Under NDA

I started typing a "back from Autodesk University" post... that never got to publish. On the last day of the year I am resolving to publish (even) shorter notes, to keep you all in the loop of what I am researching. My reason for silence during 2011 was that I've been working on some top secret projects and some ongoing projects that can now be mentioned. This year I prepared 4 AU classes, which took also a lot of time. An I did my first lecture as co-speaker and with an invaluable help from Zach Kron (if you don't know his blog, it's a must:  http://buildz.blogspot.com/ ). As I said in the opening statement of the class, I really wanted to attend HIS class, so I figured out that my best bet was to be standing at the front! The class is available online, if you want to find out more about it. Another highlight of AU was a design challenge, to build "something" with a modular kit of 150 cardboard cutouts, the 123D Fab Challenge . I'll try to get ba

This post is a primer, all the info is UnderNDA, so excuse my lack of citations and images. I am sure we all will be using this procedures more and more in the near future, so there will be plenty of examples to illustrate this. For now, I am slowly unveiling a big "what if"... so big that I cannot wait to see it fully working... Imagine for a second a world where the Design and Construction team hands over  a model (just like Phil said they would) to the Operations and Management team, that in turn share vital information with the Facility Management team and they all inform the need for a major update of the building, giving specific information of their requirements to the next go of the Design and Construction lads. Nice, isn't it? Are you doing it? Are you aware of someone doing it?... This 360 turn of the Information model is BIM 360. So, BIM 360 is all about using data from different sources, and managing all sorts of information. The problem is that many times

It's been some time since I started to think on this post. Basically, every time I hear people talk about forms of energy, or saving energy, or Green Energy or the like, I wonder if those people have the same understanding of Energy I have. Also, when I read how many calories a chocolate bar has, again I think about a proper definition of Energy and its implications. Without further introduction, here is my question: What is Energy? From a pure physics definition, Energy is the ability of a physical system to perform work. Work in turn is intended as a force acting along a distance. All this was described by Sir Newton 324 years ago, in his Principia. An object is capable of storing Energy because its particles are taken to a position (requiring Energy to do so) and will be able to release that Energy later. Imagine you raise an object, then let it go. That's your Force x Distance on the way up stored in the "Potential Energy" and transformed to kinematic Ener

New feature, I am getting my head around it and cannot really control it. You have been warned... Blogger has recently launched a new feature for their blogs, that in "modern" browsers enables an exciting way to go through the posts and comments: dynamic views MOSAIC: http://undernda.blogspot.com/view/mosaic#!/ FLIPCARD:  http://undernda.blogspot.com/view/flipcard#!/ TIMESLIDE:  http://undernda.blogspot.com/view/timeslide#!/ SIDEBAR: http://undernda.blogspot.com/view/sidebar#!/ SNAPSHOT: http://undernda.blogspot.com/view/snapshot#!/ More interesting, it's quite easy to jump from one to the other so it's quite easy to find what you want. The information is always the same, but if you remember WHEN it was posted, you go to timeslide, if you remember an image, you go to snapshot, if you want to see how different topics are related you use flipcard and for a general overview - or most popular posts you grab mosaic. Simple magic. But the good ne

Diverting from any standard path (as if I had one!) I came accross this text regarding this typically Spanish letter (alt-165)... Translating it to English would make little sense, so here it goes in Spanish! Thanks to Caro, Maia and Lele for forwarding emails :) Con un texto que hizo historia, la fallecida compositora argentina María Elena Walsh había encabezado la lucha por la defensa del lugar de la letra insignia del idioma español en Internet. Aquí el texto: No nos dejemos arrebatar la ñ La culpa es de los gnomos que nunca quisieron ser ñomos. Culpa tienen la nieve, la niebla, los nietos, los atenienses, el unicornio. Todos evasores de la eñe. ¡Señoras, señores, compañeros, amados niños! ¡No nos dejemos arrebatar la eñe! Ya nos han birlado los signos de apertura de interrogación y admiración. Ya nos redujeron hasta la apócope. Ya nos han traducido el pochoclo. Y como éramos pocos, la abuelita informática ha parido un monstruoso # en lugar de la eñe con su gracioso pel

I've been trying to write a long post with a recap of several interesting things I am working on at the moment... but I've been so busy at them that I am struggling to find time to put the pen to the paper... So here I am, killing time while my wife does some shopping, and deciding that a series of short posts are better than the one and only recap. This time I will refer to the mobile technology. Did I mention that I am sitting in a shop? This is in fact my first post using Blogger, a free app for my android. Sweet! Now that around 80 people in the office are using the same phone model I have, we have been exchanging tips and recommendations... and occasional frustration when it 'goes pear shape' (very English expression I learnt only recently). This reminds me a funny tv program I saw a while ago... (am I pushing the app beyond its capabilities? Will find out soon) Yesterday I saw the swype text input on a HTC phone, apparently it's now available as a beta v