RobiNZ CAD Blog

Back from Viet Nam

Quote of the holiday from a Hanoi shopkeeper:

“It’s Nine Dollar US, if you pay in Dong (local currency) I do cheaper ‘cause US Dollar not so strong”

(About 16,000 Dong = US$1)

Doodling for thinking

Hugh MacLeod’s Microsoft Blue Monster is featured in a Businessweek article on “doodling” as a tool for business. There is more to business than Word and PowerPoint!

gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": "doodling for profits"

There's a great little article on the Businessweek website about the power of doodling in the corporate world.

RobiNZ Gone

I’m off-line until May. If you wish to leave a comment or trackback feel free but they will be held for approval when I return. If you’re wondering where I’ll be… click here

Michael on Silverlight...

On the way to Autodesk University 2007, during my S.F. stopover, I had the pleasure of catching up with Michael Scherotter over coffee. I first got to know Michael when he was with Mindjet and visited him there after AU2005. Last year he moved to a new role with Microsoft which seems a perfect fit.

After studying Architecture, as in buildings not software, Michael found his real love was developing software solutions for new uses/niches. If you asked me to cite one characteristic that defines Michael it’s his passion for new technology and sharing that knowledge.

That is apparent in this clip where he talks about Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 and how it’s soon to be used in major media projects.

Michael Scherotter of Microsoft Silverlight at SXSW Interactive 2008

Michael’s Synergist Blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/synergist/default.aspx

Tags: Silverlight

Revit User Group of New Zealand - Notice of April Meeting

Last month Mr Burke told me these posts actually work

The next RUGNZ meeting is to be held on 16th April at Jasmax's Offices - Level 4, 65 Upper Queen Street. The agenda includes a presentation by Melanie Tristram & Steven Hutana on 'Massing', discussion and a chance to share your work (if you wish).

Full details & RSVP at http://www.rugnz.co.nz/

Blog Till You Drop?

A recent article the New York Times suggests blogging is a hazardous game. They cite cases of full-time Bloggers who have died and point the finger at the strain they’ve been under to maintain their new media presence. It is interesting that technology blogging, with it’s pressure to be first, seems to be the focus of the article.

In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop - New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece — not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home…

While any death is tragic, I can’t imagine blogging being more stressful than many other occupations and think it’s just sensationalism to it single out.

Consuming blogs, information overload?

An amateur like me doesn’t have the pressure to post for income there is one blog related hazard I’ve struggled to avoid. I read lots of blogs and there is a tendency to consume ever increasing amounts of information. A post leads to a new blog, grab the feed, then another, grab that feed, and one day you find yourself looking at a reader tracking nearly a thousand RSS feeds!

I’ve found three ways to deal with that problem;

1. Reading them all is one, but a hardly sustainable, approach.
2. Set a quota at the number of feeds you can handle and cull feeds. If you want to add one you must delete one but that limited the scope too much. The downside is you miss a lot of brilliant information.
3. If nothing is happening or you need to catch up just “mark all as read”!

I tend to combine all these using RSS Bandit’s “Review Flag” and my  own “Favourites”;

• I collect “favourite feeds” which are my prime sources in a category (1) such as Home, IT, News, CAD etc
• If I have time I’ll scan all the feed headlines (2) to find content I want to read. If the item is short I’ll read it in the “Newspaper view” (3), or maybe open a browser tab (4). For longer items I click “Flag” (5) to mark them “For Review”. It means all those feeds can be reviewed in less than half an hour. How much time I spend actually reading depends on what I find!
• If I’m short of time, or just want to catch up, I resort to my “Favourites”. By reading them the I can review about 50 feeds which cover topics as as diverse as CAD, Auto, Sport, Politics, Science etc. If one of those highlights something of interest I might still delve into the 10, 20, 30 , 100+ feeds relating to that topic. Otherwise I may just mark all the items “as read”.

I regard the feeds as a way to gather info rather than something which must be religiously read in full. You don’t feel obliged to read all the newspapers or watch all the TV News channels! However, they do provide rapid access to sources – either professional or personal – I regard as important to follow. 

Creating a blog – A choice, not a chore!

I’m often asked how much time I spend writing this blog and, to be honest, I’m not really sure. While it’s probably along the lines of 5–10 hours a week I don’t regard it as a chore and certainly don’t schedule time for it. My natural night owl tendencies mean posts are usually written late in the evening which is probably apparent from the writing & proof reading! It’s time I’d probably waste on TV so doesn’t impact on my “real life” whatever that is! Besides, it’s something I enjoy doing and if it ever becomes “work” it’s time to stop!

While items appear reasonably frequently that’s a bit of an illusion. I tend to write in bursts so a few hours writing may generate several weeks of posts. I then use TypePad’s forward posting feature to schedule these to appear at a reasonable rate. If “blog worthy” breaking news crops up I just bump those forward posts even further into the future. The funny side of this is I have been asked about a post, which just appeared on the blog, but was actually written so long ago I’ve almost forgotten about it!

There is more to life than blogging and I’m going off-line for a few, hopefully completely computer free, weeks holiday soon. Still, there will plenty to blog about when I return…

A Multi-Screen PowerPoint World

This tip from the PowerPoint Team Blog shows how to use “Arrange All” with a wide/multi-screen display to work more efficiently in PowerPoint. 

The PowerPoint Team Blog : Quick Try This: It's a Multi-Screen World
There are an increasing number of people out there with multiple monitors attached to their computers. And many of them are PowerPoint users who think this new configuration should be more useful to them than it is. They're right, and today I'll show you a simple technique to gain that advantage…

Lynn Allen has been busy, 2009 AutoCAD Tips and Tricks!

OK, maybe not quite 2009 but there are more than 30 pages, 6MB, of AutoCAD 2009 Tips & Tricks available for download at Lynn’s blog.  

Lynn Allen's Blog: AutoCAD 2009 Tips and Tricks booklet has arrived!

Breaking barriers with Salesoft CAD Solutions - Autodesk 2009 Launch

UPDATE 2008–04–2: Picture added

Salesoft CAD Solutions had their “Autodesk 2009” launch today and the theme was “Breaking the Barriers”.

After a brief introduction from Rich Sales, yes it’s really his name, there were sessions which focused on a tour of the new features in Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Revit Structure, AutoCAD and Max. Although this was handled by splitting into application focused groups there was a lot of material to cover in the time available.

For his AutoCAD session Gary adopted the cunning plan (which I’ve also used) of using Camtasia recordings rather than live demos. This allows you to see the software in action - as if live - but lets the presenter concentrate on presentation, rather than operation. It was great for showing the extensive user interface changes in AutoCAD 2009.

Then after a lunch break there was an impressive customer presentation by Auckland’s Morrison Architects. This showcased their use of Revit it all kinds of projects from a small bathroom renovation to large commercial building fit-outs and everything in between. You can see some of the work shown in their web gallery.

Guest Speaker Brian Wilson, from the School of Philosophy, followed with a great talk on breaking mental barriers. He mentioned a lecture by Andy Pausch whose lessons on life were delivered in “His last Lecture” (see video summary below or full transcript). I first stumbled upon this last September but it’s such a powerful message it deserves a repeat showing here.

We were then split into two groups for some barrier breaking activities;

Downstairs, Segway NZ had a variety of machines to test drive. Luckily this was inside the hotel convention space, avoiding a torrential downpour, but there was plenty of room to zoom around and the columns were ideal for those wanting a slalom. Riding a Segway for the first time is strange, especially if used to a bicycle. You have to learn not to balance and trust the Segway will do it for you, which it does!

Upstairs, everyone attending got to literally “break a barrier” after a quick Karate lesson. We were issued with a plank to break, which everyone did, with Rich delivering the final chop (below) *.

It was an interesting format, breaking the barriers of the typical software launch. Thanks to the Salesoft team for an enjoyable event but maybe, for 2010, I’d consider having slightly longer product sessions.

UPDATE 2008–04–2: Julia sent me this image today with the line “A reminder that you too have strong powers of focus and intent!” to which I’d add “and a sore hand!” **

* The YouTube video above is by me. Eboss were recording the sessions, with better cameras than my old 300 pixel movie Canon Ixus, to be posted mid-April.
** Just kidding, no CAD Bloggers were harmed in the making of this post!

Tags: Salesoft+CAD+Solutions, Autodesk, Hilton

Andy's TransAmerica Trail Cycle 2008

This is way off topic but more US readers visit here than my other blog so here it is!

I “met” Andy through answering a question about blogging on LinkedIn. I guess this shows there are non-business uses for that business focused network. He’s soon to set out on an epic cycle trip for fun(!), and charity, blogging along the way. If you see him somewhere along this line in the next few weeks/months and feel like contributing say Hi, and you read it here!

Cycling for Charity [extract below click for full post] - Andy's TransAmerica Trail Cycle 2008
When I made the decision to undertake this trip, it was largely due to the personal desire to take on a challenge and an adventure.

In working out the costs for such a trip, I started to give some thought to the amount I was spending and realised that it was a bit wasteful to spend a few thousand pounds on a bike, camping equipment, panniers, racks and cool gizmos for the bike without trying at the same time to raise some money for a good cause and hopefully draw attention to a worthy charity

That charity is the National Association of Colitis and Crohn's disease (NACC) which I got to know through the experiences of a number of close friends and family members who have suffered with Crohn's, Colitis and associated illnesses over the years.

Andy's TransAmerica Trail Cycle 2008 – Homepage and RSS Feed
I am a 29 year old from London and the plan is to set off in mid April to cycle the 4247.5 mile TransAmerica bike route from Virginia to Oregon, getting back to England in time for my 30th birthday in the middle of June.