Machine Design Community

Roadside assistance gone awry

Leslie_Gordon — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:55:00 GMT

See a funny VIDEO on "failed roadside assistance"

Humorous item on the global warming front

Lee_Teschler — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:08:00 GMT

This from a publication called UU World

News item: UUs participate in global warming conference, rally

"..........Organizers called the March 2 blockage the largest mass action ever held in the U.S. against global warming. Protestors had to brave a snowstorm, frigid temperatures, and bitter winds for the march........."

Recycling more expensive in NYC than just dumping in landfills

Lee_Teschler — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:31:00 GMT

Here is an interesting statistic from the Competitive Enterprise Institute:

In 2007, the New York Independent Budget Office reported that New York City was spending 23 percent more to recycle waste than it would cost to dispose of it. It also spends $6 million annually to “educate” citizens on sorting recyclables. But markets for recyclables are very poor under current economic conditions. As a result, much of the waste goes to the landfill anyway.

But the City Council wouldn’t seriously consider curbing this “sacred cow.” Arbitrary attacks on bottled water are so much easier.

You can read the whole story here:

http://cei.org/articles/2009/05/18/rather-vilify-bottled-water-scale-back-recycling-programs

Lawsuit Over Inventions Dismissed

Lee_Teschler — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:24:00 GMT

Here is an interesting item from the U. of Missouri. Mizzou was suing one of its own professors over royalties from a patent invented in University labs. What is not said in the item or the comments is that Universities asserting rights to royalties from patents by their employees is a good way to ensure there won't be any patents coming out of University labs.

http://chronicle.com/news/article/6471/judge-dismisses-u-of-missouris-lawsuit-against-a-professor-in-dispute-over-inventions?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

A search engine that spits out answers, not just search results

Lee_Teschler — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:33:00 GMT

Suppose you could ask your encyclopedia to not only spit out facts, but to perform an analysis with those facts or compute the answers to a math problem for you. A free Web site set to go live this month promises to do all this. Its called WolframAlpha and you can watch a demo of it and read a write up from the Chronicles of Higher Education at the link below. But be aware the video is of a lecture at Harvard and it runs for more than 1.5 hours.

WolframAlpha sounds promising but I wonder whether it will fall prey to the same problems that defeat artificial intelligence programs in the 1980s: lack of context. Back then, Machine Design reported on an AI presentation wherein the presenter explained the problem this way:

Suppose you had an exchange with one of the medical diagnosis programs then becoming available that went like this:

Today's date: January 1987

Patient's name: 1983 Chevy

Does the patient have red spots? Yes.

Conclusion: The child has measles.

Time will tell whether WolframAlpha has some of the same problems. Here is the link:

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3766/physicist-set-to-unveil-wolframalpha-web-site-a-new-kind-of-research-helper?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Danger or opportunity?

Leslie_Gordon — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:13:00 GMT

One company we interviewed today at the CMEF show here in Schenzen, China was the Perlong Group, which manufactures analog and digital X-ray imaging equipment. Most of the company's sales are in China and it does not yet have CE and FDA approvals to target the European and U.S. markets. According to the company, it started exhibiting at the event in 1996. Interestingly, before 2000, there were no international visitors -- now there are so many, the company needs three translators just to keep up. Although the company has not yet penetrated the U.S. market, it has been exhibiting in American shows such as AACC for a few years.

The energy in the air at this show is fantastic. In fact, this enerby is everywhere in the business sections of the city. One individual called China "the global stage" and that statement certainly seems true. It was announced on TV today that China is now the biggest consumer of automobiles in the world. The people's attitude toward the world recession can be summed in the concept of "Wei Ji," two Chinese characters that together symbolize Danger/Opportunity. In other words, whenever you are in a risky situation (recession), you are being presented an opportunity.

Interestingly, our guides Jan and Shell are young Chinese women who are quite independent in that they have good careers at Reed Sinophram, the show organizer, as translators and facilitators. Yet they belong to the Communist Party. They tell me that the Chinese vision is to temporarily implement capitalism to put into place the infrastructure and access to health care needed for the company to progress to a developed nation. Once that happens, they say, the country intends to revert to a kind of new form of communism in which everyone is taken care of and everyone is happy. What a beautiful ideal! Shangri La. This will not happen in their lifetimes, but they don't mind working for the future good.

The downside to all this growth: Travel a bit outside of the main business districts and you see how the common Chinese person lives in new cities such as Schenzen. I used the woman's bathroom at the local shopping area and it was but a pit in the ground that you crouch over to pee. And apartment highrises cram in their inhabitants like sardines. The apartment buildings are like mile-high rabbit warrens. All the lighting seems to be florescent, and although Schenzen is in the tropical zone, and therefore HUMID as heck, none of the units seemed to be air conditioned. The new hotels, though, are five-star and beautiful.

We visited lots more exhibitors in the next few days...Stay tuned to MACHINE DESIGN and Medical Design magazines for more stories on China and international business...

In the meantime, we spent our last evening here shopping. I am completely over a bad case of jet lag and now wish I could stay here longer -- would like to visit Beijing and Hong Kong, for instance. By the way -- this is fun -- the girls told me what my name is in Chinese. Here, the convention is when you use given name and surname, the last name goes first. So my name -- Gordon Leslie -- in Chinese is "Gao Li Li" (Li in this case means "jasmine." Another Li character means "beautiful.")

Read previous blog entries on the Schenzen trip
.

Wow. Audio tape of the King Air flight after the pilot died at the controls

Lee_Teschler — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:21:00 GMT

Here is what a hair-raising situation sounds like. The FAA has released tapes of the conversations between air traffic controllers and the private pilot who successfully landed a twin-engine King Air in Florida recently after the pilot died at the controls. This tape covers the first 14 minutes of radio calls. Here it is:

http://ms2.naplesnews.com/npdn/content/static/pilot.mp3

How much stimulus does it take to power a forklift?

Lee_Teschler — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:15:00 GMT

Now here's an example of tax dollars at work. Anheuser-Bush, the company that brings you Budweiser, is getting $1.1 million in federal stimulus dollars to put fuel cells in 23 of the electric lift trucks in its Fort Collins, Colo. plant. That comes to about $47,800 per lift truck.

You might well ask how much a brand new ordinary lift truck costs. Well, we put that question to the local dealer here in Cleveland who handles Crown lift trucks. He says that a sit-down forklift truck, complete with battery, will generally run in the high $20,000 to low $30,000 range.

You might also ask on what planet it makes sense to put a $47,800 power source in a $30,000 vehicle regardless of the energy savings. The payback on this investment doesn't look so good.

Here is the orginal article about this "investment" :

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090416/NEWS01/904160368/1002/CUSTOMERSERVICE02

Is watching algae separate a little like watching grass grow?

Lee_Teschler — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Readers of Machine Design might recall one of our recent articles in which we described a new way of automating the process of getting oil out of algae for use in biofuels. OriginOil, the folks who came up with this process, have put out a new video that actually shows the algae oil separating from the biomass. You can watch it here:

http://www.originoil.com/

For readers who didn't read our original article, what you see in the video is a result of OriginOil's microwave-based separation process. In a nutshell, they put the oil-bearing algae in what amounts to a special microwave oven to crack it open and release the oil. Separating the oil this way is much more energy efficient than doing so mechanically with presses and so forth. You can find more details in our original article:

http://machinedesign.com/article/algae-automation-0303

Walking the Schenzen show aisles

Leslie_Gordon — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:43:00 GMT

Breakfast for me consisted of vegtables, corn-on-the-cob, and "sticky rice" which comes wrapped in a leaf and parchment paper.

This morning we attended the opening ceremonies for the 61'st annual CMEF event currently being held in Schenzen, China. The event is completely international, with exhibitors and attendees from all over the globe. This suits the a tagline you hear everywhere here, "discover China, discover the world." The Chinese have an interesting formalitiy: Ceremonies and the like always open with the an announcer reading-off the names of each event supporter. Needless to say, you can sit there sometimes for as long as thirty minutes until all names are read!

Flags of all kinds flew outside the front entrance to the CMEF which helped add to the international flair of the event.

Opening ceremonies concluded with thousands of "gold" rose petals being shot into the air.

The show is huge -- 2,100 exhibitors of which 20% are international, and over 50,000 attendees. Our first interview was with Shinva, a well-known manufacturer that started business here in 1942. The company makes products including infection-control systems, surgical instruments, and pharm equipment. According to the company spokesperson, Shinva is the only firm to be certified as a state-level technology firm by the Chinese government. The three levels are: state, provincial, and city. I think the certification determines where a company's products can be sold in the country. The company exports to 60 countries, none yet in the U.S. or Europe.

The show fills the convention center in Schenzen. Crowds spill along the aisles and exhibitor booths.

xxxxx

...Later than evening, we attend the Gala dinner. Food is placed on a kind of Lazy Susan on top of each table. You twirl the device until the item you want is within reach.

Dinner items are placed on a kind of Lazy Susan which you spin to reach the dish you want.

More on the show to come later...

Live from Beijing and Schenzen, China

Leslie_Gordon — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:27:00 GMT

Yesterday's blog item discusses live the first leg of my trip to Schenzen, China, to attend the China International Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF).

The flight from Newark, N.J. to Beijing was about 15 hours long (7,000-odd miles). I had to figure out how to catch a shuttle bus to Terminal #3 in Bejiing and although the bus I got on went from Terminal #1 to Terminal #4, with no #3 (or #2) in sight, a calm attitude and a dose of luck brought me to the correct connecting flight on Air China.

Although I don't speak Chinese, finding my way to another terminal on the airport shuttle bus was easy.

Actually, many airport personnel speak enough English to be a big help to those of us who are lost. And most people here are exceedingly polite, and nice. That is, except for the one or two pushy, obnoxious Chinese businessmen who manage to be even more rude than their American counterparts. They literally push you out of the way to get ahead in line.

China Airlines provided a comfortable flight -- more civilized than most U.S. flyers. The seats were comfortable, you can watch a video screen on the seatback in front of you with a huge selection of good movies, and you get good, clean food. That flight was about three hours. All told, I have been on an airline for a total of about 20 hours! No complaints though -- I got to Shenzen around 8 pm, not sure what day it is though.

Reed Sinopharm, our hosts for this trip, put us journalists up in the Marco Polo hotel, a few blocks from the exhibition center. The hotel is nice -- I would rate it five stars. Last year, there were maybe six or eight journalists attending the event.

The Marco-Polo is typical of the business area of Schenzen -- gleaming skyscrapers, landscaped terrain, and high-class service.

Our hosts from Reed Sinopharm invited us to an elaborate welcoming dinner. I arrived late because of my flight schedule, so I stuck to coffee.

This year, there are just three of us journalists invited to the event. Needless to say, I feel extremely flattered to have been invited. The show itinerary is jam-packed and really interesting. Not yet sure of all the details, but one full day is devoted to a roundtable discussion with Consulate members, the Head of Corporate Intellectual Property from Siemens Ltd., China, and others offering practical, business-focused advice to companies working in China.

Stay tuned for more show news yet to come.....

Off to the China International Medical Equipment Fair

Leslie_Gordon — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:29:00 GMT

I'm waiting at the Cleveland, Ohio airport for a flight to Newark, N.J. and from there on to Beijing, China. Final destination Shenzhen, China to attend the China International Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF) held April 18 to 21. According to the CMEF Web site, the event, founded in 1979, is now the largest exhibition of medical equipment, manufacturing, and related services in the Asia Pacific region. I attended the event last year, and it was huge -- larger than any trade show in the U.S., even IMTS.

Time to board the plane soon....stay tuned for more later!...

...A flight a few hours long has brought us to Newark, N.J., for the first leg of a loooong flight overseas. It's sunny and warm here so I decide to check the weather in Schenzen. Turns out it is the following: Foggy and 73°F. Wind: Variable at 2 mph, Humidity: 83%. Last year, the city seemed similar to a newer, larger Florida city -- palm trees, mild weather, gleaming skyscrapers, wide flower-laden streets filled with shiny new cars. According to the Schenzen Travel Guide:

"Shenzhen is located in the southern portion of the Guangdong Province, on the eastern shore of the Pearl River Delta. Neighboring the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong (located just south of Shenzhen), Shenzhen's location gives it a geographical advantage for economic development. In 1980, the first Special Economic Zone of China was built in Shenzhen. From then on, Shenzhen become a highlighted city of China, one known for its rapid economic growth."

More on Autodesk Manufacturing Tech Day

Leslie_Gordon — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:03:00 GMT

We spent yesterday learning about new features and advancements in Autodesk's 2010 products:

First, the developer stresses how well its programs work together to provide a digital prototype which acts as a master model and lets engineers work concurrently on a design during product development. According to the company, Inventor 2010, AutoCAD, Alias, and the moldflow and FE packages allow almost seamless exchange of data.

New features in AutoCAD 2010 include parametric drawing. This lets users apply geometric constraints to drawings. The software has the same constraint engine as the developer's other tools. Users can now also push and pull what are called mesh objects (a new object type) to create smooth shapes. A "gizmo" tool lets users move, scale, and rotate the object. All these capabilities mean that AutoCAD can be used for conceptual design!

The developer is pushing the use of Inventor 2010 for the design of consumer products. Users can import surfaces from Alias (a surface modeler) and Inventor stitches together the surfaces for a 3D model. Models can be "split" into sections to make a multibody so different individuals can work on the model at the same time.

The session on mold design explained new features and capabilities in Inventor. At the right sits Roopinder Tara of TenLinks in deep thought.

Interestingly, Autodesk said it queried designers in China for feedback on the new mold-design features in Inventor. Evidently, China is big in mold design. New: hole patching and runner surface development are automated. The system uses the Moldflow engine to make design suggestions. The Moldflow data base includes over 8,000 materials. When Autodesk acquired Moldflow, it also got the material-analysis labs in Ithaca, N.Y. and Melbourne, Australia.For sustainability purposes, the plastic design component of Inventor includes an energy usage indicator and another code that indicates recyclability.

More...Autodesk and interoperability

Manufacturing Tech Day

Leslie_Gordon — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:10:00 GMT

I'm attending Autodesk Manufacturing Tech Day in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Just got back from the welcoming dinner at Oba Restaurante in Portland with the rest of the group of technical media and bloggers. Portland stikes me as such a clean city. It is a small city but has lots of neat stuff: parks galore, sidewalk cafes, flowers, plenty of green, and a really "with-it" looking population.

Tomorrow I am to get briefed on AutoCAD for manufacturing, Inventor for consumer products and industrial machinery, industrial design, and digital factory. Also to get a preview of a "future digital prototyping technology for industrial designers." Stay tuned for more to come! ... ...

American dream loses its appeal even for students from India

Lee_Teschler — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:20:00 GMT

This item from the Chronicle of Higher Education serves as an interesting commentary on the situation for jobs for people with advanced degrees. There have been commentators who have said it only made sense for foreigners to get a PhD in the US because the costs of obtaining the degree are so enormous. Now even Indian PhD candidates are having trouble justifying the costs of the degree, and they are having trouble finding jobs here when they do get the degree. The result is a reverse brain drain back to India, which has also been predicted by some of the same commentators. And I like the comment at the end by the guy who wanted a PhD in financial engineering and now can't find a job there.

http://chronicle.com/news/article/6214/for-students-in-india-the-american-dream-is-losing-its-appeal?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Perils of social networking

Leslie_Gordon — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:48:00 GMT

Social-networking tools allow for more free-for-all communication than traditional publishing methods because users can quickly and creatively collaborate. But — interesting conundrums can arise. For example, what would you think if you are using something like Twitter, and a competitor of the organization you work for starts "following" you?

SageCircle recently posted guidelines for analysts who use social media that could apply equally well to individuals or businesses: Why analysts need to be more measured in their use of social media.

A plane that turns into a car

Leslie_Gordon — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:40:00 GMT

Watch cool videos of the Transition — a plane that turns into a car!

http://www.terrafugia.com/videogallery.html

Shenzhen, again

Leslie_Gordon — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:15:00 GMT

Last year, I traveled to Shenzhen, China and am to go again in mid April. The city looks kind of like portions of Florida, with palm trees, wide flower-lined streets, and glittering skyscrapers. It is on the South China Sea, just north of Hong Kong. Important industries there include electronics, chemicals, processed foods, textiles, construction materials, and pharmaceuticals. The occasion of my visit: to attend the CHINA INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT FAIR (CMEF). Stay tuned for more to come…

simulations cause trouble

Lee_Teschler — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:12:00 GMT

Here is a short but interesting interview with Sherry Turkle, professor of social studies of science and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has a new book out in which she tracks difficulties that can arise from computer simulations. Here is one of the more interesting quotes:

"There’s a generation that is growing up with the computer as an appliance, and they truly have no understanding of how it works. In my book, I tell the story of a girl who was a power player of the game Sim City. She talked to me about her “David Letterman Top Ten Rules of Sim City,” and rule number 6 was “raising taxes leads to riots” because when she did that, that happened in the game. She didn’t understand that if I had programmed that computer, raising taxes would’ve led to more social services and greater social harmony. She was drawing a set of conclusions about how the world worked based on the simulation. The trouble with that was not that she was using the simulation, but that the simulation wasn’t transparent to her."

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3659/simulations-may-be-causing-real-trouble?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Just don't go - forget the advanced degree

Lee_Teschler — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:31:00 GMT

Here's something you don't see every day: An academic who discourages people from pursuing advanced degrees. He is talking about advanced degrees in the humanities, but some of what he says has the ring of truth even for advanced degrees in engineering and the sciences:

"What good is professional training for a job that you are not likely to get, after a decade of discipline, debt, and deferred opportunity? Who are these people who think you can spend from two to 10 years with no realistic career goals in mind? They seem to assume that a graduate student will remain childless, or will have no responsibility to care for elderly parents, or will never have any health problems. They assume that there will always be someone else to pay the bills and wash the clothes, while the bohemian geniuses pursue their exalted calling. It's a kind of infantile narcissism: placing one's desires above all the other obligations that adults generally assume...........Even assistant professors, who should know what's going on, encourage their students to go to graduate school because it is professionally risky to do otherwise. "

http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2009/03/2009031301c.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

A soft-skinned car?

Leslie_Gordon — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:14:00 GMT

"Let the material do the talking" is one of the ideas behind GINA, BMW's concept sports car. Instead of a metal body, it has one made from stretchable material. Thus, designers don't have to worry about, say, smooth continuity between the wheel wells and the body -- the material naturally takes care of a flow. Also, the car's headlights act and look like human eyes, blinking open and shut as needed. GINA stands for something like "Geomety shape functions In N Adaptations." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTYiEkQYhWY

The environmental cost of toilet paper

Lee_Teschler — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:16:00 GMT

Toilet paper seems to be the latest environmental guilt trip, judging by this piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

http://chronicle.com/review/brainstorm/article/?id=1239&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The funniest part of this comes from one of the comments posted in response:

"Seriously, the toilet paper problem would be solved if we used just one square of toilet paper, the way that my brother learned from the Marines. Impossible? No, simply take one square, fold it in half twice to make a smaller square, tear off the folded corner, open up the larger piece that now has a hole in it, insert your finger, clean yourself, flush the square, and then unfold the small piece you tore off. Use it to clean your fingernail."

Guess I won't be shaking hands with any Marines anytime soon.

My idea: Quit being a whiner. Who needs toilet paper? Use corn cobs.

Don't try this at home - Drinking water from urine

Lee_Teschler — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:25:00 GMT

Here's how NASA does it on the Space Station.

http://www.space.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=081119_RecycledUrine&mode=

Think you've got it bad? Be happy you aren't in China

Lee_Teschler — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:53:00 GMT

China might look a lot better than the U.S. right now for those affected by the drastic economic slow-down. After all, the Chinese government is stimulating the economy there in a way that will produce real jobs quickly, in contrast to the ineffective stimulus measures we are seeing here. But don't apply for your Chinese visa just yet. Listen to the words of Kerri Houston Toloczko, a Senor Analyst for the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM):

“Despite its meteoric rise to global economic dominance, China has build a high rise economy on a foundation of mud,” states Toloczko.

“As manufacturing facilities popped up rapidly over the last decade, China filled jobs by encouraging massive migration from outlying Chinese villages into burgeoning factory centers. But in their plan they forgot the needs of the workers themselves.”

In the last year, over 20 million Chinese migrant workers lost their jobs as over 125,000 factories closed. The government heavily subsidized the manufacturing build-up, which has now led to a phenomenon known as “runaway bosses.” As factory owners have no personal investment in their businesses, they are leaving town to disappear into China’s one million villages and among its 1.3B people without first paying wages to their now unemployed workers.

China has no social safety nets that cover unemployment, medical, or retirement benefits, people are desperate and angry, Toloczko says. “China is currently experiencing at least 1,000 demonstrations each day - some of them violent - in factory centers and in rural areas when laid off Chinese migrant workers return home and find no jobs there either.”

The AAM has been championing the idea that the U.S. gets a raw deal when trading with China, and Toloczko sees an opening on that score.

“Although the Chinese government is trying to cure its recession with a $586B stimulus plan, it is distracted by massive social unrest that we don’t have here in the U.S.,” Toloczko concludes. “China is paying the price for shallow growth, manufacturing substandard consumer products and ignoring its social problems. But America’s economy is wide and deep, and built on solid footing. As China pays the price for its economic aggression, this may be our chance to reinvigorate our production capacity and finally level the playing field for our manufacturers.”

Don't believe the model, revisited: "I will not accept the Nuremberg excuse"

Lee_Teschler — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:36:00 GMT

Readers who are old enough to remember when Paul Volcker was the Federal Reserve Board chairman will probably also know he is still held in high regard. He is credited with stopping the run-away inflation that gripped the country in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Volker recently made a speech in which he mentioned the financial engineering that was the subject of one of my recent editorials. I thought his comments were interesting so I am reproducing those portion of his comments here:

One of the saddest days of my life was when my grandson – and he's a particularly brilliant grandson – went to college. He was good at mathematics. And after he had been at college for a year or two I asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up. He said, "I want to be a financial engineer." My heart sank. Why was he going to waste his life on this profession.

A year or so ago, my daughter had seen something in the paper, some disparaging remarks I had made about financial engineering. She sent it to my grandson, who normally didn't communicate with me very much. He sent me an email, "Grandpa, don't blame it on us! We were just following the orders we were getting from our bosses." The only thing I could do was send him back an email, "I will not accept the Nuremberg excuse."