tingilinde

now dropbox is bloatware

It was simple and just worked .. that's changing.

a tip of the hat to John

compartmentalization

A good NY TImes piece on the Boeing 737 Max.

snip

...

But many people involved in building, testing and approving the system, known as MCAS, said they hadn’t fully understood the changes. Current and former employees at Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration who spoke with The New York Times said they had assumed the system relied on more sensors and would rarely, if ever, activate. Based on those misguided assumptions, many made critical decisions, affecting design, certification and training.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” said a former test pilot who worked on the Max. “I wish I had the full story.”

...

 

 

autonomous nano drones

A 27 gram autonomous drone from ETH.. 

and a preprint of the paper from the arXiv

there are clearly some downstream societal issues as these developments get more sophisticated.

 

very clever wood

Radiating excess heat at the right wavelengths.

snip

...

When most materials heat up, they emit that heat as photons of near infrared (IR) light. The light is readily absorbed by molecules in the surrounding air, trapping the heat—and keeping houses, for example, hot. But in the past 2 years, researchers have devised plastic films and paints that absorb heat and re-emit that energy at longer mid-IR wavelengths, which air doesn’t absorb. If emitted toward the sky, these photons pass unimpeded and dump their energy into deep space. But to use these materials in buildings, engineers need to laminate rooftop or siding materials with the plastics or apply the heat-emitting paints.

...

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

 

dealing with materials

An episode on titanium, but many others..  potentially an interesting set of conversations.

 

 

fixit's galaxy fold teardown

A teardown of an ambitious, but  poorly thought-out design.

How this ever got to the point of analysis release is bizarre.  The backstory probably speaks volumes about internal disconnects in the company.

 

 

 

lighting rockets

transparent wood

Don't laugh - specially treated balsa wood becomes nearly transparent and has some nice properties.  Still very much at the development stage.

snip

...

scientists report a new kind of transparent wood that not only transmits light, but also absorbs and releases heat, potentially saving on energy costs. The material can bear heavy loads and is biodegradable, opening the door for its eventual use in eco-friendly homes and other buildings.

...

 

 

egg breakers

Commercial egg breaking machines from Poland.  Check out the videos 

 

boeing's frantic rush to the 737 max

The company found themselves under huge pressure form Airbus and engineering was pushed to the limit. (via The New York Times)

The software path is just that - a patch to correct something more fundamental.  One worries about huge rush jobs to make an ancient design palatable.  I wonder how many passengers will start looking at aircraft type when making their flight plans once the plane is flying again?  (probably very few unless there is another design related crash or two)

This is huge for Boeing given the order backlog.