Explorations in the Infrared Spectrum

Okay, okay, this one is a bit geeky, but it’s fun so I had to try it. I don’t remember how I found this, but I saw somewhere that you can easily turn your $10 webcam into an infrared camera. Since I never ventured into the infrared spectrum with my film-based camera, this sounded like […] Read more..

Wood Structures Conference Announcements

It’s time again to send out a conference announcement – so here it comes. We at BMATWT are once again organizing a symposium centered around wood – the 2008 Wood Structures Symposium. This time, the topic is prefabricated architecture in wood and the event is bound to be very interesting. Steve Kieran from Kieran Timberlake […] Read more..

Exam Week

After the “Sustainability vs. Homeland Security” graph from my last post, I somehow feel that I could present another one. This one illustrates visit statistics for one of my course websites. I have 60 students in that class, which is properly reflected in the in-semester weekly number of unique visitors. Look below what happens when […] Read more..

Sustainability vs. Homeland Security

Sustainability is everywhere these days. Just browse through the ads in Architectural Record and you’ll be amazed how every single building materials producer finds something green in their product – no matter how energy intensive it was to produce. There is also an onslaught of “sustainability” events around us. Earth Day had just passed when […] Read more..

3D to 2D: Getting Images out of CAD Software

A comment on one of my SketchUp posts prompted me to provide clarification in the form of a new post rather than just a quick reply. The issue was that exported images from CAD files (SU in this case) can be quite grainy. To export an image of the current view in SketchUp, go to […] Read more..

Schlepp your Verklempt Tollpatsch through the Dreck

As the German news site Spiegel-Online just announced, a committee of public representatives ranging from a popular comedian to the editor of the most prominent dictionary have determined their favourite words with a foreign root in the German language. The following winners rose to the top among approximately 3500 submissions: Tollpatsch (Hungarian) – A less […] Read more..