Frog Up or Down

Work just seemed to take over in the last few weeks, it looked a little scares for a while, then suddenly I have a lot of paperwork and reading to do, a couple of small jobs came in and I decide that my love afar with Google gmail was coming to an end. It started as all relationships, full on and lots to talk, but in recent months things have not being going well, I wanted more, so I looked back and decided to take another look at Apples Mail program. I wrote this up in an earlier blog, I had made some mistakes and now needed to sort these out once and for all,,,, it took a while, but I am glad to say I have got it sorted, and a big thank you to Apples Tech support, just excellent, and something Google just does not have. Back to construction, and a few ideas for papers have piled up in my note book, so I need to look these over some will be downgraded to a blog, some I will keep and expand. I took a look at Google Earth this week, mostly because I am updating my presentation no...

Want to send a round Robin Email without showing the Email List, and there are good reasons for doing this, mostly privacy, but client security from competitors and the like spring to mind. Well its not that hard, all you have to do is send the email in question to your self or perhaps a gmail account thats been set up specifically, and then go to the BBC section. This means Blind Carbon Copy, and its where you might add your list. I use the Mac Mail address book, and in there I have set up several groups, so enter the group name into the BCC and hit send. Dead easy and your list is safe, trying to send" to all", will not include the BCC so again a safe way to send a round robin or Email Circular. Todays photo is of a Swivl I have for sale on Ebay, 

As Email goes, I have tried several different systems, at the University its the Microsoft system, and at home I started on Mac mail then gave Gmail a long trial, almost permanent, but just the last few days I went back to Apple Mail. The reason is I use Mac products, and trying to balance life between the two quite different systems is some time not easy, I also did not set up my mail very well on gmail, I have several different mail addresses, and just forwarded a copy to gmail, this resulted in about 60,000 emails just sitting in different email accounts doing absolutely nothing. They were all in imap format, but they just sat there costing me money, so I decided to invest two days to sort it out once and for all, so back to Apple Mail and I set up new accounts and used a vey simple script to set these up from my service provider, so simple I can only wonder why I did not do it earlier. But then came to problem of syncing all that mail, it took the best part of a day to delet...

I am happy to tell you, the old site archive of all several 1000 blogs I have made over the last 5 or so years is back on a wordpress.com domain : https://konstrukshonarchive.wordpress.com So head over and use the search button to read all those old blogs I will add a link to all my sites and also to the current domain at Blogger. For some reason Google Blogger will not allow the files size wordpress exports to be imported into blogger asking you to reduce it, !! But the free wordpress.com site will allow it and when I tried it, I had no problems, even sent me an email to tell me all is well and site working .

A single large construction  project is going to collect a lot of data throughout the design and construction phase of its life culminating with all the data it will collect during its operational life of say 60 years. but the types of data can easily be split split into 6 different types of data. When we look at all the data we generate for a building you might just look at it all and think we are entering the world of Big Data , but here we have to be a little careful on the word "big" as we compare different uses of the word Big, when we look at the  2560 terabytes of data that retailer Walmart collects every hour by capturing customer transactions, and the vast size of all the videos on /youtube although spread over many servers its estimated to be in the several Exabytes , by comparison Birmingham city Council in 2007 had 7 terabyte of storage just for there immediate data only storage needs for  roughly 35,000 staff, this probable That this doubled every...

I see this a lot in the construction industry , a committee wants standardisation.  The  BIM Task Group  in association with the  Construction Products Association , BIM4M2 and  CIBSE  are looking to develop a  standardised process for the sharing of product data , You have to ask why, does it not go against the very nature of the development of big data, what Hadoop , Hana and all the other new ways to view and analyse large datasets, which I might add do not need standardisation, rather the opposite. Large projects need to establish data use before it gets to site, develop rules to show how relations are make and kept, data shared, looking to associations for advice not rules, but thats for an individual project, and it may change as new projects are started, adding the benefits of hind sight and advances seen in the industry, but thats for a good project team to sort out, not a committee. I sit back an wonder who is pushing for this a...

I am a massive fan of Time Lapse video, I think its an excellent way to teach construction, the number of site videos out there is well worth trawling. But this video is all about weather, and shadow, its effect on a building and how the building deals with it, although the last part is so up the the lecturer to explain, I take my students on a walk though the old Birmingham to show this. But for the mean time, take a look at how the weather creeps in, and brightens up, plus the shadows.

Take a look at this video Scoble put up on his Facebook blog, I like this a lot, google glass developed a little more. https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble/posts/10153966287844655

For all you futurist out there this report is not only required reading, but I might suggest its the basis of so many changes we are going to see in all walks of life. Entitled " Samsung Shows What Our Somewhat-Upredictable Future Will Look Like " , and its going to so different, to what ever you think now, and its all down the the unpredictability of progress, All manufacturers need to read this, and start thinking , what is going to affect my business plan, no wrong answers and certainly plenty of right answers, all suggestions are valid, the article makes big on the IoT and I for one so agree, but we need to break free from rigid thinking and open up ideas. I have just uploaded it to my Evernote Account. My presentation on this, wakes up an audience, and asks so many questions, I have no firm concrete answers, but so many paths to suggest following. Visit my Web page , for my list of presentations, including this presentation "The Manufacturers Glass b...

Over the next few weeks as we head for the poles on the 5th May 2016, we are going to get some pressure from both sides to vote one way or the other. Foe me its not a simple yes or no, I have many questions, and all I can say at present is I am errring on the Exit side, mostly because of the way law is added to the UK by none elected people, and who I have no control over,,,,,,  but I will change my side several times in the weeks to come, so before I final head one way or the other I need to ask some questions, research some facts and read a little, But one area I have been asked is, will an exist affect the UK Architectural Technology Market. The simple answer is I have no real idea, I have a gut feel and its more the labour market for site more than anything else, but perhaps we need to sit and think things through a little. So my starting list of items to consider looks like this : Exit We loose a wide pool of general contractor labour Some materials might be mo...

I blogged this about a year ago, I think the Cicret its so cool, I want one, but as always I shall wait, I currently have a simple iPhone 5 and for the most part it does what I want, but I live on a cusp between Apple and Google, its manageable but some time inconvenient, so when I started receiving calls about my contract coming to an end, I started to thing about what I shall go to next, I must admit, a Google Nexus is becoming interesting,  but so is almost all of the current google Android phones, so I was particularly pleased to see this smart little devise is Android based. I still have not made up my mind, after all my current phone the Apple iPhone 5 works very well, so perhaps a break from the spiral of phone purchase, maybe I stay with Apple, the local Apple store is so good, and Google is,,,, well absent from the high street, and this also works with Apple, oh the choice I face.

It can't have escaped your attention Apple are building a new Campus, there are loads of videos on Youtube, but this article on Mashable is the most up to date. One thing that is not really in this article is the shear scale of the project, something the video's below show.  I looked up the plans again and can't wait till its opened and finished, but one thing I noticed was the small circular building at the bottom of the plot that seems to have the roof held up with just the glass, you have to read the article, Fosters have in my book broken the mould, and made glass so much more a structural item, I can't wait to see the final views, although take a look at the video below, I think this building is now complete, and roof on. See the latest video at the end of this Article. There is a latest video, made in March 2016 what a difference a year makes

I am reversing things today, normally I add my little bit on todays photo last, but todays photo is the main theme of todays notes. It was, whilst I was driving back from Tenbury Wells , or ir it just Tenbury, that I noticed that the hop fields are being planted and restrung, so what I here you ask, well its all part of the weather , and the natural cycle of things, and my natural love of all thing beer related. I have mentioned the use of weather as part of detailing so many times, but driving along I just saw the fields and the long rows of poles with the long strings that the plants climb up, that in its self was so worth stopping for. I have a moleskin full of things to mention, but I just liked the idea of the season changing, plants waking up, and a change in Temperature, although It's probably short lived and we will get freezing weather before the weekend, strange weather is afoot, but one thing thats not going to change is the length and angle of shadows I say not c...

For so long I seemed to work on large projects devoid of trees , even when I worked in insulation, supporting Styrofoam insulation, the only trees I saw were growing in rain water gutters and I might add, doing very well. But they were not of interest to the local authority , and certainly not worth saving, it was only in later years when I started the extensions that I came up against TPO's, or Tree Preservation Orders . So what are we talking about, well trees have certain rights, the planning portal has a lot on this subject, but the general opening page gives it straight : A Tree Preservation Order is an order made by a local planning authority in England to protect specific trees, groups of trees or woodlands in the interests of amenity. An Order prohibits the: cutting down topping lopping uprooting wilful damage wilful destruction of trees without the local planning authority’s written consent. If consent is given, it can be subject to conditions which ...

Most if not all planing applications require both a location plan and a block or site plan. The Location plan, as the name suggests, locates the site, it should be at a scale of 1:1250, or if its a really big site, then 1:2500, it should be based upon an up to date OS map,  The Planning portal says it should be on an A4 sheet, I can't remember doing this ever, all mine are on A3 or larger. It should show sufficient road, road names, houses/buildings to locate the site, a north point and the site outlined in Red, I tend to use a poly line with a nice thick pen, and a little tone to shade the area. A blue line can also be used to show land owned by the client that is close by or adjacent to the site in question. The Site or Block Plan should be drawn at a larger scale I tend to use 1:500 although it can be 1:100 or 1:200, it should show the proposed development in relation to the site boundary again it should show north. Again it should show relevant buildings and road, and...

How far can we take 3D, I had a conversation with a planning professor, recently, and he had no idea as to the use of even existence of Point Cloud, and was only just aware of how the industry is heading towards 3D and BIM, reason, he still received most if not all his planning applications the old way, simple elevations and plans. I started to explain how the industry is heading, the use of 3D and BIM how data rich our files are now, by just clicking onto any portion of the structure a full spec of that material will appear, why do I need to make flat 2D drawings. His first argument was the way they have a responsibility t the general public to take in comment, if they can't read the drawings,,,,, etc, my argument was to show a 3D image and compare it to a flat 2D elevation, the 3D image was easier to read. Next point cloud, again he was astounded that we were at such a level, as we all know the street scene to a planner is the first point of reference to a planning applica...

You might well ask if global warming is myth or fact, simple answer fact. One again the weather is showing an increase in temp, although you might not believe it, I walk my dog most days, and believe me some times I arrive back home thinking, its a myth, I am so cold. But yu only have to look at the global weather data to see whats realy going on. This excellent article on Slate , is a realy good round up with an excellent picture of the globes weather temps, together with some great stats and graphs. OK so I stole the same photo for today, I hope the original author  ric Holthaus  forgives. The article is well written in that he outlines the problems and gives some excellent links for further reading and research. If you have time watch the Geoengineering video, its a look at the basic problems and some ideas to fix the damage. I have long stated that as technologists we need to study weather, its what we detai against, and some of the norms and standards we used to ...