Frog Up or Down

So here I am, at home, keeping out of everyone's way. The University is closed, so no travelling back and forward on crowed trains, plus I am saving a shed load of cash, no mid-morning breaks, two or three trips to the coffee machine and that odd chocolate bar mid-afternoon. But I have never been so busy at home, first, the University may be closed, but only for face to face teaching, we have moved to the cloud and that means holding lectures online, getting students onto the preferred sharing platform, ie Microsofts Teams, and to a very small extent Zoom, plus whats app, text and mobile. Next, it's the slides I use, most are great for general lecturing but needed to be updated to account for presenting online, so a lot of lecturer notes and individual video's for each slide, plus a complete video of the lecture. I am also sending out mini-blogs organising the lectures and in my case organising the linked lectures related to my module IDD or Integrated Digital Design...

I watch listen and read about AI with interest, not because I understand it, but more, I need to understand it, simply because I can see how our building will at some point integrate AI into its fundamental running, So often we design and detail building in the vain hope that the client and subsequent owners will run the building as we envisaged, clean it as we want and occupy it in the way he told us in the brief. But in reality, this is never quite to way, Clients don't understand, or can't afford it, or simply think they know best !! AI will, if used correctly, run the building as we envisaged, and adapt as life depicts, understand new owners and shout loudly when they abuse the design. To this end, I listen to a podcast and also read Lex Fridman's articles on the subject, his latest podcast and one I have listened to twice is a conversation he has with  Alex Garland, this link takes you to a page with almost every podcast player, choose your poison. But the vid...

For so long, I have been teaching that Augmented Reality will take over how we draw and overlay the technical parameters of our designs on reality. the technology has its ups and downs, Google glass lead the way, but fell due in part to the lack of foresight in the public, "Magic leap" has tantalised us with hints of what might be, but as yet have failed to deliver. The same goes for so many startups. Yet both Google and Apple are poised to offer us the next phase of Augmented life and it looks interesting to the point I might even have to keep my MacBook Pro. This article on Medium, and if you do not have an account here, get one, they are a major repository of so many interesting articles, but I digress. The article by Novac B, offers a lot of reason why Apple might just pull of another leap in Technology over the efforts of Google, that will, like the iPhone and Mac, send us into raptures and back into the Apple stores. The article is titled Apple’s Smart Glasses ...

I did not invent the name of this blog it came from previous lecturers at Birmingham City University. But over the last two years of my involvement, I have made it my own, steering first and second-year students along the digital path, now encompassing Architecture, from CAD to the ultimate end of the Smart City, Self-driving cars, the future. For some its a mind-blowing entrance to a University Degree course, for some, it's well an opening to their future. They seem to soak up the knowledge, some are gamers,  they have a mindset that understands the route ahead. So far for the last 5 weeks, I have introduced the concept of the digital world, but today I introduced all of the past weeks into the start of the world of CAD, the introduction of Data to the 3D model and its use, as part of what's known as BIM. It's not an easy route, made harder by the fact that the group is made up of Architectural Technologists, Building Surveyors, Quantity Surveyors,  Planners and Con...

I awoke yesterday to be confronted by the news of Freeman Dyson's death. Who you might ask, well he was a Theoretical Physicist, a man who dreamed of things and tried to make it work with very complicated mathematics. For most it was his episode of Startrek and Picard's discovery of a Dyson Sphere, also staring the last appearance of Scotty. His daughter, one of many children he leaves, is EstherDyson her book 2.1 is required reading. on Computer Science and the internet, I have an old copy I purchased on my travels through an airport. The Guardian has an excellent obituary of Freeman, his life and Family, his awards and papers. Although searching on Google Scholar has many of his papers. If like me you can access many of them they are excellent reading, well mostly, a couple are full of complex maths I can't begin to follow.

As a boy, I used to bike everywhere, the distance was no object, but as I started work, the joy of this activity fell by the wayside, a car began to take the lead and I travelled all over Europe for business. But now as I enter retirement, biking is taking my interest again, and one cycle, in particular, a Brompton, I have one on loan, just to see if this is not just a fad, well I am pleased to say its not. So I am looking for my own, new or secondhand. I have a few trips planned, but it's going to have to be a summer expedition, I have tried cycling in the wet and its not fun, so Fairweather cycling it is. But why a Brompton, well it's simple, I intend to use trains as part of my travels, it's folding nature allows easy access and no problems, My first trip will be on the train to London and a meeting on the Euston road, then on to the Kings Cross area to look at the Google building, and I hope a small report. I use a Pixel phone, so along with my Brompton, a  han...

Its that time of my life when I suddenly realise its all over, 50 years working and I am seriously considering that final move to retirement. I had dinner with a friend last night and although he retired 20 years ago, he is busier than ever. Will that be for me, I wonder. I take a look at what's available, I could go as a consultant and earn a little, but that means forming a company again, accounts and insurance, and that is just not appealing. No that's not the right route for me. Can I start writing, Mmmmm now this seems to be more like what I want, a little writing each morning sound good, but what do I write about, old work-related subjects or something completely new, or perhaps a side of my business life that I have never delved into? This last thought has me thinking, and the more I dwell on the subject the more I think, this just might be for me. I have my Scays web site and I wonder if this is the tool for expanding this new area. Scays.co.uk , was and still ...