Author: Vincent

By Lloyd Graff It’s almost fourth of July, the corn is high, and everybody in machine toolville is getting stressed out because IMTS is getting close. If you are showing in Chicago the tension is building. Are you spending too much? Will enough people show to justify the Benjamins? Will you get ripped off more than you planned to get ripped off? On the flip side, IMTS holds the promise of giving business a big bump for the end of 2010 going into 2011. It will connect you with the foot soldiers who can make a difference for your product.…

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By Lloyd Graff Today’s Machining World Archives June 2010 Volume 06 Issue 05 Let’s connect a few dots. The head of the Russian government, Dmitry Medvedev, is coming to visit Silicon Valley because he wants to build a competitive science center in his country. He hopes to learn something about what makes the Bay area so attractive to the Apples, Googles and Genentechs of the world. Toyota is putting a sizeable investment into electric carmaker, Tesla Motors, and is providing the closed Nummi factory in Fremont, Cal., to make Tesla cars. The DMG/Mori Seiki collaboration is probably going to manufacture…

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By Lloyd Graff I’m starting to see why the world loves the World Cup, thanks to the ESPN coverage. Fabulous athletes, monstrous egos and nutty coaches abound. Referees are inept, the ball is booed, the British hate their goalie, and rugby renown New Zealand has tied two of the supposed world powers. France hates its team, whose coach won’t play certain top players because he thinks they have the wrong astrological sign. The connection between the machining world and soccer has been clear to me since visiting PGI International in Houston several years ago. Spence Nimberger and his associate Jose…

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By Lloyd Graff I’ve always looked at the Hallmark holidays of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day with apprehension. It comes from my Dad’s anxious attitude toward his mother, who used the occasion to employ emotional extortion to exact the tribute she expected from our family. My father lived in fear of her neurotic twists and occasional psychotic breaks. For my own mother, Mother’s Day was her day to nurture my Dad as he tiptoed through the rituals of motherly appeasement. As a child I observed my parents’ management of Grandma Graff with a combination of amusement and studiousness. It was…

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Today’s Machining World interviewed Carl Hoffman, author of The Lunatic Express, a book which chronicles his travels throughout Asia, Africa, South America and the U.S., where he attempted to travel by modes of transportation commonly used by the natives, notorious for discomfort, tardiness and poor safety. How did you get the idea for the book? Carl Hoffman: I’d been traveling a lot for work over the last decade in places like the Congo, Sudan and South America. I saw minivans and trains just packed with people, and people riding on the roofs of trains. My journalist sensibility was asking me,…

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By Lloyd Graff Why should somebody work as a volunteer in an organization? My wife Risa and I discussed this topic last night as she was considering her last President’s message to the membership of the Association of Educational Therapists, a national professional organization she heads. Risa has put her heart and soul into volunteering for this organization. She wants other people to follow in her footsteps. My basic orientation on other hand, has always been, “why should I spend my good time on some dumb organization?” I have no tolerance for group meetings. They put me to sleep. I’ve…

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By Noah Graff The BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a tragic fiasco. Everyone can agree on that, but now that it’s happened, the U.S. government is confronted with the decision of how to go forward. It has imposed a six-month moratorium on drilling in more than 500 feet of water in the Gulf. President Obama has also put on hold plans to expand drilling off the coast of Alaska. This decision is based on the claim by environmental groups that we still don’t have a good understanding of why the disaster occurred and what other safety negligence…

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By Lloyd Graff Meg Whitman, former eBay CEO, won the Republican primary for governor in resounding fashion on Tuesday. The same day, Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois, watched while his lawyers grilled jurors in his corruption trial. Blogo’s father ran a numbers game in Chicago. Young Rod grew up in a world of payoffs and married the daughter of a rough local Democratic politician on his way up the political ladder. Whitman used $71 million of her own dot-com fortune to pave her campaign, while Rod Blagojevich shook down the paving contractors to get his political seed money. Is…

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I love the “Second Act” column which appears on Tuesdays in the Wall Street Journal. It recounts the stories of people who forsake their original career for one that promises more excitement, opportunity, fun, or satisfaction than the career path they originally pursued. On June 8, the Journal writer, Dennis Nishi, told John Putnam’s story. Putnam was a successful bankruptcy lawyer in Boston with a firm representing failed airlines and steel mills. While taking a deposition he had an epiphany. “Everyone there was very senior and making serious bucks. That’s when I looked around and [realized] I didn’t want to…

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By Noah Graff I’m what people would call an “Apple guy.” I only buy mac computers, own Apple stock, and my iPhone and I are inseparable. The fourth generation iPhone was introduced yesterday, and I have to say, I covet it. In addition to its products being superior in technology and quality, Apple takes pride in its products’ aesthetics, striving to portray them as glamour symbols. Apple’s designers shape their products with the care and sexiness of an Italian car designer. Fittingly, in his key note speech Monday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs even characterized the iPhone as the BMW or…

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