Version Control

This happens to us occasionally in planning: You give a document out for review, but someone forgets to turn on "track changes", and you want to know what changes were made. Here's an article that talks about a couple of strategies that would beat a manual word by word comparison:

Link

Via
Lifehacker

Related
Diff Doc - Another option

People like to drive

Interesting, unsurprising article about how people like to drive because it's generally cheaper, faster, and more convenient.

"If you want to know why so few people use mass transit, meet Sue, a college administrator in Minneapolis. If anyone would use transit, Sue would. She's single, she lives in a condominium, and she can afford any additional out-of-pocket expense. She could use her city's Hiawatha Line, a light rail route newly completed at a cost of $715 million. But she doesn't, although she feels guilty about it. That's because her car gets her where she needs to go. Faster."

Link

Via Planetizen

New Urbanism on Former Barracks in Canada

" At Currie Barracks, “every house is within four minutes’ walk of a bus stop and within two minutes of a park,” Hackman points out. Fourteen buildings and landscapes with “heritage” designations are to be preserved. Six airport hangars, some of which have been used as sound stages and other film-related production facilities, will probably be removed."

Link

Via
Planetizen

Related
"New Urbanism: It's in the Army Now"

Engines

Radial Engine powered motorcycle

Tank engine powered Mustang

Jet engine powered VW

Gasoline engine powered LP turntable

Pulse-jet powered shopping cart

Washing machine engine powered kid's tractor (and others)

Wood-burning turbine engine

Paper V-Twin Engine

Rocket powered car legend

A crazy helical engine design (and other good stuff)

Kalzip

Amy sent along some information about this roofing material. Looks like pretty amazing, versatile stuff, and a good deconstructable, recyclable product too.






Link

Star Wars Inspiration

Dan brought this to my attention:


previous post

San Francisco Federal Building

"The building may one day be remembered as the crowning achievement of the General Services Administration’s Design Excellence program, founded more than a decade ago to remedy the atrocious architecture routinely commissioned for government offices."

Link

10 websites

Planetizen, a great source of news and commentary on every different kind of planning and a site I visit just about every day, recently did an article featuring their favorite 10 websites for architecture, design, and planning. Looks like a good list for lazy friday afternoon surfing.

Link

What You Missed From the Planners Roundtable Last Week

We talked about planning, of course. Lots of very professional, relevant, multimedia-enhanced talking about planning and productivity.

But we also discovered some interesting facts about Scooby Doo.

1. The show was originally called "Who's S-S-Scared?", and featured a rock band called the Mysteries Five and their dog named Too Much.

2. The producer got the name Scooby-doo from Frank Sinatra's "Do-be-do-be-do" at the end of "Strangers in the Night"

3. Casey Kasem is the voice of Shaggy.

4. The movie "Scooby Doo, Pirates Ahoy!" has recieved great critical acclaim from Tasha's kids.

Link

Open Source Architecture

A new network has sprouted up for architects to share, review, remix, and recombine designs with a worldwide community.

"The Open Architecture Network is an online, open source community dedicated to improving living conditions through innovative and sustainable design. Here designers of all persuasions can:

• Share their ideas, designs and plans
• View and review designs posted by others
• Collaborate with each other, people in other professions and community leaders to address specific design challenges
• Manage design projects from concept to implementation
• Communicate easily amongst team members
• Protect their intellectual property rights using the Creative Commons "some rights reserved" licensing system and be shielded from unwarranted liability
• Build a more sustainable future"

The Open Architecture Network

Via
Planetizen

Related
"Wired" Article: "Framing Open-Source Architecture"

Fun Friday - Dynamically Balancing Walking Robot

Check out this robot. He walks like a 1 year old.



Via
Neatorama

Defensive Design

This brief article from the New York Times does a good job of describing how "temporary" security barriers and bollards are morphing into a new design style.

"Four years after the American invasion of Iraq, this state of siege is beginning to look more and more like a permanent reality, exhibited in an architectural style we might refer to as 21st-century medievalism."

Link

Fun with Google Maps

Cruise Missile over Utah

Capsized Cruise Ship

The Matterhorn in Hi-Res

The White Houses

"Googled By the Enemy"

Effective Meetings

Paul, this one's for you.

This article says it all in the first paragraph:

"If you called the meeting, do your %*?@?! job"

Link

Via:
Lifehacker

Related:
How To Run a Meeting Like Google

Great Sites

BLDG BLOG

Planetizen

Design Observer

Lifehacker

Anybody else have any that you keep going back to for great Architecture, Planning, Design, GIS, web-design, productivity or other news? We'll put them all in the sidebar over there.

Transit Walking Sheds

So, we had "watersheds" which led to "viewsheds" and now "transit sheds". What's next? Maybe businesses will start replacing the word "market" with "dollarshed." Citizens will start referring to the local Safeway and King Soopers as their "groceryshed."

Some research has found that people will walk a bit further than the previously assumed 1/4 to 1/3 mile.

Link

Via:
Planetizen

It turns out, we're utopians after all

This guy's kinda a zealot, but he's a smart zealot, and it's good to see that perspective.

"...the arrogance of architects who believe that, because they can design a house for one family, they can design an entire urban area for a million families. That is something like gardeners believing that, because they can grow a rose bush, they can design an entire ecosystem for a million-acre forest..."

Link