Sustainability in Integrated Circuits

EE 346 experiment four examined common circuits with diodes. Almost every electronic device today contains a diode in some form or another. What are the environmental, energy, equity, and economic factors?

Environment

The materials used to construct the diodes and other components in experiment four contain hazardous waste that should not be sent to a land-fill. There are initiatives to recycle electronic waste, such as the e-waste collection drive held in Washington, D.C. While these collections are certainly better than dumping the e-waste, only a small portion of the electronics is recycled. The rest is either incinerated or shipped overseas for dumping. [1] What will students do with their EE 346 lab kits once the class is complete? Most will keep the bags of components for a time, but some are bound to eventually end up in a land-fill.

Energy

Every electronic device around us uses electricity. It took a certain amount of energy to manufacture, ship, and store. Most people don’t think about the amount of power it takes to keep the hundreds of lights on in an office building, or how much energy it takes to power every employee’s computer for a day. Students don’t think about the power consumed by the equipment on the bench, the computer, or the lights in the room during the course of a lab. By making the devices we use everyday without thought more energy efficient, we can save money and slow the damage to the environment.

Equity

As mentioned earlier, a significant portion of “recycled” e-waste is shipped overseas to be dumped in poorer nations. While this shifts the problem out of our sight and out of our minds, it unfairly offsets the issue to someone else. Current disposal methods impact everyone around the globe, now and in the future. The diode thrown away after EE 346 lab could come back to haunt your children. In Congo, the mineral coltan is mined for the tantalum it contains. Tantalum is used to make pin-head capacitors which are commonly used in cell phones. [2] The Congolese people mine the coltan but due to political instability, civil war and foreign theft, they are not wealthy. [3] People are unfairly exploited for the resources used to make the devices we take for granted.

Economy

Money seems to be the only term business understands. By adopting the cradle-to-cradle design method, businesses could save millions of dollars per year. [4] Additional savings could be made by using natural and LED lighting in commercial buildings. Unfortunately, the initial cost to make these changes to current design methods and building structures is simply too high for many companies. Many electronic devices sold today become outdated in a relatively short period, typically only a few years. If devices were designed to last longer, fewer would be thrown away but a significant portion of the company’s profits would be lost. Any profit loss is bound to be heavily resisted.

References
[1] Jeff Johnson, "A Tsunami of Electronic Waste," Chemical & Engineering News 86 (21) 2008, 32-33, http://pubs.acs.org/cen/government/86/8621gov1.html (accessed November 21, 2009).

[2] Helen Vesperini, “Congo’s Coltan Rush,” BBC News, August 1, 2001, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1468772.stm (accessed November 21, 2009).

[3] Mark Michalovic, "Tantalum, Congo, and Your Cell Phone," ChemMatters, October 2007, 16-18.

[4] Waste=Food, Directed by Rob van Hattum, VPRO, 2006, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3058533428492266222 (accessed November 14, 2009).

Unity Quest

What happens when a man, controlled by an all-encompassing career, begins to realize that his life is unraveling? When his dreams of an ancient symbol tell him that the parts of his life are disjointed? To resolve this conflict, he must find a way to bring the parts of himself into a united whole. This is the plot of Unity Quest, a book my father recently finished writing and publishing with a good friend of his.

From the book's website:

"Unity Quest is a compelling story about the evolution of consciousness in man and the struggle between the two diametrically opposed forces within him (his ego and his higher self). It is the human journey from isolation and separation to unity that comes from transcending ego. It is also a powerful story about the evolution of awareness, seeking to live a life of purpose beyond the narcissistic expression of the ego, beyond our baser instincts of survival and the seeking for comfort, pleasure and power alone. This quest is brought to life through the lives of two characters in different time periods – medieval and current day. The full journey is completed only through the lives of the two characters. The story is peppered with symbolic clues that link the quests and lives of the two."

This is an amazingly insightful story of self-discovery, and I strongly encourage you to take a look at the website by clicking here. Additionally, the first chapter of the book is available for viewing by clicking here (PDF warning).

My Job Is So Terrible

I'll try to sum it up by first telling you about the folks I work with:

First, there is this supermodel wanna-be chick. Yeah, okay, she is pretty hot, but she is completely useless. The girl is constantly fixing her hair or putting on makeup. She is extremely self-centered and has never once considered the needs or wants of anyone but herself. She is as dumb as a box of rocks, and I still find it surprising that she has enough brain power to continue to breathe.

The next chick is completely the opposite. She might even be one of the smartest people on the planet. Her career opportunities are endless, and yet she is here with us. She is a zero on a scale of 1 to 10. I'm not sure she even showers, much less shaves her "womanly" parts. I think she might be a lesbian, because every time we drive by the hardware store, she moans like a cat in heat.

But the jewel of the crowd has to be the stoner. This guy is more than just your average pothead. In fact, he is baked before he comes to work, during work, and I'm sure after work. He probably hasn't been sober anytime in the last ten years, and he's only 22. He dresses like a beatnik throwback from the 1960's, and to make things worse, he brings his big dog to work. Every day I have to look at this huge Great Dane walk around half-stoned from the second-hand smoke. Hell, sometimes I even think it's trying to talk with its constant bellowing. Also, both of them are constantly hungry, requiring multiple stops to McDonald's and Burger King, every single day.

Anyway, I drive these losers around in my van and we solve mysteries and stuff.

X-wing Alliance: Over the Fence

The 5th chapter of the video game X-wing Alliance. The Rebels receive alliance-coded messages from somewhere in the Empire. They mount several missions based on the information fed to them via this source. It is later revealed that the source is an Imperial officer who wishes to defect, and there is a spy amongst the Rebel fleet. Click the arrows on the left and right to proceed to the next mission/cutscene.

X-wing Alliance: Secret Weapons of the Empire

The 4th chapter of my play-through of the video game X-wing Alliance. The Empire is building new TIE fighter prototypes that are unmanned and more powerful than current generation craft. The Rebel fleet must discover the source of these new starfighters, and destroy it. Click the arrows on the left and right to proceed to the next mission/cutscene.

Joke - The Sensitive Man

A woman meets a man in a bar. They talk; they connect; they end up leaving together. They get back to his place, and as he shows her around his apartment, she notices that one wall of his bedroom is completely filled with soft, sweet, cuddly teddy bears. There are three shelves in the bedroom, with hundreds and hundreds of cute, cuddly teddy bears carefully placed in rows, covering the entire wall!

It was obvious that he had taken quite some time to lovingly arrange them and she was immediately touched by the amount of thought he had put into organizing the display. There were small bears all along the top shelf, medium-sized bears covering the length of the middle shelf, and huge, enormous bears running all the way along the bottom shelf. She found it strange for an obviously masculine guy to have such a large collection of Teddy Bears. She is quite impressed by his sensitive side, but doesn't mention this to him.

They share a bottle of wine, continue talking and, after awhile, she finds herself thinking, "Oh my God! Maybe this guy could be the one! Maybe he could be the future father of my children?"

She turns to him and kisses him lightly on the lips. He responds warmly. They continue to kiss, the passion builds, and he romantically lifts her in his arms and carries her into his bedroom where they rip off each others clothes and make hot, steamy love. She is so overwhelmed that she responds with more passion, more creativity, more heat than she has ever known.

After an intense, explosive night of raw passion with this sensitive man, they are lying there together in the afterglow. The woman rolls over, gently strokes his chest and asks coyly, "Well, how was it?"

The guy gently smiles at her, strokes her cheek, looks deeply into her eyes, and says, "Help yourself to any prize from the middle shelf."

X-wing Alliance: Clearing the Way

This is the third chapter of my X-wing Alliance play-through. In these seven missions, the Rebels conducts strike missions against Admiral Holtz and the Star Destroyer Corrupter. After successfully taking down the sensor net, the Rebel fleet jumps to safety without being followed. The mission you fly to recover the probe droid can be annoying since another ship steals the probe. You have to shoot at the ship to "convince" them to drop it, and all too often the probe is destroyed in the process. Initially I had trouble with stopping the resupply of ISD Corrupter (see my other YouTube video) but I had no issues while recording. Click the arrows on the left and right to proceed to the next mission/cutscene.