#he can change his own tires / oil / etc. and generally identify problems with his car but that doesn't mean he necessarily does. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

commsroom · 1 year ago

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OHOHOHOH i like this train of thought with car guy eiffel who always has a tiny screwdriver/one of those with interchangeable heads in his pocket eiffel going to engineering and screwing around with spare parts and fixing things when he needs to think eiffel who always has little metal bits and screws that hes messing with on his desk eiffel who makes little metal trinkets for his loved ones. he sits and rambles to hera about engines and different manufacturers and they design the perfect car together with her knowledge of the world and his brain for design and mechanics. im thinking very much kaylee from firefly who never understood people but somehow machines just talk to her and spring to life in her hands. doug eiffel who wanted to go to college for aerospace engineering and work for nasa but never went to college and picked up a job hauling scrap parts to pay for said college degree before he dropped out and ended up working as head mechanic and whose dreams of building space ships were reignited when cutter found him in prison. or, my saddest thought yet, eiffel already planning on building a car with his daughter for her sixteenth birthday before she was taken from him.

idk also brings new life to his relationship with hera as the ship and how no one else on the hephaestus was really fit to do big repairs, but if he had a background in mechanics he could understand her on ANOTHER level that the other crew members dont get

oh gosh, i really don't think he'd be into anything that complex! like - don't get me wrong, eiffel is smarter than people (including himself) give him credit for, but he's a handyman, not an engineer. he is like the model for undiagnosed adhd class clown; he got through high school because he tests remarkably well without ever studying, and that was just enough to keep him from failing on account of all the homework he didn't do. i fully believe that eiffel never went to college, and never intended to. he's unambitious, and i love that about him.

maxwell's got the genius mechanical aptitude, minkowski's got the hard work and dreams of spaceflight... eiffel's passion is radio. when i say he's a car guy, i don't think it's his thing like radio is his thing - he's just a guy with a head full of american pop culture biases, who likes tinkering with stuff, and who lists "monster trucks" as one of the top ten things he misses about earth. like - i feel bad that so much of this is me disagreeing with you, these are just very different things! eiffel's definitely got tools on hand, he keeps one of his tool bags by his bed, he likes building things out of spare parts - canonically, he's got a lot of technical know-how, but it's in a much more practical, hands-on way. i don't think he'd be telling hera about design, much less his own design concepts, as much as he'd be ranking his dream cars. and i do not think functionality factors in as much as "he thinks it's cool" and/or "they used that make and model in a movie that he liked."

and speaking of hera, honestly, like... eiffel's good with his hands! and he can follow her instructions and do repairs if necessary. but the kind of electronics eiffel works with are nowhere near as complex, and i don't think spaceship maintenance comes naturally to him - and it's certainly not something he wants to do!! and while it makes a pretty big difference whether we're talking general station maintenance vs. specifically hera's hardware here, i think the fact that he doesn't know how to navigate this stuff without her input is part of the reason she feels safe with him. he didn't even think about what "optical system" could mean. eiffel couldn't (intentionally) mess with hera's systems even if he wanted to. hera is so used to people who "understand" her in that way taking advantage of her; i think it's reassuring eiffel has no interest in it. he is a people person; hera's just a regular person to him.

but anyway. i think he was looking forward to teaching anne how to drive, and that would be a depressing note to leave this on, so. eiffel could not be an engineer, and i think even the thought of the work that would require would make him break out in hives, but he could be a mechanic, for whatever length of time it'd take him to get fired. and i think that would be hot. put him in another set of coveralls and get him greased up. that's what's really important.

#he's just an analog guy!! he's got a knack for radio. he could tinker with your stereo to optimize the sound quality.#he can change his own tires / oil / etc. and generally identify problems with his car but that doesn't mean he necessarily does.#he'll spend all day trying to fix a heap of junk as a hobby but routine repairs that'll take him 15 minutes? he'd sooner die #he cuts corners where he probably shouldn't. etc. eiffel hates doing anything as soon as it's work.#... i'm sorry! i really feel bad how much of this is disagreeing with you. i really appreciate the ask!#thank you for talking to me about eiffel #asks #also i've been meaning to write a post. i keep thinking about writing it but i've been so tired. but i want to talk about how #there some key ways eiffel really doesn't understand hera or what it's like for her. and that's actually important to me. like.#eiffel is really bad about assuming his experiences are universal and he loves hera and in loving hera he has to learn to decenter himself.

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aliciabuncle · 6 years ago

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Rethinking your business with IoT: your product “as a Service”

In the world of IT “as-a-Service” has been a major trend over the last 15 years. Once the availability, speed and reliability of the Internet reached the point where applications could be accessed in someone elses data center, it’s made sense to look for opportunities to reduce costs. Why not you pay for what you use (Software as a Service) rather than invest in the infrastructure, software, support staff, etc., required to run an application yourself?

Similarly, software platforms and hardware infrastructures sold “as a Service” have taken off. It’s much faster and usually more cost effective to buy what you need rather than invest up-front. With increased volatility in the world due to politics, innovation and economics, many companies value flexibility over predictable asset amortization. You’ll see this is reflected in a growing preference for Opex over Capex investment.

A third trend is the growing investment in the Internet of Things (IoT). The more you embed sensors and actuators into physical assets, the more potential you have to change the business models for those physical things. This article will explore the implications of these changes and what they mean in our new “as a Service” world as we progress from purely physical assets to a purely digital ones.

Service for product: the case for smarter maintenance

Traditionally buying a physical asset meant an up-front acquisition or a lease, plus ongoing maintenance, for which you would be responsible. The simplest example is buying a car. You have sole use of the vehicle, and every so often, you take it to a garage for an oil change or new tires.

Thanks to IoT, that’s changing. Now, our physical assets (like a car) are able to report usage and status. For example, my car can tell me via an app that it’s due for a service in the next month. The most forward-looking manufacturers take the owner out of the equation and send software updates directly to the vehicle.

In additional to connected cars, more and more products across a variety of industries are able to report back to their manufacturers. This helps the manufacturer understand usage trends and identify problems that lead to increased warranty costs.

One example is Electra[1], the largest manufacturer of air-conditioning units in Israel. The company recently launched a connected aircon unit that is able to report faults back to the company. That means that when a unit needs repair, an engineer knows what part is needed to fix a problem on first visit. Customers are happier (and cooler) and Electra can lower its costs.

Services with product: extending value for business and its customers

Moving on from services that improve a product, we start to look at services that augment it. Back to my car example; when I bought my first car, I considered its aesthetics, performance and price. When I choose my most recent car, I was more interested in the services that came with it, like the navigation system with real-time traffic insights and the entertainment system’s ability to stream music from my Spotify account.

In the same way, we are seeing manufacturers offer IOT-based services around the physical product. One example is Sandvik Mining & Rock Technology, which makes drilling and earth moving equipment for mines. Their objective is to help their customers get more value from their equipment. To accomplish that, they provide dashboards that help their customers assess the performance of their equipment and operators against industry benchmarks. That helps boost productivity and output.

According to the company: Never before has it been possible to measure so much on equipment. Combined with other process information, this onboard fleet data can help inform actionable insights to improve your business.

Digitalization means leveraging digital technologies to drive efficiency and profitability. From autonomous and connected equipment to data analysis and process optimization, we’re launching new digital solutions to help you improve safety, reduce environmental impact and optimize efficiency and profitability.[2]

Product as a service: creating new solutions

Things start to get especially interesting when a traditional physical product is consumed in a new way. A good example is an innovative solution to a rather mundane but important problem.

With recent changes to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) regulations covering public buildings and facilities there are now higher costs to remain compliant. Failure to comply brings significant penalties, including fines, additional audit scrutiny, reputational damage and even facility closure in extreme cases.

In an average sized public building, there will be around 1000 exit signs. Each sign requires a monthly inspection and an annual 90-minute battery test. The estimated annual costs of manual inspection are $25 per sign per month, which adds up to $300,000 every year. Even if the building owner does not outsource the effort, the time that their own maintenance staff spends (roughly 100 hours per month) is time that could be more productively spent on maintenance and improvement tasks.

Using IoT to create a smarter solution

A new solution developed by Willard IoT, in conjunction with IBM, offers a smart way to increase the integrity of the compliance process while drastically reducing the costs of recording and reporting status. Best of all, this new solution is delivered as a service, which means clients don’t have to worry about ongoing maintenance and updates.

This exit sign solution uses sensors in the sign to measure light status and battery health. The results of this data is presented in a dashboard that summarises the status across multiple signs, grouped for convenience (i.e. by floor/area, building, etc.). This solution provides a highly accurate and reliable summary of the current status and testing regime. It also ensures compliance and greatly reduces the risk of an audit failure.

Less obvious are the benefits of delivering the solution as a service. For a fixed price per sign per month, the solution is installed and configured. The maintenance of the exit signs is included, too. So any failures detected by the automatic testing can be quickly remediated. Since support and updates for the solution are included, any problems can be quickly resolved.

A look at the cost savings

The savings that can be achieved through this solution are typically over $6 per sign per month. So for a typical building with 1000 signs, that would result in over $100,000 per year. And that is before any additional costs for maintenance and replacement are taken into account. Over the normal five-year amortization period for a capital investment in a standard sign, that would be over half a million dollars in savings.

The next frontier: when data becomes the product

With all of these connected offerings comes a wealth of data about how products are being used and services consumed. The fact is, data is the new natural resource. And more product manufacturers and operators are looking at ways to monetize it.

Forrester says[3]:

Firms Should Look Beyond Just Cost Savings To Capture The Full Value Of IoT

Business execs often fixate on cost savings as the primary IoT value contribution, but the potential business value of IoT reaches much further. Successful companies will leverage their IoT investments to optimize their existing operations, differentiate their products and services, and transform entire markets through new offerings.

Ovum describes[4]how the adoption of increasing digitalisation leads to…

… a coherent enterprise that can sense, anticipate, respond, and adapt at the right pace to remain persistently relevant to its customers. Ovum’s term for such an enterprise is “customer-adaptive.” The fundamental trigger point for adaptation is the customer.

Access to data from new sources – generated within and acquired from without – can be a powerful force to shape the offerings – and even the purpose – of the organization.

Getting started

At IBM, we’re ready to help you explore your own data initiatives and your “as a Service” opportunities. I invite you to visit our website and talk to one of our experts.

References:

https://newsroom.ibm.com/2018-07-19-IBM-Watson-IoT-Accelerates-Business-Transformation-in-Europe

https://www.rocktechnology.sandvik/en/about-us/digitalization/

https://www.forrester.com/report/Untangle+Your+IoT+Strategies/-/E-RES121373?objectid=RES121373#– Untangle Your IoT Strategies: The Three IoT Scenarios And How They Drive Business Value, September 21, 2017

Ovum – A Customer-Adaptive Architectural Approach for Digital Business Transformation, 17 April 2018 (INT001-000040)

About the author:Mark Swinson is the Worldwide Go-To-Market Leader for the Watson IoT Platform. He joined IBM in 1995 and has worked many different areas of IBM’s software portfolio. The locus of his career has been in integration – starting with application-to-application integration and evolving through high-performance, low-latency messaging into the realm of IoT. He has been a part of the Watson IoT Business Unit since 2016, and worked on helping our clients realize value from IoT through cloud-based platforms and industry-aligned solutions.

The post Rethinking your business with IoT: your product “as a Service” appeared first on Internet of Things blog.

Rethinking your business with IoT: your product “as a Service” published first on https://decalsgraphicstore.tumblr.com/

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ralphmorgan-blog1 · 8 years ago

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Why a cybersecurity solution for driverless cars may be found under the hood

Clarence Hempfield Crunch Network Contributor

Clarence Hempfield is vice president of Location Intelligence at Pitney Bowes.

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Autonomous vehicles were one of the most talked about technologies in 2016. Ever since Tesla, Google and Uber put these vehicles on the consumer trend map as well as beer deliveries Ive been daydreaming of the day I might own one myself. Unfortunately for me, and the automotive industry, that day might not be coming too soon.

Wired reporter Andy Greenberg chronicled his real-life experience driving a hijacked Jeep Cherokee. Andy agreed to be the guinea pig for two St. Louis-based researchers, whom he refers to as hijackers. While Andy drove the vehicle, the two hijackers experimented with just how far they could hack into the vehicles computerized system. What started as a hijacking of the vehicles air conditioning and music ended with a disabled accelerator and a powerless driver.

Andys expos highlighted just how easy it can be for a seasoned professional to hack into a car, and it drew national attention among consumers and law makers. Last year the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) released guidelines stating that automakers should make cybersecurity a priority. While most would agree that the NHTSA is correct in its guidance, there is one major problem: cybersecurity is a never-ending battle. Individuals with enough technical skills, patience and desire to profit will find a way around the latest security barriers.

Whats critical in the new world of constantly connected devices, particularly autonomous vehicles, is that we must take a holistic view of cybersecurity that goes beyond more complex encryption.

The vulnerability of connected devices

Assuming that the cybersecurity issues can be resolved in the next few years, autonomous vehicles will become one of the leading contributors to the Internet of Things (IoT). Similar to other IoT devices, like mobile phones and wearable fitness trackers, autonomous vehicles will also generate consumer data that will influence the way businesses, government and other policy makers operate. But like most connected devices in the IoT, the software infrastructures and data generated from autonomous vehicles will also become more exposed to risks.

In fact, Munich Re, the worlds second-largest reinsurer, found that 55 percent of corporate risk managers surveyed in a recent study named cybersecurity as their top concern for autonomous vehicles. Even more alarming, 64 percent of companies surveyed say they feel completely unprepared to address cybersecurity.

Solutions and insights generated from location-based data has moved beyond the nice-to-have.

Hackers thrive on vulnerabilities, and theyre already starting to take advantage of unprotected autonomous vehicles. In August of last year, hackers were arrested for stealing more than 100 cars in Texas simply by using a computer to unlock and start the vehicles.

Automakers have poured billions of dollars into developing autonomous vehicles, but if they cant keep the cars and their drivers safe, Ill never have one of these vehicles sitting in my garage. While the NHTSA may not have all the answers to addressing cybersecurity threats, automakers may be able to look under the hood of their own vehicles to find a potential solution.

Re-imagining GPS

Devices in the IoT are unique in that they generate a wealth of data, including location-based data. So whether its your phone, your mobile device or your car, consumers that opt-in for location-based services allow these devices to capture both their movements and what theyre doing at each point along their journey.

Autonomous vehicles are utilizing and capturing location-based data, which can be analyzed to identify behaviors like vehicle movement, speed, average drive times or even proximity to other objects, like other vehicles and retail stores, which in return can benefit the consumer.

Location-based data offers consumers and businesses the potential to reveal a great deal of information. Retailers are already leveraging data generated by cars to inform their site selection decisions, and the public sector is using the data for civic improvement and planning projects.

Consumers are also benefiting from the data by being able to route their cars to avoid traffic jams, or reduce their insurance deductibles for their good driving behavior. But the most notable perk from location-based data may also be used to uncover abnormalities in behaviors, which could be used to detect and limit actions taken by hackers.

For example, when a hazard symbol flashes on your dashboard, the data your car generates is telling the system that there is a problem maybe your tire pressure is low, you need an oil change or theres a door that has not been completely closed. Your vehicle knows how it should operate; if the data suggests its not running as it should, youre immediately alerted with the hazard light.

Theoretically, the same type of real-time alert infrastructure could help resolve cybersecurity threats and more traditional thefts, which could lead to new or expanded offerings by vehicle monitoring companies like OnStar, UConnect, Blue Link, Ford Synch, etc. If drivers allow these organizations or safety officials to monitor their vehicles location and have a complete view of typical driving behaviors, officials can be alerted immediately to any behaviors that may stray from expectations and shut down the vehicle in an emergency situation.

So if an autonomous vehicle is speeding through a residential neighborhood, creeping to a halt on a major interstate or not slowing down as it approaches a red light, officials may be able to override the computerized system, and a potential hacker, to restore the vehicle to a safe-driving state.Alternately, if it is determined that the vehicle is being driven without authorization, the same systems can be used to potentially keep the driver trapped until law enforcement arrive.

By leveraging the existing infrastructures that are in place, automakers can potentially turn up a notch their location-based infrastructure and internal diagnostics while potentially addressing the cybersecurity and vehicle theft problems.

The future of driverless vehicles

No one has the answer to solving this potentially multi-billion dollar crisis automakers are facing, but I believe an answer might be uncovered by leveraging the location-based infrastructure that is already in place. We live in a world where technology is growing at rapid speeds, and most companies dont have the time or money to reinvent the wheel every time something new is introduced in the market.

Automakers already have the infrastructure in place for capturing and using location-based data, and theyve been able to monetize those capabilities with industries that benefit from that data. But the same could apply for the safety of their customers.

Solutions and insights generated from location-based data has moved beyond the nice-to-have its a need-to-have to keep drivers safe when theyre behind the wheel of an autonomous vehicle.