I've long wanted to get myself an iPhone, but regularly decided against it because (1) it wasn't available on Verizon (my provider, not wonderful, but I've been happy with it), and (2) the wife and I decided it wasn't affordable. At the beginning of this year when it did finally come to Verizon, I got all excited and was ready to go get one for myself, but reason number (2) kicked in and I hung onto my five year old Razor.
Fast forward to this summer, and our kid is regularly doing things that are "cute" and "funny" and "awesome", and suddenly the interest in always having a camera and video recorder on hand and having the ability to share said items with friends and family increases greatly. Magically reason (2) no longer matters, and it's time to get new phones. I actually went to a Verizon store and waited in line to get phones, but the guy being helped was ... taking along time, and I had to get back to work. My technical self-gratification was further delayed.
Soon therafter I began reading on-line rumors about the release of the iPhone 5, and I made the decision that if I had waited this damn long to get an iPhone, I could wait another two months for September to roll around. Then Tyler dropped Laura's phone in the water. So now Laura has an iPhone, and I still don't. But that's ok, because I'm waiting (patiently!!!!!!) for version 5. Anyway, the point is that now Laura AND my dad are more technically savvy than me what with their fancy phones. My time will come.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
Energy versus Trinity
My first job out of grad school was designing highway safety hardware at a place called Energy Absorption Systems. I developed a convertible, portable crash cushion that went into production before I changed jobs, and to date I have never actually seen one in use on the road, although I did once (finally) see several parked in a maintenance lot along the side of the road in Delaware, but never any on the road and in use.
It was designed in response to a product our competitor Traffix was making called the Scorpion. Though elegant and relatively simple in design, it was a total ripoff of another similar Energy product, and it was probably that way because one of the leads at Traffix was a former Energy designer. Anyway, that's not the point of this email. We designed this new crash cushion to be mostly reusable and very durable (rated for 65 mph impacts), and as a result it was a little heavy and expensive. Before I left the company I was excited to see it go into production, but kept hearing that I would likely never see it used in California because of its cost.
For years Caltrans would only ever use portable crash cushions rated for 45 mph impacts basically because the 45 mph devices were far less expensive and throw-away. This always irked me because, come on, let's be honest, how many people "only" drive 45 mph on California freeways? It seemed irresponsible to me to be using a product not rated for realistic highway speeds.
Anyway, money always wins and I got over it, resigning myself to not ever see my hard work in action in my home state. Over the last couple weeks, it got worse! I keep seeing the damn Scorpion out on the roads in construction zones! I'm not positive they are Caltrans devices, but some of them sure look like it. WTF?? Why did that one win out?
There was a sneaky (but altogether not suprising) tendency for some companies to "work" with the government to get regulations (contracts) written with specific requirements that in the end would limit the purchasing authority to choosing from only one product. My guess, and this is TOTALLY SPECULATION, would be that whomever is buying these now was limited by some agreement that said only the Scorpion would fill the need. Great. Oh well, at least my vacuum garbage truck is out there somewhere, maybe, cleaning up freeways.
It was designed in response to a product our competitor Traffix was making called the Scorpion. Though elegant and relatively simple in design, it was a total ripoff of another similar Energy product, and it was probably that way because one of the leads at Traffix was a former Energy designer. Anyway, that's not the point of this email. We designed this new crash cushion to be mostly reusable and very durable (rated for 65 mph impacts), and as a result it was a little heavy and expensive. Before I left the company I was excited to see it go into production, but kept hearing that I would likely never see it used in California because of its cost.
For years Caltrans would only ever use portable crash cushions rated for 45 mph impacts basically because the 45 mph devices were far less expensive and throw-away. This always irked me because, come on, let's be honest, how many people "only" drive 45 mph on California freeways? It seemed irresponsible to me to be using a product not rated for realistic highway speeds.
Anyway, money always wins and I got over it, resigning myself to not ever see my hard work in action in my home state. Over the last couple weeks, it got worse! I keep seeing the damn Scorpion out on the roads in construction zones! I'm not positive they are Caltrans devices, but some of them sure look like it. WTF?? Why did that one win out?
There was a sneaky (but altogether not suprising) tendency for some companies to "work" with the government to get regulations (contracts) written with specific requirements that in the end would limit the purchasing authority to choosing from only one product. My guess, and this is TOTALLY SPECULATION, would be that whomever is buying these now was limited by some agreement that said only the Scorpion would fill the need. Great. Oh well, at least my vacuum garbage truck is out there somewhere, maybe, cleaning up freeways.
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