describe the Flock browser is difficult to do. It has interesting features that remind me a little of the Apple Safari and Firefox Mozilla Browser all rolled into one with additional features for Blogging. In fact, one area developers are targeting is Bloggers in general.

One of the features of this browser is the built-in control panel for uploading, editing, and managing the content on any blog. Additional features allow you to share bookmarks with others online. Take a look at what you can do.

Business Week had an article on this start-up company.

To really understand what you can do with this Internet Browser requires hands-on experience. Currently Flock has a download version for experimentation by developers and individuals. It still is in a development state but anyone can download it and try it out. They certainly are looking for quality feedback.

Additionally, when you download the Flock Browser you get a free WordPress Blogging account. I wanted to experiment with another blogging software and thought I would try both the software and the browser at the same time.

Take a look at our B2B website for, creative ideas for business owners.

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Is Big Brother Listening to Your Keyboard?

Your KeyboardShush, is your keyboard speaking?

Not in the literal sense, although they probably have talking keyboards, but there is a program, developed by a computer scientist student at UC Berkeley, that can listen to the keyboard strokes and decipher with over 90% accuracy what was typed.

The audio recording is done with a simple recording device placed near the subject. Then the audio is fed through a program algorithm which processes and deciphers the keystrokes.

Passwords and other personal and identifiable information can be ascertained through this type of processing.

While the computer scientist student set out to demonstrate the security holes in using keyboards, I would imagine there are applications that could come out of this technology that would be helpful to the world. At present though, I find it difficult to come up with any ideas that would make this type of program useful in other ways. Of course, the development of other spy technology stuff has helped in various fields of business. For example, the super powerful spy satellites that can read the information on a dollar bill from thousands of miles in space has helped in the field of mapping technologies, analysis of tectonic plate movements, weather analysis, and even GPS tracking.

As with any new technology, (watch out for hidden keystroke logger software installed as spyware on your computer) the potential is always present to use it for evil. Hopefully , something good will result from the keyboards.

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Online Operating Systems / Web Applications


The time is coming when the computer operating system at home or the office will need to be nothing more than a connection to the Internet. Web Applications and Operating Systems will reside online and even your files will be able to be stored in a secure online area.

Today, businesses utilize internal web applications that reside on a Intranet server to do all types of CRM, order processing, billing, and even word processing. These types of processes are also being done through the Internet with Realtors for example using MLS search services set up through their websites or CRM activities with advanced software for sending out updates to registered individuals.

Google has shown that storing your emails online can be a great benefit for anyone using the service. Storage prices continue to plummet, making it more and more cost effective to store information online. The next step is to have backup storage for your files online. Taking this a step further, by skipping the backup storage solution, with actually keeping your files in a secure area that you can get to from any computer in the world would be a great leapfrog solution.

Word processing is probably one of the most used applications in the world. MS Word leads the charge with powerful features for layout and design for the average person. In fact, I would venture to say that most individuals do not use one tenth of the features that this program provides. Some word processing applications even include spread sheets, bookkeeping, and inventory functions within the same program. See story:

Here are some ways Google and Sun could work together by ZDNet‘s Russell Shaw — No, that’s not real- yet. That’s my mod of how a Google toolbar and a Google Talk prompt could look inside Sun’s StarOffice 8 Impress, StarOffice’s presentation product. Yesterday’s announcement that Google and Sun Microsystems will promote each other’s products brings to mind an old proverb “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”Sun is a […]

The natural progression or evolution of the Internet will be able to have a virtual operating system. In fact this is already taking place. If you take a look at the way things are going now, we have online banking, automatic bill pay, credit card processing, and even great software which allows me to publish on the Internet.

I recently read that Microsoft is concerned about the strides that Google is making into territory that once was regarded as MS only. Several writers have wondered out loud if Google has an operating system in the offering. Maybe the operating system is already there in the form of the virtual Internet world that we all live in. It would be a piece of cake for someone to offer a great word processing program online. Google Docs

Imagine what it would be like to compose a research article on super conductors or hydrogen fuel cells and every time the article is saved, automatic searches are configured based on the keywords in the article. Simply hit the link and you are taken to the keyword searches. This would have the advantage of providing relevant information, and with algorithms built around spurring the mind on into new territories would make better writers of us all. On the right side of the article could be related advertisements. Composing a business article to be printed and postal mailed or attached to an email would be as simple as composing and attaching it to an email or printing it out on your local or networked printer and slipped into the mailbox.

Microsoft – “Gates Warns of ‘Sea Change’ in Memo”
http://www.osnews.com/story/12595

Imagine the software technology possibilities.

Article update: 3/22/2011
It looks like things are coming to fruition: Google Operating System

By: James A. Warholic
President Professional Web Services
Internet Marketing and Online Advertising Solutions