Saturday, February 4, 2012
Model Cities
Scale model of the city of Saint-Omer.
PARIS—When defending his realm, Louis XIV not only thought big, but he also worked in visionary 3D. In 1668, his war minister, the Marquis de Louvois, commissioned a large relief map of the port city of Dunkirk to be used in planning the city's fortifications. Others followed—huge exact-scale models of frontier cities and their surroundings—hills, gullies, rivers, forests, villages, roads, farms—that might sustain an enemy siege. The royal collection of scale-model cities grew under Louis XV, Louis XVI and both Napoleons, until modern warfare, post-1870, made them obsolete. Of the original 260, some 100 have survived, most housed in their own museum in the Hôtel des Invalides—28 on display, the rest stored in pieces.
Sixteen models from the reserves, some never before shown in public, have been re-assembled under the immense glass-roofed nave of the Grand Palais for "La France en Reliefs"—a spectacular, beautifully mounted, must-see show.
Encased in glass, many with ramps for viewing from above, the miniature cities (mostly scaled 1:600) include Briançon, Grenoble, Strasbourg and a few formerly French bastions now in bordering countries. The largest is Cherbourg, at 160 square meters.
All were constructed in tabletop sections, like pieces of an enormous puzzle, from detailed surveyor drawings. The topography is formed on wooden slats, with details modeled in papier-mâché. Water is oil paint; surface soil is sand sifted onto glue; tinted silk was shredded for vegetation, and wound around tiny wire stems for trees in permanent springtime. Precisely rendered buildings, from houses to cathedrals, are linden wood covered with painted or engraved paper depicting windows, doors and roofs. They were tools of war, but beyond any doubt they remain works of art.
via: http://online.wsj.com/
http://www.maison-histoire.fr/
http://youtu.be/t_EvKkA77Uk
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Paul Rudolph
“Urban Retreat” in New York city by Paul Rudolph (Video) via: http://www.homedsgn.com/2012/01/12/iconic-urban-retreat-in-new-york-city-by-paul-rudolph-video/
Thursday, December 29, 2011
The High Line
Some pieces of architecture change a city and some change architecture. I believe the High Line is on of these rare projects. I first featured this on ~woot~ last week http://jeanricard.tumblr.com/post/14628074507/high-line-section-2-before-and-after. Here is a video that explains why I am taken with this work.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
High Line Phase Two from arbuckle industries on Vimeo.
If it does not display See it here: http://vimeo.com/26340409
High Line Phase Two from arbuckle industries on Vimeo.
If it does not display See it here: http://vimeo.com/26340409
Sunday, December 25, 2011
$25 Computer
via: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16316439
on another note a Press releaseFXI DEMONSTRATES ANY SCREEN CONNECTED COMPUTING
USB Companion Adapter Enables Screens to Access the Cloud and Mobile Content
New York, NY and Trondheim, Norway – November 17, 2012 - FXI Technologies, a hardware and software startup based in Trondheim Norway, demonstrated today the world's first any screen, connected computing USB device. Codenamed "Cotton Candy", this sweet little device serves as a technology bridge between any display, the Cloud, and any input peripheral.
The vision for Cotton Candy is to allow users a single, secure point of access to all personal Cloud services and apps through their favorite operating system, while delivering a consistent experience on any screen. The device will serve as a companion to smartphones, tablets, notebook PC and Macs, as well add smart capabilities to existing displays, TVs, set top boxes and game consoles.
"Today's device functionality is often limited by the size of the screen it inhabits," said Borgar Ljosland, founder and CEO of FXI Technologies. "We've turned things upside down, eliminating the screen and delivering the power of a PC and the web to any screen."
Cotton Candy is a prototype USB stick equipped with an ARM® Cortex™-A9 (1.2GHz) CPU, an ARM Mali™-400 MP (Quad-core) GPU, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, HDMI output and the Android operating system. It decodes MPEG-4, H.264 and other video formats and display HD graphics on any HDMI equipped screen. Content is then accessed through a secure FXI web portal and can be controlled via smartphones, keyboards, mice and other USB peripherals.
"By leveraging the strengths of ARM CPU and GPU cores, FXI has packed an amazing amount of computing horsepower into a completely new form factor," said Pete Hutton, general manager of multimedia processor division, ARM. "Weighing only 21 grams and so energy-efficient that it can be powered from a USB port, the Cotton Candy offers a unique consumer experience, which will bring Cloud computing to almost any screen."
FXI's Cotton Candy plans to:
Provide consumer-friendly access to the Cloud.
Accelerate the adoption of "smart screens".
Extend the life of consumer hardware like laptops, monitors, TVs, set top boxes, tablets and more by accessing the latest OS, software and apps.
Create a single point of content storage.
Consolidation and organization of personal digital content.
Share media from mobile devices on large screens and projectors - videos, movies, photos, games and more.
Drive down the cost of computing, allowing more people to have a personal, secure computer.
"With the broad acceptance of Cloud computing and the advancement in processor technologies, the concept of a "screen-less PC" is a natural evolution in the form factor of computing devices," said Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie and Associates. "The connectivity, flexibility and multi-screen compatibility of FXI's Cotton Candy makes it like a computer built specifically for the Cloud."
About the Demonstration
FXI demonstrated Cotton Candy for the first time by connecting it via HDMI to a 42" HDTV running Android and displaying YouTube videos and 3D games. Then, they switched to a word processing and spread sheet application. Next, they unplugged Cotton Candy from the TV and connected it via USB to a Windows and then a Mac laptop to play Angry Birds on the Android OS.
"The laptop use case shows how with FXI's patent protected Any Screen Virtualization Protocol, Cotton Candy can take over a host device's screen to display Internet connected content," said Ljosland. "We believe these usage scenarios will be easily adopted by consumers and FXI's USB connected computing devices will make an ideal companion for the multitude of digital devices and screens people touch daily."
The implications of a connected companion device are broad and have yet to fully be discovered. "Imagine any screen being a window to your digital world," added Ljosland. The possibilities are endless."
Availability
Currently FXI Tech is sampling prototypes to key OEM partners from the set top box, memory, PC, mobile phone, appliance, in-car entertainment and other industries. Consumer pricing has not yet been established, but product is expected to be available in volumes the second half of 2012. OEMs interested in sampling the device may contact sales@fxitech.com.
About FXI
FXI Technologies (www.fxitech.com) is a Norway-based hardware and software startup dedicated to making the world of digital screens smart and personal.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Technology & Money
This story starts in the 1850s with the founding of Western Union Telegraph and the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution.
When Morse was approaching his eightieth birthday it was felt among the telegraph fraternity at Western Union that a formal testimonial in the U.S. should be given to honor him - Saturday, June 10th, 1871 Morses final message was:" Greeting and thanks to the Telegraph fraternity throughout the world.
Glory to God in the Highest, on Earth Peace, Goodwill to men."S ... F .-. B -... M -- O . . R . .. S ... E .
Ezra Cornell’s story is the story of the telegraph in America. Always confident of its great commercial future, he enthusiastically demonstrated it, enlisted capital, and built lines. Although doing so frequently left his family destitute, he always took a large part of his pay in stocks, and invested in the first telegraph company, which connected New York and Washington. He built lines from the Hudson to Philadelphia and from New York to Albany, as well as lines in New York, Vermont and Quebec, and west to Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee. He was involved in the rapid construction of subsidiary lines, especially in the midwest, where the telegraph preceded rather than followed the railroad.
The early days of the telegraph industry were tumultuous. Many companies were formed, operated briefly and died. Stronger companies managed to survive despite conflicts, deception, and numerous lawsuits. Service on the hastily built lines was frequently unreliable. In 1851, the New York & Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company was organized in Rochester by Hiram Sibley and others, with the goal of creating one great system with unified and efficient operations. Meanwhile, Cornell had bought back one of his bankrupt companies and renamed it the New York & Western Union Telegraph Company. Originally fierce competitors, by 1855 both groups were finally convinced that consolidation was their only alternative for progress. The merged company was named The Western Union Telegraph Company at Cornell’s insistence. Western Union rapidly expanded operations to most parts of the United States and Canada. While Cornell now took a less active role, he continued to have great faith in the telegraph. He held on to his Western Union stock, and for more than fifteen years was the company’s largest stockholder.
Western Union bought out smaller companies rapidly, and by 1860 its lines reached from the East Coast to the Mississippi River, and from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River. In 1861 it opened the first transcontinental telegraph. In 1865 it formed the Russian American Telegraph in an attempt to link America to Europe, via Alaska, into Siberia, to Moscow. (This project was abandoned in 1867.) The company enjoyed phenomenal growth during the next few years. Its capitalization rose from $385,700 in 1858 to $41 million in 1876. However it was top-heavy with stock issues, and faced growing competition from several firms, especially the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company—itself taken over by financier Jay Gould in 1875. In 1881 Gould took control of Western Union.
It introduced the first stock ticker in 1866, and a standardized time service in 1870. The next year, 1871, the company introduced its money transfer service, based on its extensive telegraph network. In 1879, Western Union left the telephone business, having lost a patent lawsuit with Bell Telephone Company. As the telephone replaced the telegraph, money transfer would become its primary business.
When the Dow Jones Transportation Average stock market index for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was created in 1884, Western Union was one of the original eleven all-American companies tracked.
By 1900 Western Union operated a million miles of telegraph lines and two international cables.
Image: Cornell 1910 via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rummell,_Richard_Cornell_University.jpg
In 1862 the Morrill Land Grant Act had been passed, appropriating public lands to aid state agricultural and mechanical colleges. By 1864, Cornell’s family, his personal philanthropies, and the Public Library required only a small part of his considerable fortune. He had been elected to the New York State Senate, where he made the acquaintance of Andrew Dickson White of Syracuse. Through discussions with White, the idea of a university grew in Cornell’s mind. When the Legislature met in 1865, White introduced a bill in the Senate “to establish the Cornell University and to appropriate to it the income of the sale of public lands granted to this State.” After much political maneuvering, the bill was passed in the Assembly on April 21, in the Senate on April 22, and was signed by Governor Reuben E. Fenton on April 27. The first meeting of the Board of Trustees was held on April 28. Cornell endowed the university through an outright gift of $500,000, to which would be added the sum realized by Cornell’s purchase of the Morrill land scrip from the state.
Cornell was closely involved in all aspects of the new university. He superintended construction and purchased equipment, books, and collections. On October 7, 1868, Inauguration Day, 412 students, the largest entering class admitted to any American college up to that time, came to Ithaca. Cornell gave a brief address, concluding with the University’s newly adopted motto: “Finally, I trust we have laid the foundation of an University—an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.”
The second story of wealth & philanthropy
LVMH to Buy Duty-Free Empire for $2.47 Billion
NYT Published: October 30, 1996
LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton, the French luxury goods conglomerate, has signed an agreement to buy a controlling interest in DFS Group Ltd., the lucrative empire of duty free shops, for $2.47 billion, DFS announced yesterday.
But Robert W. Miller, the high-flying billionaire who holds a 38.75 percent stake in DFS, is seeking to block the sale of the stake by his longtime partner and co-founder of the company, Charles F. Feeney, and Alan M. Parker, the company’s tax lawyer. Together they own 58 percent.
Rumpled by habit, limping on old knees, smiling faintly after a night of celebration, Chuck Feeney stepped out of a building on Park Avenue Monday night and vanished, carried away on a river of passing strangers who knew nothing about him. Perfectly disguised as an ordinary man, Mr. Feeney, one of the most generous and secretive philanthropists of modern times, had dropped from sight once again. It is a skill he mastered over decades.
Last year, the foundation Mr. Feeney created, the Atlantic Philanthropies, gave $458 million in grants around the world, more than any United States charity except two, the Ford and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations. Atlantic, and small predecessors also started by Mr. Feeney, have given $4 billion since 1982; the plan is to give away the remaining assets — now $4 billion, but growing every day — by 2017.
Despite this record, Mr. Feeney is little known, a result of the web of intrigues that he fashioned to disguise his identity, his wealth and his giving. Atlantic does not appear in the annual rankings of the biggest American philanthropies because it was set up in Bermuda, to avoid the disclosures required in the United States. A rare glimpse of Mr. Feeney’s story emerged a decade ago during a business dispute, but he quickly disappeared from the news.
Now, however, Mr. Feeney, who is 76 years old and grew up in Elizabeth, N.J., is stepping out from behind his veil. He cooperated with a biographer, the journalist Conor O’Clery, whose book, “The Billionaire Who Wasn’t,” is being published by PublicAffairs. In it, he describes how Mr. Feeney and his partners went into business nearly 50 years ago selling five-pack boxes of liquor to American sailors in ports around Europe, and expanded into a worldwide empire of duty-free airport shops — often one quick step ahead of police or immigration authorities.
It is also reported: Then, by the use of off-shore cutout corporations, he gained anonymity to pursue his philanthropic goals. To further protect his identity, he did not even take a tax deduction for his charitable contributions.
For a great read of the History of DFS Group Ltd read more here:http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/DFS-Group-Ltd-company-History.html
Jump to December 2011:
On Monday afternoon, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg will announce that Cornell University and its partner Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have been approved to build a two million square foot Roosevelt Island campus focusing on technology and engineering.
The announcement will be made at Cornell’s Weill Medical Campus in New York at 2:30 p.m., and also broadcast live on the web at Cornell’s web site. (The Wall Street Journal first reported Cornell’s selection on Sunday.)
Bloomberg’s office first solicited bids for a new applied sciences and technology research campus in July. The city offered public land and funding with the goal of boosting economic growth and consolidating the city’s reputation as an emerging hub for tech companies and startups.
In retrospect, Cornell seems like an inevitable choice, not least because of its longstanding ties to New York. Cornell’s medical school literally overlooks the site of the new campus across the East River. The Ivy League university upstate also has deep pockets, a strong engineering pedigree and NYC satellite campuses in Wall Street and Midtown specializing in financial mathematics, design and architecture, and co-operative learning.
Still, Cornell first had to contend with Stanford University and its long track record of creating a technology and business ecosystem in California’s Silicon Valley. All told, fifteen universities expressed interest and seven submitted bids, including Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, and New York’s own Columbia University and New York University.
Just this week, Stanford surprisingly withdrew its proposal and Cornell announced a $350 million anonymous gift supporting its own. That appears to have decisively swung the deal.
The donor whose $350 million gift will be critical in building Cornell University’s new high-tech graduate school on Roosevelt Island is Atlantic Philanthropies, whose founder, Charles F. Feeney, is a Cornell alumnus who made billions of dollars through the Duty Free Shoppers Group.This post was cut from ~woot~, my tumblr blog. I find Tumblr to be simple fast and a great place to store cut and pastes like this. It is of the type of post I have been doing while researching for a book I am writing which links history to technology & current events.
Comments are welcome.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
CS101
Computer Science 101
Nick Parlante
Class starts February 2012
CS101 teaches the essential ideas of Computer Science for a zero-prior-experience audience. Computers can appear very complicated, but in reality, computers work within just a few, simple patterns. CS101 demystifies and brings those patterns to life, which is useful for anyone using computers today.In CS101, students play and experiment with short bits of "computer code" to bring to life to the power and limitations of computers. Everything works within the browser, so there is no extra software to download or install. CS101 also provides a general background on computers today: what is a computer, what is hardware, what is software, what is the internet. No previous experience is required other than the ability to use a web browser.
- When does the class start? The class will start in February 2012.
- What is the format of the class? The class will consist of lecture videos, which are broken into small chunks, usually between eight and twelve minutes each. Some of these may contain integrated quiz questions. There will also be standalone quizzes that are not part of video lectures, and programming assignments. There will be approximately two hours worth of video content per week.
- Will the text of the lectures be available? We hope to transcribe the lectures into text to make them more accessible for those not fluent in English. Stay tuned.
- Do I need to watch the lectures live? No. You can watch the lectures at your leisure.
- Can online students ask questions and/or contact the professor? Yes, but not directly There is a Q&A forum in which students rank questions and answers, so that the most important questions and the best answers bubble to the top. Teaching staff will monitor these forums, so that important questions not answered by other students can be addressed.
- Will other Stanford resources be available to online students? No.
- How much does it cost to take the course? Nothing: it's free!
- Will I get university credit for taking this course? No.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
The Big Make & DYI Movemnet
There has been a Movement especially in NYC over the past 5 years. one Company was Instructables who were bought by Autodesk August 2011.
Arduino, MakerBot, O’Reilly’s Maker Magazine, Craft Magazine and Maker Faire, Etsy, Kickstarter, Inventables, Tinkercad
From their about page:
Instructables is a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others. The seeds of Instructables germinated at the MIT Media Lab as the future founders of Squid Labs built places to share their projects and help others. Read more about the history...
In August 2011 Instructables joined Autodesk, a leader in 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software. Read more about why we're excited to be part of Autodesk.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Autodesk bringing 3D modeling to the masses | CNET News
You may not know CAD, but if you’ve got a computer, you can now start creating 3D models.
That’s the idea behind 123D Catch and 123D Make, two new free software applications that Autodesk is planning on releasing on Monday. The two programs join the company’s existing iPad app, 123D Sculpt, as part of a family of tools that are intended to give just about anyone the ability not just to make their own 3D designs, but also to get them produced as real, physical models.
Autodesk unveiled the two new applications at a press event at its innovation center here today, making the argument that just about anyone can now play the role of 3D modeler that has traditionally belonged to CAD experts and other professional designers.
With 123D Catch, a user can take any digital camera and use it to photograph a real-world object. By snapping a few dozen pictures from angles all around the object and then uploading them to Autodesk’s cloud-based system via the software, the user can within minutes get back a 3D model of the object. Autodesk will process the model at no charge.
via: Autodesk bringing 3D modeling to the masses | CNET News
That’s the idea behind 123D Catch and 123D Make, two new free software applications that Autodesk is planning on releasing on Monday. The two programs join the company’s existing iPad app, 123D Sculpt, as part of a family of tools that are intended to give just about anyone the ability not just to make their own 3D designs, but also to get them produced as real, physical models.
Autodesk unveiled the two new applications at a press event at its innovation center here today, making the argument that just about anyone can now play the role of 3D modeler that has traditionally belonged to CAD experts and other professional designers.
With 123D Catch, a user can take any digital camera and use it to photograph a real-world object. By snapping a few dozen pictures from angles all around the object and then uploading them to Autodesk’s cloud-based system via the software, the user can within minutes get back a 3D model of the object. Autodesk will process the model at no charge.
via: Autodesk bringing 3D modeling to the masses | CNET News
CENSORED - Tumblr gets the word out
Today I found my Tumblr Blog edit window blacked out
with this message behind
Congress is considering two well-intentioned but deeply flawed bills, the PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
As written, they would betray more than a decade of US policy and advocacy of Internet freedom by establishing a censorship system using the same domain blacklisting technologies pioneered by China and Iran.
As written, they would betray more than a decade of US policy and advocacy of Internet freedom by establishing a censorship system using the same domain blacklisting technologies pioneered by China and Iran.
As written, they would betray more than a decade of US policy and advocacy of Internet freedom by establishing a censorship system using the same domain blacklisting technologies pioneered by China and Iran.
Read more: An Open Letter EFF Ars Technica Fred Wilson
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Home Sales & World Prices
Interesting chart from (of all places) McKinsey, circa October 2009:
“From 2000 through 2007, a remarkable run-up in global home prices occurred (see chart). But that trend has reversed abruptly. In 2008, the value of US residential real estate fell 10 percent; the global average fared only somewhat better, declining by almost 4 percent. We estimate that falling home prices erased more than $3.4 trillion of household wealth in 2008.”The chart below reads to me as having regular cycles, oscillating within a range. But something happened in the early 2000s to have that range explode upwards.
(Please note the title is from McKinsey, I have long stated this was a credit bubble –not a housing bubble)
via: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/11/a-global-view-of-the-housing-bubble/
US Single-Family New Home Starts and Sales
US Distressed Sales Share of Total Home Sales
via: http://financialservices.house.gov/UploadedFiles/FSOCAR2011.pdf
State of the Art - Modeling In SketchUp
I found this example by Ramy Hanna that shows mastery of Sketchup. Some people make it look easy.
Modeling In SketchUp from Ramy Hanna on Vimeo.
Modeling In SketchUp from Ramy Hanna on Vimeo.
I decided to capture my modeling process. For modeling I usually use SketchUp. After seeing this video, hopefully you will understand why. It is a very powerful program for modeling architecture. It's so fast and easy to create objects, and edit them after creation. The models also import into 3dsmax very clean and light.
The entire model took 5 1/2 hours to model.
Friday, October 28, 2011
CodeAcademy
Among many thing that interest me are (technology & eduction) & the explosion of NYC as the new Silicon Valley aka "Silicon Alley". I found some interesting things today. The rush of capital & Major Universities to NYC & another new startup CodeAcademy. I Just emailed my son this:
Jeff
http://www.codecademy.com/#!/exercise/1
They just raised 2.5 Million for this new site. Great Idea !
via: The NewYorkTimes
Jeff
http://www.codecademy.com/#!/exercise/1
They just raised 2.5 Million for this new site. Great Idea !
Codecademy, a Web site that teaches people how to program for free, just got a lift for its lesson plan: $2.5 million in venture financing.Dad
On Thursday, the start-up announced that it raised a Series A round of cash from a bevy of noted venture capital firms, including Union Square Ventures, O’Reilly Ventures, SV Angel and CrunchFund and from a number of angel investors, including Joshua Schachter, founder of Delicious and Jig.
“Our main goal is to hire people to help manage content and add new features,” said Zach Sims, who co-founded Codecademy with Ryan Bubinski, a developer and former classmate at Columbia University. “Right now, there are still only two of us working on the company.”
Codecademy was introduced over the summer and has attracted a flurry of interest since then. More than half a million people have used the site and close to 1,000 developers submitted sample lessons to help others learn how to program. The new venture financing will help the company sustain that early traction, Mr. Sims said.
“We’re starting to build a community around our lessons,” he said. In addition, the company said it would use the money to establish its headquarters, which Mr. Sims said would most likely be in New York.
via: The NewYorkTimes
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