It is likely Sparkfun or some other Western importer supplied a Fluke DMM as a sample and said "we want something like this". Now, China being China, they do tend to focus on the cosmetics. They are excellent copiers. In this case, too good. Sparkfun might be telling the truth about their ignorance of the trademark, but certainly not of the original article.

Out of interest I DLed some of these "high resolution" products, then analyzed them in Adobe Audition. Some were indeed from the analog master, I could tell by the extended top end going to ~30kHz. So perhaps there is some justification going to 96 (not losing anything), but not 192. These also had a noise floor around -70dB, making a mockery of 24 bits. Others turned out to be nothing more than the 44.1 digital master resampled to 24/192.

Clearly they're asking US & UK (both nuclear powers) for help.

Given the recent history of Ukraine and also of Russia, this is not unexpected.

And if you've been paying attention *at all*, it's entirely expected.

... I'm afraid. Only certain personal traits (such as good looks and charisma - no pun intended) are socially celebrated, while science and engineering talent are quite frankly milked and abused.

The UK turned its back on science and engineering back in the 1950s and embraced the arts (nothing wrong with that) and the cult of management instead. That tide has not turned; if anything it is getting worse.

When I joined the IEE (now IET) back in 1990 there was an assumption that everyone with an engineering degree would be in management by age 30. That's only 10 years (and not the best years) of engineering usefulness.

Now I see India making the exact same mistakes. We have to deal with 22 year old rookies who don't have the experience (I work in firmware with a strong analog emphasis) to deliver production code.

And some people wonder why we don't just hand over the Falklands.

So it's legal right now? Just asking.

Seconded - years ago I worked with a particularly awful PIC compiler. It would be fine until my compiled output size crossed an unknown threshold. Then it wouldn't just break - it would shatter. Terrible crap. I wasted 6 weeks massaging that POS before I demanded a better compiler. I was new back then.

But there's a twist - my boss was able to make it work, probably because his code lacked any structure and used all global variables. And he STILL uses it for PIC work. But working on bigger projects has gotten him out of many of those bad habits.

These days I experience many more silicon bugs than compiler bugs. And that's on mainstream devices from Microchip and NXP.

Well they will NOW.

Thanks a bunch Snowden.

Have we met on CiF before? I gave that bollocks up years ago.

This is nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with politics and Golden Dawn. The Euro has pushed Greece to the edge, and GD are seeking to exploit the ferment. It's a damn shame, and IMHO the sooner the whole experiment is declared a failure the better, especially for nation states such as Greece. Spain, Portugal, Italy and even France face similar difficulties, on a sliding scale.

I drive about the same, but live in the UK where "gas" costs have always been high. Thing is though, it's still cheaper (and twice as fast) as taking the train. So I'll carry on.

This is about magnets not electronics. China played a 1-2 game first cutting the price of Neodymium magnets making Western production uneconomical, then when the West gave up trying, they trebled the price.

It's a well-known issue wherever a Neodymium magnet is part of a design because they are kinda special in the magnet world. They having a wide B-H curve compared with traditional ceramic magnets, although the latter have higher flux density. It's been 25 years since I properly fiddled with magnets and have never done much serious design.

The West (US, Europe, Japan, South Korea, etc) has no difficulty supplying their electronics needs.

I've had hardware dumped on my desk the *day before* the proto is due to ship. I knocked up enough code in a week and a half, it worked great, and survived virtually intact into production.

But here's the rub: as long as I keep on working miracles, the hardware will keep on getting later.

Am I the only one that misread the summary?