AO_Template_080725.zip

AO_Toolbars_080725.zip

AO_Viewmodes_080725.zip

I’ve created a collection of viewing modes, preferences, tool bars, and templates to help make Rhino easier to use. Here’s the deal:

You don’t have to work with me for long before learning that I’m not exactly a “Rhino guy.” In fact, I’ve traditionally pretty much hated Rhino. Why waste time on useless data that can’t be changed, when you could be building with a parametric app?

Well, I figured that the answer to that question can only be learned by doing. I’ve never really learned Rhino well because I’ve always been so frustrated by it, so I attended a Rhino training course at McNeal Miami this week, and though the class itself was very basic, the opportunity to spend time in the software was very helpful to me.

One of the most frustrating things about Rhino, I find, is that there are far too many tools. It’s not a good thing: they’d be better off having one powerful “extrude” command than the twelve various commands they have now.

My way of getting around this was to create toolbars that organize the tools in a much cleaner, easier-to-read way. I hate dealing with cryptic icons, though they are helpful at a glance, so I like to use both text and icons to get the best of both worlds. I’ve also added some custom tools, like X Y and Z flavors of the “mirror” and “setpt” commands, making them much faster to use in daily practice.

One toolbar change I made that is bound to stir up controversy is the removal of all right-click functions on “top-level” tools, or tools that have popup menus beneath them. This makes it much quicker to access nested tools, and much more predictable. The right-click functions are all still available in the resulting pop-up menus.

I’ve used F1, F2, and F3 to change CPlane orientations on the fly while in perspective mode.

I also really dislike the default visualization modes in Rhino. I quickly found that it’s not Rhino itself that’s the problem, it’s just the way it’s configured that’s the problem. I’ve created some custom view modes that work better for me, based on “Material” rather than layer color. I find it makes organizing the file much easier.

The one thing these lack as of today are all of my custom scripts, which I’ll have to add to this distro at a later date. More to come soon!

I found the tone of this book unnecessarily haughty, and felt constantly that Mr. Hirshberg has something to prove in writing it. This is less a book on practical innovation itself than a self-congratulatory career retrospective on the part of the author. It is clear that Hirshberg is intelligent and creative, and not at all afraid to tell you so.

Despite it all, the book is full of interesting facts and stories from the inside of Nissan’s innovation design center in California. Not a must-read, but worth a skim.

My boss at Bose, Gustavo Fontana, recommended this book to me after delivering a somewhat stinging–but wholly justified–performance review. The title is telling: the strengths that have helped me to succeed thus far in my career will not carry me any further. It will not be my hand-skills or CAD know-how that will advance my career henseforth; it will have to be my people skills and political savvy. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have neither.

Much like Paco Underhill’s book, this is a very practical and helpful book, written in case-studies from the vantage point of a corporate executive “coach” working with Fortune 500 corporate leaders in various disciplines. It is definitely a shameless self-promotion on the part of Mr. Goldsmith, but a powerfully helpful one none-the-less.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and plan to read it again soon. I hope to go through it with my wife–the ultimate expert on all things “Adam”–in hopes that she can help me apply it in the real world. Highly recommended!

I grew up shopping at Wal-Mart, and during my time at Black & Decker, I witnessed the copany in action from a whole new perspective.

I was hesitant to read this book. I fully expected it to be a raving anti-capitalist memorandum on the “fat cats” in “big business” laying seige to decency itself. I was proved wrong. The beginning of the book is an insightful look into the humble beginnings of Wal-Mart, and it’s ernest and unwaivering efforts to live up to its mission: “Always low prices. Always.”

The picture becomes less rosy as the book wears on, though it is consistently emphasized that the “Wal-Mart Effect” is complex and nuanced, and not wholly negative.

I have a good friend who has done market research consulting work for Wal-Mart in recent months, and who has also read “The Wal-Mart Effect.” He believes that the book is already out of date, as many of the issues brought to bear in the book have changed significantly since its publishing. This may be the case, but the book speaks to an issue larger than Sam Walton’s retail machine. With only a handful of notable exceptions, Wal-Mart plays by the rules. And yet they seem to have somehow defeated the rules as they exist today. I am never an advocate of special restrictions on businesses of a certain size; I believe that all businesses, small and large, should play by the same rules. But that said, how can we ensure that the big-boxes, and Wally-World in particular, have enough competition to keep markets free and fair?

I highly recommend this book. It is eye-opening, and never one-dimensional. It is concisely written, and never presumptuous. This is not a book about the author or the author’s outlook, but on Wal-Mart and its many various implications for American capitalist society.

Chock-full of fascinating details about the behaviors of shoppers in situ. While clearly a book of shameless self-promotion for Mr. Underhill, he certainly does a good job of it! After reading this book, one is left with far more questions than answers, and an inexorable desire to sit in a shopping mall parking lot for hours on end. Paco Underhill is an academic researcher turned retail marketing guru, by painstakingly perusing through tens-of-thousands of hours of candid footage from in an attempt to glean every possible measurable characteristic about the actual behavior of shoppers. The result is astonishing.

In my opinion, the book does contain a bit too much in the way of opinion and conjecture. Though Underhill does an excellent job of convincing the reader that he is a credible source of information, the last three chapters of the book seem to reach further and further from actual analysis of behavior, and focus instead on his various ideas for practical applications in various industries. While these too are fascinating, they lack some of the impact of the more direct cause-effect relationships demonstrated by the research in earlier chapters of the book.

This book is a pleasure to read, and a quick one at that. Underhill is engaging and enthusiastic. He is a man who loves his job, and it shows. I’ve found it motivating and inspirational, and highly recommend it!

This book is difficult for me to rate. The writing style is somehow both densely packed and needlessly fluffy. Fishman works very hard at dropping long strings of metaphores into each sentence, making it difficult–and somewhat annoying–to follow. The content is simultaneously profoundly interesting, confusingly disconnected, and maddeningly biased. There is no question on which side of the China debate Mr. Fishman stands. The book clearly bashes America’s increasing co-dependency with China as a catastrophe, or at least a catastrophe wating to happen. I am not so pessimistic.

While the book was not a pleasure to read, I still recommend doing so. The sheer scale of American industrial relations with China is mind-blowing, and China Inc. does an excellent job of painting that picture. The facts and figures alone are worth browsing, and the analysis, while decidedly one-sided, is still a very valid interpretation. Not many people grasp the enormity of our trade-relations with China, nor its irreversable impact on the global economy. In order to debate ways of dealing with the white elephant in the living room, we must first recognize the elephant. To this end, China Inc. aught to be of help.

A fascinating glimpse into one of history’s great minds, one that epitomised an entire school of thought. Pascal writes in defense of Christianity (and Judaism), while beautifully illustrating thought patterns in the self-declared “age of reason.” His “Letter Against Indifference” is particularly poignient, though the book also contains Pascal’s famous “Wager,” and other gloriously un-PC commentaries. By today’s standards, his logic is decidedly closed and incomplete, but the work is insightful and fun to read none-the-less, especially when taken with a generous pinch of salt.

A smart, succinct, and empowering book covering various common-sense negotiation tactics. Full of practical and realistic case studies, and no-nonsense advice. A quick read; I read it in three easy evenings. Three thumbs up!

I remember sitting on a foot stool in the isle of the Columbus College of Art and Design library, perusing this book. I was in tears. The work moved me in a way that only Andrew Wyeth can, and this–his raw, unfinished studies and works–is some of his most visceral. Only the Helga Pictures come close to the level of impact he was able to achieve, but did so in a totally different way. These are Wyeth in his element, and one of my most well-thumbed books. Cliché as it may sound, for me it’s equal parts solace and inspiration.

When I started at Bose, I figured I should learn the basics. What better way than to read the book? This is one of the most popular text books on acoustics, and I have to admit I found it fascinating. It does delve into the math occasionally, but the vast majority of the book is actually quite readable. If you’re going into the acoustics field as a designer, or even if you’ve just got a passing interest in the way sound works, this is a great way to learn.

I remember seeing Carly speak in one of her annual big-screen global conference meetings when I interned at HP in Houston. I was impressed with her. When the HP scandals erupted that resulted in her ousting, I was both disappointed and very curious about the circumstances of the firing. This book recalls her climb to fame and fortune as the “world’s most powerful woman,” and while self-glorifying in a somewhat overt way, it’s also candid and honest. It is an excellent–and likely accurate–representation of the upper-eschelons of the business world, and I highly recommend it. She is sharp, witty, and interesting, if a bit self-absorbed. I learned a lot about real leadership from this book.

A collection of sermons by the late MLK Jr., and an excellent window into the atmosphere during the civil rights movement in the south. Insightful, subtle, eloquent, and powerful.

This book will put your logical faculties to the test. If you’ve ever wondered if it’s logically possible for a “good” God to exist in the midst of a world containing “evil”–and you’ve got a penchant for the mathematical and a good logical workout–this book is for you. It’s short, but it will take weeks to read it with any comprehension whatsoever. Slow and hard as the slog is, it’s well worth the work if you are the kind of person who likes to dig deep.

My wife took a class at Harvard with one of the authors of this book, and subsequently had me read it. It’s full of wisdom for leaders and would-be leaders. It gets a bit frilly toward the end, but a useful read none-the-less.

A very fun collection of historical novelties. A fast read, with lots of interesting tid-bits. What it lacks in depth it makes up for in the sheer number of “aha!” factoids. I don’t get the impression that it’s very well researched, but worth a quick read.