someone_welsh

"embodied energy" means the energy needed to create the material. So that involved in mining aluminium, refining ore etc, moving it around the world until it's built into a building.

Carelessly specified new carpets will off-gas VOCs to the detriment of the local air quality (until there's none left in thecarpet material).

In both cases he's saying that an architect should be aware of the wider context of their material choices and consequential effect on both the planet and the building's inhabitants.

To an extent, and seemingly always with frames. But pro riders often use parts that aren't "sponsership approved" - they just make them all black or similar (rather than have another manfacturer's logo on them)

NB: The bus station in Vauxhall (linked) wasn't designed by Zaha, but by Arup's architecture dept

Sorry, I felt the need to respond to this. Why are shorts juvenile? They are a perfectly rational and sane climatic adaptation of clothing, allowing decent airflow over a human body.

To decry shorts as juvenile is sympotmatic of simple minded attitudes that lead to people in warm climates spending the hottest part of the day wearing full suits in fully glazed boxes which need to be energy intensively air conditioned so that they don't die.

This is not a sensible path for society to take

I generally recommend watching "black mirror" - a funny 3 episode satirical tv thing which is about this very topic. it's worth people's time

relevant and funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I

I apologise for my immense lack of knowledge of current password storage applications (i'm not a programmer and come here for the other stuff), but what is the benefit of these services (lastpass etc)? This is a genuine question.

It seems to me that instead of having several passwords in my head (i can remember random long strings of characters pretty well, and have a heirachy of randomness/longness depending on what I care about), I only have to remember one. But if that one's compromised, aren't all the rest then available?

Reminds me of the bit in hitchhikers guide to the galaxy (life the universe and everything i think) where passwords and biometrics etc had become really difficult and secure, so a datacube thing was created to store them all. Which was then found by a character before hilarity ensued.

thanks

YMMV; Annecdotes != data; correlation != causation etc.

but I've known a lot of modest, moderate and heavy recreational ket users - It's been quite a popular recreational drug in the UK for about 15 years. I would perceive (being not a doctor or anything useful) that the proportion of them which are depressed in some way is a noticeably higher than the rest of the people I've ever met.

It's an addictive drug (perhaps not physically, but definitely behaviourally/psychologically). In my opinion it grossly interferes with peoples' ability to interact with those who don't partake. I find it difficult to recall a single example of its use improving someone's well-being - the converse in fact.

Anyway, just adding my observations/bit of life experience.

credentials....

"If you like this post, please upvote it on hacker news"

First of all, I should probably disclose that I am a construction industry professional of some sort (architectural training, science training, currently an MEP engineer).

Several problems with the article.

The "poor guys in the field". Who are they? Why have they "gotten worse and worse"? Have they? (They have a far greater financial interest in improve efficiency than it is for the more "professional" end of the construction industry - at least in UK)

These "guys in the field"... something tells me it'll be a while before a main contractor starts giving all his workers ipads.

What's the cost per tablet? how many would be needed? How much training in the use of various software would be required? (for people who may not be particularly prone to... using elaborate software). A typical construction worker might work for a main contractor (via various subcontractors) for a total of 6 months. I'm sure they'd be happy to leave with an extra bonus of a tablet after that. How well does a tablet perform when its screen is caked in concrete?

Then there's the issue of the software. Some of this "amazing software" - (i'm going to pick on Revit as that's what I'm most experienced in) requires a supercomputer to run. If that's how the information is organised, then where is it going to be filtered down to the needs of the contractor in question, (who is "asking the question of the architect")

(According to the article, Revit architecture = amazing software. This I wholeheartedly dispute. For many reasons, but that's another story)

At this point I should point out that the "much better communication" bit is quite inaccurate where it details the process of an RFI. For a start - paper is a cheap way for all workers to have the information at hand - ie with them there and then - not in the "trailer".

Once these over-estimates of the time currently spent are taken out, the two are broadly similar. Replace "looks at problem and makes notes on plans" with "looks at problem, cleans his hands, tries to navigate clunky over elaborate BIM model on underpowered tablet, finally finds relevant part of large and complex building, annotates it, uploads to central server via wi-fi.

The bit about tablets being already massively adopted in construction industry has a link to someone using their ipad essentially for accounting purposes. Sure. People already do this all the time, with smartphones. Nothing to see here.

There's a throwaway comment about green buildings in there as well. To which I say the following:

The typical design lifespan of a building nowadays is 40-60 years. What about when they're demolished quicker than this though, perhaps because they're shit? How green is it to cut costs everywhere to result in a nasty piece of urban fabric which is subsequently destroyed, to be replace, even if it's covered in eco tech? What's the lifespan of a really well considered building which grows and flourishes with the love of those who experience it?

Also, new “BIM” software is often marketed as being able to enable “greener” building design. My current experience suggests it will be 5 years or so before its even slightly adequate at this. The calculation procedures offered are terrible, constrained and offer nowhere near the flexibility or creativity of a good old spreadsheet. Yet they slow down the spatial modelling process and provide inertia to change, iteration and flexibility. There's a lot to be said for centralising information storage (whilst contextualising it with a 3D model), yet at present this is beyond the practical means of most hardware (I personally doubt this, and attribute it to sloppy/inefficient software design. But this isn't my field – I imagine everyone else @ HN knows a lot more on this)

It may seem that I'm an anti tech luddite from this post, but nothing could be further from the truth. I'm reasonably young (late 20s) and generally embrace technological progress.

Also, it can't be denied that the construction industry is very staid and has much inertia against change.

However, I think that there is a lot of external pressure on the industry to adopt new technologies imposed from outside, as they are "the future" etc. In many cases, the technology is not appropriate to the situation at hand.

Building design is then adapted to the needs of the software, rather than the other way round. This results in a lot of terrible buildings (which are, it goes without saying, produced cheaply and efficiently). This is a massive shame, as buildings are part of the shared cultural capital of our civilisation and are unavoidable. Just because you don't work/live in a building, it doesn't mean you don't have to experience it.

Anyway, that's probably enough for now. I can probably elaborate on all sorts if people are interested.

Good points. I generally agree.

But I don't think your second reference is really a fair criticism, and I think this was blown completely out of proportion in the UK. I certainly didn't feel that the series was "tarnished". After all, getting a camera inside an actual polar bear den in the arctic? I think that'd be somewhat invasive. Still a beautifully shot, enjoyable and educational series.

The BBC has also been responsible for all of Adam Curtis's documentaries, which are often excellent, and still get made (although the most recent one was perhaps not so good, but I digress).

Proper debate occasionally happens on Newsnight, although I think Jeremy Paxman's role has developed into some sort of entertainer of late.

They did spend a lot of time paying vast amounts to... Jonathan Ross.

For a few seconds at a time, during transitions between scenes or in the lead up to advert breaks. Synchronicity of relevant actions is minimum - ie a car driving, while someone sits in a room. the other two may be 2 sides of the same phone call.

There's not really ever 2 concurrent plots happening simultaneously.

My experience of Autodesk is that customer services don't exist in order to maintain a healthy cottage industry of books and training courses.

At the distance from the screen which people generally watch TV, better resolution than HD makes no perceptible difference - it would be pointless and wasteful. At closer distances, such as those involved in using computers, higher resolutions are perceptible and so not irrelevant. Hence they exist for computers and not TVs. Sorry, no reference right now, may add one later

i think you just made his point for him

"I think most people are thoroughly bored of this 'scandal' about a bit of corruption that happened 10 years ago. There's more important news out there."

Nope. It's more to do with the fact that it's a scandal exposing just how corrupt and cosy the british power elites are. "A bit of corruption 10 years ago" is somewhat akin to Al Capone going down on tax evasion