Who? What? Why? Where? When? and How?


Taking home the gift horse B


Steve Rogerson’s round-up of last month’s news and events, including some which may have slipped under the radar


eware technology companies bearing gifts. OK, that is a golden rule but even someone who is as long in the tooth as me should have politely refused the bright lime-green polo shirts being given away at a recent Enocean press conference. Now, I like polo shirts, though I prefer black, but I thought I’ll give fluorescent green a go. So, the next morning I put on the shirt and went about my business. All was fine until I nipped into Asda to do a bit of shopping and was soon puzzled why perfect strangers kept coming up to me and asking questions such as what aisle the cream crackers were in and so on. It eventually dawned on me when I reached the checkout – yes, the official Asda uniform is, you guessed it, bright green. When I related this story to a friend later, her only comment was that at least they got paid for wearing theirs.


My travels recently have taken me to Shanghai to attend the official opening of Adlink’s new factory. During the tour, I was curious to see that the building contained twelve fully equipped hotel rooms for putting up guests. My guide chose not to comment on whether room service was included. Each room though contained twin beds rather than a double, presumably to discourage them being used for workplace romances.


I have also visited recently the beautiful Bavarian city of Regensburg. I spent a heavenly afternoon in a beer garden attached to a brewery by the River Danube watching the World Cup. It was automotive firm Continental that took me out there and I was amused by how the head of the company’s fuel supply business unit, Markus Distelhoff, explained what five parts per million meant in practice. That is the reject rate for the 100 million fuel pumps the company has delivered. He compared this to a couple both of whom were 80 years old.


“If they have been ill only 5ppm of their lives, how long have they been ill for?” he asked delegates. The answer he said was just three and a half hours.


I was not amused though when the


company took journalists to look at its turbocharger testing facility and then announced that we were not allowed to take any photographs. When I objected to this, one of the Continental managers came up to me and explained that they had a sensitive security system that would be triggered by the flash from the camera. Smelling a rat, I said that was OK as I would turn the flash off to take the photographs. No, he said, you still can’t take photographs. So I was doubly annoyed, annoyed at not being allowed to take photographs and annoyed at being fed a load of bull about sensitive security systems. Another enjoyable alcohol related press event came from RS Components, which decided to entertain journalists at Vinopolis, a wine tasting experience venue near London Bridge station. Being more a beer man than a wine buff, I was a little concerned but was happy to discover they also made their own beer, which I used to wash away the taste of the various wine samples we were given. I must confess I did learn a bit more about the mechanics of wine tasting, such as analysing the colour and smell and so on. It really is almost as sophisticated as beer in some ways, though the different ingredients in beer obviously make it a far more complex product. I even found a wine I quite liked – a New Zealand wine called Ram Paddock Red, which was not totally unlike a good Belgian lambic beer.


Moving on, in time that is, those who have been enjoying Matt Smith’s first season as the Doctor in Doctor Who may have also picked up their ears during Ronald Mallett’s keynote speech at the recent Embedded Systems Conference in Chicago. The theoretical physicist told surprised delegates that he was on a lifelong mission to build his own Tardis. He claimed that he was on the threshold of making time travel a reality and was looking for funding to pay for more experiments. Well, good luck with that. If he finds someone with the money, I hope he lets me know as I have this interesting flying pig theory that a couple of million quid could help me develop.


Hats off to Rochester Electronics for bringing fun into the fight against counterfeit and substandard semiconductors by creating Captain Rochester, a comic book style hero that fights the fraudsters with a “BANG” and “KA-POW”. The company has even released Captain Rochester collectable trading cards and is taking the hero round comic conventions. This is definitely a trend I would like to see continued and I will be most disappointed if some of the UK electronics companies don’t have their own superheroes by the end of the year.


Prince of Wales unveils plaque at Charcroft Electronics


A plaque commemorating the 25th anniversary of Charcroft Electronics’ move to Dol-y-Coed, in Llanwrtyd Wells, was unveiled last month by HRH The Prince of Wales. During a tour of Charcroft’s distribution offices and CECC-approved manufacturing facility The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall talked to Charcroft employees and were shown a demonstration of precision resistor trimming. Commenting on the royal visit managing


director, Paul Newman, said “The Royal visit marks the date on which Charcroft relocated to Dol-y-Coed, where we have continued to


develop our specialist distribution linecard and manufacturing services to become the largest employer in Llanwrtyd Wells.” Built circa 1535, Dol-y-Coed was a renowned spa hotel during the Victorian era. The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall were shown how Charcroft has completely renovated this historic building, with the help of local craftsmen, to combine its original character with a high-tech 21st century business. Use of reclaimed materials has been a priority during the restoration and has included using wood from a fallen oak tree.


The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall with Charcroft’s managing director, Paul Newman, and company secretary, June Newman.


42 July/August 2010 Components in Electronics www.cieonline.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44