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August 20, 2006
Only in Texas...
Driving home last weekend we came upon this mega-huge 4x4 truck driving down the road. I'm not sure how it was considered street legal given its height and size, but I guess it was just one size smaller than a Bigfoot truck. All I had on me was my cameraphone, so here are some low-res washed out pictures of the beast:
Next to another regular sized car. You can see the tires are taller than the
car.
It could have easily driven over the guardrail rather than be stopped by it.
We got up next to it right before the next intersection where it turned.
Here's a close-up of the suspension.
And yes that is a for sale sign in the back window.
Posted by Plocmstart at 7:35 PM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2006
Dean Kamen's NI Week Speech
Well I was lucky enough to be here for NI Week 2006 and managed to get a front row seat to Dean Kamen's speech, "Inspiring Present and Future Scientists and Engineers to Innovate." The title is in a way somewhat misleading, because during his speech he describes how difficult it really is to be innovative on a given schedule, which so many employers expect. The speech was very entertaining, and while taking many shots at management he does have some inspiration to stand out from the crowd and be one of those innovative people.
I took quite a few pictures during the presentation. I was hoping NI would have the video of the presentation available afterward like all the other keynote presentations, but unfortunately this didn't happen. So instead of pointing to the video link, I'll provide my photos along with some narration.
Entering the stage on a Segway (I predicted this).
Getting things started. He first talks about his visit with President
Clinton with the famous image of him in his balancing wheelchair (I didn't take
a picture of this one).
He then shows a picture of Bush falling over when trying to use a Segway.
His comment, "...You have to turn it on first..."
Innovation chart, illustrating why innovation is so difficult...
...leading to this suggestion.
Illustrating how difficult (or impossible) it is to innovate on a schedule.
Leading to another suggestion.
What he thought was his own definition of invention (later goes on to explain
that an artist (Pablo Picasso?) had said something very similar in the past.
He also had various "Rude Realities" about the way things really are throughout
the speech.
"To err is human... Unfortunately it's not company policy."
Taking a shot at procrastination and the reluctance to change design schedules
until it's too late and most costly.
He then goes on to tell the story of a company that came to him asking him to fix the pumps in the common dialysis machine, which basically were tubes being squeezed by rotating wheels. Instead he wanted to change the entire product to make it much simpler. He went way beyond schedule and the company cancelled the project, but his company decided to keep working on it anyways. When it was finally done there was a celebration by the company that cancelled the project, and apparently on each table were cards that said the following:
He then talks about FIRST for awhile, and how young people need to be more interested in science and engineering in the US.
The speech ends with this quote.
The stage prior to the event.
The images and explanations don't do the speech justice, but at least you can get an idea of what it was about.
Posted by Plocmstart at 3:00 PM | Comments (0)