2017-10-02

Notes.
First a warm welcome to our new sponsor, Develop3D Live. I've been a reader (and sometimes writer) for D3D for a few years now, and am very happy to have them on board!

I'm in Barcelona for nTopology this week, working on file formats for industrial 3D printing at the 3MF consortium. Also putting the final touches on The Public Radio's manufacturing process, teaching Nora how to control the wildlife, etc :)

Planning & Strategy.

• A good profile on Bic and the ballpoint pen. The takeaway described here - that Bic has failed when they've strayed from extremely high volume, low value products - is pretty compelling. Focus!
• The Department of Commerce has recommended a 219.63% tariff on Bombardier's CSeries jets, which Delta has ordered ~125 of. The CSeries' history is wild (see this old article for context), and is also tangled up in Pratt's GTF program (itself a *really* complex project).
• Trump is now (maybe) against public-private-partnerships for his (erstwhile?) infrastructure program.
• A proposal to release the algorithms (source code, presumably) that drive all of the decisions made by NYC's government.

Making & Manufacturing.

• A new, infinitely variable transmission for robotics applications.
• A profile of Velodyne, which started in audio equipment and now is the leading supplier of LIDARs.
• On the current state of electric airplanes. Batteries still well below the energy density required for big planes, but decent for trainers. The aerodynamic effects of a smaller engine cowling are pretty compelling.

Maintenance, Repair & Operations.

• Ikea acquired TaskRabbit.

Distribution & Logistics.

• A Houston grocery store manager describes how he managed Harvey.
• Seattle's dockless bikes were ridden 2.2 times per day in their first few (summertime) months in operation. That's on par with the year-round stats for DC and Boston - in other words, good but not great.
• A pretty cool looking bike vending machine in Yinchuan, China.
• On "combi" cargo, in which airplane capacity is split between passengers and cargo. Good for remote areas; everywhere else, FedEx wins. I'd be curious how a real carbon tax would affect that balance.
• How ACH - yeah, the way you get your paycheck direct deposited - works. Trust + text files via SFTP, man.

Inspection & Testing.

• SpaceX's fail reel.
• Fivethirtyeight did *not* get the election wrong; you just don't understand statistics :/

Tangents.

• An ode to archivists.
• A remarkably touching eulogy for American Apparel, and for youth, and for all the mistakes that one makes vis a vis buying into someone else's image.
• Predicting the next wave of NYC coffee shop locations.