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Monday, April 30, 2007 |
Iâo[dot accent]ve had a few conversations with Tom Burke, president and executive director of the OPC Foundation, regarding a press release and white paper from security guru Eric Byres and reported by Walt Boyes of Control under the headline Should OPC really be spelled OOPS?
Tom regarded that as a cheap shot given that the problem lies more on the user than anything inherent in OPC. Not to mention that the new OPC-UA specification has a lot of security features built in. Eric has really studied cybersecurity in process control, and he knows a lot about it. He also tends to take the position of anticipating the worst possible case. He further now has a situation in that he has developed a product for sale. So, heâo[dot accent]s no longer an academic researcher.
Iâo[dot accent]m anticipating some further documentation from Tom, but his initial comments to me included the OPC-UA spec, as well as a wish to raise the control communityâo[dot accent]s focus on security and to inspire collaboration among all the automation groups to promote security.
At Automation World, when weâo[dot accent]ve interviewed across the industry about security, the problem most cited is the internal one--policies, procedures and tracking what employees have access to.
8:57:34 PM 
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GE Sensing, the sensing business of the General Electric Company, and Dust Networks announced a technology partnership to build wireless sensing solutions for a range of monitoring applications in a range of industries, including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, automotive, industrial, commercial, petrochemical and power generation.
GE's new Kaye RF ValProbe is the first product introduced from the partnership. The RF ValProbe offers operators the option to view data in real time without the need or cost of wiring, and the ability to collect historical data from remote loggers. This feature is invaluable for verifying system setup prior to studies, or for verifying status at critical times during studies.
The ValProbe system consists of RF wireless loggers, a base station and software. Data can be collected from many loggers and distributed over a wide area. Dust Networks' TSMP-based mesh networking technology ensures that no data is lost by permitting loggers to route data to another logger for subsequent forwarding if the direct path to the base station is blocked.
8:05:31 PM
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Activplant has released ActivEssentials 5 performance management platform built on the Microsoft .Net framework. The upgraded product includes improving enterprise capabilities in data management, consolidation of data and improved security. New tools include Query Builder for drag-and-drop query creation from the Activplant database and the ability to share this XML data with external software.
8:01:33 PM
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I received a message from someone who received the email announcing my podcast interview with Billy Piovesen of the eAutomation Group of Advantech Corp. He wanted to download it and post comments.
Well, the marketing people at Automation World like the term podcast because it has a certain cachet in Web circles. Unfortunately these audio files are not technically podcasts-that is they are not available through RSS feed or downloadable to an iPod.
The subject of our chat (sponsored by his company, but the content is straightforward and non-commercial) is a product manager and wanted to talk about Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs). The program notes mention something about PACs versus PLCs. The writer wanted to comment on them-and he thought others would, too. Well, listen to the interview, then return here to comment if you wish. Maybe another great thread?
So, listen to our chat, and then post your comments here. Maybe we can get a good thread going. Beyond this, I'll be moderating a Webcast in June on the same subject. Give me some food for thought.
Automation World/eAutomation Podcast
7:57:05 PM
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ISA has a great certification product that Greg Lehmann explains on his "CAPcasts" podcasts. I listened to them. He does a great job explaining what is involved in achieving this certification. If you can pass that test, I'm sure you know how to put together a great automation project. He also is a great evangelist for the program. This is something a serious automation practitioner should consider doing. Listen in.
7:53:44 PM
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I don't know why, but people who know me think I'm an expert on air travel. My wife's aunt passed away (not unexpectedly, she had a great, full life), and she wanted to take her mom out to Bozeman, MT for the funeral. Out of five kids in the family, there is just my wife's mother and one sister left. So, I figured out how to donate some of my frequent flier miles to ship them off. They are now safely in Bozeman with some family--and I'm in Baltimore for the WBF conference. I arrived a little too late to register tonight. Probably could have crashed the Control Magazine awards banquet, but I don't have a black tie--in fact I don't have any ties.
I've never been to a WBF meeting before, but tomorrow I'm participating on a panel discussion with Nancy Bartels of Control and Mark Hoske of Control Engineering with a topic something about getting manufacturing out of the closet. You all know my sense of humor--but I promise to play it straight (oops). I don't know the audience, yet, but I do hope to provoke some discussion about the leadership role we need in manufacturing to keep us competitive. Oh, and Walt Boyes of Control is giving the keynote Wednesday. I think this must be pretty much a Control Magazine event, but I think I'll learn a lot. If I do, then you will, too.
Oh, yes, and with the wife gone over the weekend, I finished the first round of referee assignments for the Sidney Mayfest Soccer Tournament. But I can fit one or two of you in, yet, if you want to come to beautiful, but flat, western Ohio. Now if I can get my fall high school assignments out by this time next week, I can almost relax. Except that I got an editing job assignment from the Ohio South State Referee Committee--they think I'm an editor, or something. Some time I'll talk about our new State Director of Referee Assessment. He's a geek. Wants us to get a GPS watch for referees we assess with some computer software. We can track the referee's movements on the pitch to make sure that he covers all the ground and is running just as well in the 90th minute as in the first. I don't use a watch to measure my running, mostly an hour glass ;-)
7:26:54 PM
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Jim Cahill over at the Emerson Process Experts blog noticed the stuff flying around about Hart and Wireless and rounded up an Emerson Expert for his point of view.
7:04:15 PM
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© Copyright 2007 Gary Mintchell.
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