Internet Radio: Slacker vs. Pandora

I think many of us count on music in some form or another to get us through the work day and take care of us in our non-work time. Some maybe are locked to the itunes library, or some other mp3 system. Many just prefer to listen to what they own or acquire, depending on how you roll.

Others of us are looking for diversity and enjoy listening to online radio. If you asked me six months ago, I would have swore by XM. But, we recently went through a sad divorce. I think satellite radio missed the mark on so many fronts - a rant for another day. I began to explore intenet radio and stumbled upon Pandora.

Initially I liked Pandora. It's free with commercials or can be upgraded for $36/yr for commercial free and a few other perks. It allows you to create your own stations by simply picking an artist, song or style of music. This seemed great initially, but I quickly felt that the selection wasn't vast enough. Lots of repeats etc. Plus, one thing I quickly learned is that there is no way to say create a "Counting Crows" station and expect nothing but Counting Crows. If you think about it, does make sense, otherwise, I might never buy another mp3 or album again. So, what you do get is similar mixes of like artists and songs. Plus they have an iphone app that worked really well. They have a "share" community based feature that you can see what oth

Saving...

ers are listening to and share, seems cool. I just don't use it. If Pandora was more popular, I could see this feature being really cool, link it to your Facebook account etc. Often I found that I just wanted to pick a genre and let it rip. This forced me to poke my head around and see what else is out there.


Enter slacker radio. This was recommended to me by a good friend. I tried it out and loved it. Immediately upgraded to the Slacker Plus for commercial free. What I liked about slacker is that there are a ton of pre-programmed stations, literally 13 different alternative stations. Plus they also have an iphone app which is an absolute requirement for me as I want to listen as I walk the trails. So far so good, I thought the hunt was over. But, not so fast. The performance of the slacker iphone app has fallen off the charts. It blanks out at least twice a song. Absolutely, unusable. Extremely disappointing as I use the iphone version 85% of the time. Without it, its a show stopper for me. I haot good.

Pandora now is back on my radar. I have been using it successfully on my iphone without any issues, whatsoever. When it comes down to it, performance is key. I like Slacker's selections more, the iphone interface is much nicer than Pandora's, but if it doesn't work....I can't use it. Therefore you come in as a distant second. If I didn't pay for the Plus service, I wouldn't feel like I had the right to gripe. But, if you want me to remain a customer, how about it works every time, no matter what.

Both applications have a desktop version, so you are not required to run in a browser. I didn't appreciate this at first, but it's extremely handy to not have to tab over in Firefox to change a station etc. Both use Adobe Air for their desktop apps. Every Air product that I have seen is really slick. I use twhirl for twitter on both Vista and Ubuntu and I really like the Air look and feel. I am looking to see how Air can be leveraged for some engineering type apps.

One last thing -- both services are trying to push their own player/device. I see the value in it, but the last thing I need is another device. I wish they spent a little more time allowing me to leverage it with my car radio system or existing entertainment system. Perhaps the portable device is the way to go? Rather just use my iphone, but that's me..

Anyway, open for discussion on this one. What is playing in your office?

A New Way of Thinking for the AEC Community: Upfront CFD Simulation

There is a good chance that where you are sitting right now there is some sort of environment control system-- fancy word for HVAC or simply a heating and cooling system. It is an ever expanding business. Architects and engineers are constantly being pushed to optimize the air flow distribution and temperature values. It can be a fairly sophisticated engineering problem involving humidity, comfort temps, solar radiation among other things. It's not getting any easier as there is more and more pressure to be green and maximize efficiency. It's not only being required from a budgetary perspective, new regulations are now requiring it. In the past, often the fix was to simply over size the unit, manually alter the ducts, and even more and more rigging to solve the problem.

One would think that a problem that involves air flow, ducts, dampers, diffusers, grills, filters, blowers, solar loading, ever increasing heat generating electronics- that computational fluid dynamics (CFD) would be a no brainer? Well, it's not really the case. In fact, up until recently it was used sporadically at best. Some outfits used it all the time, others rarely used it at all. But as with everything- times are changing. Now AEC firms are being required to provide simulation proof that the design will work and that the energy consumption meets certain requirements. This is sending folks scrambling to outsource the work, which is fairly costly. Others are investigating specific vertical very HVAC simulation tools. The problem is neither of these solutions really fits into their current process. Check out the variety of problems we are solving.


Historically, folks in this industry have used AutoCAD or Microstation. Their entire world has been born to think in 2D and expand into 3D. But with tools like Autodesk Revit making traction in this world, 3D is clearly a step in the right direction. There is really no benefit to going to a 3D MCAD CAD system, like Autodesk Inventor. But Revit now opens up an entire new world for this community. It is the launching point to really embracing CFD. Check out the videos below by CFdesign guru, Parker Wright. Parker has been fortunate to be right in the thick of things in this world. Working in the heart of NYC, he is hearing the evidence first hand right from the firms themselves. Check out his approach to solving the problem.

The below video shows the basic modeling inside Revit.

Here is setting up the CFD model leveraging the Revit geometry inside CFdesign.

Finally, reviewing the flow and thermal results in CFdesign.

I think we will be seeing more and more usage in this world. We are literally at the calm before the storm. The problems are only going to get bigger and happen more often. The good news is the technology and integration to solve the problem is growing even faster.

NX, gotta admit the ST stuff is awesome!

I'm the first to admit to not being a power user of UG, but over the last few years I have been driving the NX versions from time to time. I always thought it was fairly stable, but like all of the other high end CAD systems, I felt overwhelmed by the shear magnitude of features that I never really turned to it as my CAD system of choice.

Well, things are a changing. I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by CAD power users everyday. All of the CFdesign engineers are power users of at least a few of the CAD systems. So between us we are a fierce CAD modeling group. There has always been a few guys singing the praises of UG, but I just chalked it up to "anything is easy when you know it". The lights went on for me with NX6, I sat through a webex with one of our guys and he was presenting a knarly model that he did as a services project. He showed me the model as received from the customer. It was an assembly that consisted of a few CAD systems, a few STEP files and an IGES file thrown in for good measure.

He then proceeded to show me how quickly and robustly he was able to bring this dead horse back to life in a matter of no time. Check out the above preview of a minor fraction of what you can do with the ST stuff.

I will presenting this alongside CFdesign 2010 at the PLM World conference on June 4th. Click here for specifics. Would love to hear other's experience with ST - both in NX and Solid Edge. Are people driving simulations with this stuff? I know we are seeing some awesome stuff. Let's hear what you got..

Ubuntu One; what's in a name?

Ever since Mark Shuttleworth announced the vision of Jaunty Jackalope and the cloud presence that was planned for the latest release of Ubuntu, I couldn't wait until it was released. Well, that day has come and gone AND now...I'm on the waiting list for the cloud service part. Boooo!

The service is known as Ubuntu One. The link explains it much better than I-- but essentially it is an online storage, sharing, syncing service provided by Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu. Anyone that has read my posts of the last year know, I definitely have a bit of an obsession with an online storage, syncing and accessible system. Not sure how much more room I need, but I need more for sure.

I have tried many different options and use Live Mesh to sync my work machines and Dropbox to share work and my Ubuntu netbook. I think the One service looks ok-- not sure its sized appropriately for my use. 2GB for free and $10/month for 10GB. Dropbox gives me 2GB free and for $100/yr I can get 50GB. Yea, 50Gb. Pretty close to pulling the trigger on an annual subscription with Dropbox once the well promised iphone app is available.

I am a huge fan of Ubuntu and love all that it and the community behind it stands for. So, I may still consider paying for the service to support the entire project. I will be very anxious to see if I can leverage this service to store music to drive Songbird or banshee.

What I found really interesting is the outcry from some members of the community that pitched a fit about the use of the Ubuntu name for a closed source (or at least 50% closed) project. I support FOSS, but also appreciate that there is a business behind all of this. Canonical, by law, has every right from what I can gather to use the name how they choose. Do we fault Canonical for attempting to build upon their business? I doubt anyone does.

Everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion. But, I think this is an example of how the open source world gets carried away or at least further off the deep end than I can understand. I think some should take a step back and appreciate all that Canonical and the Ubuntu world has done for linux, in general. The service is a direct extension of the Ubuntu OS. Right now, it only supports Ubuntu, so does it make that much of a difference that Ubuntu is in the name?

If we are being petty-- what's up with the name "One"?

Are you doing your part to Recycle?

Not sure if it's me or are others seeing the idea of recycling spreading more and more. Personally, I have always tried my best to minimize waste and attempt to recycle when possible. Something I latched onto early in life. I surely am not perfect, but always trying. I remember doing "can drives" during little league. Anyone remember them? We would spend 1-2 Saturday's a season collecting aluminum cans and taking them to the Recycling Center. Any of the money we raised went back into the league funds.

We have made a big effort in our house to really, really pay attention and I'm amazed at how much the shift in regular trash vs. recycled is really weighing heavily on the side of recycled goods. Everything from plastics to glass to paper. I'm blown away how much my wife is into it. She has always been aware, but I think a bit of the team effort, plus including our 3 year old is making a difference. Give it a shot, just raise your awareness just a tiny bit more than it is today. I think you will be amazed at the difference. Count how much your trash decreases weekly? i expect you will see an immediate impact.

One-stop-shop may or may not be the solution

No doubt everyone is feeling the heat these days. CAE vendors are no different. When companies, big and small are looking for a solution, the criteria and the ROI requirements are higher than ever before. Vendors are being pushed to be flexible, shave a little off the top or simply adapt to the needs of the customer. Let's face it, it's always been this way, but the financial landscape has a big impact on how much effect this can have.

At the same time, we have seen this merger/acquisition roller coaster in the CAE world. From CAD to FEA to CFD, everyone is buying everyone. Many feel that "more is better" and that if a vendor can have everything under the sun in their portfolio, than they can deliver top-notch solutions to their customers. This can be true, all depending on how you implement it.

History has shown if not done properly (could point fingers, but I won't), things can quickly get out of hand. Not only do things begin to breakdown, but the messaging becomes misguided and you just appear to be buying things to "appear" that you are the all in one provider. EVEN if you are buying top notched technology, it is all about the positioning and implementation and most importantly, support of the customer.

Let's take CAD, for example. You would expect that if a CAD company acquired a PDM system, that at some point the integration would be very, very tight. Not day one, but clearly that would be part of the vision. You would also expect that from a tech support and implementation perspective, that the support infrastructure would be cleanly integrated. Meaning, the front line support should be able to answer some of the basics, the support system would be able to pull up your account and at least check status, transfer/escalate you to the experts-- but not simply pawn you off to the other guy (that often is a person from the acquired company). My point, is that from the customers perspective, it should be seamless. As a user, what would impress me is better support than I had before, makes me feel that you actually thought about it. Some companies have done a good job of this and others are just going through the motions.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are small companies that are lean and mean. They don't offer everything, but what they do offer is second to none. They solve your problem, listen to feedback and are very responsive when you run into problems. Would you prefer to have a great relationship with a few vendors and get top notch support OR would you rather call 1-800-HELP and get nothing but lame excuses and be transferred around in an endless loop?

Just because a company claims to be the one stop shop, often the bigger they become, the more difficult it is to execute on the mission. The integration tends to be slower and not as seamless. Makes perfect sense, the more you bite off, the more risk in not delivering. It is happening today in one of the bigger CAE companies right now. They are buying fantastic technology, attempting to integrate it, but not sure the market understands it all. The market is forced to "bear with things" while things are worked out from the top.

Integration, aside, tech support is the first to suffer and often the last thing fixed. If I am a long time customer, who do I call? How disruptive is "your restructuring" having on my day to day? I expect someone to help, is it clear who that person is? My experience is that it is not only not clear, it is a total cluster.

It's fair to point out that being the Goliath of an industry does actually work and some do it fairly well. I've never been to Walmart, but from what I hear they are a fairly well oiled machine. Seems to be working for them and millions of Americans.

What is the point of this post? Don't be fooled by the hype. Dig in and see if it is what its claimed to be. How will it work for "you"? Don't buy from what you see in ppt alone. Make sure you buy from the person across the table. Make sure he is genuine, you get a good feel. Ask the sales guy to call support on the spot to see what the process looks like? Not the only test, but if one of their own sales guys has a hard time getting through, just imagine what you will face.

I'd love to hear the flip side argument..