It is Alive in the Lab

Hey Alexa, sort my grocery list by supermarket aisle.

For Christmas, I received not one, but two, Amazon echo dots. I received one from my boss, Jon Pittman, and another from my teammate, Lucas Prokopiak. Each knew that this would be the perfect gift for me. Jon's gift was... Read more →

Happy Birthday Autodesk

Autodesk is 35 years old today. The company was started on January 30, 1982. In honor of the day, we're supposed to wear our oldest Autodesk shirt. My HEIDI (HOOPS Extensible Immediate Drawing Interface) is the oldest, but few employees... Read more →

Fun Facts about Where I Live

It's a Friday, so I am not going to blog about free Autodesk technology previews that you can try. Instead, I am going to share some fun facts about where I live. Despite the glut of fake news on Facebook,... Read more →

Planned Autodesk Feedback Community Maintenance on Saturday, January 28

Relax with a cup of coffee this weekend while we update our servers. Our partners will be performing hardware maintenance this Saturday evening that will affect the Autodesk Feedback Community — technology previews and betas will be unavailable. This will... Read more →

Michael Greshko: Redesign of the city flag for San Francisco

A while back, I blogged about a TED Talk that was about flags. Watch the TED Talk. The basic rules of flag design include: Keep it simple. Use meaningful symbolism. Use two to three basic colors. Don't use lettering or... Read more →

Autodesk Conference Room Bingo

Here's another blog post for Autodesk employees. Yesterday when I typed up the Periodic Table of Reservable Conference Rooms at Autodesk San Francisco Offices, I thought to myself, "I don't even know where some of these conference rooms are. Our... Read more →

Periodic Table of Reservable Conference Rooms at Autodesk San Francisco Offices

Periodic tables are all the rage: Narrative Science: The Periodic Table of Artificial Intelligence KA Connect Conference Most of my blog posts are for Autodesk customers, typically to make them aware of a free technology preview that they can try... Read more →

Today in the Lab: Investment Casting with Ember

Arthur Harsuvanakit is a technical assistant to our CEO, Carl Bass. They codesign stuff together. A while back they imagined, designed, and created some jewelry. The jewelry pieces were presented as gifts to Autodesk Board members. Investment casting is where... Read more →

Book Review: #SpinSucks by @GiniDietrich

Jon Pittman is our VP of Corporate Strategy for Autodesk, although sometimes I wonder if he is the VP of Corporal Strategy[link]. I kid. I kid. Actually our CEO, Carl Bass, says his management team says that he has only... Read more →

2016 Update: The Continuing Benefit of the Dollars and Cents of My Home Energy Audit

My wife, Sheryl, and I have a townhouse at Crown Harbor in Alameda, California. In a series of blog posts, I outlined the process we followed in 2011 to make some energy improvements to our home: A Modest Proposal: Results... Read more →

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Friday was Friday the 13th, and I didn't realize it until my boss, VP of Corporate Strategy, Jon Pittman, sent me this: Today, I don't have that problem. I know what day it is. Autodesk employees in the United States... Read more →

Today in the Lab: Motion Capture and Robotics

If you are worried that robots will take your job, check out this video that features my colleague, Senior Research Engineer for Applied Research and Innovation, Heather Kerrick: You can see that robots and humans will one day work side... Read more →

A Trip Down Technology Preview Memory Lane

Technology previews are an opportunity for Autodesk customers to provide feedback. How many of these do your remember? Thanks for walking down memory lane with me. Thanks to the Autodesk community whose participation in technology previews makes them possible. You... Read more →

You too can help name rLoop's Hyperloop Pod

Remember when Elon Musk proposed a Hyperloop that would transfer people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 minutes. No sooner had he done that than a few Autodesk employees starting using Autodesk Fusion 360 to toss around ideas... Read more →

NextGen Learning and Project PRAXIS extended to December 31, 2017

The Autodesk Knowledge Network (AKN) allows you to access a broad range of knowledge to help you get the most out of your Autodesk products and services. It also is the home to Autodesk's forums. The AKN team creates tools... Read more →

Design Night: Virtual World, San Francisco Autodesk Gallery, February 2, 2016

Get tickets. Design Night sells out fast, so act now. Here's how this one is being billed: Can't wait to hear from @rikardsteiber, SVP of VR at HTC, #DesignNight Virtual World on 2/2 @autodeskgallery Tickets: www.autodesk.com/virtualreality What’s the difference between... Read more →

Why do people make things?

For makers: Implement is the essential step. As part of his keynotes for Autodesk University in Las Vegas, Autodesk CTO, Jeff Kowalski, has talked about how tools are our greatest gift in that they help mankind evolve. He's also mentioned... Read more →

Top 10 Most Popular It's Alive in the Lab blog posts of 2016 - thank you readers

Since it's a Friday, I'll blog about something other than a technology preview. Most people read this blog by viewing the latest article. As such, the blog's home page is the blog's most popular page. There's also the technology preview... Read more →

My @MTailor Shirt Fits Like A Glove

As I have mentioned before, Autodesk believes that the future of making involves 3 fundamental changes: Products themselves will be smarter with enablements via the internet of things. Processes will move towards automation via robots and greater efficiency through techniques... Read more →

Expiration Dates for free Technology Previews from Autodesk

With the start of the new year, it is time to repost an updated version of my milk carton blog article. We do have a few technology previews finishing soon, so act now if you want to be able to... Read more →

Admiral Grace Hopper's Log Book Contains The Original Computer Bug

Dr. Kevin Dankwardt observing a rare find Tim Barrios, Damon Beyer, Kevin Dankwardt, and I were computer science majors at the University of Lousiana at Lafayette from 1977 to 1981. We were also Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) members. In... Read more →

WIRED Magazine: Autodesk generatively-designed chair is the third most innovative object of 2016 that you'll actually want to use

I have reported about this before: Summer Intern Uses Fusion 360 and Project Dreamcatcher to Imagine, Design, and Create a Cool-Looking Chair Fusion 360 and Project Dreamcatcher Elbo Chair Over our holiday break, our team was thrilled to learn that... Read more →

Happy New Year

For those who believe that the end of the world is only 19 days away (inauguration day), fear not. To quote our CEO, Carl Bass, in an email to all employees after the election. Whatever happens now, we should take... Read more →