2015-04-19

Notes.

This week I spent a bunch of the week talking about metal 3D printing with smart people at the conference at Javits, and am excited to make more progress on my topper. I also presented a history of my project to colleagues at Undercurrent, which got me thinking about how I explain what I've been working on. I'm hoping to get a few speaking gigs in the coming months, and being really considerate about how I communicate my goals and make them relatable to others is pretty fun.

Also: This week Undercurrent was acquired by Quirky, which is totally wild and exciting. Just today I spent a little time re-reading what I've written about Quirky's place in the new product development & manufacturing paradigm, and some of it (one, two) is actually pretty intelligent. Quirky has changed a lot since then, and those changes will be really interesting to see & consider up close; I expect it to be an absolutely fascinating experience.

Pathfinding.

• William Hill, an online betting marketplace, stopped taking bets on whether Greece will exit the EU, citing the fact that the odds have moved so far in favor of an exit.
• ABB, the Swiss multinational industrial giant, acquired a collaborative robotics company called Gomtech. It's fun to see "hard" and "soft" robotics start to come together; these next few years will be pretty cool.
• Cisco and DHL say they're working together on some logistics IoT stuff.

Building.

• At an expected $6B cost, New York City Water Tunnel #3 is the largest capital construction project in New York City history. Phase one began in 1970, and the project isn't expected to be complete before 2020.
• I am *so* tired of talking about the MarkForged carbon fiber 3D printer, and *so* excited to learn more about Lockheed Martin's huge overhead gantry carbon fiber assembly machine.
• The video that shows the cans being made is pretty good.
• This MoMA blog post on how they store their digital archives is interesting. I'd never considered the difficulty in doing so.

Logistics.

• The Rotterdam container terminal is *very* automated.
• Nokia's mapping unit may be for sale.
• Plateau-Rayleigh instability explains why and how a falling stream of fluid breaks up into smaller packets with the same volume but less surface area. I came to this through an article on what Lawrence Livermore National Lab researchers are learning about melt pool dynamics in metal powder bed fusion (DMLS) 3D printing, but it also plays a role in (no bullshit) why there's more splashback when you pee at the bottom of the urinal.
• Poisson's ratio is the negative ratio of transverse to axial strain. You know how when you stretch a rubber band, it tends to get thinner? That's Poisson's ratio at work. Interestingly, cork's Poisson's ratio is near zero, meaning that it doesn't shrink as you tug on it or bulge as you push on it.

Evaluation.

• Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
• The FAA cleared GE to put a 3D printed sensor into its GE90 jet engines, which are commonly used on Boeing 777s.
• These lawsuits that claim that Uber et al miscategorize employees as contractors seem pretty real.

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

• I like Kickstarter's transparency report.
• The NYTimes' ode to bacon, egg & cheese sandwiches. Breakfast sandwiches (and deli culture in general) is a big reason why I moved back to the East Coast, and this article does a good (if a bit over romantic) job explaining their place in the culture I grew up in.
• Sandhog is a slang term that refers to the construction workers & miners that work on NYC's underground projects, like New York City Water Tunnel #3.

And.

Just a little heartfelt essay about my relationship with my dog.