Great Week at Ocean City, Maryland With Franklins

We had perfect weather in Ocean City, MD the week of July 2nd through the 9th.  It was 104 degrees in DC July 7th with other days in the DC area in triple digits as well that week.  You know it is hot when it is 94 degrees in Ocean City right on the water.  We vacationed with my cousin Richard and his family from Marshall, Wisconsin.  We stayed at a great place at the 19th and 20th floor at Sea Watch.

Standing in the back from left to right are: Taylor, Michael, Tim, John and Janet
Sitting are Taylor's friends from Marshall, Wisconsin - Morgan and Alyssa.
Lying down is Richard Franklin.

We enjoyed fireworks from the 19th and 20th floor of our 3 bedroom condo we rented for the week.  It had both bay side and ocean views.   It is nice to be at eye level with the fireworks.

Above is Bobbi Franklin, me, Richard and my wife Julie at one of our favorite restaurants - Harpoon Hanna's in Fenwick Island Delaware.

Here is an earlier photo of the Franklin's and the Edstrom kids together.

Here is a photo at Marina Deck a few years back....

Tim is being the center of attention (again) :-)

John, Max, Michael, Casey, Tim and Taylor behind the sand wall.

Taylor and Tim on top of Casey and John's shoulders with Michael and max in front.

Edstrom's and Franklin's at Ocean City, MD in 2003 (I think)

Why Software Developers Should Attend IMTS 2010

I wrote this for the IMTS Insider, but it is worth restating it  here.  If you go to the Who Should Attend IMTS section at IMTS you see the following:

• Executives building a business
• Decision makers involved in manufacturing equipment purchases
• Engineers who identify equipment needs
• Plant superintendent who will set it up
• Operators who use the equipment and know it better than anyone else
• All staff members and suppliers you count on for new ideas
• I would like to add to that list:
• Software Developers looking for innovative ways to build new applications.
• Yes, IMTS has been largely about the hardware over the years with software somewhat under the covers.  But if you have been paying close attention over the years, you have noticed an increasing presence of software all throughout IMTS.  The size of the software section of IMTS continues to grow and in 2008 and the Emerging Technology Center (ETC) with MTConnect was the absolute hit of the show.

I would strongly encourage software developers to attend IMTS because we are witnessing an inflection point in manufacturing.  The inflection point I am referring to is the ability for software to be the "tail that wags the dog" in manufacturing.    You will see first hand how software will be the key purchase that truly improves productivity in all phases in manufacturing.  It will be software developers that will be commanding the big bucks in manufacturing - just like the computer industry.

What we like to say in the computer industry is, "while you date your hardware vendor, you marry your software vendor."   What this means is that it is much easier for a large enterprise to upgrade or swap out all their PCs then switch out all the Microsoft applications to to a different vendor.   Anyone who has gone through a transition to a new ERP system can appreciate this saying.
The somewhat hidden message in that saying is the importance of selecting the right software that has the ability to easily integrate and grow over time can not be overstated.

So, why should software developers go to IMTS?  Because it will be software that will just continue to grow and prosper in manufacturing.  Software developers should attend IMTS to learn about what is happening in manufacturing, see who the players are  and get in early on the manufacturing software boom.  Also, if you get a job offer, ask for lots of stock options :-)

The Great USA Manufacturing Myth: We Simply Can Not Compete

There is a great myth that Americans have gotten stupid/lazy and we simply can not compete in manufacturing anymore.  We have no choice but to off-shore everything.  

"Most Americans, I suspect, believe we're losing manufacturing because we can't compete against cheap Chinese labor.   But Germany has remained a manufacturing giant notwithstanding the rise of East Asia, making high-end products with a workforce that is more unionized and better paid than ours.  German exports came to $1.1 trillion in 2009 -- roughly $125 billion more than we exported, though there are just 82 million Germans to our 310 million Americans. Germany's yearly trade balance went from a deficit of $6 billion in 1998 to a surplus of $267 billion in 2008 -- the same year the United States ran a trade deficit of $569 billion. Over those same 10 years, Germany's annual growth rate per capita exceeded ours."

The quote above comes from a very interesting article by Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post on Thursday July 1st, 2010 that was titled:

                         In recession battle, Germany and China are winners




The bottom line with manufacturing is cost.  How Germany has been able to remain a manufacturing giant is by being more productive and thereby reducing cost.  This is where technologies such as MTConnect is so important.   As a manufacturing plant increases its productivity of its manufacturing equipment, the human cost becomes a smaller factor with other costs such as power becoming a larger slice of the pie.  In the US we have significant advantages in the power area.  The average machine tool is only in cycle 25% of the time.  As the number continues to increase, the cheap labor becomes less and less relative. 

Loosing manufacturing is a slippery slope, because there are so many industries that manufacturing touches.  Below is from the same article:

"In 1960, manufacturing accounted for a quarter of our gross domestic product and employed 26 percent of the labor force. Today, manufacturing has shriveled to 11 percent of GDP and employs a kindred percentage of the workforce."

Manufacturing is the tail that wags the economy....

CMJ: Chinamac Journal on MTConnect

I received a Google Alert on this short article in CMJ: Chinamac Journal on MTConnect.

It is interesting the author chose the title of the article to be: 

MTConnect, an open, tax-free internet communications technologies based on proven communications standards 

I guess never thought of the other attempts at a standard for manufacturing equipment communication as a tax, but that is a very accurate way to think about it.  I always use the term "Country Club Protocols" that most of the manufacturing equipment vendors where you had to pay to join the club and then pay to play for each device out on the course.  A tax is an interesting and possibly better way to convey this to individuals who are new to MTConnect.  After all, who wants to pay taxes?

The Definition of Tough

My parents are in the mid to late 70s.  They both needed a colonoscopy.  In order to save money and time, they decided to have their colonoscopies at the same time.  It is my understanding they had different Dr.s and a different endoscopes (digital rectal devices).  Apparently one Dr. can not actually do a husband and wife dual colonoscopy at the same time even if the elderly couple requests it.  I would imagine that a dual-endoscope would look like a large "Y".  Since it is not advisable to have general anesthesia and drive a car, my parents flipped a coin to see who would get the general anesthesia and who would get local anesthesia.  My mom lost the coin flip, so she got the local (awake for the procedure) and my father got the general (knocked out) for his procedure.  My mom drove them both home after their dual colonoscopies.

That is my definition of tough.  Not necessarily bright, but certainly tough :-)

This is what happens when you grow up on farms in Minnesota.  As my mother likes to remind my father, the farm she grew up on had neither electricity or running water.


Just as a technical reminder (according to wikipedia) the first step in having a colonoscopy is usually a digital rectal examination, to examine the tone of the sphincter and to determine if preparation has been adequate. The endoscope is then passed through the anus up the rectum, the colon (sigmoid, descending, transverse and ascending colon, the cecum), and ultimately the terminal ileum. The endoscope has a movable tip and multiple channels for instrumentation, air, suction and light. The bowel is occasionally insufflated with air to maximize visibility. Biopsies are frequently taken for histology.

IP on EVERYTHING.....

npg sent me this very interesting video on IPSO Alliance: Promoting the use of IP for Smart Objects 

The basic premise is that IP (Internet Protocol) should be on absolutely everything.  The electronics are so small and so cheap there is absolutely no reason not to take advantage of the incredible power of IP.  We did this for MTConnect and then made it even easier and more ubiquitous by putting XML and http into the MTConnect spec so each MTConnect piece of equipment essentially looks like an extremely small and secure web server to the rest of the network.

As the site states, "Electronic Design's Bill Wong talks with Chairman Geoff Mulligan about IPSO Alliance, an open, informal and thought-leading association of like-minded organizations and individuals that promote the value of using the Internet Protocol for the networking of Smart Objects."


For more information, visit IPSO Alliance. 

Everyone Wants To Be John Meyer - New C6 Corvette

I have said it for 20 years.  Everyone in life wants to either be or comeback as John Meyer.  Why?  Because John always buy the hottest cars brand new, has the ultimate bachelor pad in Reston, travels around the globe, has an extremely interesting job at IBM and is just a helluva a good guy.  John purchased the car today on Sunday and I was there when he drove off the lot.  I told John that I now feel I am driving a 1972 Chevy Vega compared to his new C6 :-)

Above is me on the left with my 1998 C5 Corvette with John Meyer with his brand new, less than 30 miles FULLY LOADED  2010 C6 Corvette.  John received a great discount since the dealers are taking orders for the 2011 Corvettes.  There are very little changes from 2010 to 2011, with the IBM discount, this was absolute no-brainer for a fantastic, world class sports car.  Congratulations John!

Java 4-Ever Trailer - Must See :-)

Thanks to npg and my son John for sending this truly fantastic Java 4-Ever trailer.
Warning: NSFW - Not Suitable For Work viewing.

The “Next Big Things” Are in the Emerging Technology Center at IMTS

The “Next Big Things” Are in the Emerging Technology Center

From the IMTS Insider.....

Everyone comes to IMTS to see "the next big thing." You can see four of those "next big things" all in one place at IMTS — the Emerging Technology Center (ETC).

The four featured technologies this year are cloud computing, MTConnect®, nanotechnology/micro manufacturing, and additive manufacturing. Get a brief overview by checking out a cool 3-D video that discusses these leading-edge technologies. Then, take a tour of the ETC and see some in-depth demonstrations firsthand.

MTConnect, the open, royalty-free standard developed to foster communication between machine tools, made its debut in the ETC at IMTS 2008. More companies have begun pilot programs with MTConnect, and the standard is beginning to garner international attention.

IMTS 2010 will feature a live demonstration of MTConnect. The demonstration will focus on the ability of applications to collect data from machines and devices and show how that data can be utilized. The MTConnect Institute is asking registered Implementers and members of MTConnect to join in providing examples of the use of MTConnect. The demonstration will be conducted over the Internet, so it’s not necessary to have a booth in the show to participate — but it might be wise to consider.

Cloud computing is a technology that has gained popularity by leaps and bounds over recent years; you can learn more about it in the Cloud Computing articles by Dave Edstrom featured in the May 2010 and June 9 editions of the IMTS Insider.

Nanotechnology is the development of materials and devices sized 100 nanometers or smaller, important especially in the fields of electronics and medicine. Come learn about "the enormity of smallness!"

Additive manufacturing, the process of building objects from 3-D model data, allows design flexibility previously unknown and impossible in traditional subtractive processes. It allows for a much more rapid production process, as well as materials flexibility.
» Come see what’s next — visit the ETC!
» Add ETC to your MyShow Planner
» Find out how to participate in MTConnect at IMTS 2010

MTConnect 1.1 C++ Agent and the C++ Adapter Framework

This is from the latest MTConnect Newsletter that Paul Warndorf, VP of Technology and CTO for AMT- The Association for Manufacturing Technology.....

There have been some major enhancements to the reference implementation of the MTConnect 1.1 C++ Agent and the C++ adapter framework. There is a binary download available for Windows. All *NIX platforms can easily build from this source and includes:

• Full support for the 1.1 version of the standard. We have added the at parameter to current to get snapshots at any point in time and we have added support for condition. The agent is fully backward compatible, so it will function correctly with 1.0 agents and XML configurations.
• The new 1.1 agent and 1.1 adapter now support heartbeats. This will provide faster detection of disconnects between the agent and the adapter and higher reliability. With the new unavailability support, this makes detection of stale data much more reliable in the applications.
• We have removed the libxml2++ library to make the Windows build simpler; we got the added benefit of reduced memory requirements and higher performance as a result. All the tests now work properly on Windows as well and no additional DLL are required with the exe.
• The buffer size is now configurable to support devices with smaller amounts of memory.
• We have performed significant performance and memory testing and it is now much lighter weight and reliable.

Thanks to Will Sobel President and CEO of System Insights for his tremendous leadership in the MTConnect 1.1 standard.

The Last Recess EVER....

I remember it like it was yesterday....   It was 6th grade recess in Kansas City, MO in June of 1971 at Westridge Elementary School (which is now shut down.)   Everyone was happy, I mean REALLY HAPPY.  It is the last day of school, we are heading to Baptiste Junior High in the fall and it was a good year in Mrs. Phillips 6th grade class.   During that final afternoon recess one of my good friends, Joe Hubbard, is clearly not happy.   Joe then announces, "this is bad".  We are all amazed, shocked, surprised and puzzled.  I then ask, "Joe, what do you mean this is bad?"   Joe then goes on to say,:

"Think about it, this is our last recess EVER.  From now on, there are no more recesses.  Next year we will have multiple teachers per day, they will not be able to know who is giving out homework and who is not.  We might get swamped with homework.  It only gets worse in high school and then in college.  Then after college, you have to get a job.  There are no recesses at jobs.  Then you get married have kids, they have recesses, but you don't.  This our last recess and we should think about it."

We were all bummed.  We were just sort of standing around thinking about Joe had said.   I lost touch with Joe Hubbard, but I will never forget the last recess speech that he gave.   If Joe was as forward thinking later in life as he was in sixth grade, I am sure he is doing extremely well.  Of course, he could have gotten beaten up that day for bumming everyone out as well, but we were all too shocked to do that :-)

IMTS Insider: Cloud Computing Makes Good Business Sense

Cloud Computing Makes Good Business Sense
by Dave Edstrom
June 9, 2010 for the IMTS Insider

What are examples of cloud computing in manufacturing today? Last month we discussed the basics of cloud computing and why someone in manufacturing should care about cloud computing.  Just as a quick refresher, cloud computing simply means using remote, large Internet server farms as if they belong to your company and only paying for what you use. All of your data and all of your processing happen outside of your business, in the cloud.

A simple method I like to use to determine the relative legitimacy of a given topic is to Google the topic inside double quotes to find exact matches.  For example, the exact search text of "manufacturing in the cloud" returns 19,700 hits.  If we Google manufacturing cloud computing without double quotes, we get 24,000,000 hits.

Before we get into the specific examples of "manufacturing in the cloud" it is important to remind everyone what is involved prior to the emergence of cloud computing. Before cloud computing, the owner of a manufacturing shop would have to perform the following steps when acquiring new software:

• Decide which software to use
• Purchase the software
• Acquire the necessary servers and storage
• Install the software
• Configure the software
• Integrate the software with business operations
• Customize the software for your specific use
• Keep the software up to date with patches and new versions
• Make sure no viruses or malware get into the servers and software
• Make sure staff can manage the new software
• Back up data and patched software
• Come up with contingency plans if servers and/or software go down
• Continuously monitor and manage the systems and software
• Oh, and also — use the software

Now, compare those steps to what happens when you use cloud computing:

• Decide which software to use
• Point your browser at the new software site and download
• Use the software
• Most importantly: Pay for what you use and only for what you use

As you can see, there are many economic and logistical advantages to using cloud computing instead of purchasing your systems and software. The time it takes to implement, monitor, manage and support purchased software as well as systems are major factors.

A month ago, at Google's Official Enterprise Blog, there was an entry regarding Manufacturing in the Cloud.

As the article states:

"LiquidConcrete is a medium-sized Seattle-based manufacturer of high-performance concrete coatings and flooring systems for industrial and transportation markets.  LiquidConcrete relies on Google Apps for email, calendar, and document collaboration, and onSmartsheet, an integrated app from the Google Apps Marketplace, for online project management, general work management, and team collaboration."

Why did LiquidConcrete decide to go with cloud computing? As Tom Hippensteel, Vice President for LiquidConcrete, said:

"We win business because we have great products, and because we run a lean operation that differentiates on quick turnaround of custom jobs with high levels of customer service. Everything about our operation is focused on efficiency, so we’re always looking for software solutions that fit that model."

SalesForce.com is one of the best examples of cloud computing.  Many credit SalesForce.com with starting cloud computing by offering Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as Software as a Service (SaaS).  SaaS is simply one of the categories of cloud computing that most manufacturing companies would be interested in using. The requirements for using SalesForce changed from a detailed list of what server hardware a customer needed to support a large CRM system on-site, to the very simple and straightforward, "all you need is a browser and you have a CRM system."  SalesForce.com takes care of the rest.   This is not an advertisement for SalesForce.com, but rather an example of the dramatic differences when you use cloud computing versus the standard method.

The question for software vendors is not if they will have a cloud computing offering, but when.  If you are talking to a software company that does not have a cloud computing strategy, it would be the equivalent of a company in 1995 stating they have no plans to have an Internet presence. Cloud computing is multibillion industry that is very real for both economic and technical reasons.  Customers love the "pay by the drink" model for using computers in the cloud. Cloud computing should absolutely be part of your IT strategy. You can learn more about it in the Emerging Technology Center in the front of the North Building at IMTS 2010.

Bill Joy on Open Source Software Business Model

npg sent me this interesting article by CNET's Ina Fried interviewed Bill Joy.

This was an interesting exchange and a question from Ina to Bill:

"The two examples you point to, the iPad and the iPhone, are things that came from a very tight-knit, proprietary, closed design company. Does it make you think that,  for certain types of devices, an open model is less effective?"

Bill Joy:

"I don't think the open-source community focused on this stuff in the same way. In some sense, you only hit what you aim at. What was the goal of the Linux community--to replace Windows? One can imagine higher aspirations. I think the thing is that open source has been great for hobbyists to get involved, and hobbyists in the sense of the word as somebody who really loves it. That's not a negative thing at all.

It's just not clear how it organizes a sustained and creative activity. Google is using this approach with Android. It's open source, but the money comes from someplace else. More broadly, how do people make a living and do something really creative? I think they have to organize it as a business. I'm all for sharing, but I recognize the truly great things may not come from that environment."

This was the number one area that Jonathan Schwartz did not appreciate while he was CEO of Sun Microsystems.  You must have a viable open software business monetization model (as I blogged about) when it comes to open source software or you simply can not survive. 

The article states that Bill has been working on green technologies for the past five years for Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Venture Capital.

The Story of Ping - Internet Network Command

npg sent this to me which I thought was a great historical background on the network ping command.  Beth Groundwater is professional writer (novelist) as well as Neil's wife. (not sure if order matters here or not :-)    Beth writes the Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series for Five Star Publishing and the Rocky Mountain Adventures mystery series for Midnight Ink.   Below is text from Neil referencing Beth's book and the story of Ping.   Thanks Neil and Beth!
 
Beth arrived home last night with her childhood copy of the above book intact.

Not so well known is that the book modeled the internet dozens of years before the internet existed!

An acquaintance, Mike Muuss, wrote a program circa 1983 that probed the "distance" to a target host across the network.  Like the same-named SONAR function, it sends a tiny packet out onto the internet and times its 'echo'.  Mike described it in more technical terms in the linked page below.

Well, in 1999, someone 'reviewed' "The Story About Ping" as if it was about Mike's software program.  And that online review appears on Mike's page and on the amazon.com page about the book.  Hilarity ensues.

  http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/ping.html  (Mike died in 2000, but his internet legacy lives on.)
  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140502416/

     (The review disappeared for a while but someone re-entered it and it's found 'helpful'.)

And yes, Ping 'lives on' on both Windows and Mac computers.

In a 'terminal' window, you can type:
  ping yahoo.com
and it returns:

  neils-mbp:~ neil$ ping yahoo.com
  PING yahoo.com (69.147.125.65): 56 data bytes
  64 bytes from 69.147.125.65: icmp_seq=0 ttl=54 time=99.573 ms
  64 bytes from 69.147.125.65: icmp_seq=1 ttl=54 time=99.175 ms
  [ad nauseam]

Weekend at Cape Cod with Dr. Gawarkiewicz and His Lovely Wife Connie

Dr. Glen Gawarkiewicz, his wife Connie, my wife Julie and me in front of the Paul Revere statue in Boston after great dinner at Limoncello.  The waiter was great as we told stories all night and he even sat down a few times to tell a few stories.  We had a great time. 

Perfect weather all weekend long as witnessed by this picture of The Old North Church.

East Falmouth.  Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) is the large building in the distance. NOTE: This is not WHOI's main campus location.

View from East Falmouth.

Biking on Cape Cod.

Here I am pondering how to best answer Dr. Gawarkiewicz's question of me:

"What is the relationship between the seasonal temperature fields from the new Gulf of Mexico climatology reports stating accumulated reverse polarity, ionized isopycnals overlays in summer, while allowing for the cross mixing from non-horizontally organized storms, which as well all know, will homogenize the sargentized rock shelf water that has stochastic properties, yet partially non-deterministic when the causing affects of Lloyd Hill's vacuum slope is both increasing steeply in the shelfbreak region while realizing that any grand unified oceanographic theory that does not allow for both a ocean currents wave and particle duality to exist except in the down quark, the muon and the strange quark, and the tau lepton and the bottom quark stages of current partially-affected sectorization Earl tangents that all come together in forming the very elusive gork particle which is believed to be the godfather to Higgs boson is both contradictory in the standard model, yet correct mathematically when the Austin Peay recursive, regenerative quantum-sliced Williams model is applied?"

 My response?   "I can tell that you went to Lake Braddock Secondary School in Fairfax County, VA as your logic has been forever flawed by the incredibly stupid Open Classroom Experiment in the mid 1970s.  Did you have Mr. Patchett for Government as well?   If so, you are REALLY in trouble." :-)

Jet Skiing at Ocean City, MD

Michael 19, Tim 16, me OLD, and John 22 at Ocean City MD before we all go jet skiing.

Michael, Tim and John before we took off to Assateague Island for some 60mph jet skiing.   Julie decided I did not warrant being in the picture I guess :-)

 Four of us coming back from Assateague Island.

Nice sunset from the Marina Deck Restaurant after an hour of high speed Sea-Doo jet skiing.

Largest Chinese Machine Tool Company Joins MTConnect

Below is directly off the AMT Online news section regarding the CCMT 2010 show (China CNC Machine Tool Fair - 2010) in Nanjing, China, held April 12-16

 

 This was such impressive news that it is worth repeating here.  IMTS will have an Emerging Technology Center where MTConnect will once again be the HIT OF THE SHOW.  Great job Peter and Athulan! 

 

CCMT provides a venue to promote both IMTS and MTConnect® in China

AMT has recently taken MTConnect^® and IMTS show promotion to a new venue. AMT’s booth at the CCMT 2010 show (China CNC Machine Tool Fair - 2010) in Nanjing, China, held April 12-16, included the first demonstration of MTConnect in the China market. AMT China General Manager Xingbin Li and Shanghai Regional Manager Sean Jiang were instrumental in setting up advance meetings with several of the largest Chinese builders to familiarize them with MTConnect. 

How did it go? By the end of the first day of the show, one manufacturer, Dalian Machine Tool Group, had already hooked one of their machines on the show floor into the booth demonstration and several others had made appointments for custom demonstrations! By the close of the show, several interviews were given to manufacturing publications and MTConnect was the surprise “buzz” of the show.

IMTS

On the IMTS side, AMT staff met with several groups representing delegations planning to attend the show and were able to present Chicago highlights in Chinese with the support of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau.

During the show, Peter Eelman, AMT Vice President – Exhibitions & Communications, met with the CMTBA President Wu Bailin and his staff, who are assisting in IMTS promotion in China and will sponsor the CIMT Show in Beijing next April. CIMT will again include an AMT/USA Pavilion. Details on AMT member participation will be available on AMTonline.org.

The trip also marked the first visit to China for AMT Exhibitions Operations Coordinator Meredith Fabrizio, who enjoyed her first Asian show experience despite cold weather conditions in unheated exhibition halls. “Exhibiting in a Chinese Trade Show has given me valuable knowledge which I will utilize when assisting AMT/USA Pavilion exhibitors in preparing for CIMT 2011. The overall experience taught me to be very flexible and to be open to new ways of doing things. My recommendations to first timers in China are to be over prepared, but willing to adapt, and to definitely try the dumplings!”

After wrapping up the show in Nanjing, Mr. Li, Mr. Eelman and Ms. Fabrizio traveled to Beijing to organize operational details for next year’s CIMT, and were greeted with a pleasant surprise: A train line under construction will connect the new China International Exhibition Center with downtown Beijing in time for next year’s show!

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter to be Showcased at IMTS

This will be very, very cool - the information below is from AMT Online:


McLean, Va. . . Lockheed Martin has agreed to exhibit a full-scale model of its F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter during IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show 2010, being held at Chicago’s McCormick Place September 13-18.

The F-35 Lightning II is a 5th generation fighter, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations, advanced sustainment, and lower operational and support costs.  Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.  Two separate, interchangeable F-35 engines are under development: the Pratt & Whitney F135 and the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team F136.

“While the manufacturing technology featured at IMTS stands alone as a must-see, what’s really exciting is seeing the end result from some of those machines,” says John Krisko, IMTS Director – Exhibitions.  “Everyone at the show will have the opportunity to learn about the plane’s construction and the manufacturing technology behind it.  We are thrilled to have this amazing example of an end product featured at IMTS.”  GIE Media was instrumental in working with IMTS to secure the fighter for exhibit.

The F-35 is intended to be the world’s premiere strike aircraft through 2040.  The United States intends to buy a total of 2,443 aircraft with a total of more than 4,000 F-35s forecast to be built for U.S. and foreign customers combined.  The F-35 program’s overall value is estimated $323 billion, making it the largest defense program ever.

The F35 will be on display in the front of McCormick Place’s West Building in Booth #W-100.   Plans are also in the works to have photo opportunities with the plane available to attendees; watch for additional details.

InfoGraphic on the Short History of Hacking

Below is  a great infographic on A Short History On Hacking by OnlineMBA.  OnlineMBA gave permission for sites to embed this image:

Via: Online MBA

PRECISION Magazine Article on MTConnect

I wrote an MTConnect article for PRECISION Magazine that is titled MTConnect: The Holy Grail of Manufacturing and Why This Time is Different.  The article is in the May/June version.   PRECISION Magazine is a top quality magazine for Arizona Tooling and Machining.  PRECISION has hardcopy as well as online versions of its magazine.

My article is on pages 20 and 21 of the May/June edition.  

I will be writing a follow up article in the July/August edition where I go into a detailed technical explanation of MTConnect.

25th Anniversary of the .com domain name

I missed this last week, but this video of Scott McNealy and his 15 top reasons he is surprised we are celebrating the .com domain name is classic Scott :-)

The date of this party in San Francisco was May 27th.  As the article stated:

"While the growth of .com was slow until the browser became popularized–numbering under 15,000 addresses in 1992–there are now close to 85 million .com domains. This innovative commercial designation is clearly the most important one, both financially and perceptually."

Dave Edstrom: President and Chairman of the Board of MTConnect Institute

Yesterday I officially took over the reigns as the President and Chairman of the Board of MTConnect Institute.  I am filling the huge shoes of John Byrd.  I was elected in March of this year at the MTConnect Board of Directors meeting.

It is a real privilege and honor to have this role.  The MTConnect Board of Directors are the thought leaders in the manufacturing industry and have been instrumental in all aspects of MTConnect.

 My first priorities are to address the MTConnect Tipping Point and Priming The Pump that I blogged about a month ago

Repeal FREAKING Don't Ask Don't Tell!

It is FREAKING insane that we are kicking valuable service people out of military service because they HAPPEN to be gay.   As of today, May 26th, 2010 there have been 13,389 men and women officially discharged from the military who happen to be gay. 

To think that we have men and women putting their lives on the line for the United States of America and we have some IDIOTS in congress who likely NEVER served in the military that believe these patriots should be kicked out is absolutely nuts.   Just one example of this is that we are losing Amercian soldiers lives because we are losing Mideast translators who, again, just happen to be gay.  John McCain's flip flop view on this is the ultimate example of what he will do in order to be elected...

As retired Four Star General John M. Shalikashvili who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 to 1997 wrote in The Washington Post over three years ago:

"Last year I held a number of meetings with gay soldiers and marines, including some with combat experience in Iraq, and an openly gay senior sailor who was serving effectively as a member of a nuclear submarine crew. These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers.

This perception is supported by a new Zogby poll of more than 500 service members returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, three quarters of whom said they were comfortable interacting with gay people. And 24 foreign nations, including Israel, Britain and other allies in the fight against terrorism, let gays serve openly, with none reporting morale or recruitment problems.

I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces. Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East, and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job."

The Tom Toles' (of the Washington Post and who is a genius) Cartoon below is the perfect summary of how any rationale person should view Don't Ask Don't Tell:

Has The Cyber War Threat Been Exaggerated Debate

Long time friend (I don't say old friend anymore since I turned 50 last year :-)  Steve Fritzinger sent me this link for a fascinating debate on the realities of a Cyber War Threat that will take place June 8th at the Newseum.  My only issue with this is that they are charging $45 for this.  It is not the money that they are charging to attend this, but this is something that is so important to our national security that we should be having this as an open discussion in the United States and in the world.

This is being hosted by Intelligence Squared with John Donovan as the moderator.   Marc Rotenberg and Bruce Schneier are "for the motion" and Jonathan Zittran and Mike McConnel are "against the motion". The motion is The Cyber War Threat Been Exaggerated Debate.

I personally believe that the Cyber War Threat is very real, but having listened and read Bruce Schneier on many occasions, I would pay to hear Bruce's thoughts on this.  Maybe the $45 includes an all you can eat Sushi bar and all you can drink bar :-)

30,000 New CyberSecurity Jobs

There is an ad in today's Washington Post from University of Maryland University College for a BS or MS in CyberSecurity.  UMUC offers both CyberSecurity and CyberSecurity Policy BS and MS degrees.  The ad points out that there will be an estimated 30,000 new jobs in CyberSecurity which I easily believe.

I don't have a clue if this is a quality curriculum or not.  What I do know is that this is sorely needed in the computer industry.  When we have our first major cyber security attack that affects the United States or any other country in a significant fashion, then we will see these CyberSecurity job numbers jump.   This is not something that you take your typical sysadmin and ask them to "worry about security a little more".  I know that many non computer industry individuals were lulled to sleep when we did not see some of the predicted Y2K meltdowns never happened.

I would imagine that some of the nearby government security agencies (hopefully) had a great deal of input to UMUC's new CyberSecurity Programs.   This is where government and industry do need to work together as well as working with other countries.

Federal Times reported on Friday:

The Obama administration plan, to some extent, builds on the Bush administration's Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI). Among items of interest to the federal workforce, a 12-point CNCI summary calls for:

• Continuation of the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) initiative, meant to reduce the number of connections between government computers and the Internet.

• Deployment of an intrusion detection system of sensors across the government.

• Coordination of research and development across government.

• Development of a pipeline of skilled cybersecurity employees.

• Coordination and cooperation with the private sector to address security matters of common interest.

That last item, public-private cooperation, has drawn considerable attention. There's wide agreement that the expertise of the private sector ought to be aligned with the security needs of government.

"To secure our country from cyber attacks, we must have shared responsibility between the government and the private sector," Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told the Business Software Alliance Cybersecurity Forum in April.

At the same time, some in the private sector warn that industry may not be ready to work with government and vice versa.

"There has been no effort in terms of ironing out the legalities," said Pat Clawson, CEO of security and vulnerability technologies firm Lumension.

It will be interesting to see what other universities and colleges will follow the CyberSecurity path in the CS curriculums.

Great MTConnect Video

There is a GREAT MTConnect video here that is about  7 1/2  minutes long that is well worth watching.   It does a great job with the history of MTConnect and detailing exactly how we got to the first release.  I uploaded this yesterday to YouTube after viewing it with Paul Warndorf of AMT in his office this past Friday.   Proven Productions created this.

John Edstrom's Graduation Weekend at Virginia Tech

Last weekend John graduated from VT.  I posted last Friday what I knew about his achievements (yes, I am a proud father and bragging, but bear with me for this blog post :-)   I also recorded John receiving his degree and is viewable here.

Above is Dr. Barbara Ryder, head of the CS Department for VT, giving John one of his two awards he received at the College of Engineering's Department of Computer Science's Award Ceremony.  John was awarded the CS Service Award and a CS Scholar Award.  John completed his CS degree with minors in mathematics and business.  While at VT, John served as president of ACM; Social Chair of Upsilon Pi Epsilon   -  CS Honor Society; site coordinator, Vice President, and Treasurer of CS-Squared -   was a member of the VT Programming Team and was in VT Honors.  John interned for Microsoft and Optimal Satcom, worked for Sun Microsystems and was web developer for the Collegiate Times.  He also worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant for the Department of Computer Science. Even with all those extracurriculars, John achieved an overall GPA of 3.96 and in-major of 3.96.  Congratulations to John!

Above is our family at VT's College of Engineering's Computer Science Department's Award Ceremony. From left to right, John's aunt Julie, me, John, my wife Julie, Michael (also at VT), Tim, Ruth Edstrom and John Edstrom (John's grandparents).

 Above is John's VT Summa Cum Laude in Computer Science diploma.

Above is the first award John received.  It is the Department of Computer Science Service Award.

Above is the second award John received.  It is the Department of Computer Science Scholar Award.   John

• graduated #3 from Broad Run High School with a 4.33 GPA.  
• started off VT with 38 college credits because of the number of Advanced Placement (AP) courses he took.   
• is graduating today Summa Cum Laude in Computer Science with minors in math and business.  
• received all A's except for a single A- his entire time at VT.  
• was a Sun Microsystems Campus Ambassador - the first one ever at VT.  
• was selected Campus Ambassador of the month for Sun Microsystems.  This was a global selection among over 600 Sun Campus Ambassadors.
• worked on the Collegiate Times his first year.   
• and his room mate, Gabe Martinez, rebuilt the Collegiate Times web site when it went down during the April 16th tragedy.  
• went to Java One 2008 and met James Gosling and John Gage.
• President of VT's Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) for two years.
• had his own blog Blogs.Sun.com as a Sun Campus Ambassador that was called The Ponderings of a Hokie
• as President of the ACM, he hosted many industry thought leaders at VT's ACM evening events.
• was asked to interview students and faculty during the April 16th period for the Collegiate Times.
• was recruited and worked for Microsoft in Seattle last summer working on the next version of Windows and specializing in security.  It was a fantastic experience for him.  
• is currently working on his Masters Degree in Computer Security at VT
• VT is a GREAT school that has become even better during some extremely difficult times in the past 3+ years

Needless to say we are very proud of our oldest son.  I am also not shy about blogging how proud we are :-)

What Cloud Computing is Smart for Manufacturing

Why cloud computing is smart for manufacturing

I wrote the article below for AMT (it is available at ReliablePlant Magazine).   This was written pecifically for IMTS this fall in Chicago.  

 

International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) 

What is cloud computing and why should I care if I am in manufacturing? Cloud computing simply means using remote, large Internet server farms in the same manner as if they belonged to your own company.


Here is an example.  When you use your browser to search for something, such as through Google, do you know where the servers that are processing your search request are located?  Do you even care where the servers are located?  No, of course not.  You have a browser window open, you type in what you are searching for and the results come back.  The search could have been run in California or London for all you know.  It does not matter where these servers are located because you are not using a telephone dialup to get to the Internet like back in the early 1990s.  You are using high-speed broadband.  As we all know the speed difference is significant. Instead of moving a paragraph per second, you can now move a book per second with broadband.


These tremendously large information pipes allow large groups of server farms to appear like they are local to your manufacturing shop. This is a tremendous change from what manufacturing shops had to do just 5 to 10 years ago.  Instead of having to buy large computers and purchase lots of software, with these large information pipes and Internet server farms, you can simply pay for the services you need on a "pay by the drink" basis.


This "pay by the drink" scenario will revolutionize manufacturing in the same way that the Internet has already revolutionized our everyday and business lives.  Manufacturing shops are starting to take advantage of cloud computing because it simply makes good economic sense.  You pay for what you use and do not have the additional costs and burden of managing your own data center.  Instead of large capital expenses for new computer systems, the costs will move to operating expenses and you will pay for only what you actually use.  The graphic illustration below shows how MTConnect machine tools can be connected to the cloud where detailed analytics could be run simply from a browser.

Cloud computing is real and manufacturing shops should seriously consider it to take both time and cost burdens off their businesses. Next month we will explore specific examples of manufacturing in the cloud.


The International Manufacturing Technology Show takes place September 13-18, 2010, at McCormick Place in Chicago. For more information, visit the conference Web site atwww.imts.com.

My Oldest Son John Is Graduating This Weekend From VT

We could not be any prouder of my oldest son John who is graduating from VT today.  John:

• graduated #3 from Broad Run High School with a 4.33 GPA.  
• started off VT with 38 college credits because of the number of Advanced Placement (AP) courses he took.   
• is graduating today Summa Cum Laude in Computer Science with minors in math and business.  
• received all A's except for a single A- his entire time at VT.  
• was a Sun Microsystems Campus Ambassador - the first one ever at VT.  
• was selected Campus Ambassador of the month for Sun Microsystems.  This was a global selection among over 600 Sun Campus Ambassadors.
• worked on the Collegiate Times his first year.   
• and his room mate, Gabe Martinez, rebuilt the Collegiate Times web site when it went down during the April 16th tragedy.  
• went to Java One 2008 and met James Gosling and John Gage.
• was President of VT's Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) for two years.
• had his own blog Blogs.Sun.com as a Sun Campus Ambassador that was called The Ponderings of a Hokie
• as President,  hosted many industry thought leaders at VT's ACM evening events.
• was asked to interview students and faculty during the April 16th period for the Collegiate Times.
• was recruited and worked for Microsoft in Seattle last summer working on the next version of Windows and specializing in security.  It was a fantastic experience for him.  
• is currently working on his Masters Degree in Computer Security at VT
• VT is a GREAT school that has become even better during some extremely difficult times in the past 3+ years

Needless to say we are very proud of our oldest son.  I am also not shy about blogging how proud we are :-)

Congratulations John!

24/7 Wall St Reports: Jonathan Schwartz Worst CEO in American History

I was sent a very interesting article from a friend that lists (in the opinion of 24/7 Wall St.) the top ten worst CEOs of all time in American history.

It includes some of the easy to guess usual suspects, such as Ken Lay of Enron, John Sculley of Apple, Bernie Ebbers of Worldcom, and John Rigas of Adelphia Communications.  Those names would likely appear on most individuals top ten lists.  Below is the text regarding Jonathan Schwartz on 24/7 Wall St. that has Jonathan Schwartz as the worst CEO in American history:

1.   Jonathan Schwartz. By the time Sun Microsystems was bought by Oracle for $7.4 billion, Jonathan Schwartz, the hip, blogging, ponytail wearing CEO, had ruined the firm’s prospects so badly that acquisition was its only option.

In the early 1980s, the company was founded by a small group of engineers and its CEO, Scott McNealy.  During his tenure, Sun Microsystems grew to become one of four dominant players in the server and processor space, which also included Oracle, HP and IBM. Prior to Schwartz’s appointment by McNealy, Sun was a largely profitable and competitive company.

Schwartz’s promotion to CEO in April 2006 was followed by a long series of losses. Despite its strong position, Sun started to fall apart as it lost market share in its main server business to HP and IBM.  The company’s shares fell from almost $27 to under $4 from late in 2007 to late 2008; Sun also later fired nearly 6,000 people, or about 18% of its employees.

In 2008, in an attempt to diversify, Sun bought MySQL AB, the company offering the popular open source database. The acquisition did not work.  As Sun’s share of the server market continued to fall, Schwartz tried to improve market adoption of its Java software, which never brought in much revenue.  Despite some success, the problem was that Java is free and Sun never came up with a realistic model to monetize it.

Larry Ellison went on to state in an interview his true feelings on Jonathan Schwartz:

Reuters published an article in which Mr. Ellison firmly stated that mismanagement and “madness” wrecked Sun.

Some of Larry Ellison's comments were:

“Their management made some very bad decisions that damaged their business and allowed us to buy them for a bargain price.”

And this is my favorite quote by Larry Ellison:

“The underlying engineering teams are so good, but the direction they got was so astonishingly bad that even they couldn’t succeed. Really great blogs do not take the place of great microprocessors. Great blogs do not replace great software. Lots and lots of blogs does not replace lots and lots of sales.”

Larry Ellison is 100% accurate.  Great blogs do not make great companies and certainly do not show great leadership.  Larry Ellison is a brilliant businessman.   

Spinal Tap Trivia :-)

I heard this on a Unwigged and Unplugged Concert by Spinal Tap that I watched today.   During the middle of the concert, Spinal Tap has a question and answer session.  An interesting question and answer was the following:

• QUESTION:  How much was scripted and how much was pure improv during the shooting of Spinal Tap?
• ANSWER:   EVERYTHING was improv except for two lines:
1. "I say, Tap into America."
2. "Straight from Hell, Spinal Tap."

It is an amazing to think that the number one cult film of all time was shot by turning on the camera and just make up the lines as it was shot.

Changing a Battery in a C5 Corvette and Charge System Fault error

Above is my home made "memory tool" that keeps the many settings in car radio when you are changing the battery.  You can buy these with the male 12 volt car outlet connector on it with a 9v volt connector for about $17.   Or, if you are like me and cheap, you build your own with two 6 volt lantern
batteries, put them in a series for half the price.  What I like about this is it is 12v and a greater amperage if you take longer than expected to change your car battery.  I do not like to waste my time resetting 24 of my favorite radio stations and the many settings inside today's car radios.  With today's aftermarket car radios, you have so many different devices that you can connect, that after you get everything working perfectly, the last thing you want to do is re-enter all of that back in just because you needed a new battery or had to clean some corroded connections on your car's electrical system.

I am documenting this because my C5 Corvette was getting random "Charge System Fault" warnings on the Driver Instrument Console and I decided to fix it today.  I had a 6 year old Optima battery that was in there and I decided to spend $110 and get a Sears DieHard Gold instead this time.  Sears stopped selling the Optima because (as I was told by multiple Sears employees) Sears had too many exchanges of Optima batteries over the years.  I did get 6 years out of mine, so I can not complain.  I also steered away from Optima because of the less than pleasant experience I had with Optima when my oldest son had a problem with his Optima.  Luckily, Advance Auto was very nice and took back the faulty Optima after I went up there with him.

On a C5 Corvette, there are two possible outlets to plug your memory tool into.  You want to use the 12volt outlet in the arm rest as that is unswitched.  The 12 volt connector below your radio is switched.  What this means if you plug your memory tool into the 12 volt outlet below the car radio, it can not provide the 12 volts to the overall system to keep all the settings in your car radio because it is switched off when the ignition is turned off.   Use the 12 volt outlet below the arm rest which is unswitched.

Above is a photo of the switch near the front bumper that is for the hood light that comes on with a switch when the hood is raised.  You want to unplug this as well because this will needlessly eat up the power from your memory tool.

Above is the light built into the hood that should be off.

Above is a photo that is in the lower right of the C5 battery compartment.  Because of this location, it has a tendency to become corroded pretty quickly if you do not clean it right and protect it.  After you remove the battery (taking the ground off first, then the hot lead, then hold down bolt) you can clean this ground.  This ground is (naturally) tied into the ground lead that goes to the battery.

You should pull up on the plastic housing (nothing is keeping it down on the upside bolt above) and then take it off to properly clean it.  I would recommend using a Dremmel tool to get all the corrosion off both sides as well as running it through the center of the two round spade plugs that you will find.  Above you can clearly see the large black round spade plug and to the left you can see the silver looking wire that also has a round spade plug on it.  Clean them until they are shiny. Take a small metal brush to the actual bolt itself to make sure that is clean.  When you are done, make sure you get all the metal shavings and corrosion off with a clean rag.  I like to use denatured alcohol as well here, then dry it off.  The bolt will not get shiny as it is made of brass (I think).

Above is the finish product.  BUT, before you put the battery back in, clean up any corrosion that is in the bottom of the tray.  Also, take a good, close look at the inside of the positive (red) and negative ground (black) connectors.   There is likely corrosion on those connectors as well.  Clean them up with a good metal brush until they are shiny.  Remember that ground is first off and last on when you are dealing with a car battery.

Above is Corrosion Block and is what I prefer to use to keep corrosion away on battery terminals and ground points in a car.  It is highly recommended by the boating crowd and has worked out well for me.

With my Corvette, there were multiple issues that could have been causing the "Charge System Fault" warnings on the Driver Instrument Console:

• The two round spade connectors that go to ground in the lower right of the battery compartment were very corroded.
• The positive or hot connector on the battery was slightly corroded.
• The Optima battery was 6 years old and probably on the slow death spiral.

Everything is perfect now :-)

Daemon by Daniel Suarez

I was listening to TWiT (This Week in Technology by Leo Laporte) and everyone highly recommended the book Daemon by Daniel Suarez.  What got my attention on the podcast was the high praise they had for the technical acumen of Daniel Suarez in his writing.  In other words, Daniel Suarez is a true geek :-)

A daemon is computer science terms is a background process that runs all the time.  Daemon is an abbreviation for Disk And Execution MONitor.

I decided to get the 15+ hours unabridged audio book.  This forced me to do some very long bike rides to finish it in just three rides.  I highly recommend this book.  It is 640 pages if you buy it.  The audio version is very well done.  I could honestly see this being made into a movie.  Daemon is a high tech thriller that is based on sound technical details.  This is 5 star (top) book at Borders.  I prefer Borders over Barnes and Noble - no charge to join the Book Club is why...

Manufacturing grows at fastest pace in 6 years.....

MSNBC is quoting the Associated Press below:

NEW YORK - May 3rd, 2010

The U.S. manufacturing sector expanded at the fastest pace in nearly six years in April, as factories continue to lead the economy's rebound.

The Institute for Supply Management, a private trade group of purchasing executives, said Monday its manufacturing index rose to 60.4 last month from 59.6 in March. It's the ninth straight month of growth. A level above 50 indicates expansion.

It is the fastest pace of growth since June 2004 when the index was at 60.5. 

See full article here....

Automated Energy Monitoring of Machine Tools Article

Dr. David Dornfeld and Dr. Athulan Vijayaraghavan have written a great article titled, Automated Energy Monitoring of Machine Tools. 

Dr.  Vijayaraghavan is the CTO for System Insights.  Dr. Vijayaraghavan obtained his Ph.D from UC Berkeley in Mechanical Engineering in Manufacturing with a minor in Computer Science.  Dr. Dornfeld is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the Director of the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability at University of California.

Below is the abstract for the article:

Reducing the energy consumption of machine tools can significantly improve the environmental performance of manufacturing systems. To achieve this, monitoring of energy consumption patterns in the systems is required. It is vital in these studies to correlate energy usage with the operations being performed in the manufacturing system. However, this can be challenging due to complexity of manufacturing systems and the vast number of data sources. Event stream processing techniques are applied to automate the monitoring and analysis of energy consumption in manufacturing systems. Methods to reduce usage based on the specific patterns discerned are discussed.

I have highlighted above what I believe are the key aspects of this article.   It is this actual (not theoretical or approximated) correlation that becomes extremely valuable information for everyone in the manufacturing food chain.   This article provides a case study with specifics on the importance of an architecture that incorporates rules engines and complex event processing (CEP) when analyzing how much actual energy a given machine tool is using for a specific operation.    The authors discuss the importance of MTConnect as an open and royalty free mechanism for gathering of the data.

It is papers, such as this one by these two distinguished thought leaders, Dr. Vijayaraghavan and Dr. Dornfeld, that are the key building blocks for manufacturing in the 21st Century.

Steve Jobs Thoughts On Flash

This is a very detailed and thoughtful explanation directly from Steve Jobs on why Apple does not support flash.

Below is a snippet from Jobs 1,700 word article.   IMHO, the most compelling reason is battery life:

Fourth, there’s battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.