Have any other bloggers out there been unable to put anything in the title fields of their posts lately? I'm not sure if this is Google screwing up, Boeing blocking useful things again, or me being stupid.

Today I took a class called "Manufacturing 101", which is a chance for engineers to make a simple demonstration panel using the same equipment and techniques the shop uses to make our panels. I love this kind of training and really think it should be mandatory for engineers - too many in my profession design things without any thought about how easy or hard it will be to make them.

For those who don't know but do care, most aircraft interior structure we build here is made of honeycomb-core Nomex panels with fiberglass or graphite sheets on top of them. This makes a very strong, very light structure that has the useful property of being basically fireproof. It is also completely unlike building things out of wood products or metals, still the two most common base materials taught in engineering classes (at least at Carnegie Mellon).

Anyway, I got to wear latex gloves for the first time in years (I carry nitrile gloves for medical use, as latex tends to make my hands sweaty, red, and uncomfortable), got strange glue residues all over my apron, and got to play with an air-powered rotary sander and glue gun. Air-powered glue guns can be tricky beasts, BTW. They tend to keep pushing out glue well after you've released the trigger.

And why on earth would anyone come to work at an industrial site like Boeing's Everett plant wearing open-toed shoes?