Author: Serkadis

Standard element maker Ganter of Furtwangen has enlarged its
extensive product portfolio with the “retaining magnets” line of
products. The new, extensive range includes different types and
designs such as flat grippers, rod-type grippers, button magnets
and U-type magnets.
Owing to their structure, all the magnet systems have only one
magnetic contact surface, with the magnetic power being focused
onto the adhesive contact surface directly with iron poles. Many
designs have a shielded magnet system, preventing the surrounding
area from being magnetised.
Ganter supplies the retaining magnets in different materials:
– Hard ferrite (HF) is a very reasonably priced material which can
be used up to a maximum temperature of 200°C. The magnetic
adhesion is good, but decreases with increasing temperature.
– Aluminium-nickel-cobalt (AlNiCo) is extremely hard and tough
and can be machined. These magnets deliver a steady and regular
magnet field even under high temperature fluctuations and can
therefore be used for temperatures as high as 450°C.
– Samarium-cobalt (SmCo) has a very high magnetic retaining
power, is highly temperature resistant (350°C) and is virtually nondemagnetisable.
– Neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) is the magnetic with the highest
magnetic adhesion power and is virtually non-demagnetisable.
Retaining magnets used as flat grippers are available with zincplated
or red varnished steel housing or with full rubber jacket. The
rubber jacket makes these magnets the ideal choice for sensitive
surfaces. Also, the coefficient of friction is increased, with the
effect that high lateral retaining forces are achieved.
Rod-type grippers with zinc-plated or red varnished steel housing
can be pressed in, glued in or shrunk in. The magnet and iron poles in the GN 54.1 type are arranged in sandwich fashion, delivering ultimate retaining power also for small work pieces.
The button and U-type magnets are made of aluminium, nickel and cobalt, with red varnish and with split magnetic contact surface.
They achieve high retaining forces, also at higher temperatures.
GANTER’s extensive range of products also includes design versions with threaded bushing, threaded pin or with bore.
To prevent demagnetisation, most of the retaining magnets are
delivered with a sheet iron plate.
Find out more in the internet at www.ganter-griff.com

The new EasySoft control software line-up offers with the “Lite” versions free tools to simplify the remote control of laboratory power supplies or electronic loads by a PC. These tools enable the user to remotely control the most common functions of the device. Additionally, they can perform data acquisition (logging) and automated function runs by value tables (sequencing).

Key features:
– Compatible to series PS 8000, PSI 8000, PSI 9000, PSI 800 R
– Compatible to series EL 3000, EL 9000
– Compatible to interface cards IF-Ux (USB), IF-Rx (RS232) and IF-Ex (USB)
– Windows XP or newer
– Logging and sequencing
– Automated function runs
– 1 device controllable per instance

Goudsmit Magnetic Systems B.V. has recently expanded its range of demagnetisation systems with a demagnetisation unit with automatic transport system. This combination provides a compact and reliable set that saves time during demagnetisation. The transport system conveys the product evenly through the tunnel and thus ensures an optimal demagnetisation effect. The speed and the height of the conveyor is adjustable. It is individually adjustable to the operational situation. Moreover, the combined system is secure and energy efficient. The energy efficiency is attributable in particular to the choice of material; the unit is made of non-magnetic stainless steel, which leaves the demagnetisation effect undisturbed.

Different versions
These transport systems can be fitted with start/stop photocells, a conveyor or rollers; the latter can be with or without drive. If desired tunnels are available in standard designs or made to customer specification. The choice depends on the application. The standard versions are also very compact and have a sophisticated connection which means that these demagnetisation systems can be placed between other production machinery or in sequence in a production line and are therefore universally applicable.

Wireless Ink was a company that I remember getting some buzz back in the 2005/2006 timeframe… and then they dropped completely off my radar. Honestly, I had thought they had gone out of business. So I was a bit surprised to see them suddenly pop back up with a patent (of course) and a lawsuit against both Google and Facebook, claiming infringement because both companies allow users to access social networking tools via a mobile phone. Seriously. Does anyone honestly (honestly, really) think that without this patent, no one would have ever figured out how to let people access a social network via a mobile phone? The patent itself (7,599,983) was filed in 2004, but was granted at the end of last year. Wireless Ink (also known as Wink) is claiming that since the patent was filed in 2004, both companies must have known about it, which seems like an odd argument considering how many patents were filed since 2004. Once again, it’s hard to see this lawsuit as anything other than an attempt to shakedown more successful companies.

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Filed under: Aftermarket, Truck, Videos

Really, there’s not much else to say here, other than that the guys at Pypes Performance Exhaust deserve a Nobel Prize or something. These 12-inch diesel stacks may well be the most gloriously redneck innovations ever devised by mankind. Or the most awesome. Or both. Don’t be a hater – you know you need a big diesel truck now. With these. For America. Click past the jump for the video demo.

[Source: YouTube via Pypes]

Continue reading Video: 12″ diesel stacks. God Bless America

Video: 12″ diesel stacks. God Bless America originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony has opened a new store in Japan, and the reason why its newsworthy is because it appears to be a new retail direction for the company altogether. The “Sony Store Nagoya” (press release, official sonystorenagoya twitter) will open in the Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture on March 13th, and is reminiscent of what Apple and Microsoft are doing these days with their brand specific stores. This is a totally different shopping experience than what they offer at normal SonyStyle stores around the world. In an exclusive press only event, AV Watch was able to check out the new store in Nagoya and the new retail execution strategy is really amazing. Will this ever come to the USA?

Let’s take a look at the inside – as you can see the store is visible outside through the glass:

Near the main entrance in the first floor is a set of iconic stairs that lead up to level 2:

A general overview of the first floor:

As you can see each product line is clearly labeled above on a black panel and easily accessible on rows of white stands:

Sony also exhibitions that show off how various Sony devices can work together:

Here we can see a beautiful red Cybershot with a G-Lens and how you can display the images on a digital photo frame:

A VAIO exhibition, even demonstrating the special “Owner Made” models:

Some more VAIO items, including special covers for their various laptops:

The latest E series VAIO with its removable keyboard skins:

Here is the Xperia X10, which is only known in Japan as Xperia, which debuted at Nagoya.

Alpha and camera accessories all lined up on one wall for easy access:

There is of course 3D demonstrations in the Sony Store, such as this one on the first floor. There are other demonstrations you’ll see later on the second floor.

Here is the first tier of assistance desks to help visitors:

There is escalator access outside to the second floor of Sony Store Nagoya:

The second floor entrance:

The window of the second floor entrance:

The second floor of Sony Store Nagoya really tries to appear like a home. It also houses further support modules for the store, such as consultative services.

Here is another 3D demonstration, this time found on the second floor in a glorified home theater setup:

Another line of support areas:

Backstage support services were recently launched in Japan – here is the little booth that you can watch the technician in while they work on your Sony device:

Sony Store Nagoya will also have three vehicles on hand (pretty rad, eh):

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Event Alert

Recognizing that car guys (and gals) are car guys no matter where in the world they live, the folks running this weekend’s Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance have decided to use a bit of “Car-Guy Diplomacy” to reach out to that bigger island a little south of Florida…Cuba. They have invited Ing. Eduardo Mesejo Maestre, Director of Deposito del Automovil (the Cuban Automotive Museum), to serve as a judge for the event. It’s kind of like those ping pong matches between the U.S. and China back in the ’70s, but, you know, with classic cars.

It’s actually a first in U.S.-Cuba relations, for a Cuban national to be invited to judge a major concours in the States, believe it or not. In fact, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of Treasury had to grant permission for Ing. Mesejo to come here for the event, which runs March 12-14. For those too young to remember or too inattentive in history class, the United States has had a commercial, economic and financial embargo on Cuba, Cuban goods and Cuban people since 1960. Leave it to the car community to bridge that divide.

Cubans and Americans share a bit of a history with classic American cars, too. Since the embargo laws blocked the importation of new vehicles into Cuba, Cuban auto enthusiasts have made it a bit of an obsession to keep the best of the 1950s classics alive and running, relying on a lot of ingenuity to find or make parts when needed. Ing. Mesejo will join racing legends Denise McCluggage and Carroll Shelby in the jurying duties, Shelby stepping in for the recently injured Sir Stirling Moss. Fittingly, they will be judging the “Cars of the Cuban Races” class, an homage to a series of races held just in 1957, 1958 and 1960. You can read more about the event and Ing. Mesejo in the full press release after the jump.

[Source: Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance]

Continue reading Amelia Island Concours set to symbolically break Cuban embargo

Amelia Island Concours set to symbolically break Cuban embargo originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this year we noted this was likely, but now it appears that Rep. Howard Berman is getting ready to introduce an “Internet Freedom Bill,” that would limit how US companies could operate in “internet-restricting countries.” Now, we’ve already pointed out that it’s odd to see politicians pushing such bills when the US itself is pushing to restrict the internet in similar ways — but it’s particularly ironic with Berman. In supporting this new legislation, Berman notes:

He’s trying to figure out “what’s the most effective thing we can do to help people in countries where the government is” seeking to restrict Internet freedom.

But, here’s the thing. Howard Berman, who literally is the Representative for (part of) Hollywood, has been a very, very, very strong proponent of restricting internet freedoms any chance he gets — as long as those restrictions are part of Hollywood’s plan to prop up its business model. Berman famously proposed letting companies hack into file sharing networks to break them a few years back. He’s also been a major proponent of turning ISPs into copyright cops, and (of course) was actively involved in the initial planning for ACTA. He’s also sought to limit the ability for people to access publicly funded research, claiming that he didn’t want the “N” in NIH to “stand for Napster.”

Perhaps before passing legislation to try to punish other countries for their internet restrictions, Berman should take a long hard look in the mirror, at his own long and detailed history of supporting internet restrictions in the US.

Separately, with the news coming out that New Zealand has just started rolling out its own internet censoring system, it will be interesting to see if Berman’s legislation includes “friendly” countries like New Zealand and Australia that push internet censorship.

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For those of you who missed the leaked trailer of Gran Turismo 5 that we posted last week but was quickly yanked by Sony, here’s the latest stunning trailer of the game that includes a teaser for

You may have seen some of the rather popular videos by Common Craft, which has built a rather large following based on these videos about technology and social media using paper diagrams on whiteboards. What the videos are really good at is simplifying things in a way that’s easy for people to understand. For example, the video, Twitter in Plain English has received nearly 1.7 million views and is often sent around to people who are trying to understand Twitter.

Like most viral video efforts, the videos are hosted on YouTube, which makes them easy to embed and share. Except, apparently, that’s not working within Common Craft’s business model. An anonymous reader sent over a story about how the company has set up a new licensing scheme for embedding its videos on websites, and the fees get pretty high pretty quickly. Digital Inspiration notes that embedding one of those videos on a popular website or blog could cost thousands, since the prices are based on views. Lee LeFever, of Common Craft, responded in the comments that this was targeted at companies, rather than “bloggers.” However, it’s not clear if this means the videos will remain on YouTube — in which case, companies can just embed them automatically — or if they’ll keep them off of YouTube.

Either way, it’s difficult to see this working out. I’m sure some companies will pay, but on the whole, it seems to break the value chain here. Common Craft could, instead, offer up the ability to make custom videos for companies, but on its website, it says that they’d rather just focus on their own videos — and points anyone who wants custom videos to a series of other video producers. The thing is, if you want your video to be viral, you can’t also charge for it. There are three options that I can see, and none of them seem that good:

1. They leave the videos on YouTube as embeddable, and just hope that companies will pay them anyway.

   In this case, many companies would likely embed the videos anyway, not even realizing that CC wanted them to pay up. That leads to confusion and no legal basis for CC’s request. After all, it put the video on a video sharing site and allowed embedding. That seems like a pretty clear authorization to embed the video.

2. They leave the videos on YouTube, but not as embeddable, and make companies pay to embed

   As we saw with the band Ok Go, when EMI disabled embedding for the band’s videos, traffic plummeted 90%. You don’t go viral if you don’t allow embeds.

3. They stop using YouTube altogether, and don’t release the videos publicly themselves

   It’s hard to be viral when the videos aren’t anywhere online.

So with all of that, I’m still confused as to how this offering works. It seems like an attempt at the honor system to pretend that an abundant resource isn’t abundant. Instead of doing that, why not focus on the scarcities — such as creating custom videos (as mentioned), consulting (scarce knowledge) or advertising/sponsorship (selling the scarcity of attention). It just seems like other models would make a lot more business sense.

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Sony Japan and Disney are offering free Mickey & Minnie engraving on the S-Series Walkman starting on March 12th for a limited time. Those of you in Japan who purchase the NW-S740/S740K/S640/S640K can get the engraved image of Mickey and/or Minnie for free. The SonyStyle Japan website will start offering this for free soon, as well as the upcoming Sony Nagoya and SonyStyle Osaka stores will offer the engraving service on the spot. They also will engrave a message (up to fifteen characters) of your choice on the back of the Walkman.

Here is what the NW-S740/S740K/S640/S640K look like with the three various engravings:

..of course, there are also two Mouse related accessories that Disney and Sony Japan are going to offer:

Let’s start with the CC-DW-CCA clear case that has mouse ears, music notes, and pink hearts on the background.

Here is another shot of the plastic case on the S-Series Walkman:

Another collector’s item is the Mickey Mouse CC-DW-CST Walkman charging stand that has gold mouse ears, pink music notes and hearts on the base.

I guess this solidifies the whole Mouse ears association the device got when it was announced months ago.

Filed under: Sedan, Government/Legal, Work, Ford, Police/Emergency

Earlier today, Ford unveiled its next generation Police Interceptor (they’d rather you not call it a Taurus) at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway before a group of police agency fleet buyers. The event was webcast live, but you can now watch a replay as Ford president Mark Fields and vehicle line director Scott Tobin explain the process of developing the new cruiser and how it differs from a civilian Taurus.

The Dodge Charger has been stomping all over the Crown Vic and Impala in recent years during the annual Michigan State Police vehicle test, but that process could end this year when the new Taurus Police Interceptor hits the track. The 365-horsepower Ecoboost-powered Interceptor should be right up there with the Dodge and may well provide better fuel economy to boot.

Ford isn’t talking price yet for the new cop cars, but it aims to make it competitive with the rest of the class, and a claimed 25-percent boost in fuel economy compared to Crown Vic should help ease the pain of transitioning. Check out the video after the jump.

[Source: Ford]

Continue reading Video: Watch the live reveal of the 2012 Ford Police Interceptor

Video: Watch the live reveal of the 2012 Ford Police Interceptor originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In an effort to stay in touch with consumers experiencing sticky gas pedals or runaway hybrid vehicles, Toyota has created two videos that show how you should go about bringing your accelerating Toyota to a stop.

The stopping procedure video for Toyota hybrid vehicles shows how James Sikes claim of a runaway Prius could be a big hoax. Time will tell.

Check out the two videos after the jump.

Stopping Procedure for Toyota Hybrid Vehicles:

Stopping Procedure for sticking accelerator pedal:

– By: Omar Rana

Sony Japan has released their first ever LCD TV with built-in hard disk drive. The piano black monolithic design inspired BRAVIA BX series of LCD TV’s is known in the USA as the BX300 and is available in 32″ and 22″ models. However, the BX series recently debuted in Japan as the BX30H – available in 22″, 26″, and 32″ sizes. And just because Japan is so awesome, these variants also have a whopping 500GB HDD and is also available in white.

The cost-effective BX series is rather average with a 100,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, CCFL backlighting, 720p HD resolution (all you really need at those screen sizes), 60hz, 24p True Cinema,  BRAVIA Engine 2, BRAVIA Sync and other common video features. Audio features are rather standard at 5.1ch audio output and SteadySound to keep audio levels normalized.. However, the Japanese BX30H differs as it has the upgraded BRAVIA Engine 3 digital processor.

Here’s the interface for TV listings, which is pretty much like looking at a terminal in the Matrix:

The recording menu overlay:

There is also a helpful indicator (in percentage) that shows you how much space is left on the hard drive.

..and the remote that comes with the Japanese Bravia BX series:

A few years back, I wrote about why we had found full text RSS feeds to be much more powerful and useful than truncated RSS feeds. The reason that many sites push truncated feeds is the belief that it will force people to click through, and the ads on the webpage are worth a lot more than the ads found in RSS feeds. But it’s a short-sighted view. Because what it’s really doing is trying to push readers to do something that they don’t want to do. Many of them use RSS readers because it’s a more convenient way to organize and read the news they want. And, we found that by making life easier for our readers, we were able to get a lot more readers, and then that allowed us to put in place a better business model that didn’t rely on trying to trick or force them to click through. This is the same debate as the debate over ad blockers. It’s a question of whether or not you respect your community and want to add value for them, or if you just view them as dollar signs and feel you need to force or guilt them into doing stuff they don’t want.

The full text vs. partial text debate is flaring up again as Gawker Media has just shifted all its blogs to partial feed blogs. From my standpoint, this makes it significantly less likely that I’ll link to them, because I’m less likely to actually read through their posts to see if they’re worthwhile. I’ll stay subscribed, but whereas in the past I might read through an entire post before deciding it was worth writing about, now I’ll only have a snippet to make that decision — and that makes it that much less likely that I’ll find their posts worth linking to. And that seems like a mistake.

Matt McAllister from The Guardian responded to Felix Salmon’s blog post (the one linked above), and noted that when The Guardian moved to full text RSS feeds they saw their web traffic go up significantly. Admittedly, there may be other factors involved here, but it’s yet another data point in favor of being open and making it easier for your audience and your community to engage.

What I think both this and the whole ad blocking discussion come down to is a question of how different sites look at and treat their audiences. If they feel they need to take a short-term view and “monetize” every interaction with them, or if they realize that there’s a long-term value in building up a strong and loyal relationship. It’s also quite similar to the constant debates over the music industry — where the music industry feels that it wants to get paid pennies every time you hear a song. That’s the short-term “we have to monetize every use” view, compared to the longer term view, which recognizes that free songs and building up a relationship between the fans and the musicians can lead to something much more lucrative that benefits everyone.

But the key point is made by Salmon in his blog post about this. Others like to accuse Salmon and myself of supporting things like full text RSS feeds, letting people use ad blockers and being against paywalls as “a sense of entitlement.” Of course, since I’m on the publishing side of things, I don’t see how that actually applies to me since I’m defending the rights of the community of readers over short-sited publisher decisions. But the real reason why we think these (well, for RSS and paywalls — I don’t know Salmon’s view on ad blocking) things are important to understand is that taking the simplistic view of trying to maximize short-term monetization is a bad business decision in the long term:

At heart, my argument for full RSS feeds is similar to my argument against a NYT paywall, and neither argument has anything to do with a sense of entitlement on my part. Instead, both are simply bad business decisions. If you truncate your RSS feeds, you’ll get less traffic than you had with full feeds, and you’ll alienate an important minority of your audience. And if you implement a paywall, the increase in subscription revenues will fail to offset the decrease in ad revenues, even as you’ll alienate lots of your audience. So neither makes commercial sense.

Exactly. All of these are decisions that don’t take into account the bigger picture or understand the overall dynamic of a community. They assume that each transaction is a single impact: if this user doesn’t “pay” a site now, it’s “lost revenue.” But it doesn’t take into account that that user might “pay” in other means — via a comment or by passing it along to others. And what if that individual is influential and passes it on to a lot of people? It blocking off that possibility because that individual doesn’t “pay” by ad or paywall seems incredibly short sighted and quite disrespectful of a community.

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Honda Motor Co. said today that it has racked up 7,000 orders in Japan for its new CR-Z hybrid hatchback, which went on sale at its domestic dealers on Feb. 25. That’s good news for Honda because the Japanese automaker originally planned on selling 12,000 units of the CR-Z annually.

The 2011 Honda CR-Z will hit U.S. markets later this summer. Honda expects to sell 15,00 units of the two-seater hybrid in North America.

Click here for more news on the Honda CR-Z.

Refresher: The 2011 Honda CR-Z is powered by a 1.5L i-VTEC mated to Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist hybrid system. It produces a total of 122-hp and a maximum torque of 128 lb-ft when mated to manual transmission (123 lb-ft for CVT models). Fuel-economy is estimated at 31/37 mpg (city/highway) for the manual model and 36/38 mpg for the CVT model. Sales begin in the second half of 2010.

2010 Detroit: 2011 Honda CR-Z:

– By: Omar Rana

All Photos Copyright © 2010 Stephen Calogera – egmCarTech.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

Don Esmond, senior vice president of Toyota U.S. sales says that Toyota may extend its aggressive March incentives to stay competitive. The company’s March incentives sent its U.S. sales sharply higher when compared to February.

Esmond said that Toyota’s U.S. sales jumped 40 percent in the first 10 days of March compared to the same period an year-earlier. The automaker is currently offering 0 percent financing coupled with other incentives.

Esmond said that Toyota is going evaluate March sales results and reaction from customers and dealers before extending the discounts.

“We’ll continue to keep the dealers competitive in the marketplace,” Esmond said in an interview with Reuters. “I think we will have to take a look at results and reevaluate, but the promise I made to dealers was that we will continue to make them competitive.

Click here to see more details on Toyota’s March Incentives.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Reuters

Just a couple of months ago, I wrote about something that I thought was really impressive by Thomson Reuters. A Reuters blogger wrote a blog post on his official Reuters blog questioning Reuters itself after rumors started spreading that the company had spiked an article after pressure from the article’s subject. Now, the two stories might cancel each other out in some way. Spiking a story based on pressure from the subject is bad, but allowing an employee to publicly question the action on a company blog shows an openness that I thought was impressive.

However, with the release of Reuters’ new social media policies, it looks like the blogger, Chris Clair, would have broken one of the new rules:

The advent of social media does not change your relationship with the company that employs you — do not use social media to embarrass or disparage Thomson Reuters.

Then there’s this:

We’re in a competitive business and while the spirit of social media is collaborative we need to take care not to undermine the commercial basis of our company.

The thing is, since you are in a competitive business, it’s worth noting that all of your competitors are trying to “undermine the basis” of your company — and thus it tends to be better to undermine yourself before someone else undermines you. So, while I understand why Reuters would say the following about Twitter usage:

As with blogging within Reuters News, you should make sure that if you have hard news content that it is broken first via the wire. Don’t scoop the wire.

It doesn’t really make much sense. It also goes against what some at Reuters have successfully done. You can still “scoop the wire” and then publish a full report on the wire. In fact, if you use Twitter correctly, you can build a lot more interest in the upcoming full story.

While there are plenty of reasonable and useful suggestions in the Reuters social media policies, some of it seems to go against what Reuters own Editor in Chief, David Schlesinger, said just last year:

The old means of control don’t work.
The old categories don’t work.
The old ways of thinking won’t work.
We all need to come to terms with that.

Fundamentally, the old media won’t control news dissemination in the future. And organisations can’t control access using old forms of accreditation any more.

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