CADman-Do

AU Opening Keynote

2011-11-29T10:38:00.000-08:00

AU kicked off this morning with one of the best keynotes in recent memory. After an intro by Jeff Kowalski, in which he outline 5 disruptive trends, a series of Autodesk customers, starting with a young engineer that has helped build a new lunar lander, came to the stage and delivered truly moving presentations.

They were followed by Autodesk President and CEO Carl Bass, who continued the theme of disruptive technology and explained in broad strokes how Autodesk is taking advantage of those trends.

I shot video of most of the keynote and will be posting portions of it later this week. So stay tuned.

Now it's time for me to finish prepping for the first of my two presentations this afternoon.

Join me for Coverage of Autodesk University 2011

2011-11-28T13:41:00.000-08:00

It's the week after Thanksgiving, which means that I'm back in Las Vegas attending the 18th Annual Autodesk University. Today is dedicated to special meetings, including a press and blogger briefing that is just getting started.

I'll be posting as much information as possible this week...basically whatever I can tell you about that isn't under non-disclosure. So stay tuned.

Tech Day at Infineon Raceway

2010-08-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

Today was an absolutely incredible day here at Infineon Raceway. The IZOD Indy Car Series organized a Technology Day for writers.

After arriving at the track and shooting photos of the Indy Lites practice, we met at the Media Center and were assigned to one of the team's pits for the morning IndyCar practice. This meant that we were sort of captive in the pits rather than being out around the track taking photos, but we got a first hand look at what goes on as the teams work to make final preparations to their cars before the afternoon qualifying session.

After the practice session, we had lunch in the Honda Hospitality tent, hosted by Erik Berkman, President of Honda Performance Development. I've got lots of notes from our lunch meeting, many of which will be included in my forthcoming article.

Then we were driven up the hill to the Versus TV Compound, where Robby Green, VP and General Manager took us through the many tractor trailers that house the various television production facilities, including one trailer containing cameramen operating the numerous remote controlled cameras scattered around the racetrack, and the main control room where the director and producers control the on-air broadcast.

Then we went back down to pit row where we were met by Bryan Herta, former IndyCar Series driver and owner of Bryan Herta Motorsports. We each received Motorola headsets so we could hear all of the race team communications and also ask questions.

Then we met with Jack Arute, the primary on-air commentator for Versus' coverage of IndyCar racing.

Next, we went to the pits of deFerran/Dragon Motorsports, where we met with Eric Zeto, the team's race engineer (who I also interviewed yesterday for my article) and Raphael Matos, driver of the #2 HP deFerran Dragon entry. They explained how the team collects and analyzes telemetry throughout the race.

We then had a bit of a break, so I went back trackside to take photos of the Historic Grand Prix cars during their final practice session.

To round out the day, we were driven up to the IZOD IndyCar Series Paddock Club, where we met with Gil deFerran, 2003 Indy 500 winner and owner of deFerran/Dragon Motorsports, and Tony Cotman, the project manager of the 2012 IndyCar. We also met with Matt Ellis, the manager of Infineon Raceway.

It was an incredible day.

I've also got a bunch of videos that I shot throughout the day that I'll be uploading later once I can edit them down. So check back again later next week.

Racing in Sonoma

2010-08-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

Friday was the first day of practice here at the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway. I climbed up the hill to watch the action in turns 2 and 3. Shooting late in the afternoon, this proved to be a dramatic location, with some excellent photo opportunities of cars as they crested the hill.

Here's Marco Andretti, driving the number 26 car for Andretti Autosport. Marco already has a career win here at Infineon.

Will Power, driving the number 12 Verizon Team Penske car had some demons to vanquish. Coming over this hill during the race last year, he collided at full speed with the stationary car of Nelson Philippe, who had just spun. He broke two vertebrae in his back and missed the rest of the season. Power now leads the points total for the 2010 Indy Racing League season.

Power had no problems negotiating the turn during practice, and would go on to clinch yet another pole position during Saturday's qualifying session.

I'm here this weekend to work on an article on how de Farran Dragon Racing uses technology from its primary sponsor, HP, in the preparation and operation of its car, driven by IRL rookie driver Raphael Matos. I attended the Indy 500 this year as a guest of HP and will use the opportunity afforded by this weekend at Infineon to complete the research for my article.

The Most Fun I've Had With My Clothes On

2010-08-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

I've got to admit right off the bat that today, I felt like the proverbial kid in a candy store. I finally got to do something that I've wanted to do for a long time. I got to ride in an Indy Car 2-seater race car.

I watched other people doing this at several tracks, most recently when I was in Indianapolis for this year's Indy 500. At that time, I was ready to pay to ride, but then learned that all of the opportunities were already sold out for the entire weekend. Well, today, I finally got my chance.

Here I am all suited up and waiting for my turn.

I'm at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California to photograph the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, the last road course race of the 2010 Indy Racing League season.

Thanks to my friends at HP, today I got to partake of the "Indy Racing Experience." What's more, my driver today was Davey Hamilton, one of the drivers with Dragon Racing, the team sponsored by HP. I'm currently working on an article about the team.

The 2-seater is a larger version of an actual Indy car. It's got the same engine that they ran last year. The only difference is that it's longer, with a second seat behind the driver.

After arriving at Infineon Raceway at 9am, I signed several pages of release forms and then went into a changing room to don my firesuit and boots. Then, I waited until it was my turn to put on a balaclava, helmet, and gloves and climb aboard behind Davey. After the crew strapped me in and surrounded my head with a Hans device, they started the engine and we took off.

What a kick. Going from zero to more than 100mph in a few seconds and then braking through the corners and up the hill at Infineon (still Sears Point as far as I'm concerned) was an incredible rush.

If there was any downside, it was that the two laps were over way too quickly. I talked with Davey afterwards and told him next time I want to drive.

I shot some video while at the track and also got some onboard video shot from a car-mounted camera. I've edited the footage together and posted it on YouTube. Here it is. Enjoy.

All I can say is, if you've ever thought of doing a 2-seater ride, go for it. And thank you HP for making my ride happen.

Did You Know That I Am "Renowned"?

2010-08-12T15:08:00.000-07:00

For the past several months, I've been working on a productivity study comparing AutoCAD 2008 to AutoCAD 2011. The basic idea behind this study was to attempt to quantify the potential time saved - or productivity improvement - that a typical user could reasonably expect to achieve by upgrading from their current version of AutoCAD to the latest release.

In order to quantify this improvement, I devised a series of tests involving timing the repeated re-creation of a selection of drawings using both AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD 2011. The drawings I used were representative of those that would be produced by typical AutoCAD users.

By upgrading from AutoCAD 2008 to AutoCAD 2011, I reduced the time required to create these drawings by 31 percent, reducing the overall time from 13.5 hours to 9.25 hours. When I then switched from AutoCAD 2011 on an older workstation running Windows XP to a newer workstation running Windows 7, the time required was reduced further. On the more modern system, it took just 7.5 hours to create the same eight AutoCAD drawings, an overall reduction in time of 44 percent from AutoCAD 2008.

I thought that was pretty dramatic. So did Autodesk. And so did the folks at HP and NVIDIA, co-sponsors of the study.

The complete productivity study is now available on the Autodesk website.

I'll also be participating in a webcast next Tuesday, August 17, from 10:00-11:00am Pacific time. I hope you'll join us for the webcast, hosted by Heidi Hewett.

One of My Photos Wins Photo Contest

2010-07-26T17:00:00.001-07:00

I was just notified that one of my photos from the Vancouver Winter Olympics has won first prize in the 5th Annual Quicksilver Photo Contest.

My photo of the USA 3 bobsled driven by Mike Kohn flying past spectators at the Whistler Sliding Center during the final heat of the 4-man bobsleigh competition at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics was taken on February 27, 2010 using a Canon 10D and a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens at 1/500 second, f/8, 70mm, and ISO-1600. The winning image is cropped just slightly from the original.

This photo, along with winners in other categories, will be on display at Quicksilver Photo Lab beginning on Friday, July 30, 2010.

The 94th Indy 500

2010-06-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

With all of my travel this past week, it's taken me a few days to sort through all of my photos and post this report on the actual race. What an incredible experience.

There's something magical about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Indy 500 is truly the greatest spectacle in motor racing, and everything about this track, including the new Pagoda at the start/finish line, is iconic.

On Sunday morning, before the race, I got to hang out in the de Ferran Dragon Racing garage and spend some time talking with drivers Rafael Matos and Davey Hamilton and the rest of the team. What an incredibly gracious group of people.

I watched the start of the race and the first round of pit stops from the Dragon Racing pits and then moved over into turn 1 to shoot some of the early race action. With a 500-mile race there would be plenty of time to move around to the different vantage points afforded by my press credentials.

I think a lot of people were rooting for Tony Kanaan, who started in 33rd position, the very last car on the starting grid, but quickly moved up through the field, eventually getting as high as second place before he had to stop for fuel just 4 laps from the end, finishing in 11th place. What a performance.

Dario Franchitti quickly put his Target Chip Ganassi car into the lead and led the race for more than 150 laps.

They say that you can't win the Indy 500 on the first lap, but you can lose it on the first lap. That was certainly true of Dragon Racing today. Davey Hamilton was forced into the wall leaving turn 2 on the very first lap to avoid a collision with Tomas Scheckter and was out of the race almost before it began. Pit stops also proved to be problematic for many cars, including the usually unshakable Penske team. Here pole sitter Helio Castroneves and second-row qualifier Ryan Briscoe leave the pits during an early pit stop.

Roger Penske seemingly couldn't believe some of the problems his team experienced in the pits, but theirs wouldn't be the only problems.

Standing behind the barrier in the short shoot between turns 1 and 2, I was very excited to watch as de Ferran Dragon Racing driver Rafael Matos moved up through the field from his 12th starting position to 3rd overall.

Dan Weldon in the number 4 National Guard car entered by Panther Racing was also doing very well, moving up from his 18th starting spot on the outside of row 6.

Pole sitter Helio Castroneves stayed up in the mix throughout the early action, a favorite to win his fourth Indy 500. He seemed quite happy to stay back a few positions and just run with the leaders.

Things seemed to be playing out smoothly, and then came a series of mishaps. Rafael Matos pitted on lap 67. Both he and Scott Dixon had problems during their stops, with both cars losing wheels. For Matos, the long stop dropped him way back in the field. He returned to the pits three laps later for a wing adjustment. Once back on the track, he pushed a bit too hard. On lap 73, Matos spun coming through turn 1, slamming the rear end into the Safer Barrier amid a shower of sparks. His car came to a stop in turn two, his day over.

With both of the de Ferran Dragon Racing cars out of the race, I was ready to move to a new photo location. I shot for a while in the now empty Dragon Racing pits, but decided to move higher to watch the final stages of the race. On a tip from a fellow photographer, I made my way up onto the roof of the grand stand just about the start/finish line. From there I could see most of the track and had a great view of all the action on the main straight.

My roof-top vantage point proved to be an excellent position, as I was able to watch the drama continue to unfold on pit lane. While the leaders battled, Danica Patrick continued to move up through the field. She would eventually finish 5th.

But things would continue to be nuts in the pits, with several more cars touching wheels late in the race.

At other tracks I've been able to actually shoot pits stops from the pit wall at ground level. With cars flying by at more than 230mph on the front straight at Indy, however, I was quite happy shooting down from my higher vantage point.

Here Ryan Hunter-Raey's number 37 Izod car gets serviced during the final round of pit stops on lap 163. He would eventually finish in 18th position.

Being directly above the start/finish line had other advantages, as I had a perfect view as Dario Franchitti and Dan Weldon took the checkered flag at the end of the race.

And once race winner Dario Franchitti brought his number 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car to a stop in pit lane, I had a birds-eye view as his team rushed to congratulate him.

Here's Dario as he celebrates his victory, with his wife Ashley Judd looking on.

And yet another photo of Ashley Judd and Dario Franchitti in victory circle.

With temperatures reaching 98 degrees, making the 2010 Indy 500 the hottest on record, I was quite happy to sit in the air conditioned press center for the post-race press conference. Here, Chip Ganassi describes what it's like to win both the Dayton 500 and the Indy 500 in the same year. "I didn't drive the car. I didn't put fuel in it. I didn't change any tires," said Ganassi. "I'm just a lucky guy to be in this business."

And then it was Dario Franchitti's turn to answer questions. When asked whether winning the Indy 500 twice finally put him in the same league as his heroes Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark, he replied that "I could could win the Indy 500 for the rest of my life, until I'm 70, and I still wouldn't be in the same league as Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart."

Dario's wife, actress Ashley Judd, looked on during the post-race press conference, at one time cracking up with laughter when, in response to a question, Dario said that having to now choose which of his two Indy wins was his favorite would be like having to choose which of his two dogs he liked best.

Ever wonder what a car looks like after hitting the wall at nearly 200mph. I wandered back to the de Ferran Dragon Racing garage after the race for a look at the remains of the number 2 car of Rafael Matos...pretty ugly. Now it remains to be seen whether the team can make repairs in time for next week's race at the Texas Motor Speedway.

Of course, it was tough selecting just these photos to share with you. If you'd like to see more, you'll find more race-day photos on my Flickr site.

Indy 500 Pre-Race

2010-05-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

It's race day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's still hours before the race, but already things are happening.

Bands are playing and the Borg Warner Trophy has been rolled out onto the strip of bricks that comprise the start/finish line.

Also lined up on the grid are four former Indy 500 winning automobiles that will be part of the pre-race parade.

There are plenty of celebrities on hand. Jack Nicholson strolled down through the starting grid to get a close-up look at the 33 race cars. He'll be the honorary flagger for today's race.

David Letterman and Bobby Rahal, co-owners of Rahal Letterman racing are here. Bobby's son Graham is now driving for the team.

Mark Wahlberg is also here. He will get to ride in the Indy 2-seater, driven by Michael Andretti, ahead of the rest of the grid during the warmup laps.

While the cars were being moved to the grid, Mark Wahlberg and Mario Andretti went up to the front and chatted while sitting on the 2-seater.

Then the drivers were all introduced and took seats at the start/finish line for the rest of the pre-race festivities.

Florence Henderson sang "God Bless America."

Jewel sand the Star Spangled Banner.

Then four fighter jets flew down over the length of the main straight away.

Finally, Jim Nabors sang "Back Home Again in Indiana".

And then it was time for Jack Nicholson to wave the green flag to start the most famous auto race in the world.

Indianapolis - Day 2

2010-05-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

It's day 2 here in Indianapolis. There's nothing much going on at the track today, so it's the perfect opportunity to sit down with the Dragon Racing engineers to gather material for my article. It's also a perfect chance to soak up some of the history that is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Administration Building looks pretty new. This is where I had to go first thing Friday morning to pick up my credentials for the race. The speedway is celebrating its centennial. It's 100 years old, but since there were no races for several years during the world wars, it's not yet the 100th running of the Indy 500. So the Brickyard will celebrate its centennial for several years.

One of the most distinctive aspects of this place is the main gate. It's just iconic. I had to stop and take a picture.

Then I went over to the Hall of Fame. This building houses one of the finest collections of race cars and other automobiles in the world, and they all still run. It was a fascinating visit for me, not only to see the former Indy 500 winners, but also because a number of the vehicles on display factor into my upcoming book on the land speed record. Here's a Patent Benz, one of the very first automobiles.

And this Delage, while the 1914 Indy winner in its own right, was also a land speed record holder in its day.

Of course, one of the high points for me was to see this car, one of the three STP turbine cars that ran in the 1968 Indy 500. That was the last time I came to Indianapolis. My cousin Jerry took me to the race when I was 15 years old. We sat in turn 4 and watched the turbine cars dominate the race only to break down just a few laps from the end.

After spending several hours in the museum, I spent a few more hours in the Dragon Racing garage, talking with the engineers and admiring a beautiful example of today's modern open-wheel race cars.

Indy 500 Day 1

2010-05-28T06:07:00.000-07:00

I'm in Indianapolis this weekend for the Indy 500. I'm working on an article that will be published later this summer in Desktop Engineering magazine.

It's been a pretty interesting trip so far. I was seated on my fligh from Salt Lake City to Indianapolis with members of the band Rival Sons, who played on pit row yesterday during the Pit Stop Challenge.

The challenge competition was won by Helio Castroneves, who is seen here accepting the $50,000 winner's check.

I had a chance to get down and kiss the most famous bricks in the world, the strip of bricks at the start/finish line, the last ones remaining from the original "Brickyard."

Danica Patrick was also entered in the Pit Stop Challenge. And yes, that is fellow CAD journalist Bill Fane. He's also here this weekend.

The 35-lap Indy Lites race was a nice tight competition after a crash on lap 3 took out the pole sitter.

Here's the HP-sponsored car of Raphael Matos. HP is responsible for getting me to Indy. I'll be talking with team engineers today in preparation for the article.

Here Raphael discusses results of today's final practice run with team owner Gils de Feran.

A high point for me was a party last night at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Outside in the sculpture garden, some people were passing around an Olympic gold medal. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was a medal from the Vancouver Games and a few seconds later I realized that I was standing next to Steve Holcomb, the driver of USA 4-man bobsled #1, who I watched win that gold medal up at the Whistler Sliding Center back in February.

What a thrill to meet Steve and actually hold the medal.

There were lots of other interesting people at the party, including Mario Andretti, NFL hall of famer Lynn Swann, and Bruce Jenner.

Oh, and did I mention that the entertainment at the track after the practice and Indy Lites race was ZZ Top? Not a bad start to what should continue to be a very interesting weekend.

As always, there are lots more photos on my Flickr site.

More Details on AutoCAD 2011

2010-03-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

We're continuing our day here at Autodesk. I'm now in a breakout room with several dozen bloggers and Autodesk personel, going into more detail on the features in AutoCAD 2011.

It's now much easier to modify objects in AutoCAD with a simple right-click. For example, when you select a polyline, new grips appear on the vertices and polyline segments. You can then hover over a grip and move a vertex, add a vertex, or delete a vertex. You can also convert straight-line polyline segments into curved segments, or curved segments into straight-line segments.

Several tools that were available in subscription packs for AutoCAD 2010 are now part of the core functionality of AutoCAD 2011. For example, you can select an object and then right-click and choose to select similar objects, or create a simialr object.

There is also a new set of tools to hide or isolate objects separate from layer control. You can select objects and then isolate those objects by hiding everything that was not selected or hide the selected objects, leaving unselected objects visible. You can do this repeatedly until just the desired objects remain visible. A new button on the Status bar indicated when objects have been hidden/isolated. You can then easily restore object visibility when you're done working. By default, object visibility does not persist between drawing sessions, but there is a new system variable that enables you to retain the visibility between drawing sessions.

AutoCAD also now supports transparency on both an object and layer basis. You can also include transparency as part of a hatch object. The one thing to watch out for is transparency when plotting. If you want to plot with transparency, you must turn on a specific setting within the Plot dialog. This causes the resulting plot to be rasterized. This setting is off by default because it adds time to the plotting process. But as pointed out during our session, rasterization can cause problems when creating a DWF file. DWF files are typically vector files. If you bring a DWF file into an AutoCAD drawing as an underlay, you can snap to geometry in the DWF file. But if you rasterize when creating a DWF file, you won't be able to snap to geometry in the resulting DWF file.

It's worth noting that the hatch, polyline, and transparency features are all now available in AutoCAD LT. In addition, AutoCAD LT now has gradient fills, just like AutoCAD.

One other new function that I really like are inferred constraints. In AutoCAD 2010, you had to create all constraints manually, although you could use the AutoConstrain tool to apply a bunch of constraints in one step. But now, in AutoCAD 2011, there's a button on the Status bar that turns on Inferred Constraints. When inferred constraints are enabled, appropriate geometric constraints are created automatically as you work. So if you were to draw a rectangle, for example, parallel constraints would automatically be applied to opposite sides and a perpendicular constraint to one corner, so that the rectangle would remain a rectangle when grip editing (rather than just a closed polyline).

I'll continue to report on today's events. Over the next few days, I'll start posting short videos illustrating many of these features. You will certainly find similar videos posted by others, including Heidi Hewett (on her AutoCAD Insider blog).

New Features in AutoCAD 2011

2010-03-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

The Autodesk webcast started off this morning by lifting the curtain on the newest release of AutoCAD. AutoCAD 2011 extends on the 3D capabilities added in previous versions with the addition of associative surfaces.

Associative 3D surfaces can be based on 2D curves that remain associated with the surfaces. When you modify the curves, the surfaces on which they were based are updated automatically. In addition, the 2D parametrics introduced in AutoCAD 2010 can now be extended to 3D thanks to these associative curves. If the curves were defined using geometric and dimensional constraints, you can use those constraints to drive the curves, which in turn drives the 3D model.

Another big improvement is direct manipulation of objects. For example, you no longer need to go into a Hatch dialog to create or edit a hatch patter. The Hatch dialog has been replaced by a Hatch contextual ribbon. As you make changes to the hatch settings, you immediately see the resulting hatch pattern in the drawing, making it much easier to get the desired results. If you do need to edit a hatch object, when you select the hatch, the Hatch Edit contextual ribbon is immediately activated, and again, you can immediately see the effect of each change within the drawing. You can also right-click on the hatch object and adjust many aspects of the hatch, such as hatch angle or scale, instantly using a shortcut menu.

I'm sure that we'll see more details of AutoCAD 2011 later today. But right now, the presentation is moving on to Inventor 2011.

AutoCAD Turns 25

2010-03-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

I'm in San Francisco at Autodesk today for the launch of AutoCAD 2011. This is the 25th release of AutoCAD. There will be a live webcast starting shortly at www.autodesk.com/webcast. I'll be in the audience at that webcast along with a number of other bloggers, authors, and analysts. I'll also be blogging throughout the day. So please stay tuned.

In the pre-briefing this morning, the main points raised were:

76,000 man hours spent on Q/A of the new release
6,000 total code reviews of new release
2,000 commands tested
4,600 Beta customers involved in AutoCAD 2011
1.4M lines of old code were removed

Autodesk will also announce Alias Sketch for AutoCAD, which will also be launched today as a plug-in. The program adds sketch rendering capability right inside AutoCAD. A single inte4grated environment enables you to combine 2D paint with AutoCAD geometry with a 3D model as an underlay.

I'll provide more details as the day developes.

The CAD Brothers

2010-03-19T10:44:00.001-07:00

I just spent a very enjoyable week in Texas, speaking at AUGI CAD Camp events in Austin on Tuesday and Dallas on Thursday. I also dropped in on the Dallas AutoCAD User Group meeting on Wednesday night.

Since we figured we'd need a rental car while in Austin (the event hotel was quite a ways from the airport), we decided to drive from Austin to Dallas on Wednesday. When we arrived at Austin airport on Monday, Budget didn't have any full-size cars available, so after some debate, they upgraded us to a premium vehicle, which turned out to be a fully-loaded Lincoln Town Car.

Well, put a bunch of CAD geeks in a big piece of Detroit iron for a 4-hour drive across Texas and strange things are bound to happen. The AUGI national speaker team is no longer four individuals. We are now "The CAD Brothers" and we're on a mission from AUGI.
Here we are on our arrival in Dallas. From left-to-right: Bill Fane, me, Rick Ellis, and Robert Green.

We're On TV...Don't Blink or You'll Miss It

2010-02-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

I've spent a quiet Sunday afternoon watching the gold medal hockey game and we were just sitting down to watch the closing ceremonies. Of course, NBC's coverage is still terrible. It's already nearly 8:30pm. The closing ceremonies have actually been over for several hours but have been delayed here on the west coast so that they can be aired in prime time. What a crock.

There was one upside from the coverage. NBC aired some gold medal highlights, one of which was the Ladies' Figure Skating Free Skate program. We were there that night, so we didn't see it on TV and our DVR was so filled that by the time we had a chance to watch it, it was no longer there.
As we watched the coverage of Kim Yu-Na, the camera cut to a shot taken way up in the stands, and there was none other than Clarice holding one end of our American flag.

Then, while watching the coverage of the final two runs of the 4-man bobsled, I managed to spot myself and Genny's brother Mike standing at the finish line.

That's Mike with his head turned, wearing a blue Team USA cap and my right arm reaching out with my small digital camera. I'm wearing my blue USA jacket with a red stripe down the arm, so it was easy for me to spot myself.

Our 7th Day - 4-man Bobsled at Whistler

2010-02-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

Today is our last day at the 2010 Winter Olympics, but what a day. We left Bellingham around 8am and drove up to Whistler, BC to watch the final two heats of the 4-man bobsled. Once we confirmed that Mike and Kate were going to be able to join us for the bobsled, we sold the tickets I had originally bought to take the bus from BCIT up to Whistler and instead bought a driving pass for the Sea to Sky Highway and drove to Whistler.

After waiting in a long line to get through security and into the Whistler Sliding Center, we watched the first sleds take to the course for heat 3. The first sled on track was USA 1, driven by Steve Holcomb. Steve's family was out in force to cheer him on.

He had a successful third run and remained in first place. I noted that the steel columns supporting the roof over the finish line were now covered with pads after the death of the Georgian luger prior to the start of the games. Last year during the World Cup events, and prior to the start of the Olympics, these columns were exposed.

The thirteenth sled down the course was USA 2, driven by Mike Kohn.

By the time Mike finished, we had a ring side seat at the finish hut, directly in front of Mike's parents. I couldn't help but remark to them on the similarity of our last names.

We watched a few more sleds come to a stop in the finish hut. I had a chance to meet a number of these athletes during last year's World Cup event at Whistler, so I already knew how big these guys are. Many of them played football and college. They're all built like linebackers.

Our original plan had been to get to Whistler early enough to climb to the top of the track so that we could watch the first sleds start the third heat and then work our way down toward the bottom during the fourth and final heat. Since that didn't happen, we instead started working our way up the course during the later stages of heat three, stopping as each sled came down the track. Here the Serian sled flies by.

The 4-man bobsled finals drew the largest crowd ever to attend a sliding event, including this guy who was already prepared for Sunday's gold medal hocket match between Team USA and Canada.

I came prepared to cheer on the USA sleds. Here I pose for a rare photo opp at turn 1 just below the start during the lull between heats 3 and 4.

After watching several sleds start the fourth and final heat, we quickly made our way down toward the bottom of the course, again stopping to watch each sled, including one of the Latvian sleds.

The Whistler Sliding Center is the fastest track in the world, with 4-man bobsleds reaching nearly 100mph. Capuring these vehicles is quite an accomplishment, so I am no doubt incrediby happy with some of my photos, such as this one of one of the Canadian sleds.

With just three sleds left, the crowd watched anxiously as the Canada 1 sled rocketed into second place, only to be surpassed by the Germany 1 sled by .01 second.

Then we waited for the USA 1 sled of Steve Holcomb.

Being able to move around the course, you get all sorts of vantage points. Although one could again argue that you can see the bobsled better on TV, since at any given spot along the track, you only see the sled rocket past for a split second. But unlike almost any other event, spectators can get incredibly close to the track. You just can't experience the speed of a bobsled from the safety of your living room.

Once all 21 sleds had completed the fourth run, it was USA 1 sled of Steve Holcomb in first place, continuing to maintain the .4 second margin he had built in his early runs. Germany finished second and Canada took the bronze, just .01 seconds behind Germany.

Genny, Kate, Mike and I had a great time. When the event was over, we joined the huge crowd walking back down below the Wizard chair on Blackcomb and made our way back to Whistler Village. We got into the line for standby tickets for the Medal Ceremony, but in spite of getting very close to the entrance, we did not manage to get inside before Holcomb and the rest of the USA team were awarded their gold medals. Standing outside the medals plaza, we flew our own American flag and sang the Star Spangled Banner.

Then we made our way to the Irish Pub in Whistler Village and hoisted a few before getting back into the car and driving back to Bellingham.

We got home just before 1am, having had an incredible time at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. I considered driving up to Vancouver on Sunday morning and watching the USA/Canada gold medal hockey game in a bar and then trying to get tickets to the closing ceremony. But after four straight days at the games, I was exhausted. So I'll watch the hockey game and closing ceremony at home.

There are even more photos on my Flickr site.

On the Streets of Vancouver on Friday Night

2010-02-26T23:55:00.000-08:00

Today we were back in Vancouver to attend short track speed skating at the Pacific Coliseum. Before the event, we took the Skytrain into downtown Vancouver to eat lunch at a great Indian restaurant and to do some shopping.

Canadian spirit is everywhere. Here a huge Canadian flag is reflected on the front of the Toronto Dominion Tower.

After tonight's short track speed skating, we took the Skytrain into downtown Vancouver and hung out on Robson Street. The Canadian men's hockey team had just beaten Slovakia in a semi-final game, and the crowds on Robson street were celebrating.

We also wandered over so that Kate and Mike could see the Olympic Flame. The barrier has been moved closer and larger gaps and Plexiglas have been added to the chain link fence, making the barrier a bit less obtrusive, but it's still a shame that the view of the flame has to be obscured in such a draconian fashion.

I hope these young Canadian girls didn't use Sharpie markers to create those tattoos, or they may not be quite so temporary. Such is the enthusiasm of our Canadian hosts at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

The International Broadcast Center, housed in the new Vancouver Convention Center, is a beautiful sight, particularly at night, with the Olympic Rings glowing in the background.

This video captures a bit of the enthusiasm in downtown Vancouver. Back on Robson Street, we watch the crowd as we wait for our crepes at a wonderful little restaurant that has become a popular night spot.

There are more photos on my Flickr site.

Our Sixth Olympic Day - Short Track Speed Skating

2010-02-26T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today brought us to another one of those events that we really looked forward to, the finals of the short track speed skating.

Joining us for this event was my sister Lori and my brother-in-law Mike and his wife Kate. Here they posed with one of the Royal Canadian Mounted Policemen who would later participate in the Medal Ceremony.

Once up in the stands, Kate and Mike used one of the signs I had made to help us cheer on the USA speed skaters.

Of course, one of the stars we had come to see compete was Apolo Ono. He competed twice tonight, in the Mens' 500 meter and then again in the Mens' 5000 meter relay.

Also competing was Katherine Reutter, who made it into the finals of the Ladies' 1000 meter short track event. She did very well in her semi-final and quarter-final heats.

Here Katherine makes a move to the front in her quarter-final heat.

Anyone who says that you can experience an event like this better on television has obviously never been to a short track speed skating event. I am now absolutely in love with this sport. Instead of competing against the clock as in long track speed skating, short track has 4 or 5 athletes on the ice at one time, with the two fastest in each heat continuing on to the next round. The action is intense, and you just can't experience the excitement from the confines of your couch.

Apolo Ono also advanced through his semi-final and quarter-final heats, although he had a bit of a tougher time, including a race in which he had to leap over two skaters who got tangled up and fell in front of him. He eventually made it to third place in the final, only to be disqualified for impeding a skater in his final heat.

Here's Ono in his quarter-final heat. You can see how fast moving and exciting this sport really is. I think the excitement comes across better in this crude video, shot on my pocket camera, than in the overly-packaged television coverage on NBC.

In the finals of the Ladies' 1000 meter, Katherine Reutter fought her way to the front.

Reutter ended up in second place, winning the silver medal in the Ladies' 1000 meter short track speed skating event.

The final event of the evening was the Mens' 5000 meter relay. This was by far the wildest thing I ahve ever seen, with four skaters from each team on the ice at the same time. Over the course of 45 laps, they switch off, with the next skater entering the ice ahead of the current skater, who then pushes them forward.

Canada took the gold medal, followed by Korea in second place and the USA team of JR Celski, Travis Jayner, Jordan Malone, and Apolo Ono capturing the bronze.

Here's a chunk of the race, as well as the medals ceremony. It was an incredible display.

We stayed for the medal ceremony and then took the Skytrain back into downtown Vancouver.

There are even more photos on my Flickr site.

Our Fifth Day - Women's Figure Skating Long Program

2010-02-26T00:53:00.000-08:00

Today was one of the BIG events. We drove up to Vancouver for the Ladies Free Skate, the final program in the women's figure skating competition. This is one of the premier events at the Winter Olympics and it was even more special since today was Genny's birthday.

We posed for a photo outside the Pacific Coliseum before heading inside to find our seats.

We were fairly high up, but with a great view of everything.

My sister Lori came along with Clarice, Genny, and me. This is one event that is definitely better in person. You might see it closer on TV, but you don't see it all unless you're there. What a thrill.

I still can't believe that we actually managed to get tickets to this event. It was an incredible experience to get to see all 24 competitors. On television you only get to see the top 4 or 5.

Of course, we were rooting for Rachael Flatt, who went into the free program in 5th place. She skated first in the final group of 6 women. Here she is in the kiss and cry booth after her performance.

Of course, the sentimental favorite was Canada's Joannie Rochette, who got a standing ovation when she came out onto the ice, and then again at the end of her program.

But there was no question that Kim Yu-Na from Korea had won the competition. We had been transfixed watching her short program on TV two nights ago. Her long skate was incredible.

After waiting in the kiss and cry booth, Kim Yu-Na scored an incredible 150.06 in the long program for a total of 228.56, more than 20 points ahead of Asada Moa from Japan in second place and Joannie Rochette in third. Mirai Nagasu, who had been in 6th place after her short program, finished in 4th, with a performance that we thought was equal to or better than Rochette's.

Unlike most of the other events we've attended, they actually held a full medal ceremony after the end of the figure skating.

Then the three medalists stayed on the ice and posed for pictures until most of the crowd had a chance to see them up close. Can you tell that we really enjoyed ourselves?

We also got a chance to see the NBC commentators up close. But we still hate the way NBC packages the Olympics. More than 30 minutes after the end of the event, they were still producing their commentary, since they had not yet actually aired the final skaters' performances.

Back outside, we had just a short walk to a bus and then a Skytrain ride back to where we had parked our car. Once again, we were back in Bellingham well before midnight.

Tomorrow we're back to Vancouver for Short Track Speed Skating.

By the way, I've got more photos on my Flickr site.

Our Fourth Olympic Day - Freestyle Skiing

2010-02-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we made our way up to Cypress Mountain north of Vancouver for the finals of the Women's Freestyle Aerials competition. This was actually the first event I got tickets for and we were seated in the front row, giving me a perfect spot to hang my flag.
The weather could have been better. After suffering through very warm weather and a lack of snow, the past few days have turned colder and last night they got snow at Cypress. But in Vancouver, when the weather gets like this, we get fog. And as you can see, it was quite foggy at Cypress.

In spite of the fog, we were able to see the skiers when they launched off the 40-foot high kickers, a the competition was great, with three women from the USA, four from China, two from Belarus, and three from Australia.

By the start of the event, the stands filled with lots of very enthusiastic fans. This group sitting behind us kept getting onto the huge video screen. I wonder why.

In spite of the fog, I was able to get some pretty good images.

The strong Chinese women's team turned out to be no match for Lydia Lassila, who won the gold medal for Australia.

There are even more photos on my Flickr site.

My Third Day the 2010 Winter Olympics

2010-02-22T14:33:00.000-08:00

One of the things I said that I wanted to do during the Olympics was to go up to Whistler to ski and watch the men's downhill. Unfortunately, with the changes during the first week of competition due to poor weather up at Whistler, I was not able to do this. But yesterday, I ended up with the next best thing.

My friend Marvin Wayne joined me to drive up to Whistler on Sunday morning, leaving Bellingham at 6am. As an Edge Card holder, I was able to buy a driving/parking pass that entitled me to drive to Whistler. We arrived at 8:45am and immediately took the Whistler gondola up and skied over to an observation area where we could watch the men's downhill portion of the Super Combined.

We were in a crowd of around 100 people overlooking a turn called "The Weasel." Of course, what you see is a skier flying past at more than 60 mph. Each came into view and then blazed past us in just a matter of seconds. But it was still thrilling. We screamed and rang cowbells and waved flags as each competitor came into view, surrounded by a crowd from all over the world.

We stayed here and watched until the completion of this portion of the event. The men would then compete in the slalom portion of the super combined, which was held much further down toward Creekside. Because it was much lower on the mountain, we were not able to ski over to watch.

Rather than buy a ticket to watch the slalom, we packed up and headed back out to ski.

And what an incredible day of skiing, under a crystal clear blue sky. Coming up the 7th Heaven chair we were behind a snow boarder who was obviously part of the USA team. She looked a lot like Kelly Clark. I finally had to ski over to her and ask. "No. I'm one of the coaches. But I get asked that a lot." She was at Whistler riding with friends. We skied down Glacier Drive with her and her friends and then headed off for some more runs. It was incredible meeting people from all over the world. I rode chairs with people from Russia, Poland, Croatia, Australia...you name it.

Once we finished skiing, we headed back to a friend's condo to change clothes and then went back into Whistler Village to The Brewhouse where we ate dinner, drank beer, and watched the USA defeat Canada in hockey 5 to 3. The crowd in the bar was evenly split between Canadian and American, and cheers and cowbells rang out throughout the game.

When the game ended just before 7pm,. I went outside and managed to get a standby ticket to the medals ceremony. Here's a video that truly captures the excitement, first with Evgeny Ustyugov winning the gold medal for Russia in the Men's 15 km Mass Start Biathlon and then Bode Miller receiving his second gold metal after winning the Men's Super Combined.

I then hung out for a bit longer to watch some of the performance by New Republic before heading back to the condo and then driving back to Bellingham. I was back in the house around 11pm, having spent an incredible day at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

I now have a couple of days to catch my breath before we head back to Vancouver and Whistler for 4 straight days of events. We've got tickets for the Women's Freestyle Aerials on Wednesday, the Women's Figure Skating long program on Thursday, Short Track Speed Skating on Friday (men's 500m, women's 1000m, and men's 5000m relay), and finally the last two heats of the 4-man bobsled up at Whistler on Saturday.

So far, the 2010 Winter Olympics have lived up to every expectation. The venues have been fantastic. The volunteers have been fantastic. I even must congratulate the people responsible for managing travel up to Whistler. Somehow, they managed to add an extra lane to the Sea to Sky Highway so that the road was two lanes all the way to Whistler and then at night two lanes from Whistler back to Vancouver. We experienced just a small slow down leaving Whistler.

There are even more photos on my Flickr site.

South Pacific Opens This Week at Bellingham High School

2010-02-20T17:50:00.000-08:00

South Pacific opens later this week at Bellingham High School. My daughter Clarice is in the ensemble.
And my wife Genny created all the costumes.

I shot the cast and production photos. A full set of photos is available on my Flickr site.

Based on what I saw during the dress rehearsal, it's going to be another great BHS production.

Pink Floyd...Mariachi Style

2010-02-19T15:32:00.001-08:00

I was in San Diego yesterday for the AUGI CAD Camp event. Yes, after more than a year hiatus, the CAD Camps are finally back. While I did not speak at the first two, in San Francisco and Los Angeles (because I was up in Vancouver at the 2010 Winter Olympics), I did take a short break from the Olympics and went to San Diego for Thursday's event.

First, let me just say how well this event was run. The new management team did a great job. The turnout was a bit small, but everyone who made it to the event was treated to a great day. I encourage anyone who can to get to one of the newly revived CAD Camps.

On Wednesday night, before the event, I went out to dinner with fellow speakers Rick Ellis, Bill Fane, Robert Green, and Heidi Hewett. We went to a great Mexican restaurant in Old Town. Of course, it had the requisite mariachi band. No sooner did Robert Green make a comment about how he once saw a mariachi band do covers of classic rock songs, then along came the band to our table and proceeded to do extreme justice to Pink Floyd. So here, without further adieu, I give you Los Rios.

These guys were obviously thrilled to have me capture them on video, and unlike the IOC, are looking forward to seeing it both here and on YouTube. I apologize that the video is so dark. We were sitting outside and I didn't have any sort of video light.

Did I Actually Violate the IOC's Copyrights?

2010-02-19T09:17:00.000-08:00

As you know, I've been up in Vancouver, BC at the 2010 Winter Olympics Games. Earlier this week, after attending the men's 500 meter speed skating event at the Richmond Olympic Oval and the USA versus Russia women's hockey game, I wrote two blog postings that included both photos and short videos shot inside the respective venues. Those videos were shot on a small Canon digital pocket camera and were certainly not of commercial quality. They were meant solely to be shared with family and friends. I included those videos in my blog postings, which has largely replaced letter writing when I want to share information with more than just a few friends and family members. However, in order to do so, I uploaded the videos to YouTube and then embedded them into this blog. I never suspected that the IOC would be monitoring YouTube nor that my crude videos would cause any problems. Boy, was I wrong.

At 5:30am on Thursday morning, I received a series of notifications from YouTube that informed me that YouTube had "removed access to your video...as a result of a notification by the International Olympic Committee claiming that this material is infringing."

There was nothing I could do about this yesterday, since at the time I received the notifications I was in San Diego as one of the presenters at an AUGI CAD Camp event. Upon returning home, I read (with the assistance of a magnifying glass since the print is approximately 4 point type) the fine print on the back of my Olympic tickets.

To say that I was astounded would be an understatement. I had no idea that by spending several thousand dollars to attend events at the 2010 Winter Olympics I had abandoned so many of my personal rights and granted such draconian authority to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and VANOC (Vancouver Organizing Committee). However, it seems that one right they might not be able to claim is copyright infringement by my videos. Because right there, in 4 point type, it says, "Images and videos and/or sound recordings of events or related activities created by the ticket holder may be used only for the ticket holder's personal, private and non-commercial purposes..."

The only word in this clause that could be used to claim copyright infringement by my videos is the word "private." YouTube is certainly NOT private. By posting my videos on YouTube, my intention was indeed to share them, but based on their content and quality, I cannot believe that anyone would conclude that they were posted for anything other than personal, non-commercial purposes. My intention was to share my Olympic experience with family, friends, and followers of this blog. I don't think the good people at the IOC understand the nature of modern social networks.

I've received several emails recommending that I file a counter-notification under section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), but quite frankly, I really don't want to open that can of worms. I may ultimately simply host the videos somewhere other than YouTube and revise the blog postings so that the videos are once again available for viewing by friends and family, email the videos to a handful of people, or just forget about the whole thing. We'll see.

As those who know me are no doubt aware, I am a huge fan of the Olympics. My other activities come to a virtual stand-still every two years when the Olympics take place. I had the rare opportunity in 1976 to attend the Summer Olympics in Montreal and watched my friend and high school track teamate Mike Roche compete for the USA in the men's 3000 meter steeple chase. I've looked forward to attending the 2010 Winter Games ever since it was announced that Vancouver would be the host city. I even applied for a job with VANOC. And I'm already making plans to attend the 2012 Games in London.

So I have no desire to engage in any sort of dispute with the IOC or VANOC. I intend to go back up to Vancouver over the coming week to attend many more events. I have nothing but praise for the athletes and volunteers that have already made the 2010 Winter Olympics an incredible experience, one that I will remember for the rest of my life. And I encourage anyone who has the chance to attend an Olympic event in person.

Here in its entirety (and at a size large enough for mere mortals to actually read) is what it says on the back of each ticket for the the 2010 Winter Olympics:

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

POSSESSION AND USE OF THIS TICKET ARE SUBJECT TO THE TICKET LICENSE AGREEMENT (available at http://www.vancouver2010.com/) AND THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. By purchasing, possessing or attempting to use this ticket, you acknowledge and agree that you have read, understood and unconditionally agree to be bound by all provisions of the Ticket License Agreement and these Terms and Conditions (which supplement the Ticket License Agreement).

THIS TICKET IS SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE CANCELLATION BY THE VANCOUVER ORGANIZING COMMITTEE FOR THE 2010 OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC WINTER GAMES (VANOC) WITHOUT ANY REFUND OR OTHER COMPENSATION, IF IT IS PURCHASED OR ACQUIRED, OR SOLD OR USED, IN BREACH OF THE TICKET LICENSE AGREEMENT OR THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. This ticket is a revocable license for admission to the session for which this ticket is issued. This ticket is and will at all times remain the exclusive property of VANOC and must be produced for inspection at any time at VANOC's request. The resale or attempted resale of this ticket at a price greater than that printed hereon, without VANOC's express prior written consent, is strictly prohibited. This ticket may not be resold, delivered or transferred to any person who intends to resell, or facilitate the resale of this ticket or use this ticket in breach of the Ticket License Agreement or these Terms and Conditions. All sales or transfers of this ticket must be effected through VANOC's Ticket Management Program (at http://www.vancouver2010.com/). This ticket may not be used for any political, commercial, advertising or other promotional purposes (including contests and sweepstakes) without VANOC's express prior written consent. The ticket hold must comply with all conditions of entry and the applicable venue code of conduct. Images and video and/or sound recordings of events or related activities created by the ticket holder may be used only for the ticket holder's personal, private, and non-commercial purposes, and my not be used for any other purpose or by any other person. The ticket holder grants permission to VANOC and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and their representatives and licensees to film, photograph and record the ticket holder's image or likeness and to reproduce, broadcast, publish, or otherwise use that image or likeness in connection with the live or recorded video display or other broadcast, transmission or reproduction of events (in whole or in part) or for any other purposes, promotional or otherwise, all without any compensation and without any liability to the ticket holder whatsoever for any such use. These Terms and Conditions are governed by British Columbia law.

THE TICKET HOLDER VOLUNTARILY ACCEPTS AND ASSUMES ALL RISKS AND DANGERS CONNECTED WITH OR RELATED IN ANY WAY TO ATTENDANCE AT THE SESSION FOR WHICH THIS TICKET IS ISSUED AND RELEASES VANOC AND THE IOC AND THEIR REPRESENTATIVES FROM ANY AND ALL RESPONSIBILITY AND LIABILITY FOR ALL SUCH RISKS AND DANGERS.

Free the Flame

2010-02-18T00:19:00.001-08:00

After the hockey game, Genny, Clarice and I went to downtown Vancouver to buy some Olympic memorabilia. Then, after a nice dinner on Robson Street we walked over to see the Olympic Flame.
Although these photos don't really show it, the plaza in which the flame is burning is completely inaccessible behind a really ugly chain link fence. There's a growing movement to "free the flame" by allowing spectators to get closer and to eliminate the ugly fence. We'll see what happens.

In the meantime, here's my short tribute to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Our Second Day at the 2010 Winter Olympics

2010-02-17T23:00:00.000-08:00

It's our second day here at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC. Today we're at the Thunderbird Arena at the University of British Columbia (UBC), site of the women's ice hockey tournament.

We're here today to watch the USA take on the women from Russia. One of the American players is from Blaine, Washington, a town just north of Bellingham. And we're sitting next to the aunt of another USA player from Ohio.

This is the first hockey game Genny and Clarice have ever attended.

The action was quite good. But the Russians were no match for the USA players. Russia had only two shots on goal in the first period and two in the second. There was lots of great action right in front of us.

The final score was USA 13, Russia 0. That comes on the heels of the USA beating China by a score of 13-1 on Sunday and an 18-0 victory by Canada. This tournament will probably come down to a match up between the USA and Canada for the gold medal.

Once again, getting to the event was simple, although it did take nearly an hour to get through security to get into the arena.

Now I'm off to San Diego for an AUGI CAD Camp before heading back to Vancouver for more Olympic action.

There are more photos on my Flickr site.

My First Day at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver

2010-02-15T23:27:00.000-08:00

Some of you may know that I am an absolute Olympics fanatic. For two weeks every two years, I get no work done for two weeks while I sit glued to the TV watching the Summer and Winter Olympics. So when Vancouver was announced as the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, I started preparing.

On Monday, February 15, 2010, Genny and I made the first of what will be at least six trips from our home in Bellingham up to Vancouver to attend events at the Olympics. Today, we were here for the 500 meter men's speed skating, held at the beautiful Richmond Olympic Oval.

We were a bit disappointed that none of the USA skaters did that well. But it was an incredible experience nonetheless.

The competition was delayed for more than an hour when the ice resurfacing machine malfunctioned. All of the coaches came out to examine the ice right in front of where we were sitting. We could tell there was a problem from where we were sitting. Of course, we knew there were serious problems when the people running the machine pulled out a wrench,

Everything about the events thus far have been incredible for us. There was absolutely no wait at the border getting into Canada. We made it from our house Richmond, BC in 45 minutes, ate lunch at a nearby mall, parked the car on a side street, and then rode the light rail for free. Then we had a short walk along the Fraser River to the Olympic Oval.

There were even some Dutch fans handing out free orange mittens along the walk over to the arena.

Afterwards, we had a very pleasant walk back to our car amongst a very friendly and enthusiastic crowd. We'll be attending five more events over the next two weeks.

There are more photos on my Flickr site.

New AutoCAD Tips Videos: 3D Lights

2010-02-09T21:06:00.000-08:00

While at Autodesk University, I recorded a new series of AutoCAD Tips videos that will be posted on the AutoCAD Exchange website. But since they're already available on YouTube, I've decided to also share them with you here.

The first one up is a 4:25 minute video in which I explain how to create three-dimensional lights in AutoCAD that utilize realistic light sources and use them in your models to create photo-realistic renderings. I actually explained this process in even more detail in my class "Photorealistic Rendering Techniques in AutoCAD 3D" that I taught at Autodesk University.

You can view the entire class and download the handout from the AU website. If you don't have access to the AU website, you can also download the handout from my website at www.dscohn.com.

I Got to Meet James Cameron

2010-02-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

I just returned from Anaheim, where I was covering the SolidWorks World conference, an event very similar to Autodesk University. I always enjoy attending this event and am grateful that the folks at SolidWorks invited me. The enthusiasm of the SolidWorks user community is amazing. Even with the slow economy, there were 5,000 people in attendance.

One of the high-points for me was a presentation on Tuesday morning by director James Cameron, this on the same morning that the Academy Award nominations were announced. After his keynote, Cameron met with members of the press and answered questions for more than 30 minutes. I was able to ask the second question, which elicited about a 5 minute response. Afterwards, Cameron met individually with most of the press in attendance, shook hands, posed for photos, and answered additional questions.

Needless to say, it was a real thrill.

Of course, I've also got things to report on the conference itself, but I'll save that for a subsequent posting.

Workaround for AutoCAD Section Plane Problem

2009-11-13T09:39:00.000-08:00

While working on one of my presentations for Autodesk University, I discovered what appeared to be what's referred to as a "regression," something that used to work in a program, but after an update, no longer does. In this case, the regression involves the Section Plane tool in AutoCAD.

In AutoCAD 2009, and in the first customer shipping version of AutoCAD 2010, you could create section planes away from a 3D object and then use those planes to create two-dimensional elevations of the object through the use of the Create Block tool (the SECTIONPLANETOBLOCK command).

But in AutoCAD 2010, after applying Service Pack 1, this no longer works. If the section plane is not physically touching the 3D object, when you attempt to create the 2D block, AutoCAD displays an alert informing you that the section creation operation did not generate geometry because of the position of the section plane.

I reported this situation to tech support personnel at Autodesk, who have verified that this is indeed a regression and that the matter will be dealt with in a future update. Until then, the work around is to make sure that the section plane at least touches the surface of the 3D object. You should then also adjust the section plane's Intersection Fill properties so that the elevation does not include any intersection fill.

You'll learn this and much more about using the Section Plane and other tools in my AU class "Back to Flat: Producing 2D Output from 3D Models" (course AU122-2), which I'll be teaching on Tuesday, December 1, from 5:00 to 6:30 in Lagoon A.

North American Eagle Tests Again

2009-11-09T19:36:00.000-08:00

On Friday, I once again made the 13-hour drive from Bellingham down to Gerlach, Nevada to watch the next series of tests of the North American Eagle land speed record challenger.

Saturday morning, the team met for breakfast at Bruno's at 6am and then headed out onto the playa. It was an absolutely beautiful morning, although a bit chilly. We met about a mile out from the 12-mile entrance and then moved about 8 miles out toward the north east.

It' hard to describe just how vast this place is. From two miles away, cars and people vanish below the horizon. If you don't know where you can easily get lost out here.

By 7:30am, the trailer is in position and the team begins the process of unloading the Eagle vehicle from its trailer, attaching the huge aluminum wheels, adding fuel, and hundreds of other steps before the vehicle is ready for a test run. In the meantime, I help Steve Wallace to erect the antennas that will be used as part of the ethernet network to capture real-time telemetry from the vehicle as it hurtles across the desert.

By noon, most of the preparations have been made, and the temperature has climbed into the upper 40's under a mostly clear sky. But it still takes hours more before everything is ready.

In spite of all the advanced preparations, it's still nearly sundown on Saturday before Ed Shadle makes his first and only test run of the day, reaching a top speed of around 185mph. Once again, just like back in July, the after burner refuses to ignite. And at the end of the run, the high-speed parachute fails to deploy and Ed brings the Eagle to a stop using only the magnetic brakes.

On Sunday morning, we again meet at 6am for breakfast and then head out into the desert. It's absolutely freezing this morning. The temperature is 18-degrees. When I get to base camp, I have to plug my camera battery charger into a small generator and recharge, because the cold has completely sapped most of my batteries.

With us again is Per Wimmer of Wimmer Financial. It appears that he is going to become a major North American Eagle sponsor. He's here this time with his girl friend Vicky, a Swedish fashion model. After getting some land speed experience at Bonneville this summer, Per is going to make a test run today.

It's after noon before everything is ready for the next test run. Jon Higley and I drive out to the 2 mile marker and wait. Finally, we can hear the big J-79 jet engine start up and a few minutes later Per comes roaring by. He appears to be going a bit faster than Ed's run yesterday. Just as he comes by us, however, he hits a bump in the playa and the Eagle makes a big bounce.

After the Eagle flies past, Jon and I jump into my Subaru and race across the desert at 80mph. When we pull up alongside the vehicle, we can see Per's huge grin even through his face is still mostly hidden behind his oxygen mask.

Al Von Hollen of S&S Turbine Services is concerned about the amount of desert dust that has been sucked up into the jet engine. There's a lot of dust visible in the tail cone. If there's that much here, just imagine how much is inside the engine.

When we get back to base camp, Per gets interviewed for Danish television.

It turns out that the bump was even more severe than we thought. The Eagle bottomed out and the impact tore away a metal panel just in front of the center wheels on the left side, along with a piece of the door panel. There's too much damage to risk another run. So after just two test runs, the team begins the process of dismantling the vehicle and loading it back into its trailer for the long drive home.

After saying goodbye to everyone, I load up and start my 13-hour drive back to Bellingham, arriving home around 5:30am on Monday morning. The team will now have to work through the winter making repairs and other modifications to the North American Eagle before the next test runs and hopefully a record attempt next summer.

End of an Era in Fairhaven

2009-10-31T18:10:00.001-07:00

It's the end of an era in the Fairhaven district in my home town of Bellingham, WA.

This afternoon, a crew of workmen used a large crane to remove the first two of the three Great Northern Railroad Pullman cars that have for years occupied the northeast corner of 12th Avenue and Harris Street, to make way for a new 5-story building.

Over the years, these cars have served as home for numerous businesses, including a dog grooming service and an espresso stand. But for more than a year, they have been empty, available to just about anyone who would pay to take them away.

Someone finally has. A woman in Pennsylvania has purchased all three cars and will eventually convert them into a restaurant. She is spending nearly $100,000 to move the cars. At one time, I had considered taking ownership, moving one to my property and the other two to Alger where they could become part of the Bellingham Society of Model Engineers. But the cost of moving them was too prohibitive.

By the end of the afternoon, only one car remained. It will be lifted onto a flatbed truck on Monday morning and taken to join the other two down in Burlington, WA. From there, they will be fitted onto specially made frames and loaded onto railroad flat cars for the cross-country trip to their new home in Pennsylvania.

Should Third-World Dictators Determine US Gun Policy

2009-10-05T11:36:00.001-07:00

I am not a political person. But this morning I received a phone call that really burned me up.

I could tell from the caller ID that the call was from the NRA, as in National Rifle Association. So I was intrigued.

The woman on the other end identified herself and stated that she was calling on behalf of the NRA as part of a national survey. Would I be willing to listen to a recorded statement from the president of the NRA and then answer one question. So I said, sure.

In the recording, the president of the NRA stated that the United Nations is currently meeting in secret behind closed doors to pass a treaty that will ban guns worldwide.

After the recording completed, the nice lady came back on the line and asked me the single question:

"Do you trust third world dictators and Hillary Clinton to set gun policy in the United States?"

I kid you not. What kind of stacked, stupid question is that?

First of all, if the UN meetings are such a secret, how does the NRA know about them? Second, when has the United States ever signed a UN treaty without approval of Congress? We never signed the Kyoto Accord. And even if there was such a treaty and the US did sign it, how would that ever trump the Second Amendment?

So, of course, you know what my answer was, right?

I said, "Sure. I trust them."

Brighton Beach Memoirs

2009-09-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

It's the beginning of another season of shows at the Bellingham Theatre Guild. The first show of the season is Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. And once again, I will be the official Guild photographer. Cast and production photos will be posted to my Flickr site.

The play is being directed by the wonderful Teri Grimes from Bellingham High School and the cast includes several of her students, including my daughter Clarice. There will be a premier VIP performance on Thursday, September 24 as a fund raiser for the BHS Drama Department. Tickets are $15 and proceeds go directly to support the drama department. The price includes a lucious desert buffet during intermission, with many of the deserts created by my wife Genny. Tickets are available through me, cast members, BHS, and at Village Books.

Hey Guys...I'm an Expert!

2009-09-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

I was recently tapped to be one of the experts on Autodesk's AutoCAD Exchange community website. It was an interesting experience. I had to fly down to Autodesk's San Francisco headquarters and spent a day in a small room with a film crew (cameraman, soundman, and a director) as well as my good friend Heidi Hewett.

The videos went live in August and from August 22 to 29, I was the resident online expert, fielding questions from AutoCAD users worldwide. I hope I was able to provide useful responses to the many questions that were posted.

Those questions, as well as the videos from our San Francisco session, are now archived for viewing on the AutoCAD Exchange site.

For my conversations with Heidi, go to the AutoCAD Exchange site and click on the link to "Hear the Difference."

Sad News About Vicki Cruse

2009-08-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

Sad news arrived today from Great Britain. Vicki Cruse, whom I had met out in the Black Rock Desert last month when I was there chronicling the efforts of Ed Shadle and his North American Eagle land speed record challenge, died while practicing for an air show to be held at the Silverstone race track.

I learned of her death when I received a phone call from Ray Meese, photo editor of the Ventura County Star newspaper. Ray had found several of my photos of Vicki from Black Rock and wanted permission to publish them in her hometown newspaper. The article went live online later that afternoon. The article also appeared in the print edition the next day. (Click here to view the article on the newspaper's website.)

Vicki had flown into the NAE base camp in the desert outside of Gerlach, Nevada on Tuesday, July 7, and stayed with the team until Thursday. She spent time during the week familiarizing herself with the North American Eagle vehicle, in anticipation of her driving the vehicle to set a new woman's land speed record.

Throughout the week, she also pitched in at every turn, even spending several hours helping to prepare lunch for the NAE team members and other visitors.

Her Edge 540 stunt plane was a beautiful thing to behold and before she left the desert, she put on a show for us. Vicki was meticulous in maintaining her plane. Unfortunately, she was flying a borrowed aircraft while in the UK and something went terribly wrong. She was unable to bail out and crashed when the plane suffered a mechanical problem.

It's a terrible loss on so many levels. Vicki was a wonderful person. She was completely at home with the NAE team and I know that everyone looked forward to having her join the team's efforts. She will be missed very much.

Flying High at Sea Fair

2009-08-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

I managed to get myself invited to a Sea Fair party. My sister Lori had recently been in touch with an old friend from summer camp when she was around 14. He now lives in Seattle. And obviously, his home overlooking Lake Washington was a fantastic vantage point to watch all the action.

Amazingly, this is the first time I've ever attended Sea Fair. Twenty-two years in the Pacific Northwest and this was the first.

We also had a perfect vantage point to see all of the people who were trying to cross Lake Washington when the I-90 floating bridge was closed. They obviously made the best of the situation. The were allowed to venture a short distance out onto the bridge to watch. There was a similar crowd across the lake on the east side of the bridge.

Many of the Blue Angel's passes ended up going right over our heads. Not bad.

The airshow was fantastic. This was certainly not the first time I've ever seen the Blue Angels perform, but it was one of the best views I've ever had. Quite a sight to see them out over Lake Washington, with Mount Rainer and the city of Bellevue in the distance.

The unlimited hydroplane races weren't bad either, although I would have liked to have had a closer spot from which to watch those. Maybe next year. Hydroplane racing on Lake Washington factors into my book project, so I may just have to get a much closer, personal look at these amazing machines before too much more time passes.

I've got a few more really great photos of the day's events on my Flickr site.

Black Rock Desert - Day 4

2009-07-10T02:23:00.000-07:00

It's the final day of this week of testing of the North American Eagle here in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. The goal for today is to try to get the vehicle up to 500mph. The team also plans to do its first turn-around. Everyone is hopeful. The stretch of desert that the Eagle is going to run on today is much harder than where they ran the first two days.

It takes more than an hour to tow the vehicle from the hanger at the 3 mile mark out to the new start line at the 12 mile mark. Once it finally gets there, I've got to get into at least one photo.

The first run is absolutely flawless. Ed gets the Eagle up into the mid 300mph range. Everything looks great. The only issues are that the desert is still a bit soft, the nitrogen charge in the front suspension is gone, so the vehicle is riding on the front springs only, and as a result the dust deflectors below the vehicle that help prevent dust from being sucked back into the intake ports have begun to come apart. There's some initial talk about just practicing turning the vehicle for a return run, but as the wind dies down, Ed decides to do it for real.

I loan a team member my video camera to record the entire turn around operation. In a real record attempt, the rules say that the vehicle must make a return run and pass back through the 1 mile timing strip within 60 minutes. It takes less than 40 minutes to turn the vehicle and get it prepped and ready to make its return run.

This time, Ed plans to go to after burners at the 2 mile mark, so Keith Zanghi and I go down to the 2 mile mark to watch. It's amazing how quickly the flare goes up, letting all workers and spectators know that the vehicle is ready to roll.

As we watch at the 2 mile mark, the Eagle flies past, but we see no after burner. This run looks to be about the same speed as the first run.

In reviewing this specific photo of mine afterward, the engine specialists are sure of what happened. Ed did indeed try to kick in the after burners. But they did not ignite. You can clearly see the cloud of fuel just beyond the tail cone in this image. It has not ignited. The question becomes, why not? What kept the afterburner from kicking in?

After the second run, Vicky Cruse climbs aboard and goes through the procedures for starting up the big jet engine. Once that's done, we head back to the base camp. It takes another hour before the vehicle makes it back to camp. In the meantime, we all have lunch and then, around 3pm, Vicky has to leave. She buckles in and the puts on an air show for us all before she heads back to California.

Her Edge 540 is truly an amazing plane, and we see why she was the 2007 US World Champion aerobatic pilot and remains one of the top aerobatic pilots in the world.

To complete the day of testing and training, Per Wimmer gets strapped into the Eagle, goes through the startup procedures, and then goes through an actual power-up. Afterwards, he reports that it was quite an experience.

I've got lots more to write about this week. I've also got lots of video. But the connection from out here in the desert is not nearly as fast as what I have at home, so I'll be posting more once I return and give my car a very well deserved trip through the car wash.

Black Rock Desert - Day 3

2009-07-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

Day 3 out here on the Black Rock Desert is much calmer. There's almost no wind, at least compared to yesterday. But the playa hasn't gotten any firmer.

In spite of plans to get an early start, it's still mid-morning before they tow the vehicle out onto the test track. The plan for today is to run the Eagle on the desert road that has been used by cars that head out across the desert. Yes, there are actually roads out here.

There are some initial problems with the huffer cart used to start up the jet engine, but after a brief delay, that gets resolved and the team is ready to go.

In spite of the road being much firmer, there is still a lot of concern. It may be firmer, but there's a definite crown to the road and ruts where the automobile tires have worn into the playa. The concern is that the Eagle, with its centered aluminum wheel at the nose and the large aluminum wheels at the rear won't ride well on that surface.

I drive down range about 3/4-mile and watch the startup through my binoculars. But I don't really need the optical assistance. Even from this distance, I can clearly hear when the engine has started. It's loud and thrilling.

Within seconds the vehicle rockets past, but it's pretty clear that this run is not much faster than yesterday. It also turns out to be much shorter. Ed reports that it was indeed difficult to keep the vehicle centered on the road and he shuts things down before he reaches the 2.5 mile mark. But the test is a success. The high-speed parachute has deployed and a pair of Intel solid state hard drives are ejected from the moving vehicle and successfully recovered, and of course, they still work.

The entire team gathers for a photo at the end of the run. Then, after lunch, I go with Ed and several team members to a place about 12 miles north of the base camp, to scout for a more solid stretch of desert to do some faster tests. It's pretty cool to drive my Subaru at nearly 100mph across the desert. And sure enough, just more than 12 miles north of the base camp we find a stretch of desert that is very flat and very hard. I mark the northern and southern ends using my GPS and we head back to the base camp for a meeting. After a brief discussion, the team decides to move tomorrow's tests to the new location. I drive out to the new site a second time along with another test vehicle, this time retrieving the flags marking the previous course and setting them out on the new 4.25 mile course. Then we head back to base camp.

Once back at the base, they tow the vehicle out onto the playa away from the shelter for a photo op. A photographer from National Geographic Adventure magazine is here to take photos for an article that will appear in that magazine later this year.

I tag along to take some photos of my own. It's quite a lengthy process, but I do get some great shots of the vehicle and Ed. Ed's got his own paparazzi. Now he knows what it feels like to be a super model.

One of the most fascinating things about this trip is the variety of people who are showing up. Today's most prominent new arrival is Per Wimmer, who has flown in from Denmark along with a cameraman. Last fall, Per did a tandem skydive over Mount Everest. He also plans to be the first Dane in space, and has already reserved seats on three commercial space flights. He may also be a candidate to pilot the North American Eagle.

Stay tuned for more. The plan for Thursday is to do the first run around 8am, then turn the vehicle as quickly as possible and do a second run within 60 minutes. This will be an excellent test. Higher speeds are definitely expected, and the team will get some very useful practice, since in order to break the Land Speed Record, they need to complete two runs, one in each direction, in less than one hour.

Black Rock Desert - Day 2

2009-07-07T22:13:00.000-07:00

It's day two out here on the playa in the Black Rock Desert.

Things did not start off early again this morning. There was still a lot to do to prepare the Eagle for its first run. I watched, and later helped John Winchester pack the high speed parachute that would be used to slow the vehicle on a speed run.

As John was finishing his work, a small plane buzzed the base camp and then did some nifty maneuvers around the edge of the desert.

This turned out to be none other than Vicki Cruse, the 2007 US National Aerobatic Champion. She's here to see the North American Eagle and may actually make a run in the vehicle later this week. It turns out that the women's land speed record is a rather sedate 318 miles per hour. So she could actually set a new record in the Eagle if conditions permit.

Finally, after hours of preparation, they're finally ready to fire up the jet engine for the first time this week. They tow the vehicle out from its protective structure, position it out on the playa, and hook up the auxiliary power unit, or huffer cart, used to start the engine.

Ed goes through some last minute instructions, first with his direct support team, and then with all of the ground personnel, those of us out here working with the team or covering the event, and the collection of spectators. Although this first run will be at low speed, safety is still of utmost importance. People need to know what to do if the vehicle veers off course, there's a fire, or some other unexpected event.

Finally, Ed climbs aboard and gets buckled in.

The team goes through the final check list. It turns out that there are several problems at start up. First, during an initial engine start, the vehicle fails to switch over to the on board generator when the ground power is removed. Then, when it's time to start up for the actual run, the engine fails to start on the first two attempts. Then, on the third attempt, the low speed parachute canister opens and part of the chute comes out. The team initially calls for an engine shut down, but there's already a fire in the engine due to fuel pooling from the first two unsuccessful starts, so they continue to spool the engine up and then, once it's running, simply remove the parachute, which won't be needed for this run anyway.

I get to ride in one of the chase vehicles, and shoot video from the rear seat. I won't get to edit that video and post it until after I return from this trip (assuming the video camera survives the dust).

Speaking of surviving the dust, by the time the vehicle is returned to the shelter, the wind is howling at around 40mph. Everything is coated in a layer of tan dust. My cameras are a mess. My car is no longer green. I actually am a bit concerned that all of my photographic gear will make it through the week. Its all going to get a thorough cleaning tonight, and then I'm going to bed. The plan is to do another run early tomorrow morning, before the wind picks up.

Black Rock Desert - Day 1

2009-07-06T23:29:00.001-07:00

After my 12-hour drive, I'm out here today for the first of four days in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno, Nevada with the team from North American Eagle Racing. They're doing a series of tests this week of the vehicle that they hope to drive next summer to a new Land Speed Record of 800mph.

The team started working around 5am. I admit to not making my way out onto the playa until around 9am. By the time I got there, the metal structure for the temporary structure to protect the vehicle had already been assembled.

But there was still plenty to do. Although the temperature is only in the 80s (much cooler than the 110-degrees that it often reaches this time of year) the wind blew pretty constantly today at around 25mph. This made putting up the canvas cover quite a chore.

Once the canvas was partially secured, I left with team member Steve Wallace to help erect one of several towers with ethernet routers. These are placed every 2 miles along the runway that has been cleared for the test runs.

Once the structure was completely secure, it was time to unload the vehicle.

This too was quite an undertaking. Once the vehicle was out of its trailer, team members removed the rubber travel wheels and attached the big aluminum wheels that will actually be used for the text runs.

It was after 7pm before this was complete. Time to drive back into town, because the kitchen at Bruno's closes at 8pm.

If all goes well, the first test run will be tomorrow morning. Stay tuned.

4th of July in Bellingham

2009-07-04T23:55:00.000-07:00

It's the 4th of July again here in Bellingham. But this year, we've got some of the nicest weather ever.

I just thought I'd share a few photos from the Blast Over the Bay.

Emma and I went down and spent a very enjoyable day listening to live music and then enjoyed a 30-minute fireworks display.

I even tried a few creative shots this year. I must say, my first attempts don't even come close to the beauty of Bob Schulte's photos.

I'll try again next year.

I'm off in the morning on my 12 hour drive to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.

Where Have I Been? Where Am I Going?

2009-07-04T10:08:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I have been conspicuously absent since May 4.

There are several reasons for that. One is that I have been totally immersed in creating training videos for CADLearning for their AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, and Revit Architecture courseware.

The second is that I've been trying to find either a job or some consulting work.

And the third is that we suffered a huge tragedy. On May 20, my son's fiancee was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Lt. Roslyn Schulte was three months into a six-month deployment as an Air Force intelligence officer, working with the Afghani military, when the vehicle she was driving was hit by an IED. Genny and I flew to St. Louis for the funeral, which was held on Memorial Day. We stayed for several days afterwards to visit with the Schulte family and support my son, and then Bruce came back to the Pacific Northwest for a while.

I've been planning to write a tribute to Roz, and will do so once I get back from my next trip.

And as for that trip, I leave tomorrow morning to drive to Gerlach, NV. I'll be out in the Black Rock Desert all week with the team from North American Eagle as they do a series of tests of the vehicle they hope next year will break the Land Speed Record.

Stay tuned for more on this.

North American Eagle Article

2009-05-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

As mentioned last week, I've written an article for Desktop Engineering magazine on Ed Shadle and the team at North American Eagle. This intrepid group hopes to break the land speed record, currently held by a British team.

I have posted a version of the article that was distributed at the COE conference recently held in Seattle. The actual article will appear in an upcoming issue of Desktop Engineering. This is one of the most interesting topics that I've ever had the pleasure of covering, and I plan to write more about the North American Eagle team as their land speed record attempt progresses.

The $780 Cake

2009-05-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

This one is a bit of a departure from my usual postings, but I was so proud of my wife Genny that I had to write something about this.

Last night was the 25th Anniversary celebration for the Whatcom Land Trust, an organization that has done a fantastic job of preserving the nature of Whatcom County, Washington. As part of that event, they held an auction. And as part of that, they auctioned off desserts at the end of the dinner.

My wife's Almond Praline Cake with mascarpone frosting and chocolate bark sold for $780, the top dessert of the evening.

North American Eagle at COE

2009-04-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

I just finished writing an article about Ed Shadle and the team at North American Eagle. NAE is building a vehicle that they hope will break the current land speed record held by the ThrustSSC. Rather than building a vehicle from the ground up, Ed's team has converted an F-104 Starfighter jet into a land-based vehicle that they hope will surpass the current record of 763mph set in 1997. If all goes according to plan, Shadle will attempt to reach 800mph on July 4, 2010.

The article will soon appear in Desktop Engineering magazine. But advance copies of the article were distributed on Wednesday in Seattle when three members of the NAE team—Ed Shadle, Keith Zanghi, and Steve Wallace—spoke at the COE conference.

After their presentation, I spent some time with them in the AMD/ATI booth at the conference where Lenovo's newly launched ThinkStation S20, D20 were showcased along with the ThinkPad W500 running CATIA and the Eagle models. Also on display was a scale model of the Eagle and the front wheel that was designed on Lenovo ThinkStation using CATIA. Here I am on the right along with the NAE team and Zee Effendi from Lenovo.

I'll let you know as soon as the article is available online. In the meantime, here's a photo of the North American Eagle vehicle taken last summer in the desert during one of the test runs.

A Monsterous Time in LA

2009-03-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

This week I'm in Los Angeles attending a press event. I can't tell you the details of the event until Monday. What I can tell you at present is that I'm staying at the beautiful Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

The hotel is at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive and was featured in the movie "Pretty Woman."

On Thursday evening, I had the rare opportunity to visit DreamWorks Studios, where I got to meet with several of the people behind the studio's new animated feature "Monsters vs. Aliens."

"Monsters vs. Aliens" required more than 40 million computing hours to make - more than eight times as many as the original "Shrek" and nearly double what it took to create "Kung Fu Panda."

I got to see the film last night in 3D in a phenomenal theater on the DreamWorks lot. The film opened today on 7,000 screens in North America. But only 2,000 of those screens are equipped with the nearly $100,000 in equipment needed to show the film in 3D ($75,000 to convert to digital projection plus $25,000 more for the RealD system used by approximately 90% of the 3D-capable theaters in the U.S.).

Starting with this film, DreamWorks will make all of its movies natively in 3D. Technology from HP powered the tremendous computing power needed to render the movie. "Monsters vs. Aliens" required nearly 100 terabytes of disk storage and would have taken more than 1,000 years to render on a single workstation.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film, although in terms of movies, it was not in the same class as several of the Pixar features, such as "Wall-E", "Finding Nemo", or "The Incredibles". "Monsters vs. Aliens" came across more as a collection of scenes with some good jokes. Still very entertaining, but not one of those films destined to end up on a must-see list. Except for the 3D. If you're going to see this movie, definitely seek out one of those 2,000 theaters showing it in 3D.

World Speed Skating - Day 4

2009-03-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

It's the fourth and final day of the ISU World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships at the new Richmond Olympic Oval just outside of Vancouver, BC. This will be the site of the long-track speed skating at next year's 2010 Winter Games.

Today featured the 500 meter sprint events for both the men and the women. This consisted of two heats each, first the women and then the men, with the winner having the lowest combined time for the two heats.

With the athletes going all out, the day wasn't without mishap. A number of skaters fell, including Paulina Wallin of Sweden, who crashed just a few meters from the start of her second heat.

The ladies' event was won by Jenny Wolf of Germany, with a combined time of 75.750 seconds.

Second was Beixing Wang of China with a combined time of 75.870, followed by Sang-Hwa Lee of Korea at 76.390.

The Korean and Chinese men also dominated the men's sprints. Although Tucker Fredericks of the USA had the third fastest time in the second heat, Korean's Kang-Seok Lee and Kyou-Hyuk Lee skated head-to-head in the final pairing of the second heat, after finishing 1 and 2 in the first. They managed to hold on to first and second place, finishing with combined times of 69.730 and 69.920, respectively.

The bronze medal was won by Fengtong Yu of China. With the third fastest time in the first heat and second fastest of the second, he finished with a combined time of 69.970.

Attention then turned to the team pursuit competition. A recent addition to the World Cup schedule, the team pursuit pits two teams of three skaters in a race against the clock. The teams start on opposite sides of the ice, with both teams skating in the inner lane. The women skate six laps, the men eight, with the time recorded when the third skater on the team crosses the finish. It's a high-speed ballet, with the three skaters trying to be as aerodynamic as possible.

Once again, the Canadian women proved their dominence. Skating against Poland, the team of Christine Nesbitt, Kristina Groves, and Brittany Schussler finished the six lap race in 2 minutes 58.25 seconds. The Dutch team was second in 3:02.02 and Japan third in 3:04.06.

The men's race provided an exciting finale for the day. The USA team, which had never won a team pursuit medal at any Olympic or world championship event was paired in the second heat against the Dutch team (seen here). The Netherlands has won gold in every world single distances championship team pursuit ever staged. The strong Italian team was matched up against Canada in the final heat of the day.

In the end, the Dutch team prevailed, capturing the gold with a race-winning time of 3:41.26. Sweden took the silver medal at 3:45.73. But the USA team of Trevor Marsicano, Brian Hansen, and Ryan Bedford captured the bronze with a time of 3 minutes 46.07 seconds.

All told, the weekend proved to be a tremendous success, both as a try-out of the new Richmond Olympic Oval, and for the Canadian and USA teams. Canada and the Netherlands captured the most medals, at 8 each. The USA was second with six, including gold, silver, and two bronze medals won by Trevor Marsicano. For Canada, it was the women who dominated, with six medals while all six USA medals were won by the men.

Other medal winners included Germany and Korea with 3 each, Czech Repulic, Norway, and China each with 2, and Japan and Sweden each winning 1 medal. A total of 21 countries were represented.

And of course, I've got many more photos from today's exciting action. You can see them on my Flickr site.

World Speed Skating Championships - Day 3

2009-03-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday, Day 3 of the ISU World Single Distance Speed Skating Championship at the new Richmond Olympic Oval.

The weekend brought a sellout crowd, including a huge Dutch contingent. Today marks the running of the long distance events, the men's 10,000 meter and the women's 5000 meter.

The Canadian women's continue to do incredibly well on their new home ice, with Christine Nesbitt capturing the gold with a time of 1:16.28 in the Women's 1000 meter.

Then, the action moved to the men's 10,000 meter, the longest event of the weekend. While it may be the national sport of the Netherlands, eight heats of more than 25 laps each did tax the crowd a bit. There's much more strategy to this race, with the coaches shouting instructions to their skaters as they change lanes midway through each lap.

The 10,000 meter is dominated by skaters from the Netherlands and Norway. Here, Sven Kramer of the Netherlands maintains a grueling pace midway through the race. He eventually won with a time of 12:55.32.

He was paired with Norwegian Havard Bokko, who eventually came in second with a time of 13:03.95. Bob de Jong (shown here) from the Netherlands was third in a time of 13:13.16 just edging out fellow Dutchman Carl Verheijen at 13:13.30.

Like I said, it wasn't at all surprising to find two Dutchmen, Sven Kramer (gold) and Bob de Jong (bronze) and Norwegian Havard Bokko on the podium.

The big Dutch crowd loved it, of course.

The final event of the long afternoon was the Women's 5000 meter, the longest women's event. Once again, the Canadia women did very well, with crowd favorite Clara Hughes, skating in heat 5, finishing with a time of 7:00.54, which proved good enough for a silver medal. Seeing a skater put up such a fast time in an early heat is always exciting, because the heats are set up with the faster skaters in the later heats.

Controversy once again reared its head during the women's races, but this time the controversy did not involve a Canadian skater. Masako Hozumi of Japan, circling the ice on the inner lane after completing her 5000 meter heat, drifted into lane one and collided with Czech skater Martina Sablikova who was lining up for the next heat.

Happily, Sablikova was not hurt and after a delay and repair of the ice, was able to skate her heat again anadian Kristina Groves. Groves finished in 7:02.91, which was good enough for the bronze.

But Sablikova, coming back from her mishap before the start, put up an incredible time of 6:57.84, winning the gold in the Women's 5000 meter.

So once again, a pair of Canadian women end up on the podium flanking a European skater.

Tomorrow is the final day of the ISU World Single Distance Speed Skating Championship. I'll be back to cover the men's and women's 500 meter and the men's and women's team pursuit.

And of course, you can find more photos from today's event on my Flickr site.

World Speed Skating Championships - Day 2

2009-03-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

Friday, day 2 of the ISU World Single Distance World Speed Skating Championship at the new Richmond Olympic Oval proved as exciting as day 1, and again both the U.S. and Canadian men and Canadian women did very well. But once again, the Canadian women ended up in minor controversy that denied them a gold medal.

The first event of the day was the men's 1000 meter. Trevor Marsicano, starting on the inside in heat 7 against Canadian Francois Olivier Roberge moved into first place with a time of 1:08.96.

He then had to wait through five more heats to see if his time would hold. Canadian Denny Morrison, skating in the second to last heat against Stefan Groothuis of the Netherlands challenged, but his time of 1:09.00 only moved him into second.

American Shani Davis, coming off his win on Thursday in the 1500m, turned in a time of 1:09.02, which earned him the bronze.

With an all U.S./Canada podium, the near-sellout crowd in the beautiful new speed slating facility was primed for a potential medals sweep by a strong Canadian women's team in the ladies 1500m.

This proved to be an exciting race, with many of the women closely matched in the early heats.

And before the top-ranked Canadian women got to skate, they watched as Anni Friesinger of Germany, skating in heat 8, set the pace with a 1:58.66.

Then came the Dutch duo of Ireen Wust and Laurine van Riessen, skating in heat 9. Wust moved into second position with a 1:58.83.

Canadian Shannon Rempel, skating in heat 11 against Daniela Anschutz Thoms of Germany, just missed getting under 2 minutes, while Thoms moved into third position.

And then came the final heat, pitting Canadian Christine Nesbitt against her teammate Kristina Groves.

The two skated virtually side-by-side the entire race, but at the finish, it was Kristina Groves winning with a time of 1:57.75, with Nesbitt fourth in a time of 1:58.88.

Unfortunately, Groves victory was short-lived. She had touched one of the red pucks marking the separation between lanes, and was disqualified. This proved to be somewhat controversial, because in a new move, the pucks were actually set several inches inside the actual lane separation line.

With Groves removed, the gold medal went to Anni Friesinger of Germany, with Ireen Wust of the Netherlands second and Christine Nesbitt of Canada third.

The final race of the day was the men's 5000 meter.

In an event dominated by Dutch skaters, American Trevor Marsicano, skating in heat 10 against Italian Enrico Fabris, turned in a 6:20.02, which moved him into first place.

He then watched as first Havard Bokko of Norway, skating against Bob de Jong of the Netherlands in heat 11, moved into first place with a time of 6:18.02. And then Sven Kramer of the Netherlands, skating in the final heat of the day against teammate Carl Verheijen, improved on that by nearly 2 seconds, with a winning time of 6:16.20.

In the end, Marsicano was able to hold on for a bronze.

But his bronze medal in the 5000 meter now rounds out his gold earlier in the 1000, and his silver medal in yesterday's 1500. And American Shani Davis has a gold and a bronze. Neither skater will be on the ice on Saturday as competition heads into the long distance events.

You can find more photos from today's action on my Flickr site.

2009 World Speed Skating Championships - Day 1

2009-03-12T23:24:00.000-07:00

I spent the afternoon up in Richmond, BC just outside of Vancouver for the first of four days of competition at the ISU World Single Distance Speed Skating Champtionships, being held at the beautiful new Richmond Olympic Oval.

This will be the site of the long track speed skating at next year's 2010 Winter Olympics. This year, it's getting a tryout as the site for the world championships. It's an absolutely gorgeous facility and the event has been incredibly well organized so far.

American Shani Davis (shown here) won the Men's 1500m this afternoon with a time of 1:46.17. American Trevor Marsicano was second (1:46.30), and Canadian Denny Morrison was third (1:47.05).

The second event of the day was the women's 3000m, which was 7.5 laps of the 400m track. There was lots of action in this race, including this passing action in heat 5 between Catherine Raney Norman (USA) and Lucille Opitz (GER).

The 3000m was won by Dutch veteran Renate Groenewold, who will retire after next year's Winter Games. She finished in a time of 4:05.43 Martina Sablikova of (CZE) was second.

Kristina Groves (shown here) of Canada was third (4:06.45).

I'll be back for day two tomorrow.

You can find more photos from today's action on my Flickr site.

First Look: AutoCAD 2010 Parametric Design

2009-03-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

One of the most impressive new features in AutoCAD 2010 is the new parametric design capability. This new set of tools lets you establish geometric and dimensional relationships between objects. Geometric constraints are similar to object snaps, but instead of just snapping to objects, they cause objects to retain the relationships you establish. So for example, two lines will remain parallel.

You can also set the dimensional properties of objects. Once dimensional constraints are established, you can change the size of objects by changing the dimensional constraint values.

To show you how easy and intuitive these new tools are to use, here's a short video showing them in action.

I hope you agree that this is a fantastic new capability in AutoCAD 2010, well worth the upgrade.

I welcome your comments. And keep watching for more about the new release.

How Do You Spell NERD?

2009-02-28T11:56:00.000-08:00

The winter weeks are just flying by. I spent most of this week working on trying to find work. While it seems like just a few days ago, it's actually been three weeks since Autodesk unveiled AutoCAD 2010 at their press event in San Francisco. Fellow blogger and Backstage Pass attendeed Steve Johnson recently posted a video he created at that event in which he interviewed the other attendees (myself included).

The video is available on Steve's blog (blog nauseam). And while I highly recommend his blog, as well as those of the other attendees, rather than send you over there, I've included the video here for your enjoyment.

Awesome 4 Man Bobsleigh at Whistler

2009-02-08T11:32:00.000-08:00

After the quick trip to San Francisco, I flew back to Bellingham and on Saturday, Genny and I drove up to Whistler, BC to watch the 4 Man Bobsleigh World Cup. The Whistler Sliding Center will be the site of the 2010 Olympic bobsleigh, skelton, and luge events and while I hope to be back next year for some of that action, the World Cup afforded a much better chance to get really up close. Also, the tickets for the event (which was sold out...more on that in a minute) were only $5 compared to $45 or more for the Olympics.

The drive up was effortless, taking just 3 hours even though we had to stop off in Vancouver to pick up our tickets. In my typical fashion, I had neglected to purchase tickets in advance. So on Friday night, I posted a "Tickets Wanted" ad on Craig's List and got an immediate response from Leoni Milano, an Aussie who had recently moved to Vancouver. She had purchased tickets for both the bobsleigh and the snowboard World Cup events (which were also on Saturday at Cypress Bowl in North Vancouver). She decided to go to the snowboard and so was very happy to sell me her tickets. My sincere thanks.

We were able to park in Blackcomb lot 8, which happened to also be the staging area for the competitors, so we literally parked right next to the bobsled shipping containers and got to see the competitors before the event. I doubt spectators will have anything near this level of access during the Olympics, another reason why the World Cup events are so incredibly cool.

We also got a good look at what powers this bobsled team.

From where we parked, it was just a short walk to the entry of venue, the beautiful new Whistler Sliding Center. The Sliding Center has been constructed in the valley between Whistler and Blackcomb, just above the Blackcomb Base 2 area, near the tubing hill. It's nearly hidden from the ski area itself, but easily accessible from the village. And I must say, the organization at this event was incredible. It was the exact opposite of what we experienced a few weeks ago at the World Cup Ski Jump event. There were more than 100 volunteers there to assist spectators, telling them how to get around the venue and where the best places were from which to watch. And with the exception of the start and finish areas, the crowds were small enough that we were able to get right up to the edge of the track.

Since we arrived nearly an hour before the start of the first heat, we made the climb from the entry point (at the bottom of the track) to the starting area, a climb of 152 meters (approx. 500 feet) over a length of 1,450 meters (just over 4750 feet, or 7/8 of a mile). The track has 16 corners and a maximum slope (at corner 2) of 20%. It is the newest facility of its kind in the world and the fastest. (Visit the Whistler Sliding Center website for more info.) The first team of the day, Latvia 1, immediately set a new track record and a new bobsled speed record of more than 153kn/hr.

We watched from the first few teams of the first heat from the starting area. The neat thing about watching from here is that you really get to see the teams up close, you can feel the adrenaline at the start, and the sleds aren't moving fast yet, so you can actually see everything.

Once the sleds get moving, it's tough to get a perfect photo, as they get up to speeds of 90 miles per hour or more.

As the event progressed, we made our way back down the course. It was much easier going down than our initial hurried climb up to the top. The closer we got to the bottom, the more difficult it became to photograph the sleds.

The track announcer would come on the PA and let the spectators know that a sled was on the track. Then I'd just have to listen for the sound of the approaching sled and time my shot.

Here's a short video that will give you an idea of just how fast these things were moving.

The challenge of photographing bobsleigh is considerably greater than auto racing, made more so by the fact that you only get one shot. In most cases, you can only see a short segment of the track before it reverses direction and the sled gets hidden behind the banking of the next turn.

I had to pretty much listen for the approaching sled, focus on a spot on the track, and then pray that I was quick enough on the shutter.

Sometimes I was...

And at other times, even a shot that didn't turn out how I planned ended up conveying much more about the sheer speed of this sport.

A total of 22 teams competed in the first heat. The Latvia 2 sled flipped over in turn 11, ending up with a slow time (even if the sled flips, it still gets a time if it crosses the finish line). The next slowest sled, the team from Korea, was also eliminated, leaving 20 teams to compete in the second heat. Since they started the second heat in reverse order, the fastest teams (Russia 1, USA 1, and Latvia 1) were the last to go, the winner being the team with the fastest combined time from heats one and two.

As we watched, it seemed that each run got faster and faster, with a new leader each time. A huge cheer went up when the Canada 1 sled moved into first place and the USA 2 sled, the next to go, failed to overtake it by a mere 0.03 seconds.

By this time, it was well after dark, with the track illumination providing the only light. Genny and I were at the bottom of the track. I could watch and photograph the final turn and Genny positioned herself in the runout area beyond the finish line where the brakes from the sleds threw up a tremendous shower of ice.

With just two sleds left to compete, the USA 1 sled driven by Steven Holcomb, moved into first place with a second heat time of 50.99 seconds, a new record. (Yes, you read that right! It takes less than a minute from start to finish. That's 94.8702 miles per hour. I told you these things were fast.)

But there was still one sled left, the Latvia 1 sled driven by Janis Minins. This sled had been the fastest in the first heat with a time of 51.20. As we stood watching and hoping for a USA victory, Minins drove his sled to a new record of 50.97 seconds, beating the USA 1 sled by a mere 0.02 seconds, for a total time of 1:42.17, just 0.06 seconds faster than the combined USA1 time.

Rather than get stuck in the crowd leaving at the end of the event, Genny and I stayed for the medal awards ceremony. Unfortunately, this proved to be about a 20 minute wait as they got things organized. During the lull, I got interviewed by the local TV/track announcer. I have no idea where this might have aired. (If I find a link to it online, I'll add it to this posting.)

Once the awards ceremony actually got underway, it was pretty cool. And since most of the spectators had already left, we were as close as the public could get. Here's the USA1 team with its medals.

Before the playing of the Latvian national anthem, they replayed the team's final heat on the big screen. The final results were Gold: LAT1 Minins (1:42.17), Silver: USA1 Holcomb (1:42.23), Bronze: RUS1 Zubkov (1:42.67).

Back in the parking area, we watched as the teams packed their sleds back into the shipping containers.

Again, the access to the competitors was amazing. Here's one of the Team USA pushers.

It was an incredible experience. I can only imagine how much more exciting the Olympics will be next year. After leaving the sliding center, Genny and I had dinner in the Whistler Village and then drove home in just over 2.5 hours (no traffic and no line at the border). It was a great day.

I may add more to this posting, so check back. You can also view additional photos on my Flickr site, where you can also view my 4 Man Bobsleigh photos as a slideshow.

AutoCAD 2010 Rollout - Behind the Scenes

2009-02-05T16:45:00.000-08:00

I'm getting ready to leave San Francisco to fly back to Bellingham. Before I do, I thought you might be interested in some of what went on behind the scenes at today's AutoCAD 2010 rollout.
This is what most people saw today when they logged into the webcast.

Here's what it actually looked like as the video crew turned Autodesk's offices into a total TV studio.

After the actual rollout webcast, we broke off into several one-on-one interviews. These will air over the next several weeks.

We also got to meet with many members of the AutoCAD development team who we don't often get to see. Pictured here are (from left to right): Yan Schober (PDF enhancements and icons, formerly worked on Autodesk Impression), Melissa Dawe (usability studies), Shekhar Kaedekar (3D printing, customization, and migration), Matt Stein (ribbon bar and application menu changes), and Jon Page (enhancements for DWG and manager of the development group).

And finally, here's our group of illustrious bloggers.

Watch this space over the next days and weeks as I provide detailed looks at many of the new features in AutoCAD 2010.

AutoCAD 2010 Revealed

2009-02-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

If you've been following this blog for the past day, you know that I am currently in San Francisco at the AutoCAD 2010 roll-out. There are about a dozen bloggers here at Autodesk's Gallery space in downtown San Francisco. We've spent the morning talking about the things we like (and those we dislike) in the new software.
The image in the splash screen (shown here) is from a model created by Guillermo Melantoni, one of the developers who was the lead on the new 3D features in AutoCAD 2010. This model was made possible thanks to the new free form tools in AutoCAD 2010.

There are a host of new features in this release, and I'll cover them in detail over the next few days. One of the most exciting are the new parametric design tools. These new capabilities (which are included in AutoCAD but not in AutoCAD LT) let you quickly sketch geometry and then apply constraints. For example, in this short video, you can see four lines. After sketching these lines, I apply several constraints, including parallel constraints to align the opposite lines, coincident constraints to make sure that the lines share endpoints, a perpendicular constraint to force the parallelogram to become a rectangle, and finally, a horizontal constraint to align the base of the rectangle.

There are lots of other constraints that you can apply. Notice that as I apply each constraint, AutoCAD displays a small glyph. I can remove constraints by selecting these glyphs and deleting them. You can also add dimensional constraints.

(I appologize for the background audio and the lack of narration. I'll update this posting later with a complete narration and will also add more videos showing additional capabilities.)

Here's a quick list of new features as well as a few key points:

Parametric design
Free form 3D modeling
PDF enhancements (better PDF output as well as the ability to include a PDF file as an underlay)
3D Printing (already available as a Bonus Pack for subscription customers)

AutoCAD 2010 uses a new DWG file format. So customers who need to exchange drawings with users of older versions of AutoCAD will need to save back to those earlier versions.

There is also improved interoperability between AutoCAD and other Autodesk vertical products. The intent is to enable customers to be able to use AutoCAD as a frontend to products like Revit and Inventor and also to be able to use it as a documentation back end to produce final documentation of projects done in those vertical products.

The Show is About to Start

2009-02-05T11:58:00.000-08:00

I can't write anything yet about the new features in AutoCAD 2010, but I am here at Autodesk's Gallery in downtown San Francisco where the 2010 product rollout webcast is about to begin.

They have spent the morning converting the gallery space into a television studio and have already pre-recorded a few presentations, including this one with Heidi Hewett and Eric Stover while we were eating lunch.
Stay tuned for more reports from today's event.

AutoCAD 2010 Backstage Pass

2009-02-04T13:44:00.001-08:00

I am currently enroute to San Francisco where I'll be attending what is being billed as the "AutoCAD 2010 Backstage Pass" event on Thursday, February 5. This will give me a front row seat for the official launch of AutoCAD 2010.

At 5pm Pacific time tomrrow, I'll be able to start writing about this exciting new release of AutoCAD.

If you're interested in watching the festivities, you can tune in to the webcast by following this link.

Stay tuned.

2009-01-27T22:16:00.000-08:00

Now that I've written about the World Cup Ski Jump competition and the Fire & Ice show, it's time to write about the skiing.

With out a doubt, Whistler/Blackcomb is my absolute favorite place to ski. We've been coming here since 1987, when it was still two separate mountains. Usually at this time of year, the weather is pretty snowy, but this winter has been an anomoly. Whistler hasn't had new snow in several weeks. But the skiing is still pretty good.

One of the high points of this year's trip has been riding the new Peak to Peak lift, which connects the Rendezvous lodge at the top of Blackcomb with the Roundhouse lodge at the top of Whistler. This gondola sets all sorts of records, including the longest span between towers, at 1.8 miles.

Here's Brian, my son Bruce, and Mike on Monday on our morning trip across from Blackcomb to Whistler. Our condo is on Blackcomb, so after a few runs on Blackcomb we took the Peak to Peak over to the Whistler side.

I was a bit skeptical when I first heard that Interwest was going to build this thing, but we've ridden it everyday and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a great way to quickly get from one mountain to the other. Before this lift opened in December, you had to ski all the way down to the village and then take a long lift up on the other mountain. Now you can get from one mountain to the other in 12 minutes.

You also get a fantastic and dramatic view on the ride over.

While we certainly could use more snow, it's nice to ski in January at Whistler with bright blue skies. Usually it snows nearly everyday in January at Whistler.

There's also been very little wind, which has made skiing up in the high alpine quite nice. The high pressure center that has been sitting off the coast has caused a significant inversion layer. So it's actually been warmer at the top of the mountain than in the valley.

So we've had bright, crisp mornings skiing the 7th Heaven area on Blackcomb.

Don't Bruce and I look like we're having a great time. Looks aren't deceiving. I really look forward to this trip each year, skiing with my son and several of his pilot friends.

After several runs in 7th Heaven, we take the T-bar up to the top of the glacier, climb 100 yeards up above the lift, and then drop down into Whistler Bowl, which is absolutely incredible. In spite of the lack of snow, the conditions out here are still pretty remarkable, as you can see in this panorama.

Unfortunately, our skiing took a bit of a bad turn on Tuesday morning. On our first warmup run of the day, with the first fresh snow since we arrived last Wednesday, Bruce hit some ice and fell, twisting his left knee significantly as he went down. He had to be taken off the mountain in a tobaggan, with what appears to be a torn ACL. So he's done skiing for this season.

We'll head back home tomorrow.

There are lots more photos of our better skiing experiences on my Flickr site.

Whister Fire & Ice

2009-01-25T20:49:00.000-08:00

After the ski jumping, we spent the rest of Sunday afternoon relaxing. But that evening, we went down to the Whistler Village to watch the Fire & Ice show. This has become a regular weekly event at Whistler, in which a number of ski instructors perform some extreme skiing stunts off a jump built at the bottom of the main run down off Whistler Mountain.

The performance started off with some simple jumps and the proceeded to get much more daring, with lots of flips and twists.

It featured both skiers and borders. After each stunt, the skiers and borders got towed back up the hill behind a snowmobile.

Then there was a brief pause while several people put up a ring, which they then lite on fire. Then the skiers and borders proceeded to do their stunts though the ring of fire.

The evening concluded with a brief fireworks display.

You can see more photos of the Whistler Fire & Ice show on my Flickr site.

World Cup Ski Jumping at Whistler

2009-01-25T16:30:00.000-08:00

I'm currently up at Whistler, British Columbia skiing with my son and several of his pilot friends. This is an annual trip, but this year was made more special by the fact that this year is also the run-up to next year's Vancouver Winter Olympics. As a result, most of the World Cup events are being run in Whistler this year to test the venues in preparation for next year's Winter Olympics.

Saturday and Sunday were the World Cup Ski Jumping competition. So we decided to take a day off from skiing on Sunday to go watch. The World Cup Ski Jump was free, although those without transportation had to pay $15 to take a shuttle bus from the Whistler village to the venue, which is a considerable way south of Whistler.

While the event was fantastic, and we were able to get incredibly close to the competition (as you can see from these photos), getting to the venue left much to be desired, and the VOC (Vancouver Olympic Committee) will have to do a lot to improve things before the world turns its attention to Whistler next year.

We left the village around 10am to make the short drive to the venue, which is 6 miles south of the village and then about 4 miles up a dead-end road into a secluded valley. The Nordic venue is brand new and houses both the ski jump hill and the cross country events. The turn off from the main road is not well marked and has no traffic control. Once we started up the road, we quickly encountered bumper-to-bumper traffic. Evidently, a lot of people decided to go check out the event.

We spent more than an hour slowly moving up toward the event. But there are absolutely no signs along the road, so we had no way of knowing if we were getting close or had miles to go. Word finally filtered back through the line that there was no more parking and officials were turning cars back. Rather than give up, we parked the car along the side of the road and hailed a taxi.

That was a good decision, because by the time we got to the jump hill, the final round of competition had already started. They said later that there were 20,000 people at the event, but the crowd looked much smaller than that. We had no problem getting very close to the end of the run-out at the base of the jump hill.

The ski jumping was incredible. As we watched, the competition moved into the final group of 10 that had the longest jumps in the first round. The jumps just kept getting longer and longer, with several jumps beyond 140 meters.

But then a jumper went an incredible 149 meters, setting a new hill record. So next year, when you watch the Olympic Ski Jump and hear them talk about the hill record, remember I was there.

We stayed for the medal ceremony and then hailed a cab back to where we had parked the car. We were back in Whistler Village by 1:30pm. And who won, G. Schlierenzauer from Austria won the gold, Thomas Morgenstern from Austrai the silver, and Ville Larinto from Finland took the bronze.

You can see more photos on my Flickr site.

David Does Delhi

2009-01-11T22:00:00.000-08:00

I have had the amazingly fortunate opportunity to travel to Delhi, India this past week. I won't go into the details as to the reason for my trip at present, other than to say that it was business-related.

I left Bellingham on Friday, January 9, flying to Seattle and Chicago before boarding a 14.5-hour American Airlines non-stop to Delhi, arriving just before midnight local time on Saturday, January 10.

I was met at the airport by a driver who took me to my accommodations. The next morning, bright and early, he and a representative from the company with which I was to be meeting picked me up and we began our nearly 3-hour drive to Agra. If I was going to travel halfway around the world, I wanted to see the Taj Mahal.

The Taj was absolutely everything I had ever imagined it to be, and more. I was familiar with the story behind the Taj Mahal as well as theories about its design, having studied non-western architecture while an architecture student at Syracuse University and also having worked on an article about the Taj Mahal in the June 1989 issue of CADalyst magazine.

The emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his queen Mumtaz Mahal. Construction began in 1632 and was completed in 1648. It is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture in the world, a style that combines elements from Persian, Ottoman, India, and Islamic architecture styles.

While the gorgeous domed white marble mausoleum is the most famous structure, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. Security surrounding the complex is quite strict. Upon arriving in Agra, we had to park our car nearly a mile away. From there, we hired a bicycle rickshaw to take us to the entry to the complex. There I had to check the little mini-tripod I normally keep in my camera bag, although I was able to keep my two digital cameras and my video camera at this point.

We entered the Taj Mahal complex after passing through a metal detector and proceeded through the outer gardens, which are completely surrounded on three sides by red sandstone walls. The fourth side, which faces the Yamuna river, is open. At this point, you still can't see the main mausoleum. What you do see is the Great Gate, a monumental structure of marble and sandstone whose arches are very similar to those of the Taj itself.

My first glimpse of the main mausoleum is through the huge arch in the gateway. I can't even begin to describe the level of excitement and anticipation. I know what's beyond that gate. Amazingly, the tomb is perfectly framed within the dark archway. At this point, I have to relinquish my video camera. For some reason, you can't shoot video beyond the platform of the Great Gate, although you can continue to take still photograhs everywhere except inside the main mausoleum itself.

Once through the gateway, you're standing on the raised platform, facing the Taj Mahal and viewing its perfect symmetry along the central north-south axis of a long reflecting pool. A raised marble water tank sits at the center of the garden, halfway between the tomb and the gateway, at the intersection of a second set of reflecting pools running east-west.

The tomb sits in the middle of a two-and-a-half acre square platform, surrounded by a low parapet. At each corner of this platform is a minaret, each more than 40 meters tall. By far, the most striking element is the huge dome, which at about 35 meters in height is as tall as the lower portion of the building.

From a distance, the tomb appears to float over the garden. To the right of the tomb is the red sandstone Jawab or assembly building and to the left the similarly colored masque.

The perfect symmetry of the entire complex is quite incredible. I wish I had re-read Ron Lane-Smith's original CADalyst article before my journey. In it, he theorizes many aspects of the design of the Taj Mahal, one of which was that the Jawab was actually the place where components of the tomb were drawn out full-size before being constructed, making the term "assembly building" much more literal than its accepted definition as a place of gathering. He notes that the floor of the Jawab still bears the full-size stencil of the main dome's finial.

I was quite unprepared for the beauty and detail of the tomb's exterior decoration. The walls of the tomb itself consist of a rubble core, but are clad in white marble. Into this various thin colored stones are inlaid to create calligraphy. There are also carvings and elements painted onto the marble. In addition to the calligraphy are abstract forms and vegetation motifs.

The calligraphy is made using jasper inlaid in the white marble panels, and is quite detailed and delicate. The vegetation motifs in the lower walls of the tomb are sculpted bas relief with realistic vines and flowers as well as inlays of highly stylized, almost geometric vines, flowers, and fruits. The inlay stones are yellow marble, jasper, and jade, leveled and polished smooth to the surface of the walls. Happily, I saw very little evidence of damage.

They say that the Taj Mahal changes color over the course of the day, and this is probably very true. The marble panels are thin enough that they actually are translucent, and inside the tomb our guide puts a small flashlight up against the stone and I can see that it actually illuminates the colored inlaid stones so that they appear to glow from within.

By the way, it's nearly impossible to visit the Taj without a guide. We were approached numerous times while outside the gate by supposedly "government authorized" guides who offered to enhance our Taj experience. But in spite of rebuffing those attempts, an older Indian man latched onto us as soon as we made our way inside the grounds and stuck to us like glue thereafter. He turned out to be a nice guy who did indeed know a lot about the Taj. He also loved playing with my Canon 10D and lenses, and so I actually managed to get into a few photos for a change. He was also quite clever, sending Jerish my host back to reclaim my video camera so that he would not be around when the guide ultimately asked me to pay him a fee for his services. Jerish said afterwards that 500 rupees was too much, but I thought the $10.28 equivalent well worth it.

They tell me that I picked a perfect day to visit the Taj Mahal. We arrived relatively early in the day. We visited on a Sunday, which explained the smaller-than-normal crowds. The temperature was a very pleasant 70-degrees.

Unfortunately, I am incredibly tired. Having just arrived after my long flight, and having managed less than four hours of sleep owing to the late arrival of my flight, I know that I'm fading fast. And we still have the nearly 3-hour drive from Agra back to Delhi.

I am pretty sure that I'll be coming back to India again soon. So I resolve myself to the fact that I must leave with lots of other areas of the Taj Mahal and Agra still remaining to be explored. For example, as we're leaving Agra, I catch a glimpse of the Taj Mahal perched high above the banks of the Yamuna River. And then there's the Moonlight Garden on the opposite bank of the river. I must come back and take photos of the tomb from these vantage points.

There's still plenty more to see on the road between Delhi and Agra, and I'll have some time to explore Delhi itself in the next several days. So I'll close this for now, get some rest, and continue describing my first experiences of India tomorrow.

You can see more photos from my trip on my Flickr site.

Happy New Year 2009

2008-12-31T21:14:00.000-08:00

I just want to wish everyone a happy, healthy, peaceful, and fulfilling new year.

This photo was taken in Seattle at the Space Needle on New Year's Eve 2005. We're actually spending a very quiet evening at home tonight. Tomorrow we're hosting our second annual New Year's Day Open House and Soup Fest.

And then next week I should be winging my way to India, in pursuit of a very interesting job opportunity. I hope to share more about this with you in the weeks to come.

Movie Review: Man on Wire

2008-12-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's the writer in me. Or the fact that I watch a lot of movies. But for whatever reason, I felt compelled to write a movie review. At least the movie in question has some link to the other themes of this blog.

To simply say that Man on Wire tells the story of French high-wire walker Philippe Petit's stroll between the towers of the World Trade Center misses the point completely. Most New Yorkers know that on the morning of August 7, 1974, Petit not only walked a wire strung between the roofs of the two towers, he spent nearly an hour walking back and forth, even laying down on the wire at one point and saluting the police waiting to take him into custody. The film's title is a reference to the charges filed against Petit, (tresspassing, disturbing the peace, "man on wire"), which were later dismissed in exchange for him putting on slightly more sedate, free performance for the children of New York.

I even remember where I was that day (although it's not an event so etched in my memory that I remember what I was doing, or anything like that). But that was quite a summer. I was taking summer classes at Syracuse University School of Architecture. A few weeks later, Richard Nixon resigned.

Nor can you just say that Man on Wire is a documentary. Because in spite of the fact that we know what's going to happen, British filmmaker James Marsh delivers a pulse-pounding story that's more like a thriller than many supposed thrillers I've watched recently. It helps that the young Petit had the foresight to film much of the preparation for his feat. Of course, there was also news footage of those preparations, like the time he secretly rigged a wire and then walked between the towers of Notre Dame Catherdral in Paris. He later performed a similar feat between two towers of the Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia.

The film integrates Petit's "home movies" with stylized re-enactments and interviews with many of the participants as the director documents every step Petit and his team took to circumvent both the security at the nearly completed World Trade Center and the physics of smuggling nearly a ton of stainless steel cable and rigging into the towers and then figuring out how to string it between them.

Thirty-five years later, and with the twin towers gone, the feat, and this film, remain absolutely mind-blowing. When I brought the DVD out to watch the other night, my daughter initially wanted no part. But inertia prevented her from leaving the room and minutes into the film, she was hooked. We even ended up watching all the special features. I think you will as well.

New HP Mobile Workstation

2008-12-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I am a long-time contributing editor to Desktop Engineering magazine and several other publications. One of my regular subjects is reviewing the latest computers.

I have long been a fan of HP. Their workstations—both desktop and portable—have always been absolutely superb. My own personal computer is an HP Compaq 8510w mobile workstation, which happens to be the fifth or sixth in a series of HP notebook computers I have used over the years. I am extremely happy with my HP portable workstation and recommend it to others whenever the subject comes up in conversations as I travel the country.

So you can imagine how much I was looking forward to reviewing the latest system in the HP mobile workstation line: the EliteBook 8530w. My first impression is a bit more "mixed" than usual. The system itself is quite elegant—much more modern and streamlined than even my relatively new 8510w—but some of the design decisions compromise things I've loved in the older models.

The new HP EliteBook 8530w features an elegant new design.

For example, I've long applauded HP for putting little icons around the keyboard that clearly identify the various ports around the edges of the notebook, making it extremely easy to find the right port without having to tip the system up on its side. This simple touch, present on all the HP mobile workstations I've owned or reviewed in the past, are not present on the 8530w.

Unfortunately, the new design eliminates the handy icons, seen here on the older HP Compaq 8710w mobile workstation, that clearly identified each port located on the edge of the computer.

According to an HP rep I spoke with, these were eliminated in the new EliteBook because instead of the gray finish on all of the previous models, the new EliteBook uses HP's new DuraCase design, which features a brushed aluminum skin bonded to a magnesium alloy chassis. The attractive two-tone appearance meant that to include the little icons would have required two separate silk screening steps and wouldn't be in keeping with the new design. So it seems that appearance has trumped functionality. Too bad.

The evaluation unit I received came with Windows Vista Business edition. I still prefer Windows XP for production CAD work, but I've had no serious issues with Vista...at least not until now. My first problem involved user rights management. I found it nearly impossible to install and run some of my standard benchmark tests until I finally dove deep enough into the operating system to completely disable the User Account Management (UAM) functions and also create several new directories (explicitely making them writable) that should have otherwise been created by the benchmark's own installation routine. I never had to do this in the past. What else did Microsoft change in this release of Vista?

After finally overcoming the UAM limitations, imagine my surprise when I attempted to run my standard battery life test. That test consists of first setting the system for maximum power conservation, unplugging the power supply (so that the system is running on its internal battery) and then playing a DVD video and recording the time until the battery is completely exhausted.

Apparently, Microsoft doesn't believe that business users watch movies on long flights. Windows Vista Business doesn't include the necessary codec to play videos. While it appeared at first that users would need to either upgrade to a different (more expensive) version of Windows Vista or purchase, download, and install a third-party codec, HP actually includes a copy of WinDVD as well as lots of other useful software. This was not initially evident, however, because none of this software was pre-installed, just pre-loaded. HP calls this a "lean image." You need to run a software setup utility to install this additional software.

I'm still in the early stages of my evaluation of this system, so please do not consider this to be anything more than a first impression. I'm just starting to run my benchmarks. I'm actually going to test this system multiple times. HP graciously sent me a second hard disk containing Windows XP. So after running all my tests using Vista, I'll test again under XP.

Watch for my in-depth review in a future issue of Desktop Engineering magazine.

All of My AU Classes are Now Available Online

2008-12-15T17:22:00.000-08:00

As promised, this year I recorded all six of the classes that I taught at Autodesk University. While most of those classes were also recorded as part of AU (and are available on the AU-online website). But not all of my classes were recorded by Autodesk, and only those who have attended Autodesk University have access to the AU-online website.

So, for the sake of completeness, and to ensure that everyone has access to all of my classes, I have posted all of this year's classes (as well as several from past years) on my website. Here you will find not only all of the class handouts and PowerPoint presentations (in PDF format) but also the complete webcasts of all of this year's classes. I've also posted datasets from several of the classes, and will gladly add more materials in response to requests.

So, what will you find? Here's a complete list of the classes that I've posted:

I hope you find these materials useful and take full advantage of them. And I welcome your feedback. I am always working to improve these materials.

Autodesk University 2008 - The Final Day

2008-12-08T21:01:00.001-08:00

Friday morning was actually my most hectic morning of the entire week. I had to get up earlier than on the previous mornings, in part because I was teaching two classes this morning. In addition, since I'd be leaving the hotel today, I had to pack and check out of my room before teaching my classes, since I'd still be teaching at check-out time (11am) and the hotel would not arrange a late check out.

I also wanted to have breakfast before beginning my classes. Not normally a late riser, I had neglected to consider one potential downside of showing up early for breakfast. In order to cope with the crowds at AU, the food service folks have been filling the dining area working from the back of the room towards the front. That means, the earlier you show up for breakfast, the farther you have to walk to get that breakfast.

Here's what the room looked like a little after 7am on Friday morning. Without coffee, that back wall looks even farther way.

I'm happy to report that all of my classes went very well. I had been a bit concerned that the lack of paper evaluation forms this year would result in a large proportion of attendees not turning in class evaluations. But that appears to not be the case. Evaluations could be filled in using one of the more than 100 computers in the hall used for registration or via the web. Evidently, most attendees have been submitting their evaluations. Since the data is live, I've been able to check the attendee feedback soon after completing my classes.

BTW. I'll be posting videos of all six of my AU classes in the next few days. These will all be linked via my website at http://www.dscohn.com/.

In what has now become an annual tradition, a small group of AU regulars got together for a well deserved post AU lunch.

You may recognize some of these people. From left to right: Joseph Wurcher, Donnia Tabor-Hanson, Lynn Allen, Lynn's husband Craig, Matt Murphy, Susan Malitzke, J.C. Malitzke, Karen Miletsky, Yoshi Honda, Bill Fane, Robert Bell, and me.

Annual AU Party Rocks

2008-12-08T17:37:00.000-08:00

Autodesk University isn't all work. Thursday night was the annual AU party.

Guests arriving at the beginning of the evening were treated to a fantastic display of trampoline stunts, including the women's silver medalist from the 2008 Bejing Olympic Games.

This was followed by a Japanese juggler/contortionist.

The headline entertainment was provided by the incredibly talented engineer-turned-comedian Don McMillan. This is Don's third appearance at AU, and he was once again in top form. I've always loved Don's stuff. You can see more on his website at http://www.technicallyfunny.com/.

Perhaps the most unique addition to this year's event was the AU Design Slam, a digital design tournament in which three teams of professional designers competed to complete a design in just 20 minutes using an assortment of Autodesk software.

The Design Slam was organized by Cut & Paste. Visit their website for additional details.

Of course, the AU party wouldn't be complete without dancing. After the final round of the Design Slam, the crowd stayed and danced to music provided by a great DJ.

Greetings from Autodesk University

2008-12-03T11:46:00.001-08:00

It's the first week of December, which means that I've made my annual trek to Las Vegas to attend the 16th annual Autodesk University. As usual, it's a pretty full week. I'm teaching six classes and taking at least that many. In addition, I'm trying to attend a wide selection of industry-specific events.

My AU experience starts with the speaker's reception on Monday night, outside on the roof-top terrace adjacent to one of the Venetian Hotel's many restaurants. Lynn Allen gave us all a quick pep talk and encouraged us to have a great AU.

Although attendance is down this year owing to the economy, you couldn't prove it based on the crowd waiting to get in for the opening keynote on Tuesday morning. It was once again wall-to-wall. What was even worse was trying to get into my first class at 8am Tuesday morning before the keynote. Seems like everyone had enough energy the first day to take one of the early morning classes.

Autodesk CEO helped kick things off on Tuesday morning at the opening keynote, although later in the day, at a press briefing, Carl had more cautious things to say about how our industry would fare in the short term.

It's shaping up to be another great AU. I'll try to report more both here and on my Revit-Up blog. Watch for AutoCAD-specific info here and more Revit-centric information on Revit-Up.

On My Own Again

2008-10-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

If I needed any confirmation as to the state of the economy, it was driven home on Friday, October 3. That morning, after returning from the season's first CAD Camp event in San Francisco, I was informed that I had been laid off from my job as an applications engineer with The PPI Group, an Autodesk dealership with offices in Portland and Seattle.

So after two years as an employed person, I am once again an independent CAD consultant. Maybe I'll find more time to post here more often.

I am actively seeking new clients. I know times are tough, but that makes it all the more important that users get the most out of the tools and technologies they are using. With more than 25 years of experience, I am uniquely qualified to help ensure that success.

On the Road Again

2008-10-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

The CAD Camp season is once again upon us. In the past week I've already taught at CAD Camp events in San Francisco and in Reno, Nevada, where I also served as master of ceremonies for the day's event, since Matt Murphy was on the east coast presiding over other events.

In the weeks to come, we've got events scheduled in Chicago, Boise, Anaheim, Portland, Calgary, and Orlando, all before we make the annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for Autodesk University.

At upcoming CAD Camps, I'll be teaching classes on the new features in AutoCAD 2009, collaborating with AutoCAD and Autodesk Design Review, working with data and tables in AutoCAD, getting up to speed with AutoCAD's annotation scaling feature, and using Autodesk Impression. I'll also be teaching some Revit classes.

I hope to see many of you at these events.

My Apologies for Not Posting in So Long

2008-07-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

I'm just taking a few minutes to apologize for having not posted anything new quite some time. While not meant as an excuse, I've been on the road for the past several months doing AUGI CAD Camp events all over the country. And when I haven't been on the road with AUGI, I've been teaching classes, meeting with clients, and speaking at various other events.

But summer is here now. I'm not traveling as much (there's only one CAD Camp event this month, just across the border in Vancouver, BC). And I've gotten up to speed with AutoCAD 2009.

So stay tuned for new postings in the days and weeks to come.

How Do Bloggers Find the Time?

2008-04-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

So, I spent the weekend in Scottsdale at COFES without ever once getting online to post any of my impressions of the event. COFES 2009 was fantastic, and I made note of lots of things that I want to write about, but at this point, I still don't have time to do so. But stay tuned...

I'm now in Dallas attending Autodesk Tech Camp. I spent most of the day installing the software that I need to train on over the next few days. Right now I'm patiently waiting for Revit datasets to download from Autodesk...and waiting...and waiting. There's lots of content.

There's not much to report from here yet. Today was mostly about upper management telling us about the importance of digital prototyping, something that I've been writing and talking about now for several years.

The high point for me was a keynote address by Mario Andretti. Yes, that Mario Andretti.

Those of you who know me know that I am a big open wheel autoracing fan. And I readily admit that Mario has been a hero of mine for a long time. I knew that Mario was going to be talking at Tech Camp, and so before coming to Dallas, I located several photos that I had taken of Mario over the years and had two sets of 8x12 enlargements made—one to give to him and one for him to autograph for me. I was successful in that quest and will scan and post those photos in a future posting. (You can see examples of my professional race photos on my website at http://www.dscohn.com/racephotos.htm.)

I guess that's about it for now. I've still got more software to load before I sleep, and while I'd love to actually write something of substance tonight, I have to attend to the installs.

I just don't know how people who blog on a more regular basis do it.

On the Road Again

2008-04-10T08:10:00.001-07:00

Yeah, I know. It sounds like a Willie Nelson song. But after getting to stay mostly at home for the past several months, the travel season is upon me. I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon, about to walk over to The PPI Group where I'll be doing a webcast this morning and then teaching a 4-hour "hands-on" BIM for Principals class this afternoon to a dozen architects that have flown in from various cities around the U.S. They're part of an AIA "Rainmakers" group, and I'm very excited to get to address these firm leaders.

I don't get to hang out and smooze with them, however, because as soon as that class finishes today at 5pm, I head right back to Portland Airport to hop a flight to Phoenix. Today marks the start of the 9th annual Congress On the Future of Engineering Software. COFES is an annual event that is part think tank, part technology summit, and part business conference. Run by my former partners at Cyon Research Corp., it brings together more than 200 top executives from the engineering software industry and some of their more influential customers and places them in an environment where they can talk freely about their future development plans and customer needs.

I look forward to COFES every year, both for the chance to engage in fascinating conversation and also to catch up with old friends. I'll try to find time to report on the event here on CADman-Do.

I won't get to relax very long, however, because on Sunday afternoon it's on to Dallas to attend this year's Autodesk Tech Camp, where I'll get my "official" Autodesk training on all of the new software. So continue watching this space for my reports on that event as well.

BNSF Train Wreck in Marysville, WA

2008-03-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

I heard the news as soon as I got up this morning to drive to work. A Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train had collided with a tractor trailer truck near Marysville, WA.

After attending a meeting, I got back into my car to drive back to Bellingham. As I came through Marysville on I-5, I could see a news helicopter hovering a short distance off to the east. It was clear that the wreck was quite near the interstate. So I got off at the next exit and headed toward the hovering copter.

I didn't have to go very far. There in front of me was the train. Two locomotives were completely off the track, with one coming to rest just inches from the State Avenue roadway.

There was a small crowd of onlookers. We all had to stay back behind the police barriers that had been set up. But we still had quite a view. Above is the view from the 130th Avenue grade crossing, just north of the incident.

Here's the story. At approximately 5:40am local time on Monday, March 17, 2008, a northbound BNSF freight train collided with a tractor trailer carrying a load of frozen pizza. The train crashed through the trailer, the cab having already cleared the grade crossing near Pacific Grinding Wheel just north of Marysville, WA. The locomotives pushed the trailer until it caught on a billboard on the east side of the right-of-way, at which point the three locomotives and one box car derailed, tearing up the track.

The train, bound from Pasco, WA to Vancouver, BC was mostly empty and there were no hazardous materials on board. The crossing had a stop sign but there were no gates or flashing lights. The news reported that the driver said that he misjudged the distance and speed of the train. Luckily, no one was seriously injured.

By the time I got there, the cleanup had been underway for several hours. But the lead locomotive was still covered with insulation from the trailer as well as boxes of frozen pizza.

By late Monday afternoon, BNSF was estimating that work would continue until well past midnight and didn't expect the rail line to be reopened until at least 3am on Tuesday morning.

I shot a bit of video with my Canon SD600 Digital Elph. (Important tip: Always carry a camera.)

I was also interviewed by a reporter from KIRO News, the local Seattle CBS affiliate. A small piece of that interview ran as part of this evening's 6pm newscast.

There are additional photos on my Flickr site.

Here are some additional links:

PSAUG and Seattle CAD Camp

2008-02-20T12:52:00.001-08:00

I'm off to Seattle.

Tonight is the Puget Sound AutoCAD User Group meeting at Renton Technical College. Shaan Hurley was supposed to be there this evening to give members their first look at AutoCAD 2009. Unfortunately, he had to cancel at the last minute due to a family matter, but Alex Lepeska has stepped forward to take over that presentation.

Tomorrow I'll be attending the AUGI CAD Camp in Seattle, this time as an attendee and official AUGI photographer and videographer. I'll be conducting attendee interviews for next year's AUGI video as well as shooting photos for the CAD Camp website.

I look forward to seeing everyone in Seattle and hope to follow-up with any additional information I glean on the next release of AutoCAD and other Autodesk products.

Autodesk World Press Days 2008—Day 1

2008-02-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

It’s that time of year again—time for Autodesk to announce the next release of all of its myriad software products. As it did last year, Autodesk is once again hosting its Autodesk World Press Days event, and I am here in San Francisco at the beautiful Mark Hopkins Hotel at the top of Nob Hill along with 150 other press and analysts from more than 50 countries.

From the looks of the first day’s schedule, it was pretty obvious that we weren’t going to actually see much of the new software. That would happen on day two.

Day one began with an opening presentation by Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, who began by noting that the role of engineering and design is becoming increasingly more important. Autodesk has had a 25-year history of success. The company currently has more than 9 million licensed users worldwide, and Mr. Bass was quick to point out that there are many times more than that when you begin to factor in the unlicensed copies of the company’s software. 98% of the Fortune 500 use Autodesk software, a number that rises to 100% when you narrow it down to just the Fortune 100.

Autodesk’s five year growth has exceeded 20%, with net revenue of more than $2 billion, and the company expects growth over the next five years to continue to exceed 15%.

Mr. Bass says that there are four important macro economic trends that are changing the world:

Digital Life: Everything has gone from analog to digital. We’re also multitasking in ways that we never could have imagined a few years ago.
Globalization: Digital connectivity has been a large contributor to globalization. Arbitraging of cheap labor has driven globalization in the short term, but this will slow down as the global standard of living improves. There is a much bigger opportunity for those who develop new business models. Commoditization is a much bigger issue. Local protections no longer assures design; there are plenty of people out there trying to copy and improve on what you’ve designed. So companies must focus instead on how to differentiate themselves by continuously doing things better.
Infrastructure Boom: Infrastructure improvements will total $40 trillion. Even in mature economies, half of the buildings we will have in 25 years haven’t been built yet. In developing countries, that number approaches 100%.
Climate Change: If we don’t change our behavior, energy usage over the next 25 years will double. We therefore have to find better ways of producing energy and at the same time become much smarter about consuming it.

These four trends together represent a tremendous challenge. But Autodesk’s software provides many of the means to meet these challenges, such as new building models that let designers experience their designs before they build them and better predict how those buildings will perform in the real world.

Carl Bass was followed by other Autodesk executives as well as a number of customers who described how their companies were using Autodesk software. For example, Peter Horbury, executive director of design for Form Motor Company, explained how Ford is now able to get new cars from design to showroom in 14 months while also recognizing a 25% cost reduction at the same time. He also showed how Ford uses the world’s largest milling machine to create full-scale models of prototype cars, enabling a 25% reduction in design time.

He was followed by Laird Landis, senior technologist at General Motors. GM now uses Building Information Modeling to create, visualize, and analyze the company’s facilities worldwide and has determined that it can save 3% to 5% of total construction cost through the use of BIM technology. All future GM projects will be done entirely in 3D, starting with a 1.5 million square foot facility in Lansing Delta Township. Eventually, GM expect to be able to construct new plants 25% faster while saving 10% to 15% of total construction cost.

The most compelling presentation of the morning came from Brady Nadell, senior engineer at Parsons Brinkerhoff, and Bart Ney, public information office at Caltrans, who showed how they used Autodesk software to create a communications plan to keep the public updated to possible traffic disruptions during construction of the new Bay Bridge linking San Francisco with Oakland. Caltrans plans to keep the existing bridge open throughout construction, and the various images and animations produced clearly explain how this will be done.

They were followed by George Joblove, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Sony Pictures Imageworks, who showed a Sony demo reel and explained how increasingly important visual effects have become to the company’s motion pictures. But more inspiring was Sheena Duggal, a visual effects supervisor, director, and compositor at Sony Pictures Imageworks, who showed her short film showcasing the Chicago Spire, an new residential development designed by architect Santiago Calatrava that is sure to become an iconic addition to the Chicago skyline.

Jeff Kowalski, Autodesk’s chief technology officer, highlighted Autodesk’s focus:

Experience it before it’s real
Study design alternatives
Develop design innovation
Help customers gain a competitive advantage

Other themes:

Visualization: Capture the appearance of what the product will look like in the real world
Simulation: See how the product will behave in the real world
Analyze: Capture measureable performance in the real world

In a session on how gaming is driving development, it was noted that more than 25% of gamers are over 50 years old. Gaming software sales in the US grew 28% last year. When you include hardware that figure jumps to 40%. Nintendo has the same market cap as Disney. Keys to successful gaming sound a lot like Autodesk's focus: performance, immersion (it seems real), and interaction (making it easy to use). Director James Cameron is working on a project aimed at being able to direct digital characters. Architects are becoming digital directors themselves. As graphics technology goes mainstream, more people are using 3D technology to communicate their ideas and animate those ideas so that they can be experienced over time.

This all led up to the announcement today by Autodek of the launch of Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2009, a new version of 3ds Max aimed specifically at architectural visualization.

Phil Bernstein, Autodfesk vice president of industry strategy and relations for the company's AEC Solutions division then took the stage to talk more specifically about Autodesk's vision in the AEC industry. Some of his comments:

Buildings have a very fundamental impact on the environment. Sustainable design is a philosophy to understand how a building's design affects its environment. In order to understand how a building behaves requires that you first create a digital model of it

Buildings have to be visualized and executed in a global context now. Autodesk's AEC customers now need to understand how they practice in a worldwide sense, either to design projects in other areas of the world or to understand how consumption in other areas of the world affect the availability of materials where they are building.

As the developing economies grow, we're going to have to develop a lot of infrastructure. There is going to be a tremedous increase in AEC activities. Processes we use will have to change dramatically.

Bernstein joked, "We are the only industry that builds full-size prototypes (the actual building) and then skip the final step." Technology is changing the way we practice. We're moving from traditional design and bid to collaborative project teams. BIM is the catalyst that is making many of these things possible. We can now create digitally correct prototypes that make it possible to analyze the building and then use the model to deliver the appropriate information to the cliet.

Bernstein was followed by Rick Thoman, corporate BIM integrated practice coordinator for SmithGroup, the sixth largest architecture and engineering firm in the US. He noted that we have operated far too long in a world of design, bid, build, litigate. We draw too much in order to protect ourselves from litigation. Now, all documentation is done using computers. It's no longer an option to not use BIM. The model is now a bridge between the design team and the construction team.

Thoman then handed things back to Bernstein, who announced Autodesk's plans to acquire Carmel Software and Green Building Studio. The Carmel acquisition has been closed and the company is about to close on GBS. As to whether the GBS tools will be folded into Revit Architecture 2009, Bernstein would not comment as to how the tools would be added to Autodesk's current products.

Detailed looks at new releases of Autodesk software will have to wait until individual break out sessions and some of the more product-oriented presentations scheduled for tomorrow.

You can also read additional coverage of Autodesk World Press Days 2008 more specifically targeted at Revit users on my other blog: revit-up.blogspot.com.

AUGI CAD Camp Toronto

2008-01-12T12:22:00.000-08:00

I just got back from the first AUGI CAD Camp of 2008. This one was held in Toronto, Canada, in an absolutely beautiful facility in Mississauga, Ontario called the Living Arts Center.

It was a great event and we had a very appreciative crowd of more than 200 attendees. The local dealer did a wonderful job of getting the word out about the event.

I took the opportunity to record another one of my presentations that had not yet been recorded. So I am happy to announce that you can now view a webcast of my AutoCAD 2008 data extraction and tables class, entitled "Keep it Inside AutoCAD – Data Extraction Direct to AutoCAD Tables." That webcast is now available on my website.

I also took lots of photos of the Toronto event and those photos, like those from other CAD Camps, are available on my Flickr site.

Enjoy.

Multi-Room Music Nirvana

2008-01-05T20:45:00.000-08:00

When we hosted an open house on New Years Day, I wanted to have music playing in the main area of the main floor of our house, where there is currently no stereo. As a quick makeshift solution, I brought my inexpensive Altec Lansing speakers into the room, placing them in unobtrusive locations and hiding the subwoofer under a coffee table. I put my laptop on the hearth and streamed an iTunes playlist all day. It worked great.

That proof of concept prompted me to come up with a less makeshift solution. After several hours of research, I decided that while solutions like the Sonos and Squeezebox were nice, they also cost more than I was ready to spend for what would effectively be background music. But $99 for an Apple AirPort Express sounded just right.

So this afternoon I went to a local computer store and purchased an AirPort Express with AirTunes. I also bought a cheap set of powered speakers, but that's another story (which I'll get to at the end).

After plugging in the AirPort Express and letting it boot up, it's indicator light blinked amber, indicating that it was not connecting to my existing wireless network. Since I have an existing Linksys wireless router, the AirPort would not connect automatically. It took a few minutes to sort that out, but by going into the AirPort Utility and manually configuring the AirPort Express so that it was simply a client on the existing network, I soon had that problem sorted out.

I think it's a bit miraculous that after simply adding the AirPort Express, iTunes now has a new selection in the lower-right that lets me select where I want to stream my music.

The whole thing works so well, and the experience was so satisfying, that I'm ready to go out and purchase a few more of these things so that I can stream music to additional rooms. AirPort Express is perfect.

Now, the speakers, unfortunately, are another story. Years ago I picked up a set of Altec Lansing 221 speakers for my office. They consist of two small satellite speakers with a hefty subwoofer. While they're certainly not audiophile quality by any stretch of the imagination, they cost me $49.99 at Costco and have a nice clean sound through the entire frequency range, and a full but balanced bass. But these speakers apparently are no longer available.

I purchased a set of Edifier speakers from the same place that I purchased the AirPort Express. I had never heard of them before (it's a Canadian brand) but they were all that the store carried and since I could easily return them, what did I have to loose. They were, in a word, terrible—incredibly weak in the middle frequencies and almost no bass response in spite of the subwoofer. So I drove over to another store and picked up a set of Logitech X-240 speakers. The frequency response was much better, with nice clear treble and substantial bass that I could easily adjust thanks to a control knob on the subwoofer (something my Altec Lansing speakers lack). But when no music was playing, these speakers have a very noticeable hum. So they're going back tomorrow as well.

So while I've found nirvana in terms of streaming music to any room in the house, I am still searching for a decent set of inexpensive (under $100) powered speakers. Like I said, this is for background music when we entertain. When I want to really listen to music, I'll turn on the stereo. I'll probably add an AirPort Express to the stereo as well. Why not? But if anyone has a good recommendation for some inexpensive powered speakers, please pass it along, because I'm still searching.

Webcast of AU Design Review Presentation

2007-12-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

Autodesk recorded three out of the four presentations that I did at Autodesk University. Those videos will eventually become available on the AU website.

The one class that was not recorded was my class on Autodesk Design Review. This turned out to be a very popular and informative class, all the more so thanks to the presence of several people from Autodesk's Design Review development and marketing teams.

Although Autodesk didn't record my Design Review class, I did. I was able to get Camtasia Studio up and running before the start of the class and worked with one of the on-site AV guys to grab an audio feed (I had forgotten to bring my own wireless microphone to AU). The sound quality leaves a bit to be desired, but those who missed this class or want to view it again can now do so by visiting my my website:

http://www.dscohn.com/speaking/design_review.htm

Autodesk University - Day Four

2007-12-02T20:27:00.001-08:00

As I noted yesterday, this morning all I had left was what turned out to be an excellent 3-hour lab on Revit. Then, with AU officially over, it was finally time to relax.

In what has become something of a tradition, a small group of AU regulars got together for a well deserved post AU lunch.

From left to right: J.C. Malitzke, Tom Conte, J.C.'s wife Susan, Karen Miletsky, Lynn Allen, me, and Lynn's husband Craig.

On Friday night, an even smaller group of us went downtown to the Golden Nugget to see impressionist Rich Little.

And then on Saturday night I took my friends David and Rhonda Shapiro, who live just outside of Las Vegas (and with whom I spent the rest of the weekend) to see Penn & Teller. That's me with Penn Jillette.

Autodesk University - Day Three

2007-11-29T23:59:00.000-08:00

I started my day with a 8am lab and then I had one more class to teach this morning, and then I could finally relax a bit and enjoy the rest of the courses for which I had registered. So far, I had attended every class that I had signed up to take. In my opinion, all of the classes at this year's AU were excellent.

Of course, Thursday night is also the night for the headline entertainment at Autodesk University. This year, the entertainment selection had been kept secret until Thursday, when Lynn Allen finally told me that it would be a comedy night.

Lynn served as master of ceremonies. I didn't record the opening act nor the headliner, but I did capture a few minutes of comedy juggler Mad Chad.

When the comedy show was over, the band Tainted Love took over, playing cover versions of hits from the 80s.

Matt Murphy let his hair down.

We partied until the very end with Lynn and her husband Craig.

And even after the party officially ended, Shaan Hurley, Lynn, and a few others hung out for a while longer.

AU ends at noon tomorrow. I'll spend the morning taking a 3-hour hands-on Revit lab class.

Autodesk University - Day Two Evening

2007-11-28T23:00:00.000-08:00

My Design Review and Rendering classes went well. I also got to attend some great classes, including a class on options and phasing in Revit taught by well-known author Paul Aubin.

But talk about the perfect end to a great day at AU. Proving that you've got to keep your eyes and ears open at all times, I caught word that there would be a special musical guest at the Autodesk Mechanical Solutions Division party, one of severeral parties taking place on Wednesday evening.

After first dropping in on several of the other parties, I made my way to Hall D, the same room that had been used for the main stage presentations earlier in the day. When I arrived, a Pecha Kucha was in progress and attendance was rather sparce, perhaps because the individual speakers were not all that compelling, and it was also difficult to hear them due to the terrible room acoustics. Knowing what was to come, however, we stuck around.

Sure enough, when the final presenter left the stage, the curtains rose to reveal a band. And not just any band: Dave Mason's band.

For those of you who don't recognize that name, Dave Mason is an incredible guitarist who has played with Traffic, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, and others.

A small crowd of probably less than 1,000 people got to enjoy an hour-long concert by this Hall of Fame guitarist and his incredible band. Some friends and I moved up to the very front, where we were able to lounge in comfortable couches, drink free martinis, and just bask in the fantastic music. Of course, we had to get up and dance.

As promised, here is one of several videos I shot during Dave Mason's performance.

I've uploaded several others to YouTube, including:
40000 Headmen
Mr. Fantasy
We Just Disagree

Enjoy.

Autodesk University - Day Two AEC Main Stage

2007-11-28T12:30:00.000-08:00

Here we are at Day Two of Autodesk University. This morning's first event for me was the AEC main stage presentation. Jay Baht began the presentation with a discussion of the forces and issues that will drive the creation of the built environment in the coming years: the increase in population movements from rural areas to cities, globalization, regionalization, and scarcity of labor, materials, and energy.

Jay was followed by Phil Bernstein who introduced a team of developers from Autodesk that played the roles of architect, structural engineer, MEP engineer, civil engineer, and so on, to demonstrate the interoperability between Autodesk's various products.

Once again, if you paid close attention, Autodesk dropped several hints about future directions, as well as making several announcements. For example, in addition to prominently showing off recent acquisition Navisworks, Autodesk also announced that it had just acquired Robobat, the structural analysis software developer. I would expect to see Robobat tools eventually find their way into Revit Structure.

The company also announced that hydrology functionality from Hydroflow would soon be available to Civil3D subscription customers.

The team also briefly showed what appears to be a new product called Autodesk Quantity Takeoff. Based on DWF, the program enables estimators to do accurate material takeoffs from Revit BIM models and then apply cost data to develop complete estimates. Autodesk first showed this product two years ago at Autodesk University in Orlando, Florida. At that time, it was just a brief glimpse during the mainstage presentation, and absolutely no mention was made of what the product was. This time around, the product name was clearly visible.

The high point of the morning, however, was a presentation by Bill McDonough, the award winning architect who has been promoting environmentally sensitive design for most of his career. My favorite line from his presentation, "Being less bad is not being good. It's still being bad...just less so."

Now on to a full day of classes. I'm teaching two classes today, one on Autodesk Design Review and one on rendering in AutoCAD, which is actually the first of two parts. I'll teach part two tomorrow morning.

Autodesk University - Day One AUGI Meeting

2007-11-27T23:30:00.000-08:00

I'm finding it a bit tough to write consistently while here at AU this year because there's simply so much going on that there's very little opportunity for down time. I also occassionally lose my wireless connection while I'm trying to post. But all-in-all, I must say that so far this is the best run AU ever.

This evening was the AUGI General Meeting, followed by the annual Beer Blast, which coincides with the opening of the exhibit hall.

Lynn Allen opened the AUGI General Meeting and introduced the current AUGI president.

As part of the meeting, my CAD Camp Experience video was shown. I'll eventually have that video available online on the CAD Camp website.

Autodesk CEO Carl Bass also showed up to say a few words. The the AUGI Wish List was presented to the various division vice presidents. The number one AutoCAD wish list request this year is the ability to import a PDF file into an AutoCAD drawing. Wish lists were also presented for Inventor, and for the first time wish lists were compiled and presented for Revit and Civil 3D.

The current board was recognized for their outstanding service.

Then we moved on to the exhibit hall for the annual AUGI Beer Blast. Donia Tabor-Hansen hosted a contest in the AUGI booth called Stump the Expert, which had people lined up

In fact, the turn out at the beer blast was incredible. It felt like nearly all of the nearly 10,000 people at AU were there for the event. At times, it was difficult to move. But there were plenty of serving tables and lots of beer and wine. If anyone went away hungry or thirsty, they weren't trying very hard

I spent some time in the Autodesk Labs area looking at some of the new technologies under development. One of the most intriguing was an addition to Design Review that will enable users to print out copies of DWF files, mark them up in the field using a special pen, and then transfer those markups back to the DWF file. I'll try to write more about this once I have a chance to check it out in greater detail.

Of course, back in the AUGI booth, Matt Murphy was on-hand to fulfill his promise to "buy a beer" for any CAD Camp attendee who stopped by. (Of course, the beer at the AUGI Beer Blast is free.)

Autodesk University - Day One Mainstage

2007-11-27T10:42:00.001-08:00

It's now Tuesday morning and Autodesk University is in full swing. The first event of the morning was the mainstage presentation. That was after the amazing feat of feeding nearly 10,000 attendees. Food service this year is located on the lower level of the Sands Convention Center, in what was originally designed as a parking garage.

It was somewhat disorienting to walk into Hall D where the opening session was being held. In order to ensure that late arriving attendees didn't end up seated hundreds of yards from the stage, the room was set up in the round, with a bank of screens suspended above the stage and the room ringed with a series of large screens.

The opening general session was introduced by Lynn Allen, who encouraged attendees to talk to each other. This was not the week to be an introvert.

Lynn then introduced Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, who outlined Autodesk's vision for digital prototyping and the important role designers and engineers have in solving problems such as sustainable design.

Carl was followed by Yves Behar, founder of the award-winning San Francisco design firm fuseproject. Yves talked about his approach to design as showed off some of his recent projects.

Following Yves was Autodesk CTO Jeff Kowalski, who took full advantage of the surrounding screens as he gave attendees a glimpse of some of the new tools, technologies, and concepts that Autodesk is developing.

He was assisted by Jonathan Knowles. Among the new products that were demonstrated were a new product called Mudbox for manipulating design models as if they were clay, new freeform design capabilities in Revit that will enable designers to deform surfaces by pushing and pulling various grips, new 3D capabilities in Autodesk Impression (apparently codenamed Titan), and a new product called Newport that enables users to aggregate content from Revit, Inventor, and other sources to navigate and visualize projects.

Perhaps the most amazing future technology demonstrated was a new product called Metropolis to build digital 3D cities. Knowles was able to navigate through what appeared to be a detailed digital model of downtown Washington, DC in real-time. He was even able to move below grade to look at buried utilities, and made mention of another new product called Autodesk Utility Design.

Quite an amazing series of presentations. I can't wait to learn more.

Now I'm off to attend my first class: "Effective Collaboration with the Revit Platform."

Autodesk University - First Night

2007-11-26T23:00:00.000-08:00

Here I am, back in Las Vegas for yet another Autodesk University. This is my 15th AU (that's a 1.000 batting average, for those who are keeping track). I've actually been looking forward to AU this year as an opportunity to slow down a bit. With all of the CAD Camp and other travel this fall, this will mark the first time since September 12 that I've gotten to spend more than three consecutive nights in the same bed.

Monday night marked the official start of AU with the annual Speakers' Reception. With more than 600 classes offered at this year's event, there were certainly a number of new faces among the instructors. But of course all of the usual suspects were in attendance as well.

Lynn Allen welcomed everyone to the event and provided a last minute pep talk.

Doesn't she look happy to be here?

Well, tomorrow's events start bright and early with an 8am mainstage presentation. I wonder how they are going to accomodate nearly 10,000 people at breakfast, not to mention fit them all into a single room for the mainstage presentation.

Stay tuned.

I just flew in from Birmingham...and boy are my arms tired

2007-11-14T18:38:00.000-08:00

I must apologize for the lack of blog postings lately. The past few weeks of AUGI CAD Camp travel has taken its toll both mentally and physically. Since my last posting on October 17, we've done additional CAD Camps in Boston (10/23), Detroit (10/25), Portland (11/1), Vancouver, British Columbia (11/6), and Birmingham, Alabama (11/8). Along the way, I came down with a cold that persisted into this week. Nothing like getting sick BEFORE Autodesk University.

Anyway, I am back at home now and trying desperately to get caught up and to finish work on my presentations for AU. I've also been in Everett and Seattle teaching Revit classes at several architectural firms as well as meeting with prospective customers and existing AutoCAD and Revit users. Last night I attended the Puget Sound AutoCAD User Group (PSAUG) meeting in Renton, Washington. Tomorrow I'll be speaking at the Seattle Revit User Group (SEARUG) meeting at lunch and then at the Bellingham AutoCAD User Group (BAUG) meeting after dinner.

And lest I run out of things to keep me busy, I'm also making the final edits to the AUGI video that will be shown at the annual meeting in two weeks at Autodesk University as well as in the AUGI booth at AU.

I hope to see many of you at one or more of these upcoming events. Stay tuned for various updates on the latest AutoCAD news as well as stories of my travels. And remember to also check out the latest information about Revit on my Revit-Up blog.

What is it with Me and Airplanes

2007-10-17T23:00:00.000-07:00

After having a plane catch fire (see "Houston...We Have A Problem"), other members of the AUGI national team are hesitant to fly on the same plane with me. (Hey, at least the plane was on the ground at the time.) This week's experience just adds fuel to the fire, figuratively speaking.

On Wednesday, I flew from Baltimore to Jacksonville, Florida for the second of this week's CAD Camps. Since Matt Murphy and Travis Jones are Delta Platinum Medallion members whereas I am just a lowly Gold level member, they had priority over me and ended up with first class seats, whereas I had to get by seated one row behind them in the first row/exit row in coach.

As the flight attendant closed the cabin door and went to arm the emergency slide, I noticed that the "Ready" light did not light up. She obviously noticed it too. Not a good thing. After several more attempts to "arm" the door, the pilot came on the intercom to inform us that we'd have to wait for a maintenance technician to come to plane to check it out.

Luckily, the repair involved little more than replacing a light bulb. As long as he was there, the technician also made a minor repair to the rubber gasket around the cabin door. We managed to get to Jacksonville just a few minutes late. But the incident once again raises the question, do these things happen to all frequent fliers or just me?

A Quick Trip to the Louvre

2007-10-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

My meetings with Autodesk concluded just before 6pm this evening, which afforded Genny and me a chance to visit the Louvre for a few hours, since it is open until 10pm on Wednesday evenings.

We limited our visit to the Denon wing, and even then had to be very selective. We clearly hit the high points tonight, and without the benefit of the audio guide. Finding the Venus de Milo was not difficult. And there are ample signs guiding one to the Mona Lisa.

There are literally hundreds of other Italian Renaissance, French Neoclassicist, and French Romanticist paintings in the Grand Gallery and other galleries on the second floor of this wing, such as Liberty Leading the People, and I plan to go back later this week to spend more time in this area of the museum.

We did have a bit of trouble at first finding Winged Victory. The guide book we were using somehow got us turned in the wrong direction.

After a few hours, we were exhausted. We found a nice little cafe and had a late bite to eat. Now it's back to the hotel. We have to check out of The Grand Hotel Paris in the morning and move to less expensive digs. Then we're off to Versailles for most of the day on Thursday.