Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thanks to Seth Godin for compiling these quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. I saw King in person just once—at a chapel service at Ohio Northern University. There were also the farmers at a downtown Ada breakfast spot who joked about running him off the road as he made has way from the airport out to the University through rural roads. We’ve come a long way since then—but there are still miles to travel.
These apply to our lives in many ways:
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”
“On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” And Vanity comes along and asks the question, “Is it popular?” But Conscience asks the question “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.”
. . .
“We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
. . .
“The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.”
Chinese Process Automation Company
I’ve begun keeping an eye on Hollysys Automation Technologies, a China-based process automation company. It just announced a US$16.9 million contract win by its Singaporean subsidiary Concord. It signed a contract with Sendan International Co., Ltd to provide electrical, instrumentation and control installation works for Rabigh Power Plant in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Changli Wang, CEO and Chairman of Hollysys, commented: “We are pleased to announce the first sizable contract win by Concord and glad to see that Concord is continuously winning new business, while its integration into Hollysys has been well underway in both new products development and business development. We believe the combination of Concord’s customer base and industry know-how with Hollysys’ proprietary technology and products will pave our way to a broader market space of rail and industrial automation sectors in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, to create value for our shareholders.”
TE Connectivity and Elo Touch
I have had little contact with Tyco Electronics for the past several years and had totally lost track of one of the old, early touchscreen companies—Elo Touch. Then last week I received a call from an agency asking what I knew about TE Connectivity. Well, nothing—until they told me that was the new name for Tyco.
Today I saw a press release from TE Connectivity about the release of new touchscreen monitors from Elo TouchSystems—which is now a part of TE connectivity. I knew that years ago all the touchscreen and industrial computer companies were looking for far larger markets than industrial automation. Some found it in military or telecom. Evidently for Elo Touch, the market is retail and hospitality. That’s the trouble with industrial automation—for many companies it’s just too small of a market opportunity.
Elo Touch’s new monitors which featured zero-bezel surface acoustic wave technologies now also offer projected capacitive touchscreens with multi-touch capability.
