Well now, I hear some of you are in the mood for a really broad question with a very broad and generalized set of choices. EXCELLENT, I say! We’ve got just the question. Today, we’re wondering what topics about 3D, design and any combination of the two, interest you the most. Why? Because there’s an…
My good friend, Jeff Mirisola, got a little riled up and started beating foam bats into the skull of asinine expectations with a recent post. He talks about an engineer who couldn’t use SolidWorks… because his computer was 10 years old. That is way old. I’d put it out to pasture and let it die…
If you’re anything like me you have a blast furnace on standby, ready to toss a shoddy product design into the very instant it frustrates you. Fortunately, you have great skills… great Kung-fu CAD skills that, harnessed under the proper kind of energy-efficient lighting with sufficient doses of caffeine, would rival the power of a…
Of course it’s a valid question! We just can’t ignore that after mankind’s self-imposed moment of singularity, we’ll all basically be fleshy corpuscles in the eyes of of our sentient, mechanized masters. That is until we realize that robots hate anything made of peanut butter. You know it’ll happen. So, ok, most of you may…
Well, well, well, from the looks of the last poll, not too many people care about hardware/software upgrade plans. I agree… BORING. For me, a hardware upgrade consists of bottling pure rage (and my new hot sauce recipe) to throw a computer 200 feet into the air. So, while we’re on the topic of rage,…
Those noises you hear over the cubicle wall…? *munch*… not Sam eating his ham and cheese. Oh no. Dare you take a look? You may think it’s an impossibility, but closed quarters and inadequate ventilation is a recipe for certain elements seeping into the nostril membranes, changing certain physiological elements of brain and bone matter,…
I’ve got an Idea. Let’s all track the excitement of life in a spreadsheet, create a spreadsheet of that spreadsheet and then send it to everyone to create their own spreadsheet. BRILLIANT! Spreadsheet are about the most overused office ‘tool’ we use to quickly capture information in an understandable format *chuckles – shakes head -…
Not that you’re a handmaiden, or could be. All I need to say is one word, Buuuuutter. A layer of it should cover everything, including your modeling processes, and your bacon. What does butter have to do with 3D CAD? Absolutely everything my cow-slapping friends. You need ways to get things done finger-lickin’ fast. We’re…
Today, Microsoft announce the announcement for the future announcement and release of Office 2010. Which in our wonderful world of future-tech anticipation means pre-beta Technical Preview. Get excited. It’s so Microsoft. It’s so Office. It’s so you. You may have seen the riveting adventure that is the Office 2010 mini movie or the slew of…
Raise of hands! Who wants to blow $489 for 3G Wireless and PDF Support? Huh? Huh? The MASSIVE 9.7″ vertical screen of the new Amazone Kindle DX is available Wednesday, June 17th for your monochrome viewing pleasure. You (or your company) could pop for one of these badboys so you can store ‘3,500 books’ on…
Are you tired of people going on about Twitter? Well, it’s not going to ends anytime soon with talk about them being bought out and the value their search provides. One outfit, TwitterJobSearch.com, is bringing value to people, even those that don’t use Twitter, by compiling all the data about jobs on Twitter. What’s even…
Nice. Just look at that. Your LinkedIn profile looks sizzlin’ with all that professional info, a nice smiling photo of your mug and a catchy headline. However, you just lost out on a dream job to that anal guy that knows a little about ‘web obtimization’ – ARRRGH! How did he do it?, you think.…
Strap an unnecessary amount of shiny metal objects to your clothing and take a swig of intensity. We’re about to step inside the realm of very vague advice… and then totally slam it with the most practical information your fingers have ever bleed scrapping to get a hold of. Out of all the practices in…
If you’ve taken a look outside your cubicle lately you’ve probably noticed that the sky has not only fallen for many engineers, but has also nearly imploded due to the increasing supply of talent. What to do. It’s really easy to get down about this even if you still have a job, but it’s also…
I’m feeling sick today. Kind of like my head weighs five times the rest of my body. I should probably be in bed right? I also need to get a bunch of stuff done… check drawings, release drawings, write posts, paint the trim, trim the hedges…. BRING IT ON. That’s right, I don’t like it…
I was working on a somebody’s computer this morning and their email notification kept popping up asking you to choose to go to the email or not. For one thing, that was incredibly annoying, and incredibly inefficient for another. A little experiment So it made me want to offer up a little experiment to show…
I’m not sure about you, but I am increasingly frustrated in the separation between 3D design and data management. Yep, I have two hairs left on my head and permanent marker all over my face from nervous twitching each time something needs to be checked-in or out. There’s creating a model and then there’s managing…
This isn’t going to tell you what to put on your resume, how to dress or what to say. This is going to show you what you can do right now without even setting up an interview, making a call or going out to buy a new outfit. It’s really easy and you’re probably closer…
Man, that looks painful huh. This is the cover art on a CD of a band I listen to called Norma Jean. Do you ever feel like this? A lot of times you’ll get demands from work or a client that just seem completely unreasonable. You can dish out a sarcastic attitude and get a…
This weekend I got a chance to do a bit of Parkour, or Freerunning, with a friend also interested in it. Now at first glance (see video below) you may think it’s a bunch of idiots trying to break their legs acting like monkeys, but, yeah, it’s actually much more. I would define Parkour as…
Email, and especially Microsoft Outlook, can get really convoluted with all the foldering, contacting and searching. The Xobni plugin makes the day to day email task much easier. Why it’s Cool After you install Xobni, it indexes everything in Outlook in less time it usually takes you to search for that email you sent Jim…
Days and nights of sitting in front of a computer can be very hard on the ol’ melon. The low droning buzz of the fluorescents is enough to make you go completely mad and your ipod just ran out of juice. Fortunately, the interweb has had little radio babies with endless hours of streaming tunage…
It looks like a war zone in my neighborhood. Trees down everywhere. Day 3 I’m dead in the water. The winter storm that came through Tulsa knocked out the power to half the city and has left a lot of companies kaput. Especially those that have all their data on one server, in one building.…
The light spills in through the windows of your studio. You’re sketching things up, importing illustrations, optimizing models here and there, and making the most beautifully designed product a consumer has ever seen. You have a perfect balance between a love for esthetically pleasing design and what you went to engineering school for. However, there…
Everybody likes to know what they are getting. When it comes to organizing files on your computer it’s not any different.Using a smart numbering system may seem like a good ideas at first, but it invariably leads an organization down the wrong path. Why? Simply put, things change. This material become that material, that changes…
The new season of ‘The Office’ started last week on NBC. It’s downright hilarious and uncomfortable as you could possibly make a show about relationships in an office. It’s also a veritable fountain of how not to do things at work. So in honor of the first episode, here’s some simple principles to take away…
I started working as an engineer in the CAD industry at a pretty measly wage. I didn’t know it at the time. I was happy just to have a job in an area I was actually going to school for. One thing I wish they taught more in school is the business aspects of career…
“Those that anger you, control you.” I’ve heard this quote many times and it true as many times as I’ve seen it. And what’s worst is when the agitator knows it. This happens all too often in the workplace and often catches you totally unaware. By the time its past, everyone has seen a side…
I love the day after Labor Day. To me this is the first day of spring fall. It’s cool enough you can open the windows, football is starting up and it just feels like everything is slowing down a little bit. In college though, we didn’t get Labor Day off, and yesterday reminded me of…
For all of you that are going back to school or have kids going back to school, I thought I would give you some nice resources to help out. Check Out the School LocalSchools.com – Interactive site to check out schools, compare and discuss with others. Get Settled with Style IKEA – Roommateliving.com – This…
Here’s a quick tip that will help keep your eyes from spurting blood when you’re working those long hours. ClearType Tuner This tool will help the fonts on your screen show up better which can make a night and day difference in how productive you can be. You may need to download the Powertoy Version…
Have you ever been bored with what you do at work or wish you could just model something different? Well, what if you could enhance your 3D skills and maybe even come up with a new product idea. People that keep learning, keep creating opportunities. Hmm. Now isn’t that just a little piece of wisdom.…
Throwing up before you speak may come naturally to some, but there’s some other items that may help relieve the pressure of speaking in public. Not only can these help you when speaking publicly, they can also help when training someone, relating to and working with others and finding out how you can help people.…
There’s nothing more annoying than some one who is over-productive, smirking at you with his dry, beady eyes, taunting you with his attendance trophies, doing little victory dance’s in your cubicle… Prepare to dance. Steve Pavlina has come up with 33 way to boost your productivity, then 33 more, and then another 33. I’d say…
Many times I’m showing someone how to do something and there like, “how do you do that so fast? what are you doing?” I’m being 50% more efficient than you, that’s what I’m doing. Not 48, not 51, but exactly 50% more. Here’s how. Mouse – automatically move pointer to default button option This is…
