May 8, 2013 Cheri McGuire, Symantec's Vice President, Global Government Affairs & Cybersecurity Policy testified to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism hearing. She stated: "In my testimony today, I will provide the Subcommittee with our latest analysis of the threat landscape as detailed in the just-released Symantec Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume 18. Last year, we saw a significant increase in targeted attacks - up 42 percent from 2011, and it is almost certain that this trend will continue in the coming years.

Can you guess? Think back for a moment or two. It's a few years old now. I always thought it might have been good to blast it through the sound system at the opening of the exhibit halls at ISA Expo or one of the many other tradeshows and user groups that we cover each year. However, it would be hard to find a powerful enough boom box for a freelance effort in this iPod era. Oh well. Anyway, it's quite an uplifting tune. Even the opening guitar riff should clear some cobwebs and recharge some mental batteries on this Friday afternoon. Give up?

The winner of the name the recipe contest is:

Frank McCormack, PE of Epic Systems Inc. of Saint Louis, MO.

He gets my choice of an original ControlTalk cartoon by Ted Williams that appeared in Control magazine and is suitable for framing.

Who said engineering can't be fun? 

From the Society of Manufacturing Engineers:

Society of Manufacturing Engineers Launches Revolutionary Knowledge Edge

Here are the new sections on process modeling fundamentals for the next edition of the Guide to the Automation Book of Knowledge that is the primary resource for the ISA Certification of Automation Professionals (CAP) Program. The following includes text that may not fit into the page allocation for Chapter 12 on process modeling.  

12.1 Fundamentals

First to name the recipe gets an original Ted Williams cartoon from the ControlTalk column featured in Control magazine.

Here's how to win:

Send an email to wboyes@putman.net with your name, email, and postal contact information. First correct entry wins.

My judgement is final.

Thanks to Phil Glowatz for the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

---------------

1.) 532.35 cm3 gluten

2.) 4.9 cm3 NaHCO3

As announced at the recent user group meeting, PAS has made it official. You can get their loop tuning software for free. Note the quote from Jeff Strecker of HollyFrontier Oil: " "They are following the Google model of providing value-added tools for free that industry can significantly benefit from."

Safety's been on our minds at ControlGlobal a lot of late.

From Siemens' indefatigable Bob Bartels:

Hot off the wire:

Monsanto Muscatine Named 2012 HART Plant of the Year

Getting connected to HART Communication improves plant operation and enables transition from reactive to proactive and predictive maintenance