Shop Rats Rule!!

This really gets my motor running! These folks just plain get it - big time. ShopRat.org knows that we’re running out of Shop Rats and they’re doing something about it.

Manufacturing all over the world relies on a continuous supply of Shop Rats to keep its motor running, therefore we ALL rely on Shop Rats. If you’re here at SupplierSource, then you care about manufacturing and engineering and already know what a Shop Rat is and are probably proud to be one. For our friends and visitors here’s a little help:

These characteristics are true of Shop Rats all over the world, not just the US. Let’s be honest with ourselves, the only reason we need groups like the Shop Rat Organization here in the states is because we’ve “forgotten” how important Shop Rats are to our way of life and have chosen instead to glorify individuals and groups with other skills rather than the ones that make our world possible. Now our daily life is becoming a steady stream of reminders of why we need to include Shop Rats in our recognition of true heroes. This not an “us vs. them” issue. The real issue is that we all rely on each other.

Yikes! I’m getting a little passionate there. I care. We should all care.

Shop Rats all over the world deserve our respect. Each of us needs to work a little harder to both earn that respect and to share it too. Go see what ShopRats.org is doing and see if you can help them - and yourself - whether you’re here in the states or somewhere else in the world trying to understand how to help make things better.

Many thanks to Marie Planchard, Director of Worldwide Education Markets at SolidWorks Corporation, who told me about ShopRats.org in the first place.

(Hopefully, she won’t regret it now.)

RSS - better than a fire hose

If you’re thristy, you could try drinking from a fire hose, but that usually involves a fireman who has other things on his mind. The hose, the volume of water and the direction are in his control. Good luck getting what you need. 

You could use a garden hose and then you get to hold the hose. You also control the volume of water and you decide where it goes. But, you still end up with a lot more water making puddles on the ground than quenching your thirst.

 You could use a glass and maybe even some ice to add further controls.  You decide what’s in the glass now and when and how you want to drink it. Even so, sometimes you  still end up dumping all the ice cubes down your front.

Use a straw and now you’re making all of the decisions and you can avoid the embarassing avalanche too.

So, now that you’re not thirsty any more, we can talk about the whole RSS thing. 

RSS means Really Simple Syndication. It also means you decide which glass you want to put your straw in and how much you want to drink and when. Those little orange things all over our site mean you can put your straw there and not have the avalanche of ice, the puddles, or your lips ripped off. You’re asking that part of our website to notify you when that part is updated.

If you want to know whenever we have a new company added, then you click on the orange button next to the “New Supplier Listings” and subscribe to that feed. Many of our service categories have RSS feeds too. You can subscribe to updates for only the services that you want. You decide what you want to read about.

So, look for the orange icons to help turn the internet firehose into an information stream that you control and enjoy!

This Google page has lots more detailed technical information about RSS and how to get set up. It’s not hard to do and it is worth it.

Trade show attack dogs

We’ve all been there: you’re cruising down the aisles at a trade show. You know that there is something new and cool somewhere, you just have to find it. You also feel like a piece of fresh meat as you try to stay in the center of the aisle and avoid eye contact with the drooling attack dogs at each booth ready to pounce. You hope that you’ll be able to get some idea of what they do before they’re on you, so that you’ll know which defensive tactic to use (”I am not from this galaxy” works sometimes).

Many of us have also been on the other side way too many times, lined up with a multitude of other folks, all having invested a large amount of time and efort to try to be the one big thing that the attendee cares about at that show. The opportunities are limited. The prospects are moving down the gauntlet and you need to make some kind of contact. You’ve got all the latest catchy visuals and pumped-up videos going (and, if you’re lucky, attractive booth mates), but you still need something to lure them closer.

Ah yes, the giveaway! A worm on a hook doesn’t work in most of these situations, but we’re always intrigued (on both sides of the attack/opportunity) by new approaches to the problem.

Most recently, at SolidWorks World 2008, I was on the “attack” side of the equation and tried a new worm that worked surprisingly well - custom postage stamps. Huh?

Yes, custom postage stamps. US Post Office-approved sites like Stamps.com and Zazzle.com let you upload your own artwork and they apply the requisite bar code, print them up and send them off to you. Of course, they’re more expensive than the “regular” stamps, but they really do work on real mail. I know that there are at least two people that still use stamps and the post office, since I’m one of them and I did a non-scientific survey at home too.

When I approached folks at SolidWorks World with the stamps, they were at first rather surprised, then intrigued and then (almost always) they smiled! They didn’t always come over to the SupplierSource kiosk and get the full-boat show, but they did get a quick idea of what we’re about and something useful that they could take back with them. Whenever they see the stamps, they’ll be reminded of SupplierSource and how very useful we are too.

NOW COMES THE EXCITING PART: I still have a few pairs of these highly collectible stamps available on a limited-time, first-come-first-served basis just for you! But (there’s always a “but”), you need to earn them, since you didn’t have to pay to go all the way to the show in San Diego. To get your pair of stamps, just sign up your company with SupplierSource and make a comment here at the blog or let me know by email (dswavely@REMOVEALLTHISSTUFFsolidworks.com).

If you want to go for the whole enchilada, do a review for one of your favorite partners and I’ll give you TWO pairs of stamps! Yes, count them - TWO pairs, all for you. You won’t have to email me, since you do have to register to be able to provide a review.

Now, I know that you can barely contain your excitement, so please go to SupplierSource, earn your very own stamps and maybe even use some custom stamps yourselves to deliver a smile rather than a bite.

Aircraft carrier traffic jam

Sometimes you just get lucky. As I was walking along the San Diego waterfront to get a better look at the USS Midway Museum, I was also taking pictures. One rarely sees an aircraft carrier in Massachusetts (although we do have a wonderful battleship, the USS Massachusetts).

As I got closer to the massive hulk of the museum’s main focus, I glanced left and was boggled by what I was seeing. CVB-41 (USS Midway) was almost blocking the sky, CVN-76 (USS Ronald Reagan) was moored across the channel and CVN-68 (USS Nimitz) was inbound, complete with tugs and with the crew lined up around the deck. It’s not likely that I’ll see that again. All right, if you live in San Diego it might not be that big a deal, but to me it sure was.

Since I had mentioned aircraft carriers in my earlier post, “Thinking about hardware”, I was absolutely going to figure out a way to include this photo in another post. Well, aircraft carriers have to be “manufactured” too, so that was a starting point. The Internet provided (links at the end) multiple archives of images including this one of the Midway being constructed in 1945.

Things were a little more sophisticated when the Reagan was being built.

The massive scale of the effort is just amazing. When I stumbled upon the Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition (ACIBC), I knew I had found gold. Their mission statement says it all:

Go to this interactive map at their website and check out the lists of the coalition’s Industrial Base companies in each of 46 states. Bear in mind that this is just the coalition members, it doesn’t include the value provided by manufacturers of sub-components and raw materials.

In California alone, 130 companies have received “more than $212,165,827.88 in purchase order awards to produce components and provide services for the maintenance and construction of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers.” Those dollars have provided for a lot of families and required just about every engineering, manufacturing and fabrication skill available.

So, consider the loop closed on aircraft carriers for now. That still leaves me trains and airplanes for future posts!

Excellent links:

Navy.mil - Official Website of the UNITED STATES NAVY

Haze Gray & Underway - World Aircraft Carrier Lists

NavSource - Naval History - Photographic History of the U.S. Navy

Liven up your profile with YouTube!

Surface Solutions has found a new way to use the flexibility of our SupplierSource profile to help people find them and want to contact them - NOW! John & Peg Graney had the foresight to create a great little gang of videos that show and help explain what they do. They’ve grouped them into two convenient YouTube links that let the user watch any of the videos in that group.

They use these videos on their own website (as noted in a previous comment) and have now included them in their Surface Solutions SupplierSource profile too!

When you scroll down to find out more - WHAM! - the videos practically beg you to click on them. Before you know it, Surface Solutions is not just another supplier, but a company with a personality (make sure the sound is on) and one that willingly shares their information with you to help you make a better decision about who to put on your short list.

This is just a screen shot, so the YouTube links aren’t live, but you can use this link: Surface Solutions SupplierSource, just like up above.

Try it yourselves and have some fun. Please be sure to check out the SupplierSource FAQ page (question #12) to find a guide on how to do this with your profile. It’s easy, but you do need to be aware of a couple things.

 So, get out those camcorders, crank up the music and let’s boogey all night long!

Lies, Dang-blasted Lies, and Statistics

Mark Twain (working with Benjamin Disraeli’s original material) got it right that we must be careful when presented with statistical information. The interest of the presenter is always behind the statistics. That is also true in this case; however, I’ll show you the tools to create the stats for yourself and maybe even apply the same tools to help provide insights into your own internet environment.

 The following charts come from www.Compete.com . You can go there, register, recreate them, and look at the tabs and other information provided for a more complete understanding. Compete and other sites are well-known for their constant monitoring  and presentation of web trends. Trends is the keyword here. Capturing what is really happening on the internet is like saying that one fish in the ocean is getting bigger and another is getting smaller - so what! It only matters if the bigger trend matters.

This first chart is to figure out who are the big fish and who are the little ones. (We’re down in the minnow part of the chart.)

The second chart shows us in comparison to one of the fish that’s quite big in our part of the reef.

The third and fourth ones show us with the fish that we see all the time.

 

I’ve put these simple charts out there, so that we all can see how deep the ocean is and where SupplierSource fits on the food chain. We’re working hard to make a difference in your personal ability to put food on your table, but certainly don’t want to pretend that we’re bigger than we are. Just as fish are one part of a balanced diet, SupplierSource is one ingredient in your marketing pantry. Use it appropriately and it will taste just fine.

The best statistics are the ones that you understand and that you can get more information about when you want to. So go to Compete (or someone else) and start exploring the depths of the internet! Have some fun and let us know what you find.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) disclaimer: no actual fish, large or small, were in any way harmed by the mash-up of analogies in this post.

Make your cake & eat it too

Lest you get the impression that I am way too serious and preachy to boot, I hereby propose (with tongue firmly in cheek) a new competition to be integrated with the FIRST (www.usfirst.org) efforts mentioned in an earlier post.

Naturally, it will be named SECONDS (as in “May I have seconds, please?”). The problem to be solved will entail designing, engineering and making a science and/or technology themed cake. The competition will be to have your cake consumed by the FIRST competitors before anyone else’s after the FIRST awards are presented. Considering the age of most FIRST contestants, thorough video coverage may be required to detemine the winners.

There will be multiple classes; and all entries must follow strict cost, volume, mass and material content rules. Most importantly, each cake must contain at least 95% edible ingredients. The following prototype entry in the Aircraft category demonstrates the difficult challenges involved.

In order to stay within the volume constraints, the contestant had to consider how to include those twin rudders. In order to stay within the mass constraint, the stealth frosting thickness had to be carefully controlled. The cost constraints came in to play again with those dang rudders. A thorough, matrix-based evaluation led to the use of poster board rather than titanium.

The following entries; one in Race Cars and the other in Military Vehicles, employ other examples of balancing mass and edible ingredients by using vanilla wafers for wheels, licorice for exhaust pipes and pretzels in place of heavy steel gun barrrels. Ingenuity is the key to balancing the difficult trade-offs required by the rules.

   

Another key ingredient that can’t be overlooked is meeting all of the requirements and still having immediate visual recognition without sacrificing mouth appeal. The cake has to make those hungry contestants want to consume it as quickly as possible!

SECONDS can become a fitting and tasty finish to help the FIRST contestants celebrate their participation and keep them fed too. If you have photos of your prototype SECONDS entries, please send them to me so that we can build enthusiasm for this new method to inspire kids to have fun with science and technology! 

(PLEASE! Whatever you do, don’t tell my sons about these photos. They are all now old enough and big enough to deliver that other fast food delight - a knuckle sandwich.)

Whew! Holding steady now.

Yesterday was a wild one, but we seem to have gotten the “rogue mongrels” (some of you may know about those) and other software/hardware canines under control. This is what happened:

1st outage - 11:32pm est, 29 Jan - Matt takes the call - we’re back online shortly after that

2nd outage - 3:00am EST, 30 Jan - Matt gets woken up again - we’re back online shortly after that

3rd outage - 5:00am EST, 30 Jan - Matt can’t remember what planet he’s on, but takes the call - we’re back online shortly after that

4th outage - 6:50am EST, 30 Jan - down again - Matt staggers in to the mother ship - all hands on deck for the fight

Back up and holding steady at 2:00pm EST, 31 Jan. The outages were caused by crashes in our shared storage array which is used to host all customer data and images. No data was lost or compromised during all of the thrashing about.

Thank you for your patience (we hope) while we got things straightened out. We’ll be continuing to make improvemenets to prevent future problems. Matt hopes to get some extra sleep soon.

Yes, the SupplierSource website is currently down - and up - and down again…

Since late last night, our developers have not been getting much sleep as they have been working to fix a series of problems that have had the SupplierSource website down, then back up and then down again several times.

 We’re focused on getting things up and stable right now. Once that has been accomplished, I’ll provide more information about what happened.

 We’re certainly sorry for any inconvenience that this is causing and are doing our best to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Help save your own way of life!

As inventors, designers, engineers and ultimately - makers of real things, we sometimes feel like an endangered species when we look at the entertainment-based world around us. Don’t people understand that what we do is important too? Don’t they understand that without us, what would they play their video or computer games on?  Without us, how would they even have the power to do all the things that are so much fun?

More importantly - do we understand what we can do to help save our own way of life?

Dean Kamen (not always my favorite guy, but in this case he’s right on the money) made a short, but accurate assessment of our current cultural state of being as a speaker at SolidWorks World 2008. His 15 minutes summed up what we’re facing and identified one way to make a difference. My condensation of his 15 minutes = “Less passive absorption of entertainment and more active involvement in teaching and making”.

It’s not an earth-shaking solution, but it does work. Keep doing what you’re doing with the passion that makes it worth doing - and share that passion with the people who are just learning what this world is all about - kids!

This screen grab from the FIRST website www.usfirst.org pretty much says it all:

Just look at those smiles! 

We’re all competitive; that is what survival is based on, but in this case, being FIRST is about igniting a passion for science and technology in our young people. Let them feel first-hand the power of dreaming and creating and those new generations of makers, designers and engineers will help us survive and thrive.

FIRST actually means: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. Since its start 15 years ago, FIRST has grown to provide inspiration for over 150,000 kids in 2007. That’s a lot of real science and technology learning! But it hasn’t happened in a vacuum. For every excited kid there were many adults who helped them along. That’s where we come in to help save our own way of life.

Go to the website and see what’s going on in your area. See what you can do to help - time, money, skills - they all make it work. They all help remind you of why you do what you do. Doing it with them will also provide a return on your investment that can’t be quantified.

Oh yeah, it’s a blast too!