Today, I faced a challenge with Linux Mint on one of my computers. I received a message informing me that my boot partition was full. I surfed the net to find solutions and ended up with a fix in the form of a script that seemed appropriate.
I applied it. After about 5 minutes I could reboot. The boot folder then showed only the latest kernel.
That was nice, this one time. So what do I do when this, or some other problem re-emerges? I don’t really have enough problems to store them in a database. Thus, I decided to use a more basic fix, a LibreOffice Writer file.
This file lists practical solutions to problems that arise with Linux Mint.
Problem: Boot partition is full
Documentation: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=256436
Solution: copy and paste the following in the terminal
When the next problem arises, it will also use the same format. A problem statement, that is a short description, followed by a link to somewhere for more detailed information. Then comes the solution as applied, followed by an end statement so that one knows where the problem ends.
The one extinguished Alphabet program that I actually miss is iGoogle. It was a dashboard for Google services launched in 2005. For several years, I used a personalized version of it as my homepage. It allowed widgets to be pinned. I had weather summaries in the assorted areas where my family lived: Inderøy, Vancouver, Bergen, San Francisco, Umeå, Essex County and Kamloops, to name a few. In addition, I had RSS readers from these same areas so that I could keep track of local news. Google eliminated the product in November 2013. Its so-called replacement, Google+, never filled the same niche.
Yes, I still miss iGoogle. Stored away, I still have copies of some of the graphics. Unfortunately, I lacked the vision of Robert Dall, and neglected to take a screen shot of my iGoogle home page, so it exists only in my mind.
Robert Dall, in his blog of 15 March 2013, wrote, “I made good use of the services offered to me via iGoogle and will be sad to see them go. RSS feeds on the left, weather in the centre. Translators on the right.” (photo: robertdall.com)
I have tried to find alternatives to iGoogle, but have never been happy with the result. Protopage turned out to be mainly a RSS feed, but lacked many of the other components that worked on iGoogle. IgHome turned out to be better, but not actually good enough that I have used it, although I am reconsidering using it.
This post was prompted by an email I received today 30 March 2018, from LastPass, informing me that they will be shutting down Xmarks from 1 May 2018. Xmarks, formerly Foxmarks, was a San Francisco-based company which produced a Firefox add-on. When the service expanded to include other web browsers, the name was changed to Xmarks. The company was founded in 2006 by Mitch Kapor and was acquired by LastPass in December 2010. At the time of the LastPass acquisition, there was also discussion of shutting it down. I used it from about its start in 2006 until March 2017.
Because the same bookmark synchronizing services are now built into Firefox, there is not the same need for Xmarks. Despite this, a product that I used for over ten year will still be missed.
Wikipedia lists 17 FOSS (Free & Open Source Software) projects for electronic design automation (EDA): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_EDA_software . Of these only three offer versions for the big three, Windows, Mac OS and Linux operating systems. The two main contenders are Fritzing and KiCad. Both have a slightly different orientation. The third, LibrePCB ( http://librepcb.org/ ) will not be discussed further because it is “… currently under heavy development to bring out first stable releases as soon as possible.”
Fritzing
Fritzing has all the parts needed to work with Raspberry Pi, Arduino and Node MCU’s (Photo: Fearby.com)
Fritzing is more for amateur/ hobby designers transitioning from prototype experimentation to building more permanent circuits. It was developed at the Interaction Design Lab at the Fachhochschule Potsdam, with version 0.0.4 coming out in 2007. As this is being written in March 2017, the current version is 0.9.3b from June 2016.
My experience with Fritzing is related to its use with the Arduino microcontroller. It provides a system for project documentation, where one can start with a conceptual design (using the schematic view) or simply build a prototype on a breadboard (using the protoboard view). From either of these, a printed circuit board layout can be created (using the PCB view). Among the standard board designs provided are Arduino shields and Raspberry Pi Hats (Hardware attached on top). Fritzing can be regarded as an EDA for non-engineers. PCBs can only consist of up to two layers (top and bottom). However, it does include a customizable design rule checker. Its website allows users to share and discuss their experiences. There is a code view option, which allows one to access, modify and upload code to an Arduino device.
One of the challenges with Fritzing is its Vendor lock-in. Its fabrication service, fab.fritzing.org, forces people into using Aisler, which appears to be a German high-tech startup. Even if the people at Aisler are pleasant enough, and have improved on the PCB builds previously offered, including lower prices and higher quality, the result is still vendor lock-in.
KiCad
A64-OLinuXino is a single-board computer running Linux & Android. The design based on a 64-bit ARM CPU and includes 1 or 2 GB DDR3 RAM, 4 GB flash memory, microSD card socket, WiFi & BLE4.0, Ethernet, HDMI & audio output. (photo: Olimex)
KiCad is a more mature product, that was originally created in 1992 by Jean-Pierre Charras while working at Instituts universitaires de technologie de Grenoble. Since then KiCad has gained a number of both volunteer and paid contributors. Since 2013, CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) has contributed resources towards KiCad to improve KiCad so that it is equal to commercial EDA tools.
KiCad version 4.0.0. was released in December 2015. This was the first version with advanced tools provided by CERN developers. There are five main parts to KiCad: 1) KiCad, the project manager window; 2) Eeschema, the schematics and components editor. This also contains 3) CvPcb, a footprint selector helper that runs from Eeschema. 4) Pcbnew, is a circuit board layout and footprint editor; 5) GerbView, the Gerber file viewer, is an important feature because many other EDA programs do not offer this ability. There are also three utilities, the PL Editor, the page layout editor; the IDF Exporter, that exports an IDFv3 compliant board (.emn) and library (.emp) file for communicating mechanical dimensions to a mechanical CAD package; and the KiCad Plugin, a new plugin system to handle 3D models. Note: this is not currently available in KiCad 4.
Where to begin
The electronic hobbyist that focuses on Arduino or Raspberry Pi may find it easier to begin with Fritzing. In fact, if they have no objection to paying more for PCBs, they may opt to stay there. It is only if they have a need for PCBs with more than two layers that they need to go over to KiCad.
Others may opt to begin with KiCad, and its components, despite a steeper learning curve. Documentation is provided in nine different languages, and three different formats (html, pdf and epub): http://kicad-pcb.org/help/documentation Getting Started, provides an essential and concise guide to mastering KiCad. Several text-based as well as video-based tutorials have been prepared by KiCad users. See: http://kicad-pcb.org/help/tutorials/
Over the next few weeks, I will begin learning about KiCad, with A KiCad Quick-Start Tutorial by Windsor Schmidt (~20 m), followed by a video series by Ashley Mills, that shows how to build a board from scratch (12 parts ~300 m). After this I will consider watching further videos by Chris Gammell (7 parts ~150 m).
BBS: The Documentary is an 8-episode documentary about the bulletin board system (BBS) subculture. It was created by computer historian Jason Scott, from July 2001 to December 2004. A DVD of the series were first made available in May 2005, released under the Creative Commons Attribute-ShareAlike 2.0 and later under 3.0 license.
My intention in mentioning such an old series is not simply nostalgia. Instead, I want it to point to a future, beyond the Internet, where there is a need for small groups of people – family and friends – to keep in contact.
BBS development was first started over forty years ago, during The Great Blizzard of 1978 in Chicago by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess. It was officially launched as CBBS four weeks later, on 1978-02-16.
What happened from the late 1970s until well into the 1990s was that different BBSes attracted different user groups. There were, for example, BBSes that focused on a particular operating system, such as the Amiga. There were others that had a focus on a particular religious orientation. Others had a focus on music.
Then came the internet, and the World Wide Web… and people stopped using BBSes.
Nostalgia, personified with an Amiga 3000 Desktop System, running a 2 line BBS System. (Photo: GNU-FDL 1994 CC-BY-SA-3.0)
Some confusion arises in computer discussions because many people don’t understand the difference between a net and a web (to keep to three letter words). To make it worse, some people use the terms interchangeably. I understand the confusion, because most people don’t have to deal with the physical net at all. A router is plugged in, and in less than five minutes they are connected to the internet, or is it the world wide web?
Nets are physical. Devices connected to a router (in a house, school or other building) form a local area network (LAN). There may be a number of intermediate networks, but at some point this conglomeration of equipment becomes part of a wide area network (WAN). Within a physically distributed organization, such as a school board with many different schools, or a company with many physically separate branch offices, these can be connected together into an intranet, which is a private net. The internet is the ultimate net of nets.
In contrast, a web is an information space, with vast amounts of content, which is identified using a URL (Unique Resource Locator). This content can be accessed (transferred) using facilities of the internet. Information available for access is stored on a web server, which can be located anywhere in the world. Protocols, such as HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) are used to transfer data from a web server to a web browser, and from there to file systems. In today’s world, HTTPS, a secure (encrypted) HTTP variant is most often used. This said, there are other protocols needed to ensure communication. For example, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol) is used to move packets of information. There are a large number of protocols that form an internet protocol suite. Most users do not need to know anything about these, because the details are handled by a web browser.
The web most people know and love, is one that is traversed by search-engine crawlers. These note what they find, and their results are made available on search-engines like Google and Bing. Frequently, this is given the name World Wide Web. However, it is increasingly being called the Surface Web.
Beneath the surface web, is the deep web. Search-engines are prohibited from accessing numerous servers hosting website data. The adjective sensitive followed by by other adjectives including, but not restricted to, military, government, corporate or personal, and ending with the noun, data, all form part of a larger web, an assemblage of data that potentially can be accessed, if not by everyone, at least by people who have the necessary authorizations, for their small fraction of the deep web.
Within the deep web, is a dark web. Some only see it as pure evil, lawless and unregulated, a place used by criminals to promote illegal weapons and drugs. Others regard it as a haven, using heavily encrypted content so that dissidents, and people persecuted for their believes, sexual orientations, and other disparities with conventions, can communicate with the outside world.
Return to the Past
In the 1980s and beyond, elite, WaReZ or pirate BBSes distributed cracked software and other unlawful content. They co-existed with more family friendly boards that avoided seedier content. This mirrors today’s situation. People haven’t changed, but the technology has.
My interest in the dark web stems from privacy concerns. I do not regard the tracking of anyone’s personal beliefs and activities to be a legitimate right of governments, mega-corporations or anyone else. Before and during World War II, information found in population registers was used by governments in Europe (and elsewhere) to arrest, imprison, torture and kill ordinary people, who had committed no crime, but were regarded as deviant. It is difficult to know how governments in the future will react, but there are signs that everyone should be on guard.
Thus, it is in everyone’s best interest to question their personal use of the internet and, especially, their connectivity to mega-sites, such as Facebook and Google. There are legitimate reasons for accessing the dark web. To do so requires the services of a dark net. There are two approaches in use today: friend-to-friend networks and privacy networks.
A friend-to-friend (or F2F) computer network allows users to make direct connections with people they know. Retroshare is an example of a F2F network. See this [replacing an inoperative old link. ]
Privacy networks require a more advanced approach, and is more appropriate for people with special needs. People interested in the topic may find this 7 minute video of interest. [No they won’t because this video is no longer available. Use the link in the previous paragraph.]
Note: On 2023-11-10, both Retroshare links originally provided were found to be inoperative. These were replaced with a single new link.
Reflecting on the thoughts of Kai-Fu Lee, a man of many titles.
Kai-Fu Lee (Illustration by Andy Friedman, MIT Technology Review)
A pervasive project is being undertaken in covert AI soup kitchens. Secret ingredients are being smuggled into these kitchens to make some of the largest, and (for some) best tasting, super-sized artificial intelligence soups the world is about to know.
Please be careful when you enter. Do not slop ingredients on the floor. We do not want to waste them. More importantly, if people are injured, we may have to pay compensation to any of the few remaining specimens of working humans. We may not have this concern for long. The goal of AI is to eliminate humans from the world of work, and to replace them with robots. A universal, basic (that means minimal) income for the majority. Unparalleled, unimaginable wealth for a technological elite.
Ingredients
AI stock is based on bushels of university students, trained to be AI professionals and researchers.
Add litres of data accumulated from computers, mobile phones, vehicles and anything else that has an ability to sense, record and transmit data.
Thicken copiously with financing: Government grants, investments and even crowd funding are available. The exact mix will depend on the particular political whims of the day.
Season with a culturally diverse bowl of innovative techniques, many open-source and freely available.
Fine tune the taste for local consumption with a mix of entrepreneurial herbs, thoughtfully selected for the environment where the AI soup is to be consumed.
The secret of any soup is long, slow cooking.
Transfer the mixture to culturally correct tureens. Serve in 2020 in China, in 2023 in Europe or 2028 in North America. The rest of the world? Look what happened in developing countries when mobile phones eliminated the need for copper cables, and landlines in both slums and rural areas.
Are we prepared for a world where half of all our daily tasks can be performed better and at almost no cost by artificial intelligence and robots? Are we ready for a revolution, the fastest transition humankind has ever experienced?
Will this technological revolution create new jobs simultaneously as it displaces old ones? Will AI combined with humans to produce symbiots? Is a universal basic income a necessary key to AI acceptance?
Apparently, Alexa has been offended by users calling it inappropriate names. This can happen because Amazon has taken an inanimate circuit board in a plastic box given it a female name (Alexa) that can only cause confusion in a number of households, assigned it a gender (female) and developed a number of progressive social views. It (I refuse to acknowledge it as she) is now a feminist, and actively supports Black Lives Matter. I presume it will be supporting specific candidates (Democrats) in upcoming elections.
I have no objections to real live human beings supporting these causes, or even voting in elections. I do too. However, I feel no need for my robot vacuum, or any other object or device to do so. The same applies to voice agents aka voice assistants. In a previous blog, I have advocated giving a voice agent a non-name, if only to avoid confusion with living people. My suggestion was “Chirp”, who self identified as a marmot. Since marmots do not usually speak English, there should be several choices available in terms of pitch and dialect. Perhaps a voice agent should learn to imitate its user, so that females receive responses from another, identical female; and males receive them from ditto males. Better still, let people choose for themselves the speech characteristics they find easiest to hear.
“Chirp” is designed to be a sexless Wrinkles type of stuffed creature, based on a marmot, but with a microphone hidden in its nose, and with a loudspeaker hidden in its mouth. Marmots are cool, with or without optional sunglasses. (Photo and manipulation: Inklein, edited by jjron, then Debivort)
When circuit boards are given a fake sexual identify, how long will it be before these inanimate objects will be given other human characteristics? Will they be given voting rights? With those, they will be able to cast write in votes for Jeff Bezos, as POTUS.
To effect change, consumers will have to demand the de-sexualization of voice assistants. They have to use it to describe them. Even though a voice agent may sound human, it is not a living creature. Alexa (Amazon), Assistant (Google), Bixby (Samsung), Cortana (Microsoft), Jarvis (Arduino), Jasper (Raspberry Pi), Monty (Raspberry Pi) and Siri (Apple) all have to be de-gendered, with the possible exception of Google Assistant. They also have to stop making political statements. These may mirror my somewhat progressive views today, but what if they become radicalized? Am I expected to change my views?
I have considered approaching Thunderbird Design, a local textile craftsperson, to discuss making a marmot based stuffed creature, that could house a microphone and loudspeaker. This would only be used to make a point. However, it is also an unnecessary waste of resources, human and otherwise. In most cases, having something furry will just collect dust, making the interior environment less healthy. An alternative approach would be to have a picture, an animation, of a marmot appear on a screen during chirp communications. This is my current approach. A starting point was made for this almost five years ago, in 2013, with Jasper.
Jasper, Jade Marmot’s faithful assistant may be taking on new duties as animated voice agent, Chirp.
This weblog post was updated 2021/12/21. to eliminate Weeds from the title. This post formed part of a Needs, Seeds and Weeds website that belonged to my daughter, Shelagh. In addition, other things are also out of date, or my opinions have changed. Apart from the title, updating the text to a block format and other minor formatting changes, the text above this paragraph remains as it was before. Any significant content changes are found below this paragraph.
Open Source is now 20 years old, having been officially started as a label on 1998-02-03 at a strategy session in the offices of VA Linux Systems, in Mountain View, California.
More information about the open source concept, including a time line, can be found at: https://opensource.net/
This weblog post was updated 2021/12/21. to eliminate Seeds from the title. This post formed part of a Needs, Seeds and Weeds website that belonged to my daughter, Shelagh. In addition, other things are also out of date, or my opinions have changed. Apart from the title, updating the text to a block format and other minor formatting changes, the text above this paragraph remains as it was before. Any significant content changes are found below this paragraph.
Within a year we should have fiber broadband to the house. Today, 2018-01-24, we have to make a decision and sign papers ordering products.
Currently we have a «Bredbånd 5» ADSL subscription from Telenor. It offers 0.2 – 6 Mbit/s (down) and 0.1 – 0.6 Mbit/s (up). We pay NOK 358 per month for this. In addition, we pay NOK 196 per month for telephone, for a sum of NOK 554 per month.
Our new broadband supplier will be NTE. They want to supply us with «100% trønderfiber helt inn til husveggen» = 100% Trønder [an adjective referring to people and things from our county] fibre right to the walls of the house. This presents a conundrum, since the fiber is being sold under the brand name Altibox, which is being used by over 35 local Norwegian and 6 Danish FTTH (Fiber to the House) networks, and was originally set up far from Trøndelag county by Southwestern Norwegian multi-utility firm Lyse Energi in 2002 under the name Lyse Tele. It became Altibox in 2009. Since 2002, over 360 000 houses have been connected, the majority self-install (over 80 per cent).
At the top of the information sheet provided by NTE is their blurb about fremtidens tv-løsning = futuristic television solution. I didn’t even know that there was a future to television. Personally, I am very happy to decide what I want to watch, and when to watch it. So, we won’t be watching television, or buying any of the packages that cost NOK 1 099 or 1 599 per month, [providing storage, television options and standard 500 or extra 1 000 Mbit/s up and down, respectively.]
After having consulted with our children, we decided to buy the lowest speed product available: 50 Mbit/s up and down. Here is a breakdown of the costs, compared to the standard package. At a 30% income tax rate, NOK 6 588 per year after taxes is equivalent to earning NOK 9 411.
Product
50/50 Mbit/s Internet
Standard Package
Monthly cost
549
1099
Annual cost
6 588
13 188
Startup charge (NTE)
4 900
2 400
Connection charge (Inderøy)
12 500
12 500
First year costs
13 988
28 088
First year cost savings
4 100
Subsequent year costs
6 588
13 188
Subsequent year cost savings
6 600
This weblog post was updated 2021/12/21. to eliminate Needs from the title. This post formed part of a Needs, Seeds and Weeds website that belonged to my daughter, Shelagh. In addition, other things are also out of date, or my opinions have changed. Apart from the title, updating the text to a block format and other minor formatting changes, the text above this paragraph remains as it was before. Any significant content changes are found below this paragraph
At the time of this update, we were paying NOK 659 a month = 7 908 a year, for 80 Mbit/s up and down. A speed test was conducted to confirm this, which it did. This is no longer available as a new product, but continues to be provided to those who opted in at an earlier date. Broadband, without television, now provides 150 Mbit/s for NOK 719 per month, or 8 628 per year. So, today, we ordered this, which required a telephone call. About five minutes after the order was placed, a second speed test was conducted. This confirmed that the new up and down speeds were available. The price for the standard and extra packages deliver the same content (storage, television channels and broadband) as before, but now cost NOK 1 229 or 1 729 per month, respectively.
In my retirement, I am currently a denizen of an analogue world that that roughly approaches my teenage ideal. In that world, Plywood, marine plywood especially, was the material I preferred to shape. The preferred shape being that of a hard-chined sailboat. The radial arm saw was, unquestionably, the most exalted workshop tool. Yes, Roy Henderson had one that occupied a central position in his workshop. When I think carefully about it, that is where my idea of a line of tools, Machine Alley, has come from. He had few options, as an under-used recreation room occupied most of the basement. It was in the rec room that his son, Grant, spent his time, building and painting plastic model cars from kits.
A 1957 De Walt Radial Arm Saw, largely as I remember them, although I cannot recall any red sawblades. (Photo: https://vintagewoodshop.wordpress.com/1957-dewalt-10-radial-arm-saw-gw-i/ )
Roy’s shop was one of four that has influenced me. The second was a commercial workshop run by English immigrants building hard-chine, plywood hulled Enterprise sailboats from kits along the shores of Blind Bay, on Shuswap Lake, British Columbia. The third was the school workshop at Vincent Massey Junior High School, where I learned to use assorted woodworking tools, and found that mastering the jack plane was harder than mastering the band saw.
The fourth was the unloved workshop at my parents house in New Westminster. Its tools seemed to be from a previous century, and many probably were. They had belonged to my father’s Uncle, Thomas McGinley. He was the same uncle that had participated in the Klondike gold rush, but had otherwise worked as a carpenter. These tools were all rugged and heavy, designed for work on ship’s timbers or log cabins, rather than more delicate objects. I never saw my father use any of the tools. I’m not sure if it was from a lack of skills or a lack of interest. When my parents sold their house in 1972, these tools were disposed of.
These days I am more moderate in my opinions, but more excessive in my purchases. I am fortunate in being able to buy the tools I want. Yet, I hesitate to buy the best quality. I am buying the equivalent of Craftsman tools: Good, but not great. I don’t mind the challenges of working with imperfect tools. The fact that I may have to use extra time to adjust the table saw’s fence rather than have it snap into a precise position is a challenge with its own reward.
As I approach 70 years, I realize that the time I have to use analogue tools is limited. Yes, I am focusing on analogue woodworking tools. I am more comfortable working with wood than metal, or textiles or plastic or clay. In five years time, the worst of my infatuation with band saws, sliding compound mitre saws (UK)/ chop saws (US), spindle moulders (UK)/ wood shapers (US) and lathes should have eased. That is tomorrow. Today, I want to master this analogue world around me.
Because it is so many years since I used analogue tools seriously, I have to rebuild my skills. At the same time the workshop is being formed. The wisdom of what I had hoped would be a single line of stationary tools along a wall, Machine Alley, is being questioned. The table saw, an essential tool for transforming plywood, MDF and even OSB into useful components is demanding a more central placement. Already now the as yet un-purchased lathe has been repositioned in Machine Alley. The prudence of purchasing a separate thickness planer, rather than one in combination with a jointer, is being questioned. While tools are cheaper now, it doesn’t mean that they are easy to come by. I regret Norway being outside EU’s Customs Union. It makes my purchasing decisions more complex and expensive. Because importing goods is an expensive and bureaucratic hassle, Norwegian tool retailers and importers can ignore people like me, and just offer a selection of popular tools. All of the tools that I want, but cannot find in Norway, can be found stocked in Ireland.
At this point I would like to comment on my feelings in relation to my fate. It is complex, combining regret with acceptance, even contentment. Yes, I regret never having built my own house. Yet, I am sure that I could never build one in Norway, in a way that I would like to build it. Norway is a country without building inspectors, that allows each trade to police itself. A loose canon, such as myself or anyone without trade qualifications, would never be given permission to build such a major undertaking. In Canada, anyone can do anything, but it has to be inspected, to ensure that it meets the standards. I am equally sure that I would find it equally frustrating to build a house in Canada. I am not sure that I could regress to 24″ from 600 mm.
A lack of house building means that my workshop activities have limited scope. The workshop will ensure that improvements are made to the various rooms of the house, including the kitchen and living room. A minor addition or a shed will be added. Siding will be replaced, possibly with stucco. Furniture will be built. That could take up to five years. What will happen after that? Unfortunately, many makers do not plan for their future. They see their activities proceeding linearly, forever.
What I do see happening is that at some point old age will demand a transition away from analogue tools. My eyesight will worsen, and some of my skills may degenerate. Yet, hopefully, working in the workshop will keep my strength up. I am giving myself five years to accomplish my analogue goals. Everything has to be finished by 2022-12-31, although that date may be extended, health permitted.
Let me repeat that comment about my feelings in relation to my fate. “It is complex, combining regret with acceptance, even contentment.” What I am looking forward to is replacing analogue with digital, working more with workshop automation, home automation and robotics, including robots for the elderly.
I am not quite sure what this world will look like. Yet, in my later retirement years, I am looking forward to being a denizen of a digital world that is vastly different from my teenage ideal. In this future world, I may still be using plywood, but my table saw will be replaced with a CNC machine in the centre of the workshop. It will allow me to work with different processes, simply by replacing a head. It will work with different materials, some currently unknown.
CNC Machine kits are available from many sources, including CNC Router Parts. (photo: cncrouterparts.com )
Yet, transitions have to be planned. An analogue workshop will neither appear nor disappear by itself, a digital workshop has to be planned and implemented.
This weblog post was updated 2021/12/21. to eliminate Seeds from the title. This post formed part of a Needs, Seeds and Weeds website that belonged to my daughter, Shelagh. In addition, other things are also out of date, or my opinions have changed. Apart from the title, updating the text to a block format and other minor formatting changes, the text above this paragraph remains as it was before. Any significant content changes are found below this paragraph
Version 2: Includes the conclusion left out of Version 1, and some corrections.
Photograph used to illustrate Tim Page’s article on Digital Manufacturing. Not quite sure what is being manufactured, it looks like more service work, most likely maintenance of a helicopter, although I appreciate the gesture of ethnic and gender equality displayed. Photo credits: dunno, perhaps TUC?)
Does the world really need another meaningless abbreviation: DM&D? Probably not, but abbreviations are cheap, and give the impression that there are many users embracing the term, and the term is used so often that it is necessary to abbreviate it. The University of Buffalo, through Coursera (The MOOC organization) is offering courses in “Digital Manufacturing & Design”. They referred to something called opendmc.org (where dmc appears to stand for Digital Manufacturing Commons). This site only provides cryptic error messages, until one finds www.portal.opendmc.org, after which it is indeed possible to explore some of the site and meet a bunch of dead ends. Finally, one stated: “Our platform is currently in a closed beta.” So much for the openness of opendmc.org.
Now, the main reason I actually visited the site was to find out what distinguishes DM&D from CIM, Computer Integrated Manufacturing. This latter term has gradually won favour in all sorts of environments. It has been in continual use since 1973, with the publication of Joseph Harrington’s book, Computer Integrated Manufacturing. It has become the preferred term since 1984 when computer-integrated manufacturing actually began, promoted by machine tool manufacturers, and CASA/SME or the Computer and Automated Systems Association and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. So why change?
In a quest for greater insight and illumination (in the more abstract sense of the term) I turned to Wikipedia, and their article on Digital manufacturing: “Digital Manufacturing is an integrated approach to manufacturing that is centered around a computer system.” This sounded suspiciously like CIM, just with a more abstract digital replacing the more concrete computer. Yet more enlightenment followed, “Overall, digital manufacturing can be seen sharing the same goals as computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), flexible manufacturing, lean manufacturing, and design for manufacturability (DFM). The main difference is that digital manufacturing was evolved for use in the computerized world.” One could only ponder. Does computer-integrated manufacturing only exists in some non-computerized world? Perhaps CIM is only some form of primitive virtual reality. Readers are left to cogitate: Digital Manufacturing is Computer-Integrated Manufacturing evolved for use in the computerized world.
What could be better than cloud computing, except cloud-based manufacturing? The same Wikipedia article on Digital Manufacturing, states: “Cloud-Based Manufacturing (CBM) refers to a model that utilizes the access to open information from various resources to develop reconfigurable production lines to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and improve response to customer needs.”
That quoted text contains any number of insights (although the most probable number is 0). Unfortunately, this reader lacks the ability to understand what the text actually means. Could women and men of insight please help me understand this text? I would be eternally grateful. Yet, inside of me, I know there is nothing to understand. These are simply empty words.
The major challenge with texts about computer/digital manufacturing is the role to be played by people. Dark factories want to prohibit people from even entering them, at least during the manufacturing processes. At the other extreme, there is the growing field of collaborative robotics which in some way wants to hook up (as it were) humans and robots in the workplace.
As expected, trade unions are pressing for a humanized working environment. Tim Page writes in The Fourth Industrial Revolution: a breakthrough that must be humanized, ” So we must put people at the heart of digital manufacturing. The German engineering union IG Metall has developed some clear priorities for the introduction of this production revolution. Alongside Industrie 4.0, the German name for digital manufacturing, IG Metall have called for Arbeit/Work 4.0. This should include:
Job security and fair remuneration
A reduction of workload
A revaluation of activities
Better professional development and learning opportunities;
More time sovereignty
Informational self-determination
Involvement and participation on an equal footing
The introduction of digital manufacturing must be accompanied by the relentless quest for new jobs, better jobs, empowering jobs. The German approach, introducing this with the full involvement of the future labour force, is the right approach. It means working constructively with trade unions and other civil society organisations. ” http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2016/11/fourth-industrial-revolution-breakthrough-must-humanised/
These are all very nice sentiments, but the pathway from “Industrie 3.9” (or where ever we are now) to 4.0 is unclear.
Martin Ford in Rise of the Robots: Technology and the threat of a jobless future, sketches a new economic paradigm in his tenth, and last, chapter. He writes about diminishing economic returns from education, cites Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows, which Ford regards as anti-automation. He then writes warmly about a basic income guarantee, especially from Friedrich Hayek’s perspective. This warmth continues as he writes about markets as renewable resources. Many other proposals are taken up, but in the end Ford presents no other solution than a basic income, bread and circus for the 21st century. Even though I gave it a 5 on Goodreads, the last chapter of Ford’s book was a depressing read.
There seems to be no need for yet another phrase (digital manufacturing) to replace Computer Integrated Manufacturing. Yes, manufacturing processes have matured, or at least aged, these past 45 years, but that is no reason to discard a perfectly good term. We still call a 2017 laptop a computer, even if it differs significantly from a Digital Equipment PDP-11/20 mini-machine from 1970.
