2016-08-08

Notes.

I'm taking next weekend off, and will be handing the reins over to Eric Weinhoffer. Holler at him!

Wayfinding & Strategy.

• On Michelin's long game market creation strategy - sell tires by making people want to visit restaurants.
• Amazon now has a dedicated store for Kickstarter products.
• Siemens acquired Materials Solutions, a UK job shop for laser metal AM.
• The Massachusetts legislature is having a hard time banning noncompetes.

Making & Manufacturing.

• I'm gluing up some more seatposts soon, and was brushing up on assembly prep methods for carbon fiber and titanium. In the past I've done abrade-MEK-abrade (or abrade-IPA-abrade), but Rock West Composites' guide for composites bond prep got me thinking about other cleaning methods. Hence, this: The difference between detergent and soap. Basically, soap is just detergent plus a bunch of other stuff that makes you smell nice.
• A good overview of lattice structures for additive manufacturing.
• A very short tour of Playground Global, which I visited recently; it seems serious. And a somewhat longer tour of Facebook's 404 lab, which seems less serious. Note: Putting your logo on machine tools only confuses things.
• Contour Crafting is proposing some crazy shit - automating concrete construction. I'm skeptical.
• A short blog post on GE's new center for additive manufacturing.

Distribution & Logistics.

• A new study says that Uber has *not*, in fact, reduced drunk driving rates.
• China legalized ride hailing apps - namely, Uber and Didi Chuxing. Then, Didi bought out Uber's Chinese operations.
• Meshmixer is now being distributed under the Fusion 360 brand.
• Vector Space Systems is trying for 100 small payload space launches per year.
• On Dulles airport's mobile lounges.
• Transport for London, the governmental body responsible for running London's public transit, is licensing its payment system to Cubic in a bid to replace the MTA's Metrocard with a smarter system.

Inspection & Testing.

• I *finally* wrote up a post mortem on the EBM titanium bike seatposts that I had tested - and which failed. My best guess is that an improved glue joint might have prevented the failure, though there are a few other possibilities. The upside: I have a few more of these parts to test still :)
• Some pretty cool CFD video of a cyclist riding.
• The inspection process for Lockheed Martin's hybrid airships is pretty insane, requiring tiny holes in a big balloon to be identified and fixed. Hybrid airships look insane too.

Tangents.

• An in depth analysis of 67 years of Lego sets.
• An interview with a potter in Jeffrey City, Wyoming - a modern ghost town.

Credit to Mike, Kane, Nick, and Reilly for sending links this week. If you see something, send something :)

And.

A really great piece on Chengzhongcun, and the uniqueness
of Chinese urban culture.