It is Alive in the Lab

My Favorite Autodesk It’s Alive in the Lab Posts of 2020

When I started this blog in April 2007, it was about showcasing free technology previews that were available via Autodesk Labs. Hence the name, It's Alive in the Lab. For some years now, it's about showcasing Autodesk technology. Despite the... Read more →

Book Review: Originals by Adam Grant

Through a generous offer from getAbstract during the pandemic, I found that Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World is a creativity book by Adam Grant. It was inspired by his missed opportunity to invest in eyeglass maker, Warby Parker. Warby... Read more →

Merry Christmas from the Sheppard/Lerdall/Price Family

Christmas 2020 Dear friends and relatives, 2020 will universally be marked by the all-consuming pandemic, but for us, the year will also be remembered for a joyous addition to our family. Steven got a dog. And, oh yeah, Stephanie and... Read more →

My FanDuel Virtual Gambling Experience Left Me at a Loss

I am on my sabbatical from work until December 2. To celebrate the birth of our first grandchild, my wife and I are staying with our daughter, son-in-law, and new grandson in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to my sabbatical, I had... Read more →

Yesterday We Saw More of the Ravenswood Area of Chicago than We Planned: What's in a Name?

While we await the birth of our first grandchild, we are staying at the Guesthouse Hotel in Chicago. Our room has a kitchen, so parents-to-be, Blake and Stephanie, brought us groceries in the morning. We took advantage of that with... Read more →

The Future of Making: Is Bespoke Toothpaste in our Future?

Autodesk serves three industries: Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Product Design and Manufacturing Media and Entertainment We find that how people in these industries do things are becoming more alike and that their supply chains are starting to intersect. It's quite... Read more →

Andrew Friendly: The Pandemic Has Proven that Government Matters

The Autodesk Point of View is our Autodesk internal provocative op-ed, published monthly by our Strategic Foresight team, where we discuss the big ideas that have the potential to significantly impact our customers and our business in the next 10... Read more →

Making Software Easier to Learn

At Autodesk, we're researching how people learn because we want to make our software easier to learn. We have found that people want to do to learn instead of learn to do. In other words, they don't want to spend... Read more →

Book Review: Berserker's Planet by Fred Saberhagen - AI Will Mimic/Predict Human Emotion

Enlarge via BeserkerPlanet.png (5264.4K) In my previous review of Berserker Man, also by Fred Saberhagen, I mentioned how my friend, Francis Walsh, the astronomer, loaned me some science fiction books. I usually do not read fiction, but I am reading... Read more →

Book Review: NORMAL by Warren Ellis

Enlarge: Character Map from Normal "The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet." —William Gibson Our team at Autodesk is called Strategic Foresight. We help identify and articulate long-term forces of change and their implications shaping the future... Read more →

Free Tinkercad Lessons Plans are Available for Teachers

With COVID-19 impacting the ability of teachers and students to gather face to face, remote learning is the remedy. As such, Tinkercad has been found to be a valuable tool in teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. Tinkercad is... Read more →

Drone Pictures of My House Opened My Eyes

As a Marine, my neighbor, Clay, learned to play by the rules. As an air-traffic controller today, he knows the rules when it comes to using unmanned aerial vehicles, a.k.a., drones. So when I learned that Clay had a drone,... Read more →

Autodesk Visiting Fellows Program Brings in Outside Perspectives

The Autodesk Visiting Fellows Program recruits exceptional, industry-shaping talent to help light the future path of Autodesk. Although fellows have rich sectoral expertise, they tend to focus on defining and pursuing opportunities emerging at the intersection of our traditional markets... Read more →

Autodesk Forge Customer BIM6D takes AEC to the Next Dimension

Autodesk Forge is our set of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) that allow our customers and partners to customize their own solutions around their design data. Our Forge team just published a new Forge customer success story with BIM6D. BIM6D, a... Read more →

Book Review: Berserker Man by Fred Saberhagen

Download BerserkerMan.jpg (4254.8K) Berserkers are mighty, killing machines, They are unmanned spaceships that have been integrated with a form of artificial intelligence referred to as The Co-ordinator. The onboard machines, auxiliary robots, and missiles allow Berserkers to execute their mission... Read more →

The Power of Named Users

Microsoft Teams lets us see who did what. I log in all the time. At work, I log into my PC and Microsoft Teams using my Autodesk domain user name and password. At home, I log into Spotify, Netflix, eTrade,... Read more →

Man-Made and Natural: My Walk Down Thistledown

My wife, mother-in-law, and I live in Wildwood at Oakcrest. Wildwood at Oakcrest is a fantastic community located near Tomball and just north of Houston in Cypress, TX. Wildwood at Oakcrest is in an inviting place to call home thanks... Read more →

The Trees of Wildwood at Oakcrest Add Beauty, Value, and Help the Environment

My wife, mother-in-law, and I live in Wildwood at Oakcrest. Wildwood at Oakcrest is a fantastic community located near Tomball and just north of Houston in Cypress, TX. Wildwood at Oakcrest is in an inviting place to call home thanks... Read more →

Cadcraft uses Autodesk Forge to Streamline its Customer's Process

Autodesk Forge is our set of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) that allow our customers and partners to customize their own solutions around their design data. If what archers do is called archery, I guess what Forge developers do is called... Read more →

Book Review: Transcendence by Gaia Vince

Mural I created as I read each chapter of Transcendence Like most companies during this pandemic, we're all working remotely. I am in the Houston area, one of my colleagues is in Cleveland, and the rest of our team is... Read more →

HoloLab Uses Autodesk Forge for Augmented and Mixed Reality

"Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination Take a look and you'll see into your imagination" — Gene Wilder, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory There's a brand new story that was just released by... Read more →

How About A Game of LUMA Bingo?

The LUMA Institute got its name from the Latin for illuminate, i.e., to shed light on solving problems. LUMA is a collection of 36 techniques that can be applied to practice human-centered design, often referred to as design thinking. To... Read more →

Capgemini uses Autodesk Forge to View and Manage Buildings and Infrastructure

Autodesk Forge is our set of cloud-based developer tools used by our community of customers and partners to derive more value from their design and engineering data. When you use a computer program, you do so via its User Interface... Read more →

ProStain of Texas stained our Fence so We're no longer on the Fence about it

Here's one time where being a stain on the community is a good thing. When we moved into our Cypress, Texas home about a year ago, our fence was shiny-new as it had been installed by Lennar Homes as part... Read more →

Remote Learning for "It's All About the Song"

One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is the focus on remote learning. To maintain physical distance, schools are more offering classes online. This is nothing new for the likes of institutions like Khan Academy, but now the process... Read more →

THE FUTURE OF MAKING - What's the punch line?

The Autodesk book, THE FUTURE OF MAKING, tells remarkable stories of how emerging technologies are changing how we make things, who makes things, and the very nature of the what we make. The book expands on Autodesk's vision of how... Read more →

"As real as Rihanna"

I recently read a Variety article: Miquela, the Uncanny CGI Virtual Influencer, Signs With CAA The article describes how a virtual character has been signed with a creative arts agency. Miquela, a computer-generated avatar with a unique personality, has quite... Read more →

Solar Energy Facts for 2020 from ComfyLiving

Autodesk serves a variety of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) customers. Some want to enter the fewest AutoCAD LT commands to plot the minimum number of 2D sheets required to obtain their building permits. Others go all in with 3D... Read more →

Small Job for Cut Above Landscaping Made a Big Difference for Us

I am such a silly sod. In my blog post entitled, "Killing time at an Airport on a Sunday: How I Spent my Saturday Working in the Yard," I noted how I made a flagstone pathway from my backyard patio... Read more →

You're invited to join the new @Autodesk "Forge Partner Talks" webinar series in May!

Senior Marketing Manager, Emily Scherbenski, shared some good news with me. Next week we are kicking off a weekly Forge webinar series called "Forge Partner Talks." Each webinar will be an hour long and feature a panel of partners who... Read more →

What does it mean to be a Strategic Foresight Practitioner at Autodesk?

Image courtesy of Lightning Motorcycles [We have an open position on our team. I have written this blog post for potential candidates who would like some of the inside scoop about what we do.] Our team at Autodesk is called... Read more →

LH Renovations did a Great Job to Fix a Standing Water Problem for our Outdoor Kitchen

I have blogged before about how we had a pool and outdoor kitchen added to our backyard. I have also mentioned that Stonewall Pools declared bankruptcy before completing the job. I then blogged about how LH Renovations came to the... Read more →

Autodesk intern Courtney Yu's Cheat Sheet for Autodesk Products by Industry

Repost from 07/22/2019 Autodesk serves three industries: Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Product Design and Manufacturing (PD&M) Media and Entertainment (M&E) More and more, we find that these industries are converging: Autodesk customers who make buildings (AEC) are starting to... Read more →

Autodesk Point of View: What will the New Normal look like?

Autodesk Technology Centre in Toronto resident, Michael Schwanzer, of ZEITDice, is designing cameras that enable machines to see and understand our world in order to provide humans with new and valuable insights. The Strategic Foresight team at Autodesk helps identify... Read more →

Book Review: Upstream (the Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen) by Dan Heath

Our team at Autodesk is called Strategic Foresight. We help identify and articulate long-term forces of change and their implications to reveal insights shaping the future for Autodesk and our customers. Our team informs strategy across the entire company by... Read more →

Alex Lobos, an @Autodesk Visiting Fellow: The magic in experiential learning and working (and how this applies to remote collaboration)

The Autodesk Visiting Fellows Program recruits senior-level, industry-shaping talent to help light the future path of Autodesk. Although fellows have rich sectoral expertise, they tend to focus on defining and pursuing cross-industry issues emerging at the intersection of our traditional... Read more →

Personal and @Autodesk Commitment to Sustainability: Our Solar Panels Went Live One Year Ago Today

Autodesk is committed to helping designers and engineers create a future where we all live well and within the limits of our planet. We are excited to lead the way with sustainable, forward-thinking business practices. Together, we can design a... Read more →

Come See the Welcome Tower near Pier 14 in San Francisco

In a previous blog post, I covered the history surrounding Coit Tower in San Francisco. Over by where I catch the ferry to Alameda (Pier 14) when I work in San Francisco, there's a new piece of art that is... Read more →

Do you recognize this painting?

An It's Alive in the Lab reader reached out to me because he saw this painting in a doctor's office and liked it. He does not know its title or the artist. Do you recognize it? My Google image search... Read more →

Book Review: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

"Not everyone understands what a completely rational process this is, motorcycle maintenance. They think it's some kind of 'knack' or some kind of 'affinity for machines' in operation. They are right, but the knack is almost purely a process of... Read more →

The Autodesk Strategic Foresight Team is Searching for Two Summer Interns

Our team, Strategic Foresight, is looking for two summer interns. The Strategic Foresight team helps identify and articulate long-term forces of change and their implications on Autodesk’s future. Through storytelling, foresight techniques, and thought leadership, the team aids Autodesk leaders... Read more →

Come to the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco before June 30

About ten years ago when Autodesk expanded its Landmark Building footprint to include the second floor of One Market and create the Autodesk Gallery, our project achieved LEED Platinum certification: Now that more than a decade has passed, we're about... Read more →

Autodesk and the Bay Bridge Lights

The Secretary of Defense Executive Fellows program was established by the Secretary of Defense in 1994 as a long-term investment in transforming US forces and capabilities and, as such, is a key part of the Department of Defense strategy to... Read more →

The Rock Boat XX Was Out of This World #therockboat

The Rock Boat is the world's largest floating music festival. Although this was the twentieth voyage for The Rock Boat, it was only the ninth for my wife, Sheryl, and me. I guess it speaks volumes about the experience if... Read more →

Answering the Todd Rundgren 30 Song Day Challenge

"Blue Orpheus" "Number One Lowest Common Denominator" "The Surf Talks" "Liar" "Mountaintop" "Rock Love" "Drive" "Pissin'" "I Can't Stop Running" "Sweeter Memories" "Mercenary" "Does Anybody Love You?" "I Don't Want to Tie You Down" "Mated" "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"... Read more →

Global Garage Flooring and Design (@global_garage) Resurfaced Our Garage Floor

For Christmas, my mother-in-law got me the gift of getting our garage floor resurfaced because our next-door neighbor had his done, and my wife, mother-in-law, and I loved it. My neighbor used Global Garage Flooring & Design, so we went... Read more →

Darren Brooker's 3x3 Stories End of Year Email to Autodesk Employees

At Autodesk, our team focuses on strategic foresight. Strategic foresight is a practice of looking systematically at the future, understanding fragmented indicators that suggest possible futures, and developing a point of view about how to respond. We use imagination to... Read more →

My Favorite Things to Eat

With the Christmas season just passed and the song "My Favorite Things" still running around in my head, I thought I'd share my list of favorite foods to eat. Here they are in order of how much I like them:... Read more →

My Favorite Blog Posts of 2019

When I started this blog in April 2007, it was about showcasing free technology previews that were available via Autodesk Labs. Hence the name, It's Alive in the Lab. For some years now, it's about showcasing Autodesk technology. Despite the... Read more →

Merry Christmas from Autodesk

Merry Christmas. This week, Autodesk employees in the United States have the week off. This week bridges the Christmas and New Year's holidays. It's affectionately known as the week of rest. In days of Christmas past before we implemented the... Read more →