This is just cool…

May 28, 2010 by whit · Leave a Comment 

Here’s a fun article about how they printed the Iron Man suit.  This was posted on the “Additive Manufacturing (AM) – Rapid Prototyping (RP), Tooling and Manufacturing” group on LinkedIn.  Normally, I’m so tired by reading the group name I never get much farther than that, but thankfully today I persevered. I’ve been fascinated by [...]

Pain

May 17, 2010 by whit · Leave a Comment 

Helped some friends move this weekend.  I.  Hurt.  All.  Over. And by this weekend, I mean most all of it, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning.  Friday and Saturday were hot and humid, but Sunday was the gauntlet.  Day started early, hot and humid and ended in a cold rain at 1:00 AM Monday morning.  [...]

Stand Up While You Read This! More validation that the TrekDesk is the right product at the right time.

March 9, 2010 by whit · 2 Comments 

Here’s a great article from the NYT by Olivia Judson about the health benefits of staying active while working.  I am a huge believer in this concept, and I built my own treadmill desk some years ago with the help of my brother-in-law.  I was thinking about taking the idea to market when PassageMaker was [...]

Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up

December 30, 2009 by whit · Leave a Comment 

This is a brilliant piece from Jonah Lehrer in Wired about how scientists get bottled up by their own preconceptions and groupthink and miss the discoveries their research is accidentally uncovering.  Key paragraphs: While the scientific process is typically seen as a lonely pursuit — researchers solve problems by themselves — Dunbar found that most [...]

You must freeze the design

December 26, 2009 by whit · Leave a Comment 

I never played Duke Nukem, but this article is a must read for anyone thinking about launching a new product of any kind. In order for any project to be successful, you have to freeze the design at some point.  You have to get to “good enough” and go to market.  I have seen inventors [...]

The principle function of a design engineer…

November 17, 2009 by whit · 2 Comments 

My Father, who holds dozens of patents, is famous for this saying: The principle function of a design engineer is to recognize a dead horse and bury it promptly. We work with inventors and innovative small businesses from around the world, and nearly all of these folks have interesting product ideas.  I love my job, [...]