[H]ardNews - Blair's Tech Ed.

How Halloween Works:

October brings an avalanche of carved pumpkins, dancing skeletons, smiling ghosts and witches riding on brooms. Halloween certainly stands out from the rest of the holidays we observe throughout the year: It's full of frightening ghost stories, pranks, elaborate costumes and bizarre games. On Halloween, we all revel in being scared. Halloween also stands out because of its unique mix of secular and religious elements. In recent years, the holiday has stirred up a lot of controversy because it offends some Christian groups, which in turn upsets many modern-day Wiccans and Druids.

Boosting Semiconductor Lasers:

Physicists have made a new type of laser by combining a quantum cascade laser with a photonic crystal. Raffaele Colombelli of Bell Labs in the US and colleagues say that their novel proof-of-concept device could find use in sensing applications and fundamental research in optics. Conventional semiconductor lasers emit photons when electrons in the conduction band and holes in the electron band recombine. The wavelength or energy of the photon is determined by the energy difference between the conduction and valance bands - which is a fundamental property of the semiconductor.

Soldering Process:

The following information will aid you in learning basic soldering skills. It should enable you to solder wires to electrical connectors, splices, and terminal lugs that we have discussed earlier in the chapter. Special skills and schooling are required for the soldering techniques used in printed circuit boards and microminiature component repair.

IBM Adds Jobs:

IBM Corp., which announced plans this month to create 10,000 jobs next year, also will retrain 100,000 employees for computer-services and software work, Chief Executive Sam Palmisano said. Palmisano said Oct. 15 that Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM will add workers next year because information-technology spending may be accelerating and the economy has "stabilized." IBM, the world's largest computer maker and services seller, had about 316,000 employees at the end of last year.

Foiling Fraud:

Working with capsules of dye just a few billionths of a metre in diameter, researchers at University of Toronto and the advanced optical microscopy facility at Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital have created a new strategy for encrypting photographs, signatures and fingerprints on security documents. This technology will give security or customs authorities the confidence that documents are not fake.