The 15 Coolest Cases of Biomimicry
http://brainz.org/15-coolest-cases-biomimicry
Engineers Rule - Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/0904/112.html

Innovation at Honda is fueled by a focus on engineering and problem solving and the proper levels of insight to enable spending and experimentation

The number one mistake most companies make is having the manager of the programmers writing the specs and designing the product. This is a mistake because the design does not get a fair trial, and is not born out of conflict and debate, so it’s not as good as it could be.

"We take bridges for granted now, but back in the 1800s, bridges were in beta. They fell. One out of every four bridges… fell""We Are Defined By What We Build The Brooklyn Bridge was built from 1870 until 1883."

Rands posts a nice optimistic counter to current economic gloom, citing the Brooklyn Bridge and other 19th century NYC architecture.

History of the Brooklyn Bridge

Truly inspiring

We need a new version of ourselves and that’s going to involve bright, unexpected ideas from those we least expect them from, and they’re going to strike you as impossible. All you need to do to understand these terrifyingly ambitious ideas is to look back at what we’ve already done to understand what we can do.

Basic sorting, searching and data structure traversal and retrieval algorithms

pretty cool

Classic mistakes in development and team leadership

#34: Overestimated savings from new tools or methods. Organizations seldom improve their productivity in giant leaps, no matter how good or how many new tools or methods they adopt. Be

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Some ineffective development practices have been chosen so often, by so many people, with such predictable, bad results that they deserve to be called "classic mistakes." Most of the mistakes have a seductive appeal. Do you need to rescue a project that's behind schedule? Add more people! Do you want to reduce your schedule? Schedule more aggressively! Is one of your key contributors aggravating the rest of the team? Wait until the end of the project to fire him! Do you have a rush project to complete? Take whatever developers are available right now and get started as soon as possible!

Two links to Berkun in one day! But there is a great axiom contained within: "Requirements is not Design."

The one book anyone working on requirements needs to read is Exploring Requirements by Gerald Weinberg. It points out most of the stupidity that goes on, explains avoidance tactics, and clearly expresses how requirements are part of the design process - that good problem solving techniques can quickly make your requirements documents better than ever.

Here’s a requirements list: Make a $5 car that goes 500 miles per hour, weighs 10 lbs, and is invisible. Those are very clear requirements. They’re also impossible.

"I don’t want an engineer working on something s/he thinks is stupid. How I can expect them to do good work on something they find stupid?"

1: Requirements is not Design. 2: Too Many Cooks. I like Berkun.

(1) Requirements may be impossible to implement. (2) Requirements writing is hard when no single person has the knowledge and authority.

littleBits is an opensource library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny circuit boards. Just as Legos allow you to create complex structures with very little engineering knowledge, littleBits are simple, intuitive, space-sensitive blocks that make prototyping with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together. With a growing number of available modules, littleBits aims to move electronics from late stages of the design process to its earliest ones, and from the hands of experts, to those of artists, makers and designers.

littleBits is an opensource library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny circuit boards. Just as Legos allow you to create complex structures with very little engineering knowledge, littleBits are simple, intuitive, space-sensitive blocks that make prototyping with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together.

modular circuit boards

Electronic modules that stick together with magnets to make complete circuits

how it works

""There is no time for celebration when we fix a cable," Rennie says. "There is lots of pressure from cable owners to move quickly. They are losing revenue."" そんなに頻繁に切れてるのかぁ… (いや、確かにそうだけど)

"For the past five years, John Rennie has braved the towering waves of the North Atlantic Ocean to keep your e-mail coming to you. As chief submersible engineer aboard the Wave Sentinel, part of the fleet operated by U.K.-based undersea installation and maintenance firm Global Marine Systems, Rennie--a congenial, 6'4", 57-year-old Scotsman--patrols the seas, dispatching a remotely operated submarine deep below the surface to repair undersea cables."

The Beast

Como ufuncionan los cables submarinos por internet

Pull up the wrong undersea cable, and the Internet goes dark in Berlin or Dubai. See our animated infographics of how the web works!

to be read

But to the stakeholders -- managers, CEOs, customers, shareholders, etc. -- software development is a mystery. They don't want to know everything about it, but they want to know enough to be able to predict the behavior of software development, at least approximately.

Why do we need an analogy? We know what we do. We program computers, with all that entails. And we know what that means, because we do it. But to the stakeholders -- managers, CEOs, customers, shareholders, etc. -- software development is a mystery. They don't want to know everything about it, but they want to know enough to be able to predict the behavior of software development, at least approximately.

t replace a programmer with just any other programmer and get similar results. It also suggests that you should evaluate what kind of project you're creating when you decide who your team should be, and how it will run. The creation of mysteries and young adult fiction and so-called "bodice rippers" and the vast sea of nonfiction books all have their own particular structure and constraints (you'd be surprised at how rigid and controlling publishers are about these things, as if they are manufacturing some kind of basic commodity -- "the murder has to happen in the first 10 pages" etc.). None of these are the mass-market bestsellers ("killer apps") that are sold by the author's voice and style (few of which I find readable). The mass-market bestsellers usually don't coincide with the great writers, since most people don't have the patience to read these meta-craftsmen, just as most programmers don't read the source code for compilers.

Agreed. Interesting comments, too. I write one-liners, short stories and novels in Python. I have many unfinished novels.

architectural conjecture :: urban speculation :: landscape futures

A project proposing to build a 6,000 km wall across the Sahara to stop desertification using bacteria which solidify sand into sandstone and could be used almost like a giant 3d printer. The future is here.

Larsson's project deservedly won first prize last fall at the Holcim Foundation's Awards for Sustainable Construction held in Marrakech, Morocco. One of the most interesting aspects of the project, I think, is that this solidified dunescape is created through a particularly novel form of "sustainable construction" – that is, through a kind of infection of the earth. In other words, Larsson has proposed using bacillus pasteurii, a "microorganism, readily available in marshes and wetlands, [that] solidifies loose sand into sandstone," he explains.

Opis działania różnych silników

Very Interesting

Software Engineering: Dead?

Very interesting. Also gives some practice methods for improving your programming skills. Google cache: http://tinyurl.com/mprt6w

Videos of the Ishikawa Komuro Lab's high-speed robot hand performing impressive acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation. However, the video being passed around is slight on details. Meanwhile, their video presentation at ICRA 2009 (which took place in May in Kobe, Japan) has an informative narration and demonstrates additional capabilities. I have included this video below, which shows the manipulator dribbling a ping-pong ball, spinning a pen, throwing a ball, tying knots, grasping a grain of rice with tweezers, and tossing / re-grasping a cellphone!

High-Speed Robot Hand Demonstrates Dexterity and Skillful Manipulation

A High-Speed Robot Hand Demonstrates Dexterity and Skillful Manipulation.

The tweezer grasp is great.

Tom DeMarco, one of my heroes, is brave, and has adapted his earlier ideas

"I’m gradually coming to the conclusion that software engineering is an idea whose time has come and gone. I still believe it makes excellent sense to engineer software. But that isn’t exactly what software engineering has come to mean. "

Software Engineering...

DeMarco Reflects on 40 Years of Software Engineering Evolution

tshirts with exploded diagrams of technological artifacts.

store with t-shirts of exploded boomboxes stereos retro electronics

"Name physical things what they are, not what they're doing"

A rare textile made from the silk of more than a million wild spiders goes on display today at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

What we actually know about software development, and why we believe it’s true.

Several useful statistics on what drives programmer performance and causes software projects to fail.

development then? (Tony whispers) Oh, I see. He's not very good at magic either – his repertoire is extremely limited. Basically he's a one trick pony.

A few reasons why writing software is hard

argues that the process of requirements elicitation as project definition are secondary to the process of creation,testing and learning about nature.

What I cannot create I do not understand. --- Learn how to solve every problem that have been solved. --------- 1) The Space Shuttle Main Engine... many different kinds of flaws and difficulties have turned up. Because, unfortunately, it was built in the top-down manner, they are difficult to find and fix. 2) avionics system, which was done by a different group at NASA: The software is checked very carefully in a bottom-up fashion. First, each new line of code is checked, then sections of code or modules with special functions are verified.

Article which seems nice. I should read.

No direct references are allowed to anything if they can be avoided. Every data structure is designed for expansion and self-identifying as to version. Every code segment is made self-identifying by the compiler or other construction procedure. Code and data are changeable on a per-command/process/system basis, and as few as possible copies of anything are kept, so single copies could be dynamically updated as necessary.

"We know these things to be true"... about software engineering

grumpy old men ...

Everyone involved in the production, design and specification of software should be required to read and understand every item on this list.

Igy kell kutatást csinálni a mai világban.

your arm. Together, the sling and the shot could save millions of lives. That's why he spent $50 million of his own money developing the

# To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

NEVER loan out your copies of: * `The Art of Electronics' (Horowitz & Hill, Cambridge University Press) (you do HAVE a copy don't you?) * 'Illustrated Sourcebook of Mechanical Components or Ingenious Mechanisms for Designers and Inventors * The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1..3 Boxed Set

Nuclear Reactor Wall Charts

Cutaway illustrations of Nuclear Power Reactors. Linked via John Nack at Adobe.

It troubles me greatly to hear that people see me as an expert or an authority, and not a fellow amateur. If I've learned anything in my career, it is that approaching software development as an expert, as someone who has already discovered everything there is to know about a given topic, is the one surest way to fail. Experts are, if anything, more suspect than the amateurs, because they're less honest. You should question everything I write here, in the same way you question everything you've ever read online -- or anywhere else for that matter. Your own research and data should trump any claims you read from anyone, no matter how much of an authority or expert you, I, Google, or the general community at large may believe them to be.

Great Zen post about being an expert.

"Being an expert isn't telling other people what you know. It's understanding what questions to ask, and flexibly applying your knowledge to the specific situation at hand. Being an expert means providing sensible, highly contextual direction." Exactly.

This is an excellent meditation on what makes a real expert.

Share your ideas for transforming learning through the Digital Media and Learning Competition in coordination with National Lab Day — where designers, entrepreneurs and educators compete to create 21st century learning labs — digital media experiences that help young people learn, play, tinker, participate and grow through hands on work

hands on learning ideas/projects

matches students with professionals

Olympus Imaging's Akira Watanabe says 12 megapixels is enough for most users. Ars thinks he's on to something.

Why we've reached the end of the camera megapixel race

Manufacturers of the Gear Ring, a ring that is a miniature machine made of gears and wheels.

Gear Ring

other essential aspect was the range o

「昔はWebブラウザの新バージョンのリリースには1年とか1年半かかっていました。しかし、われわれはWebブラウザの世界にも、Webアプリケーションと同じ速度で革新をもたらしたいのです」。

We updated the instructable with a new implementation you can build without spending all that money on those expensive...

Companies such as BMW are investing in Thermoelectric Generators to make their cars more efficient by replacing the alt...

State your message in one sentence. That is your title. Write one paragraph justifying the message. That is your abstract. Circle each phrase in the abstract that needs clarification or more context. Write a paragraph or two for each such phrase. That is the body of your report. Identify each sentence in the body that needs clarification and write a paragraph or two in the appendix. Include your contact information for readers who require further detail.

NOT JUST ENGINEERS

"BBC News - 'Artificial life' breakthrough announced by scientists" http://j.mp/cIRoBL

Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first living cell to be controlled entirely by synthetic DNA. The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software" and transplanted it into a host cell. The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species "dictated" by the synthetic DNA. The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms. Some also suggest that the potential benefits of the technology have been over-stated. But the researchers hope eventually to design bacterial cells that will produce medicines and fuels and even absorb greenhouse gases. The team was led by Dr Craig Venter of the J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in Maryland and California.

「ソフトウェア工学」は矛盾語法か？

On Engineering and Design: An Open Letter Microsoft Research Principal Scientist Bill Buxton calls for engineers and user-experience designers to learn to appreciate one another

[Pink Tentacle] Floating cities, mega-structures. space hotels - it's all here.

RT @catenary: Amazing agile little robot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUQsRPJ1dYw

Cool dog like robot that walks on all fours, very cool.

This is awesome, but the problem remains that it reminds me that Skynet is possible. http://bit.ly/bTlRBD