Hot Spots in Cyberspace 27480

Getting product information online

Call them "reader service cards," "bingo cards," or "those cards stuck in the middle of the magazine with all the numbers." Just how do they work on www.designnews.com?

Once you are on the Design News Online home page, click on the latest issue of the magazine. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you'll see a button that says "Search Advertised Products." Click it.

This takes you to a site where you can search through the last three issues of Design News, search by issue date, or search all issues. You can search by circle number, company name, or product description.

Type in a circle number, and in most cases you'll get a couple of hits. Click on the appropriate box for information and hit the submit button. This will take you to another page where you fill in your name, phone number, and e-mail address.

If no information is found, you will be requested to complete the registration information. Readers of Design News are already pre-registered, so you may be asked to input some additional information.

That's all there is to it!

Drop by Cafe Silica for ICs

Cafe Silica is open for business serving as an electronic trading center for integrated circuits. OEMs can buy ICs on the open market or sell their excess supply. Most products are priced 30% below current factory-direct prices. The site is password-protected and offers secure encrypted transactions. Check it out at www.cafesilica.com.

It keeps on going

A virtual community for the battery industry is now live at www.iBattery.com. The site is open to commercial battery users, manufacturers, suppliers, and services, and encompasses battery chargers, smart-chip technologies, and test equipment. Other features include electronic catalogs, yellow pages, publications, and online consulting services. The site is laid out much like a community, so you can visit the battery museum, the product screening room, or inventory trading post.

NIST Webbook available online

The National Institute of Standards and Technology now offers a new compilation of chemical and physical data in the NIST Chemistry Webbook at webbook.nist.gov. The web edition contains thermochemical properties, infrared spectral data, vapor pressure data, and mass spectral data. Access is currently free and is part of the more than 50 databases available from NIST.

Electronics design engineers have new web site

The Electronics Design & Technology Network, a joint venture between Aspect Development and CMP Media Inc., has a Web-based resource for electronics design engineers at www.edtn.com.The site offers news, notes, and briefings; how-tos and best-practices design information; and an integrated circuit and component database that you can search parametrically. There are also two fee-based services available: ICselector, with data on 440,000 ICs from more than 200 suppliers, and AspectOnline, with over 2 million components from 700 suppliers.

Looking for optics on line?

Edmund Scientific's Industrial Optics Division features a technical library, new product re-leases, a searchable database, and an online imaging calculator that allows visitors to perform calculations based on the Infinvar TM Imaging System. Visit the site at www.edsci.com.

SAE offers new Web service

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has updated their site to include a new product, WebDEX. This comprehensive electronic guide includes 63,000 complete bibliographic citations. Categories are:

This is a subscription site, $49/year for members, $99/year for non-members. For more information, see their website at www.sae.org/WEBDEX.

Hot link

Everything you always wanted to know about gears...

Billed as the largest international power transmission website on the planet, www.nord.com covers 48 countries and is available in three languages.

Visitors can check out more than 2,500 catalog pages from Nord Gear Corp. and review maintenance manuals, application notes, and training materials. Downloadable DFX drawings are also available.