Personal
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So I made a thing. Well, strictly speaking I designed a thing that then got made by someone else. We'd been looking for a new gate for some time, but never really found something we liked. I ended up drawing something in AutoCAD (of course) – taking inspiration from a number of images I found on the web – and we took it to Leutwiler SA, a local company who implements custom metalwork projects, including gates and fences. The design I made – which was in any case for just the cosmetic stuff, nothing structural – needed some tweaks: once…
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I've just come back from 2 weeks off work. We didn't go very far, but did enjoy the Swiss countryside, as well as the national day on August 1st. Anyway, it's back to the grindstone, with some looming deadlines around preparing content for AU 2023. The class schedule is now live, so you can head on over and search for or browse your favourite classes. Be sure to bookmark any that interest you, as you'll be able to register from August 24th. Here are the two classes I'll be presenting as primary speaker: My first class is bright and early…
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It's music festival season in Europe, and we've been making the most of getting out to concerts and festivals in Switzerland. The season kicked off for us while I was in Delft with my daughter: my two sons went with a friend to the Frauenfeld OpenAir festival – the largest hip-hop festival in Europe, apparently – to see Travis Scott. It's not really my thing, so I was happy enough they managed it all on their own (and came home safely, of course). We often try to go to the Montreux Jazz Festival. This year, on the last Monday of…
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After a really interesting few days in Delft at CAAD Futures 2023, on Friday morning my daughter and I headed to Amsterdam on our way to Munich. The main goal of visiting Amsterdam was – of course – to visit the MX3D bridge, particularly as it's due to be decommissioned later this year. (I know, I know: it doesn't seem as though the bridge has been there long, but the permit was a limited one – appropriate for a temporary art installation – and there seems to have been some resistance to the project from a local heritage preservation group.)…
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Yesterday evening I popped along to La Cantine in Colombier to attend a get-together of former Autodesk Neuchâtel employees. I was only expecting a few people to be there, but there must have been somewhere between 50 and 100 of my former colleagues there during the course of the evening. La Cantine is a restaurant run by an old friend and former Autodesker, Antonio Barroca, and I've mentioned both Antonio and his restaurant in the past. If you're ever in the Neuchâtel region, do stop by for some great food with a wonderful atmosphere. Here's Antonio fanning the flames of…
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I think I've mentioned in the past that in Switzerland the annual winter half-term break – the Winterferien or semaine blanche – is basically meant for skiing or snowboarding. Or sledging, I suppose. The canton of Neuchatel has its Republic Day on March 1st, so the holiday week always falls to include this day (other cantons have theirs sometime earlier in February). Frankly, with the shifting seasons, this is starting to feel a little late – snow is far from guaranteed, these days, at this time of year, and this winter season turned out to be exceptionally dry in the…
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Today is my first day back after a much-needed 3-week break. For most of that period we were up in the mountains, and split our time between snowboarding and snowshoeing with the puppy. We had some unseasonably mild weather in the Alps, over the break, but we did still manage to make the most of what snow there was.During the course of the break, I spent some time thinking back on 2022 and looking ahead to 2023. For me, 2022 has brought a significant amount of change and uncertainty, between changes in role, escalating climate issues or the war in…
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Autodesk offices in most places around the globe have been closed this week as part of an extended holiday break. From my side I've managed to spend a couple of days on the slopes, here in Switzerland, although I ended up coming back down to the lakeside as there's a strange weather blip where it's currently warm and wet enough to be raining in the Alps for the lead-up to Christmas. Ah well. I've been having fun working through Advent of Code, although – as ever for this time in December – the coding challenges are starting to get quite…
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On Wednesday I came across to Dublin for the latter part of the APS Accelerator being held, here. Jaime Rosales – who has been here with Sergio Leone and Adam Nagy from the APS Developer Advocacy and Support team – has taken some lovely pictures during this trip. The better ones in this post were taken by him. I unfortunately just missed Peter Schlipf – who was here for the first half of the week – which was a great shame. Here are some pictures of the city. We were mostly staying in the Hilton Garden Inn, so to get…