It’s All About Test Points
Recently, I had a conversation with a lab manager about their lab and how they measure productivity. This really got me to thinking about how we measure productivity in this industry. As in any industry, […]
Articles by Michael Schwartz
Michael Schwartz completed training at Lowry AFB in 1989 and was honorably discharged after 11 years of serving in the US Army. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Business Management and a minor in Computer Science. He spent two years writing compliance testing software and database applications while stationed at White Sands Missile Range in NM. After leaving the military, he wrote automation software for five years before starting his own automation engineering company in the Denver Metro area. Since 2003, Cal Lab Solutions, Inc. has provided automation solutions to calibration labs around the world.
RESTful Communications for Metrology
I have spent the better part of the last two years researching the ins and outs of enterprise solutions. I wanted to truly understand what makes these systems function, from both an implementation and user […]
Intelligence at the End of the Wire
In today’s world, computers are everywhere and in everything, as well as at the heart of our test equipment. If you would have told me 25 years ago that my oscilloscope would come with Windows® […]
The Cons of Automation
You will usually hear me talking about all the great things that automation brings. And for the most part automation is good. But it is not without its drawbacks and so, with this article, I […]
Data – The Unrealized Frontier
What can be done with the big data we have been collecting? The metrology industry is sitting on mountains of collected data. So why is it that most of us have yet to find value […]
Structure is EVERYTHING!
So what is good structure in software? What makes one language, design or architecture better than another? These are all very difficult questions to answer. So far, I have not found a litmus test; but […]
Thoughts on Metrology Software Life Cycles
I was having a long conversation the other day with a fellow software engineer. One of the topics we talked about for hours was software life cycles and how metrology software is not like most […]
GPIB to USB – Another Way
More and more of the hardware we have to automate comes standard with a Universal Serial Bus (USB) communication interface. Manufacturers are replacing the older RS-232 with USB; with its low price and high speed […]