Technology Previews are like cheese?

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Autodesk Labs is our home for free technology previews. When a technology preview ends, one of three things can happen:

• The technology can graduate from Autodesk Labs. This means it is ready to take the next step. Often this could be entering a beta phase or being made available on Autodesk Subscription Center.

• The technology preview can retire from Autodesk Labs. The technology is not necessarily dead, it's just that the next step has not been determined yet, so it's currently unavailable.

• The technology can embark on another technology preview. If a team determines that they would like to get additional feedback, they can update the technology to extend the time-bomb that terminates its operation and/or incorporate some of the feedback they received during the original technology preview.

In discussing the Labs process with Software Development Manager, Rob Fjerstad, Rob remarked that technology previews are like trying to select the proper cheese. Upon reflection, I think he just might be right.

source: Hotel Club Travel Blog	Limburger — Though most technology previews turn out well, some of them stink. For example, users were not so happy with the Visual Search technology preview we conducted a while back. This technology preview allowed users to draw a 2D shape, and the search engine would try to find objects that matched the drawn shape. I'll never forget one user who emailed us "I drew a chair and got screws."
source: Wikipedia Commons	Swiss — Some technology previews have holes. This is a known issue. After all, technology previews are just that -- previews. They are not fully baked. Though all tech previews work for the normal use cases, there certainly are edge cases where the technology will not be perform as expected.
source: Hoegger Supply Company	Mozzarella — Some technology previews are like toppings to complete a pizza recipe. These technology previews are often plug-ins for existing design applications like those brought to you by the ADN Plugin of the Month program. These plugins not only provide functionality but also include the source code so you can tailor them to your specific needs. See the catalog for 2012 and earlier applications. Newer versions (i.e., 2013 and 2014) have graduated to the App Center.
source: Gourmet Food Store	Parmigiano Reggiano — Some technology previews are "hard" as in associated with hardware. Not so long ago we did have a technology preview for using a Wiimote controller with Autodesk Design Review. We also created a technology preview of a Boomless Chameleon way before iPads were in vogue.
source: Cheese.com	Brie — Some technology previews are soft as in software as a service. Many like Project Freewheel or Project Pinocchio require nothing to download or install.
source: Food, Nutrition & Herbs!	Bleu - Some technology previews are very popular and only get better with age. Technology previews like Inventor Fusion (now Fusion 360), Project Photofly (now 123D Catch), Project Dragonfly (now Homestyler), and Project Butterfly (now AutoCAD WS) were wildly popular.

So if you have never tried one of our technology previews, come to the Autodesk Labs site and get started.

• Visit Autodesk Labs

Unlike the varieties available in the Monty Python cheese shop, we have many active technology previews to choose from.

Humor is alive in the lab.