When I started writing this blog, I promised to flush out bad design. Well, the Maxtor Network Attached Storage back-up drive (model H01R300) I lambasted a few months ago still confounds me. Why? I can't shut it off w/o pulling the power cord which makes me very nervous with a 300GB drive. That's could have been what killed the first unit that I returned.
I press the alleged power switch, hold it in for five seconds like the instructions say and it powers down. But when I release the power button, it comes back on. I am on a rampage to get the kilwatt hours at my home below a grand and have replaced incandescents light bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and shut down the hot tub for a month. For sure, the drive is not the worst electricity guzzler in the house, but the noisy hard drive motor is a constant reminder something is switched on when it needn't be.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Plastic may not be the most beloved of materials to the more environmentally minded, but Plasti 2012 aimed to mold a different opinion of the material in people's minds.
The rare earth element market has become steadily more rational, and new sources coming online will continue to reduce costs. Still, it is unlikely that prices will drop to their former lows.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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