2016-10-02

Notes.

I spent all weekend doing manual labor, and write this now with the same, dull, full-body ache that I had at the end of so many days earlier in my career. I've missed that feeling; it was a big part of my own coming-of-age, and my ability to induce it in myself is one of the things that I'm most proud of.

Also, just a reminder - projects are awesome.

Lastly - I was *amazed* at the popularity of that Brangelina/Trump link last week - it was the most clicked item by a factor of two!

Wayfinding & Strategy.

• The White House issued a new Housing Development Toolkit, which has some strong language discouraging parking requirements in building codes. Endorse!
• CloudDDM, the seller of mostly FDM parts colocated in UPS's Louisville hub, has rebranded as Fast Radius; they're also apparently (note: lots of factual issues with that article) expanding their (*ahem*) Fast Radius On-Demand Production Platform™. I do not endorse using their services.
• This is a fun one: Hardware (e.g. FPGAs) is eating software.
• The CEO of The Noun Project on running a startup while starting a family.
• Metal AM published more details about GE's Arcam/SLM acquisitions, which answer a few of the questions I raised. To whit: GE is planning on both offering additive as a service (i.e. becoming an OEM), and also continuing to market metal AM machines & solutions. I think this a big deal.

Making & Manufacturing.

• Elon Musk detailed SpaceX's Mars plans, and they're about as unfathomable as you'd expect. I recommend reading Wait But Why's recap. Then (and maybe more importantly), spend some time with this piece on medieval cathedrals and humanity-scale problems, (<- really) and what it's like to plan for something that won't be complete for hundreds of years.
• I visited Jonathan at PCB:NG last week; they've got a nice shop and are working on really compelling solutions for short-run PCBA. NYC hardware tech represent!
• Of *course* churros are extruded!
• Forged vs. investment cast titanium golf drivers. Related: the variables in driver face design that affect "smash factor."

Maintenance, Repair & Operations.

• Montreal is setting up a 2.2 km inflatable tunnel to protect pedestrians from street construction.
• Optomec announced a new hybrid CNC/DED metal printer. These are typically aimed at repairing high value parts in aerospace and power generation, and are both really cool and somewhat limited in range of applications.

Distribution & Logistics.

• Uber/Otto say they will move actual freight via autonomous trucks next year, and will be handling their own brokering as well.
• Waze is making bluetooth beacons that'll be placed inside tunnels to help geolocation.
• Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley has seen a surge in warehouse building over the past five years, pushing to serve the Northeast corridor with better e-commerce delivery times.
• A fun piece on the (really, really bad) traffic in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• The Panama Canal vs. the Suez Canal.
• I didn't realize this, but Google Maps erases the cars on the roads on its desktop version. Weird.

Inspection & Testing.

• A very good, and very thorough, retrospective on Boston's Big Dig project. Recommended.
• Low-background steel is any steel produced prior to the detonation of the first atomic bombs in the 1940s; it comes mostly from ships that were sunk before the Trinity test.
• The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope opened last week in Guizhou Province, China, beating out Arecibo for the title of biggest radio telescope in the world. This video, taken during construction, is pretty good.
• Google Translate *might* be getting better at Mandarin.
• Testing procedures look likely to delay the December opening of the 2nd Ave Subway :(
• A good case study of how Trek Bikes used Abaqus plus sensor data to design & then verify a full suspension mountain bike.
• Matt Daniels & Polygraph break down Kickstarter projects by city.

Tangents.

• IMO definitely the best VC website ever.
• On Bobby Bonilla's deferred contract, and his value as a ballplayer.
• The House of Representatives passed a bill that allows employees to defer taxes that would otherwise be due when they exercise their stock options. This is a start.
• Firefly Space Sytems "experienced a setback on funding," and sound like they might be laying off employees.

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

And.

I should probably just spend some time in a forging shop.