Electro-ramblings

One for your diary. In fact, dozens for your diary. We have updated our online courses directory, populating it with lots of fresh content for throughout 2008 - there's lots of details for each month already, all the way to next December.

To celebrate the end of a fantastic year for ElectronicsWeekly.com we are running the '2007 Star Sledging Competition'. A little piece of fun, for the afternoon, with some great prizes. And no, it doesn't feature any Australian wicket-keepers...

1st Prize: Xbox 360 and games
2nd Prize: x 10 wind-up radios

To be in with a chance of winning, negotiate the Electronics Weekly slopes and grab the blue stars to stack up extra points. The person with the top score by the 31st January will be the lucky winner of the Xbox 360. Ten runners up will receive top of the range wind-up radios, featuring a neat translucent case showing-off their electronic components.

The Electronics Weekly Christmas Quiz, which was first featured in last week's magazine, now only has a couple of days left for entries (December 12 is the deadline).

With 16 multiple choice questions about recent news items, the prize is a Christmas Hamper. The picture above is taken from Q15, about research at a particular institute that is developing thermo-chemical nanolithography...

Here are the top ten most viewed Products on ElectronicsWeekly.com in the last week.

1. Allegro three-phase brushless DC motor pre-driver IC

The location was The Hilton on Park Lane, the host was Sir Trevor McDonald, and a good night was had by all. The presentation of the Elektra European Electronics Industry Awards were the main course for the evening, sandwiched between the starter of magicians and the desert of a Sinatra and Dean Martin impersonator...

View highlights of the event for yourself with our video coverage of the ceremony. The short and snappy video covers guests arriving, a sample of the entertainments and some interviews with winners. There's also some nice quotes for Electronics Weekly from Sir Robin Saxby, pictured, chairman emeritus at ARM...

Just a gentle reminder that the second instalment of Warren Savage's monthly column on Semiconductor IP is already live on the site.

He begins:

What's the difference between a hot product and dud? Let me tell you: it's the degree to which a product completely solves a problem. Hot products do something, and they do it well and most importantly they do it completely.

Let me give two examples of complete products. First, the ubiquitous Starbucks. High quality coffee, available everywhere, in almost every variant you'd want, and delivered to people completely consistently no matter where you are. I get the same café latte in Cambridge as I do in Paris, New York, and San Francisco. You can count on it. That's a complete product.

I love Dilbert, and today's strip is a classic. Check it out - Dilbert on ElectronicsWeekly.com - but be quick because the strip is updated daily.

It's that time of year again, to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Credit crunch or no credit crunch, here's wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2008!

See you in the New Year.

AW