◆  FROM THE DESK

Welcome back. The common thread this week is how much of the world we call “operational technology” sits in places we rarely think about. Attackers took aim at a supermarket chain’s refrigeration controls. MITRE has widened its attack framework to match where threats are heading. And on the AI side, the hard questions are no longer about models — they’re about data readiness and getting past the pilot. We also have something practical for the programmers on the list: a genuinely free PLC training course, and a provocative argument about what the job becomes when AI writes the logic.

◆  THIS WEEK IN INDUSTRY

◆  ON THE PODCAST

Catch up: Ep. 60 — Arlen Nipper

In case you missed it last week: Arlen Nipper, co-inventor of MQTT and President and CTO of Cirrus Link Solutions, traces the line from a 1999 pipeline on a satellite link that charged by the byte to today’s 15-million-tag deployments — plus Sparkplug, the Unified Namespace, and a blunt order of operations for bolting AI onto OT data.

◆  FREE TRAINING

Learn PLC programming for free — CODESYS + Simumatik

Code and Compile — the industrial automation education outfit founded by Rajvir Singh — runs a free course called PLC Exercises using SIMUMATIK and Codesys. Free as in free, not a trial.

You work through real industrial PLC applications inside Simumatik’s digital twin platform, driving them from CODESYS. By the end you can:

Three sections, seven lessons: Introduction to SIMUMATIK, then Industrial Examples you can run yourself, then where to take it further. It is the cheapest way we know to get hands on this toolchain without buying a trainer rig.

◆  FROM THE COMMUNITY

You Were Never Really a Programmer. You Were Always an Architect.

Alex Sharikov — controls engineer and founder of JasperX — makes an argument this newsletter’s audience will either recognise instantly or want to fight about: you were never really a programmer. You were always an architect who had to write the logic yourself. What has changed is that now you have a choice.

His case is not theoretical. He describes commissioning work where he specifies what he needs, walks away to do the I/O checks, and comes back to find it built — then tests it, names the one thing to adjust in plain language, and keeps moving. For decades the value of an industrial programmer sat in the logic itself: the cleverness of it, the tightness of the ladder. That mental model, he argues, is breaking — and the engineering judgement has not gone anywhere. It moved up a level: tag structure, data flow, functional specs, interconnectivity, and the sign-off that says the plant is safe to run.

The hardest part is the one he names himself: letting go of the how, without ever letting go of the sign-off.

◆  COMMUNITY & EVENTS

Phil is hosting Node-RED Con 2026 — 3 November

Two weeks out. If you build with Node-RED — or you are curious how the flow-based approach keeps turning up across IIoT — come along. Phil is hosting this year’s conference, it runs on Monday 3 November 2026, and registration is free.

→ Register free — Node-RED Con 2026 →

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