West Florida Components

Holiday Hours

West Florida Components 2012 Holiday Hours

Monday, December 24, 2012 – closed
Tuesday, December 25, 2012 – closed
Wednesday, December 26, 2012 – regular hours and shipping schedule (9:00AM – 4:00PM EST)
Thursday, December 27, 2012 – regular hours and shipping schedule (9:00AM – 4:00PM EST)
Friday, December 28, 2012 – regular hours and shipping schedule (9:00AM – 4:00PM EST)

Monday, December 31, 2012 – closed
Tuesday, January 1, 2013 – closed
Wednesday, January 2, 2013 – regular hours and shipping schedule (9:00AM – 4:00PM EST)
Thursday, January 3, 2013 – regular hours and shipping schedule (9:00AM – 4:00PM EST)
Friday, January 4, 2013 – regular hours and shipping schedule (9:00AM – 4:00PM EST)

We are taking some short breaks during this season to enjoy the comfort of friends and family. We would also like to remember those less fortunate, including the families devastated by the tradgedy in Newtown, Connecticut. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

On behalf of the entire team at West Florida Components, we want to thank you for your continued business and wish you all the very best for the coming New Year. May it be prosperous, safe, and peaceful for everyone!

LED wallpaper

In our quest to find new and unusual products that feature our products, we came across this LED wallpaper from Architects Paper.

This wallpaper will not only look good hanging on the wall but can also be used as part of the lighting scheme in a room.

The creator of the LED wallpaper, Ingo Maurer says in his web site video, “I’ve always dreamed of glowing walls.” He, along with an electrical engineer and his sales manager spent five years developing the wallpaper and the production process. As you can imagine, it is very complex to create wallpaper that lights up with LED lights. Part of the issue with developing the process hinged on the placement of the circuit paths on the reverse side of the paper. This had to be created so that the circuits would not sink into the paper itself. Another challenge during the production process is ensuring that the conductive paint which form the circuit paths are constructed fully. Any breaks will of course break the circuits and the wallpaper pattern would not be complete.

The price for this LED wallpaper is not listed on their web site but we can only imagine that it can not be inexpensive based on the production process. However, we are certainly looking forward to ordering some for our office walls!

This is an amazingly handy little light – thin enough to use on your house key or car key. Think of it as a stick-on LED! The Thumb-Lite’s compact design makes it easy to turn anything into a flashlight. Whether you use it for unlocking a car door or finding something dropped in the dark, the Thumb-lite is a convenient way to provide extra light when needed.

What makes this stand out from the other tiny LED lights is that the Thumb-lite can be used effortlessly with one hand. Pressing the button requires NO EXTRA EFFORT. The standard amount of pressure needed to turn the key is more than enough to turn the light on. This mini LED flashlight was designed to be used the way a person naturally grips an object. The Thumb-lite is easily activated and shines light in the direction the object is pointing. No tools or assembly are required. Just pull off the adhesive protector and stick it on a key or other object – it’s that easy. Because of it’s small size and advanced adhesive, Thumb-lite sticks to most size keys.

The light is very small but it’s just enough to be helpful in finding things in the dark. We’ve used them on our TV remote controls (ever try to find the right buttons on your remote in the dark?), our power tools, inside our purses and even attached them to our cell phones. We can think of dozens of uses for these mini LED flashlights. How about you?

Robert Noyce is being honored by Google for his contributions to the electronic components industry on what would have been his 84th birthday. To commemorate his birthday, Google’s homepage has a doodle which etches the Google logo onto a microchip, a technology that Noyce is credited with co-inventing.

Known as the Mayor of Silicon Valley, Robert Noyce was the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel and is credited along with Jack Kilby with the invention of the integrated circuit. He earned his nickname for the work he did as a mentor to youths aspiring to succeed in Silicon Valley and in fact was a mentor to Apple founder, Steve Jobs. Jobs was one of many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs mentored by Noyce.

The holder of 15 patents related to the electronic components industry, Noyce was a major contributor to the industry and it is fitting that Google chose to honor him and his achievements.

West Florida Components was recently invited to participate in a science experiments fair held in conjunction with the USF Education Department.

Each business staffed a booth where elementary school aged kids along with their families could conduct science experiments. The community event was an opportunity for families to enjoy and see the benefits of science in a fun atmosphere. The West Florida Components station was one of about 18 stations at which participants could interact and have fun with science. The event met a significant need identified at the national, state and local levels which is to increase the scientific literacy of students as a way to improve the local, state and global competitive status of our communities and our country.

The staff from West Florida Components made LED Throwies with the fair attendees. Each family member was given an LED, a 3V battery, a magnet and some tape to put their LED Throwie together. Once the Throwies were assembled, they could toss their Throwie at a metal board to earn points. The families learned the science behind the Throwie and were given additional LEDS to take home to so they could rebuild their throwies and experiment further.

If you’d like the instructions to make the LED Throwies, you can visit our web site where we give full instructions with pictures.

There have been a lot of news reports and discussions surrounding Facebook’s privacy policies. Of course, if you are worried about web privacy, canceling your Facebook account is an option, but since many other sites have joined the Facebook Connect network and are utilizing the site’s tools, you will need a Facebook account to be able to use these sites in the future. Plus, not everyone wants to give up their ability to connect with long lost high school buddies or share their latest baby pics with family and friends.

So what to do?

Fortunately, those that have pushed back at Facebook in the past on privacy issues have forced Facebook to provide tools to make you as stealthy as you’d like to be on the site without being completely invisible to those on your ‘friends’ list.

Here’s a guide for making yourself very close to invisible:

While logged into Facebook:

1. Select the ‘Account’ tab at the top right corner of the screen
2. Select ‘Privacy Settings’
3. In the ‘Connecting on Facebook’ section, select ‘View Settings’ – amend these settings to whatever your comfort level is. If you are not interested in letting new people find you on Facebook, then you should change all these settings to ‘Friends Only’. Know that you will not show up in Facebook searches and no one new can add you as a friend.
4. Be sure that you have chosen the ‘Friends Only’ settings in the ‘Sharing on Facebook’ section – click ‘Apply’
5. Select ‘Customize Settings’
6. Be sure that all the drop-downs are ‘Friends Only’
7. Disable the option for ‘Include me in “People Here Now” after I check in
Select ‘Edit album privacy’ and change all the settings to your meet your comfort level. You can customize them to even be invisible or visible to certain people by selecting the ‘customize’ option
8. Back on the main privacy settings page, ‘Choose Your Privacy Settings’, select ‘edit your settings’ in the ‘Apps and Websites’ section in the bottom left corner of the screen
9. Edit the settings for each of the options (on the ‘Instant Personalization’ page, disable the option to see information)

Many of the options listed above are explained in detail by Facebook. However, their goal is to make their site very accessible for both their users and the advertisers that pay to get your information through applications and widgets so they encourage you to share all information by making the defaults very liberal. By limiting the information that Facebook is eager to provide to other users, the search engines and advertisers, you are gaining greater control over who sees your private data. For a regular everyday user that just wants to connect with family and friends, taking these steps returns Facebook much closer to its original purpose.

Yesterday, IKEA announced it had flipped the switch on newly installed dual rooftop solar units at its Tempe, Arizona store. The new system is one of the largest solar systems in the Phoenix area and the third such solar energy system for the Swedish home furnishings retailer; they have similar units already in place in Brooklyn, NY and Pittsburgh, PA.

The 300 kW solar energy system will generate 960,000 kWh of electricity annually from 2600 solar panels. It is the equivalent of reducing at least 760 tons of (C02) – which equals the emissions of 133 cars or powering 84 homes annually.

IKEA has other renewable energy initiatives in place. Already operating is solar water heating in stores in Charlotte, N.C.; Draper, Utah; Orlando, Florida; and Tampa, Florida. In addition, a geothermal system is being installed in a store under construction in Centennial, Colorado.

It was also announced that eight California locations are on deck for solar systems. In all, IKEA will be installing nearly 20,000 solar panels at eight of its California locations. IKEA expects the panels to generate 6.65 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually which is enough to power 580 homes for a year. Pending governmental approval, it will begin installing the renewable energy systems later this fall at existing stores in East Palo Alto, Emeryville, West Sacramento, Burbank, Costa Mesa, Covina and San Diego along with its large distribution center in Tejon.

Hate going shopping in person but don’t want to buy everything online? Consider the future of shopping where cash registers will not just be able to ring up your purchases, but be able to tell you what other items would match the sweater you’re buying that day….including a review of your past purchases.

Love the idea or hate it, that is the future of brick and mortar checkout. Combining the online catalog with a streamlined checkout process, the goal is to help you shop smarter, better and of course, more often.

Intel has a future generation register in development right now that does all of this, plus more. In fact, it is predicted that in the future you won’t even need to bring your credit card – your cell phone will be the method of payment and receipts will be sent right to your phone. Added bonus – no more lost receipts for returns and exchanges.

Take a look at this video that shows what Intel is working on right now:

http://www.smartplanet.com/business/video/the-future-of-cash-registers/462022/

Research firm, Canalys, reports that Android platform smartphone sales increased an amazing 886% in the 2nd quarter.

An even bigger accomplishment is the fact that Android based phones now account for 34% of the market – topping all other platforms including Apple’s popular iPhone platform.

The press release from Canalys also reports that Android devices combined reached almost 475,000 units in Q2 2010 from no presence in the country a year ago. The Google-backed Android is available in phones from HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG, among others.

In total, the US market for smartphones is the largest established market in the world, and it still continues to show rapid growth. In the 2nd quarter of 2010, there were 14.7 million smart phone units shipped.

iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis Service conducted a study of the cost of materials for the HTC Incredible. The total was $163.35 for the parts and electronic components used to build the smartphone.

Nearly 20% of the cost of the handset is from the processor which cost $31.40. Right behind the processor was the display and touch screen which is manufactured by Samsung. The display, which is an advanced Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED), cost $31.20. In third place was the memory at $29.80 or 18.2%. It is interesting to note that cost of the 8MP Auto Focus camera in the handset was only $15.70.

The cost to manufacture the phone is a reported $10 bringing the grand total to about $175. That is amazing considering everything the Incredible can do. Think of the Incredible as a handheld computer plus camera for less than $175!

iSuppli did make note of the similarities between the HTC Incredible and the Nexus One. According to iSuppli Director, Andrew Rassweiler, “The Droid Incredible could have been dubbed the ‘Nexus Two’ given its similarity to HTC’s Nexus One introduced early this year.”