Frog Up or Down

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...

This morning as I walked from the station to the University, I was listening, as I mostly do this time of the morning, to a podcast, I have a backlog at present to go through, but this mornings joy was a podcast on Data, a subject I am particularly interested in. I currently run a course entitled IDD, or Integrated Digital Design., which for the most part looks at how data at a simple level is added and used in the design, my data page on Scays.co.uk is dedicated to this with a series of slide presentations and gets regular updates. But this morning my attention was drawn to the bus stop I was walking past, and the way old paper time tables have now been replaced with digital time tables, ok so I have written about this before, so I started to ponder this subject, can I access this data in the same way I can with similar data like the training for trains running on the Dorridge Chiltern line. The more I look into this subject the more I find new items to ponder, like AI, my nex...

I have not blogged for a few weeks, its been sort of busy, with end of year, sorting marking and working out how I can lecture at two colleges. So many slides and lecture notes to prepare. I have taken Google wholesale into my work pattern, Apple just does not cut it, they are so private, I understand why, but I need to share, so google it is. But this brings me onto a new web page , I so like Sites.Google.com the new version is so easy to use, it still lacks some function, but I can easily use it to create a new site I have made. To this end I purchased Scays.co.uk from the Domains.google.com site, its so easy, and linking it to the new web page just some simple copying of the URL and within about a minute I was up and running. The site is being developed, I want to allow better access to my lectures and slide, it is a work in progress, but it may change. So what else, I have a major research project trying to understand the weather, how we can look at weather patterns ...

Mary Meeker has just given her annual Internet report, so I thought I might review last years presentation, before hand, available on YouTube.  Before I start on this years show. Its fast paced, and busy, she breaks all rules on slide presentation but who cares, you have little time to read them anyway. The slides can be downloaded from LinkedIn , and perused for information, which is vast, and shows all sorts of graphs on computer use, by who, and such things as general population growth , which is why i started to watch these presentations. I have down loaded both 2016 & 2017 slides and added them to both Evernote, but more importantly now, Google Keep , with multiple tags. You might want to review this excellent article on Backchannel , a news site I particularly like, giving a great overview of her work and a very light back ground. You might ask why I listen to her, its simple, the growth of computer use and the type of computer used have a direct link and infl...

I recently read an excellent set of White papers issued by the RIBA re planning, and its almost antiquated approach to both the application method and its use of digital drawings and the data it contain. Its not the first time I have approached this subject, but I was so pleased to see the article in the Vol 25 issue 2 issue of TcT magazine . The White paper which the link above takes you to, consists of several different papers all loosely linked on the subject of digital planning. Quite rightly the author takes a look at the actual application process and takes it a little further to look at the file naming structure, and the ability for search engines to find and load the application, not so simple in current planning sites. The use of Digital applications at planning will encourage Smart City's a reality, the video below I think shows a way forward. They mention City GML, and IFC, GML an open city standard, together with IFC and its open standard between the differen...

Almost a month back, I had to give my professorial speech to the University, the notes below are my speech guide, as always I strayed from the path, but this note set, allowed me to return and stay true to a theme. In all I took an hour to give my speech which was partly recored, and well received. Enjoy ======== For me as a technologist the detail has been everything, from material to volume  I have spent so much time : Designing detail I take a concept and make it work Preparing a design to be interacted with by the construction team But in the past few years all I learned over 45 years has either changed or is being affected by changes in the way we draw and present information, thats the move from a drawing board to CAD and the addition of data, its application and use. In my professorial presentation on which this article is based, I titled this presentation  “Where will the data take us” Perhaps it might better be stated as : “Tim...

Yesterday, one of my colleagues showed me the video below, created by GlidebyJJ - Jody Johnson, its a moving little piece, for a number of reasons, The building was a mental hospital in the USA, called  Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital , it was built in 1876 and was the largest building in the US at the time. This beautiful, historic masterpiece was demolished from May - November 2015.  and for all sorts of reasons it was not a nice place, but putting that aside, the video is packed with interesting construction, its actually reversed, and as the film proceeds, you see the building come to life. I had to watch it several times to get the full impact of the construction, the brickwork, the roof construction, and the floor structure, and as the building completes the final impact of the estate. So often classic buildings are lost to the demolition crane, some are lucky enough to have been photographed, and some even filmed. The film at the bottom is packed wit...

In a few weeks, on the 16th Nov to be precise, I will be giving me professorial speech, which my University, Birmingham City University, Birmingham ask all new professors to do. I plan a Ted style lecture with what I plan on calling 'Times are a changing'. For me, the last few months  have been a rolle coaster of change, with my father passing, and having to  sort his estate. He was a structural draftsmanship and probably the last of the board users, drawing with pencil and ink, never wanting to move into cad, and probably the reason he retired at 65, together with several new projects starting, and a few papers fleshed out. And change is what he saw coming, but in his wildest dreams, he could not imagine the pace of those changes, and the depth. Just before he died we talked about my life drawing and the cad programs I use, I tried to explain what it meant and some of the developments I would see over the next 25 years as I aproach his age of 89. Some of it was pas...

Vectorworks, Inc. Announces English Version of Vectorworks 2017 BIM Software for AEC, Landscape and Entertainment Design Industries New offerings include robust Resource Manager, intelligent door and window styles, a suite of irrigation tools and virtual reality Columbia, MD (September 14, 2016) —Global design and BIM software developer  Vectorworks, Inc.  announces the 2017 release of its Vectorworks product line, which includes Vectorworks® Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, Designer and Fundamentals. The English version is now available with 10 additional language releases planned during the worldwide rollout in the coming months. “Vectorworks software is unique compared to other competing products because of our company’s dedication to pushing the programming of the products to maintain flexibility while offering state-of-the art technology,” said Vectorworks CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar. “Our continued commitment to reengineering parts of the code base enables Vectorw...