Walt Boyes' Blog

From the July issue of Industrial Automation INSIDER (http://www.iainsider.co.uk), Andrew Bond writes: ISA papers over the cracks Following last month’s unscheduled departure of executive director Rob Renner, less than a year after his appointment,ISA seems to be adopting a ‘business as usual’ policy and steadfastly ignoring the storm of criticism it has stirred up. First up … [Read more...] about Andrew Bond on ISA

Most of you know that yesterday was a huge holiday in the United States, and a time to reflect on costs and benefits. Most of us believe that the liberty we have taken for ourselves in the United States has been worth the cost to defend it. In process automation, too, there are costs, and benefits from automation. Most of us also believe the benefits worth the cost. I've been … [Read more...] about Happy Fifth of July!

Security expert Eric Byres sets the record straight (see the blog entry for 6/28/2005): "Actually, it is me who needs to apologize. Honeywell (and you in turn) had me quoted correctly. Honeywell and I had quite a few quotes going back and forth prior to the HUG and I forgot I even said this one. However looking back on my notes I definitely did say to Honeywell, "The C300 and … [Read more...] about From the OOPS Department…and a darn good idea

I deliberately stopped posting about the situation at ISA a couple of weeks ago, even though I continued to receive comment. My July editorial (soon to be out) talks about what I see, and is my summation of what was said here. I've also had several conversations with Ken Baker, the President-Elect/Secretary, who takes office as President in January, and with other members of … [Read more...] about More commentary on ISA…

I've written a lot about Iconics and their modular, "Extreme Distributed Control" model. Iconics isn't alone. There is also Citect. Citect is another example of "The World is Flat" being right on the money. Tom Friedman's book, which you should all immediately run out and buy if you want to survive the coming decade, points out that it is no longer necessary to be in North … [Read more...] about Citect and the future