2017-10-17

Notes.
A warm welcome to our new sponsors: MTConnect (the leading machine-to-machine communication protocol), and Octopart (the excellent parts search engine; they're also hiring a senior product manager in NYC).

I spent last weekend with friends (both internet and IRL) at Kickstarter, thinking a lot about the state of engineering & manufacturing. I'll be talking more about these topics - small batch & on demand manufacturing specifically - at Formlabs' event in NYC this Wednesday. Come!

Planning & Strategy.

• A really good interview with the founder of Stonyfield Yogurt on how he built his business.
• A paperclip factory simulator that lets you set prices, buy equipment, and market to customers. Pretty fun to leave running for a little while and see how your business is doing :)
• On Arduino's relationship with ARM. Apparently ARM does *not* have equity in Arduino, but they did provide... something.
• On the podcast this week, I talk with Craig Cannon, Director of Marketing at Y Combinator, about projects, podcasting, and working with startups.

Making & Manufacturing.

• NYC's Futureworks + The Zahn Center are giving away $10k worth of prototyping credits. Deets here, enter here!
• How aircraft flush riveting works.
• A pretty rad digitally controlled Jacquard loom.
• A good video of sand casting. Love the moldmaker's hustle, not impressed with the paper dust mask :/

Maintenance, Repair & Operations.

• More on China's move away from garbage imports.

Distribution & Logistics.

• Star wants to talk to anyone who has used or has a need for spot, on-demand, next-flight out, or charter air freight. Holler!
• Uber and Lyft most likely *add* to traffic in major US cities today. "Many believe that sharing vehicles can help address our growing transportation woes — however, this research shows that sharing vehicles is not enough. We will likely need to foster more dense development patterns that can minimize vehicle miles traveled through walkable and bike-friendly neighborhoods, continue to invest in mass transit, and facilitate shared rides in shared vehicles through pricing or incentives."
• An excellent visualization of how smoke blew down into the SF Bay last week.

Inspection & Testing.

• iPhone 8 vs Sony A7.
• A series of good visualizations for different methods of sorting noisy data.
• Apple ships more microprocessors than Intel.

Tangents.

• Boston! Learn more about what I do at nTopology at Brad Rothenberg's session at Develop 3D Live next week. Deets here.
• I read The Remains of The Day, and enjoyed it.

DHL's electric recumbent delivery bikes.