Autodesk is everywhere: Check out Avatar!
Sitting in the keynote this AM, Carl Bass spoke about how Autodesk software was used in creating the movie Avatar. Always forgetting that Autodesk has a Media and Entertainment division, I was definitely interested. He showed a few of the behind the scenes footage of James Cameron directing the movie. The producer, Jon Landau, was there to give some insight with a promise of more (~15min preview)during the M&E keynote at 5pm.
As you can imagine, the keynote was packed. The above trailer doesn’t due the movie justice. We were treated to a 40min preview of various clips in 3D. I can’t even begin to explain how they filmed this movie. Tons of super fancy filming terminology. But just imagine that they used special cameras that gave the director the ability to see in real time the actors in a CG environment. Truly amazing. Really, really cool.
The coolest part is the future of 3D. These guys were convincing that this is the future. Watching and interacting with movies and entertainment in 3D will be the norm. Made some time to take the obligatory photo-op with the producer of Avatar. Nice!
So telling people at home that I was involved in the making of the movie. Above is the picture to prove it..
Autodesk is one of the few manning up to the “cloud”
We are partially through Day 1 of #AU2009. Hectic day of bouncing around from session to session. One of the highlights was the General Keynote session with the likes of Lynn Allen, Carl Bass, Amory Lovins and Joe Kowalski. All shared some really cool stuff.
Mr. Bass always has a big presence on stage but this year was bigger and bolder than normal. He referred to “web based” computing numerous times. Check out this pic that Shaan Hurley (cameras not allowed for the public) snagged. I’d have taken one myself, but was security was tight 
He highlighted numerous examples from collaboration of autocad users making changes simultaneously in real time, similar to Google Docs. To serious rendering needed for Showcase and Entertainment and Media type stuff. To simply running AutoCAD and Inventor over the web, via the Twitch project. What was different about his presentation was that it was stated as fact, its coming. No doubt about it. Other vendors have danced around it, maybe, someday, not sure etc. Autodesk is stepping up there and saying, its coming. Obviously they are only giving a glimpse on the details, but they are saying it nonetheless.
Another thing that Mr. Bass said as fact was their commitment to the MAC. This is clearly somewhat of a buzz around the CAD world, but the MAC OS, seems like it is here to stay for Autodesk. So, I wonder if CFdesign will be ported to the MAC as well? You never know!
Social Media is more than just a fad @ #AU2009
“Social Media” events are becoming more and more popular at software events over the last few years. Initially they seemed to be held out of some sort of obligation. People weren’t exactly sold on the idea, but realized that they had handfuls to hundreds of people writing about their products and services, so it seemed logical to assemble them to hear what they had to say.
But, depending on the organization, you definitely get a vibe that not everyone is still on board with the whole SM craze. Definitely, not the case at Autodesk. Last night Shaan Hurley organized a “Blogger Social” at #AU2009. Walking into the room, I was amazed at how jam packed it was. Some pretty well known bloggers from various backgrounds were in attendance.
But, the SM vibe is much stronger than just blogging. People are tweeting, non-stop. In many cases, that is how we are communicating with one another in lieu of emailing and texting. Tons of conversations were based on the daily twitter banter. Cameras are everywhere and everyone is jonzing for some wifi to upload to flickr etc.
I plan to snap some pics, tweet away and hopefully snag a video or two to post to vimeo or you tube. Stay tuned…
#AU2009 – Calm before the…
Getting primed for #AU2009. I always forget how freakin’ vast Vegas is and I am talking specifically about the Mandalay Bay Hotel. I have trekked from one side to the other. I landed in the “lounge”. Really funny area of bean bags and free wifi, totally my speed and apparently some of the younger attendees that are jumping from bag to bag. In contrast, there are some of the older gen that are trying to be cool but once they sit down, they are struggling to get back up. But at least they are trying as others are snubbing the whole area.
Two social engagements tonight. The first is targeted for media and bloggers. Psyched to be able to put some faces with the tweets and blogs. It is also being held at Border’s Grill, which is a massive bonus.
The other event is a VIP gig for the AEC space. Should be really interesting, as CFdesign was just named the Autodesk Preferred MEP Industry Partner. Really fun and exciting new industry that has avoided the CFD game for a very long time. There are niche products out there, but there is a big boom in energy efficiency, smoke evacuation and data center cooling. We have been working with these applications for a number of years, but only recently have heard of such a high demand.
Check out the image above (click the link for details) of an airflow simulation of the Yale Medical School conducted by Genesys Engineering.
Tweetcloud is super cool!
Check out Tweetcloud. It creates a cool looking cloud of your tweet history. You get to choose how far back. I have to say, its pretty accurate but I suspect it doesn’t check “#” (hastags). I think people that would agree that I arguably tweet a bit too much about phish and that didn’t make the list.
My Tweetcloud
Pre-gaming for #AU2009
Ok, so not pre-gaming in the way you may have been thinking. No, I am not in a parking lot, with a can of beer and a big greasy sandwich. But, I am digging through all of my emails, printing out agendas and priming for a good solid week of fun information. I attended last year and found the event to be packed with way more than I expected- in a very good way.
I am clearly seeing a “platform” being rolled out here at Autodesk. I am psyched to be a part of it. Couple highlights for me include…
- What’s coming in Inventor 2011
- Autodesk Fusion technology
- Autodesk Simualtion roadmap.
Check out this video of Fusion. Just the tip of the iceberg, but I sense there is big, big things to come from these folks.
PHISH – Philly Show – Night #1
I waited along time for these guys to come back to Philly and wasn’t disappointed. McPhish and I enjoyed it old school in the lot. Introduced him to shakedown, which seemed bigger back in the day. I’ll spare you with the it was the best show ever drool”. It was solid. Highlights for me were Possum, Wedge and Harry Hood.
Check out this cool video above. Highlighting Down with Disease, which isn’t a particularly favorite of mine, but sounded great. I love rolling old school with a 1am stop at good ole Geno’s Steaks in South Philly. All due respect to the south philly kings, which at the time tasted awesome. But in reality, they are just ok. Probably had nothing to do with the bowl of cherry peppers I ate like they were pickles.
The fact that PHISH is so accessible on this tour via streaming on PhishTwit and downloads on livephish.com, makes it much easier for us old heads to enjoy it remotely.
Google Chrome-esque OS is the future!!
Google is hitting the nail square on the head with Chrome OS or Chromium or whatever they want to call it. Here is an explanation..
I feel like I am working in a hybrid environment of web based and local. I have a netbook that has a 16GB hard drive (SSD), so I use web based applications as much as possible. Not only to save space, but plain and simple I want to be able to access them from wherever, whenever.
95% of my time on my netbook, I am using a single application – Firefox! I leverage a handful of addons and other applications to access my data.. Such, as..
- Gmail – for personal email
- Outlook web access – for work email
- Evernote web – for all of my evernote data (although web exp isnt the best)
- Dropbox web- for all my work data
- Echofon- FF twitter addon that sits in the taskbar
- Identifox- FF indenti.ca addon that sits in the taskbar
- Mozilla Weave- FF addon for synching all of my FF activities
- Google docs for basic word proc & spreadsheets
- Visual Studio web access – for dev-based activities for work
- Lala- to play my entire music library
- Hulu for tv/movies
Right now, my biggest struggle is having a “web-based music mgmt” program. Lala is great for uploading and purchasing, but not for managing mp3 players or downloading, once its been uploaded. I’m pretty amazed that someone hasn’t jumped on this. Seems like a logical perpetual revenue stream. I would love to be able to access my music, download, transfer it to my own machines (realize that policing this isn’t easy) but I am willing to pay for it. I hate itunes and think that songbird, banshee and others could pick up significant share of the party if they hook this up. I hate lugging my music around and transferring it from machine to machine.
Anyway, a bit of a rant here on a Sunday…
Are you part of a community or sheeple??!?
I have been engaged with the Art of Community by Jono Bacon lately. Really great book that gives a wide and specific perspective of life in a “community”. One of the many points the really hit me was what draws people to communities is “…a sense of belonging”. I never thought of it before, but its spot on. Community can mean many different things to you, could be a gardening club, neighborhood civic assoc, technical user group..whatever. But what draws you to these “organized groups”? One could argue its simply for information on a given topic. Could be surrounding yourself with people of similar interests. But, I think if you dive into it a bit, you will find Jono’s onto something. You may have a small sense of belonging or you could be massively involved (borderline “needy”).
I look at “sheeple” quite differently. It takes a sense of decision and commitment to become a community member. It takes very little to “just go with the flow”. In fact, sheeple tend to throw off the curve of creativity, in my opinion. They follow the “norm”, the “way” things are done.
Proud to say, I’m far from sheeple. Doesn’t mean I won’t try something that others are doing, even the masses. But, I pride myself on being open minded and trying very hard to establish an opinion.
I’m a proud member of a number of “communities” – from music, to various technology forums and groups to local neighborhood activities. It’s fun being surrounded by people that are passionate, free thinkers and all have a common interest to make “that thing we all love” better.
How about you?
Festival 8 was awesome, and I wasn’t even there.
But, I have to say the “virtual experience” has been nothing but stellar from the beginning. I’ll spare you my opinion on the band and love of the entire experience of what it means to be a fan. But thought I’d share how they are simply doing things different. They are one of the few organizations/companies that have truly embraced the web and social media exactly right. It started off with this “commercial” that was released via twitter and facebook.
PHISH – FALL TOUR 2009 from Phish on Vimeo.
Halloween is usually a big event for Phish as they historically, perform in musical costume, by covering an entire album of another band. They have played the likes of the Beatles, the Who, Velvet Underground and others. So over the course of the last few weeks, they provided a really clever 100 possible countdown. The winner was the Rolling Stones, Exile on Main St. I listened to it today and it is solid.
For those middle aged family guys, like myself, we were fortunate enough to be kept up to date via Twitter. The main Phish tweets were provided, thanks to…
@PHISH
@YEMblog
@CoventryMusic
@phishtube
There was word that a radio station, the bunny, out in CA would be streaming the show. Not sure exactly what happened, but Live Phish ended up squaring us pretty well with the stream of the show live as well as the option to pay to download.
As far as visuals- I relied on Flickr. Both Phishfromtheroad and a fan, Das38 have posted some pretty amazing shots. Surely not as cool as U2 streaming from LA, but there were a few videos posted to You Tube.
Why should we care? It strengthens the tribe. I was one of a few thousand people that did not attend, but did everything I could to virtually be there including paying for the set in its entirety. A great example how a website, twitter, flickr, you tube all were used in conjunction perfectly.
I am anxious to see how others will embrace technology to satisfy a massive market of fans that are remote. I’ll see you boys in 3 weeks in Philly for both shows.
A mechanical engineer that is obsessed with technology. I am the Product Manager for CFdesign and work in a virtual office in Philadelphia, PA USA. Although I work for a commercial software company, I run mostly FOSS. Partial to ubuntu on my Dell mini 9.
Outside of technology, I am an avid Liverpool FC supporter and a massive phan of the band PHISH.
