Under NDA

A couple of months ago, and a couple of weeks ago I have presented  a quick primer of Python scripting on the Revit Platform at the Manchester and London Revit User Groups. Both have been fantastic experiences, summarized the evening I was having a beer (or #BIMbeer) and heard someone say "I've been told that the other day there was an interesting presentation on Python at the Manchester Revit User Group", to what I replied "That was me, thanks!". My main objective is to trigger curiosity and push at least some people to discover that the programming edge is not that hard to climb, and things appear much nicer from those heights. I have to clarify that among non-programmers I can pretend to be one, but in all ernesty I am a wannabe noob of a programmer, despite a few lines of code I cannot understand does not stop me from trying to understand it!! Following a recent request on Twitter to share the presentation and thinking that they are probably available so...

Shame on me, I have not written in months, literally! I am not writing an apology as I did last time. This time I am jumping directly to the latest of my research projects (and skipping a few that I will have to revisit, like Arduino!). I have to admit that I am trying to steal some attention and try not to think too much about all the excitement I am missing at Autodesk University. I am craving for those classes, and the chance to end up in a random advanced technology seminar, not to mention the networking and the chance to talk to my industry heroes. My latest enterprise is to some extent a jump back in time. It does not include touch-screens, fast computers or mobile phones. So, in times of mobile technology, powerful computing and funky interfaces, why would someone buy a 700 Mhz, 512 Mb RAM, desktop (=powered from a socket on the wall and plugged to a monitor) computer? May suffice that it's only £22. This is not entirely true, it's £22 + local taxes to make up to so...

I started typing a "back from Autodesk University" post... that never got to publish. On the last day of the year I am resolving to publish (even) shorter notes, to keep you all in the loop of what I am researching. My reason for silence during 2011 was that I've been working on some top secret projects and some ongoing projects that can now be mentioned. This year I prepared 4 AU classes, which took also a lot of time. An I did my first lecture as co-speaker and with an invaluable help from Zach Kron (if you don't know his blog, it's a must:  http://buildz.blogspot.com/ ). As I said in the opening statement of the class, I really wanted to attend HIS class, so I figured out that my best bet was to be standing at the front! The class is available online, if you want to find out more about it. Another highlight of AU was a design challenge, to build "something" with a modular kit of 150 cardboard cutouts, the 123D Fab Challenge . I'll try to get ba...