Machine Design Blogs

Another item from the AVweb newsletter: The audio of the ATC handling a mid-air emergency is quite interesting. It runs about 8 minutes.

MIDAIR DRAMA UNFOLDS IN TOWER TAPE AUDIO

(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/984-full.html#196454)

A reader sent us the tower tape clip (MP3

(http://www.avweb.com/other/FRG_MidAir_TowerAudio.mp3)) of the

exchange between a smooth, professional air traffic controller at

Republic Airport on Long Island and the pilot of a Piper Saratoga

who’d been in a midair collision with a Cessna 152 last Sunday. As we

reported on Monday

(http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/MidairCollisionEndsHappily_196430-1.html),

both pilots were able to land their aircraft without incident but the

tower tape reveals just what it takes to recover two damaged aircraft

on the same runway during a busy period at a large GA airport. The

first call from the Saratoga pilot comes about 2:15 on the audio file,

but listen to the whole thing to get a feel for what the controller

was up against in getting the damaged aircraft on the ground without

anyone else (including a student launching for his first solo) getting

in the way or into trouble.

http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/984-full.html#196454

This from a recent AVweb Biz newsletter, interesting photos if you follow general aviation:

ASPHALT ROLLER 1, FALCON 0

(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/bizav/983-full.html#196434)

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when an expensive business jet

collides with an asphalt roller, you might ask Sony Corp. Their

Mystere Falcon 900 was taxiing for departure from Teterboro Airport

last Sept. 28 when the left wing clipped the machine on a taxiway.

According to the NTSB preliminary report

(http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20071011X01543&key=1),

neither the captain of the Falcon, nor the roller operator claimed to

see the other coming. No one was hurt but we suspect it ruined a lot

people’s day. (Click through for photos.)

http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/bizav/983-full.html#196434

Do you find yourself spending what seems like hours a day staring at the %^$#@$ hourglass while your computer opens an application or boots up or whatever? Much as you love computers and getting them to do cool stuff, do you ever feel like taking a hammer to one? That has been my mood this last few weeks. On a long business trip overseas, it was as if there was some kind of computer curse going on. I like to catch-up on work and e-mail while waiting for planes, but wireless services at Cleveland Hopkins were dead.

In Paris, it took calling a technician to get the hotel room Internet service working. Then, in Boston –– again, no wireless in the hotel room. Both places were high-class business hotels, not sleazy joints by any means. Back at the office, the e-mail server had crashed, loosing tons of valuable e-mail. All this is why I could only nod my head in sympathy when I read someone’s recent rant about computers, specifically cell phones, Blackberries, text-messaging, and the like. He said people now spend most of their time whether walking down city streets, on elevators and even in restaurants –– staring at the devices’ tiny display screens, intently scrolling up and down. In an entirely apt phrase, he calls what they belong to the new “thumb tribe.”

Education was one of the themes you could find at the Pack Expo show this year. At one conference session this morning, the discussion centered on training of service technicians and field service engineers. The comment by one speaker was that field service personnel are in high demand, particularly those coming into the industry with four-year degrees. Starting salaries, at least on the west coast, are in the $55,000 to $60,000 range, he says. People with two-year degrees are also in demand for this area, though the starting range is a little less.

But another speaker then piped up and said, that’s a problem. The starting salary for some truck drivers is higher than for these sorts of technical personnel. “It’s a problem when the people hauling the stuff around can make more than the people who are responsible for producing it,” he said.

There was another interesting observation when the discussion turned to means of getting kids interested in manufacturing or industrial jobs. Said one panel member: “Factories are those things that are surrounded by a berm and a high barbed-wire fence, where there are security guards to keep you out, and where there are no windows. That’s not an image that make’s you want to work in a factory if you are a kid. We’ve asked members of our industrial group if they would allow kids to come in and see the inside of their plants to help get past this image. Pretty much the answer has been ‘no.’”

You are not alone if you are having trouble coming up with a clear idea of what sustainability is when it comes to manufactured or produced goods. At the Pack Expo show yesterday, keynote speaker John Luke, CEO of packaging materials supplier Meadwestvaco, cited a study by the Hartman Group that found most consumers couldn’t come up with a clear definition of what sustainability was. This despite the fact that the same study found 93% of consumers made some sort of purchasing decision based on what are considered to be sustainability issues.

After Luke’s talk, I happened to bump into a veteran of the packaging industry who had this to say about sustainability:

“It could end up going the way of “low fat.” For two years all you heard about in the food and packaging industries was the low-fat movement. Now, you don’t hear a thing about low fat. Sustainability could easily meet the same fate.”

A friend and I just returned from Charlotte, N.C., where we saw Jeff Gordon win the NASCAR Nextel Cup. The crowd was immense – one TV broadcaster said there were 250,000 attendees. My perspective was certainly different from where I would probably normally sit, namely with the hoi polloi down in the regular grandstands. Instead, we watched the race behind a plate-glass window in a private suite that had plenty of liquid refreshment and delicious gourmet food. Some guests walked downstairs and outside to hear the roar of the cars and smell the exhaust. They returned shaking their heads in wonder at the racecars’ noise and splendor.

I stayed lazy, and just watched the proceedings with my feet propped up in air-conditioned comfort. Things were uneventful until there was a crash with about 10 laps to go. The racecars had to sit in line for about 15 minutes while the track team spread out kitty litter to dry and clean the track. Ryan Newman came out of nowhere on the restart to jump ahead of Gordon, seemingly headed for first place. Not long after, though, he too crashed. A lot of people speculated there was still oil on the track and he hit a spot. Others said one of his rear tires failed.

Engineers familiar with the packaging industry are probably familiar with the PackExpo show. It is the premier trade show in packaging equipment, and it kicked off today in Las Vegas.

Sustainability was one of the key themes in the conference tracks. But it was interesting to talk to exhibitors about sustainability. A lot of them didn’t really know what the word was supposed to mean.

After a look around the show, the operating definition of sustainability seems to be, “Use less of everything.” That was the message of show booths that boasted that their products somehow contributed to “sustainability.”

The best example of sustainability I was able to uncover, using this definition, was a stretch wrap machine from Lantech. It used 30% less stretch wrap than competing processes, and uses patented new technology to do it, all with ordinary stretch wrap. What they call no-film-break technology uses a special mechanical platform to feed out film, rather than use a demand-pull as the film wraps around the pallet load.

The guys who were watching the demo of this thing were pretty amazed at what they were seeing. You could also cut a pretty big whole in the film and it wouldn’t affect the wrapping process.

I friend sent me this CNET link and commentary today:

Ahh, seeing this warmed the cockles of mine heart on this fine Friday.

It also reminded me of the total possession obsession I had for the Atari 800 that was never to be satisfied. (A quick trip to eBay shows them selling for $50 - which seems about $40 too high.)

Instead, I had temporary custody of a Commodore-64, which quickly drove me mad. (Say, how come the C-64 and VIC-20 aren’t in this collection? Not to mention Cromemco!)

Those were not the days of home computing.

http://www.news.com/2300-1042_3-6213000-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

————

Boy, I’ll say. My first experience with microprocessors was with a 4004. I found the whole thing frustrating and time consuming. As home computers came out, I could not for the life of me figure out why anyone would invest the copius amounts of time needed to get those old machines to do anything remotely interesting.

Yesterday I got an email from the editor of Design News. It said:

Hi Leland,

I’m wondering if you want to publicly bet on the ALCS given you’re in Cleveland and we’re in Boston! All in good fun….

Best regards,

John Dodge

Design News Editor-in-Chief

I responded to John, but it turns out our email system was messed up and outgoing messages are not getting delivered. Of course, I didn’t find this out until I got a second email:

Leland,

I am hoping you take me up on this. Series starts tomorrow night. You’ve got to fire back-J!

Best regards,

John Dodge

Design News Editor-in-Chief

Well, phooey. Anyway, here is the response I sent which, hopefully, someday may find its way into John’s email inbox.

John, thank you for your kind offer, but my disillusionment with steroid use awhile back made me swear off any personal actions that would promote major league sports, including a public wager like the one you are suggesting.

The turning point with me came when someone who worked out at my gym died of a heart attack resulting from complications most likely caused by steroids. Only his buddies knew he used juice, of course, but he had the characteristic steroid-user resemblence to the Pillsbury Dough Boy. He was also a locally well-known power lifter and I believe there are still newspaper clippings on the gym wall describing some of his accomplishments. What you won’t find posted on the wall is his obituary. If I had to write it, I might say something like

Used steroids.

Set a few records.

Dead at 34.

Let me be clear: I have no knowledge that anybody in MLB is a steroid user. But it is interesting to compare photos of MLB power hitters today with photos taken before they entered the league.

So now I tend to follow poker more closely than baseball or football. As far as I can tell, a syringe full of juice won’t help you when your two-pair is heads up against a full house.

Leland Teschler

Machine Design Magazine

———

Here is my other story about performance-enhancing drugs:

Back when Mark McGwire was setting his home run record, it came out that he used androstenedione. The day the news broke, I was out with a buddy in California. On a whim, we walked into a health food store in Burlingame and asked the clerk if they carried ando. It wasn’t that we wanted to buy any, we just couldn’t believe you could walk into a store and buy the stuff. I’ll never forget that clerk’s response:

“Andro? Sure, we carry it. It’s right over there on that shelf. But if you take that stuff, you’re crazy. It took them 20 years to figure out that steroids are no good for you. Andro is brand new.”

This from the guy behind the counter!