The Richwood Report

eDrawings is a free viewer from SolidWorks for Autocad drawings as well as those produced by several other design programs. It looks like it could be useful for exchanging drawings with customers and others who may not have Autocad. We're trying it out and like it so far. You can download a free copy and try it out here. Download the version for Autocad and install by the instructions.

Now I'm not so sure.

Techcentralstation describes the news from the viewpoint of technology and its effect on society. Here is an article with some interesting ideas about the work environment of the future. Some thoughts on the healthcare of the future are here.

A few people make a pretty rich living giving seminars to people about how to make money. I heard once about a man who read a classified ad that said, "Learn how to get rich. Send $20 to the following address." He sent the money and got a single photocopied sheet that said, "Put this ad in the paper, "Learn how to get rich..." Coaches are not all scammers and some do offer some real help. Here are some good comments on the contribution of coaches and some helpful tips from one of the stars.

Absolute Astronomy.com is a site devoted to more than just astronomy. It is a research site with, among other things, a big section about business. For a sample, here is more than you ever thought there was to know about the dollar and the field of economics.

One indication of the health of the economy is the state of the machine tool business. When consumers and businesses buy lots of manufactured goods, the manufacturers buy lots of machines. Right now the machine tool business is running at a high level. All the news isn't good though. Consumer debt is also rising which means people are buying manufactured goods with borrowed money. Quote:

Not only will consumers be dealing with $2.75 to $3.00 per gallon gas prices in 2006, they will also begin to deal with additional costs related to financing homes and all the things that go into them. The net result of gasoline prices and higher financing charges means a consumer who will have less money available to spend on other discretionary purchases that spark economic growth. As consumers adjust to less discretionary income, they will undoubtedly need to rethink their own personal expenditure levels. If they retrench, less demand can lead to less revenue and less profits for companies that provide both durable and non-durable goods for consumers.

More indicators with charts are here.

The job of engineers is to improve the quality of life by finding the best ways to do things. That is, the ways that get the most benefit for the money. Every area of life can benefit from the effort to improve. Here is an example. For further improvement right at the floor level, see here.
The improvements that math and science offers is not limited to business. Even sports can benefit from scientific study.

For those interested in technical matters like measuring parts, tolerances and instrumentation, there is a good article here and the site has more if you look around.

It's not the big things that make most of the difference in making customers want to come in and come back. It's the simple things like being pleasant and making it easy to do business with us. For two good examples(one each exemplary and reprehensible), go here. This looks like a good place to find good stuff on customer service and marketing. Some background on the blogger is here.

Most of us can use any help we can get with making the household budget go as far as possible. Here is a good article on the subject from, of all places, the Federal Reserve. They have even more here.