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Links

Jon Udell, long time InfoWorld columnist and now Microsoft evangelist has a post "I have met the enemy and it is tribalism." These thoughts have implications for your daily life as well as for politics and religion.

This idea for a personal organizer from Lifehacker sounds interesting.

Despite all the hype about Web-based software applications, do you find them often too slow when you use them? Here's a post from Webware indicating a trend toward using Web apps offline as well as on.

Want an excuse to go to Vancouver in July? ISA's SP100 Wireless committee is sponsoring a summit on wireless technology July 22-24. I think I'd like to go.

Linux in automation

It wasn't always a given that Microsoft Windows would rule automation software. As late as the 1998 ARC Forum alternatives were discussed. By 1999, though, a couple of Sun guys presented the Java perspective as anti-Windows. But that never caught on. I bet a lot of you can program in Java. It's a cool language (I ran out and bought a book and a JDK when I first heard about it in the early-mid 90s). But Windows won the battle... Read more

Pinto's Enews

Jim Pinto has published his latest e-newsletter. In it, he discusses his visit to Infosys during his stay in India. We chatted about that in Automation Minutes 30 last week. He also discusses lack of motivation in US education. I responded to him: Read more

Fatblogging

Jason Calacanis has been Fatblogging, that is, he's trying to lose weight and encouraging others to do the same. Those of you who know me know that I only need to lose 5-7 lbs. Usually once soccer season gets going, that's not a problem. When you reach the late 50s and you're still trying to referee college soccer, the big problem is maintaining running speed and endurance... Read more

Modeling and Control

Greg McMillan has a new post on WBF Webcast on PAT (process analytical technologies) and some further comments.

ABB Customer Conference

I don't have a lot of extra things to report from the ABB user conference. In the instrumentation session, though, it was announced that several new instruments are coming out--with a new and common interface that mimics a mobile phone. Figuring that most people are familiar with that interface, this should make using the instruments intuitive... Read more

Leadership (non)Lessons

I have a new team-building tip from my favorite "pointy-haired boss" clone. I just post these as a place to keep them until I can compile into a longer piece on leadership. Remember, the "leader" in question made a specific point early on about the value of team work and how saying anything critical (even as a suggestion in a team meeting) was an example of not being a team player. The point had also been made that there were people in the office who would report on everyone else. So, in this case the leader approached someone with documentation that she had been overheard saying something critical of the leader and was thus written up in her personnel profile (can you really do that?). This was after she heard about a position reassignment via an email broadcast to the 20-some members of the team... Read more

ABB User Conference

Registered attendance exceeded 2,500 as the fourth ABB "Automation World" kicked off today. CEO Fred Kindle announced that 2006 sales were up 22% in organic growth, while orders in North America were up 19%... Read more

ABB Customer Conference

I am in Orlando at the Caribe Royale resort at ABB's "Automation World" customer conference. Last night was a reception and dinner. I chanced upon Dinesh Paliwal, North American president and member of the executive board. He told me there were 2345 (if memory serves) registered attendees. I actually met the executive board briefly and chatted with CEO Fred Kindle. They are holding their monthly meeting here instead of the usual place in Zurich so that all can listen to customers and get a feel for what's happening in the market... Read more

Automation Minutes podcast posted

My 30th podcast has been published. This one is a conversation with Jim Pinto about his latest trip to India and a visit to Infosys. Interesting observations on running a company... Read more

Rockwell visit

Last Tuesday I spent most of the day in Milwaukee at the headquarters of Rockwell Automation. The ever-efficient team at Padilla-Speer-Beardsley (thanks Stephanie) set up about 9 meetings for me... Read more

Movie Night

Saw a very good movie last night, "The Lives of Others." Someone remarked after the play, "There's Homeland Security." This is a gripping story, well done, great acting, in German. East Germany just before the fall of the Wall. As one reviewer said, it's about good people doing bad things, bad people doing good things--also good people doing good things and bad people, well, you know.