Shaun -- No itchy sweaters for me. I've lost 25 pounds in the last month so I'll soon be able to model a speedo (or thong) at the pool!

Regards, Ross

Here's a pool that's nice and refreshing. Hop in! I acknowledge I was lazy when it came to fixing the tile trim around the pool. It was just a quick visualization for a client. Notice the use of SketchUp's "ground" as the ocean beyond. My thanks to the FormFonts' artists for making it an easy job.

Regards, Ross

designstop.com

A blog about my aluminum Camplite trailer by LivinLite. The blog relates to Quicksilver, VRV, & Camplite models, & to small trailers & rvs in general.

(www.designstop.com)

@alan fraser said:

... it would seem that Google is claiming ownership of all content on the 3D Warehouse, whether it's Google-modelled or not. It would seem that you can't even model something entirely original that even LOOKS like something on the Warehouse without incurring their wrath...

I'm confused Alan. The Terms of Service at 3dWarehouse (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/en/tos.html) say this: "Your Rights: Google claims no ownership or control over any Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through the 3D Warehouse".You imply they say otherwise. Where?

Regards, Ross

One fear I've always had about ImageShack and the like relates to how vulnerable they can make the forums that depend on them. Any day, an ImageShack could go out of business and thousands of forums would irretrievably loose all attachments. I remember a few years back, in the city where I used to live, there was the headquarters of one of the first successful photo sharing gallery sites. It had millions of users who posted albums there. One day, without any warning, they shut down. I recall reading reports of the widespread impact of that closure on forums and newsgroups and that the company management even had to hire bodyguards because the closure made so many people angry at them.

Coen, I really don't think most members here would mind a few adverts or GoogleAds if it meant you could make these forums more self-supporting. I'm sure most would agree you personally should not have to financially support these forums. So far you have been very generous but hopefully you can establish a business model for them that can help you sustain them. Like Alan I worry you can overextend yourself trying to selflessly serve the members. I hope after you get things established you can step away somewhat and let your forums run themselves with the help of volunteers. You should be able to get back to earning a living and reaching your dreams. (You deserve to reach those dreams). I know you are having fun now making this work --- In due course please shift your focus back to our friend Coen. He's a real gem.

Regards, Ross

Spam over at the official SU forums has been growing in recent months as I'm sure Alan can confirm. Between him and I we have probably deleted and banned close to a thousand in recent months. Because of their visiting patterns, I suspect most members were not even aware of how big the spamming problem had become. It may even be part of the reason Google want to migrate to Groups. I presume at Groups they'll have more resources to control spam than the vBulletin system offered us. Also note that with regards to member numbers at the SU forums -- the totals did not include all those who were banned. At those forums there was almost always a significant number of "guests" on at any time -- they could be real guests or just members checking in without logging in. I'd suggest that at any period there have only been 100 or so members over there who are actively posting and that group was always in flux. Like Alan suggests, it really would be difficult to make accurate predictions based on the numbers. One interesting statistic -- as a long-time active member over there I have 50mb of attachments over there. Alan & Mike my well have a lot more. There would be members (Like Brandon and all his car components) with far more. I think it does suggest that over time SketchUcation's server requirements could grow very large if attachments are hosted here.

Regards, Ross

I too just rotated my wrist with mouse-in-hand 90 degrees and it felt comfortable. Then I tried clicking one of the sideways buttons. That felt really odd and it made me wonder if clicking sideways would make you fight the positioning of the mouse. When you click down the mouse doesn't move horizontally much (if any). With the side-ways mouse wouldn't each click be a battle to hold the mouse from moving?

Hi Adam -- I'm not quite sure what I'm looking at in your posted image. It is great that you figured out support for SU textures & UV's. Hopefully Didier can add your code into the next version of the SU2SF script.

My hope is that eventually we can use the plugin to define material attributes like shininess to specific SU materials without needing to rename those materials and edit the exported file as is now necessary.

Regards, Ross

I suppose not everyone would have the guts to hop on one of those unicycles. Some of you guys would probably be more comfortable driving one of these babies.

I think Mike would have trouble with the fuel consumption of that monster quadricycle. It really is more of a show than go vehicle. In contrast this gyroscope stabilized unicycle concept promises to be both fun and environmentally friendly.

Regards, Ross

Hey Mike that's pretty cool but I think I'd prefer this quadricycle. 0-60mph in 2.5 seconds could be lots of fun at stoplights.

Regards, Ross

Very Interesting!

Something to watch for...

First the background: The Nintendo Wii game system uses bluetooth communications between its controllers and the console. There have been people who have created drivers for computers to allow the Wii controllers to be used with your computer. For instance with the appropriate driver installed and a bluetooth adapter, you can use a wireless Wii wand controller instead of a mouse.

Now here's what to watch for: Nintendo have developed a new foot-pad controller for the game system. They call it the "Wii Balance Board". It looks like an electronic bathroom scale. It is far more advanced than a bathroom scale in the way it is pressure sensitive. They already have developed demo programs for it where you your weight transfer from foot to foot is used to intuitively control a game character's horizontal movement allowing the character to head-butt soccer balls. They also have a yoga and exercise 'game' that uses it. So... You can expect the same folks who developed the computer drivers for the wand controller will likely create computer drivers for the foot-pad. Then if you have a bluetooth adapter on your computer you should be able to use this sophisticated touch-sensitive device as an input device. With it you probably won't have to move your foot at all -- just shift your weight around. It should basically work like the control system on a Sagway that senses weight transfer.

Could be cool!

Regards, Ross

Dylan -- regarding long movements to tool buttons remember you can move your toolbars in from the edges. Although most of us probably have them snapped to the edges they don't have to be. Positioning them inside the window might be worth a try to see how it works.

Regards, Ross

That host is great but the car is even greater! Seriously cool.

Here's an oldie but goodie...

(I presume it was at a school and they were seeking security and not coolness).

I thought I should add a link to this other thread that shows Microsoft's adaptation of this kind of technology. To me Microsoft's 'coffee table' looks really cool -- a consumer product that I think many people will want to have. I want one!

Regards, Ross

I use Logitech and Microsoft mice on different computers. I agree with Dylan that Logitech mouse wheels have a better feel than the Microsoft ones. For me the Logitech 'ratchet' effect gives relatively nice level of tactile feedback missing in Microsoft mice that often have a 'greasy' wheel feel. The wheel-button click pressure required on Microsoft mice also seems quite a bit higher than is typical for Logitech models. I also find my Microsoft '3000' with its 'tilt-wheel' feature has a bit too much sloppiness in the wheel but using the thumb button, as I suggested above, has gone a long way in making it a very positive input device for me.

I do have a complaint about Logitech mice: Their little Teflon slider pads seem to fall off way too prematurely. Its then literally 'a drag' to move them around.

Regards, Ross

In this other thread I noted how my new Microsoft 'Comfort Optical Mouse 3000' has a small thumb button that I set as a 'middle-click'. Now when I want to orbit I use that thumb button rather than holding down the still rather spongy mouse wheel. The little thumb button is very ergonomic and easy to keep held down while maintaining precise control of the mouse.

The big advantage of this setup is that it becomes very easy and intuitive to orbit, pan, and zoom all at the same time ---> much easier than when the wheel button is used as the orbit initiator.

Any mouse that has a thumb button should be able to be set up that way --- try it and I think you'll see it is better than using the wheel button. I have both a 3dConnexion Space Traveler and a Space Navigator but this thumb button approach is more intuitive and achieves many of the same advantages.

Regards, Ross

Julius, I just checked here and it looks like version two came out some time between June 2001 and April 2002.

Regards, Ross

Mike I switched from Macs to pc and I'm glad I did. With the name Macintosh I was for a number of years a serious Mac-addict. I'm glad I was cured.

Recently someone in these forums posted a screenshot of the mac finder. I cringed! Yikes! Talk about info overload! For me it is just bad interface design. I much prefer Microsoft's fairly intuitive 'file explorer' approach.

I'm glad there are multiple OS choices for consumers. Hopefully each computer user can find the OS that makes them most comfortable. To each his own.

Regards, Ross