Posted by Mike Fahrion on Wed, Aug 18, 2010 @ 06:43 AM
Dear Reader,
Do you remember Metcalfe’s law? Back in 1980 (when much of the country was debating who shot JR and mourning John Lennon), Robert Metcalfe stated that the value of a network is proportionate to the square of the number of connected users of the system. While more a metaphor than an absolute, his statement is grounded in the fact that the number of connections increases at that rate, therefore the value potential increases as well.
Potential.
Ok fellow techies, geeks, nerds and general overachievers. I’m baffled and need your help.
Social networking. Particularly the world of Facebook and Twitter and those that inhabit it.
I don’t get it.
Facebook claims on the order of 500 million users. Cripes! That’s 500,000,000 networked end nodes, all presumably with at least a double digit IQ.
Twitter boasts about 65 million tweets each and every day. 65 million fresh chunks of data posted daily, much of it by living, breathing and – one would suspect - thinking bodies.
All that potential, I can’t find a decent use. Please, please tell me that I’m missing the point because this is driving me friggin’ nuts - and on two separate fronts.
First off, I agree with Metcalfe. Imagine the untold capabilities that should be lurking within - these should be the most powerful tools ever known to mankind. A cloud model database with the world’s largest network of intelligent (some more than others) end-nodes.
Second, hundreds of millions of people are investing time - real time - using these networks. Quick research reveals the average user spends about 6 hours a month. According to my napkin we’re talking about 3 Billion hours of humanity dedicated to this project every month. (The Egyptians built a pyramid in less time and 5,000 years later still have something to show for their efforts).
So we’ve got a colossal network of intelligent end nodes. It may be the biggest investment of manpower in a project in the history of our planet. And Metcalfe’s law predicts unfathomable potential.
Yet I can’t figure out the point.
I can’t even concoct a reasonable conspiracy theory. I’d feel better if someone was making uber-bucks but frankly nobody seems to be making much money either. Lemming mentality doesn’t seem to fit.
The grand result of the largest project of our lifetime?
Virtual farm animals? You know when Cousin Ed is jonesing for a double latte?
When Francis Bacon said “knowledge is power” I don’t think this is what he had in mind. I expected so much more. Am I alone in my quandary? Enlighten me please.
Imagine the potential for a moment - and allow me to take the human element out of it so we can share a rational vision.
Picture every device, every machine, every asset under your care was connected to this pervasive internet that’s rapidly becoming a staple of our world. Data at your fingertips. Sensor data tied to machines, to inventory, allowing you not only to recreate the past, measure the present, but virtually predict the future. A bearing that is about to fail, a wire that is going to overheat, energy costs that will be less expensive in an hour than right now. The gains in productivity, safety, reliability, efficiency – amazing potential. And it can be achieved with today’s technology. It’s happening all around us on an increasing scale.
It’s happening all around us. Somewhere last decade a smart marketer coined the term M2M for “Machine to Machine” communications. Catchy. It describes precisely what our customers do with the equipment that we’ve been building out here in the cornfields of Illinois for nearly 3 decades.
Ethernet Switches loaded with fiber optic ports used to communicate data in a wind turbine back to the controllers and a remote monitoring system.
A bakery integrated temps, scales, level sensors and conveyers over their Ethernet using B&B’s Vlinx Ethernet Serial Servers - increasing productivity and quality.
A coal fired power plant used Zlinx wireless 900MHz long range modems to connect PLCs to the coal conveyors, decreasing down time.
Temporary power generation is a big deal in developing countries and in disaster areas. B&B provided complete panels including our rugged Ethernet switches and serial Modbus to Ethernet Gateways to integrate data systems, enable remote monitoring and control of these portable power plants.
School crossing zone warning signs are connected wirelessly between the school and crosswalks using B&B’s Zlinx wireless radio modems.
The list goes on and on – the power of pervasive connectivity – linking sensors, devices and machines together and into local and wide area networks.
I may not get social networking, but the vision for these pervasive device networks is crystal clear.
Your thoughts?
Happy Connections,
Mike Fahrion
Posted by Mike Fahrion on Wed, May 19, 2010 @ 06:38 AM
Engineering is a tough gig. It requires you to be dogmatically pragmatic, yet pragmatism doesn't breed greatness. Greatness is about creativity and innovation coupled with effective execution. They don't teach you that in Engineering school. Schedule and budget driven projects don't exactly nurture it either.
That's the challenge of engineering. And in this recovering economy where projects are being unleashed on lean teams you had better understand the mental triggers that unleash your "A" game.
When do you do your best work? I've been paying attention, and for me, the pattern is clear.
We all create value on a sliding scale. There are things we each do that are worth $1000 an hour, $10,000, or even more. But are there hours in the day where you're not creating enough value to pull in minimum wage?
The key to success isn't rocket science - maximize the former and eliminate the latter. Duh.
My best work, the $10,000 an hour kind, isn't entirely predictable - but the pattern has been clear for years. So when am I most likely to be worth $10,000 an hour?
- When I'm sweating - not sweating a deadline, but a good run or bike ride. Something that makes the heart pound yet leaves my brain free to connect the dots based on bushels of facts and experiences.
- Early in the morning - emerging daylight is best.
- Listening passively to good music. I like a lot of music, but not all of it works the same way for me. Could be Miles, could be Dvorak. Good music tickles something in my brain that frees the seeds of creativity.
- Performing good music is even better, but that talent takes a lot of time and nurture - my own talent for that art has waned. Rekindling it would be great brain food.
- When I'm outside. Nature trumps Debussy.
- After I've completely cleared my head. This is increasingly difficult to do. A solid week's vacation only works if I leave the laptop and Blackberry behind - a rarity. Hard physical labor combined with fierce concentration does it faster. Swinging my leg over a motocross bike and putting in enough hard laps to make my keyboard-jockey soft hands bleed does it every time.
Have you isolated the triggers that unleash your big dollar thinking? What works for you?
Reaching that state of self-awareness begs follow up questions. If you understand your triggers how do you nurture them? How well do they align with your work environment? What do you do to improve that alignment?
I've got my own answers - frankly some of them still need work (like putting in a motocross track behind the office) - but I'd like to hear yours. Talk back in the comments below and I'll throw in some more of my own.
More often than not the epiphanies that emerge from those deep thoughts aren't complex. In fact, the simpler it is the more likely it is to be effective. It just requires that you stick your head up far enough above the weeds to recognize what may be sitting right in front of you.
One simple fact that whacked us upside the head recently was that - in spite of doing nothing to promote it - we do a heck of a lot of what we call "OEM" business. I was reminded of it again as I worked with three different companies in the last two weeks on communications system designs or troubleshooting and every one of them included products discretely manufactured right here at B&B but under another company's brand. Hands down the hottest product lines for this kind of private-label OEM business lately have been USB converters and isolators. They've been out-pulling serial converters, Ethernet serial servers and Ethernet switches private label jobs by a factor of two lately.
So here's a quick commercial for anyone that needs a communications converter as an accessory or tool to accompany your own product, we can hook you up. We manufacture ourselves, not at some plant that's a 6 week boat-ride away so we pull these off fast, and are even able to do so at ridiculously low quantities.
What will you do today to nurture your own epiphanies? Share your insights.
Happy Connections,
Mike Fahrion
Posted by Mike Fahrion on Wed, Jan 20, 2010 @ 04:00 AM
Dear Reader:
The 2000's, or the Aughts if you will, are over. An entire decade zipped right by - and what a decade it was!
Remember Y2K? Seems like a quaint concern now doesn't it? It's almost symbolic of the "digital decade" of the 1990s - Y2K was about the biggest thing we could find to work ourselves into a tizzy.
Since then we've had 9/11, two wars, hanging chads, Google-ization, Katrina, a fierce tsunami, Climate Change®, and the Great Recession.
The Aughts were quite an ordeal. We just wrapped up the most difficult decade of our careers. And it shook us up. I doubt there is an irrationally exuberant bone left in your body. You're worried about your 401k and what your kids will need to do to meet or beat your standard of living.
It's time to get over it.
It's been tough, but it's over. And don't believe for a second that opportunities don't exist, for us or for our offspring.
There will always be successful people.
Take three steps back. Take two deep breaths. Now congratulate yourself. Survival of the Aughts was a notable feat. Now it's time to saddle up and make things happen for yourself, for your family and for your career.
Don't let the lingering haze of the Aughts cloud your vision. Technology continues to develop at a phenomenal pace opening new doors for pioneers and leaving a path of opportunities in its wake for anyone with vision and unrelenting dedication.
On your journey you will pass many who plod along, one foot in front of the other, staring down only at the sidewalk in front of them as they bemoan their IRA, or some other excuse not to achieve their potential. Don't let them drag you into their viper pit of discontent. You won't run into a single one of them on the sandy shores of your retirement beach house.
A few weeks ago I watched an interview of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, two men that understand success and overcoming obstacles. Buffett declared that "It's never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but it's not always a smooth ride."
My own version would be - never bet against Engineers. You have been trained to solve problems, big and small. And you're damn good at it. Put those skills to work and you'll solve whatever problem that you elect to pursue - as long as you do it with unrelenting dedication.
Enough of my soapboxing. What am I doing?
Lots. I'll skip the personal stuff, other than to say that it's imperative that yourself and family come first, otherwise you'll never be successful.
Here at B&B I'm cranking up the beans on the new product machine. New products not only do great things for B&B, but if I'm doing my job, they help you too.
Check your mailbox and find your brand new B&B Electronics catalog. If you haven't received yours yet, someone has already pilfered your copy. Click here to get your copy before they're gone.
Its chock full of great new products that just might help you and I kick off the Aughts with a bang. Here are a few of my favorites.
USB is a fantastic way to make quick and easy connections. But let's face it, when the folks were developing the USB specification they were thinking about speakers, printers and other namby pamby devices in comparison to the applications that you and I run into. When you use USB in a mobile, lab or industrial setting you have got to have isolation - USB doesn't have it. Sure B&B has had isolated USB to serial converters for ages, but what about the ever-growing list of other USB devices that are finding their way off of the desktop and into demanding applications? We now have a simple, plug it in and forget it, USB to USB isolator that easily isolates all kinds of USB devices from vicious surges and ground loops. Frankly, starting at only $99 I don't know anyone that shouldn't have one. The only question is do you need the 2000 volt or the 4000 volt model!
We just completed the most rigorous testing we've ever done for an industrial product line. Shock, vibration, humidity, intense RF and magnetic fields, 4000 volt surges, 15000 volt zaps just to name a few. All that testing was done to prove to ourselves, and to you, that we've developed our most rugged and reliable family of serial converters ever. The specs that we used were the worst case test levels from IEEE 1613 and IEC61850. Those are both specs for the construction of communications networks in electrical substations and represent some of the harshest electrical environments you'll find. So whether you're working on a smart grid project, or are in an environment where only a tough-as-nails converter will do, the new iLinx Hardened line will be just the ticket. There is a model for every application. 232 to 422/485 conversion, 485/422 isolation, 2 wire to 4 wire conversion, 232 isolation, and 232/422/485 to single or multimode fiber.
Have you ever needed to extend Ethernet into a hard to wire location - or beyond the 100 meter limit? Ethernet Extenders are a plug and play solution that allows you to extend the reach of your network using virtually any pair of unused wires. And now we've added a version that works over coaxial cable - making it easy to use that old network cable that's already lurking in your walls, or easily convert a video coax link over to Ethernet - and it works over 8000 feet!
Last summer I showed you a new mini version of our popular Ethernet to serial converters ("Ethernet Serial Servers" if you prefer the more uppity term) - and it was a huge hit. So now we've added two new versions, a RS-422/485 version and a version that supports RS-232, 422 and 485. If you're looking for a quick and easy way to hang a serial device on your Ethernet Network you won't find a better fit!
There's more, but that's enough for this letter. Take a few minutes to thumb through the new product section of your B&B catalog to check it out for yourself!
Comments and feedback are welcome.
Happy Connections,
Mike Fahrion
e-support@bb-elec.com
815-433-5100
Posted by Mike Fahrion on Mon, Dec 28, 2009 @ 01:49 PM
Dear Reader:
We're wrapping up yet another year, one that I'm sure many are happy to see fade into the sunset. I've got just a few quick topics to wrap up before moving into a nice fresh 2010.
Business first. You heard from President Don last month about a year end sale on the most popular products. That sale is still on - until the end of the year. You'll be happy to know that it's not too late to put an industrial Ethernet managed switch or long range Zlinx Radio Modem on your Christmas list. And what engineer wouldn't enjoy a few DIN rail power supplies in their stocking? Whether you're last minute Christmas shopping, or you've got a few bucks left in your 2009 budget, or even a January project that you'd like to save a few bucks on - get your orders in now!
The B&B Engineering elves have been busy working feverishly to unleash a bevy of new products next month. In fact, some of the elves will be writing lines of code with care in the midst of eggnog & such cheer. This November and December have been the most frantic I've ever seen for all of our engineers as they gear up for the January catalog.
Just a few teasers that I'll be diving more into next month:
If you haven't been using Ethernet Serial Servers to hang all of your standalone serial devices on your Ethernet network, it's time to poke your head out of your shell. And this large product lineup is going to grow even more in the coming weeks.
The Modbus Ethernet gateway line has been a big hit in 2009 - solving about every Modbus conversion and compatibility problem that could be thrown at it. With that success, look for new additions in that family to solve those same sorts of problems with other communications protocols.
What do you do when you need to extend your Ethernet into some remote location that blows the 100 meter limit out of the water? Our lineup of Ethernet Extenders is about to adopt a new sibling as well that will give you even more excuses to try out this first-rate problem-solver.
And even with the broadest line of serial converters and isolators on the planet, we're growing that line too. Some serious rough and tumble converter products, not to mention even more fiber conversion options will be hitting the shelves next month.
Our Zlinx line of wireless I/O and modems will be growing as well, giving you even more ways to get data whether from a sensor or a device, into your system without the expense of running wires.
Ok - let's get on with the juicy stuff.
Global Warming is a nearly irresistible magnet of a topic for me with its bizarre mix of science, politics and dollars. I've gone out of my way to limit my rants, raves and diatribes on the topic, including Copenhagen's events this week.
But have you noticed that Global Warming has been re-branded as Climate Change? Not sure what to make of that, but I'm sure there is a marketing committee somewhere driving the transition. The entire debacle is fascinating to watch - if anyone ever writes a book called "The Science, Politics and Religion of Global Warming," I'll line up to buy a copy.
As long as I'm pushing hot buttons, at 1 AM Monday morning the Senate cleared their first hurdle in accomplishing their mission of completing a health care bill by Christmas Eve. You can imagine the quality of that work. There's nothing scarier than political policy making with a deadline. By design, policy making must move at a snail's pace to end up with a product of value. Frankly, seeing the Senate abandon their slow and stodgy mode of operation scares me silly.
Speaking of political topics, it's a fun season to watch your inbox. All your suppliers have no doubt sent you a thoughtful holiday e-message. They all read something like; Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings, even Joyful Winter Solstice, or other "Happy non-specific gift-giving-season".
Not one Merry Christmas in the bunch, not in my inbox. Virtually everyone, here in the US anyway, has been so well-schooled in political correctness and is so concerned about a potential nasty gram from an anti-Santa zealot that the word Christmas has virtually disappeared from corporate language.
Even B&B isn't immune. One of those emails in my inbox is B&B's very own holiday message. You probably saw it yourself. A striking graphic scribed with the non-offensive message - Happy Holidays.
There was some print too, about how we will be open for business and shipping every day save the 24th (that would be Christmas Eve), the 25th(eh - Christmas), and New Years day (college football, hangovers and such).
So it appears the burden here lies with me to issue the politically incorrect holiday wishes.
So here you go - every politically incorrect holiday greeting I could muster.
Eid Mubarak
Happy Pancha Ganapati
Joyous Kwanzaa
Happy (belated) Hanukkah
and of course,
Merry Christmas!
Mike Fahrion
e-support@bb-elec.com815-433-5100
Posted by Mike Fahrion on Fri, Oct 16, 2009 @ 02:40 PM
A global seabed mapping contractor provides ocean engineering, surveying, project risk and construction support services for oil and gas field development. Depending on project needs, various configurations of data collection and processing equipment must be installed on vessels - in this case, for surface and underwater positioning. This typically requires the installation of hundreds of feet of cabling to collect and transfer data aboard the ship. VlinxTM WiFi Ethernet serial servers, from B&B Electronics Manufacturing Company, Inc., are a "seaworthy" alternative to the cost and time required to string cable through the often tight quarters of ocean-going vessels.
Read the press release.
Posted by Mike Fahrion on Thu, Sep 17, 2009 @ 12:27 PM
B&B Electronics Manufacturing Co. Inc announces initiatives to broaden its depth and distribution of rugged network products and solutions by signing a partnership and distribution agreement with N-TRON Corporation, a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of Ethernet networking equipment for industrial applications.
Read the press release.