Toys, Open Source Hardware, Littlebits.

Seems like new important technologies can often get a beach head in toys or playthings. Batteries, Energy harvesting, AI and Watson... Regardless - toys are fun.

It is said there are five proto-toys - seen from the earliest times: ball, doll (including animals), stick/stylus, string/rope/cord, musical-instrument (like wind and percussion instruments) .

Magnifying glass, magnets, and telescopes are some nice more "advanced" toys. Blocks and vehicles come along too. My personal favorites are classic construction toys.

The modern age has brought electronics and tablets as toys. Especially electronic toys and kits. Brings to mind the venerable first handhelds.

At the OHS2013 at MIT was introduced to Littlebits. They gave away a small sample kit. Very intriguing.

And the idea has gotten legs. Search for littlebits pops up many things. There is an Internet of Things connection with the cloudbit.

So it seems littlebits is becoming the Internet of Things construction toy. They want to be an app store for hardware designs with the bitlab.

Littlebits are in many ways "perfect"... though one caveat is cost (for a toy)... but it is understandable. And it leads one to think of alternatives (and a marketplace) - which has its ecosystem benefits (for littlebits and others). Might come back to that in a later blog entry.

For now thinking of ways that the deluxe Popular Science kit might be used -(sorry)- played with *grin*.

IoT, PTC, LiveWorx, Analytika.

Notices are starting to circulate about PTC LiveWorx 2015. Attended Axeda Connection and PTC LiveWorx last year. Been watching Internet of Things (IoT) in pursuance of making Cimetrics' offerings like Analytika more conformal. Year started with meeting some people from ThingWorx at M2M Miami. Watched as ThingWorx and Axeda started melding into PTC. Attended local events regarding the PTC Smart Connected Products programme.

Good friend of ours, from the energy efficiency and buildings modeling space, joined PTC. Went into high gear regarding analytics, and Cimetrics is now in the ThingWorx partner program. 

The Analytika piece for PTC is mostly about consuming and delivering data for mashups. But there are data connector pathways too. Connections had been a topic we were looking at with Axeda before the acquisition by PTC. Seems everyone is trying to understand how it all fits together. Here is an image from the connectIOT project:

And Cimetrics is still actively pursuing IoT pathways.

Early Failures Sour Future Efforts. Energy Efficiency. 3D Printing.

That early failures sour future efforts is almost self evident. Mentioned in piece about 3D printing that failures (or weak successes) often sour further exploration. Various are working on getting barriers to success lowered. Better tools. Better examples. Better materials. Here is a Greentech article with a similar sentiment, on how low hanging fruit in energy efficiency might actually poison worthwhile efforts.

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.

MBTA Green Line Government Center Routing - Suggestion.

Just posted regarding train shuttle operation on Orange Line. Praise for MBTA flexibility and trying new things. Another suggestion. While Green Line station construction is ongoing at Government Center why not run almost all the trains to North Station and turn around there?

Would seem like

- a nice perk to the ridership for the inconvenience of the closure.
- a more effective rerouting for the connections to Blue and Orange Lines and North Station Commuter Rail.
- just as easy to turn trains around at North Station (maybe easier).
- central management of reroute at North Station.

MBTA Orange Line Train Shuttle - Kudos.

MBTA deserves a compliment. With Orange line delays lately, and the uproar about weather and maintenance, it was a pleasant surprise to have the MBTA doing a very sane thing using train shuttles between Wellington and Oak Grove. The one track shuttle is a great idea...

- Only one track has to be kept running.
- Switches need less operation.
- Signals can be minimized (one train just goes back and forth).

There were minor delays. There was some confusion. Though the confusion seemed unwarranted and somewhat frivolous from the ridership. Riders standing in the door at Malden asking "does this train go to Boston?" seemed almost comical. The anonymous answers "Eventually." and "Just get on, its frigid out there!" seemed very appropriate. The only real confusion was at Wellington with announcements saying to get on for Oak Grove on the "South" side (aka Inbound or Boston-bound track, or the Westside track, or the track farthest from the busways, or the track nearest the MBTA Orange Line repair shops).

The delay from train change at Wellington seemed to be mostly due to holding for the outbound shuttle to fill. Always a somewhat dubious decision (rather then setting a schedule), but is nonetheless understandable.

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.