Need a laugh? Try this.
Fun with cold patch, safe stopping distances, and public works crews. Fine ingredients for a most touching Mother's Day memory and a raginly funny story.
It's a kneeslapper, for sure.
Cheers (with delayed cheers to all moms),
Sarah
Greenginering is cool.
There are lots of fantastic examples showing how sustainable, low-impact, and otherwise green principles make their way into civil engineering. But here's one that might've slipped by you. If you have about 30 minutes and want to hear some amazing thoughts from someone with 30+ years of experience in green design, watch it. In particular, there are 2 things that will appeal to civil engineers:
1. The speaker* believes that an exceptionally sustainable design must encompass the infrastructure - roads, utilities, and such - leading up to the building. It's not a new concept, but this speaker puts it more eloquently than I've ever heard or read before.
2. The talk has two examples of projects where civil engineering plays a lead role in a green design. One of them is enormous infrastructure project - a megaproject by anyone's standards - that I hadn't been aware of until now: The Two Seas Canal.
*The speaker is Norman Foster (actually, it's Sir Norman to you and me). He's one of the world's most prominent architects (something else I hadn't been aware of until now). Some of his designs that are now nearly 30 years old, but they encompass many of the sustainable and green principles that aren't new. They're just newly popular, that's all.
Cheers,
Sarah
Looking for a few ideas on better blogging? Check out copyblogger. I stumbled on it today at Seth's Blog. I've already scanned some of the popular posts this morning. And what I love about it is the tone. It's upbeat and friendly, and full of good tips for improving your writing.
Cheers,
Sarah
p.s. After nearly 2 weeks, my stint as Juror #10 is over. I'm back at work and thinking about gettin' my beta on this week!
Nope.
After a fantastic 2 week vacation (sailing in Tortola), I came back to work ready to go. Then I got called to jury duty, which I thought would be a quick one day exercise: show up, wait around and read the jury duty booklet, and go home. Not so. Since last week, I've been living out a fantasy worthy of a Law and Order episode.
Odds are that I'll be offline for the next week or two. Crazy to be away from work, Internet, e-mail, and Civil 3D for this long. I'm betting it's a blessing in disguise.
Cheers (and best wishes for happy beta testing),
Sarah
Download a nifty new whitepaper here. It's the ABCs (or CiAs) of the new Hydraflow Storm Sewer Extension for AutoCAD 3D 2008. At 20 pages, it's a much faster and easier read than the nearly 200-page User Guide.
It's like CliffsNotes....with pictures.
Cheers,
Sarah
Another example of using GIS to make life easier.
Check out this map of New York's Capital District. It's handy if you're shopping for convenient places to do a little charitable giving this holiday season.
Cheers,
Sarah
It's not every day that a new Autodesk a new discussion group is born. Check out this one. It's only 2 days and 10 entries old and if you want to talk about the new C3D-flavored Hydraflow, it's a good place to be.
"one of the main reaons for the communication breakdown between the A380 teams was the lack of compatibility between the CAD tools they used."
Check out Are your Engineers Talking to One Another When they Should? in this month's Harvard Business Review for the backstory behind this statement, which appears near the end of the article.
In the article, the authors take a very detailed look at how engineers at Airbus and Pratt & Whitney collaborated on the design of the jet engine for the Airbus A380, the superjumbo double-decker airplane. The project suffered major delays and cost overruns due to "unforseen design incompabibilties." Although he didn't come out and say so, most people believe that those problems were the reason Airbus' CEO resigned only 3 months after he was hired to fix the project.
Most articles about this project delve into all of the problems and issues. But this one's different. It goes into great detail analyzing project workflows by applying a design structure matrix - it's a way of mapping the flow of information and its impact on how a design evolves. It concludes with some lessons learned and advice to project managers about avoid these types of problems.
Now I won't kid you - this article is NOT about CAD. It's about project management. And it goes into a level of detail we often can't afford to take the time for. Maybe it'll give you some new ideas or a fresh way to think about workflows.
Order a reprint of the article - it's only $6.50 for the PDF.
Cheers,
Sarah
Are you a runner? Going to AU? Here's Runner's World guide to running trails on Le Strip. It starts at Mandalay Bay (my home for the week).
And if you're staying at The Venetian, like I did last year, and you really do need a good workout to stay sane, splurge on a day (or 3) at the Canyon Ranch Fitness Center. The rock climbing wall is bigger than most mountains and the staff is more than happy to give you a free lesson. (No one wants to see a techie go SPLAT on the floor.) There's spinning and yoga classes, plus a staff full of friendly people who will hand you bottled water and frozen washcloths at every turn.
Cheers,
Sarah
8 days and counting! Here's how I expect it to play out:
Day 8: Today. Write blog post during day. Enjoy the glow of preparedness that my handout made it in on time. Resist urge to perfect my slides.
Day 7: Still feeling loose. Rehearse presentation with co-presenter. In a spurt of creativity, will re-order all slides after rehearsal/meeting. It's seems like a good idea to add animation, sound effects, and a few AVIs for good measure. My presentation isn't until Thursday, which is 10 whole days away. There is plenty of time. A cornucopia of time.
Day 6: Wednesday. Last day in the office before AU! Mental note: Do NOT forget to bring a big stack of business cards home this time. (If you don't hand out business cards, were you really there?) Forget to borrow a license. Skip out of the office early to go home, make pies and eat birthday cake. (There will be an unholy number of candles this year, so don't even ask.)
Day 5: Eat turkey. Give thanks that you remembered business cards and your presentation is a whole week away.
Day 4: Shopping! In my family, it's a tradition for me and my sisters to indulge in a little shopping. This is where I buy a bunch of new outfits because I haven't done a lick of laundry and have nothing cute to bring to Vegas. And odds are the washing machine will die if I really need to do laundry, anyway. (My ancient washing machine has a spin cycle that's been known to need a few days rest here and there.)
Day 3. Saturday. Eat leftover pie that looked too good to bring to family dinner. Finagle with presentation. Rearrange a few things. Two hours later, it's got AVIs and animation and dancing ants.
Day 2. Sunday. Find suitcase and unpack everything I left in there from previous business trip. Pack casual-casual clothes, dressy-casual clothes and business casual outfits. Ponder bringing something sequined, but let it go. Pack only high-heeled shoes. Fret and consider last-minute trip to go buy something more sensible. Vanity prevails - high heels win. Pack a copy of "100 Things To Do with that T-shirt" so I can snazzy up any free tee's I get at AU. (Note: I still have a vintage EE one that regularly makes the rounds at Equinox.)
Day 1. Monday. Realize that dancing ants look silly. Maybe a bad idea. Dedicate the day to last minute presentation edits on the plane because, as I tell myself, "A quiet space - in VEGAS? Good luck with that, sweetheart." Realize that I've forgotten to check out a Civil 3D licenses only after I've called cab to airport. Fling open laptop, boot up, start up, wireless up, VPN up, and borrow a license despite sweaty fingers. Impress cab driver with ability to run - in heels - with a Blackberry in my teeth, powering down a laptop, and dragging a rolling suitcase with a power cable dangling out of it.
The last minute adrenaline rush of disorganization: Priceless.
Cheers,
Sarah
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