Jerry P (aka SNOOPYbrown Zamboni) asked this past week if I could ‘port the Pro/E “rocket launcher” file (see my earlier post which explains what that is) into the Second Life simulation (something to do with MAKE magazine’s Phillip Torrone giving a presentation). Unfortunately I don’t really have time to do it all. More importantly, because I never intended to take that particular 3D file back into a virtual environment, I didn’t concern myself with surface complexity. It was intended for fabrication. And real parts are complex. Importing that mess of triangles is going to be… interesting.

Anyway, after spending almost an entire day on the main conversion this weekend and getting a lot of messages like “Unable to triangulate part Q3ROCKET-FZ. Aborting output.”, I got something out to a mesh file (a vrml) and shipped it on it’s way. What a major pain that was; especially the surface repairs. Glad this one is out of my hair. But now that I’ve spent all that time cleaning up the surfaces to go “solid”, I’m considering making a working toy from this. Wonder if it’s worth the trouble. More importantly, what would id have to say about that?

Brand Autopsy has posted an excerpt from Douglas Rushkoff‘s forthcoming book “GET BACK IN THE BOX: Innovation from the Inside Out” which is especially interesting to me given my recent revelation. I’m going to focus on the very first first line from the excerpt:

American companies are obsessed with window dressing because they’re reluctant, no, afraid, to look at whatever it is they really do and evaluate it from the inside out.

Exactly the point I was making recently in my earlier post when I said:

Followed logically, it raises the possibility that viral marketing – and my ideas related it – may be too close to core business and marketing issues (like corporate culture, brand identity, aso) for comfort.

In years past when I’d traveled overseas, especially in Asia, I was consistently amazed at the entrepreneurial efforts of local businesses; so much so I wondered why Americans didn’t exhibit the same level of capitalist behavior. I’d return fresh from a trip and wonder “What happened to us? Why isn’t every kid in America today itching to erect a lemonade stand during the summer?” It’s been decades since I’ve seen a lemonade stand (in real life, not one on television).

I’ve always suspected something but now more and more I believe it to be the case. Average people have for years followed their cues from big businesses. But increasingly big businesses have themselves forgotten what real capitalism is about. They’re so busy lobbying officials, forging high-level deals with other companies, and/or protecting their assets, that it seems they’ve largely forgotten what it is they do. In my opinion it’s not that the box needs redefining or expansion. It needs to stop shrinking.

I wish I could show some screencaps from the modified Doom3 ingame video posted by Manuel M. Oliveira showing off his “Relief Texture Mapping” technique. It makes the original flat, normal-mapped textures look dull in comparison. If you thought Doom3’s visuals looked detailed, you have to to see this video (Windows Media file only). Find it and more on his website (link).

via Blue’s News

Well, today has gotten off to a lousy start: a “new” Samsung hard drive is already sprouting “bad sectors”. Fudge. After all the recent HD problems around here I think I’m going back to Seagate. My period of testing the various offerings from different manufacturers is over. Give me the good stuff.

So anyway, as is probably obvious, I needed to raise my spirits with something fun to post, since I know this weekend I’ll be playing … (cue theme music) … Computer Repairman. Luckily as I was surfing through the Cool Hunting site I caught an entry that got me doing my own hunting. A little effort and I found myself in the Kidrobot discussion forums where I found what I was looking for: a post with this link to a gallery of images on the Vinyl Pulse website. Vinyl Pulse’s gallery of pictures are from yesterday’s “Munny Show”, a charity auction held to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina. Worthwhile effort and fun design. It doesn’t get much better.

For anyone who hasn’t followed the niche vinyl toy market, it really is an interesting scene. Wired carried an article on it a year or so ago. Mostly I’ve been watching the scene from a distance. The most recent significant development of which I was aware was Kidrobot‘s introduction of a “Munny” – a kind of do-it-yourself toy. But I wasn’t aware of this event, so this is pretty cool. And of course, anything that brings together design and mass customization is of interest to me.

There. I feel better already.

{Images Copyright © 2005 Vinyl Pulse}

Check out this article (and the accompanying slideshow) about design phenom Ora Ito over on BusinessWeek. It’s a fun piece on how the impatient design dropout rose to the top… but also an indication of the mixed messages being broadcast about Design. Here’s someone with obviously a lot of raw talent and some pedigree being showcased as an example to a business community that is still largely unable to take design seriously. I have no doubt that some senior exec is going to expect one of his CAD jockeys to “be like Mike” (or in this case, Ito). And on the flipside there are people as talented as Ito laboring quietly under the thumb of a mediocre corporate management team; taking direction from people with no vision for the products they bring to market. As one senior vice president once told me, “We don’t know who buys this sh*t. But they do.”

Maybe what the business world needs is a behind-the-scenes peek at the average day-to-day life of a designer in the corporate world. Wouldn’t be as fun, but it might be a whole lot more instructive.