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 Mon, Sep 14, 2009 @ 02:28 PM
School supplies have been purchased. New clothes, new shoes, boxes of unbroken Crayola's and fresh bottles of Elmers glue without crusted over caps. Classroom assignments received and the frenzied phone calls to see who got Mrs. Bretag and Ms. Walker are, thankfully, complete.
As always, I'm plagued with mixed feelings when we hit the end of the summer vacation and the kids go back to school. Fleets of lumbering yellow busses forecast the end of those summer camping trips and ball games - a stark reminder that we're marching slowly towards another winter season.
Do you remember those "what I did on my summer vacation" assignments? Sure it's been a few years, I'm always mindful to have plenty of good stuff to write down. Hopefully you have good stories to tell as well.
Cooking breakfasts in a cast iron skillet over the fire. Solitary morning runs on one of the best beaches on the continent. Filtering tea-colored drinking water from deep and cold northern lakes. Sticky-fingered kids roasting marshmallows over the campfire. Portaging a canoe through hundreds of rods* of secluded trails leading to that next pristine waterway. Ball games, lots and lots of kids ball games.
And like you, my summer was disturbed by the occasional work day. The results were that quite a few things actually got done, including some exciting new products that have hit the shelves in time for your own back-to-the-grindstone projects.
Here's a new version of what was already a best seller. A mini Ethernet serial server. "Serial server" is such a stuffy name - it's really nothing more than an RS-232 to Ethernet converter. Fits right in your pocket, yet wields the power to put any serial device on your LAN. Scales, scanners, displays - you name it. If it has a serial port on it, it's now easier (and cheaper) than ever to connect that equipment to your network.
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=240&s=20090281
And what if your LAN happens to be wireless? What if you'd like to take your favorite load cell with you for a vanilla latte at Starbucks? We've got an excellent new family of WiFi serial servers that will get your serial devices up and talking over your wireless LAN. This is great for mobile equipment or applications where you're forever reconfiguring your manufacturing space.
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_multi_family.asp?MultiFamilyId=99&s=20090281
Not a bad summer's work! And there were other projects too. One biggie was welcoming N-TRON as new supplier to the B&B family. N-TRON adds the most rugged Ethernet switches you'll find to the B&B mix. These aren't just industrial grade. We're talking 1964 Tonka truck tough. EMC specs strong enough to withstand demanding electrical substations. Shock and vibration ratings so high you can strap them right to your meanest, nastiest machine - even if it's a locomotive. Hazardous location rated. And (this is the part I like the best), the secret sauce in an N-TRON switch is that it's the only Ethernet switch available that can truly plug and play on an Ethernet/IP network. Use anything else and you're throwing away serious time as you decipher how to configure IGMP snooping, VLAN's and QoS to support your Ethernet/IP application.
http://bb-elec.com/productsubcat.asp?MainCategoryId=144&s=20090281
Do you remember the sneak preview I gave you to our new wireless range estimator tool a couple months back? I got a lot of great feedback and the bacon-saving success stories have been building. Don't forgot to check it out at
http://www.bb-elec.com/wirelessrangeestimator/?s=20090281
Yet another school bus lumbering down the street signals a wrap on my summer. What did you do on your summer vacation?
*A rod is a centuries old unit of length apparently only recognized or used by recreational canoeists and English literature majors enamored with Thoreau. Canoeists like the measure as its 16.5 feet is similar to the length of a canoe. So, 320 rods per mile - a long hike with an upside-down canoe on your shoulders.