Peter's Webinar

I sat in on Peter Nachtwey's Webinar on PID tuning today. This was a great experience. Peter was very informative, and I was able to absorb some information which will be useful to me in the near future. Peter had a live system on a web cam that he would tune and demostrate live. He walked through each of the tuning parameters of a PID loop and demostrated graphically the impact that each has. It was very cool, and my group really got a kick out of it

One other bonus is that members of PLCs.net were present and sharing knowledge in a whole new way. Ron and Peter were both in the conference, and it was fun for me to finally have a live conversation with both of them.

I think these Webinars would be a great way for members of PLCs.net to share information. From a career development standpoint joining the conference (or hosting one) is a way to refine one's skill set. From a business development standpoint, it's great exposure to show off your skills a bit. Peter made no bones about this being a business tool for him, but the presentation was NOT a pitch. It was informative and impressive.

In the future, I would love to see more PLCs.net members host a Webinar. I'm already thinking about what type of demonstration I could put together. If you're interested in showing off your skills, email or PM me on the forum (akreel). If there is interest in doing these web demonstrations on a regular basis, I'm willing and able to coordinate them until the idea takes on a life of its own.

What Bridge is This?

Is this for real? I've been told it's in France.
Amazing!


Update: It's the Viaduct of Millau (southern France). Thanks to Ken Moore, I now have a Power Point slide show of the construction.

Here's a link to one of many articles about the bridge. A lot of them are in French, so have your translator handy!

343 meters: total height at the top of the pylons.
270 meters: height of the apron above the Tarn.
2,460 meters: overall length.
Eight spans on the whole (six of 342 meters and two of 204 meters), resting on seven piles, are supported by stays fixed at seven 90 meters height pylons each one.
36,000 tons of metal frame, is seven times the Eiffel tower, constitutes the steel apron. 85,000 cubic meters of concrete, whose more than 50,000 of concrete high performance, were used for the realization of the piles and of the abutments, that is to say on the whole more than 205,000 tons of concrete.

ICE: In Case of Emergency

This sounds like a great idea. Emergency responders are on a campaign to get you to enter your emergency contacts into your cell phone. To make these numbers easy for them to find, they ask that you label them ICE, or ICE1/2/3 if you have more than one contact.

Browser

Have you been using Firefox?
It is simply the best.
I like the fact that you can hold the control button down when you click a hyperlink.
The linked webpage opens in a tab beneath the page that you are reading. This allows you to view the linked page on your own time.
I also like the way it blocks pop ups.
I like Favicons too.
They are little icons that are on the left hand side of the URL.
They also show up in the Bookmarks.
I don't know why but my Internet Explorer (version 6.0) doesn't show them.

Don't Turn it Into a Science Project

A former coworker of mine had an expression he would share with me on occasion:

Be kind to your 'A' students, for they will come back to teach.
Be kind to your 'B' students, for they will go on to do great things.
Be especially kind to your 'C' students, for they will fund your new science lab.

Of course, this struck a cord with me because I was a rock-solid 'C' student from third grade on. I needed to see the value in an assignment before I could focus on it intently.

I've had the opportunity to work around people with varying academic experience. The one thing that astounds me about book-smart people is their fear of giving straight answers. There's a hesitation to say anything until all options are considered. Ask one of these guys for a formula, and they won't even have to look it up. But, if you ask for an opinion the answer three weeks later they might still be studying your question to determine your intent.

A project team really needs a good mix of people. The brainy people, with their over-zealous attention to detail make excellent candidates for engineering and quality control. They don't always make for good design or site support personnel. During a start-up there is a personality type that I like to have present: the no bull, get-'er-done kind of person. I have found, more often than not, that the strong nuts-and-bolts guys are the 'B' and 'C' types. They don't always have advanced degrees, but they know their stuff!

In case you were wondering: the difference between design and engineering (in my mind) is numbers. Engineers crunch formulas: predictive analysis, worst case scenarios, modelling, etc. Designers are the human element, they turn the engineer's plans into a physical reality by finding the pieces to build it. Engineers and designers like to think they can work without one another, but the truth is most of us are a little of both. If you ever tried to work in a team that was weak in either area, you would notice it.

Sadly, it Should Be Easy to Find People This Gullible

How does this sound for a new reality TV show concept: "launching" people on a fake mission into space?

The show will include fake training, leading up to an eventual staged launch. There's no explanation, however, as to how they're going to fake zero gravity. The "Vomit Comet" can only simulate the experience for a few seconds at a time. My guess is, they'll find a handful of really clueless people and convince them that they're on a new space ship with simulated gravity.

What's a Bacon Number?

Gbradley has discovered why you don't want to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with anyone from The University of Virginia. It seems that they've taken the fun out of it (like good engineers) and created a database linking actors by movie to Kevin Bacon.

I'm not sure exactly how the game is played, but I think you would want to research anyone with an infinite Bacon number if you were to consider trying the game.

When Green is Not Safe

Beware when working with Voltages Overseas!
In some ways the convention of mainland China does make a lot of sense A, B, C, legs 380V, 220V between any Leg and a Neutral.
(at least this is how it appears to me, don't take it as gospel)
Green however, is NOT ground.

Compared to USA Standards, this seems odd, but I guess as long as they all follow convention everything works out OK.

China

Has anyone been to China?
It is just amazing.
All of the scooters are 125cc.
You see all sorts of vehicles going every which a way.
You have got to see the traffic to believe it.
Here's an 8 MB file showing a traffic intersection.

Anyhow, I just got back from a short trip there and my head is still spinning.
I'm sure that many who have not been there yet, will be going soon. The amount of construction is phenominal.

BTW I was not able to directly link to the Blogging website while in China. :-(
I was able to go to PLCS.net though :-)

New $100 Laptop for the Third World

Check out this post on a new one hundred dollar laptop intended for developing countries. Here's a quick features list:

Wireless Network
500 Mhz CPU
Sunlight readable screen
Open Source OS (likely)
dual mode display: color and monochrome
1GB memory
1GB flash (in place of hard drive)
Hand crank (provides 40 minutes of power in monochrome mode)

And, it comes in a really cool Green and Gold case!

I really like the fact that these things are internet enabled (provided they are deployed in an internet enabled country). Let's get these things out to a few million eager kids. Nothing topples crummy governments faster than free exchange of ideas!

Open Source Cell Phones

Do-it-yourself cell phones may be coming soon. Click the link to find out how cell phone technology, like personal computers and HAM radio before them, are likely to get a major boost from hobbyists.

Maybe we'll finally see cell phones develop some useful tools! Currently, the market seems dominated by entertainment oriented features.

Welcome!

Welcome to the blogosphere, PLCs.net members. For those of you who are unfamiliar with blogging, it's like an online journal. Many people use their blogs to share their opinions. Others use their blogs to share stories, demonstrate a talent (there are tons of photography blogs), or talk about themselves. We want to do all of that here.

PLCs.net has evolved into a huge online community. There is a wide range of talent, knowledge, and experience on the forum. This blog is intended to allow you to speak your mind, outside the Q&A format. It is intended to be a place for you to connect with other members, but we don't want it to take any of the fun out of the Q&A forum. The forum will always be the place for you to learn about using a PLC. This blog is a place for you to talk about other things that you may have on your mind: how bad your football team is, rumors about a new Star Wars movie, etc. I know that some of you are itching to express yourselves!

Anyone may comment to a post on this blog. If you wish to create a post of your own, you will need to create a blogger account. (don't worry it's free) Contact one of the administrators, and we will add you to the contributor list.

One ground rule: This is an opinion based medium. But, the administrators reserve the right to pull your comments if they are inappropriate. We do not want anyone to embarrass themselves!

Sony Strikes Again!

Sony is a leader in digital technologies. It pains me to see them shoot themselves in the foot. The latest mistake is a new copyright measure that they've invented. And, just like some of their earlier attempts to protect music, they're backpedalling.

I'm not suggesting that copyright owners should try to protect their material. They shouldn't have to cross ethical boundaries to do so, though.

The real tragedy with Sony is that they have killed their own great inventions with this strangle hold mentality. Minidisc and Betamax are superior technologies, but they went nowhere. And, Sony's audio compression formats sound better than MP3, but they're not widely accepted because they only work on Sony equipment.

H/T to Nick at The World According to Nick for calling my attention to this.

LRADical!

Have you seen the defensive weapon used by cruise ships in pirate infested waters (and also used for crowd control in New Orleans)? It's a little a sonic LASER.

These things are going to start showing up at rock concerts soon, aren't they?

Learn PLC'S

Have you seen the new PLC Simulator?
Once you've got the basics down.
The Simulator is a great place to practice your code.

Remember These

These guys will build you a portable one that you can put your own Sim card into.

The Physics of Cow Tipping

Check out this blog on the physics of cow tipping. Apparently, some researchers in Britain and/or Canada set out to prove that cow tipping is impossible. What they did manage to prove is that the rest of the world really NEEDS a forty hour work week, to keep them from wasting too much time.

FYI: The link at the bottom of this article, to virtual cow tipping is the "after" page. Use this link, instead.

The Light Bulb of Tomorrow

An "accident" in a lab has created a potential next-generation light bulb. This new light would be powered by LEDs, but can be made brighter than any LED or incandescent fixture currently available. This invention comes just in time to phase out fluorescent bulbs, which have just recently started becoming practical.

This new technology was not really created purely by accident. It was a case of "I wonder what this would do." But, you know scientists: they always need a procedure, otherwise the result doesn't count.