2016-04-10

Notes.

Back home from AMUG. Speaking at Inside 3D Printing NYC on Tuesday morning - again, holler if you'll be there :)

Wayfinding.

• Alcoa (or more precisely, Alcoa's soon to be formed value-add spinoff, Arconic) announced that they'll be supplying 3D printed airframe components to Airbus.
• Additive Industries' MetalFAB1 will have 3DSIM's print simulation built into its (somewhat grandiosely named) Additive World Platform software.
• Nest acqui-hired a smart home company called Revolv in 2014; now they're shutting down the servers that make Revolv's hardware functional.

Building.

• My EBM titanium seatpost heads are finally going out for testing.
• Both Fanuc and Google are trying to get robots to deep learn to grab things.
• Via Jordan, a remarkably fun video of handblown glass being made.
• The NYTimes reported that De Blasio was delaying Water Tunnel 3; then De Blasio's office said they weren't.
• How iPhone case manufacturers get cases to market so quickly.
• The Wikipedia page for Out of autoclave composite manufacturing has multiple issues, but it's pretty informative nonetheless.
• A great old video explaining the hot forging process. See also this pretty comprehensive article on grain flow in forged components, which is a really interesting topic.

Logistics.

• I'm reading Geoff Manaugh's new book, A Burglar's Guide to the City.
• The Dutch government organized an event wherein about a dozen autonomous trucks platooned across Europe.
• An independent study is suggesting that the MTA a) shut down the L completely for repairs, and b) close 14th Street to private vehicles during construction. I'm all for it :)
• Google is likely to roll its autonomous cars out over a period of decades.
• You'll recall that a Chinese billionaire is building a canal across Nicaragua. The project is over a year old, and still the details are hazy.

Evaluation.

• Ben Thompson on Tesla.
• Bell Labs' Claude Shannon as an example of how engineers can uncover fundamental discoveries.
• An ode to fuzzy logic controlled rice cookers.

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

• Bond, the robotic handwriting company, was acquired by Rubbermaid.
• Foxconn acquired a controlling stake in Sharp.
• MakerBot cut their Industry City factory by 40%.

And.

A typeface based on welded letters on manhole covers.