Search Engine for Electronics Parts...

Octopart.  And they've just added Digi-Key's entire catalog.

The Internet is awesome!

A Question of Character...

Peggy Noonan on her good game still:

But it's a great mistake when you are in a leadership position to want to be like everyone else. Because that, actually, is not your job. Your job is to be better, and to set standards that those below you have to reach to meet. And you have to do this even when it's hard, even when you know you yourself don't quite meet the standards you represent.

Mystery Solved? Why the Sun's Upper Atmosphere is so Danged Hot...

It has long intrigued me that nobody had a good explanation for this.

Keyboard Alternative?

I have an iPad, and while I like many things about it, there's one thing that drives me to distraction: typing on its !()$&^!)_$@ built-in keyboard.  If I need to type more than about 5 letters, I'll switch over to my laptop.  It's that bad, at least for someone like me who is used to touch-typing at a reasonable speed.

This looks like it might be an interesting alternative, though currently only for Android.