Notes.
This week I had the first of my titanium seatmast toppers 3D printed out of titanium 6/4. There's still a *lot* of work to get the part useable, but it was a big step forward.
I'm still working on a full write-up, but there's an initial report (and, if I might say so myself, one of the best repositories of public information about DMLS) on my blog.
Pathing.
- This NYTimes story about Timken, the bearing + steel manufacturer that was split up by activist investors, is kind of intense, and the photos are good, and it makes me want to visit Canton, Ohio. I bought a bunch of Timken bearings a few years back, and must say I have more empathy for Timken than for the California Teachers' retirement fund.
- In related news, the recent Freakonomics episodes about teachers are good.
- What it would really take to reverse climate change.
Building.
- The Manufacturing Bill of Materials (MBOM) lists parts in a structured way that relates to how the entire product (including firmware, packaging, etc.) will be made. An Engineering Bill of Materials (EBOM), on the other hand, is basically just a list of the designed parts of a product.
- MTConnect is an open-source, royalty-free manufacturing protocol, that connects devices and systems (e.g. CNC mills) from different suppliers to capture and share information in a common format, such as XML.
- Two links from Daniel Gladstone (whose blog is awesome, BTW): First, a solid video about building a Volvo Open 70. These are 70 foot carbon fiber boats made in three cooks from up to 14 layers of carbon fiber, and are possibly the largest civilian use carbon products in the world. Second, a 65 million gallon tunnel/tank 300 ft below Providence, RI. It's essentially a city sized septic tank, designed to hold sewage during storms so that it can be processed when there is less strain on the system.
- Nervous System had Shapeways make them a 3D printed dress, and MoMA acquired it for their collection. The really cool part is the folding algorithm they used to compact the dress into a small build volume.
- HP is building a "revolutionary" operating system for new computer architectures that use memristors.
Logistics.
- A very interesting reflection on the history of sight, the "robot readable world," and meeting machines halfway.
- If your Google Glass flashes a subliminal action word while you're exercising, you'll crush it (bro).
- The Fundamental Attribution Error.
- Audi is working on, like, the duplex house for car ownership.
- A really great NYer piece on garbage collection that touches on a) the insane political/logistical mashup that is Egyptian waste disposal, b) the weird privacy/relationship implications of that system, and c) the culture of gender relations in Egypt.
Reflecting.
- Ezra Klein's eulogy for The New Republic is really good, and I tend to agree with him.
- This Twitter exchange between Paul Graham and Benedict Evans (both Brit expats now in the US) about productivity of UK and US is pretty interesting.
- OKCupid's experiments are *so* interesting.
- Kids who know two languages might not be all that special after all.
- The Fourier Transform converts complex waveforms between functions of time and functions of frequency. If you've ever wondered what the spectrum analyzer on your stereo is showing, well, a Fourier Transform is behind it.
Stuff that doesn't fit into my dumb/arbitrary categories.
- A compilation of the most design-related lines from Drake's "Nothing was the Same." <= Funny.
- Noah Kalina's "PRIMED" is an incredible example of a meta Amazon Affiliate program site.
- W.L. Gore's company culture is pretty interesting.
- Do not dumb here. Not dumb area here.
- Atul Gawande's tweetstorm on the doctors that were involved with the CIA's torture program.
And.
But seriously. A titanium part. Made from powder that's fused into
a solid by pointing a 400 watt laser at it.
Love, Spencer.
ps - Thank you to everyone - especially my friends at Gin Lane, Undercurrent, Brilliant Bicycles and on twitter - who referred me to everything here.
We should be closer friends. Coffee's on me.
