Interesting set off toys found in a silver pan tray.
A couple of dogs, some Play-Doh, a crayon, and a fighter plane.
Off to the side (not pictured) are the Legos.
Interesting with what competes with video games and phone apps these days.
(Note: 85% of the world’s toys are now made in China!)
Frankly, there is still a lot to be said for the creative play of yesteryear. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
This is a 3D Printed Octopus.
The bendable legs are cute.
It’s sitting on a camera and tripod.
Soon 3D Printed Objects will even talk, and when they do, this one will say:
Shabbat Shalom!
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Thought this was pretty cool in Safeway supermarket.
A automated key copy machine.
You insert your key.
And out pops a duplicate for you.
Home, car, business, whatever.
What is happening to that guy who used to work the key copy machine at the local locksmith?
Who says automation and robotics isn’t taking and going to take away jobs.
I still remember that key machine–where the locksmith would put the key on one side and a blank on the other, and the machine would copy the surface grooves of one unto the other.
Now even that is gone.
I guess we’re lucky still to have keys (for now). 😉
(Credit Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)
Wow, I couldn’t believe that this is a real word.
Automagically.
I thought my colleague was using it as a gag.
But when I asked Dr. Google, there it was.
Automagically – Automatically + Magical
It refers to the use of computer automation and how when well-implemented it seems almost like the process is magical, ingenious, and oh, so easy.
So this is the goal for us that all our processes and efforts should be poof–automagically done and there it is! 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Had some fun driving around this cool little Robot in Rockville Town Center.
I like to try out the latest gadgets.
It’s funny people’s reactions when they see these.
They’re still not quite sure what to make of these.
Robots on the street.
Drones overhead.
Submersibles in the water.
Soon they will all be autonomous, ubiquitous, and essential.
And people will be the side attraction. 😉
(Source Video: Dossy Blumenthal)
So I was teaching a class in Enterprise Architecture and IT Governance this week.
In one of the class exercises, one of the students presented something like this bell-shaped distribution curve in explaining a business case for an IT Project.
The student took a nice business approach and utilized a bell-shaped curve distribution to explain to his executives the pros and cons of a project.
Basically, depending on the projects success, the middle (1-2 standard deviations, between 68-95% chance), the project will yield a moderate level of efficiencies and cost-savings or not.
Beyond that:
– To the left are the downside risks for significant losses–project failure, creating dysfunction, increased costs, and operational risks to the mission/business.
– To the right is the upside potential for big gains–innovations, major process reengineering, automation gains, and competitive advantages.
This curve is probably a fairly accurate representation based on the high IT project failure rate in most organizations (whether they want to admit it or not).
I believe that with:
– More user-centric enterprise architecture planning on the front-end
– Better IT governance throughout
– Agile development and scrum management in execution
that we can achieve ever higher project success rates along the big upside potential that comes with it!
We still have a way to go to improve, but the bell-curve helps explains what organizations are most of the time getting from their investments. 😉
(Source Graphic: Adapted by Andy Blumenthal from here)
I love FANUC industrial robots.
They are made by a secretive company in Japan and they are #1 in workplace automation worldwide!
They have over half a million installed industrial robots around the world.
Their robots are on assembly lines making everything from “cars and smartphones to beverages and drugs.” They also are in Tesla and Amazon…so you know they are pretty much everywhere.
FANUC has customers in 108 countries supported by 263 service locations.
Their robots are made by…that’s right other robots…80% is automated.
These robots are strong, fast, and precise, and they can do dangerous work.
This company is the future of jobs, productivity, efficiency.
But of course, people are still the brains behind the brawn. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Check out how the time changes in Amsterdam.
I guess automation hasn’t put everyone out of a job yet. 😉
(Source Video: Andy Blumenthal)
So I found this book in an IT colleague’s office.
It’s called: “The Unofficial I Hate Computer Book”.
It was written in 1984, and like the George Orwell’s book by that name, it is a dystopian view of technology.
The back cover says:
Computer haters of the world unite: It’s time to recognize and avenge the wonderful advances we’ve made thanks to computers–excessive eyestrain and headaches, irritating beeping noises, a one-ton printout where once there was a six-page report, a “simple” programming language you can’t understand without five handbooks, a dictionary, and a math degree.
The book goes on with illustration after illustration of unadulterated computer hate and associated violence.
– Dogs dumping on it (see cover)
– Contests to smash it with a hammer
– Hara-kiri (suicide with a knife) into it
– Skeet shooting computers that are flung into the air
– Shotput with a computer
– Tanks rolling over them
– Sinking it in water with a heavy anvil
– Boxer practicing his punches on it
– Setting it ablaze with gasoline
– And on and on, page after hate-filled page.
So in the last 34-years, have we solved all the annoyances and complexity with computers and automation?
Do the benefits of technology outway the costs and risks across-the-board?
How do security and privacy play in the equation?
I wonder what the authors and readers back then would think of computers, tablets, smartphones and the Internet and apps nowadays–especially where we can’t live without them at all. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I heard something good about human capital that I wanted to share:
It goes like this:
“There are no smokestacks here, only people!”
We can’t treat “human capital” in our organizations the way we treat industrial/capital assets in our factories.
The industrial revolution–along with the sweatshops and smokestacks–have been overtaken by the service and information age.
G-d has blessed us with an abundance of wonderful material things that can now be largely produced by automation and robotization–letting us focus more than ever on developing our people, nurturing their ideas, and realizing their innovations.
In our organizations, the human assembly line has given way to thinkers and innovators.
Sure, we have to build things and sustain ourselves, but the people behind the things are what counts and not just the things themselves.
We’ve grown from heartless slave labor and sweatshops to emotionally intelligent, compassionate, and thriving humans beings in the workspace–or so we strive for it to be. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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