Netflix Engineer Daniel Jacobson: The API at the Root of Your Business

Great read on the importance of API’s for better leveraging information to meet ones business goals.

Beyond that, API’s hold a lot of interesting concepts and lessons for Architectural practice. An API is a way of abstracting the interface between different programs. It speaks to a modular and distinct information architechure that none the less behaves as if it is continuous. Too often in Architectural thought, buildings are conceived of as either totally discrete objects or as a singular vision to be propagated across all Architecture in a continuous field. It can be difficult to think of buildings as discrete fields of program that none the less need to interface with the larger context around it in a seamless way while retaining their own identities.

Programming, !POST

Underwater neutrino detector will be second-largest structure ever built

Like a huge net, this neutrino detector will be built on the floor of the sea and will cover an area of several cubic kilometers. The structure will consist of long cables anchored to the sea floor with large glass spheres brimming with sensors attached to them. While consisting mostly of empty space, the really interesting thing is that because the structure lives on the bottom of the sea floor, it will be totally inaccessible to humans. Architects rarely think of what an architecture might be without humans and the few that do tend to think in a purely formal or virtual sense, creating buildings with very little in the way of program or function. Yet clearly there are programs that lack any human interaction and exists in a very actual sense, rather than virtually.

Physics, Infrastructure, Architectural_Theory

A 40-year-old puzzle of superstring theory solved by supercomputer

The apparent incongruity of our 3 dimensional space and the theoretically predicted 9 dimensional space of super-string theory has fascinated me for years.

The proposed idea is that the other 6 dimensions are still wrapped up and very small, so only the 3 we currently live in are experienced. In many ways, this parallels our built environment where we only perceive the usual 3 dimensions, however every space is filled with all sorts of other dimensional data, from the mundane aspects like program, circulation, and temperature to the more ephemeral aspects like the space of a conversation.

The real trick is visualizing all these additional dimensions in a way that is not purely reductive. I have no answers, but it is a problem I will be trying to tackle for years to come. Suggestions are certainly welcome.

You can also read more at:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-theory-simulate-big-bang-supercomputer.html

Physics, Super_String_Theory

Transistors made from cotton yarn, t-shirt computers incoming | ExtremeTech

While a very cool idea, don’t let this make you think that your clothes will replace your smartphone one day. Do you really want to wear the same shirt every day or deal with the complexities of transferring your data securely to each day’s clothes?

The real use of this type of technology will be adding another level of perception and connectivity to your day to day lives. As the article points out, adding sensors that detect radiation or monitor your vital signs are a possibility. But what about a tee-shirt that understands your movements and gestures and can use them as input into other devices. Or perhaps it could dynamically display information when viewed through a reality overlay system, be they glasses, contact lenses, or just your smartphone screen. By embedding information and computation directly into our clothes they become even more an extension of ourselves.

Also check out Mashable’s take:
http://mashable.com/2011/12/29/cotton-computer-clothing/

Technology, Material_Science, Science_Fiction_Made_Real

Book Carving Landscapes by Guy Laramee | Swag So Fresh

It is fascinating how a simple act on mundane objects can create something amazing. These landscapes carved out of books have a strange intimacy while remaining mysterious. This duality makes all the difference.

Originally via materialicious.
http://www.materialicious.com/2011/12/book-carving-landscapes-by-guy-laramee.html

!POST, Art

Vasari and Dynamo – YouTube

I am sure many of you have already seen this, but I wanted to talk about it anyway. Dynamo provides a graphical way for linking and driving parametric models in Revit. While there are similar tools such a Grasshopper for Rhino, Dynamo’s real promise is bringing a graphical programming environment to a production powerhouse like Revit. I look forward to seeing how it develops.

You can check out more at:
http://insidethefactory.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/revit-spaghetti.html

And download it at:
https://github.com/ikeough/dynamo

!POST, Revit, Revit_App

#AU2011 Revit for Presentations – Graphics That “POP” – Video and Materials – Jason Grant’s Blog – Adaptive Practice by Jason Grant

A really excellent presentation from AU2011 by Jason Grant and David Light on how to leverage Revit for producing great graphics. Much of their advice is straightforward and many people will know pieces of it, but I doubt very many have been as systematic about it as what is shown in the presentation. Like most software for producing architectural graphics, much of the advice revolves around developing a consistent process that can be integrated with the day to day workflow and the curation of Revit families for all those little elements of presentation, like people, analysis lines
+ arrows and site elements. Anything to give life and depth without cluttering the graphic is useful.

Revit, !POST