Holcombe Chassis prepares to take the next step
I learned the following from Brian Holcombe in an IM exchange:
Brian: got a new hot item....transmission crossmembers, 9 guys want them. i dont know how many will actually follow through with the $$$, but one has so far and i'd expect 2-3 more to follow
Dr. Ron: that is great! send me a diagram of these things?
Brian goes on:
The new hot item is called a transmission crossmember.
It's constructed of round tubing, and has two tabs on ether end for mounting. They're lighter than the factory crossmember by 6-8 lbs, and I will be able to tailor the mount to the specific transmission in the car. The price I'm asking is $120.
My costs are:- [such-and-such an amount] to have the tubing bent
- [so-and-so more] for tubing
- [and about this much] for shop overhead.
Leaving [a decent enough to live with] profit... not bad for a small product.
Labels: education, young entrepreneurs
Dr. Ron endorses...
'Nuff Said.
This notice "paid for" by the Committee for Petrelli and Linderman in 2008,
Gabriel Sylar, treasurer.
Labels: diversions
Juterphusion prepares to take the next step
Anthony Thompson is about to graduate. His plan has always been to be able to make a living from Juterphusion Recording Solutions after graduation, and his recent news indicates that he is certainly heading in that direction:
Just wanted to tell you things are progressing, I am even graduating on time; to boot. I have a great mix disc of the RAT from the performances of Melody [Gardot] and up[-and-]comer John Dutton. I will try to get you a copy ASAP because you probably will be impressed. The total amount of shows for TCNJ is 84 :) and Ms. [Jessica] Valiente [of Los Mas Valientes] is actually a music professor at MSU, so this is great.
I have indicated a willingness to invest further in Juterphusion as a result of this progress. Not a LOT, but how much can a teacher really fork over? I'm fulfilling the role of the micropatron; someday soon Juterphusion will outgrow me.
Gardot has a terrific, professional site redesign, by the way.
And Valiente gives Anthony valuable advice:
Let's say you do a job for me in Philly, nearly 2 hours drive, and it's a 4-hour gig. Getting paid your rate for travel and the gig brings you up to still only $160, and if you have an assistant that you're paying $15/hour, it's less than $300. You're definitely worth more money than that--keep in mind for these kinds of jobs you're using your own equipment and your own vehicle, and these are all expensive items that have to be maintained.
Labels: education, young entrepreneurs
Rich Barrett passes; a loss we'll feel
My good friend Rich Barrett has passed away. He was one of the foremost experts in the world on the subject of fasteners -- a subject often overlooked by engineering organizations both small and large. He deserves credit from all of us for caring about a subject so many ignore as an afterthought; a subject that, if ignored, can lead to momentous engineering failures and loss of life and property. For my money, if an engineer CAN be a hero, Rich Barrett was a hero.
I've maintained a large portion of his Fastener Design Manual on this Web site. It'll stay here until I leave TCNJ for good and all, or until Rich's family asks me to pull it down. In the meantime, there will be no answers to e-mail inquiries made to Rich. I certainly won't do it, and I never have. Dozens of engineers has written to ask Rich for free help, which he didn't have time to give during his life, and which I am neither qualified nor inclined to pitch in. It's just a book -- read it or don't, but don't bother with questions. Rich did a fine job collecting a cache of info about fasteners, but he didn't leave behind a support service. You certainly won't honor his life by asking for help now.
This is his last communication to me, dated 03.17.2007:
- My spouse and I divorced over religious differences. She thought she was God and I didn't.
- I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.
- Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
- I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
- Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.
- You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
- Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
- Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
- I'm not a complete idiot -- Some parts are just missing.
- Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
- NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine.
- God must love stupid people; He made so many.
- The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
- Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.
- Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
- Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it!
- Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up.
- Procrastinate Now!
- I have a degree in Liberal Arts. Do you want fries with that?
- A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
- A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.
- Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!
- They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.
- He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.
- A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.
- Ham and eggs...A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.
- The trouble with life is there's no background music.
- The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.
- I smile because I don't know what the heck is going on.
This list has probably been around the Internet and back. But it shows that Rich was keeping a sense of humor around until the last.
Labels: character, education, engineering, history
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