2015-08-31

Notes.

I really, really can't recommend the Wait But Why post on Elon Musk & SpaceX enough. It that whole series doesn't make you want to work on important things, nothing will.

Pathfinding.

• The breakdown of Volkswagen's business model at the beginning of this article is pretty interesting.
• Bolt's post about the economics of starting a hardware company. Our experience with The Public Radio was very different from this, but the net effect is the same: you probably won't make money in the beginning.

Building.

• BMW says that their entire fleet will be electric within a decade. Can you believe this? I certainly wouldn't have predicted it.
• Additive Industries (who are building a metal 3D printer that's apparently more automated than the machines on the market today) snagged someone from Philips' Heathcare team (who have been working on 3D printed tungsten for X-ray collimators) to run their product development.
• This company Modumetal raised a bunch of money from Founders Fund. Their website is pretty bland, but I guess you could say that they're billing themselves as the... Carbon3D of electroplating?
• Lego is working on bio based plastics to replace the ABS in their bricks.

Logistics.

• The ports of Los Angeles & Long Beach (which, you'll recall, had huge backups a few months back due to labor issues) are instituting an appointment system for truckers to coordinate pickups and deliveries.
• Those guys who hacked a Jeep quit their jobs to work at Uber's Advanced Technologies Center.

Evaluation.

• A short history of how the zoning code (among other things) changed the face of manufacturing in NYC.
• My review of Magics 19 and the SG+ module.

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

• None, so here's a tidbit instead. Last week's newsletter resulted in two unsubscribes, which are pretty unusual. The most popular links were the Tumblr release notes and The Public Radio's balance sheet. Meanwhile, August brought the most signups of any month yet (74), which means that I probably don't know a lot of you. So hello! Say hi back; I'd love to at least trade a few emails.

And.

What I'm thinking about: The history and future
of manufacturing in New York City.