e’ve all done it: You need to learn something so you sign up for training. You attend a class. You go back to work. Does anything from the training class stay with you a week later? How about a month or six months later? Usually you feel good after training.

The billowing cloud of volcanic ash spewing from Iceland may have been a major pain for air travel, but it also had a positive side. It served up a gentle reminder for me to find out what the heck is going on with AS9100 certification.

With the morning mist still on the Hudson River and the sun just kissing the cliff tops of the New Jersey Palisade, Aaron Burr, vice president of the United States, shot and killed former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.

(Ophir-Spiricon: Logan, UT) -- Ophir-Spiricon, a global provider of precision laser measurement, recently announced the PD10-IR-pJ Photodiode Energy Sensors, designed to measure very low energy down to 30 pJ.

(Zontec: Cincinnati) -- Zontec Inc., the international developer of statistical process control (SPC) software solutions, announced that its Synergy 3000T v. 3.0 enterprise SPC software has achieved certified integration with SAP Business Suite software.

(Pinpoint Laser Systems: Peabody, MA) -- Pinpoint Laser Systems is introducing the new Pinpoint Proline Alignment Kit—a visual laser system for checking and measuring straightness, flatness, squareness, parallelism, leveling, and many other tasks.

(Starrett Co.: Athol, MA) — The L.S. Starrett Co., a global manufacturer of precision tools and metrology equipment, has introduced the Galileo AV230+, a small, rugged video-based, multisensor measurement system.

(EtQ: Farmingdale, NY) -- EtQ has announced that it will be exhibiting and speaking at the American Society for Quality’s (ASQ) World Conference on Quality and Improvement (WCQI), to be held May 24–26 in St. Louis.

(AIA: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Overall machine vision sales should increase by 2.6 percent to 4.6 percent in 2010, depending upon the extent of the current economic recovery and the rate of change in industrial production that occurs. This follows a 29.2-percent decline experienced in 2009.

(TÜVRheinland: Newtown, CT) -- TÜVRheinland, a provider of global market access, will present seminars about CE marking and the CB Sheme at the World Trade Center of Central Pennsylvania’s 2010 International Trade Conference. The event, which is organized in partnership with the U.S.