Notes.
I spent a good chunk of this week with friends at Autodesk University, and ended it building a door jamb and hanging a door. Pretty 👌
Wayfinding & Strategy.
- Tesla and SolarCity's proposed merger passed, and GE's proposed acquisition of a controlling stake in Arcam passed as well. GE also announced "GE Additive" and a $10MM investment in two educational programs.
- SpaceX applied for FCC approval to launch up to 4,425 satellites to create a internet network, and Tesla announced that they'll start billing customers for using their superchargers.
- YKK and SBS are battling over the ~$13B global market for zippers.
- Autodesk's Fusion 360 is (to my pleasure) absorbing Eagle CAD, along with aspects of Dreamcatcher and Within.
Making & Manufacturing.
- Dassault Systemes and Renishaw are working together to simulate & optimize metal AM builds.
- AMRC is about to open the largest aerospace casting setup in Europe.
- Automated Fiber Placement creates composite (typically carbon fiber) parts by using tooling & robotics to lay fiber tows on a madrel or mold. Filament winding is an example of automated fiber placement.
- DDM Systems makes machines that print ceramic cores & other parts for investment casting.
Maintenance, Repair & Operations.
- Road repair crews in Fukuoka, Japan, repaired a massive sinkhole in a week.
- Demolishing buildings one floor at a time.
Distribution & Logistics.
- JD.com *actually* used some drones to deliver packages on Singles Day.
- A company called Gevo makes isobutanol (from things like wood scraps) to replace petroleum based fuels. My question: Why does the FAA cap the amount of ethanol that can be mixed into jet fuel?
Inspection & Testing.
- Firefly Systems ran a full mission duty cycle test of their lil' engine.
- China fact-checked Trump on global warming, and he failed.
- The new MacBook touch bar runs off of Apple Watch guts.
- This documentary on Jane Jacobs sounds interesting, and this review of it is really balanced.
Tangents.
- What.cd, the private bittorrent tracker which was the heir to Oink's crown when it shut down in 2007, was seized by French authorities and closed permanently.
- Gregg T, the guy in the MTA's "see something say something" campaign, is actually a NYPD lawyer who tries to get Black Lives Matter protesters to admit that they were arrested with probable cause.
- The Chopped Cheese's Sharp Rise to Fame.
Credit to Samson, Matt, and Andreas for sending links this week. If you see something, send something :)
And.
An Instagram account of a concrete manufacturer in Russia.
Love, Spencer.
p.s. - We should be better friends. Send me a note - coffee's on me :)
