2015-11-08

Notes.

I've mostly been working with triangles. Details here.

Pathfinding.

• So I wasn't going to comment on how ESPN shut down Grantland (it's not really on brand), but this Hang Up and Listen conversation about it is both interesting and broadly applicable, inasmuch as it deals with the difficulties of 1) balancing the roles of leader and manager (which Stefan Fatsis argues that Bill Simmons did a poor job at), and 2) being a fun rounding error on the side of a massive (and presumably profitable) company.
• ...and also, Ben Thomson's piece on Grantland has some stuff about writing as a loss leader that I can relate to.
• Bill de Blasio announced a $115M advanced manufacturing effort for NYC.

Building.

• Nokia signed a deal with Artemis to try out pCell, the mobile data protocol that (as I understand it) relies on hyper accurate location data to construct a composite signal from multiple antennas.
• Additive Industries is getting ready to unveil their new metal 3D printer. They've apparently got some custom build simulation software from 3DSIM integrated into it, and use a build processor written by Materialise.
• A company called Editas says they'll use CRISPR on humans by 2017.
• BAE Systems and the UK government are investing $120M in Reaction Engines, which makes a hybrid spacecraft that's part rocket, part airplane.
• Harvard Law Library is scanning a lot of caselaw and putting it online for free.
• Stellarators. Like tokamaks, but more complicated.

Logistics.

• Project Subway NYC is cool - 3D architectural models of subway stations.

Evaluation.

• Xavier emailed me last week with a link to this *really* good series of blog posts about a restaurant in San Diego that converted to a fixed service fee. I'm about halfway through the 10-part series, which brings up a bunch of great points about how problematic the tipping compensation structure is. Highly recommended.
• Dragon Innovation created a nice template BOM tool in Google Sheets. We *definitely* would have used this on The Public Radio.
• Did you know that the ISS was only supposed to last until 2015? Apparently now Boeing thinks it might last until 2028.

Stuff that doesn't fit into my dumb/arbitrary categories.

• Kickstarter passed $2B in contributions.

And.

The MTA held a press event this week at the East Side Access
project. 2nd Ave Sagas was critical, but the photos
(more on Gothamist) are great regardless.