Mel's Picks

If you visit the site for AIM, the global trade association for automatic identification, you'll find news and links about various automatic identification technologies, including RFID, bar codes, card technologies, and their related standards. You can sign up for relevant newsletters, view surveys, and even submit a request for proposal, or RFP.

Melanie Martella
Melanie Martella

www.aimglobal.org

If you're thinking about finding a new job (or are between jobs at the moment), here's another Web site to add to your arsenal. Set up as a federal-state partnership, America's Job Bank is for both job seekers and companies and lets you search for jobs all over the country, post your resume, search for potential employees, and even set up an automated search for likely candidates. So far so good, but then you add in all the other related information such as the required skills and typical pay scales for the various jobs, help and information if you're relocating, a financial aid center, and even information on the labor market.



www.ajb.org

Think of it as a cross between Dilbert and LEGO. Yes, The Cubes is another example of strange yet appealing merchandise. With each set you get a corporate drone and his/her cube, complete with office furniture, stickers to put on the walls and computer screen to give the proper air of authenticity, and job title stickers to add the perfect finishing touch to the tableau. Warped genius.



The manufacturer's site includes a Job Title Generator, which is definitely good for a giggle. The name of the fictional employer? GigantaMegaCorp. Slogan: "Paving the Way for Robots."



www.cubefigures.com

New to Bookshelves!

Sensor Technology Handbook

Editor: Jon S. Wilson
Published by Newnes, an imprint of Elsevier
ISBN: 0-7506-7729-5

At about 700 pages, this book does not count as light reading. However, if you are looking for a serious handbook covering all types of sensors rather than specializing in one subset, you may want to check this one out. Jon Wilson's stated aim is to provide a practical, up-to-date resource on sensor technology, gathering the information you need if you're designing sensor systems or working with them.

Quick Poll
Quick Poll

There are 22 chapters covering both established and emerging sensor technologies. Chapter topics include sensor fundamentals; application considerations; measurement issues and criteria; signal conditioning; acceleration, shock, and vibration sensors; biosensors; chemical sensors; capacitive and inductive displacement sensors; electromagnetism; flow and level sensors; force, load, and weight sensors; humidity sensors; machinery vibration monitoring; optical and radiation sensors; position and motion sensors; pressure sensors; sensors for mechanical shock; test and measurement microphones; strain gauges; temperature sensors; nanotechnology-enabled sensors; and wireless sensor networks. There are numerous appendices, a list of sensor suppliers, and a sensor technology index.