|
 |
Monday, October 27, 2008 |
I just three weeks, I'll be moderating a Safety Automation Forum at Automation Fair in Nashville (November 18). If you're coming to Music City in November, look me up. I'll hang out at the Rockwell PSUG on Monday, do the Forum on Tuesday, browse the Automation Fair on Wednesday, and intertwine AF with a Siemens-sponsored Webcast on Thursday that week.
3:27:51 PM 
|
|
I was off the grid for most of Friday-Sunday. Took my wife and her mother up to the Chicago area to see our daughter's new house. Stopped at the office for a few hours of intense meetings Friday. Took the old MacBook Pro to the Apple Store in the Woodfield Mall Saturday. The guys at the Genius Bar were great. Turns out my NVIDIA graphics chip is OK, but they tuned up a number of things. The guy working with me said he was fascinated by industrial automation. Saw a folder on my desktop about "OptoAcousticGas Dectector" (coming soon to the Automation Gear blog) and got more explanation than he bargained for. My battery was getting flaky after only 9 months of use--got a new one under warranty. Great!
This week's agenda includes a podcast interview tomorrow with Jonas Berge of Emerson on EDDL. This is a follow up to my interview with Geoff Wickens of Endress + Hauser on FDT. Then we have an Automation World Webcast on Wednesday at 2 pm EDT with Siemens PLM on Improved Machined Parts Manufacturing. I'm moderating with Vynce Paradise of Siemens and Dick Slansky of ARC presenting.
7:39:06 AM
|
|
From ZenHabits: Pare it down to focus on the important. Here is a summary of some of the thoughts: spend a few minutes thinking about what is really essential; be bold in throwing things out; see what is blocking the essentials; come back to it. If you're a marketer, pare down to the most important selling point. When writing emails, before pressing "send" think about whether you can pare the message down to less.
7:28:29 AM
|
|
In the "Shameless Commerce Division" (to steal a phrase from the Car Talk guys), here's a business leader who says to survive the downturn--advertise more. [disclaimer, my salary is paid by advertising revenue] So, how important is your brand, and do you agree that you need to maintain its good image in our market area?
7:18:45 AM
|
|
Greg McMillan over at the Modeling and Control blog has an interesting series going on the past, present and future of automation. Part One here, and Part Two here. He's pondering the question, where have all the engineers gone. I'm sorry I missed his presentation at ISA Expo. I spent almost the entire two days I was there at meetings with marketing people--and still didn't see everyone who wanted to see me. As I told several--trade shows are terrible places to have in-depth conversations. There's not enough time. But PR people in general try to get us locked up for long periods of time. Just can't do it.
7:10:49 AM
|
|
Last Tuesday I went to Cleveland for the day to visit the 16th annual conference of the Society for Reliability and Maintenance Professionals (SMRP). About 900 professionals attended the event. I sat in a couple of sessions, and they were well attended and informative. At the exhibits I learned how Rock Band on the PS2 works (thanks ABB). I guess it's a good game, but I play guitar and percussion, so I wasn't too thrilled with it. (I also got hooked on games years ago, so I avoid them lest I start wasting my time again.) Or as someone else said, if I don't have time to pick up my real guitar, why would I play a "game" one? This is a good organization to check out if you work in this area.
Games seemed to be the meme of the week. Wes Iversen over at Automation World came up with a news item from Fluke. Seems it has turned showing the features of infrared scanning for electrical hotspots into an online game.
7:04:45 AM
|
|
© Copyright 2008 Gary Mintchell.
|
|
|
