Scanning and Scrimming Exercises.

Last class I did excercises of Scanning and Skimming reading tecniques, and I got a cerificate by each one.

You can find information and excersises about these reading tecniques at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/reading/techniques/scanning/game.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/reading/techniques/skimming/index.shtml

My TOEFL Results!

Recently I did a practice of the TOEFL examination to measure my english level.

The TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) is the essential exam for entry to universities in the United States. It measures the ability of nonnative speakers of English as it is spoken, written and heard in college and universities settings.

The TOEFL has 4 parts: Reading, listening, structure and writing.

These were my results of my TOEFL practice in each topic:

TOEFL Reading: I got 9/11.

TOEFL Listening: I got 4/10.







TOEFL Structure: I got 15/20






TOEFL Vocabulary: I got 39/50

I am satisfied with my results, because now I know how is my english level and with this information I can improve myself and attack the areas where I am failing.

Cover Letter

12, West 32 Street,
Marcaibo, Venezuela
(555)-556 7890.

Mr. John White,
Motorola Inc,
257, Park Avenue South,
Plantation, FL 12345-6789.


Dear Mr. White,
I was relieved to see your post on http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/ for an Electrical Engineering new grad work, In all my years of studies I've been familiarized with the duties your listing described: Designing and developing electrical circuit blocks for subscriber two-way radio products.

As you will see from my resume, I have completed my graduation in Electronics Engineering with mention in Telecommunications from Rafael Belloso Chacin University. Currently I've completed my internship in an inportant company of telecommunications in my country. I believe that my knowladge and enthusiasm will be the asset to your company.

If you like to meet me to talk about this position and the specific tasks you'll be assigning to the Electrical Engineerings you hire, please call 555-558-7243 to arrange a time that fits your calendar. I look forward to hearing from you and thank you ahead of time for your attention to my cover letter and resume.

Sincerely,
Miguel Fernandez.

Second Life a new and different world!

Hi there this Lunatic Blaylock my second life avatar. He is not a dragon or a vampire, but I'm just a novice in this world. This communication tool looks very interesting and fun, I will try to meet people of another cultures and practice my english with them.

Climate Change a Real Problem!

Every day we see in some TV programs, or hear in the street phrases like global warming, climate change, recycling. Climate change is a real problem, is not an idea or a possibility for the future, it's happening right now and we must to do everything that we can to stop it now!

Climate change has long-since ceased to be a scientific curiosity, and is no longerjust one of many environmental and regulatory concerns. As the United Nations Secretary General has said, it is the major, overriding environmental issue of our time, and the single greatest challenge facing environmental regulators. It is a growing crisis with economic, health and safety, food production, security, and other dimensions.

Shifting weather patterns, for example, threaten food production through increased unpredictability of precipitation, rising sea levels contaminate coastal freshwater reserves and increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, and a warming atmosphere aids the pole-ward spread of pests and diseases once limited to the tropics.

The news to date is bad and getting worse. Ice-loss from glaciers and ice sheets has continued, leading, for example, to the second straight year with an ice-free passage through Canada’s Arctic islands, and accelerating rates of ice-loss from ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Combined with thermal expansion—warm water occupies more volume than cold—the melting of ice sheets and glaciers around the world is contributing to rates and an ultimate extent of sea-level rise that could far outstrip those anticipated in the most recent global scientific assessment.

There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed. Ecosystems as diverse as the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic tundra, for example, may be approaching thresholds of dramatic change through warming and drying. Mountain glaciers are in alarming retreat and the downstream effects of reduced water supply in the driest months will have repercussions that transcend generations. Climate feedback systems and environmental cumulative effects are building across Earth systems demonstrating behaviours we cannot anticipate.

The potential for runaway greenhouse warming is real and has never been more present. The most dangerous climate changes may still be avoided if we transform our hydrocarbon based energy systems and if we initiate rational and adequately financed adaptation programmes to forestall disasters and migrations at unprecedented scales. The tools are available, but they must be applied immediately and aggressively.

Easy Things You Can Do To Help Our Climate:

1. TIP: Travel light. Walk or bike instead of driving a car. Cars and trucks run on fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you?ll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

2. TIP: Teleconference instead of flying. For office meetings, if you can telephone or videoconference, you will save time, money, and carbon emissions. Airplanes pump carbon emissions high into the atmosphere, producing 12 percent of transportation sector emissions.

3. TIP: See the light. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. These energy-efficient bulbs help fight climate change because they reduce the amount of fossil fuels that utilities burn. You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent, over the life of the bulb.

4. TIP: Recycle and use recycled products. Products made from recycled paper, glass, metal and plastic reduce carbon emissions because they use less energy to manufacture than products made from completely new materials. For instance, you?ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle. Recycling paper also saves trees and lets them continue to reduce climate change naturally as they remain in the forest, where they remove carbon from the atmosphere.

5. TIP: Inflate your tires. If you own a car, it will get better gas mileage when the tires are fully inflated, so it will burn less gas and emit less carbon. Check your automobile monthly to ensure that the tires are fully inflated. Follow this tip and save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive.

6. TIP: Plant native trees. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and use it as their energy source, producing oxygen for us to breathe. A tree in the temperate zone found between the tropics and the polar circles can remove and store 700 to 7,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime. A tree that shades a house can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

7. TIP: Turn down the heat. Heating and air conditioning draw more than half of the energy that a home uses in the United States. Turn down the heat or air conditioning when you leave the house or go to bed. You can easily install a programmable thermostat that can save up money and carbon.

8. TIP: Buy renewable energy. Electricity generation produces 40 percent of carbon emissions from the United States. A growing number of utilities generate electricity from renewable energy sources with solar panels, windmills and other technologies. If your utility offers renewable energy, buy it. If not, send them a message asking for clean energy.}

9. TIP: Act globally, eat locally. If you shop at a supermarket, the food you buy may travel in a plane from the other side of the world, burning fossil fuels the entire trip. Shop at a local farmers markets and you will find fresh and healthy food, and help save our climate.

Working for Cisco, The Job of my dreams!

Requisition #: R845709 Location: UNITED STATES.CALIFORNIA.SAN JOSE
Job Title: Senior Board Design Engineer with Video & Audio Region: US & Canada
Area of Interest: Engineering - Hardware Level of Experience: Experienced - Non Manager
Job Description: Senior Board Design Engineer with Video & Audio

We have a current opening for a Senior Hardware Design Engineer with Video & Audio
to work in the TelePresence System Business Unit (TSBU) of our Emerging Technologies Group - ETG.

TelePresence is a virtual presence experience that uses advanced visual, audio, and interactive technologies to create an in person experience at a virtual conference table. TelePresence is one of the more recent examples of how Cisco is changing the way we work, live, play, and learn.

Responsibilities:
-Interface with product marketing on developing new product proposals.
-Develop system-level solutions for new product proposals. Work with software teams in execution of these products.
-Work with quality engineering group to screen critical field failures and perform detailed failure analysis of such failures.
-Perform root cause failure analysis of complex systems, PCB level subsystems. Perform fault isolation for system audio and video components.
-Establishment of specifications and procedures for Electrical Design Verification Testing.
-Execution of system measurement tests and EDVT tests. Root cause analysis of issues and problems identified in test processes.

Requirements:
**Must have strong Video and Audio Related Board Design Experience.**
-Requires BSEE/CS combined with 7 years of related experience in an engineering development and sustaining environment.
-Expertise at board level design, schematic capture and printed circuit design. Expertise at design and debug for EMC, ESD, signal integrity, power decoupling issues.
-Strong knowledge of hardware quality metrics.
-Experience with designing and debugging products for worldwide compliance requirements.
-Strong written and verbal communication skills.
-Strong planning and organizational capabilities.
-Able to plan and execute tasks with minimal supervision.
-Team-player, can-do attitude, will work well in a group environment while still being able to contribute on an individual basis and you will find that you'll have lots of fun and thrive in this environment if you enjoy being challenged, learning new ideas, and push yourself to achieve aggressive technology goals.

I found a job!

I chose this work because it is very related with my career, and it does'nt require any experience!

Location	UNITED STATES - FL - PLANTATION
Job Category	RF Engineering , Hardware Engineering , Electrical Engineering
Position Type	New Grad
Relocation Provided	Domestic/In-Country
Education Required	Bachelors / Degree
Experience Required	0 - 1
Basic Qualifications	Bachelor's degree Must have 0-2 years experience or coursework in electrica electronic or hardware engineering
Department Description	Subscriber Electrical Hardware Development for Public Safety Products

Scope of Responsibilities/Expectations
- Design and develop electrical circuit blocks for subscriber two-way radio products and perform testing to certify the design meets system, product and quality specifications.

-Support on site and off site manufacturing facilities requiring 10% travel (domestic and international).

Specific Knowledge/Skills
Preferred Skills/Experience

This position is an entry level position and no experience is necessary

-BS (MS preferred) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Electrical and Computer Engineering.

-Knowledge of RF/Microwave electronics design, Communication system requirements, Electromagnetic theory and principles.

-Experience with CAD tools for schematic capture/entry and PCB layout.

-Basic knowledge of automation software use and programming.

-Experience in RF, Analog/Digital Design, Design for Testability Analysis, Digital System Design, Spice Circuit simulation, MATLAB, Circuit Design.

-Knowledge of receiver system design, frequency generation unit design and power amplifier design.

-Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

-Ability to work successfully within a diverse and dynamic team environment.

-Applying candidates should include grade point average in resume.

Claude Shannon, The father of the Telecommunications!

Shannon, Claude Elwood (1916-2001)

American mathematician and father of information theory Eric Weisstein's World of Math. Claude Elwood Shannon was born in Gaylord, Michigan on April 30, 1916 to Claude Elwood and Mabel Wolf Shannon. Shannon's father Claude, was a judge in Gaylord, a small town with a population of about three thousand, and his mother Mabel was the principal of the local high school. Although he didn't work in the field of mathematics, Shannon proved to be mathematically precocious. Although there was not much scientific influence from Shannon's father, he received scientific encouragement from his grandfather, who was an inventor and a farmer whose inventions included the washing machine and farming machinery.

From an early age, Shannon showed an affinity for both engineering and mathematics, and graduated from Michigan University with degrees in both disciplines. For his advanced degrees, he chose to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the time, MIT was one of a number of prestigious institutions conducting research that would eventually formulate the basis for what is now known as the information sciences. Its faculty included mathematician Norbert Wiener, who would later coin the term cybernetics to describe the work in information theories that he, Shannon, and other leading American mathematicians were conducting. It also included Vannevar Bush, MIT's dean of engineering, who in the early 1930s had built an analog computer called the Differential Analyzer. The Differential Analyzer was developed to calculate complex equations that tabulators and calculators of the day were unable to address. It was a mechanical computer, using a series of gears and shafts to engage cogs until the equation was solved. Once it completed its cycle, the answer to the equation was obtained by measuring the changes in position of its various machine parts. Its only electrical parts were the motors used to drive the gears. With its crude rods, gears and axles, the analyzer looked like a child's erector set. Setting it up to work one equation could take two to three days; solving the same equation could take equally as long, if not longer. In order to work a new problem, the entire machine, which took up several hundred feet of floor space, had to be torn apart and reset to a new mechanical configuration.

While at MIT, Shannon studied with both Wiener and Bush. Noted as a 'tinkerer,' he was ideally suited to working on the Differential Analyzer, and would set it up to run equations for other scientists. At Bush's suggestion, Shannon also studied the operation of the analyzer's relay circuits for his master's thesis. This analysis formed the basis for Shannon's influential 1938 paper "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits," in which he put forth his developing theories on the relationship of symbolic logic to relay circuits. This paper, and the theories it contained, would have a seminal impact on the development of information processing machines and systems in the years to come.

Shannon is known as the father of information theory. He combined mathematical theories with engineering principles to set the stage for the development of the digital computer and the modern digital communication revolution. His seminal 1948 paper opened up a whole new world and fundamentally changed the way in which the communication of information is viewed.

Shannon graduated from MIT in 1940 with both a master's degree and doctorate in mathematics. After graduation, he spent a year as a National Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, where he worked with mathematician and physicist Hermann Weyl. In 1941, Shannon joined the Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he became a member of a group of scientists charged with the tasks of developing more efficient information transmitting methods and improving the reliability of long-distance telephone and telegraph lines.

One of the most important feature of Shannon's theory was the concept of information entropy, Eric Weisstein's World of Math which he demonstrated to be equivalent to a shortage in the information content in a message. According to physics' second law of thermodynamics, Eric Weisstein's World of Physics entropy Eric Weisstein's World of Physics is the degree of randomness in any system always increased. Thus, many sentences can be significantly shortened without losing their meaning. Shannon proved that in a noisy conversation, signal could always be send without distortion. If the message is encoded in such a way that it is self-checking, signals will be received with the same accuracy as if there were no interference on the line. A language, for example, has a built in error-correcting code. Therefore, a noisy party conversation is only partly clear because half the language is redundant. Shannon's methods were soon seen to have applications not only to computer design but to virtually every subject in which language was important such as linguistics, psychology, cryptography, and phonetics.

Shannon also showed that if enough extra bits were added to a message to help correct for errors, it could tunnel through the noisiest channel, arriving unscathed at the end. This insight has been developed over the decades into sophisticated error-correcting codes that ensure the integrity of the data on which society interacts. While working at the Bell Labs, Shannon and Hamming they developed the concept of the error-correcting code. Eric Weisstein's World of Math

Shannon's paper provided a glimpse into the future of information processing. While studying the relay switches on the Differential Equalizer as they went about formulating an equation, Shannon noted that the switches were always either open or closed, or on and off. This led him to think about a mathematical way to describe the open and closed states, and he recalled the logical theories of mathematician George Boole, who in the middle 1800s advanced what he called the logic of thought, in which all equations were reduced to a binary system consisting of zeros and ones.

Boole's theory, which formulated the basis for Boolean algebra, Eric Weisstein's World of Math stated that a statement of logic carried a one if true and a zero if false. Shannon theorized that a switch in the on position would equate to a Boolean one. In the off position, it was a zero. By reducing information to a series of ones and zeros, Shannon wrote, information could be processed by using on-off switches. He also suggested that these switches could be connected in such a way to allow them to perform more complex equations that would go beyond simple 'yes' and 'no' statements to 'and', 'or' or 'not' operations. Understanding, before almost anyone, the power that springs from encoding information in a simple language of 1s and 0s, Shannon as a young man wrote two papers that remain monuments in the fields of computer science and information theory.

Shannon believed that information was no different than any other quantity and therefore could be manipulated by a machine. He applied his earlier research to the problem at hand, again using Boolean logic to develop a model that reduced information to its most simple form--a binary system of yes/no choices, which could be presented by a 1/0 binary code. By applying set codes to information as it was transmitted, the noise it picked up during transmission could be minimized, thereby improving the quality of information transmission.

In the late 1940s, Shannon's research was presented in The Mathematical Theory of Communications, which he co-authored with mathematician Warren Weaver. It was in this work that Shannon first introduced the word 'bit,' comprised of the first two and the last letter of 'binary digit' and coined by his colleague John W. Tukey, to describe the yes-no decision that lay at the core of his theories.

Shannon's most important scientific contribution was his work on communication. In 1941 he began a serious study of communication problems, partly motivated by the demands of the war effort. This research resulted in the classic paper entitled "A mathematical theory of communication" in 1948. This pioneering paper begins by observing that 'the fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point exactly or approximately a message selected at another point. The results were so breathtakingly original, that it took some time for the mathematical and engineering community to realize their significance. A brand new science had been created in the form of Information theory, with the publication of that single paper, and the frame work and terminology he established remains standard even today.

In the 1950s, Shannon turned his efforts to developing what was then called "intelligent machines"--mechanisms that emulated the operations of the human mind to solve problems. Of his inventions during that time, the best known was a maze-solving mouse called Theseus, which used magnetic relays to learn how to maneuver through a metal maze.

During a visit to the United States,during the World war II, Alan Turing, a leading British mathematician spent a few months with Shannon working with Shannon. Both scientists were interested in the possibility of building a machine that could imitate the human brain. They worked together to build an encrypted voice phone that would allow Roosevelt to have a secure transatlantic conversation with Churchill.

Shannon's information theories eventually saw application in a number of disciplines in which language is a factor, including linguistics, phonetics, psychology and cryptography, which was an early love of Shannon's. His theories also became a cornerstone of the developing field of artificial intelligence, and in 1956 he was instrumental in convening a conference at Dartmouth College that was the first major effort in organizing artificial intelligence research. He wrote a paper entitled "Programming a computer for playing chess" in 1950, and developed a chess playing computer. Many years later, in 1965, he met the world chess champion Pichail Botvinnik (also and electrical engineer), and played a match with him, but lost after 42 moves.

Shannon's interest did not stop with these. He was an expert juggler who was often seen juggling three balls while riding an unicycle. He was an accomplished clarinet player, and was even known to pen light verse.

"Shannon was the person who saw that the binary digit was the fundamental element in all of communication," said Robert G. Gallager, a professor of electrical engineering who worked with Shannon at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "That was really his discovery, and from it the whole communications revolution has sprung." Marvin Minsky of M.I.T., who as a young theorist worked closely with Shannon, was struck by his enthusiasm and enterprise. "Whatever came up, he engaged it with joy, and he attacked it with some surprising resource--which might be some new kind of technical concept or a hammer and saw with some scraps of wood," Minsky said. "For him, the harder a problem might seem, the better the chance to find something new."

Shannon was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards. Shannon's published and un published documents(a hundred and twenty seven of them), cover an unbelievably wide spectrum of areas. Many of them have been a priceless source of research ideas for others. One could say that there would be no internet without Shannon's theory of information; every modem, every compressed file, every error correcting code owes something to Shannon.

Shannon died at age 84 on February 27, 2001 in Medford, Mass., after a long fight with Alzheimer's disease. He was survived by his three children: Robert James, Andrew Moore, and Margarita Catherine, and by his wife Mary Elizabeth Moore, who he had married on March 27, 1949.

This biography was taken from: http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Shannon.html

Identifying Sentence Structures!

Some words related with my career.

Last class, my English teacher explained me how to classify words, evaluating their characteristics to do it, and I learned to interpret all information that a dictionary gives me about the kind of word that I searched.

Here are some words, which I didn't know their meaning or that I wanted to know better:

• Semiconductor [sèmmee kən dúktər, sèmmī kən dúktər]

(plural semiconductors)

noun.

Partially conductive solid: a solid material that has electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator.

-Semiconducting, adjective.
-Semiconduction, noun.
-Semiconductive, adjective.
-Semiconductivity, noun.

• Transistor [tran zístər]

(plural tran·sis·tors)

noun.

Solid-state electronic device: a small low-powered solid-state electronic device consisting of a semiconductor and at least three electrodes, used as an amplifier and rectifier and frequently incorporated into integrated circuit chips.

• Teleconferencing [tèllə kónfərənssing, tèllə kónfrənssing]

noun.

Videoconferencing using telephone lines: a system of videoconferencing that uses a restricted band of frequencies and allows participants to be connected by telephone lines.

-Teleconference, noun intransitive verb.

• Skill [skil]

(plural skills)

noun.

	Ability to do something well: the ability to do something well, usually gained through training or experience.
	Something requiring training to do well: something that requires training and experience to do well, e.g. an art or trade.

-Skilled, adjective.
-Skillless, adjective.
-Skilllessness, noun.

• Wireless [wrləss]

adjective.

	Without wires: lacking wires.
	Using radio signals: using radio signals rather than wires.
	Using cell phone technology: describes communications systems and devices that make use of cell phone technology. wireless networks wireless headphones

noun (plural wirelesses

-wirelessly, adverb

All definitions were taken from Microsoft® Encarta® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation.