At IBM, I became fascinated with finding defects in semiconductor devices. For most of my professional life I have focused on testing for defects in a manufacturing setting. When in this setting, you want to determine yes or no; often referred to as “no/go” testing. The test is run–and if “no,” you stop, if “yes,”…
Month: September 2016
Adult Birthday Rituals
Last week I celebrated another year on the planet. As an adult I don’t always have a birthday party like I did as a child. It depends upon my mood, number of years old, serendipity of fun events on my birthday. This year, on 10 September, I held a party to celebrate my birthday and…
Playing with Motors
Computers can move things? Wow, this was going to be a fun summer! These thoughts crossed my mind as I began a summer job with the National Bureau of Standards in 1982. My introduction to computer languages came in high school when I took a class on BASIC. Mr. Chapman, a math teacher, had acquired…
What Widows Wear
My last landlord in Pittsburgh was an Italian woman. My Dad met her and he took notice of her black attire and gold cross. Afterwards he shared that she reminded him of his neighborhood in Brooklyn, which had a large Italian population. He noted “They wore black for a long time after someone died.” At…
Proving You Can Find a Needle: From the Weak Write Test Mode Saga
Needles don’t occur in every haystack. Suppose you have developed a new method to detect a needle. Now prove it! Easy, you say—just toss some needles into a haystack and go find them. I faced this scenario with proving that Weak Write Test Mode would work. Two things needed to be proved: Did the new…