Friday, April 16, 2010
studentsofurbanismresearchnotes
To track where I'm thinking I'm going with this project I'm making notes at studentsofurbanismresearchnotes.
interlude
I think I have completed the proposal for a Tempe pedestrian connector and now I want to let it sit at the top of studentsofurbanism, or in some other manner point readers to it, for a while, but it needs some context, or readers won't completely know what's going on. An interlude, posted here, at essaysatanurbanistsblogs. Now I can also go through some of the material in my dozen and a half other blogs, from times past, and link the relevant parts into the story as it's evolving today.
In order to understand the studentsofurbanism blog, the best thing is to use the April link in the blog archive section. Or link from here. This will display all the April posts in one window. Then you can scroll down to the bottom and read the blog from there in the order it was written. The April blog does divide into two parts, however. The earlier two or three posts meander around in a bit of an arbitrary way - and a similar post is suspended in the second section, too, early on - and then the second part describes my program for urbanistic development, beginning with a setting out of principles in the post titled "life of an urbanist", followed by a restatement of those principles in the form of a list of business projects, followed by a detailed proposal, in the form of a series of maps and then drawings, for the Tempe pedestrian connector.
The pedestrian connector project, to explain a little of the substance of "life of an urbanist", is a kind of demonstration project for an approach to urban planning, that could be called new with regard to some of its ambitions, which I am making in order to attempt to integrate Fantastic urbanism into Cities. (Fantastic refers to speculative urbanism generally, stuff of fantasy, and especially the speculative research of Paolo Soleri, and the architecture/infrastructure of the past and of all great places. Fantastic architecture spans the smaller Habitat scale of urban structure, studying and developing neighborhood, cityscape, and landscape scale environments. To some extent it is the architecture of imagination, of storytelling, and of activity, and to some extent it is the mega-scale architecture of the future, or of the present.) Even though these proposals come from no place but my own imagination, I think the document is vallid in several regards. At the most basic level, it is an academic exercise which I hope to use to support something like an application for graduate studies. But the illustrated project is designed to demonstrate a principle, if possible, that Fantastic architecture can be built in the real urban context, or at least that it can be made to look feasable, especially by addressing four major concerns: cost, convenience, aesthetics, and safety. Cost and convenience are planning issues, while aesthetics and safety are design issues, and, especially, programming issues.
My plan is to work on these projects - this and similar ones - by involving myself in a sense as little as possible in day to day operations. I want to monitor things, not run them, or not run them unmonitored, I want them to be self-monitoring, I'm emphasizing a program of worker originated operational documentation that amounts to, essentially, professional practice.
The kind of documentation I'm describing is illustrated in the adjacent post on this essaysatanurbanistsblogs blog you are presently reading, titled "equipping the kitchen". When I say it's the kind of documetation I'm describing, I mean that employees of these ventures, worker operators, worker managers, worker entrepreneurs, are charged with creating this kind of documentation of essentially all that they do in the conduct of company business. In a sense my job is to colate and publish that material. In a larger sense that's the urbanismweb concept, where all the world's urbanistic efforts can be toured on line. This is from "life of an urbanist": "in order to communicate, i'm innovating web technology and exploring socioeconomic modeling".
All of this is an outgrowth of my work at Arcosanti and on Paolo Soleri's Arcology, where "on Arcology" means a study of sorts of his ideas and methods. A sense of personal involvement drove me in considering possibilities for development at Arcosanti and of arcological environments. The documents described thus far represent an effort to move away from work on Arcosanti, and into the larger world. A major effort to create an effective document about ideas for Arcosanti preceded them, and now can be appended, in the context of a broader set of ideas.
The question to be addressed in a course of studies is how to publish these ideas, not in the narrow sense, or not only in the narrow sense, that is, publishing, but in the larger sense, how to activate them in the world, matters of business practice, protocol, and so forth which I could learn about. Or, just publishing, for that matter. A process of publishing in an academic environment for feedback, for information, as a means towards publishing more at large.
In order to understand the studentsofurbanism blog, the best thing is to use the April link in the blog archive section. Or link from here. This will display all the April posts in one window. Then you can scroll down to the bottom and read the blog from there in the order it was written. The April blog does divide into two parts, however. The earlier two or three posts meander around in a bit of an arbitrary way - and a similar post is suspended in the second section, too, early on - and then the second part describes my program for urbanistic development, beginning with a setting out of principles in the post titled "life of an urbanist", followed by a restatement of those principles in the form of a list of business projects, followed by a detailed proposal, in the form of a series of maps and then drawings, for the Tempe pedestrian connector.
The pedestrian connector project, to explain a little of the substance of "life of an urbanist", is a kind of demonstration project for an approach to urban planning, that could be called new with regard to some of its ambitions, which I am making in order to attempt to integrate Fantastic urbanism into Cities. (Fantastic refers to speculative urbanism generally, stuff of fantasy, and especially the speculative research of Paolo Soleri, and the architecture/infrastructure of the past and of all great places. Fantastic architecture spans the smaller Habitat scale of urban structure, studying and developing neighborhood, cityscape, and landscape scale environments. To some extent it is the architecture of imagination, of storytelling, and of activity, and to some extent it is the mega-scale architecture of the future, or of the present.) Even though these proposals come from no place but my own imagination, I think the document is vallid in several regards. At the most basic level, it is an academic exercise which I hope to use to support something like an application for graduate studies. But the illustrated project is designed to demonstrate a principle, if possible, that Fantastic architecture can be built in the real urban context, or at least that it can be made to look feasable, especially by addressing four major concerns: cost, convenience, aesthetics, and safety. Cost and convenience are planning issues, while aesthetics and safety are design issues, and, especially, programming issues.
My plan is to work on these projects - this and similar ones - by involving myself in a sense as little as possible in day to day operations. I want to monitor things, not run them, or not run them unmonitored, I want them to be self-monitoring, I'm emphasizing a program of worker originated operational documentation that amounts to, essentially, professional practice.
The kind of documentation I'm describing is illustrated in the adjacent post on this essaysatanurbanistsblogs blog you are presently reading, titled "equipping the kitchen". When I say it's the kind of documetation I'm describing, I mean that employees of these ventures, worker operators, worker managers, worker entrepreneurs, are charged with creating this kind of documentation of essentially all that they do in the conduct of company business. In a sense my job is to colate and publish that material. In a larger sense that's the urbanismweb concept, where all the world's urbanistic efforts can be toured on line. This is from "life of an urbanist": "in order to communicate, i'm innovating web technology and exploring socioeconomic modeling".
All of this is an outgrowth of my work at Arcosanti and on Paolo Soleri's Arcology, where "on Arcology" means a study of sorts of his ideas and methods. A sense of personal involvement drove me in considering possibilities for development at Arcosanti and of arcological environments. The documents described thus far represent an effort to move away from work on Arcosanti, and into the larger world. A major effort to create an effective document about ideas for Arcosanti preceded them, and now can be appended, in the context of a broader set of ideas.
The question to be addressed in a course of studies is how to publish these ideas, not in the narrow sense, or not only in the narrow sense, that is, publishing, but in the larger sense, how to activate them in the world, matters of business practice, protocol, and so forth which I could learn about. Or, just publishing, for that matter. A process of publishing in an academic environment for feedback, for information, as a means towards publishing more at large.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
equipping the kitchen
In order to calculate the cost of establishing a coffee house deli we begin by estimating the cost of a list of kitchen tools and supplies. We are talking here about my plan to be in the coffee house business within months, while also attending to all my other duties, which will be accomplished by hiring a chef. The chef need not be highly trained in cooking, but must be a responsible type and ambitious to learn interesting things and do fantastic work. The chef should also be empowered to hire an assistant, under our supervision.
The chef's first assignment will litterally be choosing a store location. Again, we, or I, supervise the whole process with great attention. Visiting and documenting many available storefront spaces will keep the chef quite busy for days or weeks.
Then the store opens for business. First, there may be a setup phase. The chef should think about the process of hiring an assistant, and advance that process measureably, during the store selection process. Some remodeling work may be required, before opening. Some electrical work may be required. Even more substantial work such as the instalation of a professional grade hood might be required. The instalation of a counter and refrigerated case may be required. The construction of substantial food storage accomodations is a requirement from the larger program "coffee house web." And free wi-fi is an absolute must - with excelent accessable power for patrons, too.
Innitially, and maybe permanently, we are not going to overdo it on tables. (We might expand seating to a second floor library area, in an informal way, and we can add seats in the main room if it's busy.) Now it will be time to open for business.
Part of my model is starting very simple. The menu can be coffee and, say, martzipan, something crazy like that. Our goal will be to sell a lot of coffee and martzipan. The coffee will be fair trade, ground by hand, by the chef, and made in china drip pots with unbleached filters, served in a cup with a saucer. The menu offers these options: sugar, one lump or two, cream, a little or a lot, and, of course, black. The coffee is not necessarily hot, and might even sometimes be cold ... it's just always beautifully served. You can also get an espresso - stovetop espresso. You can order martzipan coffee - it comes with a piece of martzipan - or martzipan espresso, or double or tripple martzipan coffee, which comes with two or three matzipans, and you can order chocolate or plain martzipan or both.
I should make it clear that I have a particular store front in mind, in describing these plans. I don't know what the existing layout is like in detail, but I know it's a storefront on the first floor and a beautiful condo on the second and third. It's in a fantastic urbanistic-experimental condo complex slightly on the edge of one of the most interesting and prosperous residential areas in the city (and, in a not un-real sense, at the very end of a vast city of neighborhoods called "the east valley," the end nearest the adjoining other great cities of Phoenix and Scottsdale).
I'm starting a software company, so there's a measure of logic in the idea of having a design office upstairs in the loft space. Those guys should work long hours, and they will help keep it a busy place.
I'm picturing the coffee house itself as a narrow shop with tables along one wall and the counter along the other. Behind the counter is an abundance of shelves, and drawers, a small stove, several toaster ovens, some counter space, and a three basin sink.
Now it's time to shop.
The chef is assigned shopping duties. The assignment: - I'll go radical, here - : take the bus to South Tempe, to ikea. This will be one of many trips, but start with this list: buy an ikea dolley, and (after your shopping), place in it (for carrying home), 1 pack bonus flatware, $4, 3 sets cups and saucers, 3 small plates, 1 cast iron skillet, 1 children's table setting pack and 1 children's cook set, single large all stainless sauce pan, wooden spoon and spatula set, 1 set dish towels, 1 set potholders, 1 stainless measuring cup, 2 pc small chafing dishes (china), 1 small pitcher (8"), one creamer, pack of rye crisps and piece of cheese, box of cookies. Next go to Cost Plus World Market for - wooden spoons, if they're nice, 3 of tea spoon sized ones, 1 of larger ones, water glasses, 3, marked down napkins, cloth, one dozen, wooden cutting board, and kitchen knife and paring knife, measuring spoons - stainless only - and a small measuring cup, two small mixing bowls, or three, and tea bags, sugar cubes.
There are, of course, more such assignments to be recorded. How much of the kitchen equipment is represented? What, 1/100th? What kind of a shopping day has it been? Did we spend $100? Sure, that's fine. So, equipping the kitchen costs $10,000, not including fixtures (or, including them).
Next, stocking foods.
The chef's first assignment will litterally be choosing a store location. Again, we, or I, supervise the whole process with great attention. Visiting and documenting many available storefront spaces will keep the chef quite busy for days or weeks.
Then the store opens for business. First, there may be a setup phase. The chef should think about the process of hiring an assistant, and advance that process measureably, during the store selection process. Some remodeling work may be required, before opening. Some electrical work may be required. Even more substantial work such as the instalation of a professional grade hood might be required. The instalation of a counter and refrigerated case may be required. The construction of substantial food storage accomodations is a requirement from the larger program "coffee house web." And free wi-fi is an absolute must - with excelent accessable power for patrons, too.
Innitially, and maybe permanently, we are not going to overdo it on tables. (We might expand seating to a second floor library area, in an informal way, and we can add seats in the main room if it's busy.) Now it will be time to open for business.
Part of my model is starting very simple. The menu can be coffee and, say, martzipan, something crazy like that. Our goal will be to sell a lot of coffee and martzipan. The coffee will be fair trade, ground by hand, by the chef, and made in china drip pots with unbleached filters, served in a cup with a saucer. The menu offers these options: sugar, one lump or two, cream, a little or a lot, and, of course, black. The coffee is not necessarily hot, and might even sometimes be cold ... it's just always beautifully served. You can also get an espresso - stovetop espresso. You can order martzipan coffee - it comes with a piece of martzipan - or martzipan espresso, or double or tripple martzipan coffee, which comes with two or three matzipans, and you can order chocolate or plain martzipan or both.
I should make it clear that I have a particular store front in mind, in describing these plans. I don't know what the existing layout is like in detail, but I know it's a storefront on the first floor and a beautiful condo on the second and third. It's in a fantastic urbanistic-experimental condo complex slightly on the edge of one of the most interesting and prosperous residential areas in the city (and, in a not un-real sense, at the very end of a vast city of neighborhoods called "the east valley," the end nearest the adjoining other great cities of Phoenix and Scottsdale).
I'm starting a software company, so there's a measure of logic in the idea of having a design office upstairs in the loft space. Those guys should work long hours, and they will help keep it a busy place.
I'm picturing the coffee house itself as a narrow shop with tables along one wall and the counter along the other. Behind the counter is an abundance of shelves, and drawers, a small stove, several toaster ovens, some counter space, and a three basin sink.
Now it's time to shop.
The chef is assigned shopping duties. The assignment: - I'll go radical, here - : take the bus to South Tempe, to ikea. This will be one of many trips, but start with this list: buy an ikea dolley, and (after your shopping), place in it (for carrying home), 1 pack bonus flatware, $4, 3 sets cups and saucers, 3 small plates, 1 cast iron skillet, 1 children's table setting pack and 1 children's cook set, single large all stainless sauce pan, wooden spoon and spatula set, 1 set dish towels, 1 set potholders, 1 stainless measuring cup, 2 pc small chafing dishes (china), 1 small pitcher (8"), one creamer, pack of rye crisps and piece of cheese, box of cookies. Next go to Cost Plus World Market for - wooden spoons, if they're nice, 3 of tea spoon sized ones, 1 of larger ones, water glasses, 3, marked down napkins, cloth, one dozen, wooden cutting board, and kitchen knife and paring knife, measuring spoons - stainless only - and a small measuring cup, two small mixing bowls, or three, and tea bags, sugar cubes.
There are, of course, more such assignments to be recorded. How much of the kitchen equipment is represented? What, 1/100th? What kind of a shopping day has it been? Did we spend $100? Sure, that's fine. So, equipping the kitchen costs $10,000, not including fixtures (or, including them).
Next, stocking foods.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Using A Programming Language to Model in 3D
In order to use a programming language, you need access to a compiler or interpreter. The simplest way I know of to get that is to sign up for web hosting, since most servers are running PSP.
To use a programming language to do something, you write an application.
A model begins as a list of points. At the end of the process, your application displays a rendering based on the points you supplied, and relationships you established between them.
A first component, then, would create a form into which you can enter your list of points and relationships. When you send your list, all your points get stored in variables. I guess your relationships do, to. I'm still thinking this out.
You could start a model by giving it a name:
(model name="my house")
next, you can name a few points:
(point name="left front corner of the foundation of my house" feet="0,0,0")
(point name="right front corner of the foundation of my house" feet="50,0,0")
Wow, I can see how this is going to take some doing. Boy, do I feel it will be worthwhile, though.
(point location="0,0,0" name="lower left corner of the outside of the front wall of the living room, where it meets the brick step at the base of the wall" accuracy="a guess")
If we don't include a location, our interface for recording observations can prompt us for it later.
Here, though, we've re-named the origin. Later, if we call that point, our interface can remind us that it has a history, and what the history is.
We could teach our application to understand the definition of a feature, for example, a wall.
(rectangular plane color="light grey") (name="outside face of front wall of living room")
(corner 1)(/corner 1)
(corner 2)(/corner 2)
(corner 3)(/corner 3)
(corner 4)(/corner 4)
(/rectangular plane)
More later.
To use a programming language to do something, you write an application.
A model begins as a list of points. At the end of the process, your application displays a rendering based on the points you supplied, and relationships you established between them.
A first component, then, would create a form into which you can enter your list of points and relationships. When you send your list, all your points get stored in variables. I guess your relationships do, to. I'm still thinking this out.
You could start a model by giving it a name:
(model name="my house")
next, you can name a few points:
(point name="left front corner of the foundation of my house" feet="0,0,0")
(point name="right front corner of the foundation of my house" feet="50,0,0")
Wow, I can see how this is going to take some doing. Boy, do I feel it will be worthwhile, though.
(point location="0,0,0" name="lower left corner of the outside of the front wall of the living room, where it meets the brick step at the base of the wall" accuracy="a guess")
If we don't include a location, our interface for recording observations can prompt us for it later.
Here, though, we've re-named the origin. Later, if we call that point, our interface can remind us that it has a history, and what the history is.
We could teach our application to understand the definition of a feature, for example, a wall.
(rectangular plane color="light grey") (name="outside face of front wall of living room")
(corner 1)(/corner 1)
(corner 2)(/corner 2)
(corner 3)(/corner 3)
(corner 4)(/corner 4)
(/rectangular plane)
More later.
Urbanism and Computing
For the present purpose, let us define urbanism as mapping.
Since the purpose of the blog was previously defined as computing, the general question is about computer mapping.
My idea is to create a place on line where people can do their own mapping.
I propose teaching people to write their own mapping software. Contrary to what appears to be prevailing thought, this will make it easier for people to access the technology.
I described the blog as a place to ask questions. If I can formulate a series of questions that anyone can follow ...
My other thought is to separate the process of recording observations from the rendering component of the mapping process, by describing a language for making observations. Again, this should make the process in question much more accessible.
Finally, a business component of some sort seems to be central to any enterprise, but how is that done? Similar to the idea of teaching people to write their own software, what about teaching people to organize their own businesses? If we teach people to write software, they will innovate, and their innovations should be turned into products, which is the role of business.
My plan is to write to anyone I can find who might be able to help, and ask them to read the questions and thoughts I'm recording, and for information to publish here, or other kinds of support they might suggest.
Since the purpose of the blog was previously defined as computing, the general question is about computer mapping.
My idea is to create a place on line where people can do their own mapping.
I propose teaching people to write their own mapping software. Contrary to what appears to be prevailing thought, this will make it easier for people to access the technology.
I described the blog as a place to ask questions. If I can formulate a series of questions that anyone can follow ...
My other thought is to separate the process of recording observations from the rendering component of the mapping process, by describing a language for making observations. Again, this should make the process in question much more accessible.
Finally, a business component of some sort seems to be central to any enterprise, but how is that done? Similar to the idea of teaching people to write their own software, what about teaching people to organize their own businesses? If we teach people to write software, they will innovate, and their innovations should be turned into products, which is the role of business.
My plan is to write to anyone I can find who might be able to help, and ask them to read the questions and thoughts I'm recording, and for information to publish here, or other kinds of support they might suggest.
Purpose of the Blog
The general purpose is urbanism.
The narrower purpose is computing applied to urbanism.
The narrow purpose is to be a place for me to ask for information about computing, in the context of questions about urbanism and experiments with technology I understand.
The ride-along specific purpose is to be a place to note things of interest.
The narrower purpose is computing applied to urbanism.
The narrow purpose is to be a place for me to ask for information about computing, in the context of questions about urbanism and experiments with technology I understand.
The ride-along specific purpose is to be a place to note things of interest.
Monday, December 1, 2008
In my log I noted "a very nice wine that cost five dollars, I had a feeling as soon as I saw it."
I have never bought a South African wine. I figured it was a gimmick. I mean, I figured there is a good movement, there, but what do I know about it, and that most people buy because it's a gimmick. I'm sort of wary of gimmicks. They can be fun, but they're dangerous. You could end up being an idiot.
My adventuresome parents did visit a winery, when they were in Capetown, and they had a picture, and looked, I thought, quite classy, and nice. That's part of the reason I had a feeling when I saw this bottle. I only saw it because my Kat has been playing around with buying wines. She tries things I don't even look at. As usual, I like everything she does. Anyway, I also thought this bottle had sort of a serious look, even though, on the surface, it looks like a souvenir. (Come to think of it, I've received some very, very nice souvenirs from Africa ... touristy things, but really good.) The wine confirmed my intuition.
I guess I'd say it's big. I don't really know what the term means, though, so I may get laughed at.
I was just thinking about something related. What was it? Oh, right, I had some honey from Zambia, I think it was (Kat bought me that, too, come to think of it), and it had quite a powerful bouquet of African leather. (We should do a perfume!) I wondered if Zarafa would be like that, and, actually, subtly so, it is.
And there was this, too: ... and now I can't remember what this one was ... Oh, right: Pinotage. Is that a know type? (Click the picture to see it a little larger.) I feel like I've heard it. Anyway, I love the word.
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