Friday, November 11, 2011

Thanks to my father John Kenneth Edstrom who did two tours of duty in Vietnam as an officer in the Air Force. My father is also in the very unique category in that he was awarded TWO BRONZE STARS for the two tours of duty for his countless acts of bravery in his two years in Vietnam. The Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces military decoration that may be awarded for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service.

Thanks to my cousin Chris Edstrom who has done two tours of duty in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. Thanks to Dr. Harry Foxwell, Paul Warndorf and Brad Kirley for their service to our country.

History of Veterans Day as stated at TimeAndDate.com

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 an armistice between Germany and the Allied nations came into effect. On November 11, 1919, Armistice Day was commemorated for the first time. In 1919, President Wilson proclaimed the day should be "filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory". There were plans for parades, public meetings and a brief suspension of business activities at 11am.

In 1926, the United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I and declared that the anniversary of the armistice should be commemorated with prayer and thanksgiving. The Congress also requested that the president should "issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples."

An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) was approved on May 13, 1938, which made November 11 in each year a legal holiday, known as Armistice Day. This day was originally intended to honor veterans of World War I. A few years later, World War II required the largest mobilization of service men in the history of the United States and the American forces fought in Korea. In 1954, the veterans service organizations urged Congress to change the word "Armistice" to "Veterans". Congress approved this change and on June 1, 1954, November 11 became a day to honor all American veterans, where ever and whenever they had served.

In 1968 the Uniforms Holiday Bill (Public Law 90-363 (82 Stat. 250)) made an attempt to move Veterans Day to the fourth Monday of October. The bill took effect in 1971. However, this caused a lot of confusion as many states disagreed with this decision and continued to hold Veterans Day activities on November 11. In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed Public Law 94-97 (89 Stat. 479), which stated that Veterans Day would again be observed on November 11 from 1978 onwards. Veterans Day is still observed on November 11.

Harry Foxwell always sends out a nice email to Sun employees (and I imagine others). Two years ago, he asked the question: Do you know where your veterans are?

Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery:
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/visitor_information/tomb_of_the_unknowns.html
National World War II Memorial: http://www.wwiimemorial.com/
Marine Corps Memorial: http://www.nps.gov/archive/gwmp/usmc.htm
US Navy Memorial: http://www.navymemorial.org/
Air Force Memorial: http://www.airforcememorial.org/
Korean War Veterans Memorial: http://www.nps.gov/kowa//index.htm
Vietnam Veterans Memorial: http://www.nps.gov/vive/index.htm
Vietnam Women's Memorial: http://www.visitingdc.com/memorial/vietnam-women%27s-memorial.htm
Iraq Veterans Memorial: http://iraqmemorial.org/

Department of Veterans Affairs: http://www.va.gov/

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

MTAG - MTConnect Technical Advisory Group Meeting

We finished up our MTAG - (MTConnect Technical Advisory Group Meeting) here yesterday in Cincinnati. The meeting was full of great ideas on from the members. We discussed MTConnect 1.2 in detail, rolled out the new MTConnect website, and went through a plethora of topics including what we are doing with MTConnect in 2012.

Last night we had the [MC]2 MTConnect Connecting Manufacturing Conference Reception and in less than two hours I will kick off the first ever:

Sunday, November 6, 2011

What REALLY Caused The Financial Crisis?

This is an excellent article on the REAL reasons for the financial crisis. Below is a snippet from The Washington Post today. The article is written by Barry Ritholtz who is the chief executive of FusionIQ, a quantitative research firm. He is the author of “Bailout Nation” and runs a finance blog, the Big Picture.

"Rather than admit the error of their ways — Repent! — these people are engaged in an active campaign to rewrite history. They are not, of course, exonerated in doing so. And beyond that, they damage the process of repairing what was broken. They muddy the waters when it comes to holding guilty parties responsible. They prevent measures from being put into place to prevent another crisis.

Here is the surprising takeaway: They are winning. Thanks to the endless repetition of the Big Lie.
A Big Lie is so colossal that no one would believe that someone could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. There are many examples: Claims that Earth is not warming, or that evolution is not the best thesis we have for how humans developed. Those opposed to stimulus spending have gone so far as to claim that the infrastructure of the United States is just fine, Grade A (not D, as the we discussed last month), and needs little repair.

Wall Street has its own version: Its Big Lie is that banks and investment houses are merely victims of the crash. You see, the entire boom and bust was caused by misguided government policies. It was not irresponsible lending or derivative or excess leverage or misguided compensation packages, but rather long-standing housing policies that were at fault.

Indeed, the arguments these folks make fail to withstand even casual scrutiny. But that has not stopped people who should know better from repeating them."

The da Vinci of Robots is at Virginia Tech - Dr. Dennis Hong

This is a GREAT article in The Washington Post Magazine by Daniel de Vise on robotics AND it is where my two oldest sons are going to college at Virginia Tech. Below is just a small snippet:

"Virginia Tech’s engineering school ranks 24th in the nation, according to the latest graduate rankings by U.S. News & World Report. Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Penn all field bigger, older, better-funded robotics programs.

But none of them has Hong.

He arrived at Virginia Tech in 2003, still in his early 30s, with a baby face and a thick shock of black hair. There, working with a small team of bleary-eyed graduate students and a shoestring budget, Hong built several of the most compelling designs to emerge in American robotics.

Hong and his students “are really trying to change the world,” said Daniel Lee, a robotics researcher at Penn who collaborates with Hong.

Hong’s dream, though, has always been to win RoboCup, a little-known international competition that is one of the premier academic events in robotics.

RoboCup is an annual soccer tournament for robots. Designing a robot that can find and kick a soccer ball is termed the ultimate challenge in robot design; not long ago, no humanoid robot on Earth could do it. The goal is to field a robot team by 2050 that can beat the human World Cup champions."

Just 2 Days Left -- Still Time To Register for [MC]2!

If you haven't yet registered for [MC]2, there's still time.

In addition, the first 150 [MC]2 registrants will receive a free polo shirt, courtesy of Okuma, we are getting very close to the limit, so don't wait!

Check out our great lineup of sessions. Two tracks -- one technical, one business -- offer a mix of interactive discussions and hands-on workshops. There will be never-before-seen demos that will show the emerging possibilities for using the MTConnect standard. You can also talk with exhibitors and learn about the commercially available products utilizing the standard right now.

Whether you've already implemented MTConnect into your business operations, or you're just curious about what it has to offer, [MC]2 is the place that will give you all those answers and more!

Register today!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Mazak Continues To Do A Great Job With MTConnect

Mazak continues to be a thought and execution leader with MTConnect. I really like this brochure they put together on MTConnect.

MTConnect Case Study and it is Curtis Wright Controls in Shelby, NC using System Insights vimana software

I am thrilled to announce our first MTConnect Case Study and it is Curtis Wright Controls in Shelby, NC using System Insights vimana software.

Thanks to Will Sobel and the entire System Insights team as well as to Curtis Wright Controls!

Just 3 Days Left

Friday, November 4, 2011

The Daily Show - Science and Republicans

Science and Republicans - this is priceless :-)

This Is Super Cool - Quantum Levitation

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Actuate Names 2011 BIRT Excellence Award Recipient at ActuateOne Live! San Francisco

This is very cool! The MTInsight team has worked extremely hard and this is a real highlight!

Actuate Names 2011 BIRT Excellence Award Recipient at ActuateOne Live! San Francisco

AMT Recognized for Their Leading Cloud-Based Business Intelligence and Analytics Deployment

November 03, 2011 01:33 PM Eastern Daylight Time

SAN FRANCISCO--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--ActuateOne Live! - Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ:BIRT), The people behind BIRT^® and the leading open source Business Intelligence (BI) vendor, today announced that it has recognized AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology - with a 2011 Excellence Award in the BIRT Implementation category.

“Overall, MTInsight powered by BIRT onDemand enables our members to resolve their own questions, saving them a huge amount of time and money. With the ability to quickly access and analyze huge data repositories, MTInsight is a game-changing application for the manufacturing industry.”

AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology won in the BIRT Implementation category by contracting with Actuate to create MTInsight, the state-of-the-art business intelligence platform that runs on BIRT onDemand. In teaming up with Actuate on this project, AMT was able to incorporate the entire body of knowledge into one BI application to allow its users to interact with the data in an easy to use and understandable visual format. With BIRT, AMT’s MTInsight has become the premier stop for market data, trends and intelligence in the manufacturing landscape, increasing their credibility and keeping them at the forefront of the technology sector.

“BIRT onDemand provides AMT and its members with a unique plug-and-play platform. Our team required a solution that could eliminate server management costs and reduce IT involvement, as well as integrating BIRT natively into popular mobile platforms for our large base of end users. The flexibility in delivery model really provided an edge over its competitors,” says Douglas K. Woods, President, AMT. “Overall, MTInsight powered by BIRT onDemand enables our members to resolve their own questions, saving them a huge amount of time and money. With the ability to quickly access and analyze huge data repositories, MTInsight is a game-changing application for the manufacturing industry.”

“AMT was able to leverage BIRT onDemand to create the most interactive and usable BI platform for their industry,” said Nobby Akiha, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Actuate. “MTInsight demonstrates how Actuate and BIRT can help achieve excellence in a short timeframe, assisting AMT’s efforts in helping to spread these best practices within the manufacturing industry.”

Winners of the BIRT Excellence awards will be honored today at ActuateOne Live! in San Francisco, with other events coming up in New York, Paris, London, Frankfurt and Singapore. More information about ActuateOne Live! can be found by visiting www.actuate.com/acd. Don’t forget to follow the conversation on Twitter by tracking #A1Live.

AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology
Founded in 1902 as the National Machine Tool Builders' Association, AMT supports and promotes the U.S. manufacturing technology industry. The association provides U.S. builders of manufacturing systems with the latest information on technical developments, trade and marketing opportunities, and economic issues. It also gathers and disseminates information about world markets, promotes its members' products in those markets, and acts as a representative on manufacturing technology matters to governments and trade organizations throughout the world. Visit the AMT web site at www.AMTonline.org or visit the MTInsight web site at www.MTInsight.org.
Actuate – The people behind BIRT

Actuate founded and co-leads the Eclipse BIRT open source project. ActuateOne^™ is a unified suite of products for rapidly developing and deploying BIRT-based custom Business Intelligence applications and information applications. Applications built with ActuateOne provide one user experience regardless of task or skill level; are supported by one server for any deployment including cloud and are built with one BIRT design that can access and integrate any data source - including high volume print streams. ActuateOne adds rich data visualizations, including interactivity, dashboards, analytics, and deployment options to web and mobile BIRT applications, helping organizations drive revenue through higher customer satisfaction and improved operational performance.
Actuate has over 4,800 customers globally in a diverse range of business areas including financial services and the public sector. Founded in 1993, Actuate is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices worldwide. Actuate is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol BIRT. For more information, visit the company's web site at www.actuate.com or visit the BIRT community at www.birt-exchange.com.

Copyright © 2011 Actuate Corporation. All rights reserved. Actuate and the Actuate logo are registered trademarks of Actuate Corporation and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other brands, names or trademarks mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contacts

Actuate Corporation
Leena Bengani, 650-645-3837
lbengani@actuate.com
Twitter: @Actuate

Top Five Cool Things From Eclipse SD Times article

Top Five Cool Things From Eclipse by Alex Handy at SD Times. Below is just one of the top five cool things on JDT. What got my attention was WindowBuilder Pro. Having a very nice and full feature GUI builder was badly needed.

Java Development Tools

JDT may have started it all, but it remains the biggest, baddest editor in the Eclipse retinue. With refactorings, deep Java syntax knowledge, and a host of helpful tools for dealing with the almost infinite APIs and handlers within the Java ecosystem, Eclipse is the go-to IDE for most Java developers in enterprises.

But the power of Java in Eclipse doesn't end with the code editor. Java users also now have access to WindowBuilder Pro (formerly from Instantiations, now from Google). This full-featured GUI editor and designer was commercial for a decade before it was turned into open-source code and donated to the Eclipse Foundation. As a result, Java developers using Eclipse now have access to a top-notch GUI tool, one that can help to transform Java applications from looking like generic X Window applications, to looking like native Windows and Mac OS X apps.

And this summer's Indigo release of Eclipse included some major enhancements to the JDT. The compiler will now detect objects that could be static; highlighting Java code brings up a drop-down menus of options; and the debugger now allows developers to keep a list of previously used breakpoint conditions.

JDT is the heart of Eclipse, and while you don't have to use it to be an Eclipse fan, it's certainly one of the most compelling and useful projects at the Foundation.

Steve Jobs Vision - We Are Tool Builders

This is five minutes and well worth watching on Steve Jobs vision:

Just 5 Days LEFT! -- Still Time To Register For [MC]2!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The End of Silicon Valley - Patent Trolls - Tim O'Reilly

Very interesting video on patent trolls by Tim O'Reilly.

As Tim O'Reilly says, "Patent trolls just go around and sue people."

I also like his comment that there is "no substitute for physical conferences".

Thanks npg for passing this along.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Mobile Phones and Patent Trolls

"Barely a week goes by without a development, whether it is Apple and Samsung trying to prevent each others' products from going on sale, or Microsoft forcing another handset maker to pay it a licence fee for the alleged use of its technologies in Google's Android software."

Above is a snippet and below is a snippet from BBC News Technology with an article titled: Can mobile phone innovation survive the patent trolls?
Written By Leo Kelion Technology reporter. It is a very interesting article. (thanks npg for sending this)

"So the industry uses the term "non-practicing entity" to refer to organisations that own and license patents without producing goods of their own.

One of the best known is Intellectual Ventures, which has a library of more than 35,000 patents.

Set up by a former Microsoft executive, Nathan Myhrvold, it recently revealed it has earned over $2 billion through licensing its portfolio to others since 2000."

If the above does not turn your stomach, then you must be a patent troll.

Just One Week Left -- Still Time To Register for [MC]2!

Monday, October 31, 2011

Clear, Concise Fuel Cell Animation For Cars

8 Days Left -- Still Time To Register for [MC]2!

"3D printing, a technology that has been in use for several decades, is part of a broader movement known as direct digital manufacturing (DDM) that could forever change the way we make things.

We're not quite at the stage envisioned by Star Trek: The Next Generation where a replicator on board the star ship can create any kind of inanimate matter, including food (but not, of course, antimatter, dilithium or latinum). But we're getting closer."

I don't care what industry you come from or background you have, 3D printing is just flat out super cool. For example, check the world's first 3D printed car - the Urbee automobile:

"For example, consider the Urbee automobile which was featured in a recent Digital Manufacturing Report posting. This cute little car, a two-seater, hybrid electric/ethanol vehicle capable of 200 mpg on the highway, is the first automobile to have its entire body printed using Statasys FDM technology and a tough plastic known as ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene). Traditional manufacturing methods, which involve making molds and shaping the parts out of fiberglass, would have been a laborious and expensive process stretching out over eight to 10 months. With FDM, several major body panels for the first prototype were built in weeks. Other parts were produced in days."

Vinod Khosla's Five Second Rule - Great Presentation Advice

Thanks to npg for sending this to me on Vinod Khosla (Sun Microsystems employee #2) on Forbes called - Vinod Khosla's Five Second Rule and it is great advice.

Below is a snippet:

"For each of them, he applies his five-second rule: he puts a slide on a screen, removes it after five seconds, and then asks the viewer to describe the slide. A dense slide fails the test—and fails to provide the basic function of any visual: to aid the presentation.

By applying his simple rule, Mr. Khosla is addressing two of the most important elements in presentation graphics: Less is More, a plea all too often sounded by helpless audiences to hapless presenters; and more important, the human perception factor. Whenever an image appears on any screen, the eyes of every member of every audience reflexively move to the screen to process the new image. The denser the image, the more processing the audiences need. At that very moment, they stop listening to the presenter. Nevertheless, most presenters continue speaking, further compounding the processing task. As a result, the audience shuts down. Game over."

Saturday, October 29, 2011

42 Years Today -- First Internet Message

Where the Internet was bornRoom 3420 at UCLA's Boelter Hall as it was on October 29, 1969.

"The original log book detailing UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock and his team using the Interface Message Processor (IMP), is seen at 3420 Boelter Hall in UCLA, May 3, 2011. UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock and his team used the Interface Message Processor, IMP, the packet-switching node used to interconnect participant networks to the ARPANET to send the first message, the letters LO to Standford Research Institute on October 29, 1969. The UCLA ..."

npg sent this to me. It is on Yahoo News.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Thanks to my cousin Chris Edstrom who has done two tours of duty in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. Thanks to Dr. Harry Foxwell, Paul Warndorf and Brad Kirley for their service to our country.

History of Veterans Day as stated at TimeAndDate.com

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Friday, November 4, 2011

Thursday, November 3, 2011

This is very cool! The MTInsight team has worked extremely hard and this is a real highlight!

Actuate Names 2011 BIRT Excellence Award Recipient at ActuateOne Live! San Francisco

Contacts

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

Sunday, October 30, 2011

I don't care what industry you come from or background you have, 3D printing is just flat out super cool. For example, check the world's first 3D printed car - the Urbee automobile:

Saturday, October 29, 2011

About Dave Edstrom

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