>Cut! Take Two!

>Due to unforeseen and unimagined circumstances – the Revit/Universal Studios/Project Phoenix…has been nixed by NBC/Universal powersthatbe. Very sad about it. News made for a very poor start to a week two Monday’s ago.

So now what? Well – a bit of scrambling. I’m going to refocus the session on the use of Revit in the film and stage industry. Slightly different flavor, same creamy goodness.

This will be an **major** update to the AU 2006 presentation with industry veteran Jack G. Taylor that presented some extraordinary examples of Revit being used in major motion picture production, while highlighting industry specific challenges of level of detail, work flow and speed of delivery.

Full update course description here: Autodesk® Revit® for Film and Stage.

We’ll also be showcasing far more recent examples of major motion picture set designs in Revit. Brilliant stuff that I’m very excited about! For example?

Seriously. Revit. FTW.

Extra huge and gigantic props to Joseph Wurcher (Twitter feed here) and his crack team of hyper-text editors. Seriously – getting class titles and description stuffs edited this close to AU nearly requires a Papal decree. But they managed to jump through hoops to make the necessary changes. Nothing but net! Thanks Joseph!

So the economy is a squishy. You know what? There’s industries that would love to have your mad Revit skills besides Architecture.

See you at AU!

>Some Happy

>Today has not been a good day. Sometimes I need a pick-me-up. Help me help you to help me. For that, I share a story:

I was at a baby shower for a friend the other day. He was telling me that he’s been trying to come up with crazy ideas and then trying to Google them to see if they exist. So far, they all have. The one he was telling me about was a helmet that you would wear to bed and it would block out sound. Apparently they sell one online…..

The internet is a strange and wonderful place. A place where you can find so many, many things. Like a site devoted to professional cakes gone wrong. It’s a bit like cloud busting. Someone can look and see a turkey………..

Hil-ar-ity.

>LEED Rant #17

>You know at some point I actually have to finish documentation on LEED and be done with this process.

My biggest problem with LEED for Homes to date: It’s not a progressive process.
No, like fighting for equal rights progressive but that it hall has to happen at once. It works for commercial, but it doesn’t fit home owners. You get ONE chance at getting your rating. How many home owners do you know who are actually ‘done’ with their homes in one round???

The process should be set up where you could build upon past performance. If in 3 years I put up a wind turbine, why can’t I tack those points on to my score? Instead, the process caters to having more $$ to gain more points which makes it inaccessible to many.

LEED for Homes.
Star Date 276.
That’s how many days I’ve been filling out paperwork.
Gas bill last month: $25 | Electric bill: $60

>iNeedles

>

You know that thing I’ve been talking about where people can unlock their iPhones to install totally non-Steveness blessed applications? Like Google Voice Mobile – great sound quality – available only via Cydia (once you jailbreak your iPhone). Like T-Mobile – so far, really great customer service – available only via Dev-Team (once you unlocked your iPhone). Like Cycorder – great video quality (ditto on the jailbrake part). Cycorder has been around for quite some time on the iPhone.

Well – this same kind-o-effort to unlock and distinguish software from hardware is being leveled at Apple’s hardware and their OS. And it’s a really big deal to Apple because it’ll allow people to bypass purchasing Apple hardware in order to run OSX. And I suspect it’s at least on the radar of Uncle Fester…er…Steve Ballmer too because it’ll show cracks in the dam. Balmer can laugh, monkey dance and dismiss the Cult of Linux. But not so with the Cult of Mac. Because while MSFT’s stock price has been flat-lining for the past ten years or so, Apple has increased nearly 1000% (10x):

Apple 2008 Revenue / Profit? $ 32.5 billion / $ 4.8 billion
Microsoft 2008 Revenue / Profit? $ 60.4 billion/ $ 17.7 billion

Apple is 1/2 the size of Microsoft. Who’d a thunk? Their profit is proportionally only half (15% compared to 29%). But Apple also makes hardware – where the margins are much lower compared to software. So who has the most to lose if people start using OS X without buying Apple hardware? Who has the most to gain?

In the past someone needed to make a really binary decision to use Apple over Microsoft. And the friction of having to jump both hardware and software hurdles has probably kept a lot of people from moving to Apple. This on the other hand this will allow someone to jump over one hurdle now – and maybe another later. Maybe. If you’re cool enough. /s

Rebel EFI software will allow users to easily boot and install Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and even Mac OS X on their machines and is available for download at Psystar.com. The full version comes with the Darwin Universal Boot Loader, which allows for the installation of up to 6 different operating systems on a single machine.

What does this mean? Got a computer sitting around the house that’s constipated on spyware, crapware, auto-porn-pop-ups and who knows what else? Got a teenager with a mild geeky streak? Well – for starters, it’ll cost you $100: $50 for OSX and $50 for Rebel EFI. Well – maybe only $50. Because Apple users don’t have to bother with OEMs when they install their OS. So if you know someone that has an Apple computer they’ll probably let you “borrow” their OSX install disk.

So here’s the big question: are people really going to risk playing cat and mouse with with their data and Apple in order to run OSX on non-Steveness approved hardware?

Well – judging by the number of people playing dodge ball with Apple/AT&T/iPhone/iTunes just to run non-approved apps and non-approved carriers on their iPhone – then the answer is “yes”.

And then like it or not, Apple will have increased their customer base without those customers passing through the eye of John Ive’s hyper-elevated, meticulously well-designed and brushed aluminum iNeedle. At least at first. Because when it’s time to upgrade – I suspect they’ll consider Apple hardware as well.

Sorry John. Sorry Steve.

Thanks Psystar.

iNeedles

You know that thing I’ve been talking about where people can unlock their iPhones to install totally non-Steveness blessed applications? Like Google Voice Mobile – great sound quality – available only via Cydia (once you jailbreak your iPhone). Like T-Mobile – so far, really great customer service – available only via Dev-Team (once you unlocked your iPhone). Like Cycorder – great video quality (ditto on the jailbrake part). Cycorder has been around for quite some time on the iPhone.

Well – this same kind-o-effort to unlock and distinguish software from hardware is being leveled at Apple’s hardware and their OS. And it’s a really big deal to Apple because it’ll allow people to bypass purchasing Apple hardware in order to run OSX. And I suspect it’s at least on the radar of Uncle Fester…er…Steve Ballmer too because it’ll show cracks in the dam. Balmer can laugh, monkey dance and dismiss the Cult of Linux. But not so with the Cult of Mac. Because while MSFT’s stock price has been flat-lining for the past ten years or so, Apple has increased nearly 1000 times:

Apple 2008 Revenue / Profit? $ 32.5 billion / $ 4.8 billion
Microsoft 2008 Revenue / Profit? $ 60.4 billion/ $ 17.7 billion

Apple is 1/2 the size of Microsoft. Who’d a thunk? Their profit is proportionally only half (15% compared to 29%). But Apple also makes hardware – where the margins are much lower compared to software. So who has the most to lose if people start using OS X without buying Apple hardware? Who has the most to gain?

In the past someone needed to make a really binary decision to use Apple over Microsoft. And the friction of having to jump both hardware and software hurdles has probably kept a lot of people from moving to Apple. This on the other hand this will allow someone to jump over one hurdle now – and maybe another later. Maybe. If you’re cool enough. /s

Rebel EFI software will allow users to easily boot and install Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and even Mac OS X on their machines and is available for download at Psystar.com. The full version comes with the Darwin Universal Boot Loader, which allows for the installation of up to 6 different operating systems on a single machine.

What does this mean? Got a computer sitting around the house that’s constipated on spyware, crapware, auto-porn-pop-ups and who knows what else? Got a teenager with a mild geeky streak? Well – for starters, it’ll cost you $100: $50 for OSX and $50 for Rebel EFI. Well – maybe only $50. Because Apple users don’t have to bother with OEMs when they install their OS. So if you know someone that has an Apple computer they’ll probably let you “borrow” their OSX install disk.

So here’s the big question: are people really going to risk playing cat and mouse with with their data and Apple in order to run OSX on non-Steveness approved hardware?

Well – judging by the number of people playing dodge ball with Apple/AT&T/iPhone/iTunes just to run non-approved apps and non-approved carriers on their iPhone – then the answer is “yes”.

And then like it or not, Apple will have increased their customer base without those customers passing through the eye of John Ive’s hyper-elevated, meticulously well-designed and brushed aluminum iNeedle. At least at first. Because when it’s time to upgrade – I suspect they’ll consider Apple hardware as well.

Sorry John. Sorry Steve.

Thanks Psystar.

>Dude, Where’s My Tool?

>What? can’t find your tools in the new UI?
Apparently neither can someone else. So, they made what I thought was a very handy little tool.

What out – it resizes your browser window.

Dude, Where’s My Tool?

What? can’t find your tools in the new UI?
Apparently neither can someone else. So, they made what I thought was a very handy little tool.

What out – it resizes your browser window.

>Infinity Tower

>

One of my favorite recent SOM projects is currently featured in The Architect’s Newspaper. The Infinity Tower is a spiraling luxury residential building reaching 1,038 feet over the Dubai waterfront.  Designed by structural wizard Bill Baker and former New Yorker, Ross Wimer, the elegant structure was designed with the help of the brilliant Victor Gane (Stanford CIFE, etc.) in Digital Project.

“We try to take something that’s complex and make it simple. Simple for the exterior guys, simple for the concrete guys, simple for the sales agent. It’s the same floor plate because every floor rotates around the central column.”

Infinity Tower

One of my favorite recent SOM projects is currently featured in The Architect’s Newspaper. The Infinity Tower is a spiraling luxury residential building reaching 1,038 feet over the Dubai waterfront.  Designed by structural wizard Bill Baker and former New Yorker, Ross Wimer, the elegant structure was designed with the help of the brilliant Victor Gane (Stanford CIFE, etc.) in Digital Project.

“We try to take something that’s complex and make it simple. Simple for the exterior guys, simple for the concrete guys, simple for the sales agent. It’s the same floor plate because every floor rotates around the central column.”

>Go Carol, It’s Your Birthday…

>

“Yahoo triples profits, beats expectations”

It’s good to see Carol Bartz (former Autodesk CEO) making headway with her new gig; however, it’s this kind of blurb which gets me excited:

“Most of the benefit that they are seeing is because the economy is improving — a rising tide — not because of all the changes they’ve made,” said JMP Securities analyst Sameet Sinha.