So, my birthday is in a week, and which one of you is going to get me a bolt of fabric with Brent’s face on it?

[spoonflower.com, via SwissMiss]

The Daily WTF is a blog dedicated to the stories of IT pros who have to deal with "them" (regular, non-IT people) who keep getting it wrong and destroying things because they don't understand how technology works. 

This story was titled "Caught". Here's an excerpt. 

She spun around the operator and dashed up the steps, ignoring the calls for her to stop. She could see the entire factory floor from the catwalk. She spotted the broken conveyor belt right away-- the last belt in the line, between the blast furnace and the pallet stacker. The conveyor belt had buckled, and the motors were exposed. She could see plenty wrong with it-- but what worried her the most was that she couldn't see what this 'fix' was. And yet, the assembly line was running. A neat pile of engine block casings were stacked at the end of the line, and a new one was rolling fresh out of the blast furnace.

The operator caught up to her, leaning heavily on the hand rail. He stood beside her as she watched. "I'll show you what someone 'not certified on the equipment' can do."

The industrial robot at the head of the broken conveyor belt clamped onto the aluminum casing, and passed it though a series of sensors and cameras, using its machine vision to ensure all dirt and foundry oil had been blasted clean. If the engine block failed inspection, it'd be put on a conveyor belt back into the blast furnace. Otherwise, it'd be put on a different belt-- the broken belt-- and sent down the line for finishing.

All the right lights flashed. The engine had passed.

"How?" she mused. The robot went still, as if in thought, while the pallet robot waited patiently.

"They're using the factory's network to run a program I wrote," the operator happily answered. "Their sensors and machine vision are working out the telemetry data."

"What telemetry data?" she asked, confused.

"The usual. Angle. Velocity. Spin."

Before Amalie could even fathom what those data points meant, the second robot hunched into an abnormal position, and signaled 'ready' back to the inspection bot--

-- which then implemented the data into a trajectory, wound up with a *whirr*, and threw the engine block overhand across the 100' gap.

*whoosh*

The receiver caught it with a *clang*, and calmly put it into the carrier, and waited for the next casing.

The Kids Should See This - An awesome new blog to which I've subscribed that presents cool, real-world things to parents...to show to their kids. Instead of talking down to kids, it shows them something awesome.

From the blog:

There's just so much science, nature, music, arts, technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff out there that my kids (and maybe your kids) haven't seen. It's most likely not stuff that was made for them...

But we don't underestimate kids around here.

These folks have learned how to make the bitter pill of education and information taste like peanut m&ms, or chips and salsa, or brie en croute, or whatever tickles your fancy.

Want your members to consume what you prepare for them? It needs to taste better.

We, as an industry, have no real excuse for our financial literacy materials, product explanations, or our general voice to be anything less than clear and compelling. Beautiful. Interesting. Meaningful. The only thing holding us back is our own effort.

Show me a marketer who says "I don't have time" or "I don't have a budget" and I'll show you someone who hasn't done a good job of thinking through and prioritizing their time and budget. I'm as guilty as anyone.