0.00002% is Voter Fraud

Democrats play with numbers and Republicans play with numbers.  This Republican obsession with voter fraud is ridiculous.   What sane person on planet earth would put any resources into this problem?

President Obama discussed the point this week that of the 197 MILLION votes cast for federal elections between 2002 and 2005 there were 40 fraudulent voters.

President Obama put it in perspective when he said, "For those of you who are math majors, that is a percentage that is 0.00002 percent. Let's be clear, The real voter fraud is people who try to deny our rights by making bogus arguments about voter fraud."

He's 100% right on this issue

My [MC]2 2014 Manufacturing and Scaling Big Data Presentation

Yesterday afternoon, I gave a 45 minute presentation on Manufacturing and Scaling Big Data at [MC]2 2014.  Here are just a couple of my slides where I was sharing some of the laws and numbers around Big Data as well as the summary.



100,000 Libraries of Congress 

•The amount of printed material at the Library of Congress is 10TB

–A petabyte is 1,000 TB

•An exabyte (EB)

–The prefix exa means one billion billion, or one quintillion

–1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes

–1,000 petabytes, or a million TBs or a billion gigabytes

–67 million iPhones of data

•It is rumored that NSA has 3 to 12 Exabytes at their new facility in Bluffdale, Utah

•New large data set tools, like hadoop, have replaced yesterday’s tools, and new tools will be created to deal with tomorrow’s even larger data sets


340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456  

•That’s 340 undecillion

•aka IPv6 addressing – 128 bit addresses

•If we took every single atom on planet Earth, we would be able to give each and every atom 100 IPv6 addresses

•IPv4 was too small at 4,294,967,296

•That’s 4 billion

•That’s 32 bits

•IPv6 is the foundation for manufacturing and scaling big data

  O'Dell's Law  

•Scaling is ALWAYS THE problem

•If you’re not afraid, you simply do NOT understand

  Groundwater's Law 

•/* You are not expected to understand this */

•Everything you know is wrong

•How do the little electrons know?

–Monster cables versus Home Depot wire

•Do the math

–Sun Net Manager’s Two Questions

•Can be summarized as, “stop, and think through this problem.”

Edstrom's MTConnect Law

•The value of any manufacturing network is the number of MTConnect enabled systems plus the number of software systems that are integrated with that MTConnect data squared

•[MTConnect + Integrated Software ]2

Below is the summary of my presentation:

• Manufacturing means accessing and creating the RIGHT data and the right metadata  

• Scaling means using the right metrics and algorithms to separate the signals from all the noise

• It’s not the size of your data, it’s what you do with it.

[MC]2 2014 Memex Automation Presentation: MTConnecting Your Income Statement

Yesterday, Dave McPhail and I gave a presentation at [MC]2 2014. It was a BIG hit and we received many compliments. 

MTConnecting Your Income Statement

The Holy Grail in manufacturing is not just about getting the data via MTConnect and having a shop floor monitoring dashboard in place.  The true Holy Grail is the ability to associate and correlate MTConnect data with the financial costing data contained within most manufacturer's ERP systems, as well as to quantify and display real-time dashboards that show the cost of poor performance in real-time in dollars and cents.  This allows for the first time the ability for the manufacturing operations team to understand the absolute true cost of manufacturing minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, anytime on any device.  Important and timely decisions can now be made to increase income from operations by these new and important derived metrics, thereby achieving true manufacturing excellence.

Below is the press release on our presentation:

Shark Tank-Inspired Manifesto for Manufacturing CEOs and CFOs-"Show me the money!"

ORLANDO, FL--(Marketwired - April 08, 2014) - MC(2) 2014 MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference - David McPhail and Dave Edstrom are on a network connectivity mission on behalf of manufacturing CEOs and CFOs. Their company, Memex Automation Inc. (TSX VENTURE: OEE), is an award-winning global leader of Machine to Machine (M2M) manufacturing productivity solutions, but they're not content to transform machine-level productivity. At a talk they're giving tomorrow at the MC(2) 2014 MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference, the executives are laying out their vision to tie income statements real-time to what is happening on the shop floor -- something they call "Financial OEE."

"Overall Equipment Effectiveness, or OEE, is the measurement of plant-wide capacity utilization, and it's generally accepted today as the most important manufacturing metric. However, using the open, royalty-free MTConnect standard, manufacturing companies can generate OEE in real-time, enterprise-wide, machine by machine," said McPhail, Memex Automation's CEO. "As useful as that is for shop-floor management engineers and continuous improvement coordinators, we're now saying that's not good enough. Manufacturing CEOs and CFOs deserve more. To use an analogy inspired by the popular business TV show Shark Tank, they have a right to stand up and say 'Show me the money!'"
"CEOs and CFOs in every manufacturing company can and should demand industry solutions that go beyond shop-floor monitoring systems to drive real-time updates to their income statements," emphasized McPhail. "The holy grail of manufacturing excellence comes from understanding how manufacturers can move from an OEE utilization dashboard to solutions that produce real-time costing and financial data so they can understand at any given second what their plants are producing in dollars and cents versus percentage efficiency metrics."

McPhail is teaming up with Dave Edstrom, Memex Automation's CTO, to deliver this productivity manifesto on Financial OEE. Edstrom was formerly 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.

McPhail and Edstrom's April 9(th) talk is titled "MTConnecting Your Income Statement" and will be given from 1:30 to 2PM at the Exhibit Hall of the Caribe Royale Orlando in Orlando, FL. Both executives will be available for interviews before and after that time.

About Memex Automation Inc.
Memex Automation (TSX VENTURE: OEE) is the global leader of Machine to Machine (M2M) manufacturing productivity solutions and the measurement of Overall Equipment Effectiveness in real-time ("OEE"). In 2013, Frost & Sullivan recognized Memex's flagship product MERLIN (Manufacturing Enterprise Real-time Lean Information Network) with its Technology Innovation Leadership Award, and 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 Florence, KY, plant and offers MERLIN on its price list. 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.

Memex Automation Inc.
David McPhail
CEO
Phone: 905-635-1536
Email: davem@memex.ca
market2world communications inc.

Jill McCubbin
Communications Architect
Phone: 613-256-3939
Email: jill@market2world.com

MTConnect Challeng Winners Announced at [MC]2 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE [MC]2 2014 Conference Attendees Vote and Award  Three MTConnect Challenge 2 Winners Blairsville, Pa. - April 10, 2014. The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Defense-wide Manufacturing Science and Technology (DMS&T), sponsored along with AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology and the U.S. Army Benét Labs, proudly announce the three top winners of the MTConnect Challenge 2 as voted by [MC]2 2014 MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference attendees: First Prize $100,000 Winner: Valerie Pezzullo of Clemson University forMachining Process Monitoring to Aid in Chatter Identification  This application developed by Clemson University's Valerie Pezzullo offers machining process monitoring, facilitates the communication of part-specific information, and includes customization and scalability for different manufacturing facilities and academic research institutions. By integrating machining process information gathered through MTConnect with information from proprietary data acquisition tools and custom sensors, this application provides a means to monitor cutting conditions to help reduce and prevent chatter and aid in analysis to avoid subsequent unstable operating conditions. It also improves the input and tracking of part numbers and organizes machining process information in a central location according to the specific part. Second Prize $75,000 Winner: Joel Neidig of Itamco for Expanding Manufacturing's Vision: MTConnect + Google Glass  By leveraging the capabilities of Google Glass with its heads-up display, camera, touchpad, microphone, email and internet connection built into the spectacle frame and combining it with MTConnect functionality, Joel Neidig of Itamco provides a never before view into the manufacturing process. The user of the Google Glass equipped with MTConnect is not only liberated from laptops and hand-held smart devices, but also is able to travel the entire shop floor, gathering and sharing machine data provided by MTConnect, and accessing the internet on demand for more information. Third Prize $50,000 Winner: Shane Crandall for Promise  Designed to be general, flexible, scalable, reliable, fast, and free, Shane Crandall's Promise is a blank canvas to create custom views of real-time data from MTConnect devices. It is a user-configured MTConnect client in the form of an intuitive Web application. Promise is an intranet Web application-or Web site-that may be easily deployed and widely utilized by and completely configurable from any device with a Web browser. The final round of judging occurred Wed., April 9th by [MC]2 2014 Conference attendees upon the conclusion of presentations by each of the five finalists. The OSD DMS&T sponsored the MTConnect Challenge, which was a two-part competition for the development of manufacturing intelligence ideas and solutions using the MTConnect standard. NCDMM, AMT, and the U.S. Army Benét Labs oversaw the Challenge. "On behalf of all of us at NCDMM, AMT, the U.S. Army Benét Labs, the MTConnect Challenge judging panel, and the MTConnect Institute, we extend our congratulations to the three top winners for their participation and innovative MTConnect-based software applications," said John Wilczynski, NCDMM Program Manager. "We hope Challenge 2 will serve as a catalyst for the development of more MTConnect-based software that will enable manufacturing intelligence breakthroughs for the defense manufacturing industry. We also want to thank [MC]2 attendees-our community of MTConnect supporters-for voting and helping to determine our top winners." With the MTConnect Challenge 2, participants were tasked with the development of innovative and unique software applications using the MTConnect standard that could be easily adopted by manufacturing enterprises, especially lower tier producers, to enhance their manufacturing capabilities and support the Department of Defense (DoD) supply chain management objectives. MTConnect is an open, royalty-free set of communications standards intended to foster greater interoperability and information sharing between manufacturing equipment, devices, and software applications. The MTConnect Institute manages the development and further adoption of the standard. Prior to the development of the MTConnect standard, harnessing the wealth of available information and data across equipment and devices has been challenging due in large part to the disparate nature of software programs. For more information about the [MC]2 2014 MTConnect Conference, visitMTConnectConference.com. To learn more about MTConnect, visit the MTConnect Institute at MTConnect.org. ### About NCDMM NCDMM delivers optimized manufacturing solutions that enhance the quality, affordability, maintainability, and rapid deployment of existing and yet-to-be developed defense systems. This is accomplished through collaboration with government, industry, and academic organizations to promote the implementation of best practices to key stakeholders through the development and delivery of disciplined training, advanced technologies, and methodologies. NCDMM also manages the national accelerator for additive manufacturing (AM) and 3DP printing (3DP), America Makes-the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. For additional information, visit NCDMM at ncdmm.org. About AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology represents and promotes U.S.-based manufacturing technology and its members-those who design, build, sell, and service the continuously evolving technology that lies at the heart of manufacturing. Founded in 1902 and based in Virginia, the association specializes in providing targeted business assistance, extensive global support, and business intelligence systems and analysis. AMT is the voice that communicates the importance of policies and programs that encourage research and innovation, and the development of educational initiatives to createtomorrow's Smartforce. AMT owns and manages IMTS - The International Manufacturing Technology Show, which is the premier manufacturing technology event in North America.www.AMTonline.org About Benét Labs Benét Labs is a Department of the Army Center of Excellence supporting the management and execution of life cycle research, development, engineering, design, producibility, and engineering standardization programs for large caliber armaments, mortars and direct fire systems. A full complement of modern laboratory equipment, along with a highly trained staff of scientist, engineers, and technicians, enables Benét to be a world leader in innovative technology and applications.   About [MC]2 2014 MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference The [MC]2 2014 MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference is a three-day conference designed for end users, equipment and device suppliers, software developers, distributors, integrators, students, and professors interested in the advancement of data-driven manufacturing. The MTConnect Institute compiled a world-class roster of manufacturing technology thought leaders and industry insiders for the [MC]2 conference. The theme for 2014 is "Advancing Data-Driven Manufacturing." For more information about the [MC]2 2014 MTConnect Conference, visit MTConnectConference.com. The MTConnect Institute The MTConnect Institute is a not-for-profit 501(c)(6) organization established to further the development of the MTConnect standard and publish related materials. The organization includes Board of Directors, Technical Advisory Group (TAG), Technical Steering Committee, as well as various working groups to further the standard in specific technology areas. Any company or organization can be a member and aid in furthering the development of the MTConnect standard by becoming a member of the TAG. Membership is free, and it requires agreement to the MTConnect Intellectual Property Policy, which can be found on the MTConnect website's "Institute" section. www.MTConnect.org. Media Contact: Scott Deutsch Phone: 724-539-8811 Email: ncdmm.info@ncdmm.org

Memex Automation Joins Partners in THINC

This is a BIG deal.  Okuma are great partners.


For Immediate Release 

Contact: Julie Murphy, Marketing Manager Okuma America Corporation 704-504-6324 or 704-547-4930 jmurphy@okuma.com 

Memex Automation Joins Partners in THINC 

Okuma America Corporation announces that Memex Automation has joined Partners in THINC. Memex Automation joins 40+ other members that provide solutions to end-users and enhance productivity while maintaining lean operations. 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (April 1, 2014) – Okuma America Corporation, a world leader in CNC machine tools, is pleased to announce that Memex Automation Inc., the operating company of Astrix Automation Inc. (TSX-V: OEE) and maker of the MERLIN Manufacturing Execution System, an innovative shop floor productivity solution, has joined Partners in THINC. 

Memex Automation, headquartered in Burlington, Ontario, specializes in networking machine tools to management information systems. This communication allows for productivity, plant- wide visibility and other statistics to be sent digitally anywhere in the world. Memex Automation solutions are used by a variety of Okuma customers throughout a variety of industries. Their applications are designed to interface with a wide range of controllers and data including the open-architecture Okuma THINC®-OSP control. 

Benefits of Memex Automation solutions include:

• Manufacturing Execution System which improves profitability, reduces waste and
  ensures compliance with regulations
  
• MERLIN machine monitoring typically increases shop floor efficiency by 10% or more
  
• Direct Numerical Control allows for simultaneous upload and download of multiple CNC
  controls
  
• MERLIN offers an M2M communications platform for enabling information from
  machines to be utilized for improving machining operations
  “We are excited to announce our new partnership with Memex Automation. Their expertise and dedication to helping manufacturers obtain the highest level of profitability possible through real time productivity information tools, makes them a great addition to Partners in THINC.” says Jeff Estes, Director of Partners in THINC.
  For more information on Memex Automation and other members of Partners in THINC, visit http://www.okuma.com/partners-in-thinc.
  

Okuma America Corporation
11900 Westhall Drive • Charlotte, North Carolina 28278 • Phone: (704) 588-7000 • Fax: (704) 588-6503 • www.Okuma.com ISO 9001:2008 Registered Quality System

About Okuma America Corporation:

Okuma America Corporation is the U.S.-based sales and service affiliate of Okuma Corporation, a world leader in CNC (computer numeric control) machine tools, founded in 1898 in Nagoya, Japan. The company is the industry’s only single-source provider, with the CNC machine, drive, motors, encoders, spindle and CNC control all manufactured by Okuma. Okuma’s innovative and reliable technology, paired with comprehensive, localized service protection, allows users to run continuously with confidence – maximizing profitability. Along with its industry- leading distribution network (largest in the Americas), and Partners in THINC®, Okuma facilitates quality, productivity and efficiency, empowering the customer and enabling competitive advantage in today’s demanding manufacturing environment. For more information, visit www.okuma.com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @OkumaAmerica.
About Partners in THINC:

Partners in THINC is a collaboration network of more than 40 industry leaders who come together to solve problems and explore new productivity ideas for real-world manufacturers. With the open architecture, PC-based THINC®- OSP control as its nucleus, Partners in THINC brings specialized equipment, expertise and a commitment to provide the best possible integrated solutions to the end-user. For more information, visit www.okuma.com/partners-in- thinc.
About Memex Automation:

Memex Automation (TSX-V:OEE) is the leader of 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, machine by machine. Frost & Sullivan awarded MERLIN its 2013 Technology Innovation Leadership Award. In 2013, Microsoft picked MERLIN to be its mid-market ERP machine connectivity solution. MERLIN incorporates the MTConnect standard, an open source royalty free XML protocol, and it solves the last meter connectivity problem faced by 97% of manufacturers. For more information, please visit: www.memex.ca.
###

Speaking at [MC]2 2014 This Week

Attention: [MC]2 2014 Attendees!   PRODUCT LINKS   Machine Monitoring (OEE)     Manufacturing Execution System (MES)     Dynamics AX Connector     MERLIN ERP Connector     Book a webinar     Memory Upgrades     DNC Solutions     Tape Reader Replacements (BTR)     CNC PCMCIA Cards     Data Shuttles     Memex Blog                                                                                                                                                                       MTConnect Conference and Modern Machine Shop Article Featuring MTConnect and MERLIN    Manufacturing Execution Real-time Lean Information Network.    MTConnect Conference [MC]2 April 8 – 10, 2014   According to John Byrd, former president of AMT, MTConnect will be more important in the 21st century for manufacturing than CNC was for manufacturing in the 20th century(1).  The most important leap forward in manufacturing is all about the data from machines. You can learn about this at the [MC]2 Conference being held April 8 – 10, 2014, at the Caribe Royal Orlando, in Orlando, FL. Memex will be at booth #10.   The MTConnect Institute is compiling a world-class roster of manufacturing technology thought leaders and industry insiders for the [MC]2 conference, which will be packed with timely insights, strategic views, and actionable items. The theme for 2014 is “Advancing Data-Driven Manufacturing” and Memex will be giving two presentations.   Presentation: MTConnecting Your Income Statement When: Wednesday April 9, 2014, 1:30 pm – 2:15 pm Dave McPhail (President and CEO) and Dave Edstrom (former President of the MTConnect Institute and now CTO of Memex) in a discussion about how the holy grail in manufacturing is not just about getting the data via MTConnect and having a shop floor monitoring dashboard in place, it is about doing it profitably.   Presentation: Manufacturing and Scaling Big Data When: Wednesday April 9, 2014, 5 pm – 5:30 pm Dave Edstrom (former President of the MTConnect Institute and now CTO of Memex) will address the future technical and business challenges of manufacturing and scaling big data.     Article about Mazak using MTConnect and MERLIN   Mark Albert, editor-in-chief of Modern Machine Shop Magazine, wrote a fantastic article titled “Data-Driven Manufacturing Moves Ahead at Mazak”. The article discusses how machine giant Mazak is utilizing MTConnect at their North American Headquarters and Technology Center in Florence, KY. MERLIN and MTConnect’s capabilities of integrating throughout the shop floor are discussed at length throughout the article. Mazak is currently in the process of rolling out MERLIN throughout the entire Florence, KY plant.     Many new purchase orders for MERLIN!   Memex’s solution MERLIN (Manufacturing Execution Real-time Lean Information Network) is a manufacturing execution system and machine-to-machine communications platform. The unique proposition of MTConnect is that it is an M2M communications platform for any machine, and with MERLIN solving that last meter of connection to your machine, your facility could be taken to world class standards. Your company can be getting data from your machines in just a matter of days.   Some of the companies that have recently installed the MTConnect and MERLIN solutions include Jade Corporation, Natoli Engineering, Magellan Aerospace, Mazak, Okuma America, Primus Metals and Vermeer.   Call Memex today to find out how you can take your company to the top!   For an introductory 1 hour overview of MERLIN, pleas email Carolene or call sales at 1-905-635-3041.   (1) Edstrom, Dave. MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know. Ashburn, VA: Virtual Photons and Electrons, LLC, 2013. Print.

Dave Edstrom Interview on The Memex MERLIN Revolution in Manufacturing

Below is a 9 minute interview I did with Proactive Investors in the UK on revolutions we are seeing in manufacturing and how Memex Automation's MERLIN is leading that revolution.

Memex Automation Becomes Okuma THINC Partner

 

Okuma is a real leader in the machine tool industry and it is very cool that we are now a THINC Partner!

 

View Website
3425 Harvester Road, Suite 200
Burlington, Ontario L7N 3N1 Canada
Phone: 905.635.1540
Fax: 905.631.9640

Where to find us:

Memex Automation offers Shop Floor to Top Floor information in real-time. Memex connects machines to corporate networks with MERLIN, an MES M2M communications platform. As a world leader in manufacturing technology, Memex specializes in offering manufacturers real-time productivity information tools. Since 1992 Memex has over 12,000 customers and 320 dealers worldwide and delivers solutions to improve the way machines operate and connect on the factory floor to management.

MERLIN can increase manufacturing shop floor efficiency by 10% or more.  A real-time machine monitoring solution, MERLIN is an MES system and an M2M (machine to machine) communications platform giving operational visibility. Bi-directionally integrated into any ERP, it generates OEE plant-wide, machine, operator or other metric basis, providing visibility, comparison of actual to scheduled production, scheduling, historian, emailed alerts, automated reporting and historical analyses.

Nationals Home Opener

Long time friend and former neighbor, Peter Eelman, invited me to the home opener on Friday April 4th with Pat McGibbon and Pat's wife Rhonda.  It was a lot of fun and AMT has great seats!  I was there in 2010 in my first year consulting for AMT, so it was cool to be here my last year consulting for AMT as well.

There is (from left to right) Peter, Rhonda, Pat and me.

Above is the Nat's starters at the beginning of the game.

Edelweiss Restaurant and Tree House With Tim's JMU Buddies

Julie and I went down to JMU today to see our youngest son Tim.  We took out Tim's buddies, Nick, Kyle and Kevin to lunch at our favorite restaurant Edelweiss in Staunton, VA.

We ordered three orders of Ham hocks as well as meals for each of us. No one went away hungry.  We then went to Klines in Harrisonburg for ice cream after lunch.

Above (from left to right) is Nick, Kyle, Kevin, me (holding the mother of all ham hocks), Julie and Tim.

Above is the great German beer selection they have. Since we normally have lunch there, I just get Dr. Pepper.

 

Above is the map of the beers in Germany.

 Above is a photo that Tim's friend Nick took of the entire tree house that Walter owns.  Walter is the creator and owner of the Edelweiss Restaurant, who created the tree house in 14 years.

 

Above is Walter, who is the owner of the Edelweiss Restaurant, who gave us the tour of his tree house that he built.  It literally is the mother of all tree houses with multiple rooms, running water, 100 amps of electricity, four refrigerators, two HD TVs, overlooking a small running creek and just very, very cool.

Above is one of the many covered porches that Walter (right) has in his tree house.  Left is our youngest son Tim.

Above is the view from the porch in the previous photo.  The creek makes a very nice and gentle background noise as well as is lit at night.

Meeting Mario Andretti in Ashburn With Slim

There is likely no more famous race car driver than Mario Andretti.  The Andretti family is the royal family of racing.

Below is my father with the huge Firestone tire with Mario Andretti in the middle of it at the Ashburn Virgina Tire and Auto

Below is my father, Mario Andretti and me.  Mario was very nice to me and my father.  He signed photographs and my Corvette sweatshirt that I will frame.  I told him how bummed I was when his grandson Marco lost by 0.0635 of a second to Sam Hornish Jr. in the second closest finish in Indy history.  We met Steve Ferry there as well and it was a great day meeting Mario Andretti!

God Bless My Uncle Gene

Yesterday morning, my father called a call from his sister-in-law, Cheryl Edstrom to tell him the very sad news that my uncle Gene, my dad's youngest brother, lost his battle with cancer.

Gene was loved by all and had a fantastic sense of humor.  My mother told us a story last night that I had ever heard before.  When my grandmother told her sons, my father John and his brother Luverne, thye had a brother, she asked them what they should name the fourth son.  Merle, the other brother, apparently was not there at the time.  What was there response?  "How about Roy Rogers or Gene Autry?"   Dorothy and Kenneth Edstrom (their parents) decided on Gene Arthur.

I am closest to Gene's oldest son, Chris, who is a true American hero.  Chris has been in Iraq two times and Afghanistan two times as well.

When I was very young, Gene used to kid me about the Air Force because he was in the Army.  He used to say stuff like, "you know David, the Army planes and pilots are much better than the Air Force pilots."  My father was both a pilot and later an air traffic controller, so that naturally got me going as a little kid.

My memories of Gene go back to the family farm in Randolph, Minnesota where Gene gave me some rides on his snowmobile.  I also remember when Gene came down to visit us in Trenton, Illinois.  He came down in a brand new Oldsmobile 442 that was a very, very cool car.  My sister, father and I played catch every day and Gene left his glove back in Minnesota.  I remember he just went out and bought a new glove.  I remember thinking, "wow, he can buy a brand new car and just buys a new glove whenever he needs one!"

When I turned 18, I happened to be back in Minnesota during that time - 1977.  My uncle Gene, Uncle Luverne and Uncle Merle decided to take the oldest grandson of Kenneth and Dorothy Edstrom to the local bar in Randolph, Minnesota.  Randolph is small.  How small is it? Today it is 436 people.  That probably includes the nearby farms as well.   They take me to the only bar in Randolph and announce it is my 18th birthday.  It is 3pm on a Saturday and it is twenty five cents a beer.  A couple of local farmers buy me a beer.  When I find out that beers are only a quarter, I then buy two beers for every farmer there and my three uncles.  Needless to say, I got hammered.  I remember Gene keeping me upright as the road in Randolph was spinning towards me.  Gene used to always kid me about that day.

Unfortunately, my parents cannot go back as my father is still undergoing chemotherapy and the latest IVIG did not give him the energy he needs to travel and my mom is still recovering from her stroke as well.  I have great, great memories of Gene Edstrom. 

Here is the official obituary.

My god bless his soul and provide comfort to all those family and friends who he touched....

Memex Automation Engages Investor Relations Firms

We, at Memex Automation, engaged a couple of companies to help us with investor relations and shareholder communications.  These are exciting times with a world of opportunities in front of us!

 

The full press release is below:

Memex Automation Engages Investor Relations Firms

Burlington, ON, Canada – March 26, 2014 – Astrix Networks Inc. (TSX-V: OEE) operating under the trade name Memex Automation Inc. (“Memex” or the “Company”), the global leader of manufacturing M2M productivity solutions, is pleased to announce that it has engaged Investor Cubed Inc. (“Investor Cubed”) and Proactive Investors (“Proactive”), to provide investor relations and shareholder communications services effective immediately.  Both Investor Cubed and Proactive will focus on increasing investor awareness in their respective verticals, introducing Memex to its network of investment advisors, investment dealers, institutions and other financial professionals.

In connection with these engagements, Investor Cubed has been awarded a consulting contract for a term of fifteen months on a fee for services basis, $5,000 per month, and granted options to purchase 250,000 shares of Memex at a price of twenty cents per share.  Proactive subscribed for $24,500 of the previously announced private placement at 14 cents per share and has been engaged for a term of one year on a contract of the same total value.  The Investor Cubed options will vest quarterly in four batches of 62,500 each during the term of the contract starting September 19, 2014. The contract may be cancelled at the end of a quarter under certain conditions.  Any options not vested will terminate upon the cancellation of the contract.  The options are governed by the provisions of the Company’s stock option plan and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange.

“As a new public company, we’re committed to building both our core business and our public company profile at the same time,” said David McPhail, CEO. “The simultaneous appointment of Investor Cubed and Proactive enables us to reach investors, brokers, dealers and institutional investors succinctly, globally.  Whereas Investor Cubed is well positioned in Canada, Proactive gets us into New York, London and Frankfurt, Sydney and SE Asia.  Our product, MERLIN, sells and markets globally.  Now we are marketing our stock globally,” he said.

“We are very pleased to be working with “OEE” as they represent the best of manufacturing productivity in the machine to management (M2M) industrial Internet space,” said Neil Simon, Investor Cubed’s CEO.    “This company is a unique opportunity for investors in the small cap sector who are interested in the Industrial Internet and its application within manufacturing.  I see the company becoming the RedHat of the Industrial Internet,” he said.

“I find OEE to be an interesting company,” said Ian McLelland, President, Proactive Investors.  “It’s interesting because they use the Internet securely to show manufacturers how to make more production and profit with the same labor and equipment.  For example, Mazak, North America’s largest machine tool builder based in Florence, KY, within an 800,000 square foot plant, published in the March online edition of Modern Machine Shop a 17% improvement in production equipment utilization after installing the company’s solution, MERLIN.  That’s impressive.  I believe my following in New York, London, Sydney and SE Asia will understand that value,” he said.

About Investor Cubed Inc.

Investor Cubed provides specialized consulting services to a select group of leading emerging and mid-capitalization companies, with an objective of taking our clients to the next level. Investor Cubed assists these companies in gaining exposure to an established national network of financial industry professionals. This broad network includes investment advisors, bank owned investment dealers and leading independent financial firms. In addition, Investor Cubed provides traditional investor relations services including tailored national marketing and communications strategies.

About Proactive Investor Service

Proactive Investors is a leading multi-media news organization, investor portal and events management business with offices in New York, Sydney, Toronto, Frankfurt and London.

Proactive Investors operates five financial websites in four languages providing breaking news, comment and analysis on hundreds of listed companies across the globe daily. Proactive is one of the fastest growing financial media portals in the world.  The group also operates hugely successful “investor forums” where three or four companies present to an audience of high net worth sophisticated investors, fund managers, hedge funds, private client brokers and analysts.

Globally, Proactive traffic continues to race ahead as private and professional investors continue to rank the group as one of the leading free sources of breaking news, in-depth comment and analysis and CEO interviews on companies listed on stock exchanges across the globe. In March 2010, total visitors to Proactive Investors websites eclipsed 1 million.  Proactive provides content to many of the world’s largest news amalgamators, financial websites, and news tracking services, and also provides commentary to dozens of other leading specialist investor focused websites.

About Memex Automation Inc.

Memex Automation (TSX-V:OEE) is the leader of 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, machine by machine. Frost & Sullivan awarded MERLIN its 2013 Technology Innovation Leadership Award. In 2013, 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 offers it on its price list. 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 news release.

For further information please contact:

Memex Automation Inc.
Thomas Smeenk
Telephone: 905-536-3138
Email: Thomas.Smeenk@Memex.ca
www.memex.ca

Investor Cubed Inc.
Neil Simon
Telephone: 647-258-3311
Email: Nsimon@investor3.ca
www.investor3.ca

Proactive Investors
Sam Kiri
Telephone: 647-342-2932
Email: Sam@proactiveinvestors.com
www.proactiveinvestors.com