Internet of Things - Technology focus

+1,000 shipments of solar energy components worth hundreds of millions of dollars have piled up at U.S. ports since June under a new law banning imports from China's Xinjiang region over concerns about slave labor, according to customs officials.  The EU has also proposed a ban on products from Xinjiang but has not implemented one.  The level of seizures, which has not previously been reported, reflects how a policy intended to heap pressure on Beijing over its Uyghur detention camps in Xinjiang risks slowing the Biden administration's efforts to decarbonize the U.S. power sector to fight climate change. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized 1,053 shipments of solar energy equipment between June 21, when the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act went into effect, and Oct. 25, Three industry sources with knowledge of the matter, told Reuters the detained products include panels and polysilicon cells likely amounting to up to 1 gigawatt of capacity and primarily made by three Chinese manufacturers - Longi Green Energy Technology Co Ltd, Trina Solar Co Ltd and JinkoSolar Holding Co. Combined, Longi, Trina and Jinko typically account for up to a 1/3rd of U.S. panel supplies. But the companies have halted new shipments to the US over concerns additional cargoes will also be detained. 

The bottleneck is a challenge to U.S. solar development at a time the Biden administration is seeking to decarbonize the U.S. economy and implement the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a new law that encourages clean energy technologies to combat climate change.

Solar installations in the United States slowed by 23% in the third quarter, and nearly 23 gigawatts of solar projects are delayed, largely due to an inability to obtain panels, according to the American Clean Power Association trade group.

The European Union threatened Monday to take retaliatory measures against the US for electric car subsidies that favor domestic manufacturers. The 27-nation bloc is upset about Washington's "Inflation Reduction Act," which will see vast spending on green energy initiatives and includes tax breaks for U.S.-made electric cars and batteries. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act opens up a $7,500 tax credit for the purchase of an electric car, but the vehicle has to roll out of a U.S. factory with locally manufactured batteries. Brussels says those benefits for American EV makers would put e-cars made in the EU at an unfair disadvantage on the lucrative U.S. domestic market. The U.S. credits have raised particular hackles in Europe's manufacturing powerhouse Germany, which is concerned for its key car industry. EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels said they believed Washington was not hearing Europe's worries. "I'm not sure whether they are aware of our concerns," German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said. He added: "We should do everything to avoid a tit-for-tat scenario or even a trade war." His French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, said he expected the European Commission to come up with "a strong response to this U.S. policy."  The U.S. legislation "could harm this level playing field between the European companies and American companies,",  He underlined that it was "a matter of deep concern for the French government," which estimates that 10 billion euros in investments are at stake. Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton early Monday threatened to take "retaliatory measures" against the US, calling the subsidies "contrary to World Trade Organization rules." 

Manufacturing is coming back to the U.S. for good, according to new data from SAP, but supply chain shifts will mean higher costs at a time of high inflation. The supply chain may be getting better, but the challenges aren’t going away. According to a survey from SAP finding that 51% of U.S. companies expecting the supply chain to remain challenging into 2023. SAP, paints a picture of a supply chain that will remain in rapid flux for the U.S. economy. “The supply chain rules have changed and they’ve changed for good. There is no going back,” SAP board member Scott Russell said. “We’re in a post globalization world now,” he said of the supply chain crunch caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. “The chaos and the disruption is proving that the supply chain just wasn’t as robust as they expected it to be.” Many U.S. companies are now shifting from a “just in time” supply chain model to a “just in case” model — essentially carrying more inventory and often use of more suppliers closer to the US as opposed to a reliance on Chinese manufacturing. “The supply chain issues are costly and it isn’t all due to inflation,”. “The costs to be able to build that resilience are ultimately being borne by the consumer, who now needs to prioritize lower prices over quality.”  Rising costs in supply chain shifts are also impacting business decisions, 61% of survey respondents also said wage and recruitment freezes would be their top move to combat continued rising supply chain costs. 

He had just 11 hours in Beijing, but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz used this precious time to urge Chinese leader Xi Jinping to use his influence over Russia's President Vladimir Putin to prevent further escalation in Ukraine.  After a meeting with Xi in Beijing, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the two leaders agreed that with the use of nuclear weapons, Russia would cross a line drawn by the international community. China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that Xi Jinping called on the international community to "reject the threat of nuclear weapons and advocate against a nuclear war to prevent a crisis on the Eurasian continent." Russia would cross a line drawn by the international community. Scholz was widely criticized in the German press, and by fellow politicians, in the run-up to his Beijing trip — which he took with CEOs of German companies whose business relies on China's market — for placing short-term business interests over long-term strategic concerns and European Union unity. In the days leading up to Scholz's trip, he went against the advice of many advisers and cabinet ministers to approve a 24.9% stake in the port of Hamburg by Chinese state-run shipping giant COSCO, a move that 69% of Germans polled by Deutschland Trend called a "wrong move." The U.S. also voiced misgivings about the deal. But Xi's comments during his meeting with Scholz, and those of Premier Li Keqiang in a joint press conference, show that this trip had bigger significance for Scholz than maintaining good economic relations in a time of hyperinflation and a crisis in energy security for Germany.

Asianometry's latest video one of the most important and fundamental parts of semiconductor process, the lithography process, where the vidoe goes into the historical development of the lithography photomask that goes all the way back to the very beginning. This video looks at this essential piece of the semiconductor manufacturing process from its original rubylith to EUV: The photomask.  Enjoy

A worthwhile read with the CEO Sajedah Rustom of Montreal-based AJW Technique, where she discusses the company's digitalization efforts to date and where an aviation repair specialist will look to further implement technologies in the future. "So what does the future demand for digitalization look like for the MRO industry?" - "Many companies used COVID-19 and the lack of volume and downtime of the industry to reset their foundations and explore and adopt digitalization. Currently, the entire industry is facing a labor shortage. There is not a huge value proposition for younger engineers and entrepreneurial thinkers to join the industry because there is a perception of over regulation, overly focused on compliance, and lack of flexibility. Therefore, I think the industry has no choice but to move into the digital world to attract the labor and to continue to grow.

We are seeing now in our business that the third year of COVID is ending; we are pretty much back to 2019 levels, but we don’t have access to labor. We have to compete and work smarter or at least work differently. The value proposition of bringing new energized labor into the industry, and the fact that we have to work smarter, be more efficient, and to cope with the 2019 levels with a lot less of what we had before, means we have no choice but to move forward."

Weeks after enacting the strictest curbs yet on technology exports to China, the U.S. official overseeing the measures suggested they could soon get tougher, as his team pursues support from allies and considers restrictions on other types of technology. The remarks from Alan Estevez, Commerce Department undersecretary for industry and security, comes as the US and other Western nations continue cutting or suspending lucrative trade with China. The U.S.'s goal is not to bring about the “economic destruction of China” or a full decoupling of trade, Estevez said , but he he did say that the Biden administration is “not done” considering additional technology exports to regulate.  “...we are going to continue to look at not just what we did with semiconductors, but other areas that the Chinese are using to threaten the United States and its allies.”  Areas “on my radar” for possible additional export controls, Estevez said, include quantum computing, biotechnology and artificial intelligence. “We’re not done,” he said. “There’s other things to be done with other technologies. ... As technology moves, we’re going to stay with it.”

 “It’s not just me, it’s the national security adviser, the secretary of commerce are all on the phone working this,” he said. “So we expect to have a deal done in the near term.” Estevez said he would never “discount Chinese ingenuity and capability” but believes that the restrictions are broad enough to slow China down. “And of course we need to ensure that we, the US and our allies, advance the technology to stay ahead,” “There’s an offense and a defense game to this.”

Global PC shipments’ double-digit crash in Q3, largely dragged by global inflation which caused declining demand on consumer and enterprise spendings Global PC shipments fell 15.5% YoY in Q3 '22 to reach 71.1 million units recording another wave of huge YoY declines after the severe annual and sequential falls in Q2, according to Counterpoint Research data. The Q3 '22 decline was largely due to demand weakness across both consumer and commercial markets, which was mainly driven by global inflation. Despite components shortage issues being largely resolved, OEMs and ODMs are holding a relatively conservative view on Q4 '22 and 1H '23.  The lull in PC demand continued in the quarter despite broad promotional activities from major OEMs, especially for consumer product lines. Inventory digestion processes have been activated to deal with abnormally high levels. Although it is the season of peak consumer device sales, PC OEMs believe the destocking process will continue into 2023. The largest inventory numbers were in Q3 '22 and will likely begin to decline in coming quarters but there is uncertainty within the supply chain on when shipment growth will restart. 

A senior Russian foreign ministry official said that commercial satellites from the United States and its allies could become legitimate targets for Russia if they were involved in the war in Ukraine.  Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy director of the Russian foreign ministry's department for non-proliferation and arms control, told the United Nations that the United States and its allies were trying to use space to enforce Western dominance. Vorontsov, reading from notes, said the use of Western satellites to aid the Ukrainian war effort was "an extremely dangerous trend". "Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike," Vorontsov told the United Nations First Committee, adding that the West's use of such satellites to support Ukraine was "provocative".  Vorontsov did not mention any specific satellite companies though Elon Musk said earlier this month that his rocket company SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, citing the need for "good deeds."  Read on for more details from Reuters

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday said that some of the biggest tech companies in the world need to adjust to the changing market.

“It’s time to recognize that FAANG names got too big. Can they turn things around? Sure, but they’ve really got to change the way they operate,” he said, referring to his acronym for Facebook-parent Meta, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet. High-growth tech companies such as FAANG names, are hurt by higher interest rates because their stocks trade on the promise of higher returns down the line — a risk that investors typically aren’t willing to take in a turbulent economic environment.  “Forget being leaders — Big [Tech] stocks are now followers in a post-Covid era where we’re learning that their earnings were far more inflated by the pandemic than we knew,”  Cramer’s comment comes on the heels of several disappointing earnings results from Big Tech firms. Alphabet missed Q3 revenue and profit expectations, while Microsoft issued weak quarterly guidance that weighed down its stock. Meta Platforms reported a wide miss on Q3 earnings after the close on Wednesday, which sent its stock tumbling over 18% in after-hours trading. Netflix has fared better than its tech peers, reporting a  Q3 top-and-bottom line beat on Oct. 18 along with substantial subscriber growth. The company also provided updates on its plans to crack down on password sharing and introduce a new ad-supported tier.

The Netherlands has deployed several armed and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV), making it the 1st NATO country to do so — setting an alarming precedent for the use of killer robots on the battlefield by the West. As Vice reports, the AI-powered robots dubbed the Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry Systems (THeMIS) were developed by Estonian defense company Milrem Robotics and were dispatched to Lithuania on September 12. Armed with tank treads, they can host a number of different weapons. "We have deployed four weaponized [unmanned] machines within an operational experiment," Lt. Colonel Sjoerd Mevissen, commander of the Royal Dutch Army's Robotics and Autonomous System. "We are under the direct eyes and ears of the Russians," Mevissen said, "and as such in a semi-operational environment.” The Russian Ministry of Defense put what amounts to a bigger version of THeMIS on the ground in Syria back in 2018, and Iran's previously shown off a smaller version of the same vehicle.

the Dutch military insists that the THeMIS tanks are still experimental, Their NATO deployment is a big deal — and may further cement the onset of a new era in military technology. 

A Maryland man and his wife were sentenced today for conspiracy to communicate Restricted Data related to the design of nuclear-powered warships.Jonathan Toebbe, 44, of Annapolis, was sentenced today to +19 years, of incarceration, his wife, Diana Toebbe, 46, was sentenced to +21 years, of incarceration. The Toebbes pleaded guilty to the conspiracy in August 2022. “The Toebbes conspired to sell restricted defense information that would place the lives of our men and women in uniform and the security of the United States at risk,” said Assistant AG Matthew G. Olsen of the DoJ's National Security Division. “These actions are a betrayal of trust, not only to the U.S. Government, but also to the American people,” said Assistant Director Alan E. Kohler Jr. of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division.  “All U.S. Government employees swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and with that oath comes the obligation to protect sensitive information. Those entrusted with such grave responsibility must be held accountable if they violate their oath and betray their country.   

The German government on Wednesday blocked prospective Chinese investment in two domestic semiconductor producers after the moves raised concerns over national security and the flow of sensitive technological know-how to Beijing. The government said it had vetoed the takeover of the chip factory of the Dortmund-based company Elmos by Silex, a Swedish company that is a subsidiary of Chinese group Sai Microelectronics  Berlin also blocked investment in ERS Electronic, which is based in the southern state of Bavaria. A spokesperson for ERS Electronic said there was no plans to sell the company but it had been exploring the option of getting investment from a Chinese private equity firm. The decisions came at a time of heightened sensitivity around relations between Berlin and Beijing.

The government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited China last week, is trying to balance a push for access to the Chinese market for European companies with addressing security concerns and reducing Germany's trade reliance on China. It has been reviewing its policy towards China especially in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, which exposed Germany's heavy dependence on Russian gas. "We have to look at company takeovers closely, when it comes to important infrastructure or when there is a danger that technology flows to buyers from non-EU countries," Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement. "Especially in the semiconductor sector, it is important to us to protect the technological and economic sovereignty of Germany and Europe. Of course, Germany is and will remain an open investment location, but we are not naive either."

Elmos could not be reached for comment. A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry said Beijing wanted a fair and open environment for Chinese investment.

Speaking to reporters after the decision, Habeck said China was making a "a deliberate, strategic approach to influencing both knowledge discovery and production control, particularly in the area of semiconductor and microchip manufacturing." Scholz earlier had pushed through a decision to allow China to buy a minority stake in a terminal in Germany's largest port despite opposition from within his coalition. That decision had sparked an angry response by the foreign ministry, which warned that the investment disproportionately expanded China's strategic influence. China has previously dismissed such concerns. Scholz has warned of any decoupling from China or de-globalisation in general, while also emphasizing the need for Germany to diversify its Asia trade and take strategic concerns more into account in its business dealings. While saying he was not aware of the specific Elmos and ERS electronic investments, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Beijing had encouraged its companies to carry out win-win investment cooperation overseas. "All countries, including Germany, should provide a fair, open and non-discriminatory market environment for the normal operation of Chinese enterprises and refrain from politicising normal economic and trade cooperation, not to mention protectionism on the grounds of national security," Zhao told a regular news briefing.

The U.S. military's X-37B robotic space plane just passed 900 days in orbit on its latest hush-hush mission, adding to the program's flight-duration record. The current mission is the 6th for the X-37B program and is therefore known as OTV-6 ("Orbital Test Vehicle 6"), launched on May 17, 2020, from Cape Canaveral, and it's unclear when it will end. OTV-6 is the first X-37B flight to use a service module to host experiments. The service module is an attachment to the aft of the vehicle that allows additional experimental payload capability to be carried to orbit. The mission also deployed FalconSat-8, a small satellite developed by the U.S. Air Force  to conduct several experiments on orbit. Two NASA experiments are also onboard the space plane to study the results of radiation and other space effects on a materials sample plate and seeds used to grow food. A U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) experiment is also onboard the space plane, evaluating technology to transform solar power into radio frequency microwave energy. That experiment, called the Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module, or PRAM, continues to crank out data, said Paul Jaffe, an electronics engineer and researcher at the NRL. "It's still chugging along," Jaffe told Inside Outer Space. "The longer we're up there, the more we learn."

The X-37B doubtless toted other payloads that we don't know about on OTV-6 as well; many of the vehicle's experiments and activities are classified.

Colorado electric vehicle owner Alan O'Hashi says he was "rudely awakened" by his car's slow charging speed and warns drivers are going into purchasing EVs "a bit blindly." Colorado resident Alan O’Hashi purchased his all-electric Nissan Leaf -- and became a 1st-time electric vehicle (EV) owner -- he thought he was ready to embark on the first leg of a 2,600-mile road trip across Wyoming. He was however faced with a harsh truth after a 178-mile route that took 15 hours to complete, when normally it would clock in at 2.5 hours. 

"I was rudely awakened when I determined that the charging wasn't as rapid as some people would lead you to believe, likely the dealers," 

O’Hashi blames the road bump on a combination of part user error and part "lack of adequate infrastructure" in the car’s charging capabilities. "I had done some research. I knew a little bit about electric vehicles, and the charging and potential obstacles, and I did some pre-planning for the trip," O’Hashi said, "but I didn't actually have any practical experience with that."  "It is a cautionary tale, and [tells] how people just need to realize the current limitations and what the potential is for the future," the EV owner said. Similar to O’Hashi, The Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Wolfe thought a drive from New Orleans to Chicago and back in a brand-new Kia EV6 she rented would be "fun." "Given our battery range of up to 310 miles, I plotted a meticulous route, splitting our days into four chunks of roughly seven and a half hours each. We'd need to charge once or twice each day and plug in near our hotel overnight," .  Neither Wolfe nor O’Hashi sounded dedicated to the idea of taking an EV on another long-distance trip. 

The field of Engineering is amazingly diverse touching just about everything in our world. In this video I attempt to capture all of that diversity in one picture: the Map of Engineering, so that we can get our heads around it all and set some bounds on the subject. If you are interested in learning about engineering or want to pursue it as a career this video might help you figure out what direction to pursue. --- Chapters --- 00:00 Introduction --- 00:37 Civil Engineering --- 04:55 Chemical Engineering --- 06:55 Bio-engineering --- 08:23 Mechanical Engineering  --- 13:04 Aerospace Engineering --- 13:38 Marine Engineering --- 14:18 Electrical Engineering --- 17:50 Computer Engineering --- 19:33 Photonics --- 

Being the Corporate Competitive Intelligence Analyst that I am, one thing I always want to understand is the thinking of my opponents.  As I was reviewing the recent routes of the Russian Army in their ill fated and stupid war by Mr. Putin, and reflecting on the similar saber rattling that the Chinese Communist Party has been doing over the last year that I thought a review of how Putin's War came to pass.  So in an interview for the FRONTLINE documentary “Putin’s Road to War,” journalist Julia Ioffe discusses Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “What he has opened up with this invasion is unthinkable,” Ioffe says. “And because he is losing and because the sanctions and the Ukrainians are humiliating him, because he is backed into a corner, he is the most dangerous he has ever been, because it is now existential for him.”  Julia Ioffe is an American journalist who was born in Russia, and is a writer for and founding partner of the media company Puck. She previously reported on politics and world affairs for The Atlantic. 

Paperless airline maintenance has come in waves: 1st some early adopters, then a lull in implementations and now a resurgence of interest. ~40% of attendees at a recent IFS panel discussion of paperless maintenance (Digital Twin is what they really mean BTW) are now considering deployment. In this article Qantas and Executive Jet Management detail their paperless journeys and tips for successful implementation. Executive Jet Management (EJM), which maintains 255 aircraft and helped IFS Maintenix define and launch its paperless tools +15 years ago. David Kelly manager of MRO at Qantas, went paperless on its new Airbus A380s early on, later bringing the rest of the fleet into e-documentation and signatures.  Inefficient reading of handwritten notes is “All...gone,”. 1-page paper forms sometimes requiring appending other paper sheets for complex defects are gone, with e-pages flexibly accommodating all the necessary info. Mechanics changing shifts can now find defect status quickly, rather than thumbing through muliple pages. “The benefits are huge,”. “Information is more accessible; everyone sees the same data,”. For operators contemplating going paperless, its recommended to check IATA’s website for a very helpful guide to getting ready for paperless.  Younger mechanics are accustomed to and eager to use digital methods to type, rather than write, entries. 

No new vans or cars with combustion engines are to be sold in the European Union from 2035. The Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency said, negotiators from the member states, the European Parliament and the European Commission agreed that carmakers must achieve a 100% cut in CO2 emissions by 2035. It would effectively prohibit the sale of new cars and vans powered by gasoline or diesel in the 27-nation bloc. The ban is part of the EU's climate change package dubbed "Fit for 55", aiming to reduce climate-damaging emissions by 55% by 2030, when compared to 1990 levels, and reach climate neutrality by 2050.  "We have just finished the negotiations on CO2 levels for cars," tweeted French MEP Pascal Canfin, who heads the European parliament's environment commission. Cars currently account for 12% of all CO2 emissions in the EU bloc, while transportation overall accounts for around a quarter. EU member states must now adopt the regulation into national law. There were no plans for a driving ban on combustion engines vehicle. Instead, it is hoped all of those would eventually be replaced with electric vehicles.

The global smartphone market declined by 12% YoY even as it grew by 2% QoQ to reach 301 million units Commenting on overall market dynamics, Senior Counterpoint Research Analyst Harmeet Singh Walia said, “Most major vendors continued experiencing annual shipment declines in Q3 '22. Apple emerged as the only top-5 smartphone vendor to manage annual shipment growth in the quarter.” While Samsung grew QoQ in Q3 2022 thanks to record presales of its premium fold and flip smartphones, compared with Q3 '21, however, its shipments fell by 8% YoY. This is primarily down to dampening consumer sentiment in several of its key markets. This also affected top Chinese brands, whose shipments remained low compared with 2021 as they were getting rid of excess inventory and at the same time managing a slowdown in the home market. However, they were able to capitalise on Apple and Samsung’s exit from the Russian market, in which their share increased substantially.

When you discover that your personal information has been hacked, your first thought may be, why me? Why couldn’t it have been someone else? In truth, you might have fallen victim for a reason, perhaps a weak, easily guessed password, or a too-public social media account, like LinkedIn. But it’s just as possible that hackers got access to one of your accounts through a data breach and parlayed their access into a full-on hack attack. Either way, they’ll try to make money from their unauthorized access, and they may well do it before you even realize anything is wrong. What can you do when you realize that you’ve been hacked?  When your email, credit card, or identity gets hacked, it can be a nightmare. Knowing what to expect can be a help; knowing how to head off the hackers is even better. Our guide helps with both.

As companies mandate workers back to the office, PWC U.S. chairman Tim Ryan says they are making a mistake and smart employers know power has shifted for good. With a hot labor market still tilted to job seekers even in a cooler economy, and companies testing the power they have post-pandemic to mandate a RTO  PWC U.S. Chairman Tim Ryan says the winner has already been declared.

“The war for talent is over. Talent won,” Ryan said at the CNBC Work Summit.In Ryan's view of this shift in the balance of power between management and labor represents a departure from the work paradigm built during the baby boomer and Gen X generations. “The pandemic took 5M people out of the workforce over 55, and we’re seeing declining numbers of college enrollments all across the US,”.   “Happier, more satisfied people will do better work for their clients, if they’re feeling better about themselves,” Ryan said. “We’re changing and redesigning every single process within our organization to give people choice.” This includes allowing employees to make choices on various elements of work, from where they work to how they work, the number of hours they work and what benefits they receive.   Ryan said it won’t be an easy shift for many employers to accept because while the rhetoric of the American workplace has always focused on giving some choice to workers, the reality is that it’s long been designed to take away choice, Ryan cited examples including the idea of a 40-hour work week / Monday -Friday work week.  He said it’s important for companies to begin listening to their workers more because while in his view talent has won the war over choice, the war to attract top talent is likely to only to increase. 

Argo AI, an autonomous vehicle startup that burst on the scene in 2017 stacked with a $1 billion investment, is shutting down — its parts being absorbed into its two main backers: Ford and VW, according to people familiar with the matter. During an all-hands meeting Wednesday, Argo AI employees were told that some people would receive offers from the two automakers. It was unclear how many would be hired into Ford or VW and which companies will get Argo’s technology. Employees were told they would receive a severance package that includes insurance and 2 separate bonuses — an annual award plus a transaction bonus upon the deal close with Ford and VW. For those who are not retained by Ford or VW, they will additionally receive termination and severance pay, including health insurance. Several people told TechCrunch that it was a generous package and that the founders of the company spoke directly to its more than 2,000 employees. “In coordination with our shareholders, the decision has been made that Argo AI will not continue on its mission as a company.