2016-08-21

Notes.

I'm speaking at AM3D tomorrow in Charlotte, NC. Holler if you're there!

Wayfinding & Strategy.

• Seth Godin on careers:
  The scientist invents the train. The engineer builds it out. The operations manager makes it run on time. Operations managers shouldn't do experiments. Scientists shouldn't ask for instructions on what to do next. Engineers shouldn't make stuff up...
  Which hat do you wear?
• SolarCity is working on a full roof made of solar panels. It strikes me that a modular setup has big benefits, especially if you expect that solar cell technology will improve faster than your roof will deteriorate - will be interesting to see what their design looks like.

Making & Manufacturing.

• Researchers at The MTC, the big manufacturing research center in the UK, took a first stab at printing one of my lattice bike stems on an Arcam EBM printer. The build failed due to another part on the plate, but the first 14mm of the part look good.
• Why the streets of NYC are always under construction: multiple agencies, and a system whose organization was decidedly emergent.
• A good overview of heat treatment processes for titanium alloys (I'm looking into mill annealing some parts :).
• A good piece on Planet Money about how difficult it is to automate sewing.
• Someone in South Korea is claiming that Apple plans to use their batteries for the Apple Car. Interestingly, the batteries are hollow in order to improve air flow and reduce the need for separate cooling systems.

Distribution & Logistics.

• Maersk's profit is down 90% (!).
• ABB has a system to charge electric buses in 15 minutes.
• Uber says it'll have (human supervised) autonomous taxis in Pittsburgh this month, and Ford says it'll mass produce (fully unsupervised) autonomous vehicles by 2021. Meanwhile, Ford and Baidu invested $150MM in Velodyne for cheaper & better LIDAR, and Audi is rolling out vehicle-to-infrastructure communication this year.
• Amazon unveiled their first 'Prime Air" plane.
• Robert Kiley, the transit chief who ran the MTA (among other transit agencies) during the 80s, died. He introduced the MetroCard, brought Bill Bratton to NYC, and imposed congestion pricing in London.

Inspection & Testing.

• Why there are so many ties in swimming events: The manufacturing tolerances on lane lengths are in the neighborhood of 3 cm, which swimmers travel in one one-thousandth of a second.
• A good article on a head-to-head bike frame fatigue test that EFBE (the same company that tested my seatposts recently) did back in the late 90s. Note, for the uninitiated: Sheldon Brown's site is a classic.
• Lagrange points are places where the gravity of the Sun and the Earth cancel each other out.

Tangents.

• Xiaomi's page of "smart" stuff is worth checking out.
• Ten lessons from Jane Jacobs.

Credit to Mackenzie, Gabe, Dan, Kane, and Reilly for sending links this week. If you see something, send something :)

And.

A tour of the Lego headquarters & factory.