The Perfect Mediterranean Summer Vacation

This was the third time that the Edstrom's of Ashburn have spent almost a month in Europe.   In 2005, we went with my parents and my sister to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary.  My father said he would pay for a European vacation if I picked up the flights.  I said yes immediately.  It was easy to say yes when you have over 750,000 miles on United Airlines :-)   In 2008, we did our second European vacation to celebrate me and my wife Julie's 25th wedding anniversary.  My parents came along for that as well.  This trip was to celebrate my wife Julie's upcoming 50th birthday.   It was Julie, John (23), Michael (20), Tim (17) and me.

Wednesday Julie, Michael, Tim and I flew out to Rome to meet John who was already in Europe since May 12th backpacking through Europe and staying at hostels.  Thursday morning we met John at Hotel Artemide in the center of Rome

  We walked around Rome to check out the  Colosseum, Forum  and the Spanish Steps.

Pat McGibbon ordered me to wear my MTInsight t-shirt all over Europe to drive up sales.  Here I am at The Colosseum sight seeing and taking MTInsight subscription orders.

Friday we took one of those open double decker bus cruises to see a large part of Rome    We went on a guide tour of the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peters Basilica   Tim and John climbed to the top of St. Peters Basilica.  As we walked into
St. Peters Basilica, Tim said, "I forgot how massive this place is. We're talking Appleby's at Fair Oaks massive".

Julie and I in front of St. Peters Basilica.

The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II) or Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland) or "Il Vittoriano" is a monument to honour Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy, located in Rome, Italy. It occupies a site between the Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill. The monument was designed by Giuseppe Sacconi in 1885; sculpture for it was parceled out to established sculptors all over Italy, such as Angelo Zanelli.^[1] It was inaugurated in 1911 and completed in 1935.^{[2]  (This is all from WikiPedia)}

Michael notice the Beamish logo on top of the Bull Dog Bar in Rome.  We had heard of this bar on the tour bus.  John, Michael and I went in for a few beers.  Michael and John drank Beamish and I stuck with Fosters.  I bought a round for two Alaskans - Tony and Chris. 

Sunday we slept in.  Julie, John and I climbed to the top of St. Peters Basilica.  That is really a must do in my opinion.   You could fit the Statue of Liberty inside the Basilica with room to spare. 

Monday Julie and the boys went to the catacombs and I went on a full day walk beyond Vatican city and throughout Rome.   I had lunch at La Sofitta my favorite restaurant in Rome.   We had a great dinner at Anthony Bourbaines favorite restaurant in Rome called La Sporita.

Above is the huge gold globe inside the Vatican that our guide spun for us.

 Tuesday we went Civitavecchia and got on board the Mariner of the Seas.

 Above are two pictures of our ship - the Royal Carribbean's Mariner of the Seas

 The HD LCD tv rotated between the bedroom area and the living room area.

  Above are multiple photos of our Owners Suite or the Henry Hudson Suite.  The boys also had their own suite as well.

There were three formal nights.  We arranged to rent the tuxedos and shoes from the ship so we did not have to carry them around. 

Here I am talking with the Master (THE Captain) of the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas.  When you have a big suite, you get invited to all of these meet the Captain type of events and this is the first evening.   The Captain is 100% Norwegian.  I told him that I was 1/2 Swedish and 1/2 Norwegian - which I am.  We got into a discussion about Norway vs. the United States.   The Captain said that Norway was a better country than the US.  I said, "well it depends."  Let's say you want your child to have the best opportunity to be an entrepreneur, then the US would be best.  He disagreed.   I said, "let's play a game Captain. I will name three inventions of the US and then you name three from Norway.   The telephone, the personal computer and the Internet.  Your turn.  Top those."  Julie gave me the, "don't piss off the Captain the first night!" looks :-)

Here we are in front of our all time favorite restaurant in Rome -

la Soffitta Renovatio

Our second favorite restaurant in Rome was the one that Anthony Bourdain went to (but never gave the name) that Tim found for us called:  La Taverna del Porto

   We had the Owners Suite and the boys had the The Grand Suite.  We both had access to the Concierge Club which is free drinks between 6 and 9:30.

Wednesday we were in Sicily.    We went on a winery tour, The Godfather tour, Mt. Edna,  and to Savoca where we went to the bar where Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) meets Apollonia (Simonetta Stefanelli).

Here were are at Savoca.

Thursday was an at Sea day

This is Corinth in Italy.

Friday we were at Athens.

Above is the protests in Athens getting ready to happen in the next hour according to our private tour guide.

 Saturday we were Ephesus.     Julie fell and the guide said,  "there are 35 ways to say fall in French".   Tim immediately shot back for all to hear, "I thought there were 35 ways to say surrender in French?"  That's my boy! :-)

Above is me in the water.   I was not planning on going swimming, I was walking around the city trying to Julie and the boys.  That is our ship in the background.

Above is where the Rhodes of Collosus supposedly stood. Sunday was Rhodes and it was amazing.    Michael and Michael were our tour guides.    They did not know where Collosus of Rhodes actually stood which I thought was hilarious.

This is the view from Lyndos on Rhodes.

Tim is breathing hard because he just inched me out in a 150 yard dash.  John came in a distant third.   I should not have given them the 25 yard lead :-)

   Julie, Tim and John took the donkeys  up     Michael and I are not donkey people :-)   We had a snack at a small restaurant

We had lunch at the old castle area at Rhodes.   They forgot my lunch and John said, "they just forgot the wrong guys lunch".   When I asked what happened they said the computer forgot.   I said since the computer forgot, the computer can buy me a big beer. 

Monday was Crete.   We had a very nice winery tour owner son and owner at the Dourakis Winery.     Lake Mournas was dirty and nasty with snakes (per our driver).   John said it reminded him  of Lake Accotink.  We left quickly.  Ocean beach very nice.

Tuesday day at sea.

Above is inside the Blue Mosque.

Wednesday and Thursday was Istanbul.  Istanbul was very interesting.

Friday was the All Access Tour.  It was great!

Saturday was a sea day.  Julie and John went on a bridge and galley tour.

Sunday Naples and Pompeii. 

Since we had suites, we had our own concierge club with the other suite holders.  Many times, were the only ones there.  From left to right - Newman, Shravan, John, Michael, Julie, Tim, me and Lucca  Free drinks and food :-)

Monday. Lido Ostia.   Julie and I had a great dinner

I am sure I will had more photos later if you got to this point :-)

PE-RSA-N-IRC - mnemonic
Pompei, Ephesis, Rome, Sicily, Athens, Naples, Istanbul, Rhodes, Crete

Dennis Govoni Kinecting

This is the first time that I saw someone use the Kinect by Microsoft.   I am not sure that Dennis Govoni is the target audience :-)

MTConnect Institute Signs Agreement with DMSC

I am very pleased to announce that, as President and Chairman of the Board for the MTConnect Institute, I signed an memorandum of understanding (MOU) with  Curtis W. Brown, President of Dimensional Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC).  Paul Warndorf, VP of Technology and CTO for AMT, did all the smart and hard work to make this a reality.


What is metrology?  As wikipedia states:

Metrology is the science of measurement. Metrology includes all theoretical and practical aspects of measurement. The word comes from Greek μέτρον (metron), "measure"^[1] + "λόγος" (logos), amongst others meaning "speech, oration, discourse, quote, study, calculation, reason".^[2] In Ancient Greek the term μετρολογία (metrologia) meant "theory of ratios".^[3]

 Why is this MOU important?

This MOU is very important because DMSC has invested in a tremendous amount of hard work in metrology, just like we have in the open and royalty free protocol called MTConnect.  In my opinon, the combination of DMSC and MTConnect is the absolute perfect marriage.   The goals of this joint effort are:

1. To generate freely accessible standards and specifications which enable interoperability and enable more tightly integrated production and quality in manufacturing.
2. To enable compliant implementations of those standards and specifications.
3. To freely distribute the standards and specifications resulting from the joint effort to any party with a material interest in those standards and technologies, including manufacturing companies, suppliers, distributors, end users, technology providers, software developers, independent software developers, value added resellers, system integrators and trade media organizations.
4. The principals will Principals will communicate how joint efforts can be used to improve manufacturing and business effectiveness, efficiency and quality

 Here are important aspects of metrology - again from wikipedia:

Mistakes can make measurements and counts incorrect. Even if there are no mistakes, nearly all measurements are still inexact. The term 'error' is reserved for that inexactness, also called measurement uncertainty. Among the few exact measurements are:

• The absence of the quantity being measured, such as a voltmeter with its leads shorted together: the meter should read zero exactly.
• Measurement of an accepted constant under qualifying conditions, such as the triple point of pure water: the thermometer should read 273.16 kelvin (0.01 degrees Celsius, 32.018 degrees Fahrenheit) when qualified equipment is used correctly.
• Self-checking ratio metric measurements, such as a potentiometer: the ratio in between steps is independently adjusted and verified to be beyond influential inexactness.

All other measurements either have to be checked to be sufficiently correct or left to chance. Metrology is the science that establishes the correctness of specific measurement situations. This is done by anticipating and allowing for both mistakes and error. The precise distinction between measurement error and mistakes is not settled and varies by country. Repeatability and reproducibility studies help quantify the precision: one common method is an ANOVA gauge R&R study.

Calibration is the process where metrology is applied to measurement equipment and processes to ensure conformity with a known standard of measurement, usually traceable to a national standards board.

TIOBE Programming Community Index for July 2011

This is the TIOBE Programming Community Index for July 2011.  As is stated on their home page:

TIOBE is specialized in assessing and tracking the quality of software. We measure the quality of a software system by applying widely accepted coding standards to it. 

It is interesting to see what languages are the most popular on the web and which ones are up and coming.  Below is a brief description:

"The TIOBE Programming Community index is an indicator of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors. The popular search engines Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, YouTube and Baidu are used to calculate the ratings. Observe that the TIOBE index is not about the best programming language or the language in which most lines of code have been written.

The index can be used to check whether your programming skills are still up to date or to make a strategic decision about what programming language should be adopted when starting to build a new software system. The definition of the TIOBE index can be found here"

Java SE 7 Arrives - Based On OpenJDK

One of my favorite development online software sites is Software Development Times known as SD Times.  I am really glad to see that Mark Rheinhold is still with Oracle and the Chief Architect for Java and that Oracle is using OpenJDK as the basis for Java SE 7.  Below are a few snippets from the article Java SE 7 Arrives - Based On OpenJDK :

"We started with proven technology, added in a great community, and then finally added our own commitment and investment. We're standing on the shoulders of giants. In the 15 years of Java history, we've been lucky to build up a giant base of 9 million developers. It's the No. 1 choice by developers according to the TIOBE index, and more than a billion computers around the world run Java. It's by far the most widely deployed language in the history of computing."


"The OpenJDK forms the basis for Java SE 7, marking the first time in history that an open-source version of the Java development environment has been used as the basis for a commercial release. Mark Reinhold, Oracle's chief architect for the Java platform, said that the new open-source development process has been a success, despite a few bumps in the road, such as the Apache Foundation's sudden resignation from the JCP."

Dulles Sets Heat Record at 105 Degrees on Friday July 22nd, 2011

105 Degrees on Friday July 22nd, 2011 Hottest Day EVER at Dulles Airport.

Today is our 20th day of 95+ weather this year here in D.C.

Dulles International Airport, VA (IAD):

This breaks the old all-time record high of 104 set back in 1988 and 1983.

[MC]2 Video - Why You MUST Attend!

Why should YOU attend the MTConnect Connecting Manufacturing Conference?  Watch below!

In a World Without Fences, Who Needs Gates?

NOTE:  I wrote this for the July 14, 2011 IMTS Insider

No, I am talking about my all-time-favorite Java One T-shirt. I am talking about sales strategies. "Give away the razor and sell em' the blades." We have all heard and seen this type of sales strategy. The standard model is to come up with a proprietary product, separate the consumables and make your money selling the consumables. Specifically, sell the main product at a greatly reduced price and then lock them in forever on your proprietary consumables.

We see this type of sales model in all types of businesses. It is not uncommon to see this scenario in the computer industry and manufacturing. When this is done, it is not quite as obvious as the razor/blade scenario and it is certainly much more expensive. How software vendors do this is very slick because of the sales story that gets wrapped around it. If you do not take the time to think through the life cycle of your software purchase, you can easily fall into this trap. Here's how to avoid it.

I have had this discussion more than a few times lately and the conversation usually starts off with questions on monitoring their shop or plant floor. "Dave, why should I care how I get my data? All I care about is the information I see on my monitor that tells me how my machine tools are running." My response is, "You're right; on one hand, you shouldn't care, unless you think your shop will change or you plan on using the data coming off those machine tools in something besides monitoring."

The software sales rep typically responds with, "Don't worry about it, it's just a black box," when the shop/plant owner asks how the software will connect to the manufacturing equipment. The conversation might end at that point and the customer goes ahead and buys the software.

At this point, the software sales rep knows they have locked the customer in when changes at the shop or plant occur. As we all know, changes always happen in business. The scenario unfolds as follows. The customer calls up the sales rep and says, "We just purchased a new machine tool and I would like to connect it to my monitoring software. What do we need to do in order to make that happen?" The sales rep then has two responses. Either they have the adapter for the new machine tool or they don't. If they do, then there is usually a charge for the adapter, as well as a charge for someone to come out from the software company to install it. If they don't have it, then they will offer to have someone from their professional services organization give a price for writing the adapter. This is typically someone who will cost $150 to $250 an hour to write that adapter. If you decide that you want to integrate the monitoring software in with other software from your existing enterprise, then you will likely be charged to have this type of integration work done as well.

The price can be high, so it is natural to think about different ways that you might be able to get the adapter written for less money. Getting a consultant naturally jumps to mind! You reach out to a few consultants and they all tell you the same story. The software company does not document how to write adapters or how to integrate with their software. You are locked in with the vendor. You are now in what I like to call "adapter hell." This adapter hell is why only 4 to 5 percent of all machine tools are monitored today.

Adapter hell is why it absolutely does matter how the adapters speak to the manufacturing equipment. How would it be different if you had an open and royalty free, as well as open source, type of protocol for the adapters such as MTConnect®? 

MTConnect® speaks in the exact same language that runs on the internet today – http and XML. The beauty of http is that it is the same protocol that moves information around that you also see in your browser bar when you type in http://ESPN.com. XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language and is the data language of the internet. In other words, it is the letters, words and dictionary that describe the data itself. Here's the bottom line with MTConnect – it gives you freedom. It gives you the freedom to have someone else besides the software vendor provide the adapters for you.

Instead of being in adapter hell, by using MTConnect you end up in adapter heaven. Since MTConnect is open source and based on standards, it is easy to find someone to write an adapter. You are not locked into the vendor. Since MTConnect is based on XML, it is brain-dead-easy to integrate that information into your other software.
So, does it matter HOW you get the data? It depends. Would you rather go to adapter heaven or adapter hell? Gates are what some software vendors want to put up so they can charge you outrageous prices for adapters, as well as very expensive installations of those adapters. That is why in a world without proprietary fences, who needs software adapter gates? How do you avoid adapter hell? The next time a software sales rep tries to tell you, "It's just a black box, don't worry about it," make sure you ask that person HOW they are getting the data and make sure that software vendor has MTConnect as an option.

Adapter heaven is much better place than adapter hell.

Japan Beating USA in Woman's World Cup

WOW!  What a game! Congratulations Japan woman.

Mike Geldner of Google To Speak at [MC]2

I am extremely pleased to announce that Mike Geldner of Google has agreed to speak at the first ever MTConnect Connecting Manufacturing Conference [MC]2

Mike is a long time friend, absolutely brilliant and just a great, great guy.  Plus, he is a Corvette guy :-)

Mike is the Keynote Speaker on the first day and will be presenting:

           "Inside The World of Google"
Below is Mike's brief bio:

Michael Geldner joined Google’s Enterprise division in July of 2008 as a Federal Account Manger. He is currently responsible for Google’s business with several large US Department of Defense agencies.

Prior to Google, Michael worked for Dell as a Federal Account Manager responsible for a major US DoD Agency for three years. Earlier in his career he held several roles during 17 years with Sun Microsystems including Senior System Engineer / Product Specialist, and before joining Sun, he worked as a software development Team Leader on the Launch Control System for the Space Shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center during the early years of it’s operation.

Michael earned a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida and worked at the university as an Instructor of Computer Science during his Master’s and post-degree studies.

Mike’s other interests and activities include computer and information technology, golf, SCUBA diving, photography, automobile restoration and collecting, and almost anything “technical”.  He has two sons, both former US Marines, and two grandsons.

Kepware Technologies Announces New MTConnect Driver for KEPServerEX

Kepware Technologies Announces New MTConnect Driver for KEPServerEX

Kepware Technologies Continues to Focus on Interoperability with its Upcoming Release of the MTConnect Driver

Portland, ME July 14, 2011 — Kepware Technologies, the leader in Communications for Automation, announced today that the upcoming release of the KEPServerEX communication platform will include the new MTConnect Driver. MTConnect is a royalty-free Open standard for connecting shop-floor technologies that furthers the Automation industry’s goal of seamless manufacturing operation. Kepware’s MTConnect Driver allows connectivity to any MTConnect Agent.

Much like the OPC standards for which Kepware is renowned, the MTConnect standard intends to reduce the number of proprietary manufacturing equipment protocols and make communications open to all machine tool owners. With over 150 communication drivers that support several hundred protocols, KEPServerEX will now be available for the benefit of the machine tool manufacturers who have implemented or plan to implement the MTConnect standard.

"The MTConnect Institute is excited to have an industry leader, such as Kepware, become an MTConnect Technical Advisory Group Member, as well as announce an MTConnect driver for their KEPServerEX release,"  said Dave Edstrom, President and Chairman of the Board for the MTConnect Institute. "It is companies like Kepware who see the importance of moving toward common interface standards for manufacturing, such as MTConnect, that will help bring about the interoperability capabilities needed to reduce the overbearing costs of connectivity on the shop floor."

“The KEPServerEX Communications Platform allows users to achieve interoperability between client/server layer protocols, device protocols and many other types of interfaces in a single environment,” said Tony Paine, President of Kepware Technologies. “We view the MTConnect standard as an evolution for machine tool connectivity and are excited to add the capabilities it provides to our product offering.”

The MTConnect Driver for KEPServerEX is scheduled for release at the end of July, 2011. For more information on this or any other driver, contact sales@kepware.com.

ABOUT Kepware Technologies: Kepware Technologies, established in 1995, develops a wide range of communication and interoperability software solutions for the Automation industry. Our flexible and scalable solutions are for connecting, managing, monitoring, and controlling diverse automation devices and software applications. Our industry endorsed software solutions improve operations and decision-making throughout all levels of an organization. Kepware Technologies' mission is to be “Your Standard for Connectivity”.

ABOUT MTConnect Organization: The MTConnect Institute is a not-for-profit 501(c)(6) independent organization established to further the development of MTConnect standards and materials.  The organization includes a Technical Advisory Group (MTCTAG) and a Technical Steering Committee, as well as working groups to further the standards in specific technology areas.

3D Printing or Additive Printing - it's real...

We had this company, Z Corporation, at IMTS 2010.   Check out this video of 3D printing.

SCADAware's StatusWatch Increases OEE By 20% or MORE

Rick Caldwell, president of SCADAware, personally told me:

"We have a heavy equipment manufacturing customer that is using MTConnect as the communications protocol to allow for simple and reliable connectivity to the machine tools. Through MTConnect, StatusWatch production monitoring software gathers pertinent data for real-time displays, and also deposits this data in a database to be used for historical reporting.

In every installation, when this data is studied by the plant personnel and actions taken as a result of what the data disclosed, OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) percentages are improved by 20% or more."

This is REALLY impressive and a great example of how MTConnect is helping manufacturing!  Thanks Rick!

VA and MD Car Show Photos and Video

Here are some photos and a video I took at some care shows I attended a week ago on June 4th in MD at the Silver Spring Corvette Club of America's car show and a typical Saturday night car show in Leesburg, VA that has a Lincoln that the refurb cost over $200,000

  These truly are the good ole days for muscle cars.

Above is a the ultimate gamers Corvette...

Julie and I were walking around with Betsy Ferry, when Betsy pointed out this Lincoln is owned by one of the men she works with who is a very interesting veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam wars.  This Lincoln was amazing.

Not All The Smart People Work For You

 

This is the article that I wrote for the June IMTS Insider.

 

Not All The Smart People Work For You

June 9, 2011

I first heard Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, utter the sentence, "because not all the smart people work for you" back in the mid 1990s. He was asked why Sun was open sourcing a particular software program. A new Sun manager asked: "Why would Sun work so hard to create a new piece of software and then make the source code available to anyone who wanted it?"

Bill was not being flip in his answer, but his short and concise answer could have easily been misinterpreted as being arrogant if you did not understand Sun's business strategy. Sun was not interested in short-term dollars, but instead interested in building a software platform that others would use as a foundation to build their products with.

What exactly did Bill mean by the sentence "because not all the smart people work for you"? By opening up the software, other smart people at other companies can work with it and make it even more valuable. There are countless examples of this type of collaboration in the computer industry. From a business standpoint, it has to do with: What is your primary objective and where do you want to make your money? This also has a counterintuitive premise that many in manufacturing find impossible to embrace: that by working with your competitors, it can make your own company stronger.

Let's be clear. I am talking about collaborating on an open standard or platform. I am not talking about collusion, but working together to define a standard interface and then compete for the implementation. MTConnect is a great example of collaboration. The MTConnect Institute set up its Working Groups in a similar fashion that Sun set up the Java Community Process (JCP) with the Java Specification Request (JSR) process. The basic idea is that you bring in industry experts to work together on an industry specification where all the involved companies have both business and technical interests. These companies cooperate to create a standard and then compete on the best implementation. The driving reason for doing this is true to the old adage: "the great thing about standards is that there are so many of them." In other words, they can stifle innovation.

Collaboration does not mean that a company should not exercise common sense when sending individuals to these industry standard meetings. My father-in-law was General Counsel for the Electronics Industry Association (EIA) and told me a few stories of members sending engineers to meetings where everyone else sent a lawyer. His analogy was it was like bringing a knife to a gun fight – never a good idea. Usually, these industry meetings are the technical and business experts who are working together. It is also industry standard that there are legal agreements regarding intellectual property (IP) to protect both the standard and the individual companies.

Manufacturing in general is slow to adopt this thing that "not all the smart people work for you" collaboration mentality because that is not how their dad did it and that is not how their grandfather did it. While it is hard to argue with decades of success, one also needs to remember Darwin's advice, "In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment." I would suggest that manufacturing is changing to be less proprietary, to be less closed and to be a less "go at it alone" type of mentality. Manufacturing will model the computer industry where open wins and proprietary loses.

There are also secondary benefits to open collaboration in that the morale of employees who are part of these groups typically show much higher job satisfaction. You don't have to be an HR expert to appreciate that employees who have an opportunity to work on something that is bigger than their day-to-day work is a plus. I know this is true because I experienced this myself and know many individuals who have stayed with a company because of this type of industry collaboration work. This can provide your more senior employees interesting career growth opportunities as well.

The next time you are considering how to attack a problem or whether or not your company should participate in an industry standard such as MTConnect, think back to Bill Joy's advice and remember, "not all the smart people work for you". You might be pleasantly surprised with the results.

2012 ZR1 kicks BUTT at the Nurburgring!

Jim Mero just did this on June 9th, 2011.  This is the  7th fast time EVER.

Easy MTConnect and Microsoft Excel

Below are the very easy steps to get MTConnect data into Excel are as follows:

• Go into the Data selection on the upper tab
• Select From Web
• New Web Query will come up
• In the browser bar that pops up, put in your MTConnect http url  (for example):
• http://agent.mtconnect.org/sample?count=1000
• Hit Import
• You will then hit Import again after the data is loaded into the window.
  
• Select Yes to add to the question, Do You Want To Continue To Add This Schema To Your Notebook
• When the pop up window comes up for Import Data, select Existing Worksheet which is the bottom selection when you are prompoted on where to put your data
• At this point Excel will put in the proper headers and values in the correct locations
• Of course, you will likely want to use a more specific Sample Request in step #4, but I kept it simple to just to make the point how EASY it is for applications to get data from an MTConnect enabled device.
• Below is a four minute screencast on exactly how to do this.  Notice that I did absolutely nothing in terms of laying out the titles of the columns, where the columns and rows should go, where the data should appear.  The reason why is that since this is XML, Excel (just like a lot of software that reads XML data) knows how to deal with the data and display it properly.  Note that the video starts off with a gray screen for the first few seconds and then straightens out.

110 Miles With Steve Wozniak

On a normal Saturday, I ride my bike for 55 miles on the W & OD bike path and I bring my iTouch along to listen to audio books, podcasts or 1970s music. It took two Saturdays to listen to: 

iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: 

How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It

 I really enjoyed iWoz.  It is a real geek's book.  Any book that discusses in detail the challenges of writing a device driver, how registers are built and how to write a boot strap program is GREAT book in my mind :-)   I was listening to TWIT (This Week In Tech) when I heard the co-author of iWoz, Gina Smith, discuss the book and it sounded very interesting.   If you are a geek, you will love it.  If you are a Steve Jobs fanboy, you will come away with a different view of Steve Jobs.

Below is Stevew Wozniak's business card that Athulan showed me at Mori-Seiki Innovation Days.

 

The Danger of Personlization

My father sent me this very interesting TED video on the danger of filter bubbles.
Eli Pariser does a very interesting presentation.

MTInsight Announced TODAY!

We just announced MTInsight!

Manufacturing Business Intelligence

This is a very exciting day at AMT – The Association For Manufacturing as we release MTInsight to the world.  What is MTInsight?  MTInsight is a state of the art manufacturing business intelligence platform that hosts applications for AMT’s members as well as non-members.   Before we get into a more detailed description of MTInsight, it is important to make sure we are all on the same page with some definitions. 

The overall purpose of  business intelligence is to synthesize business information from a variety of sources into a format enables better decision making.   Business intelligence (BI) software is typically made up of three major parts:

1. Lots of adapters to a variety of information resources. 
1. Examples of these are adapters to databases such as MySQL, accounting systems, inventory systems, sales systems, Customer Resource Management (CRM) systems, Enterprising Resource Management Planning systems (ERP),  spreadsheets, web services, old IBM mainframes, CSV files, text files, XML files, and basically anything else that you can think of.  The more adapters you have, the better.    Many times, all of this data ends up in a large data warehouse.  Today, these data warehouses are usually housed in the cloud.  MTInsight’s large data warehouse is in the cloud.
2. Software tools to slice and dice the data in any fashion that is needed for the analytics.    Usually, BI software has the ability to call other languages as well to augment the tools the BI vendor also provides.  It is not unusual to see JavaScript and Java as programming languages that can also be used with the BI software.  Structured Query Language (SQL) is also very important for accessing data from databases.
3. Graphics visual tools to a wide variety of output devices is key to any BI software program.   This is the logical last step after a BI developer has connected to a large number of data sources and has done lots of calculations.   This what the business person who wants to see the data in reports, charts, graphs or other types formats wants to receive.   Business people want to receive this information whether or not they are at their desk or on the road or at home and they want to view it on any device that they have in front of them.   Supporting lots of output devices as well as output formats are important.

MTInsight is built upon Actuate’s BIRT onDemand BI in the cloud software.   Actuate created BIRT (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools) which is an open source project.    BIRT is known as one of the premier BI platforms.   BIRT onDemand is the  Software as a Service (SaaS) platform MTInsight uses to access information from the very large MTInsight data warehouse in the cloud, analyze the data and then display it to a wide variety of devices.   We spent a tremendous amount of time analyzing BI vendors before we made the decision that Actuate was far and away the best choice for MTInsight.


What is manufacturing business intelligence?   This phrase for MTInsight is really a double entendre.   First, it is manufacturing business intelligence or creating business intelligence.  Second, it is manufacturing business intelligence or business intelligence about manufacturing.   How I like to think about MTInsight is that it is your virtual business intelligence department for manufacturing.  If you have a browser, you have a virtual business intelligence department for manufacturing.


We discussed the three parts of BI.  There are also three parts of MTInsight.  Those three parts are:

1.     Pat McGibbon, AMT’s Vice President of Strategic Information and Research (SIR) and his extremely talented SIR department.  These are the manufacturing industry experts who are statisticians, economists, researchers, mathematicians, programmers,  database experts, BI experts and a number of other areas of expertise.   This is what I like to call “MTInsight’s secret sauce.”     These are the folks who manage all the data sources,  write the analytic software programs that create the MTInsight charts and graphs that you see. 

2.     MTInsight data warehouse.  This is the combination of all those data sources that I mentioned previously.   I like to call this database equivalent to Metcalfe’s Law.  Metcalfe’s Law is stated as the value of any network is the number of nodes or devices squared.   In other words, with just one website you don’t really have a lot.  With a million websites, now you have something of real value.  With databases, the more data that you can get into the data warehouse, the more interesting questions you can start asking because you have the data to do the interpolations, extrapolations and generally ask the interesting “what if” questions that all of us are familiar with when you sit down in front of a spreadsheet.  The difference is with MTInsight, you now have access to tons of data that you likely could not afford on your own or simply would not have access to at all.  AMT invests a lot per year in keeping its many data sources all up to date.   These are internal data sources where ATM literally is the keeper of the data as well external data sources that AMT pays for.  

3.     BI software.  This is Actuate’s BIRT onDemand SaaS that I referenced earlier.  BIRT onDemand is what AMT uses to both build these many manufacturing business intelligence applications as well as where they are hosted in the cloud.

There is a lot more that I could write about MTInsight and look for many more articles in the IMTS insider in the future.   Just like MTConnect, MTInsight will be a game changer for manufacturing!  Check it out now at MTInsight.org

MTInsight Rolls Out Tomorrow

Tomorrow at 2pm eastern, MTInsight will be rolled out...

An Exciting Way To See Switzerland

John sent us these photos when he was "over" and when he "landed" in Switzerland :-)

Two Days Until MTInsight

Just two days until MTInsight will be rolled out.

Thanks Chris Edstrom and my Father - Two Tours of Duty - Memorial Day

My cousin Chris Edstrom has done two tours of duty in Iraq AND two tours of duty in Afghanistan.   My father did two tours of duty in Vietnam and is the world record holder for number of years with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). 

Chris and my father are just two of the many heroes we should thank today for their service to our country.

Corvette The Cat (Kitten Right Now)

I open my 16x12 shed that my father and I built a decade ago and I see the cutest little black kitten right in front of me.  I found some baby squirrels in my shed a month ago.  I found a 6' black snake last year.  I am used to finding things in my shed :-)  I immediately closed the shed door and went next door to Peter and Alice's house.  I knocked on the door and said, "this is your area of expertise, come with me".   We got the little kitten out and Alice came over.  Tim, Mike and Julie came out to check out the kitten as well.  I told Alice, "you can have it under one condition, you name him/her "Corvette".  Peter and Alice are experts in taking care of cats and kittens.  They also prefer black kittens/cats.    Corvette joined the other two kittens they have and the three cats.  The other two kittens are called Simba and Carmela.  They have six cats/kittens right now.  They are not sure if Simba and Carmela will stay, but Corvette will.  Initially, Peter and Alice said if Corvette was female, then the name could not remain Corvette.  I explained that the name Corvette came from a British ship and ships are female.  Also, cars are females - aka "she's my little deuce coupe".  Peter agreed :-)   Below is me feeding Corvette just at Peter and Alice's house.

Video - MTConnect Connecting Manufacturing Conference - [MC]2 2011

This is a video that was created to discuss the first ever Video - MTConnect Connecting Manufacturing Conference - [MC]2 2011

Different Devices, Common Connection

The MTConnect^® Institute is pleased to announce the first ever [MC]2 MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference to be held on November 8-10, 2011, at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati, Ohio. This conference is aimed at promoting the benefits and implementation of MTConnect^®, as well as showcasing commercially available products utilizing the standard.

MTConnect is an open and royalty free protocol that is standardizing manufacturing connectivity and and allowing for much greater productivity.  More information on MTConnect can be found here. 

Who Should Attend:

MTConnect^® Institute Participants

Users

Equipment Suppliers

Software Developers

Distributors

ISVs

Integrators

Consultants

[MC]² will have both technical and business tracks. Technical tracks will have a heavy emphasis on the “hands-on” side of MTConnect, while the business tracks will emphasize quantifying increased productivity ROI.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Hotel Information:
Hyatt Regency Cincinnati

151 W Fifth St.

Cincinnati, OH 45202

Phone: 513-579-1234

Fax: 513-354-4079

Check in: 4:00pm

Check-out: 12:00pm

Guest Room Rate:

Single/Double $ 149 plus Tax

Triple $174 plus Tax

Reservations:

Hotel Reservations may be made, modified or canceled by individuals on-line at https://resweb.passkey.com/go/kafm. Individuals can also make reservations by calling Central Reservations at phone: 1-888-421-1442 and referring to MTConnect Connecting Manufacturing Conference.
The Hotel "cut-off-date" is 10/17/2011.

Mazak: HUGE Supporters of MTConnect

Mazak states the following on their MTConnect page:

"Mazak supports the MTConnect standard by providing all machines MTConnect prepped from the factory."

It is very impressive that ALL Mazaks are MTConnect prepped from the factory!

The MTConnect page by Mazak is the perfect example of how to layout all the information that a customer needs to know in order to enable MTConnect on a Mazak.


Brian Papke, President of Mazak USA, and Neil Desrosiers, Senior Programming Manager of Mazak USA, have both been a HUGE supporters of MTConnect and we THANK THEM BOTH!

John Edstrom Traveling Through Europe Summer of 2011

Joel Neidig Head of Technology at ITAMCO OSI/R Interview

The second guest on the OSI/Roundtable is Joel Neidig, Systems Engineer and Head of Technology for ITAMCO.


Joel is a real thought leader in manufacturing and the first person to write and MTConnect app for the iPhone and Android.  Joel also open sourced his work.  Joel Neidig is the type of person that gives me great hope for manufacturing because he is a young guy with deep expertise, vision and passion which means he has decades to keep innovating - which will be fun to watch.  This half hour interview covers:

• Why ITAMCO became involved with MTConnect
• How ITAMCO takes advantage of MTConnect to improve productivity by being able to monitor ITAMCO's machine tools anywhere, anytime on either an iPhone or an Android
• Why Joel wrote the iPhone and Android apps for MTConnect
• The steps involved in writing an MTConnect app for the iPhone and Android 
• The difference between DOM and SAX in writing an app
• What Joel will be teaching at the MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference November 8-10, 2011 in Cincinnati, Ohio
• The importance of open source and how others can help build upon Joel's great work!
• What the future holds for ITAMCO and MTConnect
• GO GET THE MTCONNECT APP TODAY! 

  

August 1955 at MIT - Numerical Control of Machine Tools

This is historic ashtray is in a glass case just outside the Executive Board Room at AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology.  This was created by Charles F. Carter, Jr., who was at MIT at the time and was also AMT's VP of Technology from 1990 to 2003.

Very cool! 

MTConnect in 2011 (on IMTSTV)

This video was recorded at the Manufacturing For Growth (MFG) Conference held in Phoenix of this year.   Penny DiCarlo of AMT does a GREAT job as an interviewer with IMTSTV and Diyana Hrzic does a GREAT job running the camera and doing all the editing.

This video has me discussing what is happening with MTConnect in 2011 as well as Brian Papke, President of Mazak, discussing the importance of MTConnect to Mazak.  Brian and Mazak have been HUGE supporters of MTConnect and are viewed as true thought leaders in manufacturing.

Jon Stewart Obliterates Bill O'Reilly

Jon Stewart went on Fox's Bill O'Reilly Show last night and completely obliterated the lack-O-logic of Fixed Noise's Bill O'Reilly who was complaining about the rapper Common going to the White House.  Fun to watch :-)  

A good friend of mine, Jim C. likes to say, "don't bring a knife to a gun fight."   When Bill O'Reilly tries to go after Jon Stewart in a debate, he needs to remember that phrase....