Why is there a hole in a Bic pen? The query was raised
on Last Word and got plenty of answers.
Remoulded pen-vase, a nifty idea from designboom
how to recycle Bic pens
December 16, 2008
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science-tech | Tagged: answers, design, recycling | 
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Posted by JANrobot
quantum physics made easy…
August 13, 2008It’s always good to keep things simple… I stumbled on this guide by James Higgo and feel all the richer for it: A Lazy Layman’s Guide to Quantum Physics
“What is Quantum Physics? That’s an easy one: it’s the science of things so small that the quantum nature of reality has an effect. Quantum means ‘discrete amount’ or ‘portion’. Max Planck discovered in 1900 that you couldn’t get smaller than a certain minimum amount of anything. This minimum amount is now called the Planck unit.
Why is it weird? Niels Bohr, the father of the orthodox ‘Copenhagen Interpretation’ of quantum physics once said, “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it”. To understand the weirdness completely, you just need to know about three experiments: Light Bulb, Two Slits, Schroedinger’s Cat.” more…
Fred Alan Wolf aka Dr. Quantum explains…
Leave a Comment » | science-tech, video | Tagged: Fred Alan Wolf, quantum physics | Permalink
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Resistance is futile
July 4, 2008…
Excerpt from a classic WTF!? daily…
“Wait here a sec. Don’t touch anything.”
The young tech was aware of all of the red tape and approvals that were required for most changes, but this was different. It was a BIOS error that required a single keystroke to clear, and he couldn’t imagine anyone having a problem with it. He tried to cautiously argue his point without denigrating The Process. “Well, the change request does say that we’re responsible for rebooting the computer. Surely pressing F1 falls under that… and regardless—”
“NO,” the senior tech emphatically interrupted. “I just said that we’re not authorized for this! You think that it’s safe to just make The Process up as you go? Without The Process, we have nothing. The Process Be Praised!”
Meanwhile, a whole department was sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Word had trickled down that there was some sort of server error and that the HPCs were on it… full tale of misery
2 Comments | Diversions, Humour, science-tech | Tagged: Daily WFT?!, Humor, red tape | Permalink
Posted by JANrobot
the Art of BIM
July 1, 2008
Building information modeling (BIM) is graphic design for architects. Based on 3D models, BIM software tools can detect flaws in new building design, avoid “spatial conflicts”, and calculate the quantity of materials required for the job.
The excitement about BIM boils down to accuate accounting: BIM can predict the cost of a job with greater precision than
2-D drawing board models. “In ten years time there will be no drawings, and ‘back to the drawing board’ will just become an historic phrase,” says Dr Eastman, a professor of architecture and computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
According to the Economist, “Dr Eastman has been talking about this sort of thing since the 1970s, when the first BIM systems were developed. “But architects aren’t really technology innovators,” he admits. So until recently, BIM has largely been ignored—except, that is, by a handful of pioneering architects whose radical designs have required it.”
Frank Gehry is one pioneering example. “His uniquely warped and fluid style of architecture—exemplified by the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (pictured), and the Ray and Maria Stata Centre at MIT—results in structures so complex that it might not have been possible to build them at all without the help of BIM.”
Gehry lead the way when he “took a product-design tool called CATIA, developed by Dassault Systèmes, a French company, and tailored it to his own specifications when designing the Guggenheim Museum. It is now marketed as an architectural tool, called Digital Project, by Gehry Technologies, a company founded by Mr Gehry in 2002. Architects really started to take note that same year when Autodesk, a leading maker of CAD software, bought a smaller BIM company called Revit, says Dr Eastman. It had the same effect as when Microsoft invests in a new technology, he says: “It legitimised it.”
“Manufacturers have been waiting for the leading BIM-software companies to agree on common formats. Now an agreement is in sight… adoption will happen very quickly.” full story
2 Comments | science-tech | Tagged: architecture, BIM, graphic design | Permalink
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