Pricing congestible network resources

We describe the basic economic theory of pricing a congestible resource such as an FTP server, a router, a Web site, etc. In particular, we examine the implications of “congestion pricing” as a way to encourage efficient use of network resources. We explore the implications of flat pricing and congestion pricing for capacity expansion in centrally planned, competitive, and monopolistic environments. The most common form of Internet pricing is pricing by access, with no usage-sensitive prices. With a fixed set of users, we expect to see greater capacity when usage is not priced, but also greater congestion. However, with greater congestion, congestion-sensitive users might not use the resource     

Economic incentives in software design

I examine the incentives for software providers to design appropriate user interfaces. There are two sorts of costs involved when one uses software: the fixed cost of learning to use a piece of software and the variable cost of operating the software. I show that a monopoly provider of software generally invests the right amount of resources in making the software easy to learn, but too little in making it easy to operate. In some extreme cases a monopolist may even make the softwaretoo easy to learn.     

A 2-bit RF MEMS phase shifter in a thick-film BGA ceramic package

The development of a thick-film hermetic BGA package for a radio-frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) 2-bit phase shifter is presented. The measured packaged MEMS phase shifter average in-band insertion loss was 1.14 dB with an average return loss of 15.9 dB. The package transition insertion loss was less than 0.1 dB per transition with excellent agreement between simulated and measured results. It was also demonstrated that the RF MEMS phase shift performance could be improved to obtain a phase error of less than 3.3 degrees. The first reported measurements of the average rise and fall times associated with a MEMS circuit (in this case a 2-bit phase shifter) were 26 and 70 /spl mu/s, respectively. The advent of packaged RF MEMS phase shifters will reduce the cost (both design and building) of future phase arrays.     

The Synergetic Effects of Surface Texturing and MoDDP Additive Applied to Ball-on-Disk Friction Subject to Both Flooded and Starved Lubrication Conditions

This paper reports a novel work on the synergetic effects of microscale surface texturing and lubricant friction modifier additive of molybdenum dialkyldithiophosphate (MoDDP) subject to both flooded and starved lubrication conditions. The experiments were performed on reciprocating ball-on-disk friction in GTL8 base oil with and without MoDDP. In the flooded lubrication condition, the test results demonstrated that the presence of the MoDDP additive contributed to lower friction coefficients and also more pronounced effect of surface textures on friction than in the case of the bare base oil. In the starved lubrication experiments, textured and texture-free surfaces in the oils with and without MoDDP additive were tested until an abrupt rising of friction coefficient was detected. The results showed that the magnitude of friction coefficient before terminating each test was the almost same for various tests, while the endurance time in different test conditions was significantly different. The textured surface exhibited longer endurance time than the texture-free surface, especially when the MoDDP additive was used. The mechanism of the synergetic effects of surface textures and MoDDP additive has been discussed based on the experimental observations in the following sections. This study provides a new idea for the application of surface texture in boundary lubrication when lubricant additive is contained in the lubricating oils.     

The demographics of the do-not-call list [security of data]

Data from do-not-call registries and other sources show discernible patterns in the demographics of consumers who signed up for do-not-call lists. Such patterns might also be useful in analyzing the prospects for a do-not-spam registry