RobiNZ CAD Blog

upFront.eZine CAD industry legend Ralph Grabowski retires

The final upFront.eZine #1.138 This email, the final upFront.eZine #1,138, marks a significant event in the history of the CAD industry and media. I don't remember when I first read Ralph Grabowski's eZine but it long pre-dates meeting him in 2003. He presented at a CAD Productivity Conference in Auckland NZ and I have stayed connected, as a reader/commenter and meeting occasionally at US cad conferences, ever since. Ralph's in-depth coverage and straight talk about the CAD industry, often deep into the core technologies sitting under the end user products we know so well, is second to none. I was... Read more →

The art of Gifford Jackson

I was browsing the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) site, saw a poster for a Boeing Above and Beyond Exhibition while cycling today, and stumbled upon an exhibition of one of my mid-1980s UNITEC (was then Carrington Technical Institute) Product Design Diploma Tutor’s work. Gifford Jackson taught us design drawing (a mixture of illustration, rendering and drafting) sharing his decades of experience working in the US (New York in the 1950s – 60s) and his own New Zealand practice. He was old school, everything by eye and hand, and used his incredible portfolio of maritime and industrial design drawings... Read more →

RIP AutoCAT

Back in 2005, while I was "kitten-sitting", my Aunts Birman kitten discovered AutoCAD . Sadly, Carlos was struck by a car last weekend and, after a brave fight to survive, died yesterday. RIP AutoCAT.... Read more →

Goodbye Randy

Via Joel Orr , I was sad to learn Randy Pausch has died. I was only reading his update page a couple of nights ago so it wasn’t unexpected. Goodbye thanks. See: Advice for a future Engineer, everyo... Read more →

Shutdown Week ends, back from "the Maniototo"

Shutdown week is over. It was a brilliant week of cycling in the South Island, mainly an area known as “the Maniototo" . It’s a remote part of Central Otago which is hardly crowded itself – covering a... Read more →

Shaken, not stirred! - Auckland just had a little earthquake

Was having a late’ish dinner and thought that’s odd, felt like the house moved back forth slowly several times… and it had! There was a Ricter 3.7 – depth 6km quake about 20:30, a bit later one of Ric... Read more →

It's easy to be an expert

This is a little off topic, but was prompted by a recent CAD event. Sometimes you look at amazing work and think I could never do that. The thing is, you probably can as there is often only one difference between you and the expert and it’s never too late to change. I once asked a fellow cyclist, on a South Island tour, how long he’d been biking. Since he was over 80, and still happily riding 80km+ per day, I expected the answer to be in decades… “About 5 years” was the reply. Creating Passionate Users: How to be... Read more →

Surviving Geek Dinners - A guide for non-geeks

To be a non-geek at geek dinner must make for a long evening. Maryam offers some advice to ease the pain. The all geek dinner is fairly rare for me, apart from Autodesk University, but being a geek can earn dinner invitations. My usual response: “Dinner would be great, so what is wrong with your computer…” Maryamie: The non-geeks survival guide for geek dinners. Read more →

A1 Grand Prix Team New Zealand

New Zealand goes racing… RobiNZ Personal Blog: A1 Grand Prix - New Zealand Matt Halliday will be representing New Zealand in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix race this weekend… Read more →

Unreal Election

Off topic but might be of interest. New Zealand's closest election in years had a bizarre sideshow as a stolen light aircraft buzzed Auckland City…. RobiNZ Personal Blog: NZ Election not boring After a long campaign 2,052,813 votes were counted and there is no result... Read more →