Category: <span>Other Blogs</span>

AutoCAD 2009 – Video from product managers

I generally dislike blogs that just regurgitate contents from elsewhere, so I’m going against the grain here to repost something from Shaan Hurley’s Between the Lines blog. Shaan has been a bit quiet over the past few weeks, but has recently made up for this with a vengeance. A flurry of new posts has pushed this video way down the page, so you may well have missed it. I’m always happy to see Autodesk communicating with its customers (even if I don’t agree with what’s being said), so I decided to bring it to your attention. Here, Autodesk product managers Eric …

Have you seen Shaan shorn?

I was intrigued to see Autodesk personality and fellow blogger Shaan Hurley posting a photo with his long-standing facial fuzz removed. Shaan may be moving in the opposite direction to myself (I’m getting hairier with age), but personally I don’t think he has gone far enough. I would like to see Shaan sporting a chrome dome. What do you think? Original image © 2008 Shaan Hurley.

Advertising, ethics and editorial freedom

In a recent blog post, Roopinder Tara included this throw-away comment: Pure bloggers don’t do advertising, so no worry about advertising pressure — the secret and unstated fear of us all in the trade press. I respect Roopinder, but this kind of “pure blogger” label irritates me. I have an ad on my blog for geeky T-shirts, so I’m an impure blogger? Somebody please explain the reasoning behind that distinction, because I don’t understand it. Even if I accepted (say) Autodesk advertising, the idea that it would have any influence on what I choose to write is ridiculous. Yet I …

Thanks for the welcome

A belated thank you to Kiwi Robin Capper for his welcome to the CAD blog world. Here’s a snap I took of Robin at Autodesk University 2006: Similarly, thanks to Lynn Allen for linking to my post about her famous Cell Phone Story. Here she is, also at AU 2006, presenting me with a signed copy of her excellent book AutoCAD: Professional Tips and Techniques which I won by skillfully (ahem) waving my arms furiously at the right moment during her presentation. Finally, thanks to Shaan Hurley for welcoming me to the blog fold. Here is one of the more …

Blogger? Journalist? Whatever!

Roopinder Tara has raised an interesting point about how different CAD vendors treat journalists and bloggers. Ralph Grabowski has responded with a “Who cares“. Now you have more CAD blogger navel gazing to put up with as I have my say on the matter. As a traditional magazine journalist (Cadalyst, 1995 – present) and now as a blogger, I’d like to say I agree with Ralph. The label shouldn’t matter, content should be king. From a reader’s point of view, that is. Where it does matter is from a vendor’s point of view. How to dish out the freebies? Should …

AutoCAD 2009 – The Prequel Part 1 – Links

AutoCAD 2009 is about a month away, but people with pre-release copies are already allowed to start talking about the product. I intend to do so soon, but for now here are a few mentions I found: http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2008/02/the-2009-produc.html http://lynn.blogs.com/lynn_allens_blog/2008/02/autocad-2009-is.html http://lynn.blogs.com/lynn_allens_blog/2008/02/the-autocad-200.html http://heidihewett.blogs.com/my_weblog/2008/02/the-word-is-out.html http://heidihewett.blogs.com/my_weblog/2008/02/autocad-2009-a.html http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=643193 http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=643871 http://mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com/2008/02/some-autocad-2009-thoughts.html http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/2008/02/time-flies-its.html http://rkmcswain.blogspot.com/2008/02/autocad-2009-in-2-minutes.html http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2008/02/autodesk-worl-1.html http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2008/02/autocad-2009.html http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=31k5jnveooq0qn8ecci6i72o34&topic=21356.0 http://forums.cadalyst.com/showthread.php?t=5808 http://thecadgeek.com/blog/2008/02/13/introduction-to-the-autocad-2009-ribbon/ http://cadit.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/02/autocad-2009–.html How do you get a pre-release copy of AutoCAD? Well, assuming you’re not a pirate, you can join up with the Autodesk MyFeedback program. It’s too late for AutoCAD 2009, but sign up now for 2010…