The US EPA has started up a multimedia site at www.epa.gov/multimedia that offers videos, audio/podcasts, and images. Some of the videos and podcasts cover information about Radon, water infrastructure, indoor air quality, and other topics related to the environment. Visitors can also access an area of the site that allows for interaction between the EPA…
Category: Public Works
Free Concrete Pavement Design Manual – for the next month only!
I just found out that the Portland Cement Association is offering the Hydrologic Design of Pervious Concrete manual for free as a pdf download off their Web site for the next month only. The manual is a 72-page publication for engineers, landscape architects, developers, and other design professionals who are interested in designing or reviewing…
Jeff and Sadie’s Bricklayer Display
Jeff Brody and Sadie Edelman have collaborated on creating a cool bricklaying animation and display and have set it all up on the dock near the education display (under the wind turbine) on the Public Works sim. If you teleport to the island, look for the red poseball by the brick wall, right click on…
For all things pavement….
Throughout my travels in Second Life, I have seen the impressive vision expressed by people who work for government agencies located in the United States. There are a number of creative and innovative government employees who have seen the potential of using Second Life to better perform their jobs and to reach out to citizens…
Manhole Kit Now Available on Public Works
Ever since coming to Second Life, I have been working on ways to use the software to help me on my real life job. One of the items I have been working on is a Manhole Sizing Kit. Every now and then on a design, I am not really sure what diameter manhole would work…
Too Much Down Time = Crazy Ideas
Ok, one more blog before I go back to work after being gone a full week. While traveling to and from Autodesk University, I was left with way too much down time to dream up new ideas. While only my coworkers and family are usually subjected to hearing about these, I decided to publish this…
Musings After a Week at AU
I just got back from spending a whole week attending Autodesk University, AU, and as usual have come away with a lot of knowledge, but also a lot of questions about the engineering profession and where it is going. At the opening session, there were presentations related to the future of design which were incredible….
Buying Real Products in a Virtual World
Our city just bought a new sign making machine to replace the old heat press antique that we had to make signs, and over the last couple weeks, our crew has been learning and becoming more familiar with this computer-based system. Now we are ready to begin our city-wide updating of our street and traffic…
Cyber Trade Shows
Ok, I have finally attended a 3D virtual trade show related to the engineering industry. Unfortunately it was not held in Second Life. One of the attendees at our weekly engineering meeting, Kelvin Glimmer, brought up this Website where he had seen the trade show advertised. Since this is something that I have been waiting…
Second Day at APWA
The second day of the APWA 2007 conference started out with a general session given by Jeff Salz – a man who has spent his life traveling all over the world on adventures. He talked of change and how we can no longer continue to approach each day with the tried and true. Instead we…