Personal
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Happy New Year, everyone! This is my first day back after two full fantastic weeks off. We were up in the Bernese Oberland for the full 16 days and even managed to ski (or – in my case – snowboard) for 13 of them, despite an initial lack of snow. At the beginning of the break the conditions were like this: But thankfully by the end it was more like this: As a bit of an experiment, I've started to use the place where we stay in the mountains as a small-scale test-bed for home automation: as a holiday place…
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It's foggy and grey here in Switzerland, but thanks to the joy of mixed reality it's always snowing when you want it to be. If only it worked on the slopes! All the very best to this blog's readers for the festive season. Have a wonderful, relaxing break – those of you who are taking time off – and I'll see you back here in 2017!
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Things are moving ahead regarding the VR room we're building at Autodesk in Neuchatel. Come mid-January we'll be ready to welcome guests to the Neuchatel office and get them excited about the potential of applying Virtual Reality technology in the design space. This week we had Joel Pennington visit from the Autodesk LIVE team in San Francisco: he trained a number of people from the Neuchatel office on how to use the VR system and went through demos that showcase a variety of Autodesk tools and technologies. The breadth of demos we now have available is impressive and getting bigger…
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I was just sent this video (thanks, Aurelia!) featuring scenes from the amazing Design Nights Autodesk has held around the world. Yes, including the one we organised here in Neuchatel, Switzerland. I've had a pretty hectic start to the week, so this is (unusually, as it's Wednesday) my first post. But I have quite a bit to talk about, so it won't be my last. Right now I'm heading off to see Rogue One at the cinema: once again a Star Wars film is being released in French-speaking Switzerland two full days ahead of its US release date,…
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It turns there is a downside to choosing a small airline based in a small airport. My happiness at discovering both the Bern airport and the airline flying out of it was considerably lessened when my flight home was cancelled without explanation, last night. After much shared confusion with my fellow travellers, I ended up being offered a room in airport hotel and an 8am flight out today. So it was that I got back on the phone with Peter Schlipf and ended up joining the Forge Accelerator attendees for one last dinner at Fugazi No. 15. After the initial…
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Our eldest son has caught the scuba diving bug, big-time. He's a fourth generation scuba diver on my wife's side – my side's full of landlubbers – and as he's just completed his PADI Junior Open Water it was important for us to find a good diving location for this October's break. We chose a small town just south-west of Cannes, as the local diving centre – le Centre de Plongée de la Rague – is run by friends of friends originating from the Neuchâtel area. We've been here since Sunday and will leave on Friday – a short trip,…
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As mentioned yesterday, on Saturday my second son and I got up at the crack of dawn to drive across to the Alpine town of Grindelwald. It's the third time I've made this particular pilgrimage in the last four years (last year I had a conflicting event in the UK) and it's become something of a rite of passage for my kids: as they turn 10 they come with their Dad and his silly car to meet lots of other people with silly cars. The event is the M3W Jungfrau Treffen, organised by Laurens and Rineke, a Dutch couple based…
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I was a little surprised when LinkedIn reported my 21st anniversary at Autodesk, a couple of weeks' ago. I eventually realised it was because the middle of my month of starting had been chosen to notify my connections of this particular anniversary (LinkedIn doesn't have the specific date, I suppose). Anyway, it turns out today's the actual anniversary. 21 short years' ago, I joined Autodesk Ltd. in Guildford, Surrey. Since then I've worked for Autodesk Development S.à.r.l. (Neuchâtel, Switzerland), Autodesk India Private Ltd. (Bangalore, India), and Autodesk, Inc. (San Rafael, California). But all within the umbrella of life at the…
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This week has been a little hectic, once again. Yesterday I spent the morning back across at ETH Zurich, speaking with members of the Block Research Group about Forge, Dynamo and HoloLens. They've just moved into a brand new building labelled HIB – where the various schools at ETH focusing on architecture from a technological perspective will be co-located – but as it's so new it's yet to be sign-posted. I eventually did find it, but not without asking for directions from 5 different people. Inside the ceiling is pretty cool: they've used a combination of skylights for natural light…
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We're up in the beautiful Swiss town of Adelboden, our favourite local winter destination but also somewhere we try our best to visit in summer, too. We're here to enjoy the mountains and celebrate the Swiss National Day. (While I'm not personally Swiss – I hold a UK passport – the rest of my family is, and since the EU referendum I've decided it's time for me to join them.) We've had a great few days up here. The weather has been mixed, this summer, but that also makes for spectacular lighting conditions. The other day it even seemed as…