RobiNZ CAD Blog

A new look for RobiNZ CAD Blog, a very natural glow!

A few weeks ago I mentioned I was considering a redesign for the blog. At the time I made a few tweaks as realised a new ‘look’ would take more time than I had to spare. A few months ago I was one of many who helped crowd fund a “Evolution in Action” science project. The aim is serious, studying bacterial genetic evolution to help combat disease, but one of the fun rewards provided a new blog logo and inspired the theme.

Siouxsie Wiles is a microbiologist, bioluminescence enthusiast (with very pink hair!) and “Infectious Thoughts” science blogger who heads up the Bioluminescent Superbugs Group at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

She drew the new logo in bioluminescent bacteria, literally a live glowing design. The current banner image, from the video below, shows her bioluminescent bacteria inside a live mouse in the mouse poo.

StarTalk Podcast and CAD, Computer Aided Dimensions?

Not sure how I missed it but I’ve been busy catching up with the awesome StarTalk podcast back catalogue. It is where, to quote their own tagline:

“Science, pop culture & comedy collide on StarTalk w/ astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, comic co-hosts, celebrities & scientists.”

It earns this CAD blog mention thanks to a funny moment in “StarTalk: Live at the Bell House, Part 2”. It’s a live show featuring Neil, co-host Eugene Mirman and guests Alan Alda, Kristen Schaal and Scott Adsit. At about 0:21:00 the discussion is about Non-Euclidean Geometry and at 0:22:20 there is a highly CAD related shout out.

Listen to StarTalk: Live at the Bell House, Part 2 (embedded below)

Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Alan Alda joins Star Talk Radio for our first live show, recorded at the Bell House in Brooklyn, New York on September 15, 2011 for the 4th annual Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. Along with Kristen Schaal of the The Daily Show and Flight of the Conchords and Scott Adsit of 30 Rock, Neil, Eugene and Alan Alda travel through time and higher dimensions, discuss pseudoscience and the state of science literacy in the US, and take questions from the audience that explore just how weird and funny science can be.

This is my attempt at the showing geometry discussed, using the application they mentioned:

Geometry	Dimensions	Bounded by	In CAD
Point	0	1 x Point	Point (with circle style added so it’s visible)
Line	1	2 x 0D Points	Line
Square	2	4 x 1D Lines	Plane
Cube	3	6 x 2D Squares	Facet Cube
Hypercube	4	8 x 3D Cubes	Tesseract

(seen in context below the break)

Meet the ancestors - 3D Fossil Exploration in a Virtual Laboratory

At Autodesk University 2011 Shaan Hurley introduced me to a representation of a very distant ancestor. It was a 3D fossil skull scan (perched on his shoulder in the photo right) assembled from cardboard contours created with 123D Make.

A few years ago I submitted my DNA to the National Geographic Genographic Project. The results (below) showed that my ancestral DNA left Africa about 60,000 years ago migrating across continents to the U.K. & Western Europe. From there a much more recent migration resulted in me being Kiwi born.

It’s interesting to think how much, and in some ways how little, the world and its inhabitants have changed over that time. A casino floor in Vegas is a strange place to contemplate that!

Until recently you had to travel to Africa to “meet the ancestors”. Now fossil records are being captured as high resolution photorealistic 3D models to view on-line. Shaan’s post details the technology, process and team doing this fine work. It goes beyond ‘reality’ to capture our shared past!

3D Fossil Exploration in a Virtual Laboratory - Between the Lines

Autodesk gave a grant to help world renowned Palaeontologist Louise Leakey to help develop one of her goals to bring many of the rare fossil specimens in Kenya to the world by the web. The website http://www.Africanfossils.org by Louise Leakey has been updated with several new features since its launch at Autodesk University 2011…

How much for an 8KB file?

Our Retail Design application subscriptions are actually funded from an IT budget. Its owner just happened to be near my desk as I was dealing with the 2011 license file today. It’s amazing that writing quite a large cheque results in the delivery in a few lines of text in an 8KB lic file. Of course, those few lines of magic numbers unlock gigabytes of complex software but the key is just one precious little file.

Recently Dr Karl, who does a brilliant science Q&A on Triple J, was asked if a digital music player got heavier as you added tunes. He replied* it is proven that information has weight.

Given that, I wonder what a lic file costs/gram? More than gold I bet!

* See the Vicious volcanoes and vitamins episode Thursday, 22 April 2010 - Listen for “Would an electronic music device weigh more if it was full of music?” at about 04:00 minutes

The Physics of the "I" in BIM

What is a Building Information Model? My interpretation is simply an  information model of a building. It’s not a technology, it’s not a way of working, it’s the expression of a building as data. To the architect it’s a design and, hopefully, construction model, to the engineer it’s an analysis & fabrication model, to the owner it may include the economic model used to justify it’s creation and the operating model that will determine and manage it’s life-cycle.

Whatever your definition there’s a common factor in all these models. Whether digital or analog, they are all forms of information.

But what is information? The rather surprising answer is, “everything”, even you! Quirks & Quarks have a  podcast (posted in Jan 08) of a forum discussion which takes the meaning of “Information” about as far as it’s possible to go. Its not really about Building Information Modelling but it does make you think. We are all information models, creating information models!

The Physics of Information: What the Universe Doesn't Want You to Know | CBC Radio | Quirks & Quarks

Physicists are not like you and me. That’s because they don't see the world the same way we do.
Take information, for instance. When you have a question or an interest in some topic, and you want more information about it, chances are you look for answers by reading a book, searching the Internet, or even listening to a radio program. But that's not how physicists view information. They want to know what it's actually made of. And that idea leads to a whole lot of weird and quirky views of how the universe works...

Microsoft Research WorldWide Telescope, breathtaking!

This is what made Robert Scoble cry and Buzz Bruggeman, CEO of ActiveWords, called "the best thing he’s seen in years from Microsoft" a couple of weeks ago.

Science educator Roy Gould and Microsoft's Curtis Wong introduce the Worldwide Telescope at TED:

From:  The Worldwide Telescope - www.worldwidetelescope.org/

"The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world for a seamless, guided exploration of the universe"

3D, isn't always as it seems...

Sadly magician, illusionist, thinker Jerry Andrus died recently. He was a master of illusions which use perspective to fool the mind. About 1 minute into this one look for a city model that defies gravity. You can view the others on his website.

via Bad Astronomy Blog

IBM & Nanotech

IBM are manipulating atoms aiming to get a thousand times current storage densities. Imagine your server, on your iPod…

IBM Nanotech Breakthroughs Point To Tech's Future Building Blocks: Scientific American
New research explores using atoms and molecules to pack more data storage and computing capabilities into smaller spaces.

Total Lunar Eclipse - Wow!

This has nothing to do with CAD but thought you might enjoy. The total Lunar Eclipse tonight was an amazing sight. These photos aren’t the greatest resolution but capture the colours. My little Canon iXus on a tripod needed 15 second + exposures to get anything during the darkest part. I missed having a DSLR tonight….

Just as it started. Not sure if the halo was part of the eclipse or from cloud that cleared at just the right time.

Going, with just a wisp of cloud.

Going, lovely purple & hint of red…

Gone! There was so little light at this stage nothing showed on the camera screen at all. The moon looked red, but not quite as red as the camera sensor captured it.

Tags: Lunar+Eclipse, Auckland, New+Zealand

30 Years of the Metric System

I’m a bit late with this but every time I try imperial based CAD templates or look at database tables that must handle Imperial I’m so glad that about 30 years ago this happened.

30 Years of the Metric System | NZ Ministry of Consumer Affairs

14 December 2006 – Thirty years ago today the metric system was introduced into New Zealand says Consumer Affairs Minister Judith Tizard. The Weights and Measures Amendment Act became law on the 14 December 1976…

You still encounter “Imperial measures” on legacy plans, old survey drawings usually, but it’s getting to be less common. Now we just need to adopt 24:00 time format to get rid of the am/pm stupidity.

It’s amusing that, nearly alone, America persist with “A collection of English units”

From Wikipedia: Countries without the Metric system are Liberia, Myanmar, and USA.

Tags: Metric+system