Winning the Application Platform

Note: This appeared in the IMTS Insider dated Feb 13, 2014
By: Dave Edstrom

James Carville, American political commentator, is known for coining the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid,” when it was used in 1992 to drive home Bill Clinton’s primary attack point positioning him against President George H.W. Bush.

In the computer industry, there is a similar phrase to focus the big picture, “It’s the platform, stupid.” The Holy Grail is not about selling a lot of software; the Holy Grail is about selling lots of software by winning the platform, specifically the application platform.

There is a famous 2006 video of Steve Ballmer of Microsoft jumping around the stage screaming, “developers, developers, developers.” What Mr. Ballmer was really saying was that Microsoft couldn’t continue its hold on the WINTEL (Windows and Intel) platform without taking care of developers.

What are the key components in winning the application platform? The first key component is to win the architecture. This is best done by having an open architecture. The second key component is to have an outstanding developer platform. The third key component is applications: software applications and hardware expansion solutions.

The first question to answer is, “what is a platform?” Prior to Java, the programming language and computing platform created by Sun Microsystems, a platform was typically defined as the combination of hardware and software that developers would use to build their applications. The WINTEL (Windows and Intel) system was the most well-known platform. “Windows” referred both to the operating system (OS), the software development kit (SDK) – which are the libraries developers’ use – and the integrated development environment (IDE), which developers use to build their applications. During the 2000s, a popular platform was LAMP. LAMP stood for Linux, Apache HTTP Server (aka a web server), MySQL and PHP, Perl or Python. The LAMP stack was very popular because it included the necessary OS, database and programming tools to create a website that was open source and free to use. The application platform includes the set of software tools necessary to build the application and, many times, this includes a database. Android is the open source platform that was created by Google. iOS SDK is Apple’s software platform for their mobile devices.

Why is owning the platform important? Let’s turn on the time machine and go back to a Sun Microsystems conference room on July 1987 when the first ever SPARC (Scalable Processor ARChitecture) system and SPARC microprocessor was introduced. In May of 1987, I started at Sun Microsystems as a Systems Engineer (SE) working in a pre-sales environment. Basically, an SE was the technical arm for the sales rep that explained the technology, did presentations, ran benchmarks and basically did anything on the technical side to drive sales. The average sales rep was in their late 20s, making $350,000 in the Washington DC Sun office. Sun had the best development environment and the best bang for the buck for the workstation market. Sun introduced the Sun 4/260 and announced it would license the technology for both systems and microprocessors. Many Sun employees questioned the logic of this strategy. The overall question could be summarized, “We are killing it in the market. We introduced a system that is literally 2 ½ times faster than any other system that is out there. Why would we be possibly want to license this technology as opposed to keeping it for ourselves?”

The question would be answered by Scott G. McNealy, President, CEO and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, when he visited in person shortly after the global announcement of the new SPARC system. The question was asked of Scott, “Why license SPARC as opposed to just keeping it ourselves?” In the next half hour, we all received a Ph.D. in the economics of technology from the Harvard and Stanford graduate. Scott asked the question, “What were the two most successful computer architectures of all time?” He looked around the room for a few seconds and then answered his own question. Scott went on to explain that the two most successful computer architectures were the IBM mainframe and the IBM PC.

The IBM mainframe was so dominant in the computer industry that many companies felt the only way to make money was not to compete with the industry giant, but to create boards that would be compatible or plug into IBM’s mainframe computers. The term Plug-Compatible Mainframe (PC-M) was created. Scott went on to explain the IBM mainframe market share was above 80 percent. IBM’s mainframe architecture was clearly dominant.

At the other end of the spectrum was the IBM PC. IBM felt pressure in the late 1970s and early 1980s to respond to the quickly growing market that was led by companies like Apple, with the Apple II, Radio Shack, with the TRS-80, and the Commodore PET. Feeling the time pressure, IBM used off-the-shelf parts for the hardware and leased DOS from Microsoft. This combination of off-the-shelf hardware and a leased operating system allowed for the creation of the PC compatible market. These PC compatible systems were called PC clones or IBM clones. The IBM PC architecture was the dominant architecture.

Scott then brought the conversation back to economics and asked the question, “How expensive would it be for Wang, Data General or any of the other proprietary architecture companies to completely change their architecture?” The rhetorical question drove home the point that changing your architecture would be an extremely expensive proposition and could put a company completely out of business. The reasons it is so expensive to completely change the architecture is that customers have applications that they have purchased and written. What do they do with those applications? This could be, and typically is, a nightmare for companies.

By licensing SPARC at both a system and microprocessor level, Sun was attempting to establish an architecture that would be the new platform for high-end workstations and servers. Sun had a world-class developer program. By building the systems on an industry standard VME bus, Sun made it easy for hardware developers to use the new SPARC systems.

Scott McNealy was able to educate all of us by first explaining the logic from an economic perspective. The technology perspective was important, but it was second to understanding the economics of a platform. It was a lesson that none of us would ever forget. At your company, are you simply creating products or a platform? Even if you are not creating a platform, this is a conversation that you should be having, because your competition is not sitting still. Remember, it’s all about winning the platform.

Dave McPhail - President and CEO of Memex Automation on BNN

This is an excellent interview of Dave McPhail - President and CEO of Memex Automation on BNN.

Sun Microsystems and Microsoft OpenOffice Patent Meeting

I saw this thread on patents at EE Times and thought this is a great defense use of patents.   This EE Times thread referenced the original article at Softpedia.

This is a great Sun Microsystems versus Microsoft story for all of us old SUNWers :)

[as told by Jonathan Ian Schwartz, then CEO of Sun]

"As we sat down in our Menlo Park conference room, Bill [Gates] skipped the small talk, and went straight to the point, 'Microsoft owns the office productivity market, and our patents read all over OpenOffice.  We're happy to get you under license.' That was code for 'We'll go away if you pay us a royalty for every download' – the digital version of a protection racket."

Sun Microsystems did not ink a patent covenant agreement with Microsoft.

[Schwartz' reply to Gates:] "'We've looked at .NET, and you're trampling all over a huge number of Java patents. So what will you pay us for every copy of Windows?'  ...it was a short meeting."

Stanley "Tat" Thompson Snowstorm in Ashburn, VA --- Photon and Nero in the Snow

My late Uncle Stanley "Tat" Thompson of Zumbrota, Minnesota used to have a great line for the question that people invariably ask during this type of snowstorm, which is, "how's the weather where you're at?"  Tat's answer was usually, "clear and still".   The other person would say, "I thought you were getting hammered with snow?"  Then Tat would say, "Clear and still - snow clear up to your a$$ and still coming."

Below is a movie of our dogs Photon and Nero in the snow that is 16" and more coming.  We could end up with 2 feet of snow when it is all said and done tonight. This was Nero's first time in this type of deep snow.

Sun Microsystems Reunion

• Host:
  Butler, Chabrier, Hauge, Shoemaker
• no phone

• When:
  Saturday, May 24 from 5:30 PM to 10:30 PM
• Where:
  TBD -- someplace in CA Bay Area I would bet
   
   
  Here is the link to the evite.

2014 Car Show in DC With John Meyer and Mike Geldner

John Meyer and I met Mike Geldner at the DC Convention Center for the 2014 Automobile Show.  After that, Mr. Geldner was kind enough to invite us to his home on the Potomac for a fantastic dinner.  Below is (left to right) me, John and Mike with the Corvette Stingray (C7) behind us.  We are all Corvette owners.

Below is a video I took of the Corvette Stingray.

Above is the Stingray Coupe and below is the convertible version.

Below is an interesting concept car - a single seater

Below is a video of all the Mustangs from 1964 on that they had at the Auto Show:

Above is the new Mustang and below are a couple photos of the famous Shelby Cobra.

The engine in the impressive Audi S8 is below

Below is the famous 1964 Daytona Cobra Coupe

Great December 2013 Visit With Memex Automation

I had a great visit with Memex Automation in December.  I did not talk about this or post anything until after we had proceeded with (and most importantly made public) that I would become the Chief Technology Officer for Memex Automation in an ownership position.

It was a fantastic three days thanks to the tremendous hospitality of Dave McPhail and John Rattray. I had the privilege of spending some time at the office as well.  Memex Automation is a great team and it is a true honor to be part of the Memex team.

Below is John on the left with the hat and Dave on the right with me in the middle.  They rented a big limo for my final night in Toronto.

Above is the skyline of Toronto and below are photos from the Great One's bar.

Yes, it snowed the whole time and yes it was somewhat cold :)

Happy Birthday Slim!

Awhile back we celebrated my father's (aka Slim) birthday.  My sister and I rented a Hummer limo, Tim and Michael came back from college and we all went out for a very nice night on the town.

Above is me, Tim, Julie and Michael in front of the big black Hummer limo.

Below is my parents in the limo.

HUGE Congratulations to Shannon Sweatman of SMT!

When I think of thought leaders in manufacturing, I think of Shannon Sweatman of Southern Manufacturing Technologies.

Below is an announcement from the Manufacturing Instititute:

"The Manufacturing Institute announced they will award 160 Honorees with the Women in Manufacturing STEP (Science, Technology, Engineering and Production) Award. The STEP Awards honor women who have demonstrated excellence and leadership in their careers and represent all levels of the manufacturing industry, from the factory-floor to the C-suite.

On February 6, The Manufacturing Institute will recognize these Honorees from over 110 companies at the STEP Awards in Washington, D.C. The STEP Awards program will highlight each Honoree’s story, including their leadership and accomplishments in manufacturing. By telling the real stories of these women, we will inspire the next generation of talent to pursue careers in the industry and support current female talent within the manufacturing industry."



   Congratulations Shannon! 

Dave Edstrom Joins Memex Automation as Chief Technology Officer and Purchases Equity Interest

This press release went out today at 4:01pm eastern today.  I highlighted some of the points below.  

I have to say, the last time I was this excited was when I went to work for Sun Microsystems in early 1987.  Please see the press release below on joining the incredible folks at Memex Automation.  

It was certainly nice to have this carried in the Wall Street Journal on this announcement.

01/30/14 -- Astrix Networks Inc., operating as Memex Automation ("Astrix" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: OEE), is pleased to announce that Dave Edstrom, recently past President and Chairman of the Board of the MTConnect Institute, has purchased an equity interest in the Company and has joined the senior management team as Chief Technology Officer.

Edstrom brings decades of software experience to Memex Automation and has been in a number of technology and leadership roles for a range of companies. Prior to his new role, he served for three and a half years as President and Chairman of the Board of the MTConnect Institute, where he was instrumental in the creation of the MTConnect standard.

In October 2006, while working at Sun Microsystems, Edstrom and Dr. David Patterson of the University of California at Berkeley (UCB), laid out the MTConnect vision at AMT -- The Association For Manufacturing Technology's Annual Meeting. Edstrom is also the author of the book "MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know" as well as a prolific writer of white papers, technical and business articles. Edstrom worked for Sun Microsystems for 23 years in a variety of leadership positions, including as Chief Technologist for Global Software, when he left to start his own company in 2010. Prior to Sun Microsystems, Edstrom held a number of positions including assembly language programmer, systems engineer, Principal Engineer, as well as in computer hardware and software sales. His career includes working with a broad range of software and hardware technologies for commercial and government markets with both direct sales and partners, and he retains his title of CEO/CTO at Virtual Photons Electrons, LLC., his consulting firm.

The Company is pleased to announce it has closed the first tranche of the private placement previously announced on January 15, 2014. Upon joining Memex Automation, Edstrom has purchased 1,114,500 units at a price of $0.14 each. Each unit is comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (a "Common Share") and one warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles Mr. Edstrom to purchase one Common Share at a price of $0.145 per share at any time prior to 4:00 p.m. (Ontario time) on January 30, 2016. The securities are subject to a hold period, which will expire on May 31, 2014. The closing is subject to receipt of final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange.

Edstrom stated, "I have had the privilege of working with Memex Automation on a variety of efforts when I was the President and Chairman of the MTConnect Institute. I am absolutely convinced that this company is positioned to become the global leader in its vertical, helping manufacturers maximize utilization and gain productivity. I am thrilled to be joining the Memex Automation team as the Chief Technology Officer in an ownership position to drive technology, create new opportunities, and help it become a global power in manufacturing solutions."

 "I'm delighted Dave has joined our ownership and leadership team, as it enables him to continue to lead the global manufacturing sector out of the 20th Century and into the 21st Century with an MTConnect-based universal machine to machine (M2M) productivity solution," said Memex Automation's President & CEO, David McPhail. "This should signal to manufacturers globally that Memex Automation is doing things right -- that using MERLIN, our flagship product, they can connect their plants' points of production to their business intelligence tools in real-time while increasing production and income from operations by 10% or more."

About MERLIN:

MERLIN translates all protocols such as Fanuc Focas, OPC and MTConnect, an XML-based, open source, royalty free protocol into information that management, engineering and maintenance teams use to: Measure OEE in real-time, providing an objective voice of process from each point of production, fabrication and assembly Bucket "idle time" to its root cause and converts some of it back into production timeCapture and define quality issues by process step to define poor quality root causesDefine machining parameters, tolerances, conditions and production flow on a SKU basisOptimize machine states and conditions, to increase spindle time and asset utilizationIncrease production and thereby increase income from operations

About the company 

Operating under the trade name Memex Automation, Astrix Networks Inc. (TSX VENTURE: OEE) is the leader of the measurement of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). OEE is the measurement of plant-wide capacity utilization in real-time. MERLIN (Manufacturing Enterprise Real-time Lean Information Network) generates OEE enterprise-wide, machine by machine. Frost & Sullivan awarded MERLIN its 2013 Technology Innovation Leadership Award. Microsoft picked MERLIN to be its mid-market ERP machine connectivity solution. Mazak, North America's largest original equipment manufacturer of machine tools, purchased MERLIN to manage its plant and now offer it on their price list.

"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release." Add to Digg Bookmark with del.icio.us Add to Newsvine For more information, please contact: Sales: John Rattray Vice-President Sales 905-635-0590 Email Contact Investors: Thomas Smeenk VP Business Development 905-536-3138 Email Contact Media: Leanne Rattray Marketing 905-635-1540 ext. 103 Email Contact Source: Memex Automation

Four Year Anniversary of Oracle Buying Sun Microsytems

Four years ago today was when Oracle officially purchased and took over Sun Microsystems.

While things worked out great for me and many others that received packages from Oracle, the same cannot be said for all previous Sun employees who went to Oracle. 

Let's see what the god of Java, James Gosling, thinks four years later in the NetworkWorld article where James Gosling looks back at the Mixed Fate of Sun Tech.

I thought this was interesting in the above NetworkWorld article by James on his baby Java:

"Gosling gives Oracle a B+ grade for its handling of Java: “They've really done surprisingly well with Java except for the ‘growing pains’ in figuring out how to deal with security issues.”

Analyst Michael Azoff, of Ovum, sees Java as being a healthy state of development despite client-side issues. “Oracle is investing in Java, and the upcoming generation releases (SE 8 and 9) involve significant re-architecting to evolve the language and platform.”

Unfortunately, James (and I would strongly agree) does not feel the same way about Solaris:

"Gosling sees Solaris as “totally dead” and says he converted his Solaris systems to Linux. “The license fees for Solaris are so high that it's crazy to think of trying to use it and the hardware offerings from Oracle make no sense.”  

Happy 30th Birthday Macintosh!

Today is the 30th birthday of the introduction of Apple's Macintosh.

These are the first words that the Mac spoke when the bag came off by Steve Jobs:

“Hello, I’m Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag. Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I’d like to share with you a maxim I thought of the first time I met an IBM mainframe: Never trust a computer you  cannot lift..”

Below is the famous 1984 commercial shown at the Super Bowl:


Below is Apple's 30th anniversary video:

 Here is a nice article at Forbes on the anniversary by Connie Guglielmo, Forbes Staff 

As Ms. Guglielmo states in the article when she quotes Steve Jobs on state for the announcement:

“IBM wants it all and is aiming its guns on its last obstacle to industry control: Apple. Will Big Blue dominate the entire computer industry? The entire information age? Was George Orwell right about 1984?”

From the same article, a quote from Steve Jobs famous Standford commencement address is shared:

“Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.”

—  Steve Jobs, in a commencement speech at Stanford University, June 12, 2005
 

Woz on the Jobs Movie

I thought this was a very interesting seven minute interview of Steve Wozniak on the Steve Jobs movie.

Ashburn, VA - The Internet Ends HERE

When we are driving around Ashburn with friends, I like to point to all the Data Centers and specifically to the Data Center outside our neighborhood, The Regency, and say, "The Internet Ends Here".

Why can I make this statement?  An article in the Loudoun Times titled, "As data and communications head to Loudoun, a global tech hub emerges" makes this point very clearly (bold print and large print is my emphasis):

"Buddy Rizer, the county's director of economic development, pitches four game-changing assets:

-A collection of of more than 40 expansive data centers operated by the likes of Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon.

-An Internet infrastructure that carries as much as 70 percent of the world's Internet traffic.

-A tech-savvy, highly educated populace where 20 percent of the workers are specialists in data and communications.

-The emergence of Loudoun County as a technology epicenter, connected to the world by Dulles Airport and extended regionally by the planned Metro extension."

Let's say that one more time for emphasis:   "An Internet infrastructure that carries as much as 70 percent of the world's Internet traffic".  That is truly amazing!

Andy Bechtolscheim's Innovation Talk at Stanford University

Everyone at Sun Microsystems loved employee #1 Andreas V. Bechtolscheim.  Andy was Sun's hardware genius who created the first (and many thereafter)  Sun 1.    He was loved because he was both brilliant and the nicest guy you would ever meet in your whole life. I will tell you one quick Andy story.  It is the late 1980s and a group of us are waiting for Andy to come present.  The group was the SPARC Ambassadors and Andy was going to be presenting at Sun's long time offices in Mountain View. Andy was running a little late and quickly went by the receptionist where a few of us were standing.  The receptionist yelled, "sir, can I see your badge?"  Andy stopped in his track and came back and said, "oh, I am so sorry.  Here it is."   The receptionist said, "ok, go ahead".  I walked up to the receptionist and said, "this may or may not be any of my business, but did you notice his employee #?"  She replied "no."  I said, "it was #1 and he is Andy Bechtolscheim and a founder of the company where you are working.  I would go out to Sun's home page and memorize his face, Scott McNealy's face and Bill Joy's face.  Those are the three founders that are still here."  She smiled and said, "thanks, that's probably not a bad idea."

Just as an FYI, Sun was an acronym for Stanford University Network.  The word genius gets thrown around a lot these days.  Andy is a genius. Andy is probably the most famous Silicon Valley investor of all time as well.  He famously wrote the first check for $100,000 at dinner with Larry Page and Sergey Brin - Google's founders.

Luckily for me, I stumbled upon hour long presentation of Andy presenting at Stanford on the topic of innovation after accepting Stanford's Engineering Hero award.

MTInsight: Testing Award-winning Software

Note:  I wrote this article for the Jan 16, 2014 IMTS Insider
By: Dave Edstrom

MTInsight: Testing Award-winning Software

Software is increasingly important in manufacturing and is rapidly becoming the key differentiator in plants and shops. After 35 years in the software business, I have seen great successes and great failures in my career. The great failures had many similar attributes, such as “you built what the customer said they wanted, but not what the customer needed.” On the other hand, Apple famously stated that they would not have customer focus groups for that exact reason. Henry Ford once said that his customers told him they wanted “faster horses.”

We have all seen software that was designed for engineers that might have been functional, but was certainly not intuitive. This begs the obvious question – what makes great software? Having a great idea that addresses a clear market need is the first order of business. Creating software that is functional, intuitive, extremely reliable and fast is a must.

Since no one gets a second chance to make a first impression, how do you ensure that you have a great rollout of software? How to you avoid what happened to the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare, with your software? I would argue that improper testing is the number one reason for failed software rollouts. Let’s look at an absolute software success to understand the importance and nature of software testing, as well as how to do it right.

MTInsight is an award-winning business intelligence tool that was created by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. As stated at MTInsight.org, “MTInsight is the game changing business intelligence tool that your company must have to succeed in today's manufacturing world. MTInsight is based on three key elements: dynamic software, AMT's experience and analysis, and our unique data warehouse — all of the information AMT tracks on your markets, benchmarking surveys, industry forecasts, your competitors, customers and supply chain.” MTInsight has literally redefined the business intelligence (BI) market for manufacturing.

When designing software, there are always market pressures from internal and external customers. Internal customers are sales and marketing. It’s their job to create excitement and sell the software when it is available. They naturally want the new features out yesterday and they want it be 100% bug free. External customers are always requesting new features and want those to available as soon as possible too.

A Product Manager (PM) for the software product is the one who controls the three most important parts of software design – resources, features and schedule. Too often in my career I have seen the classic rookie mistake of junior PMs who, when faced with an unrealistic deadline that they should have never agreed to, make the decision to cut back on testing. I always like to ask them a question that puts it into proper perspective for them, “Would you rather be on time and buggy or a little late with a quality product?” I then suggest they ask their external customers, who pay for the software, if they would agree with the PM’s logic. Usually, I hear, “But you don’t understand, I am under a lot of pressure.” Then, I respond with one last question, “Do you think you will have more or less pressure on you if you are fired for delivering a buggy product?”

While there are countless tools available for testing software, there is absolutely no substitute for human testing. Certainly having automated testing tools is a must in any development shop, but having individuals, who are not the same software developers, test out the product can find show-stopping bugs that automated tools simply would miss. Here is a real life example. I worked for a company that had business software as one of its product lines. The software was what you would expect: General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Payroll and Inventory Control. Those were the “big five,” as we liked to call them, for any business. This was during the late 1970s and early 1980s when the industry was converting from interpretive BASIC to compiled BASIC. With interpretive BASIC, the customer had access to the source code since the source code was what you literally ran. This had big plusses and minuses. The big advantage was that customers could modify the code quite easily. The big disadvantage was that the customer could modify the code quite easily. Imagine trying to do customer support when the customer could modify the code whenever they felt like it. Not a recipe for success. By going to compiled code, the software was the equivalent of a .exe file, it was faster and did not allow the customer to easily modify it. When this happened, the industry also changed how files were stored. Files were no longer stored as simple text files on tape or disk, but instead used databases with index files. This was much faster as well.

Everything sounds great, right? What could possibly be the fly in the ointment here? The problem was that we never thought of what might happen if the customer’s index file got clobbered. Yes, of course we always pushed good data processing (that was the term for information technology back in the 1970s) practices, such as backups, but what if the customer had a very old backup? What if the customer had no backup? Do you know what it is like to have a president of a construction company come into your business and tell you that, unless you can fix this payroll index file, his guys are not getting paid and they all know where you work and live? It was something that you would expect to see in the HBO show “The Sopranos.” My suggestion was that we go into a previous version of payroll, issue the checks as a one-time event, then rebuild the payroll database over the weekend. Afterward, I went back to the development team and said that we did not do real-life testing. Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, it was not unusual for the computer to literally be sitting on a desk in the corner of the shop. It was treated like a big calculator that just happened to have a screen. The testing was not doing the things the real-life users were doing, such as not doing backups and pulling out a floppy disk when it was still writing this week’s payroll data, completely blowing up the indices and rendering the database useless. What did we do? We put the backup program directly into our software and forced the users to backup. We created a program that could take a clobbered accounting database and rebuild it to where it was, as long as the disks could be read. We then tested the living daylights out of it to make sure we would not have any more conversations where you feared for your life. Trust me, being the person between a bunch of construction workers and their paychecks on a Friday night is not where you want to find yourself.

One of the true pleasures of my long career is work with great folks who really want to deliver world-class software. The MTInsight Team is such a group of very talented, hardworking and passionate individuals. The group is led by Steve Lesnewich, V.P. - MTInsight Group, and Julie Peppers, MTInsight Project Manager. When we test, the human functional testing is truly a team effort that involves a wide range of individuals in different groups. We have sales, marketing, communications, exhibitions, management, economists, statisticians, customers and sometimes the software developers. The reason I say “sometimes” the software developers is because we really want software developers to be addressing the issues and bugs found by the others first. Julie writes up the test plans that we follow and implement with a variety of user types and scenarios. We are pushing the standard and corner cases. We ask everyone to break the software. We ask them to try things that are completely illogical. We do this not out of disrespect for the customers, but out of total respect for the customers’ time. We don’t want customers to find a bug because they accidently did something they did not mean to. We have a very detailed plan where we track all tests, all bugs, and all fixes. We have extensive meetings to go over the testing and the results.

Having humans testing the software is great for functional testing, but sometimes humans get bored with doing the same test over and over again. This is where the automated testing tools are an absolute must. Human testing augments the automated functional testing. Regression testing and unit testing are very important in software. Regression testing is an automated test plan that will test and stress the parts of software that have not changed. Why test the parts of the software that have not changed? The law of unintended consequences can bite you every time with software. If I had a dollar for every time I heard a software developer say, “Well, it should not affect that part of the system,” and it absolutely did, I would be a very rich man. Think of regression testing as the “Hippocratic oath of software”, which is “first, do no harm”. The second key aspect is unit testing. Unit testing means exactly what it sound like, you are testing the smallest part of the software that can be separate from the other components of the system. Software developers typically write unit testing to ensure what they have developed is working as designed.

An area that PMs sometimes cut themselves short on it is scalability testing. Scalability testing answers the question that is sometimes referred to as the “Victoria’s Secret Super Bowl Problem.” The problem goes back to the 1999 Super Bowl where a 30-second Victoria’s Secret commercial drove over 1 million visitors to their website in an hour. They were not prepared and their website went down. The only way to test a million users is with an automated testing tool. There are many, many automated tools for testing. A popular open source automated testing tool is JMeter, which is both easy to use and extremely extensive. Essentially, you create your software test plan and then run it. When you run it, you can simulate doing a test and select the number of users. For example, you might want to run tests of a website with 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1,000 and 10,000 users to see where your system rolls over and dies. Depending on your expected workload, 10,000 users might be complete overkill. JMeter provides incredible amounts of data to analyze. On the webserver, you would also have monitoring software to see where the bottlenecks are occurring or where errors are rearing their ugly heads. Remote servers can be set up so the load can come from multiple servers in different geographies to more accurately simulate the expected load. JMeter is available at http:// http://jmeter.apache.org

One of the ObamaCare reports I heard on TV was that consultants, as far back as April of 2013, told the team running ObamaCare that they had not allocated enough time for testing. The political pressure was tremendous on these individuals to make the rollout date for ObamaCare. If it was a true statement that they cut testing, added requirements late in the game, then it would come as no surprise they blew the rollout. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. No one wants their software to prefaced with the phrase, “The first version was terrible, but I think they finally got it right.”

The way to ensure the opportunity for a positive rollout is to make sure there are no shortcuts in functional or scalability testing. As more and more manufacturing companies scale up their software development, executives should always ask one critical question of their software development team, “Does everyone feel that we have a comprehensive testing plan in place?” This gives anyone who feels shortcuts are being taken in the test plan the chance to speak up. Remember the words that MTInsight has written at the top of floor-to-ceiling whiteboard in the development area, “Fast, good or cheap. Pick any two, you can’t have all three.” Finally, if you want award-winning software, like MTInsight, then test, test, test and test again.

The Polar Vortex on January 7th, 2014 in Ashburn

When I got up yesterday at 4:57am, this is what I saw as the outside temperature in Ashburn, VA 4.1 degrees F.

The Famous 1967 Ice Bowl Between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys

With the possibility of breaking the lowest temperature ever for an NFL game later this afternoon in Green Bay, it's worth checking out this great 13 minute video on the famous "Ice Bowl".

Last Day as President and Chairman of the Board of the MTConnect Institute

As I look into new and exciting challenges in 2014 for my company, Virtual Photons Electrons and Dave Edstrom, I am reminded that today is my last official day President and Chairman of the MTConnect Institute.  Below is the email I sent out on October 26th, 2013 to the MTConnect Board of Directors:

Yesterday, I notified the MTConnect Institute's Board of Directors that my last day as President and Chairman of the Board of the MTConnect Institute will be January 2, 2014.  

I have greatly enjoyed my tenure and could not have asked or dreamed of having a better experience.  I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the MTConnect Technical Advisory Group members, the MTConnect Board of Directors, the many supporters of MTConnect and most importantly working with those manufacturers who have embraced MTConnect. I am very proud of what we all accomplished during my term by the entire MTConnect team.

It is very important for the MTConnect Institute that the President and Chairman of the Board have the time to take MTConnect to even greater heights.  My hope is that the next President and Chairman of the Board will have the support needed to work full time as this is what is absolutely needed to take MTConnect to the next level. 

Post January 2014, my company, Virtual Photons Electrons, will be very busy with other commitments, but will continue to track MTConnect.

Best Regards,

--Dave

Dave Edstrom

President and Chairman of the Board  

MTConnect Institute 

 Below are a few highlights of my term as:

•       [MC]2 2011

◦       This was our first MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference and it was a big success.

•       [MC]2 2013

◦       Our second [MC]2 was another great success.  The foundation for doing successful MTConnect Conferences was validated and verified so the roadmap exists going forward.

◦       I put in over $52,000 of my own time that was “in kind” contribution so Virtual Photons Electrons (my company) became an MTConnect Institute Partner.

◦       I also gave away $6,000 worth of my book, MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know, to attendees and MTConnect members.

•       Getting Started With MTConnect White Papers

◦       Connectivity Guide

◦       Shop Floor Monitoring, What’s In It For Me?

◦       Writing Client Applications

•       MTConnect Challenge

◦       I had no involvement with this very cool effort, but it was certainly fun to watch all hard and creative work that went into this effort.

•       MTConnect-OPC UA MoU and Companion Specification

◦       Tom Burke and I signed the agreement at IMTS 2010.

•       MTConnect the Standard

◦       Thanks to Paul Warndorf, Will Sobel, John Turner and many others for driving new versions of our standard.

•      MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know

◦       I was very pleased to give away 200 copies of my book at the MTCTAG and [MC]2 2013 events.  I purposely priced the book at $9.99 for the electronic versions on Kindle, iTunes and Android to help get the word out on MTConnect.  The paperback version naturally would cost more, but I think it is fairly priced as well.  I do know that in a small way, the book has helped the MTConnect effort.  I thank the board again for allowing the use of the MTConnect logo in the title of my book.  

Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn Article On Where The Internet Is Going

I had the privilege (just once) to  hear both Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn speak together on a panel in McLean, VA on an anniversary of the creation of the Internet.  Whenever I see either of them appear in an article, I take the time to read it.

The New York Times has a nice article titled, "Viewing Where the Internet Goes" by John Markoff.

Below is an opening snippet that gives you a flavor of the article:

"Dr. Cerf, 70, and Dr. Kahn, 75, have taken slightly different positions on the matter. Dr. Cerf, who was chairman of Icann from 2000-7, has become known as an informal “Internet ambassador” and a strong proponent of an Internet that remains independent of state control. He has been one of the major supporters of the idea of “network neutrality” — the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications, regardless of the source.

Dr. Kahn has made a determined effort to stay out of the network neutrality debate. Nevertheless, he has been more willing to work with the I.T.U., particularly in attempting to build support for a system, known as Digital Object Architecture, for tracking and authenticating all content distributed through the Internet. 

Both men agreed to sit down, in separate interviews, to talk about their views on the Internet’s future. The interviews were edited and condensed."

Edstrom's At Wizards Pistons Game

John's last night in town was night.  I have Wizards seasons tickets with Peter Eelman.  Last night I had our two tickets and purchased three tickets four rows behind the visitors bench where John, Michael and Tim sat.  We had dinner at Clyde's before the game in DC.  Julie and I did sit down low for the 3rd quarter which was nice (especially since I paid for the tickets :)  It was a really fun night and the Wizards won.

Below is the five of us in front of the only championship trophy.

Below is the Wizard's John Wall who was the #1 overall pick in 2010.  It's a whole new game when you are four rows back from the action.

We parked near Union Station and walked back.  The nations Capitol is always impressive at night.

Michael Edstrom's Graduation from Virginia Tech

Michael graduated Cum Laude with a 3.45 GPA from VT this past Friday with two degrees:

• Professional Writing
• Creative Writing

 Above is (left front - clockwise) John, Tim, Brad, Emile and Michael at Zeppoli's where we were celebrating Thursday night before graduation.  Below is me, my sister, my mother, Julie my wife and my father sitting at the table next to the boys.

Below is the family photo in the wine area after dinner.

Above is the sign at the auditorium where they held the ceremony and below is Michael's name in the official program with a asterisk in front of his name signifying he was Cum Laude.

I think this big smile on Michael's face says it all.  He was very happy to have accomplished what he did and we could not be more proud of him!

Below is Michael receiving his diploma for his Cum Laude  degrees in Professional Writing and Creative Writing

 

Above is grandma and grandpa with the new college graduate/

 

Above are the proud parents with Michael and below is the entire family.