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New and Improved 2010Greetings, I am looking forward to a great 2010. 2009 spread a great deal of change throughout our business and personal lives. The economy has caused almost every one of our clients to become more conservative, including us. However, I’m proud to say that Viewpoint continues to look towards the future by following through on our 2009 annual goals.
Prognosticating the next 12 months based on conversations with customers, I see 2010 to be very similar to the last 6 months of 2009 with a trend towards recognition in the latter half of 2010 that renewed investment is required to stay abreast with the rest of the world. I am optimistic about 2010. Stay tuned for announcements in this newsletter for upcoming events which will help you improve your product test capabilities. This month continues the series on 7 Challenges for Highly Effective Test Engineers with with a discussion about Resource Limitations Thanks for reading!
Jim Campbell |
 Viewpoint Helps Buffalo Museum of Science
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Viewpoint Systems has been working with Moog, Inc. of Buffalo, NY, a very long-standing client of ours, to freshen one of the interactive exhibits at the Buffalo Museum of Science. The exhibit is located in the “Our Place in Space” section. The user stands on a weight scale and selects a planet in the solar system. The interface then shows the user’s weight on the selected planet along with interesting facts about the planet. Stu McFarlane of Viewpoint said that he wrote the LabVIEW program to interface to the scale and digital display interface and Moog provided the hardware, assembly, and user interface. Stu said: “We were honored that Moog asked for our help and we are proud to be a part of the improvement of the museum”. Stu had some extra fun with the big monitor for the exhibit. Take a look at this image. |
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Resource Limitations
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In the past three months, I have discussed topics from the ‘7 Challenges for Highly Effective Test Engineers’ that are fairly technical. This month’s topic starts the discussion about steps actually needed to build or upgrade the test system. Specifically, I will focus on the under-appreciated topic of resource limitations. The scenario starts with you being given a project with an unbelievably short timeline, using unfamiliar technology, and you are not sure how to complete the project on time. Read on to find out how to achieve project success. |
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Solving the Invention of Rubik's Cube |
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Before it became the world's top-selling puzzle game, Rubik’s Cube was a tool to study the structure of cubes. Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik desired to analyze ways to let the little cubes (called “cubies” or “cubelets”) move without the big cube falling apart. His initial attempts at holding the cubies together with rubber bands did not work. Due to the architectural nature of his designs, he could not use magnets as other inventors had already done (more on that later). Rubik’s design used interlocking plastic pieces with each side of the cube having different-colored paper to allow Rubik to track the movement of the cubies. Rubik was not the only one to develop hand-held rotating puzzles. In March 1970, Larry Nichols of the United States invented a 2 x 2 x 2 "Puzzle with Pieces Rotatable in Groups" based on magnets named "Twizzle". On January 16, 1974, Frank Fox received a UK patent for his "Spherical 3 x 3 x 3". The puzzle so well known today appeared originally when Erno Rubik applied for a Hungarian patent for the “Magic Cube” in January 1975. Nearly simultaneously, Terutoshi Ishigi developed a 3 x 3 x 3 puzzle for which he received a Japanese patent in 1976. Eventually Ideal Toy bought exclusive rights to the “Magic Cube” in 1979 and changed the name to “Rubik’s Cube” for greater trademark protection. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubik's_Cube#Patent_disputes |
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