Saturday, December 31, 2011

Great NYC Family Trip - The Book of Mormon


Julie and I took John, Michael and Tim to the funniest play, event you-name-it I have ever been to - The Book of Mormon play at the Eugene O'Neil Play House.  Julie surprised all of us with this great trip.  I happened to mention when Matt Stone and Trey Parker were on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart discussing The Book of Mormon back in the spring that I would love to go to to NYC and see that someday.  Thanks to Julie, we did.

We went up on Amtrak and stayed at the Hilton at Times Square.  Huge thanks to Joy Warfield (and to Cathy Doucette) for her great suggestions on what to do and where to eat.  We carried her list with us throughout NYC.



Above is the list of 9/11 Memorial Board Members.  Notice Jon Stewart's name as the second name on the second column.






Above is Phil Rosenzweig who was a Sun Microsystems employee who lost his life on flight 93.


Above is the 9/11 memorial chopper by Paul Jr. that is being auctioned off for charity.




Inside Ellis Island's main building.



We enjoyed a quick pizza at one of NYC's thousands of great pizza joints.

 Above is Julie and John in front of the apartment building on 93rd street where Julie's dad, Ray and her uncle John crew up in Brooklyn.


The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was visible from Julie's Grandfather's apartment window.
Above and below is the high school that Julie's dad, uncle as well as Bernard and Albert King went to.

 Above is Lincoln Center.


Above is the Brooklyn Bridge.


Tim, my only son who is into cars, spotted this $150,000 Audi R8 in NYC.


Above is the Guggenheim Museum.



Of course we had to go to Zucotti Park.  NYPD had kicked everyone out.



Above is Julie and I in front of The Dakota at the exact spot that John Lennon was murdered.

Below are the boys in Central Park at night as we walked to the Imagine area.

Above is the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem.




The Book of Mormon was HILARIOUS.  Tickets were not cheap, but well worth it.  .  

 

It was COLD when the 30mph winds and 30 degree temperatures and you are on top of a tour bus.


We were on the 42nd story on 42nd street in Times Square with amazing views from our room. 


Lots of great restaurants!   Immediately above we are at PJ Clarke's which is a very famous NY restaurant.   We also went to John DiCarlo's cousins restaurant Forlini's in Little Italy.



The famous ball at Ti mes Square.

Friday, December 30, 2011

The Complete Myth of Voter Fraud


How completely ironic is it that all of this manufactured nonsense about voter fraud is now biting the Republicans in the VA presidential primary.   In a great article by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, Ezra Klein brings out a couple of great points:


"But other Republicans — and most of the candidates — have turned their fire on Virginia. Ken Cuccinelli, the state’s attorney general, was particularly unsparing about the access laws. “Virginia won’t be nearly as ‘fought over’ as it should be in the midst of such a wide open nomination contest,” he wrote in an e-mail to supporters. “Our own laws have reduced our relevance. Sad. I hope our new GOP majorities will fix this problem so that neither party confronts it again.”

He hopes, in other words, that Virginia will make it easier for Republican candidates to get on the ballot, so Virginia’s voters are better able to participate in the election. It’s a noble goal, and one many Republicans share. But it runs counter to the efforts Republicans have mounted in dozens of states to make it more difficult for ordinary Americans to participate in the 2012 election."
This manufactured problem by the Republicans is best exemplified by this Ari Berman article in Rolling Stone that Ezra Klein points out in his article:

"As Ari Berman detailed in an article this summer for Rolling Stone, these laws have mostly been introduced by Republicans, who have justified them largely on fraud-prevention grounds. The only problem is that it’s been extremely hard for advocates of more restrictive voting laws to prove that fraud is a problem.
As Berman wrote, “A major probe by the Justice Department between 2002 and 2007 failed to prosecute a single person for going to the polls and impersonating an eligible voter, which the anti-fraud laws are supposedly designed to stop. Out of the 300 million votes cast in that period, federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for voter fraud — and many of the cases involved immigrants and former felons who were simply unaware of their ineligibility.” 
Stated another way, that is a problem that happens at MOST .0000286666 percent of the time

 Perhaps Stephen Colbert said it best as Ezra Klein brings out in his article:

Joked comedian and political satirist Stephen Colbert: “Our democracy is under siege from an enemy so small it could be hiding anywhere.”

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

John Edstrom Graduates VT With Masters Degree in Computer Science


A week ago on December 16th 2011, John Edstrom, our oldest son, graduated from Virgina Tech with a Masters in Computer Science.  He graduated from Virgina Tech with a BS in Computer Science in May 2010.



John sharing a laugh with the graduate next to him.


This was a close up of John as he was walking up to get his degree.



Above is John receiving his degree.


Above is the conferring of degrees at VT




At John and Michael's favorite restaurant "Home Place Restaurant"

John between his grandpa and grandma Edstrom.  Below, Steve joined the grandparents and John.


    John with his proud and happy parents.  One down, two to go :-)


John and Janet with Steve above.  

MTConnect Is Not an Application - MTConnect Is Not Middleware

MTConnect Is Not an Application - MTConnect Is Not Middleware

Dec 15, 2011  (Note: I wrote this for the IMTS Insider)
By Dave Edstrom

Last month, I discussed what MTConnect is. This month I am going to discuss what MTConnect is not. 
Many times I am asked, “What is MTConnect?” I always enjoy the conversation, no matter how many times I am asked. Sometimes, it can be a little bit of a challenge describing what MTConnect is and is not, because it is not something that you can touch, like a machine tool, or see, such as a software application. MTConnect is the protocol, or the “rules of the road,” that connects these two together.
MTConnect is important for manufacturing because it is the game-changing protocol that is allowing plug-and-play connectivity for manufacturing equipment and applications. Think of MTConnect as the “Bluetooth for manufacturing.” MTConnect’s mantra is, “Different Devices, Common Connection.” Now let’s look at both ends of the “what MTConnect is not” spectrum.
At one end is the shop owner, plant manager or manufacturing professional who has just been introduced to MTConnect. At IMTS 2010, more than a few times someone would walk up and ask to buy a copy of it.  Sometimes, folks would even pull out their credit card. It is great that people are excited about MTConnect, but it is also important that it is clear what MTConnect is and is not — and it is not something you buy. But it is perfectly understandable that someone would look at the screens we had set up in the Emerging Technology Center at IMTS and assume that MTConnect is an application such as Microsoft Excel.
It can sometimes be a challenge to explain that MTConnect simply is the protocol or rules of the road on how an application speaks to a piece of manufacturing equipment. Sometimes it is helpful to show people what a protocol is. The easiest way to think about what a protocol does is a simple question and answer scenario between an application and a machine tool.
MTC
The diagram above shows the simple two-step MTConnect protocol:

1.    A client application makes a request – such as an MTConnect “sample” command.
2.    The MTConnect agent at the machine tool answers the sample command with an XML document that has all of the sample information in it.
That’s really all there is to it at the highest level — a simple request-reply protocol.  MTConnect is quite elegant in its simplicity. Simplicity is important when both deploying a technology as well as scaling a technology.  Complexity breaks protocols.  I wish my sons were MTConnect compliant because then I could put in a simple request and it would be done the first time.  I would not have to ask them 10 times (or more!).  But I digress from the topic at hand.
The other end of the spectrum is the software vendor in manufacturing.  It is not reasonable to expect an end user to understand what a protocol is, but it is certainly reasonable to expect someone in the business of software to understand.   Recently I was told, “Dave, MTConnect is middleware.”  I asked, “who told you that?”  When I was told it was a company that was supposed to be in the manufacturing software business, I knew there could only be two reasons for this.
First, this company, which should absolutely know better, took a cursory, 100,000-foot view of MTConnect for a fraction of a femtosecond and then jumped to the wrong conclusion.  The other possibility is that they view the open and royalty-free protocol of MTConnect as a competitor and stated this view to purposely confuse the marketplace.   Let’s give this company the benefit of the doubt and assume they were simply confused and take this opportunity to discuss what MTConnect is not.
I will provide a definition of what is middleware is so hopefully we can clear up this incorrect analysis of MTConnect.
A definition that is clear and well written definition of middleware is from webopedia:
(mid´&l-war) (n.) Software that connects two otherwise separate applications.  For example, there are a number of middleware products that link a database system to a Web server. This allows users to request data from the database using forms displayed on a Web browser, and it enables the Web server to return dynamic Web pages based on the user's requests and profile. 
The term middleware is used to describe separate products that serve as the glue between two applications. It is, therefore, distinct from import and export features that may be built into one of the applications. Middleware is sometimes called plumbing because it connects two sides of an application and passes data between them. Common middleware categories include:
  • ESBs
  • TP monitors
  • DCE environments
  • RPC systems
  • Object Request Brokers (ORBs)
  • Database access systems
  • Message Passing
The above definition is the most basic definition of middleware.  Middleware connects two applications with ANOTHER application.  MTConnect is a protocol.  MTConnect is not middleware, because MTConnect is not an application. MTConnect cannot control a machine tool or any other piece of manufacturing equipment. MTConnect is a very simple, read-only protocol based on http and XML that makes information available in a common universal format. 
A very simple example is that you could have a sensor that was MTConnect enabled.  Applications could simply ask the MTConnect enabled sensor for data and it is returned to the application.  That is not an example of two different applications that are speaking to a third middleware application.   The webopedia definition makes it clear that middleware is distinct from import and export features that may be built into applications. 
We are sometimes guilty of over simplifying MTConnect when we say, “think of MTConnect as a simple and secure webserver.”  That is not technically accurate, but it can sometimes help folks visualize MTConnect.  We do this because most people know what a web site is.  However, that does a disservice to those individuals who really want to know what MTConnect is. To state that MTConnect is a webserver is incorrect. The logic fallacy of this can be demonstrated by the following.  A Corvette is transportation. A boat is transportation. Therefore, a Corvette is a boat.   Just because a protocol CAN use a webserver does not mean that it is webserver.
To be 100% clear, MTConnect is a communications protocol. A communications protocol is simply the set of rules for exchanging messages.
MTConnect is not an application. MTConnect is not middleware.
For those not in technology, this might fall into the “who cares” category. The reason to care is that words and correct definitions of words matter – especially in technology. As MTConnect continues to grow globally, the proper definition becomes even more important when we introduce different country languages into the equation. MTConnect is an open and royalty-free protocol for manufacturing.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Christmas 2011 Ashburn Deer





I received this very nice anonymous card in the mail this year regarding my deer: