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Most recent blog entries
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The new CAD Society |
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Rachael Taggart
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By Rachael Dalton-Taggart on
4/29/2008 10:30 PM
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Recently, the CAD Society experienced a little bit of a rebound: with a vitalized strategy from president Mike McGrath, and VP, Tom Lazear, the Society decided to revive itself as a cross-industry organization that will tackle both the positives, and the negatives, of the industry as a much stronger voice and organization.
The CAD Society is looking for new members, ones who want to benefit from a range of discounts available to members, including hardware discounts from HP, software discounts from Archway Systems, and training from companies such as i.get.it. Members only gain access to about 13 discounts currently on offer - an offering that is set to rise across the coming months.
As for what else? The CAD Society is going to issue a newsletter, a job forum eventually, as well as forums, networking, and ultimately a program for mentoring engineers and an intern connection program. In addition, the CAD Societ ...
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"Slowdown" or "Recession" ?? |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
4/25/2008 6:31 AM
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Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, the current administration continues to deny that a recession is abroad in the land. Just a few days ago, Bush 43 rejected claims that the nation was in a recession, instead saying only, “We are in a slowdown.”
If the economic facts in my April 23, 2008 blog entry were not enough, here are some more depressing data points on the US economy --- data just released late on April 24:
Sales of new homes dropped by 8.5% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units, the slowest sales pace since October 1991 (during Bush 41’s reign). The median price of a new home sold in March 2008 dropped by 13.3% compared with March 2007, the biggest year-over-year price decline since a 14.6% fall in July 1970 (during Nixon’s first term).
New home sales were down in all regions of the country in March 2008: Northeast minus 19.4%, West minus 12.9%, Midwest minus 12.5%, and South minus 4.6%.< ...
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The US Economy -- not so good... |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
4/23/2008 4:55 PM
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Well, the US economy sure hasn’t improved any since my last blog entry in February 2008. Unfortunately, we are all sinking deeper into W’s second recession.
Rising gasoline prices again tightened the squeeze on US drivers on Earth Day April 22, 2008, jumping for the first time to an average $3.50 a gallon of regular across the country - with no sign of relief. (Drivers here in the San Francisco Bay Area paid an average of $3.98 a gallon for regular).
Crude oil set a record for the sixth day in a row on April 22, this time closing at $117.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Diesel prices at the pump also struck a record of $4.20 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That will add add to truckers' costs and drive up the price of food, clothing and other goods shipped by truck.
It’s difficult to find good news anywhere across the U ...
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The Ninth COFES is over, and I am thrilled, drained, energized - and have no clue as to what it all means! Help me! |
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Joel Orr
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By Joel Orr on
4/22/2008
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Life goes by so fast! COFES 2008 was, well, outstanding - even more the prior ones, each of which outdid the ones before. But so much keeps going on! There is hardly time for thought, let alone reflection; stuff keeps happening too quickly for me to make sense of.
We're doing a much better job of posting stuff quickly; explore this site, and you will find recordings, videos, and some comments on what went on at COFES, with more to come - hopefully, before it's all old hat...
What do we do about this phenomenon that signal processing geeks call 'aliasing' - the challenges of representing a high-frequency set of events in a low-frequency medium. Stuff is pouring in as I sit here, and there is no way I can assimilate it all, let alone its implications. I can't even begin to assimilate the ruminations of gurus who are quick to analyze and summarize - and I certainly don't have time to think about how good those analyses are...I know I'm preaching to the converted here. You ha ...
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At the CMU West "Mobile Future" conference in Santa Clara, CA |
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Joel Orr
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By Joel Orr on
4/20/2008
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I'm sitting in this wonderful conference, full of ideas from all the many powerful presentations I've experienced so far, and the people I've met - and I find myself actually distressed that the slides and more are not already online -- nor is there any indication that they will be! What does that say about us leading-edge scouts? Here's some text from the event site:
In a not-too-distant future, the computing platform of choice for a significant number of consumers will be a hand-held device. Signs of this trend are already apparent in Asia and Scandinavia, and all indicators suggest that this evolution transforms the lives and work of individuals in ways that are both chaotic and enriching. Given the diversity of global communications mechanisms, how can network operators, software vendors, and handset providers accelerate this evolution? The Mobile Future brings together experts from industry and the research community to share and di ...
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Under-$10k 3D printer announced by 3D Systems |
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Joel Orr
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By Joel Orr on
4/3/2008
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3D Systems, the company that coined "stereolithography," has just announced a printer for less than $10,000.
When the Apple Laserwriter came out in 1985, it cost $7,000 - and opened the era of "desktop publishing." Of course it's not the same thing, but perhaps there are some interesting parallels for us to think about.
At the very least, it will be something of a test of the assumptions of those like Dassault CEO Bernard Charles, who believe that 3D is a universal communication language. Simple CAD puts 3D modeling within reach of all; now this printer puts 3D "hard copy" within reach of many. I'm curious to see what will happen!
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World 2.0 |
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Joel Orr
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By Joel Orr on
3/25/2008
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On Dave Gurteen's knowledge management blog, a fascinating take on the "2.0" meme:
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recently spent the whole of January in SE Asia; giving talks and
running knowledge cafes in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. As
always I learnt as much as a I taught at these events.
Most of us
understand what Web 2.0 is all about as we move from a read-only web to
a read-write or participatory web.
And we are starting to come
to grips with so called Enterprise 2.0 where the concept and
technologies and social tools of Web 2.0 are moving from the open web
into organizations.It is still early days and there are many issues to
be grappled with as we try to balance the structure and stability of
the old world with the more fluid and complex nature of the new.
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the "2.0 meme" is starting to affect everything. In a talk in Kuala
Lumpur I was asked how you implement Enterprise 2.0 and I was talking
about so ...
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Global warming? Maybe. But we should still work on alternatives to fossil fuels. |
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Joel Orr
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By Joel Orr on
3/21/2008
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Amazing how even the most scientifically-minded become advocates of causes whose scientific basis still holds many open questions. There are systemic reasons for this, and they are not new, and I am very far from the first to point this out. I'm reading an anthology of editorials from Analog (formerly Astounding) Science Fiction magazine, written in the forties, fifties, and sixties, by John W. Campbell. He has much to say about the institutional need to quash alternatives--in medicine, very notably, but also in all sciences.
The referenced article below points out that there is a lot of emotion behind climate issues today--but that the implications of the questionable conclusions hold regardless. This is from the American Society for Engineering Educators.
Canadian editorial criticizes climate "hysterics."
In a
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