Dropped Our Landline

In looking at our bill for our landline it was $60 a month.  We received 98.96087% of our calls from people wanting our money or to ask us who we were voting for.  The only reason to keep the landline was ADT.  When I found out that ADT had a cell service option for $5.83 a month that did not use either the landline or the Internet, I realized that was the best solution because both the landline and the 75ohm coaxial cable that comes into the house for our Comcast 150Mbs down and 25Mbs up could both be easily cut outside our house.

I just need to clean up the plates where the old landlines are at so it looks professional.  I find it hard to believe that the next purchaser of our house will want a landline, but you never know.

It has been very nice to not have a phone ringing every night from people or organizations we have zero desire to talk to.

For those who know us, just call us on our cells.

My New MacBook Pro 2016 versus my 2010 MacBook Pro Comparison

Five and half years ago I purchased a:

• 2010 MacBook Pro 15" screen
• 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 8GB RAM
• 500GB hard drive (spinning rust type) - I had to upgrade from the 250 GB when I was cut off in traffic in CA and had to make an emergency swerve which caused my briefcase in my trunk to go flying from one side to the other and it killed my drive.  I changed the inside of the briefcase so it now has padding around all parts of the computer.  I doubt that will happen again, but why push my luck.

A month ago I purchased:

• 2016 MacBook Pro 15" screen
• 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz) with 6MB shared L3 cache.
• 16GB RAM
• 1TB PCIe-based flash storage

I did a quick test this morning doing a restart of each computer.

The 2010 MacBook Pro did a complete restart (it did a shutdown and then started the system back up again) where I was logged in with the apps all up and running  in 4 minutes and 22 seconds or 262 seconds.

The 2016 MacBook Pro did a complete restart (it did a shutdown and then started the system back up again) where where I was logged in with the apps all up and running in 41 seconds.

Being 514.63 percent faster { (262-41)/41  (formula per Patterson and Hennesy) } is well worth the investment and I probably should not have waited so long.

That might NOT sound like a lot if you are not traveling 100% of the time and constantly restarting your computer or trying to check your email, start up a number of apps or run VMWare between meetings, but trust me, it is a BIG deal. More importantly, EVERYTHING is faster and I estimated that the new MacBook Pro is saving my over an hour each and every day.  It runs at the speed of thought :-)

The same day I bought the one above, I purchased the exact same model for my youngest son Tim who is in his final year at JMU majoring in computer science.  The Apple salesperson said to Tim, "you have a very nice father who would buy the fastest MacBook Pro that we sell."  I had Tim put in $750 of his own money so he had some skin in the game.  If you have never purchased anything from Apple, it is the best experience you can possibly have for an in store experience.

My Oldest Son John in WIRED Article On The Future Of Coding

So, I get a text from my oldest son John asking, "have you ever been in WIRED? :P  "  with a link.  Needless to say when you get this type of text from one of your kids you stop whatever you are doing and go read the article.

The article is titled, "Facebook’s New Spam-Killer Hints at the Future of Coding" by Cade Metz.  It's a very interesting article (regardless if my son is quoted in it :-) about Facebook's anti-spam software which is written in a functional computer programming language called Haskell.

Cade Metz writes in the article concerning Haskell "In the early ’90s, a committee of academics built Haskell as a kind of experiment in language design, and all these years later, it remains on the fringes of mainstream programming. At GitHub—the primary repository for software code on the ‘net—Haskell ranks 23rd on the list of the most popular languages. Even so, Facebook chose it as the basis for its enormously complex anti-spam system, which went live earlier this year."

The author continues with a reference to a comment made by Facebook's Lois Brandy,  "What he does say is that Haskell is ideally suited to fighting Facebook spam because it’s so adept at executing many different tasks at the same time—and because it gives engineers the tools they need to code all these tasks on the fly."

My son John is quoted in the article, "John Edstrom, who uses Facebook’s system to fight spam on Instagram, the photo-centric social network owned by Facebook, underlines how valuable this can be. “With a lot of these rules, we’re writing them as we’re being attacked. We’re like: ‘Oh crap. We have to get these out fast,'” he says. “If we’re working in a purely functional language that we know doesn’t have side effects, the faster we’re able to move.” 

I really enjoyed this article because it touches on so many significant challenges that a computer scientist faces today, and yes it does not hurt that my son is in it and the magazine is WIRED :-)

California Vacation - John and Janet Second Wedding, 60th Anniversary My Parents and My Aunt Dorothy

We went out to CA for a family vacation.  While we did a  lot of cool things, to me the highlight was seeing my mother (on the right) and my Aunt Dorothy below just get together and talk.  This is from the ridge top house - The Trinity House - we rented that overlooked the Sonoma Valley.  Absolutely spectacular is the only way to describe it. When we left our 14 acre estate and turned to the right we went down into Sonoma Valley and we went left we went into Napa Vally.  You could not ask for a better mother or a better aunt.

Below are John and Janet in front of the church right after the wedding.

Below are my parents at about the same age as John and Janet.

The main reason we flew out to CA was for John and Janet's second wedding on the west coast.  They had an east coast wedding in the beautiful rolling hills of Loudoun County at Hillsborough Winery.

Above is my parents from their wedding in 1955.  They were a little younger than John and Janet at the time.


Above is when we visited Facebook where our oldest son John and his wife Janet both work. My parents both wore their Faceobook shirts.  I told the guard that Facebook started a new intern programs for 80+ year olds :-)

Below we are on top the new Building 20 which looks back over the old Sun campus.  It will ALWAYS be the old Sun campus until the day I die :-)

In and Out Burger is a must -- thanks to Tim.

Tim did a great job of reading scripture -- something he was asked to do 5 minutes before the ceremony started.

No photos can give justice to the large redwoods that we saw with my parents.

We took a 4 hour tour with my parents of San Francisco.

We visited the aquarium and I thought this Stingray was a sign from Jesus/Allah/Buddah that he wants me to purchase a new Corvette - which I did :-)

My father ordered the 2/3 burger at the Black Bear Diner in Sonoma.  He ate it all.

Above we went to a nice German restaurant for the rehearsal dinner with Janet's parents and her brother Jeff. It was a great time.

Tim had to order the boot of beer.  Two litres of beer - he finished it with Michael's help.  He had to give them a $50 deposit since most people drop them and break the boot.

This is a view from the roof of John and Janet's place in the Mission District.

Below we did a night time tour of Alcratraz that was amazing.  It takes months to get in the queue and they show you a lot more than the standard tour.  They take you to different areas that are not open during the day tours.  I highly recommend it.

Above is the mechanism to open and close the cell doors.  Very impressive technology for the 1940s.

 Above are the spirits we picked up for The Trinity House -- which is the home on top the ridge.

Above are the sunsets from our house on top the ridge.

Happy 60th Wedding Anniversary to John and Ruth Edstrom

My parents celebrated their 60th by traveling across the United States on a motorcycle which is pretty impressive for a couple in their 80s! I told them to at least wear helmets and they said, "what the hell do we have to lose at this point?"  Here they are driving on the lawn of one of my relatives in Minnesota.

Below is a photo of my parents 60 years ago at their wedding reception.

Below is the 60th anniversary cake that my parents were given at their big party in Minnesota.

My New 2016 Corvette Stingray I Purchased Today

Below are photos from Chevrolet.com which is my new 2016 Corvette Stingray which I am going to take museum delivery at the National Corvette Museum on like I did for my 2011 Corvette Grand Sport. I purchased it from Kerbeck Chevrolet.  I am told it is running about 10 weeks since this is being custom built for me. The other Chevy dealers were not within $1,600 of Kerbeck's price.  Kerbeck is the leading Chevy Corvette dealer for the last 21 years running.  Kerbeck sells more Corvettes than the country of Canada does. I had a GREAT experience buying from them and would HIGHLY recommend it.  Here is the link with the specifics of what I purchased.

2016 Stingray Coupe

Current build date in Bowling Green is the week of October 19th.

Order #: SWQMTX 

(you can go to this URL and look for SWQMTX to see the current status)

Current Event: 3400 – Order Broadcast (Internal Plant Order Produced)

3400 – Order Broadcast (Internal Plant Order Produced) - See more at: http://kerbeck.com/corvette_order_update/#sthash.8YKx7YEQ.dpuf

3400 – Order Broadcast (Internal Plant Order Produced) - See more at: http://kerbeck.com/corvette_order_update/#sthash.W5bpNSta.dpuf

3400 – Order Broadcast (Internal Plant Order Produced) - See more at: http://kerbeck.com/corvette_order_update/#sthash.W5bpNSta.dpuf

Model:  1YY07  — Corvette Coupe

Color: G1E 

Trim: 343

Package: 2LT

Options:

AAB — Memory package

AG2 — Seat adjusters

AJK — Seat adjusters power bolster and power lumbar

AP9 — cargo net

AQ9 — seats - GT bucket

CC3 — roof panel

CFX — Corvette museum delivery logo plaque with name and VIN

CJ2 — air conditioning

DD0 — mirrors outside heated

DD8 — mirror inside auto dimming

D42 — luggage shade

EYT — Carbon flashing 

FAY — Trim interior carbon fibre

FE2  — Magnetic Selective Ride

GU6 — rear axle - limited slip 3.42 ratio

G1E  — Long Beach Metallic Red

IL3 — Leather Interior

IO6 — Chevrolet MyLink with Navigation

JL9 — brakes anti-lock

J6F — red painted calibers

KQV — Seats heated and cooled

LT1 — 6.2 litre engine

MEP — 7 speed transmission

NC7 — Emissions Override

NE1 — part of emissions override

NK4 — Steering wheel - flat bottom

NPP — dual mode exhaust

N38 — steering column

Q7T — Z51 black aluminum wheels

RXJ — wheel center caps with Stingray logo

R8C — museum delivery

UE1 — OnStar

UG1 — Universal home remote

UHS — Driver Information Center

UQS — Audio system - Bose 10 speaker

UQT — Navigation/PDR

UTJ — Theft Deterent, Electrical, Unauthorized Entry

UTT — Theft Deterrent system

UV6 — Heads Up Display

U2K — Sirius XM

VTE — underhood liner with Stingray logo

VV4 — OnStar with 4G LTE

VYW — premium floor mats with Stingray logo

V8X — door sill plates

XFJ — tires

2LT — 2LT package

343 — Kalahari interior for the 2LT

Event Code Explanations:
1000 – Order On Hold at Dealership
1100 – Order Placed at Dealership
2000 – Order Accepted by Chevrolet
2050 – Order Changed
2500 – Order Preferenced (or “Picked Up” or “Imaged”)
3000 – Order Accepted by Production Control
3100 – Order Available to be Sequenced
3300 – Order Scheduled for Production
3400 – Order Broadcast (Internal Plant Order Produced)
3800 – Vehicle Produced
4000 – Vehicle Available to Ship
4B00 – Bayed
4150 – Vehicle Invoiced
4200 – Vehicle Shipped
4300 – Intermediate Delivery
4800 – Rail Ramp Unload
5000 – Vehicle at Dealer
6000 – Vehicle delivered to customer
- See more at: http://kerbeck.com/corvette_order_update/#sthash.5nN8T2aY.dpuf

Event Code Explanations:
1000 – Order On Hold at Dealership
1100 – Order Placed at Dealership
2000 – Order Accepted by Chevrolet
2050 – Order Changed
2500 – Order Preferenced (or “Picked Up” or “Imaged”)
3000 – Order Accepted by Production Control
3100 – Order Available to be Sequenced
3300 – Order Scheduled for Production
3400 – Order Broadcast (Internal Plant Order Produced)
3800 – Vehicle Produced
4000 – Vehicle Available to Ship
4B00 – Bayed
4150 – Vehicle Invoiced
4200 – Vehicle Shipped
4300 – Intermediate Delivery
4800 – Rail Ramp Unload
5000 – Vehicle at Dealer
6000 – Vehicle delivered to customer
- See more at: http://kerbeck.com/corvette_order_update/#sthash.5nN8T2aY.dpuf

Corvettes at Carlisle 2015

Steve B. and I added Corvettes at Carlisle together this year.  In keeping in the John M/Dave Edstrom tradition, we allowed the girls of Carlisle to get photos with us :-)

Above is Steve and me in front of the C7R and below is the C7R by itself.

Above is the C7R.

Above is me in a $106,000 in Laguna Beach Metallic Red Z06 which is the color I am going with this year. I would not buy the Z06 because the tires are race slicks that you cannot drive if it is below 50 degrees or raining out.

Above and below is a cut-a-way of the Stingray.

Below is a very exciting press release for MEMEX!

August 25, 2015 13:24 ET

Mazak Welcomes MEMEX to Its VIP Partner Program

FLORENCE, KY--(Marketwired - Aug 25, 2015) - Mazak Corporation recently named MEMEX Inc. (TSX VENTURE: OEE), the data-driven manufacturing technology vendor of the industrial-strength shop-floor-to-top-floor communications platform MERLIN, to its exclusive Value Inspired Partner (VIP) program. The announcement comes at a time when Mazak is paving the way in digital resource productivity via its iSMART Factory concept, an all-encompassing vision that harnesses the power of connectivity to optimize manufacturing operations at every level.

Mazak selects VIP partners that share its same forward-thinking approach to manufacturing. According to Brian Papke, president of Mazak Corporation, MEMEX makes the perfect VIP because Mazak knows first-hand how the company can help create factories of the future today. And, like Mazak, MEMEX believes in continuous innovation, boosting manufacturing productivity via digital interconnectedness and helping customers achieve the best possible competitive advantage.

MERLIN plays a critical role in the iSMART Factory concept by allowing Mazak to monitor its productivity and overall equipment effectiveness metrics from anywhere in real-time. The MTConnect^® open communications protocol works in conjunction with MERLIN to harvest the data from all the different production floor machines, cells, devices and processes.

As a VIP partner, MEMEX will continue to collaborate with Mazak on ways to continue to transform its iSMART Factory. The two companies will also work together to make data-driven manufacturing highly accessible to Mazak customers. This is especially beneficial in a time when talk of smart machines, in-depth software analytics and IIoT is giving rise to a new generation of innovative technologies that will transform the manufacturing paradigm within the next decade.
David McPhail, President & CEO of MEMEX, said, "We are very excited to have been selected by Mazak to join its VIP partner program, and see this as a great opportunity to collectively enhance the productivity and profitability of Mazak customers through the adoption of the iSmart factory initiative. We believe that the iSmart factory concept is the next logical step in the evolution of data driven manufacturing, enabling the factory of the future -- today."

Launched in 2010 to provide customers with total manufacturing solutions, the Mazak VIP program brings together leading producers of complementary technologies for Mazak machines to create more innovative products and turnkey processes. By collaborating on R&D and integration efforts, the VIP program fosters a high level of cooperation and technological integration that moves well beyond individual pieces of equipment. The program also fuels development of comprehensive training solutions for manufacturers across all market segments.

To learn more about the highly selective Mazak VIP program and all of its VIP partners, please visit www.mazakusa.com/vip.

About Mazak Corporation
Mazak Corporation is a leader in the design and manufacture of productive machine tool solutions. Committed to being a partner to customers with innovative technology, its world-class facility in Florence, Kentucky, produces over 100 models of turning centers, Multi-Tasking machines and vertical machining centers, including 5- axis models. Continuously investing in manufacturing technology allows the Kentucky iSMART Factory to be the most advanced and efficient in the industry, providing high-quality and reliable products through its "Production-On-Demand" practice. Mazak maintains eight Technology Centers across North America to provide local hands-on applications, service and sales support to customers. For more information on Mazak's products and solutions, visit www.mazakusa.com.

About MEMEX INC.
Memex is a leading Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology platform provider that connects to any machine and delivers real-time manufacturing productivity metrics. Industrial strength MERLIN software provides Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) efficiency metrics in real time, from shop floor to top floor. MERLIN connects to any machine, old or new, utilizing MTConnect, other protocols or hardware adapters. The MERLIN magic delivers a 10% to 50% average productivity increase so that any manufacturer can achieve world-class standards of excellence. Based on just a 10% increase in OEE, customers see profit improvements of 20%-plus and payback in less than four months. 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.

Contact Information

Media Contacts

MEMEX INC. Leanne Rattray
Communications Specialist
Phone: 905-635-1540 ext. 103
Email: Email Contact

David McPhail
CEO
Phone: 519-993-1114
Email: Email Contact

Edstrom Family Lunch and Tour at Facebook

We are out on an extended left coast vacation and today we had lunch with our oldest son John and our daughter-in-law Janet.  Both work at Facebook.

From left to right my father, my mother (both wearing Facebook shirts - the world's OLDEST Facebook interns :-), Julie, Tim, me, Janet, John and Michael. We are on the main (old Sun Microsystems) campus that Oracle sold to Facebook.

 

Below we are on Building 20 which is the new Facebook building across the street from the current campus.  As Cade Metz wrote in WIRED about Building 20:

"For one, it’s more subdued. Yes, the building is large enough to hold about 2,800 Facebook employees, including engineers as well as business staff. And, yes, it was designed by Frank Gehry, the man who fashioned the sail-like silver walls of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and floating battleship that is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. But Gehry held back for Facebook. “From the start, Mark wanted a space that was unassuming, matter-of-fact, and cost effective,” Gehry says in statement, referring to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “He did not want it overly designed.”

Dr. Glen Gawarkiewicz - Northeast Waters a Hotspot for Global Warming

Very interesting audio interview that features Dr. Glen Gawarkiewicz of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.


Below is from the text of the article by Heather Goldstone:

"Recent studies have found warming of the deep ocean, changes in major ocean circulation patterns, and now, researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have evidence that, over the past ten to fifteen years, the waters off the northeast coast of the U.S. have been warming at fifteen times the rate of the past century."

Any presidential candidate who does not believe in global climate change should be dismissed as being either an absolute idiot or someone who is simply pandering to their even less educate base of primary voters - just as Hillary Clinton should be dismissed for her unbelievable arrogance for what she did with State Department email - but I digress :-)  

Back to my post - please enjoy a great interview by "Gork" aka Dr. Glen Gawarkiewicz.  I can call him Gork because I gave him the nickname 40 years ago in  the summer of 1975 when we were both entering our junior years of high school at Lake Braddock.  He was #1 out of 800 students and I was somewhere below that :-)

WIRED Article on Hacking A Corvette via OBD-II Dongle and Smartphone

Two of my passions come together (and not in a good way) Corvettes and computer security.

There is an interesting article at WIRED by Security researchers Karl Koscher and Ian Foster titled:

Hackers Cut a Corvette’s Brakes Via a Common Car Gadget

They put a dongle on the On Board Diagnostics (OBD-II) connector and use a smartphone to turn a variety of functions on and off - engaging the brakes being the scariest.

The authors write:

"At the Usenix security conference today, a group of researchers from the University of California at San Diego plan to reveal a technique they could have used to wirelessly hack into any of thousands of vehicles through a tiny commercial device: A 2-inch-square gadget that’s designed to be plugged into cars’ and trucks’ dashboards and used by insurance firms and trucking fleets to monitor vehicles’ location, speed and efficiency. By sending carefully crafted SMS messages to one of those cheap dongles connected to the dashboard of a Corvette, the researchers were able to transmit commands to the car’s CAN bus—the internal network that controls its physical driving components—turning on the Corvette’s windshield wipers and even enabling or disabling its brakes."

The article goes on to say that the dongle was patched, but this is certainly an area of security to pay very close attention to. The Blue Screen of Death was a figurative term when your PC locked up.  There now is the fear of the Remote Car Hack of Death.  Being able to lock up someone's brakes remotely when a semi is on their rear is an horror scenario.  I have seen dongles that go into your OBD-II connector that monitor if any of your internal automotive systems have been hacked - virus protector for you car.

Below is the video on this:

Memex Introduces New Logos

Memex Automation is now simply Memex. Here are the new logos. I really like how these look and our tag line is tied back to the name of our company.

The Mark Twain/Johnny Carson of our time - Jon Stewart

Thanks to my cousin Daniel for passing this along.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3049539/a-supercut-of-the-most-amazing-jon-stewart-moments-on-the-daily-show

Me and millions of others are already having Jon Stewart withdrawal pains.

Fox News must be really glad that Jon Stewart will no longer shining a light on their "fair and balanced" reporting.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and MTConnect

We are in the hype phase right now with Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).  The hype phase is where real-life questions are not asked. 

The single most important question is, "so, how do connect all of these 'things' together and easily get meaningful data from them?" Sound familiar to those of you who have tried to connect your machine tools? It should, because this is a fundamental problem and it has been answered by MTConnect. 

What we are seeing with shop floor monitoring companies and MTConnect enabled manufacturers is a significant increase in how to deploy sensors to augment their dashboards and reports to improve performance and lower costs through additional data. Simple examples such as adding coolant, temperature, pressure, pH, noise, analog and digital sensors is just the start. There has been a sensor group for many years at the MTConnect Institute and IIoT will drive increased membership for companies who want to MTConnect enable their devices, sensors and other 'things'. MTConnect is the pathway for IIoT success in manufacturing."

Congratulations OpenOffice -- 100 MILLION Downloads

This is a very impressive impressive milestone for OpenOffice!  As this article states:

"Demand for Apache OpenOffice 4.0 averages one million downloads per week, according to Apache, and a factor in its success is the large number of extensions and templates available, hosted on the SourceForge site."

Too bad Sun Microsystems never figured out how to monetize OpenOffice....

Just found this in one of my blog drafts is why this just went out.

Boston AM3D Conference - Panel and Interview on Additive Manufacturing (3D printing) Standards

I was asked to speak on a panel on Additive Manufacturing standards called Panel: Pathways For Progress at the:

AM3D - Additive Manufacturing

3D Printing - Conference & Expo

Above is a photo of me and Chitra Sethi of ASME as we go through her questions before my video interview. I discussed the fact that we have yet to enter the Gartner "Trough of Disillusionment" which comes right after the "Hype Cycle".  Even though 3D printing has been around for decades, it is not until the past few years things really took off.  Why? Patents running out and Moore's Law.

Here is a link to ASME's website with the complete interview.

The consensus regarding AM is that there are three big bucket categories right now:

1. Protyping
2. Workholding or fixtures that are used to hold other, likely metal, parts as they are being machined on traditional machine tools.
3. Parts - where it makes sense. For example, where each part is customized (think custom medical parts) or where the costs are in line with the subtractive process.

It is not unusual for 3D printed parts to cost 100X the price of the same mass produced subtractive process, but this is changing extremely fast.

At the panel we brought up a number of important issues, here are some of mine:

• First, I was accused of "shamelessly plugging my book" because I listed MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know, in my intro.  I then held up my book and said, "you want a shameless plus?  Here is my book!" :-)
• While the panel was talking about the standards in terms of file formats aka sending a file format to a 3D printer - the challenge is all of the other standards in manufacturing that must be addressed as well. What about parts standards, connection (yes, I went into great detail on MTConnect :-), traveler standards, product standards, process standards, verification during and after part making, integration and workflow standards, cell standards, ...
• There are networking issues.  These issues are where many shop floor monitoring opportunities and overall manufacturing process improvements go to die because most manufacturers have nary a clue on how to safely and securely create a shop and back office network that can work well together.
• I also brought up my standard question that I ask when I give talks in manufacturing:
• Please raise your left hand if you are doing Lean Manufacturing  and please keep your left hand up. 90% of the hands went up.
• Please raise your right hand if you are remotely monitoring your shop floor.  By this I mean you can pull out your smart phone right now and show me what ANY asset is doing on your shop floor. No hands went up.
• I then say - "unless you have BOTH hands up you CAN'T be doing Lean Manufacturing because you have no REAL data." No one has EVER challenged me on that point.

I also spoke to the panelists and suggested that now may be the right time to start an additive manufacturing technical working group at the MTConnect Institute.

Below is the intro panel for the Additive Manufacturing Standards panel. I really enjoyed being on the panel - thanks to Tim Shinbara of AMT for recommending me.

It is amazing how hot AM3D is right now, but there is still a ways to go as we brought out on the panel.

Above is a photo of the panel before things got rolling.

• PANEL: Standards, Pathways for Progress
  This session will explore the roles of standards for the AM industry. A panel representing the various standards development organizations will discuss the how standards can benefit AM adoption, create value, and improve competitiveness. Darrell Wallace (Youngstown State University) and formerly with America Makes will be moderating this session. John Slotwinski (ASTM) | Jennifer Herron, Owner, Action Engineering (ASME) | Simin Zhou, Vice President, Digital Manufacturing Technologies, UL | Dave Edstrom, Chief Technology Officer, Memex Automation (MTConnect Institute) | Kevin Jurrens, Mechanical Engineer, NIST

  
  

  

  
  Above is the exhibitor area for additive manufacturing aka 3D printing.
  
  Below is Julie and me in front of the JFK Library for the big event the first evening of the AM3D Conference.
  
  

  

  
  

  Below is JFK's desk from the oval office with his famous rocking chair.

   

  

  Pa

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the Perfect Storm with MTConnect and Memex

 
I was asked a question by an editor for a manufacturing magazine this past week regarding my thoughts on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).  I stated that IIoT is the upcoming perfect storm of five factors in manufacturing:

1. Moore's Law being applied to very small yet powerful credit card size computers, such as the Raspberry Pi as well as a plethora of tiny and easy to use sensors.
   
2. Open-source prototyping platforms such as Arduino that make it incredibly easy to program a variety of devices have created an excitement in the industrial and commercial worlds. While Arduinos provide excitement, there is a clear need for industrial quality boards in manufacturing that can talk to a wide variety of IIoT devices in a secure and reliable way.
   
3. In the world of manufacturing, MTConnect has been the game-changing technology that has driven home the point that you cannot manage what you cannot measure.  The more manufacturers monitor, the more things they want to monitor.
4.  Monitoring software such as our MERLIN (Memex Inc.'s award winning shop floor monitoring software) that can speak to a wide range of devices and protocols that can provide real-time dashboards with notification triggers and reporting to drive down costs and drive up productivity in a secure and predictable way will be the heart of IIoT. No company does better in talking to the "last meter" than Memex.
   
5. Finally, the Holy Grail of IIoT is the ability to tie all of this together by having a flexible enterprise level work flow management software that will effectively act as the 21st century version of ladder-logic that programmatically answers the question, "wouldn't it be cool if we could tie all of these devices together and ..."

The Trinity Test - 70 Years Ago on July 16th

I meant to get this post out 10 days ago because it still stands as the greatest scientific achievement of all time - The Trinity Test of the Manhattan Project.

Below is from Joel Achenbach's article in the Washington Post on July 15th, 2015

"Statues of two men, the founding fathers of Los Alamos, stand in the center of town outside the historic lodge where the scientists used to gather. One depicts J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant physicist tapped to lead the laboratory. The other shows Brig. Gen. Leslie Groves, the Army’s commander for the Manhattan Project.

 

Scientists and workmen rig the world's first atomic bomb to hoist it in a 100-foot tower at the Trinity bomb test site in the desert near Alamagordo, N.M. in July 1945. (AP)

 

In 1942, they wanted to find a remote location for a secret laboratory. Oppenheimer loved the New Mexico desert and led Groves to Los Alamos, the site of a boys’ ranch. Los Alamos sits at an elevation of 7,300 feet on a finger mesa extending from mountains that frame an ancient caldera. The site was just 35 miles from Santa Fe but could be reached only by an unpaved, boulder-strewn road that repeatedly threatened to pitch cars and trucks into a chasm below."

We Became Memex Inc. Today

BURLINGTON, ON--(Marketwired - July 21, 2015) - Astrix Networks Inc. (TSX VENTURE: OEE), operating under the trade name Memex Automation, announces that it has officially changed its name to Memex Inc.

The name change will be effective for trading purposes on the TSXV commencing at the opening of trading on July 22, 2015. The common shares of the company will continue to trade under the operating symbol "OEE" following the name change. The existing share certificates issued under the former name of Astrix Networks Inc. will continue to represent common shares of the company under the new name, Memex Inc., and there is no need for shareholders to exchange their share certificates. However, if any shareholder wishes to exchange their share certificates for new share certificates issued under the new name Memex Inc., they can do so by contacting the company's transfer agent Computershare Trust Company of Canada.

"Changing Astrix's name to Memex was something that we had wanted to do for a while," says David McPhail, President and CEO of Memex Inc. "Astrix has done business as Memex Automation for years and we are well known for that. We felt that the name 'Memex Automation' no longer fit quite right with the direction our business has been going in so we wanted a fresh start. Sticking with the Memex theme seemed only natural as most of our customers and prospects know and refer to us as Memex."

"Brand awareness is very important. With over 12,000 electronic circuits boards installed in machines in various customer sites, all with the Memex name on it, we know the service people see this and they call Memex," said John Rattray, VP Sales & Marketing. "Our products and names must be consistent."

Memex Inc.'s flagship software product, MERLIN, is an industrial-strength shop floor communications platform that delivers Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) metrics in real-time. MERLIN enables data-driven manufacturers to enhance productivity on any machine, typically 10% to 50%, and increase profit from operations.

About Memex Inc.

Memex Inc. is a leading Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology platform provider that connects to any machine and delivers real-time manufacturing productivity metrics. Industrial strength MERLIN software provides Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) efficiency metrics in real time, from shop floor to top floor. MERLIN connects to any machine, old or new, utilizing MTConnect, other protocols or hardware adapters. The MERLIN magic delivers a 10% to 50% average productivity increase so that any manufacturer can achieve world-class standards of excellence. Based on just a 10% increase in OEE, customers see profit improvements of 20%-plus and payback in less than four months. 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.



FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Media Contacts
Memex Inc.
Leanne Rattray
Communications Specialist
Phone: 905-635-1540 ext. 103
Email: leanne.rattray@memex.ca


David McPhail
CEO
Phone: 519-993-1114
Email: david.mcphail@memex.ca

Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/15/07/m5690264/astrix-networks-inc-changes-name-to-memex-inc#ixzz3gZ7NENCU

Tesla's New "Ludicrous Mode" 0 to 60 in 2.8 Seconds

I read Ashlee Vance's book on Elon Musk, I have visited SpaceX and I test drove a Tesla Model S P85 a few years ago.  I am a big Elon Musk fan.  This new option of "Ludicrous Mode" 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds is absolutely amazing!

Below is snippet from an article by the Washington Post's Brian Fung:

"You may have heard about Tesla's "insane mode," which accelerates a sedan from 0 to 60 mph in a mindboggling 3.2 seconds. But Tesla is already moving ahead with something even better: A "ludicrous mode" that sends you from 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds.
 
Shaving off half a second may not sound like much. But the $10,000 option on the Model S shows off some of the advances in battery technology that Tesla is building into its newer cars. Under ludicrous speed, said Musk, the car will accelerate at 1.1 times the force of gravity.

"It's faster than falling," said Musk."

After I buy my 2016 Corvette Stingray in a couple of weeks, a fully loaded Tesla might have to replace my Nissan Quest :-)

Important and Interesting Facts on the Vietnam Memorial Wall

My father, two tours of duty in Vietnam sent this to me and I thought it as extremely interesting.

 

        Vietnam Memorial Wall

Things you may not have known or forgotten

 

 

"The Wall " 
    
A little history most people will never know.

 

Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall

 

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.

 

The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each
date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.

 

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth , Mass. Listed by the
U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.

 

There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

 

39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

 

8,283 were just 19 years old.

 

The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.  
12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.

 

5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

 

One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.

 

997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam ..

 

1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam ..

 

31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

 

Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.

 

54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia . I wonder why so many
from one school?

 

8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.

 

244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

 

Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.

 

West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians
on the Wall.

 

The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams
that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They
enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked
deer in the Apache National Forest. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining
families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service
began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.

 

 

 

The Buddies of Midvale - LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends
and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They
lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to
Vietnam. In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on
Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Jimmy died less
than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl
Harbor Remembrance Day.

 

The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.

 

The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.

 

For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created.
To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces,
we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these
numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. There are
no noble wars, just noble warriors.