Doing difficult things takes time...

First there was the Snuggie and then there was the Slanket (or is it the other way around?). But why limit your appendage-friendly linens to lounging? Now there's the Dreamie.

What makes good information design? The NSSE reports that a variety of colleges and universities have shown steady improvement in the quality of undergraduate education, as measured by students' exposure to and involvement in effective educational practices.

From the events calendar:

• RAPID 2010 (additive manufacturing aka rapid prototyping), 18-20 May 2010, Anaheim, CA
• COFES 2010 (Congress on the Future of Engineering Software), 15-18 Apr 2010, Scottsdale, AZ
  

A couple of videos for you: What's New in Patran 2009 and David Allen on getting started with GTD. If you're a contractor you can figure your hourly rate using John Soer's technique or try eLance.com. I'm sure you've all heard by now that NASA found water on the moon.

Go Mustangs!

...but doing the impossible takes just slightly longer.

Education is what remains...

The folks at Lehman Brothers sure had collected some nice modern art before going bankrupt. Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace collected a cool $500,000 from NASA's lunar lander challenge. Do not confuse an engineering adventure with an engineering mind.

For fine Lebanese and Italian cuisine, try Chadra Mezza. This is supposed to be a photo blog about epic kludges, but it looks like my home workshop. My son thought this was cool, but I didn't get it. Maybe it doesn't work with bifocals. Animazing Gallery, featuring animation and fine art, has a blog.

From the CAE newswire...

• ANSYS released an academic bundle for Ansoft.
• Symscape published their November 2009 newsletter.
• OpenFOAM and Fluent are virtually tied in Symscape's favorite RANS solver poll.
• Exa released PowerACOUSTICS.
• ANSYS' revenue is up about 7% YTD over last year.
  

City Journal asks "What Happened to the Work Ethic?" Cadalyst provides this interesting overview of history versus explicit modelers. How much does Google know about you? Try their privacy dashboard and see. The do's and don'ts of modern web page design.

...after you forget everything you've learned. -- Albert Einstein

Art is an experience...

If you're a fan of David Allen's Getting Things Done, you'll appreciate this list of free GTD resources. Read all about domestic and commercial robots, like iRobot's Roomba, at Robot Reviews. It's a bit of a misnomer, but VizUp decreases polygon count in faceted models. The official web site of guitarist Steve Hackett.

I've finally found my calling: Baragami, the ancient Welsh art of toast arranging. Who whould've known that changing your socks would provide a burst of energy. ITI Transcendata released Proficiency Collaboration Gateway v8.1. Subscribe today to the International Journal of Fluid Dynamics and Aerospace Engineering, IJFDAE.

Just in time for Christmas: meggings. Employers should ban worker-manager online friendships, or so say lawyers. When in San Francisco, visit the Cartoon Art Museum. Here are links to visualization talks from CaT 2009. Dassault buys from IBM their entire PLM sales operation. A gallery of CFD visualizations from the Institute for CFD in Tokyo.

ANSYS was named to Forbes 200 Best Small Companies list for the seventh time in the past nine years. Hanley Innovations cut the price of their multi-element airfoil software. A day too late: War of the Worlds was rebroadcast online. What are the world's strongest natural flavors? More than 100 tricks using Google.

As I type this, Freeman's is auctioning a great collection of modern art including some from Lehman Brothers' collection.

Things for your calendar:

• Numerical Analysis Techniques Using FEA and CFD, Ohio Northern U, 06-07 Nov 2009

...not an object. --Robert Motherwell

It behooves a father to be blameless...

Proof that one's perspective makes all the difference: see the Earth from Mars. Instead of looking at Earth from far away, let's see Saturn closeup. Get answers for your startup from OnStartups. The 4-Hour Workweek dude has thoughts about Google's web optimizer and vanity metrics. A truly remarkable aircraft: the XB-70A.

A guide to regional hamburger styles. (The "stacked" style reminds me vaguely of Charlies' here in Fort Worth.) Rheolef is a C++ finite element environment for solving partial differential equations. Siemens PLM Software blog. Neil Davidson has written a guide to software pricing. Here's a recap of IEEE VisWeek 2009.

Ever wonder what a nuclear detonation looks like after only 10 ms? Find out with these rapatronic photographs. Rare magnetic monopoles, particles with only one magnetic pole, might find use in computers if we can figure out how to harness magnetricity. Here's a shotgun blast of some of Seth Godin's web sites: Permission Marketing, Idea Virus, The Big Red Fez. Autodesk's Project Cooper: going after Google Sketch-Up?

From the CAE newswire...

• FLOW-3D CFD Software Version 9.4 Released
• CD-adapco Launches 2010 Calendar Competition (I've had one of these calendars on my desk for the past two years.)
• NcNeel Updated RhinoScript for Rhino V4.0
• Tecplot Updated Tecplot 360 and Tecplot Focus
  

Balloon artist Jason Hackenwerth goes way beyond making a puppy dog. With apologies to Frank Sinatra, "Fly me to the moon..." on the Ares I-X rocket which is set to launch on 27 Oct at 8am. I may be having a beer at the Thirsty Bear soon. Ever have text message regret? These people should. Here are some photographs of nothing more than light. European languages are mapped.

One might argue that all web pages are always under construction, but this page really is. The National Air and Space Museum has put its collection of aviation posters, called Fly Now!, online. Surgery on his neck vertebrae has left Phil Collins unable to play drums due to a loss of sensation in his fingers. Before you haters start chortling, I will remind you of Phil's drumming with jazz fusion group Brand X. (And now some haters can ask "Who's Brand X?" and "What does chortling mean?")

...if he expects his son to be. --Homer

He that can have patience...

I'm not certain that Good and Plenty belongs on this list of the worst Halloween candy. 37 Signals blogs about their products, including Basecamp. And Basecamp also appears on this list of free tools for running a small business. fusion29, visual communication studio, has updated their web site. If you have an iPhone and you use Solidworks, there's an app for that.

Open CASCADE is a geometry software kernel for 3D modeling applications. Jakob Nielsen applies the concept of powers of 10 to the user experience including the startling result that users can distinguish a web page's visual appeal in 1/20th of a second. From the "I can't remember why I bookmarked this" category, the NelsonQuick Group. If you use OpenFOAM, get your OpenFOAM Extensions.

We missed NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference but keynotes and other presentations are online. Secure your home with Schlage LiNK. Research wages by area and occupation at the Dept. of Labor. ISV Community is a network for people in the software industry and On Startups is for entrepreneurs. All the GTD information that's fit to blog: GTDtimes. Exa added Spatial's InterOp CAD translators to their products.

For those of you with no time to read, see 50 years of space exploration in a single picture. Symscape's October newsletter is out. Read how product managers can use Twitter. The FOAM Documentation Project has been shut down.

...can have what he will. --Benjamin Franklin

Doubt is not a pleasant condition...

How big is Graham's number? Bigger than a googol, larger than Moser's number. According to the sandwich price calculator, yesterday's lunch cost 79 cents. 6 reasons bacon is better than true love. 15 wonders of the Lego world. 15 women who look better (?) with mustaches.

The tactical triangle simplifies your marketing efforts. All information is beautiful, some more so than others. Disapproving rabbits? Since when did hares get their dander up? Doesn't anyone need gloves or a hat? Spatial added JT support to their CAD translators. One might argue that T-Pain has overused auto-tuning, but does it help or hurt Carl Sagan? While you're watching videos, get an eyeful of these crosswind landings.

I have great fondness for my HP-11C scientific calculator (and I know at least one person who lusts for it). In accordance with recently updated FTC guidelines, no material connection exists between this blogger and HP. SpaceClaim provides CAD software. The dean of the L.C. Smith College of Engineering at Syracuse University has a blog. MSC.Software agreed to be acquired by private investors, Maximus Holdings. Now what?

View the galactic center in 1 billion pixels. Other uses for books. When in San Fransisco, visit the Toronado Pub and sample their expansive stock of beers. Atlassian offers starter licenses of their software for $10. Michael Pollan chose his favorite 20 food rules from readers. Why can't the periodic table be round? Altair's Hyperworks community has grown to 200 partners in the first year.

For your event calendar:

• IEEE InfoVis, 11-16 Oct 2009, Atlantic City, NJ
• Global Product Data Interoperability Summit, 09-12 Nov 2009, esa, AZ
  
• Collaboration and Interoperability Congress, 03-05 May 2010, Estes Park, CO

Unroll the world of bathroom tissue with the Toilet Paper Encyclopedia. Generate a customized ransom note. ITI Transcendata's 8.0 release of CADfix has some interesting features including shrink wrapping and support for 64-bit operating systems. A U.S. court has ruled that software is owned not licensed. Take a moment amongst yourself to discuss the implications and generality of this ruling. (Hint: the ruling is relevant to the particularized details of this case.)

For those of you asking "why?", discover how nonsense sharpens the intellect.

...but certainty is absurd. -- Voltaire

How do you know when you're finished painting?

Can't you see I'm busy? I think fast food value meals have gotten a little bit ridiculous and to counter them you should try all 2,645 calories of the Super Scooby. The perfect word for the modern office is bosshole - don't be one. But if you are one, perhaps Keith Ferrazzi's blog can get you back on track. Add Twitter to Outlook with TwInbox. For the person who has everything: the ponytail cap.

Where's the nearest McDonalds? This joins my collection of online maps (not to be confused with my collection of rental car maps - seriously).

• Religion in the U.S.
• North American plate tectonics
• Gravity map of the earth
• The U.S. interstate highway system
• Interstates simplified
  
• Soda vs. Pop vs. Tonic vs. Coke in the U.S.
• World sunlight map
• News map
• Zip codes connected in ascending order
• World GDP density
• U.S. States renamed by countries with similar GDP
  
• World Atlas of faiths
• Animated history of NYC subways
• U.S. population density
• U.S. per capita roadless volume
• Video of U.S. Walmarts over time
• Top level domains of the world
• Gas prices in the U.S.
• World map done with Web 2.0 logos
• Antipode map of the world
• Olympic medals by country over time
• History's greatest journeys
• U.S. housing foreclosures
• World discretionary spending
• NFL TV Distribution
• U.S. autumn foliage
• Legal drinking age around the world
• World CO2 emissions

Did Jackson Pollock hide his name in his 1943 painting Mural? (Probably not. You could probably find your name in there.) While I'm on the subject, Pollock's Lavender Mist is one of the most awesome paintings I have ever seen. Ohio is a piano. (Never noticed that while I lived there.)

The Cullinan mine in South Africa produced a 507-carat Type II diamond. (No one tell my wife.) Texas Motor Speedway. VSG released Avizo Wind for visualizing simulation data. ANSYS announced ANSYS HPC, a bundling of multi-physics, parallel computing applications. Symscape's SymLab integrates open source applications. The Shiner brewery in Shiner, Texas. Go Virtual distributes FieldView, CFD++, and other applications in Sweden. ESI Group announced the latest release of the ACE+ suite of CFD software. NVIDIA released the new Fermi CUDA architecture. Invitations to Google Wave are closed.

Terrorism plumbs the depths of credibility with the introduction (unsuccessful) of keister bombs. To combat this, TSA has teamed up with the folks at Sky Mall to bring us the travel bidet. (I swear, sometimes this stuff writes itself.)

How do you know when you're finished making love? -- Jackson Pollock