I never thought about the old and gone, till I saw you guys talking about it. The first thing that comes to mind is the San Francisco fire around 1908 or so, that would be neat. I only wish I could model like the rest of you can.

Here's my favorite Google page http://www.google.com/intl/xx-piglatin/

I always thought Santa must be a fan of the International Style- so much easier to park the sleigh on flat roofs!

A few more regularly updated pods; http://debbiemillman.blogspot.com/ A good long list of interviews with designers http://iconocast.typepad.com/ American design practice's podcasts on design issues http://www.bdonline.co.uk/hybrid.asp?navcode=2064 British Building Design

Edson you are correct in the lecture notes there is the use of Sketchup for the course. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Architecture/4-101Experiencing-Architecture-StudioSpring2003/LectureNotes/index.htm

Roger, I have done quite a bit - sent you a PM

@jackson said: LOL From a British point of view that photograph is hilarious! The hand gesture combined with the expression on your face create the perfect illusion of a drunken lout who has gatecrashed a high-society party! Brilliant! I most probably did... The funniest is that whenever a VIP person comes into town it's always me ho has to guide him/her around. Regardless / in spite of my gestures and facial expressions. And they always take pictures and film us and I show up everywhere in the local media like this This gallery however is just across the street where my "regular" corner bar is. So when we finished and the VIP's went for their preppy lunch, I went to have a drink...

@tomsdesk said: Mike, I actually looked into it: couldn't get near the machine for twice the price. Plus, the nearest (and only) Mac dealer/support is 60 miles away (and they know it :~( the next closest is almost 200 miles. Oh well. Tom, You are right, Macs are more expensive that equivalent PCs BUT, and its a BUT that is worth considering. Most if not all Mac Retailers WILL trade in your old Mac in 18 - 24 months time when you want to upgrade. They have this market created with students. This has been the case with my daughter's recent upgrade. Now try and find a PC Retailers that will take a trade-in on your old PC! You seem to be worried about backup! Yes, I agree this is very important when it comes to PCs BUT with the case of Macs the location of the retailer is not that important as once you make your purchase the chances are you wont be in contact again until you need to upgrade, believe me I got an 'out of the blue' call some weeks ago from some guy trying to sell me a Mac Back-Up Pack! I listened to what he had to say and it seemed that he must have been a 'freelancer' trying to get Mac Users to sign an Apple Maintenance Contract. I hope this is not his main source of income, if it is, I imagine he will be facing lean times Needless to say I did not take him up on the deal. On the other hand I ALWAYS signed up for the MC when I was buying PCs and often was very glad I did. Oh! and not to forget the monies forked over to my local PC Maintenace Shop. he was very disappointed to see me moving over to Mac! Just as a batter of interest! How many freelance Mac Maintence Shops do you see around? I've yet to come across one but have no problem locating freelance PC Maintenace Shops! Tom, look at the figures again! Spread them over 18-24 months and take the trade-in deal into account ALSO the 'No Down Time' / Maintenance Costs THEN reach a decision. Its like most quality products, once the initial purchase has been made (suffered) its all fun after that ..... most definately the case with a Mac. Mike

To be clear, by first movie I meant Batman Begins. But please dont take it to the extreme that guy did, he has so much batman stuff it is unbelievable. If you are anything like a sane person you wont be able to deal with the junk!

pretty cool, thanks

I've looked at Modo in the past but found it a bit daunting after using Sketchup and didn't have the time to look at it any more detail. I might test the new version again when they get round to making a free demo available, as the renders look great. I have to say though that the projects in the link could all be done very easily in Sketchup, there was no organic modelling involved. Personally speaking I can hardly think of a single project where I needed to do 'organic' modelling. It's talked about a lot as a shortcoming of Sketchup, but for those involved in architecture/urban design, organic modelling is rarely required unless you're Frank Gehry! Having said that there is a modeller called MOI which is meant to be easy to use for curvy stuff which might be worth a trial: http://moi3d.com/index.htm Kenny

On this side of the world 2 years ago was the first snowfall in almost 40 years (and i was out), so i don't think i will see snow this year, but on the plus side last month was almost still summer.

That makes sense though. One teacher I had was an English major, but he often would bring interesting things to me to read during my lunch hour, or have some story to tell me about some thing or another. One time he explained to me alot of stuff about how the human brain reacts in isolated situations. The example that he used was the Tom Hanks movie, Cast Away. If left alone long enough, without sufficient stimuli, the human brain will attempt to create its own things to interact with. A form of torture is sensory deprivation for a reason; after a while the victim will begin to see, hear, or feel things that arent there. Although I do have to admit that I don't want to be on that plane when the pilot suddenly thinks he is no longer in control of the plane.

A perfect example of the best ideas being the simplest- what a cool product! I don't know how you would go about manufacturing it, but imagine if you could jumble around the optic fibres so they weren't running laterally or parallel- you would get a jumbled up "shadow" of whatever (or whoever) was on the other side, with little or no recognisable features. Plato's slaves would have their work cut out interpreting those shadows!

Test successful. Your Focus just winked at me

OOps I had the day and month switched in my profile. My Bday is really feb 12th. But unfortuanately the year was correct I'm getting older, At least I can say I'm in my early forties...and 50 is still more than 5 years away. I will however always be a little kid at heart, which is one reason I think I like Sketchup so much it lets the inner child in me have fun.

Sorry Al, not getting notifications! Oh, I've got your 3D.PDFs scattered all over my site! I'd appreciate any links from your site. here are a few .. Dojo PDFs on this page http://woodsshop.com/Dojo/Dojo_Plans.htm Japanese Gate http://woodsshop.com/Japanese_gate_plans.htm Moon Gate http://woodsshop.com/MoonGate/MoonGate_Kit/Moon_Gate_Kit.htm http://woodsshop.com/MoonGate/MoonGate_Kit/documents/Moon_Gate_KIT.pdf

Thank you for the recipe Eric, I have never cooked a Turkey before, (thanksgiving is not a Kiwi custom,) but now I can give it a shot. It sounds an ideal way to cook a good feed and clean the oven at the same time. Much more humane than cooking pregnant Turkeys I'm sure. I may try it for my Xmas dinner. Cheers, Bill

Happy happy happy!

IRender is at: http://forums.renderplus.com/wiki/index.php?title=IRender You can download a trial version from: http://www.renderplus.com/pdf/download.htm Let us know if you have any problems or need any helo.. IRender Plus currently works with .RPC files, but not with the new ArchVision "All Access" mode.