On Tuesday, January 24, as President Barack Obama wrapped up his State of the Union address, the Communications Workers of America issued a statement praising the president "for his focus on creating an America that is built to last with an economy that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few."
The statement added that the CWA "strongly supports legislation that would end taxpayer subsidies for corporations that get tax breaks, then move call center jobs offshore, among other measures." It chastised a legislative process that "rewards corporate interests and abandons U.S. workers, when it comes to manufacturing and services."
The statement also is critical of the role corporations play in election processes. "That's why CWA supports measures to limit the outsized and harmful influence of corporate money in U.S. elections," it says.
You can read more about the CWA's political viewpoints, and some of the activities it is planning, here at their website.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
FOA says, 'We have your standard right here ... on one page'
In its January 2012 online newsletter, The Fiber Optic Association stated that it is starting a program "to make standards more accessible to the world of users, contractors, designers and installers." Specifically, the association is creating one-page standards, which it says will be "simple explanations of standards that you use all the time but don't need the originals; you just need to understand how to use them.
"We'll cut out all the fluff and give you the info you need," the FOA says. And, knowing FOA founder and president Jim Hayes, I can say with a high degree of confidence that the organization will live up to that promise.
Perhaps anticipating some of the potential backlash at the prospect of a one-page standard, the FOA asked itself: "Can the FOA create standards? And what is a standard anyway?" It then produced the following definition from ISO/IEC Guide 2: 1996 (definition 3.2), which defines a standard as follows:
The FOA then states, "FOA certification is now internationally accepted and our technical references the first choice for unbiased, technically correct information on fiber optics and premises cabling. It's certainly logical that we would next try to put some order in the chaos of current standards. FOA standards are developed by FOA members whose expertise in the technical areas covered by the standards and whose experience in the industry contributes to FOA standards being accurate, relevant and current."
The FOA didn't just announce its one-page standards in January; it offered one as well. FOA CPL1, which you can access as a PDF here, is (as promised) a one-page description of how to test installed fiber-optic cable plants. It is available for free, as the FOA's other one-page standards will be.
You can read the FOA's January 2012 newsletter here.
"We'll cut out all the fluff and give you the info you need," the FOA says. And, knowing FOA founder and president Jim Hayes, I can say with a high degree of confidence that the organization will live up to that promise.
Perhaps anticipating some of the potential backlash at the prospect of a one-page standard, the FOA asked itself: "Can the FOA create standards? And what is a standard anyway?" It then produced the following definition from ISO/IEC Guide 2: 1996 (definition 3.2), which defines a standard as follows:
A document established by consensus and approved by a recognized body that provides for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.
The FOA then states, "FOA certification is now internationally accepted and our technical references the first choice for unbiased, technically correct information on fiber optics and premises cabling. It's certainly logical that we would next try to put some order in the chaos of current standards. FOA standards are developed by FOA members whose expertise in the technical areas covered by the standards and whose experience in the industry contributes to FOA standards being accurate, relevant and current."
The FOA didn't just announce its one-page standards in January; it offered one as well. FOA CPL1, which you can access as a PDF here, is (as promised) a one-page description of how to test installed fiber-optic cable plants. It is available for free, as the FOA's other one-page standards will be.
You can read the FOA's January 2012 newsletter here.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Video demonstrates how to test patch cords for standard compliance
In a five-minute video posted to YouTube, Adrian Young, senior technical support engineer with Fluke Networks, demonstrates the procedures for using the company's Category 5e, 6 and 6A patch-cord adapters with the DTX-1800 CableAnalyzer.
In the video Young tests a Category 6A patch cord twice and gets significantly different results. First he runs a test using the channel adapters that come standard with the DTX-1800, plugging one end of the cord into the adapter on the main unit and the cord's other end into the adapter on the remote unit. When he runs a channel test, the tester produces a "pass" result with more than 18-dB near-end crosstalk margin. As the test is taking place, Young explains why it is inadequate - because a channel test ignores the RJ-45 connection between the cord and the test adapter, and also because the channel test allows for four connections and therefore has a lot of "leeway" for performance.
He then removes the cord from the adapaters and removes the adapters from the main and remote units, and replaces them with the patch-cord test adapters. After walking viewers through the steps of setting up the patch-cord-specific test, Young runs the test on the same patch cord. This time it passes, but with a NEXT margin of 3.3 dB - a difference of more than 14 dB from the test conducted with the channel adapter.
Fluke introduced its patch-cord test adapters in spring 2011.
You can watch the video here.
In the video Young tests a Category 6A patch cord twice and gets significantly different results. First he runs a test using the channel adapters that come standard with the DTX-1800, plugging one end of the cord into the adapter on the main unit and the cord's other end into the adapter on the remote unit. When he runs a channel test, the tester produces a "pass" result with more than 18-dB near-end crosstalk margin. As the test is taking place, Young explains why it is inadequate - because a channel test ignores the RJ-45 connection between the cord and the test adapter, and also because the channel test allows for four connections and therefore has a lot of "leeway" for performance.
He then removes the cord from the adapaters and removes the adapters from the main and remote units, and replaces them with the patch-cord test adapters. After walking viewers through the steps of setting up the patch-cord-specific test, Young runs the test on the same patch cord. This time it passes, but with a NEXT margin of 3.3 dB - a difference of more than 14 dB from the test conducted with the channel adapter.
Fluke introduced its patch-cord test adapters in spring 2011.
You can watch the video here.
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