Cimetrics Introduces Analytika for Internet of Things.

Analytics for Internet of Things... Previously.

Picked up by

- CNBC.
- BusinessWire.
- Automation.com

Analytika for IoT extends existing analytics capabilities to address the needs of designers, manufacturers, owners and operators of all kinds of “things”. And provides a variety of cost saving and revenue-enhancing value propositions for the Internet of Things.

Staying on Track Blogging.

Stay on Track Blogging 2015 by thoughtlight, LLC, Thursday, February 5, 2015 from 6 to 8 PM.

Great group, presentation and ideas. At 50 Milk Street at new(ish) CIC Boston. Visit to the space worthwhile. Takeaways:
- schedule regular blogging
- images always worthwhile (even a little relevance is fine).
- okay to curate or review.

So as a part of the scheduling "exercise": Editorial calendar : (and maybe this has some tongue in cheek spirit *grin*):

Thousand blogs by end of main career (next two decades). Smoothed average: four to five blogs a month.

Current feature: IoT. Ongoing emphasis: Energy and metrology. With a mix of hobbies, book reviews, sociology, robotics, manufacturing, design, toys, transportation, travel, science, engineering and so on.

3D Printing MIT Introduction.

Was at a short bootcamp regarding making and 3D printing at MIT.

The introductory presentation was very direct. Context: subtractive (cutting) and additive manufacturing contrasted. Then the types of additive described... including... 3D printing. There are many resources from which to get your fill of details regarding 3D printing.

The panel discussion was great - if somewhat MIT project and offering centered. But why not? The event was hosted at MIT after all. And there are indeed some great offerings from MIT or started at MIT... There are too many to list.... but
Hint: Edgerton Center Saturday Thing.
Hint: Fablabs.
Hint: Affiliated hackerspaces.

One panel question stood out in my mind. To paraphrase:
What is needed to make 3D printing (CAD making) go forward (more quickly)?

And the answer was two fold....
- Better materials (and materials science).
- Simple design environments (aka design software).
The panelists and audience generally seemed to agree.

The issue is how to make it easy for anyone to design 3D objects. Maybe said "environment" will be an evolutionary step from existing CAD design tools? Maybe something revolutionary will come?

It is not exactly "design", but design market places (or sharing places) are already starting to make things easy. The paradigm parallels "there is an app for that" taking it to "there is a model existing for that" and maybe the best design is little to no design at all, but more modification or mashups of existing designs.

3D printing has an interesting landscape. The small players are abundant. From printers or machines to makerspaces to environments.

But larger players are starting to notice. Solidworks (Dassault) seems to be trying to be what is needed. Autodesk: Spark Ember, Autodesk 123D, spaces in San Francisco and Boston.

It was mentioned in passing that it is unclear what people want to create. And in many cases a created object failure sours people to the technology. Maybe the area is waiting for a "killer model" for people to create? Have heard it kicked around that most people print phablet cases, trinkets or parts for printers. And there are always "issues".

Toys always seem a good place to start. How about adapters for various sizes of construction blocks? They largely already work by allowing larger series to stack on smaller series. What one really needs is to go the other way. To allow smaller details to be affixed to larger constructs (based on larger units). Project from F.A.T. (warning - unfortunate acronym).

Like this Lego Duplo Primo adapter or kit.

MIT Mini Maker Faire.

MIT Mini Maker Faire
MIT Mini Maker Faire
October 4, 2014, North Court, east of Stata Center,  9a-6p

Update: Reference Books for Device, Apparatus and Electronics Design.

Omission in Reference Books for Device, Apparatus and Electronics Design was pointed out. Was going to just update, but seemed worthy of new post.

Where the core is design Donald Norman's Design of Everyday Things should be considered. It is both a classic, and has a new edition in 2013. One forgets usability and affordance at one's peril.

Your Browser is Not Supported - Below the Fold

Lately have been served more than the usual number of pages along the lines of “Your browser is not supported by our website”. Some are quite clever, but most are brief (and no matter how polite – they make one want to leave). Such an approach misses a huge opportunity.

The one liner redirect (zinger which effectively says you are sub-human for using browser X) is itself content, and could easily be replaced with a few lines and a few images which at least portray the most important site message(s). And then sends you…

Have often changed browsers to find a graphic heavy website, with little dynamics (no warrant for browser features), which does not answer basic questions like:

A – What is your offer/business?

B – Am I the right customer? (service versus product, and ideas of scale – individual versus corporate/government).

C – How to contact? (multiple methods).

D – How can I see/touch/feel/experience what you offer?

E – What are your best features? (these must be simple, innovative, and fit within my world view).

Notice it is mostly about “me” *grin*. Who you are and your history come later. And so do fancy media presentations (unless that is what you are offering… though those websites – those in the business of making media presentations, or truly deeply predicated on history – are seldom offenders in this regard… think about that).

Tangentially related:

Long (real) content on a single page is no harm. Everyone scrolls (especially mobile). Only recently have been shown outcomes from the “above the fold” controversy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Above_the_fold

http://uxmyths.com/post/654047943/myth-people-dont-scroll

Get your message out quickly. Back it up firmly and succinctly. Present action items.

New Devices – Just Give us the Pins and APIs

Recently blogged about the renaissance of the DIY electronics pathway.

http://albertputnam.blogspot.com/2013/12/renaissance-of-diy-electronics-store.html

Now one can find modules for almost any function - at near instant mail order and even at a local retail outlet.

That speaks to a message that needs to get to the developers of new chips and modules for connectivity and core or ancillary functions. The release of such modules often involves a CPK (programmers kit) to the chip or module API – fair enough. The supplier company often releases a development kit - which has a reference design board, their module, a power supply and various cables, and a DVD or CD with the CPK (or more lately a slip of paper or QR barcode code with a website link to a CPK download *grin*)

The new paradigms of modules at retail screams out to stop building/providing hardware development kit boards - with UARTs and LEDs and converters and drivers power connectors and all such do dads, plus saying nothing of CAD and revisions for a reference design.

Suppliers - just put your chip or module on a carrier with pins (at human scale with 0.1” or 2mm spacing). Make your reference designs utilize other modules. Refer to said modules specifically if you like.

The only things the developers add are

A. wire interconnects between modules (and the developer at the end gets to choose which modules to use). There is no harm in a reference /design/, just do not make it the defacto only thing the developer can use as hardware.

B. code interconnects between module APIs.

The work in development becomes the interconnection for pre-existing functional blocks with accessible API and pinouts. There are some nice USB (and other protocol and wireless) bridges developers could really go to town with given accessible pins. This is to say nothing of a fair bunch of embeddable microcontrollers. Get humans something to get humanly started. Then the design wins will come.