BEST OF THE BLOG

Crime and punishment

Boy, Illinois knows how to be corrupt.

In Ohio, we're just in the minor leagues. A few years ago we had a governor who looked like an Eagle Scout and was in the direct linage of a President, Supreme Court Chief Justice and U.S. Senator. He took a couple of airplane rides with lobbyists that he didn't report and got socked with a misdemeanor conviction. Then we just had an Attorney General resign that had something to do with women not his wife (don't know or care about those details, just hope we have a good one now)... Read more

Past, present and future

Greg McMillan has posted two more chapters in his past, present, future of automation. Here is 5 and here is 6... Read more

Distributed control in discrete applications

I've been sitting on this post for a long time while contemplating all the meanings. Finally getting caught up a little and taking time to put something coherent together.

Opto 22 has long been a bellweather in shaping my view of what's happening in the industry and its use of technology. It jumped on PC-based control early (black arm bands at a trade show announcing the death of the PLC). And it has a good, flow-chart based programming and control offering--although "PC" has morphed into modern embedded computing designs, not your off-the-shelf Dell. Then there was machnine-to-machine communications. Really a type of SCADA using embedded cellular wireless technology. The M2M market is still strange, but Opto sold a bunch of systems. Early on, Opto developed Ethernet I/O and used the power of the TCP/IP stack... Read more

Schneider Electric OEM Conference

I am in Monaco at the 2008 edition of Schneider Electric Initi@tive. This one has a focus on OEMs (machine builders)--and about 700 were attracted to this tiny principality on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea close to Nice, Cannes and Italy. By the way, it is chilly here. Temps are in the low 50s (F) or about 12 (C). Today is beautiful... Read more

Odds and ends

Siemens has had to cancel it's ExiderDome exhibit in Charlotte scheduled for December 8-12 due to a dispute with a trucking firm. It will try to reschedule for late May, early June after its stop in Houston. So far, the rest of the tour is on... Read more

PODCAST

Podcast: Automation Minutes 12.12.2008

Gary Mintchell, Editor in Chief, talks with Joe Grove, Ossid VP of Engineering, about machine design, SQL servers, remote diagnostics, PLC/PC systems and customer value related to the packaging industry. Ossid is a leading North American designer and manufacturer of packaging equipment solutions for fresh and processed protein products, fresh produce, convenience foods, medical devices, and consumer goods. Click here to listen to the podcast.