Page 4
www.us-tech.com
Tech-Op-ed March, 2013
SOUNDING OFF
By Walter Salm Editor
It’s a Gift T
his issue of U.S. Tech is a gift. It’s a gift because so many people pitched in to help with the editorial chores while I underwent and recovered from open-heart surgery. The surgery was needed to replace a defective
aortic valve. But even when the editor is incapacitated, the show must go on. There are print schedules, contracts and commitments to be met, not to men- tion the date on the publication. I managed to find a really excellent surgeon at UCSF (University of California at San Francisco) Medical Center. And for the first time ever, I missed the IPC/APEX Show. One of the first things I noticed when I woke up from the surgery was a
heavy little plastic box from Philips that was tucked neatly into the breast pocket of my hospital gown. There were 7 or 8 wires (I must confess I didn’t count them) connecting to various electrodes affixed to my torso. It had a touch-screen display and was my personal heart monitor broadcasting my status to the nurses’ station. But it had trouble. It was the new kid on the block, having been placed in service only a week before my surgery. Its pred- ecessor had no screen. One memorable day, various nursing assistants and technicians visited my bedside and changed out the rechargeable battery in this device no less than 5 times. The next day, the engineers appeared with their field-strength meters, trying to determine why my personal heart mon- itor signal wasn’t being received. They must have solved the problem, because after that, they only changed the battery once a day. My 10th floor hospital room offered a magnificent view of San Francisco
Bay, which I was able to enjoy for most of my 7-day stay. I also managed to achieve some notoriety among the nurses, who had never before seen a pa- tient bring his own special extension cord. I needed it to charge my various toys: Blackberry, iPOD, Nook Book, and personal DVD player. The computer was out of the question, since there was no way I could use it from my hospi- tal bed without getting into a very painful position. There was a flat-panel TV set on a cantilever wall mount that was appar-
ently incorrectly mounted, making it totally impossible to view from my bed. So I lived for 7 days without watching TV. It was no great loss; I still had my Nook Book (I was reading the latest Tom Clancy novel) and that wonderful view out the picture window. I had been weeding out junk e-mails on my Blackberry each day, which fortunately kept a lid on my fast-growing in box, but there was still a lot of mail to deal with when I finally got home. I am grateful to be healing, and to be able to write this on my home office
computer. It’s a touch of normalcy, and a sign that I am seriously on the mend. It means I no longer have to try to tolerate hospital food. It was pret- ty bad. I had sent back so many meals virtually untouched, that one day the hospital kitchen’s dietician appeared at my bedside wanting to know why I wasn’t eating. I’m even more grateful to my wife and associate editor who has been running herself ragged, taking care of me. She was in my hospital room in San Francisco every day, no matter what. We also learned about keeping skilled human resources (writers and ed-
at the February issue of U.S. Tech, its heft and its 136 pages, our largest is- sue ever. We put this together full-well knowing that I had serious surgery coming very soon. But the show must go on, and that print edition schedule waits for no man. r
itors) available to pitch in for problem times like this. I was frankly amazed by the amount of help we received. One person, charged with doing the New Products, complained about the sheer number of products to edit. My com- ment: “Welcome to my world. That’s why I so often pull all-nighters when do- ing products.” Some time ago, I started referring to the main products section as “Mount Everest” because it feels like I am climbing that formidable peak each month. And the air is very rarified as you get near the top. The healing gets discernibly better each day. And I still look with wonder
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
By Jacob Fattal Publisher
Shows, Shows, and More Shows
tually every section of the publication. The only complaint: it was too heavy! The Electronics West/MD&M Show in Anaheim was gargantuan, as ex-
F
pected, and very upbeat. The following week, IPC/APEX in San Diego was one of the biggest APEX Shows ever. The San Diego Convention Center is where APEX first started years ago, then it moved to Anaheim, then to Los Angeles, and finally to Las Vegas. Now, after two years in San Diego’s vastly enlarged Convention Center, it’s going back to Las Vegas. That’s really a shame, be- cause San Diego has its own special kind of charm, outstanding restaurants, and incredibly balmy weather. Both the mega show in Anaheim and APEX were very upbeat with im-
proved attendance. The electronics business is growing dramatically in the U.S., and much of the talk was about onshoring —opening new facilities in the U.S. and moving production back here from the Far East. This makes sense for many products that would otherwise spend weeks or even months aboard a container ship getting to U.S. markets. Add to this the many manufacturing logistics problems when offshoring — injecting a fresh growth spurt into man- ufacturing in North America. Now, IPC is launching a brand new conference and expo called ESTC
(Electronic System Technologies Conference and Exhibition™), to be held in Las Vegas at the New Tropicana, May 20-23 of this year. This will be the in- augural event, tying together under one roof: foundry, components, board as- semblies, and complete systems. There will be exhibits, technical conference programs, keynoters, professional courses, and work- shops. It’s just another sign of the strong re- covery our industry is having. r
ebruary had to be the busiest ever, with two major trade shows in Cali- fornia, and all of the logistics that go with this scenario. We brought our readers the largest issue of U.S. Tech ever at 136 pages, expanding vir-
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 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100