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Tag Archives: Tech life in New England
Phineas and Ferb Go To MIT
Because of course they would. This is what they built over summer vacation: It’s a 130-foot-long roller coaster! Students at the East Campus dorm built it for a freshman introduction activity. The above is one end, and here’s the … Continue reading
The Fun Economy Displaces the Stuff Economy
The other day I took my 9-year-old son to gymnastics class. The gym is in an industrial neighborhood of Waltham, Massachusetts, which was pretty much the original industrial town of America. The Industrial Revolution in the US started here when … Continue reading
Solectria – Achieving Goals By Lowering Them
A few days ago some good news finally came to a guy who has been trying to save the world for a very long time. James Worden is the founder of the Massachusetts company Solectria Renewables, and it just got … Continue reading
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Tagged electric-cars, energy-ish, mit-ish, solar inverters, Tech life in New England, tech-culture
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The Lost Engineering Paradise of DEC
I was saddened to hear the recent news that Intel is closing its Hudson MA semiconductor fab. It’s 35 years old, and couldn’t be upgraded to the latest process nodes. It’s still using 200 mm diameter wafers and a 130 … Continue reading
“MIT Rising”, But Not Because of Startups
The November issue of Boston magazine has an article “How MIT Became the Most Important University in the World” by Chris Vogel. It talks about how MIT students are better dressed these days, more articulate, and more out-going. In fact, … Continue reading
Tech Tourism Around Boston
Boston has been industrialized for 200 years, so there’s plenty to see around the city for the technically-minded traveler, or for the local looking for a family outing. Since it’s hard to decide which are my favorites, I’ll just put … Continue reading
Keurig Dumps Inventor, Builds Millions of Junk Coffee Makers
Keurig single-cup coffee makers are the most unreliable appliances I’ve ever owned. My most recent machine failed after only three weeks, and thus this rant. I’ve owned several of them, and used many more at work, but they never seem … Continue reading
Boston Power becomes Beijing Power
Well here’s a depressing story – a local lithium-ion battery startup, Boston Power, has recently been bought out by Chinese investors and the Chinese government, and will be moving most of its R&D operations to Beijing. The American execs are … Continue reading
“MIT Seeks to Flatter Wealthy Businessmen”
… is what the headline should have read on this Boston Globe article, “Stars of invention – Walk of Fame in Kendall Square celebrates technology and the entrepreneurial spirit”. Apparently MIT and the city of Cambridge have set up a … Continue reading
The Last Factory
My town of Arlington Massachusetts was first settled in 1635. Its first factory was a water-powered grist mill built just two years later by a Captain George Cooke. Its last factory, an ice cream plant, is just being torn down … Continue reading
A Niche in the Library of Babel 