Goodbye Ashburn Tokyo Sushi - GREAT Sushi Restaurant

We found out yesterday morning that our all-time favorite Sushi restaurant, Tokyo Sushi in Ashburn was closing that night.  We found out from our middle son Michael who frequents there quite a bit with his friends. Our oldest John was a regular there when he lived in the Ashburn area and our youngest son Tim was just starting to appreciate really good sushi. We went there to thank them for many years of good food and we had a $50 gift certificate we did not want to see go to waste. It was the most crowded Julie and I had ever seen Tokyo Sushi.  We took some photos and looked up at the photo they took of Julie and me on one of my birthdays.  It was a sad night and proves just how hard it is to make money in the restaurant business.

 Above is a photo from the outside of Tokyo Sushi and below is the sign above the door.

Above is a photo I took the morning after they closed and before the restaurant was changed.

 Above is the main sushi chef and owner.  Below next to Julie is the wife of the chef and the other owner, next to me is the main waitress who came back for the last night of Tokyo Sushi.

Thanks for the memories and the great food!

On the way out we ran into Michael and a bunch of his friends.  Michael ate there for lunch with some of his buddies and came back last night with about 10 of his friends for the final meal at Tokyo Sushi.  Michael and his friends were the last ones to leave Tokyo Sushi at 11:30pm that night.  The owners gave them food and drinks for being such loyal customers over the many years.

The Imitation Game - the Alan Turing story - FANTASTIC Movie

I took my wife to see The Imitation Game this past week.  I did not tell Julie it was likely to be a geek movie that she would hate. I wanted to see if she liked it as a movie and not be influenced, in either direction, because the late and great Alan Turing is on the Mount Rushmore of computer legends.


On the left is Alan Turing and the right is the "bombe" or the electromechanical machine Turing created to decipher the Enigma.

Whether or not you know anything about computers or have read multiple books on Alan Turing like I have, it is a GREAT movie.  I was blown away how well they handled the technical details and were able to tell a great story without blowing it on the technical side.

 
 Germany's Enigma machine

The movie is about one of the most important individuals in World War II that most people have never heard of - Alan Turing.  Turing's work saved 14 million lives and cut two years off the war according to most historians.  The story is the race to figure out the German's Enigma machine which was a state of the art encryption device the Germans used to communicate to their military.  The Germans changed the settings (master key if you will) daily.  The number of possibilities of this master key on the Enigma has 158,962,555,217,826,360,000 or 15 quintillion. In other words, you could not throw enough humans at this problem.  The only way to solve this was with a machine so Turing created a electromechanical machine that he called Christopher after his childhood friend who died.  It was called externally the bombe.

It is a brilliant movie of an incredible true story and I hope it wins the Oscar for the best movie.

NOTE: The three images come wikipedia and can be used via the GFDL.

President Obama's Brilliant Idea of Two Years of Free Community College

This past Friday President Obama stated he would like a plan to pay for two years of tuition at community college.

The Lydia DePillis article on the Washington Post called:

Six things to know about Obama’s plan for free community college

Below is a snippet:

“Universal high school unleashed decades of innovation and talent that fueled growth, both in manufacturing but also in knowledge sectors,” says Josh Wyner, director of the College Excellence program at the Aspen Institute. ”So the notion that we’re extending universal education to the first two years of college is really kind of a moonshot idea. We know high school isn’t enough anymore.”

I think this is a brilliant idea by President Obama!

If the Cicret becomes real - it will be very cool

IF this Cicret bracelet becomes a real product, this will be very cool.  Thanks to my father for sending this to me.

Corvette Heaven Video

This is well done and little sad as well.



"Corvette Heaven" from Philip Volkoff on Vimeo.

Rick Mosca Joins Memex as Chief Operations Officer, USA and Leads Partner Program

I have been meaning to blog about this for awhile.  This is HUGE that Rick Mosca joined the executive leadership team at Memex Automation! I have known Rick for 4+ years and he is an absolute thought leader with a tremendous track record in his distinguished career.  I had the pleasure of working with Rick when I was President and Chairman of the Board for the MTConnect Institute and Rick was with Mind Over Machines.

Rick will also be heading up our Partner Operations which is critical for our global scaling and success.

Welcome Rick!

Below is the press release:

BURLINGTON, ONTARIO, Dec 11, 2014 Astrix Networks Inc., operating as Memex Automation (OEE) ("Memex" or the "Company") has closed a non-brokered private placement totaling $348,000. A total of 2,900,000 Units were issued at a price of $0.12 each ("Units"). Each Unit is comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (a "Common Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at a price of $0.16 at any time prior to 4:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) on December 12, 2016.

In connection with the private placement the Company paid a finder's fee on certain subscriptions of 6% of the proceeds raised via brokers and issued broker warrants (the "Broker Warrants") equal to 6% of the number of Units sold. The total fees paid were $9,744 in cash and 81,201 Broker Warrants. Each Broker Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at a price of $0.16 at any time prior to 4:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on December 12, 2016. All securities issued are subject to a hold period, which will expire on April 12, 2015. The closing is subject to receipt of final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange.
As part of this placement the Company's newest Executive, Rick Mosca, now Chief Operations Officer of Astrix Networks America Inc. subscribed for 13% of the placement. Mr. Mosca is an IT executive with special expertise in leading all facets of business including client facing revenue development, sales channel development, applications development and enterprise systems delivery. 

"I first became aware of Memex through my relationship with AMT, as a member of the Technical Advisory Group of MTConnect," explains Rick Mosca. "With a multi-year line of sight of the MTConnect products in development, it became clear to me that MERLIN is the most complete and robust forward and backward compatible solution. Based on my experience and industry knowledge, I am convinced that MERLIN has the potential to become the industry leading MTConnect-based MES solution, and I am thrilled to be joining this team as its American COO."

"It is with great pleasure that I welcome Rick Mosca to the Memex senior management team as the COO of our American subsidiary," reports David McPhail, CEO. "Rick brings with him a wealth of global experience and a proven track record of building effective, profitable and lasting relationships at the CXO level within the Fortune 500."

About Memex Automation

Memex Automation (OEE) is the leader of manufacturing Machine to Machine (M2M) productivity solutions and the measurement of Overall Equipment Effectiveness ("OEE") in real-time. OEE is the measurement of plant-wide capacity utilization. MERLIN (Manufacturing Enterprise Real-time Lean Information Network) generates OEE enterprise-wide, plant by plant, machine by machine. As published in Automation.Com in July 2014, by using MERLIN in its 800,000 square foot Kentucky plant, Mazak, the largest machine tool builder in the world, increased the utilization of its own machines by 42%, and now offers MERLIN on their price list. Okuma America Corporation, a world leader in CNC machine tools, announced in April 2014 that Memex Automation became a Partner in THINC. On April 15, 2014, PEM awarded the Company the 2014 Plant Engineering & Maintenance Award for 'Best Company Under 50 Employees.' Frost & Sullivan awarded MERLIN its 2013 Technology Innovation Leadership Award for Machine Monitoring. Microsoft picked MERLIN to be its mid-market ERP machine connectivity solution. For more information, please visit: www.memex.ca.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:
Sales: Memex Automation Inc.
John Rattray
VP Sales and Marketing
905-635-0590

jrattray@memex.ca

3-D Haptic Shape - Very cool!

Long time friend and expert in many areas, Steve F, sent this article at Phys.org to me to me on 3-D haptic shapes and I thought it was extremely cool.

Below is a snippet from the article.  You need to click on the link above and check out the video as well.

"The research, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues Professor Sriram Subramanian, Sue Ann Seah and Tom Carter from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumour, using haptic feedback.

The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.

The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. The research team have also shown that users can match a picture of a 3D shape to the shape created by the system."

The research, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues Professor Sriram Subramanian, Sue Ann Seah and Tom Carter from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumour, using haptic feedback.
The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.
The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. The research team have also shown that users can match a picture of a 3D shape to the shape created by the system.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-team-invisible-d-haptic-video.html#jCp

The research, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues Professor Sriram Subramanian, Sue Ann Seah and Tom Carter from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumour, using haptic feedback.
The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.
The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. The research team have also shown that users can match a picture of a 3D shape to the shape created by the system.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-team-invisible-d-haptic-video.html#jCp

The research, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues Professor Sriram Subramanian, Sue Ann Seah and Tom Carter from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumour, using haptic feedback.
The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.
The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. The research team have also shown that users can match a picture of a 3D shape to the shape created by the system.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-team-invisible-d-haptic-video.html#jCp

The research, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues Professor Sriram Subramanian, Sue Ann Seah and Tom Carter from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumour, using haptic feedback.
The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.
The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. The research team have also shown that users can match a picture of a 3D shape to the shape created by the system.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-team-invisible-d-haptic-video.html#jCp

God Bless Stuart Scott - ESPN Sports-Center

Stuart Scott passed away this morning after a multiple year fight against recurring cancer. He was the type of anchor that brought knowledge and excitement to everything that he did. He coined numerous phrases, but more importantly he defined class all the way through his fight with cancer and especially during the Jimmy V Perseverance Award he received this summer.

Very, very sad...

HBO Documentary on bin Laden called Manhunt

I watched this documentary on HBO called Manhunt over the break and thought it was excellent in terms of just how difficult the job was and is for those employees in the CIA.  It shows the real people who had this incredibly difficult job and is heart breaking to see how much pressure these individuals felt before and after 9/11.  While I agree with President Obama and Senator John McCain when it comes to water-boarding and getting real intelligence, you can certainly appreciate the pressure these CIA employees felt a that time to keep America safe.

The Edstrom's Deer of 2014

Below is the deer that I pulled out of Rick Allen's trash ten years ago and made it into the award winning Christmas deer that it is today.  Award winning meaning if I do not get the deer out earlier enough in the year then I am getting calls from the neighbors asking when the deer will be out because they are having a Christmas party and they told their guests to look for the big deer :-)

I added to the beating heart this year.  Maybe someday I will get an Arduino and program it to be even more lifelike, but that will not likely happen until I am retired.