Notes on the real stuff of the day. A careful balancing act letting people know I am real, I stumble, I doubt, I struggle, I give up. And the triumphant returns therefrom. As much as possible I avoid whining (complaining with no hope of resolution), derogatory remarks about anyone and wallowing. I do at times find myself being that person, but I avoid it whenever I can.
Why write in the Real Life category? Simple. My struggles can help others through theirs. I have a long, triumphant experience sharing my not-so-shiny-self several times a week. It seems human nature for many of us that we can get stuck when we feel isolated. In sharing my experiences, I give others permission to feel the difficulties of the day and hopefully move past them to be the effortless shining lights we each are.
As for credit for this idea, I give it foremost to Tara Hunt at http://www.horsepigcow.com/. While I’ve been involved in peer support for 25 years, I’ve been struggling to find a use for it in the public space. I am also excessively touchy and doubtful about what I should talk about here in cyberspace. My “whuffle” hasn’t even begun to form in large part because I have no idea where to begin. I am a seasoned senior designer of complex things and still feel like a newcomer. To paraphrase, “my feelings don’t match the facts.”
For whatever reason, as powerful and useful as MODO is, it still doesn’t import 3DS files. So a workaround is needed. We’ve tried a handful of converters but they all carry tradeoffs. No matter what, you get serious triangulations.
Why do we care? Because as much fun as 3D modelling is, sometimes you just need an ATM, or an oven, or a refrigerator.
Read MoreI have some pretty fast machines for the money I spent. But they are still computers, with operating systems. Yeah. I say that like everyone should know the implications.
Sorry. Let’s try another tack.
A car is still a car. No matter how reliable and trouble free, the tires wear out, the battery goes, the oil needs to be changed. Similarly, if you spend any time on the Internet, computers accumulate all kinds of gunk under the hood so to speak. Every time you visit a web site, your browser places images, cookies, data sets in temporary locations on your hard drive. Over time, these files will slow your performance. You can fix that.
Read MoreThree years ago I made a commitment to return to a dedicated ecological concern professionally. To that moment, my practice in other firms and within Landwave had adopted renovation and efficiency in practice through better IT as erstwhile ecological contributions. While tech driven practice efficiency does not have direct ecological impact, it is a good discipline and kept me thinking about practical applications of lofty tools. On the other hand, renovation has a significant ecological benefit in utilizing previously built structures. No forest turned parking lot. No need to excavate and dispose of soils. A fraction of the materials required-and therefore a fraction of the energy to extract, fabricate, ship and install. The list goes on and on. And while construction of any sort has an impact, renovation takes advantage of sunk energy and resources.
Though perfectly reasonable and necessary, I never felt as though these were a sufficient fit for my skills and interests. If our colleagues are half right, the issues facing us are urgent. What’s more there is a need to capture the collective imagination to reinvent our approach to material life on a massive scale. Efficiency and renovation are hardly inspirational. We need better motivations. I need better motivations.
Read MoreSeveral times this year, friends of mine have reported catastrophic failures of their personal computer equipment. As we all become untethered from our offices–and expand our computer abilities–we also disconnect from the silent lifesaving service of carefree backups. These backups are implemented by organizations with sound information technology policies – and staff adept enough to make it happen. The policy here is COOP (continuity of operations) in the event of some catastrophe. The retail space really hasn’t gone far enough to provide one stop coverage. The pieces are there. But you are on your own to assemble them.
I have been hit like everyone else with numerous workstation and laptop failures since I began my firm in 2001. Because of this scheme, I have been able to recover 100% of my functionality within hours. I recommend it for small commercial and personal use. There are downsides that I will note as I go along. Compared to having to rebuild over the course of weeks, I’ll take every downside on the list.
Here’s my solution.
Come back in a while I’ll have it written up. If my version of “a while” is too long, poke me and I’ll pick up the pace.
I’d love a simpler way. Show me.
Copyright 2012, Frank Ebbert, Landwave AE. If you have developed this idea and hold rights to it, please contact me for proper attribution.
Read MoreIf you’re going to ask me to sacrifice QOL for an idea, it had better be an ideal instead. If you’re going to ask me to sacrifice QOL money, you need a better idea. If you’re going to ask me to sacrifice QOL for doing business dev, you don’t have a good idea.
Pixar has a good idea and ideals.
Read MoreI spend a lot of time heads down in the daily work of making a living an, raising my kids and enjoying my life. I spend a bunch of other time in the heady world of ideas. That world takes me home, to our little island planet in the far arm of a tiny galaxy. And what I see happening to our planet, because of us, scares me enough to hunger for action. But the daily grind frustrates my efforts to focus my productivity. I end up adrift. There is a middle ground – STEAM education and industry. Within these realms are the projects of a lifetime: creating a feedback and decision infrastructure for planetary sustainability.
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