The CAD Insider

Cycling to Victory -- In a Boat Race

If your vision of sailing is being laid back on a deck, wind whipping through hair and accompanied by the sounds of gulls, sail flapping and waves lapping the hull, you’ll not believe what has become of competitive sailing. There may not be another sport that has changed as much as sailing the past few years.

(picture from AmericasCup.com website)

The changes are due mostly to technology.

You’ll also not believe:

• The boat (not sure you can even call it a boat) can travel 4 times the speed of the wind.
• It moves best when out of the water, riding up on thin skis.
• The crew on the winning boat were cycling.

You think it’s a sail on the boat/craft but technically it works as an airfoil. The Cup race goes to the craft that can keep the hulls out of the water for the duration of the race (about 20 minutes). Makes sense – trade hydrodynamic drag for aerodynamic drag.

The sailors on the winning boat appear to be stationary bikes. They are raising the pressure in a hydraulic system which apparently is “the heart of the modern ACC” (America Cup Craft). It powers the sail functions, like lower and raising the sails. Why they wouldn’t be directly propelling the craft forward is beyond me.

In the Americas Cup races, the New Zealand team took to pedaling instead of using “hand grinders.” They won. Duh. A professional cyclist can generate over a thousand Watts for a short time. Using arms, you can get maybe half the power.

Rowers have always maintained the strength comes from the legs. A rower from the UC-Berkeley squad told me quads got so big he couldn't wear regular pants.

This is the first time America Cup team have sported stationary bike power stations, but since that team won, I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Read More:

Rival teams rejected pedal power because they feared radical change, says Team New Zealand designer, Tom Cary, May 24, 2017

Write More:

This article raises more questions than it answers. If you would know about this subject than the author, or would like to research the subject and provide a better understanding, please contact me at rtara@engineering.com.

 

 

We Don't Have a Problem -- the Do-Gooders Dilemma

It’s just too easy to see what someone else is doing wrong. It could be how they are raising their children, growing their crops…or in my case, how they are transporting their water.

What’s wrong with this picture? Nothing, if you live in this country. Everything, if you don’t. Carrying water in South Sudan. Picture from The Anglican Relief and Development website. 

Most houses in the United States have running water. Travelling to Africa and Asia serves to remind you that this is not normal.

In Rwanda, for example, a line of women get their yellow jerrycans filled at a tap manned by a couple of men. In Kolkata, India, women swarm a truck carrying water to fill pails. They have to carry them back home. Many of them learned to balance 45 lb loads on their heads as they walk smoothly over over rough ground (no sidewalks). It is a physical feat that would test athletes on one of our "gladiator" shows. In the 3rd world, it’s what women and children do daily, if not more.

Wouldn't this help? An engineer (your's truly) attempts to solve what he thinks is a water carrier problem.

Easy enough to say give them pipes and running water. The engineer in me wants to make a wheeled device they can tow. Two cheap bicycle wheels for stability, carry two jerrycans, rolling is easier than carrying, right?

For Gods sake, can't we do something to help these people?

Who Asked You?

“What exactly is the problem?" says a well wishing Canadian. "These women need to fetch the water." She is echoing the response of Kenyan women she has heard. “These women don't mind what they are doing. There is a social scene at the tap. They take their kids with them. It’s an outing.”
In short, they are used to it. Leave us alone. You high minded westerner. You don’t get us.

When people get used to something, even if it was perceived as difficult at first, they will accept it. Some will even fight to keep it. Water carrying has been around since there were wells, so carrying the water is accepted as the norm. Why change it?

But, come on now, I have to argue. Even water carrying has changed. A society that may have used hollow gourds, or earthenware container, switched to plastic container. In fact, jerrycans seemed to have “revolutionized” water carrying in some countries.

I am reminded of the history of the Golden Gate Bridge, offered to help people who used ferries to span the inlet to San Francisco Bay. It was resisted by many. Ferry owners didn’t think there was a problem so why build an expensive bridge?

Beat It -- And Take Your Condoms With You

Go to Africa and insist any labor saving invention be immediately accepted is to look like every arrogant white person who has the better idea and no clue. They already get so much of that.

The biggest slum in Africa, Kibera, swarms with do-gooders in NGOs (non governmental agencies), who want nothing more than to help the poor people. The slum dwellers have learned to take advantage, often enlisting in multiple hygiene classes to learn how to wash their hands. The NGOs compete with each other for hand washers and some offer fees so people show up. A light skinned reporter is told to go back to Sweden (he was not Swedish) with his condoms. Apparently, Africa is awash with condoms because we all know the trick to stopping the spread of AIDS.

US Navy Destroyer Almost Destroyed by Merchant Ship. How Could This Happen?

A state-of-the-art warship, bristling with offensive and defensive firepower and manned by hundreds of well trained seamen is not something you want to play chicken with. But somehow, in the middle of the night in the crowded shipping lanes off Tokyo harbor, a merchant ship was able to ram – and almost sink – the USS Fitzgerald, a $1.8 billion destroyer. It had just been updated with over $20 million of upgrades and repairs.

The ACX Crystal, a Philippine flagged container ship after it's collision with the USS Fitzgerald. Below the waterline and barely visible in this image is a bulbous tip that precedes the front of the deck. Image courtesy of JapanTimes.co.jp.

Pumping furiously to keep from sinking, the USS Fitzgerald, an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer, made it into Tokyo harbor, after it's collision with a cargo ship in the middle of the night. The ship may have had its hull breached below the waterline. Seven sailors on the ship lost their lives and the ship's commanding officer was injured. Photo: AFP.

Here’s what we know

• The collision occurred at 1:35 AM,  the middle of the night.
• The cargo ship had been steaming east at 17 knots (20 mph).
• Most of the 200 crew were sleeping (but the Navy always keeps lookouts).
• The merchant ship, ACX Crystal, is a container carrying ship, 4-5 times the size of the destroyer.
• Seven sailors lost their lives. God rest their souls.

Here’s what we WANT to know

• The speed and direction of the two ships at collision.
• Was the ship’s radar working?
• Was someone asleep when they should have been looking at the radar?
• The navy ship was part of an 8 ship group of vessels. Where were they?
• Can it be that easy to sneak up on the US Navy, the most formidable navy in the world?

The US Navy is conducting its investigation as we speak, and no doubt asking these and similar, questions. Short of getting your ship sunk, this must be about the most embarrassing – if not career ending – failure for a navy ship captain. Navy nautical charts are said to record every submarine and its captain that has had the misfortune to graze the bottom of the Mediterranean -- an automatic court martial.

 

Hello, CEO Anagnost. Autodesk Fills Top Position.

 

In his welcome message, the always articulate and passionate Andrew Anagnost, delivers an invitation to meeting each and every one of the 8,000 Autodesk employees in his new role as CEO. He means it. 

So, after 4 months with no one single leader, Autodesk announced that it will be Andrew Anagnost who will be installed as CEO and president of the company. In the same breath, we heard Amar Hanspal, who was in the running for the top spot, will be leaving. Amar’s termination date is July 10, according to his separation agreement, though I expect he will not be in his office until the end.

Amar and Andrew were co-CEOs while competing for the CEO position, a position vacant since Carl Bass left in February. Autodesk was also conducting an an “international search” for additional candidates. It is not known who else, external to Autodesk, had thrown their hat in the ring.

Goodbye, Amar

I’ll assume Amar Hanspal, who started at Autodesk 23 years ago and worked his way up from an AutoCAD (R14) product manager in the Carol Bartz era, was a bit miffed at being passed over.

But being almost #1 at Autodesk, the 18th biggest software company in the world, may be like losing at the Super Bowl. At least you got a lot of attention. Popping up as CEO at another company would not be unexpected for Amar. And as California voids non-compete clauses, a head of an engineering or design software company is not out of the question. 

Hello, CEO Andrew

Andrew is no slouch as a technologist. He holds a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering and Computer Science from Stanford University. For most of his 20 years at Autodesk, he has functioned as its lead evangelist, always offering spirited explanation, Autodesk answers to industry questions and problems, most often with cloud-based applications. Odd for a technologist, Andrew had been promoted to lead marketing, a position from which he managed to do no harm and probably punched a ticket on his ascension. He showed business and political skills in architecting and internally promoting Autodesk’s complete and utter shift to subscription -- a first such shift among major design and engineering software companies -- away from its longstanding perpetual license model.

Looking back on it, a technology evangelist would have been the front runner to lead the company. Carl Bass, himself was a champion of technology, and Andrew, a natural successor.

Good luck to Andrew. He now has to handle customers, the Autodesk board of directors (who can be prickly should they be joined by an activist) and the stock holders and the switch to subscription, which still needs to show a turnaround, after 8 straight quarters of losses¹ now. 

It’s Not About the Money, But…

We can expect Andrew, 52, to reap immediate and significant financial gain. His base salary will more than double (from $423,231 to $800,000). His beyond-salary compensations (bonus, equity, non-equity and stock award could swell the total compensation to more that 10 times the salary. Predecessor Carl Bass is estimated to have a $1.1 million base pay and over $10 million in total compensation in FY2017. Autodesk CEO windfalls can be in the hundreds of millions. A 2006 report summing up Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz stock option for $230 million in 12 months was never disputed.

Amar Hanspal will receive a little over $1.5 million in severance pay and “special payments” according to the separation agreement made public as part to the company’s SEC filings.

Notes:
1. Autodesk maintains this period of decline was expected during the transition to subscription, the business is still healthy, deferred income continues to rise and any one who really understands business, like investors, continue to support the company. Indeed, the stock price continues to go despite quarterly losses.  

2. Correction: Amar's severance pay was $1.51 million.

You Better Start Believing in Industrial Revolutions, Dear Reader…You’re In One

 

From Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl, 2003.

IoT, 3D printing, robots, AI, digital twins, big data --it’s all happening now. In the midst of the flurry of activity, it’s hard to get a sense of it, but historians will look back on this time as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The First Industrial Revolution, connected with the steam engine, made rural people come to the cities to work  in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Second Industrial Revolution, driven by the internal combustion engine and energy, took place before World War 1. For what electricity didn’t move, oil did.

The Third Industrial Revolution was driven by the computer, when computers got personal and the Internet. It started in the 1980’s.

Just when we had it all figured out, the Fourth Industrial revolution has changed all the rules. It is likely to change our jobs -- if not take them -- and force more than a few of us into early retirement. The degrees we got that guaranteed jobs for life are under threat from artificial intelligence that can think faster and robots that can work harder.

It’s not fair. So cried victim of previous industrial revolutions. The Luddites, skilled textile workers, rallied against the machines that took away their livelihood in the First Industrial revolution. It did not go well for them. Or the assembly workers displaced by robots. Or the toll takers replaced by FastPass. Soon enough, Uber drivers replaced with self driving cars.

Ah, who needs humans, anyway? Oh, I forgot. Humans do. Someone has to watch the cooking shows. And go to all the restaurants.

For Further Reading and Watching:

 

The Fourth Industrial Revolution: What it Means, How to Respond, the World Economic Forum, 2016