Joel Orr's World

My friend Dr. Malcolm Davies, well-known in the CAD industry, is starting a new company:

Dear Friends:

I am about to launch a new company (with Marvin Mauer), called "PodMill" which will initially focus on designing, building, delivering and erecting small (up to 120 sq ft) buildings which can be customized and used as an office, a retreat, a playroom a wine tasting room, a Monday-night football TV room, a (fill in your blank).

YardPods are pre-fabricated, steel frame backyard rooms individually configured by the customer using a large catalog of modular, eco-friendly parts and materials. Pre-assembled in precision engineered panels at our factory and fully assembled on site. We can even match the style of an existing home. YardPods are available in five sizes from 8ft x 8ft to 10ft x 12ft and in three styles: Bare bones Do-It-Yourself YardPod, Almost done Finish-It-Yourself YardPod, and a ready to install Complete YardPod. Customers can configure their YardPod just about any way they choose including types of doors and windows and where they want them placed in the walls; shape of roof and roofing material; type of flooring; and interior and exterior wall materials and finishes. YardPods are fully insulated and built with highly-sustainable materials and processes. YardPods can be delivered and installed on a wide range of foundations by the owner or a YardPod Authorized Contractor. Building permits are not required in most areas.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in purchasing a YardPod, I would be very grateful if you could point them to: www.yardpods.com, ar have them call me at: 415-299-1924, or email me at: md@podmill.com

Thanks for your support!
best regards
Malcolm

This article says "old geeks" can be important resources. Amen! :-) (Thanks, Bob Courtland)

Briliant graphics analyst (and good friend) Dr. Jon Peddie has had an epiphany in 3D, and he writes about it on his blog. Definitely worth reading. Click here.

Whoo-hoo! (I think...:-)) I just published "Joel's BookProgram: The Simple Secret to Writing a Book in 30 Days at 1 Hour a Day!" and "Every Man a Hero, Every Woman a Coach" (on marriage) to the Kindle. It wasn't easy, but I got it done. I don't know how well they will sell, but I am hopeful.

Amazon's conversion process runs through a website you access through Amazon.com, by going to the Kindle page. Uploads are accepted in Word doc, html, and pdf, but will be converted to html. If you have ever used Word's html output, you know that it is--to put it kindly--quirky.

I fought my way through the weird artifacts in Word output with "The Simple Secret." But the more extensive formatting in "Every Man a Hero" just was too much for the process. I wound up saving it as plain text, then going back and doing the formatting in Word's weird html editor, keeping it simple.Remember, Kindle (as well as the Kindle reader on the iPhone) doesn't have a fixed page width, so the html needs to accommodate that--just as it would within a browser.

If you have a book, there is no reason NOT to put it on Kindle! More discussion to come, especially when I can report some sales stats.

Meanwhile, I am greatly enjoying the free Kindle app on the iPhone. Have read several books, mostly in Starbucks, waiting in line, and in bathrooms. Addictive--and a danger to the wallet...:-)

WIRED says Wolfram|Alpha failed "the cool test." Read about it here.

A tiny, unique cloak has been developed, demonstrating how silicon and a carpet-like design can take scientists even further in their explorations of invisibility. More

I have a project I'm doing to help engineering professionals learn about becoming entrepreneurs (even if they want to stay in their current job). I'm looking for engineers who have managed this transition. Please email me if you might be interested.