Quit representing yourselves as part of an IT dept. Quit thinking of yourselves as part of an IT dept. Start representing and thinking of yourselves as part of a Regional Airline.
The management above you, who fear and distrust IT due to their technical ignorance, smell the us vs. them that you put out (duh, of course you smell it from them too, the difference is that their smell is caused through ignorance and fear, yours is caused by disdain and a sense of geekish superiority {okay, _maybe_ your IT dept. doesn't do that, but 95% do.) You can choose to become business aware and conversant easier than they can become technically savvy and conversant.
And surprise, surprise, surprise! Therein lies career pathing. Business and technical savvy married in one person. Move up because you're trusted, not feared. Sure, some, maybe many will want to never leave the warm fuzzies of the technical garden they have planted and nurtured. But those paths just go in circles and curly-Qs.
They've got the money. Either get your own, start a revolution, or get them to WANT to give you more of theirs (cause it'll make more for them.)
P.S. 75% of the revenue may come THROUGH the IT dept. But not FROM the IT dept. That's a clear example of not thinking like part of the Business. Sorry.
My brother cooled part of his house in N. Florida by burying a length of about 500' of small PVC pipe in his back yard about 18"-24" down and pumping water through it. That water then went through a radiator in the house with a fan behind it. Not dramatic cooling, but signficant. The pump and the fan are well within solar power capabilities.
A lot depends on how durable/rigid/strong you need the parts to be. There are a lot of great parts available from Lego Technics and other building kits that mimic organic joints. But they don't have the power to lift or hold much. If you really need strength then you are stuck with higher priced alternatives.
I ended up buying a metal lathe and high temp welding gear after years of frustration trying to find/adapt parts. Metal lathes can be had (for very small parts) for around $150, see the Clisby Lathe. It's easy to spend more than that and you should always count on spending 150% of the price of the machine on tooling for it.
Casting small parts is also feasible for some solutions, check out the small parts casting info at Micro Mark. It's conceivable that you could use Lego parts as the model for parts you cast in metal (zinc and aluminum are easy but there are lower temp alternatives.)
The really cool anatomical robot stuff is being done with Air Muscles which can be home brewed with a little ingenuity.
Did this on my Sinclair ZX80 (pre-Timex). Wrote a brownian music generator from an ancient Amateur Scientist column (pre-PCs, used spinners on cardboard to generate random within params).
I was an out of work archealogist/musician in 1988, trying to get a real job at the tiny upstart PC's Limited (soon to be renamed Dell Computers:-) I had no computer experience except for some basic electronics hobby activity and my Sinclair ZX-80 (not the Timex-Sinclair, I'm talking 4K ROM, 1K RAM mail order from England white shell model.) My band mate loaned me a 8088 PC and I sold enough plasma to buy TurboC.
I taught myself enough C with the TurboC manual to get hired into Dell tech support. Within 6 months I'd written a bunch of useful C programs and got myself promoted into the engineering dept..
11 years later I'm the Director of Technology for CyberPlex USA, an internet technology company. I've been a development manager at Dell, Tivoli and Motive. I've taken companies public and ridden some of the hottest stocks in the industry. I've learned 2 languages or environments a year every year, gotten married, bought an old church to rennovate and had a kid.
There are a lot of old notebooks to be had for a song (8088, 80286, 80386SX) that kick ass as dedicated controllers. TurboC is a huge boon for making them useful. Also the whole embedded PC world benefits with a solid free compiler.
So for robotics, home control, art goo and a lot of other stuff, TurboC is VERY useful!!! (and actually pretty darn fun)
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Quit representing yourselves as part of an IT dept. Quit thinking of yourselves as part of an IT dept. Start representing and thinking of yourselves as part of a Regional Airline.
The management above you, who fear and distrust IT due to their technical ignorance, smell the us vs. them that you put out (duh, of course you smell it from them too, the difference is that their smell is caused through ignorance and fear, yours is caused by disdain and a sense of geekish superiority {okay, _maybe_ your IT dept. doesn't do that, but 95% do.) You can choose to become business aware and conversant easier than they can become technically savvy and conversant.
And surprise, surprise, surprise! Therein lies career pathing. Business and technical savvy married in one person. Move up because you're trusted, not feared. Sure, some, maybe many will want to never leave the warm fuzzies of the technical garden they have planted and nurtured. But those paths just go in circles and curly-Qs.
They've got the money. Either get your own, start a revolution, or get them to WANT to give you more of theirs (cause it'll make more for them.)
P.S. 75% of the revenue may come THROUGH the IT dept. But not FROM the IT dept. That's a clear example of not thinking like part of the Business. Sorry.
My brother cooled part of his house in N. Florida by burying a length of about 500' of small PVC pipe in his back yard about 18"-24" down and pumping water through it. That water then went through a radiator in the house with a fan behind it. Not dramatic cooling, but signficant. The pump and the fan are well within solar power capabilities.
Read the majority opinion. The justices are clear that Congress can extend patents in exactly the same way as copyrights.
I ended up buying a metal lathe and high temp welding gear after years of frustration trying to find/adapt parts. Metal lathes can be had (for very small parts) for around $150, see the Clisby Lathe. It's easy to spend more than that and you should always count on spending 150% of the price of the machine on tooling for it.
Casting small parts is also feasible for some solutions, check out the small parts casting info at Micro Mark. It's conceivable that you could use Lego parts as the model for parts you cast in metal (zinc and aluminum are easy but there are lower temp alternatives.)
The really cool anatomical robot stuff is being done with Air Muscles which can be home brewed with a little ingenuity.
Did this on my Sinclair ZX80 (pre-Timex). Wrote a brownian music generator from an ancient Amateur Scientist column (pre-PCs, used spinners on cardboard to generate random within params).
Geez, I'm making myself feel old.
I was an out of work archealogist/musician in 1988, trying to get a real job at the tiny upstart PC's Limited (soon to be renamed Dell Computers :-) I had no computer experience except for some basic electronics hobby activity and my Sinclair ZX-80 (not the Timex-Sinclair, I'm talking 4K ROM, 1K RAM mail order from England white shell model.) My band mate loaned me a 8088 PC and I sold enough plasma to buy TurboC.
I taught myself enough C with the TurboC manual to get hired into Dell tech support. Within 6 months I'd written a bunch of useful C programs and got myself promoted into the engineering dept..
11 years later I'm the Director of Technology for CyberPlex USA, an internet technology company. I've been a development manager at Dell, Tivoli and Motive. I've taken companies public and ridden some of the hottest stocks in the industry. I've learned 2 languages or environments a year every year, gotten married, bought an old church to rennovate and had a kid.
Thanks Borland. Best money I ever spent.
There are a lot of old notebooks to be had for a song (8088, 80286, 80386SX) that kick ass as dedicated controllers. TurboC is a huge boon for making them useful. Also the whole embedded PC world benefits with a solid free compiler.
So for robotics, home control, art goo and a lot of other stuff, TurboC is VERY useful!!!
(and actually pretty darn fun)