Wood and Plastic

  • hello and welcome!

  • A journey by way of an unbeaten path through engineering, design, academia, and family with your guides, Brad and Becca. You can find out more about us or take a look at our Flickr stream. For our latest musical interests check out our Muxtape.

    The content of Wood and Plastic is published with some restrictions. Please leave any comments on the articles or email brad [at] woodandplastic [.com] and we will respond promptly.

  • other places

  • Design in a recession will be better. Times columnist Michael Cannel thinks so and we should hope so.

    The things that happen in a crappy economy. Excellent article about designing in recession by Michael Beirut.

    Added a couple of songs to my Muxtape. Muxtape is no more.

    A ride on the Airbus A380. This is a couple of days old, but I loathe flying and was intrigued by the luxury and space of this new beast airplane.

    Focus on results, not time. I have spent about half of every day in my corporate career waiting for it to be over - usually because there is nothing to do.

    Tuneglue provides relationships to help you find new artists based on your current interests. It has provided some new music for me to look into. Slick interface too. (via Very Short List)

    Windbreakers are not for everyone. From the article, “To wear a blouson is to demonstrate oneís solidarity with the proletariat. It is ideal for suggesting a kind of ìin the field of actionî persona that a suit, uniform of the desk-bound, simply does not convey.” Can you hear the hipsters scattering to get rid of their ironic Members Only?

    Milan furniture fair unimpressive to me. If innovations in furniture result in that pretzel made out of an old futon shown there - then I am convinced that the mid century masters already mastered the art and the rest is just silliness.

    Harvard GSD blog on Archinect. I have been reading Quilian’s experiences throughout my quest toward Cambridge. I am looking forward to meeting him / working with him. There is also another interesting gentleman blogging his adventure here.

    Architecture in video games. Mr. Dociu brings an interesting perspective to the process of creating environments. BLDBLOG asks some questions about why environments experienced by tens of thousands are not regarded as important to the study of architecture.

    Adding more interest to the the best American sport. The design of the game is mathematically perfect from the length of the base paths to the size of the ball. It is also the only sport that it is extremely difficult to cheat in (I am looking at you floppers and hack-a-Shaq teams), short of HGH and steroids which are prevalent in all professional sports. (via Kottke)

    Lego unboxing of an iPhone. This is awesome in so many ways for a child of my generation; Legos+Apple+Flickr = brilliant. (via Noisy Decent)

    Design is here to save the world again. Can HCD make an impact on impoverished nations by changing the way they do business?

    Harvard plays big bouncy ball. They have won eight games this season and next year have the best recruits “in the history of the Ivy League.” Riiiiiight.

    Suburbs as the slums. Go ahead and get that 4,000 sq ft. faux Tuscan with nothing down - claim your very own castle now!

    A case for romantic sustainability. Perhaps that sounds misleading, but have you ever been on a long train ride?

    Calls for ideas on how to redesign the White House. Perhaps the symbol of freedom and democratic power should look something like this?

    Shaq on his way to Phoenix in a trade for Marion. Finally someone to really foul Ginobli so he does not have to flop so much.

  • on my desk

  • The Brothers Karamazov The Brothers Karamazov:

    This book has not yet been reviewed.
    Infinite Jest Infinite Jest:

    This book has not yet been reviewed.
    Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists:

    This book has not yet been reviewed.
    Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking:

    This book has not yet been reviewed.
    Project Vitra: Sites, Products, Authors, Museum, Collection, Signs Project Vitra: Sites, Products, Authors, Museum, Collection, Signs:

    This book has not yet been reviewed.

  • sites I visit often

  • 20×200: Art prints project that sells out fast
  • Apartment Therapy: design for the home
  • Archinect: community for architects
  • Architecture Paper: an aptly named site
  • BLDGBLOG: A cross of architecture and whimsy
  • BLTD: an ongoing list of home goods
  • Core 77: industrial design news and forum
  • Coudal: design house with great ideas
  • Design Boom: exploding with design info
  • Design Observer: pentagram and others on design
  • Gorilla vs Bear: the latest music info
  • Monocle: they cover all my interests
  • Wallpaper Mag: fancy design publication

Harvard is for we

Harvard GSD Trays

After much ado and years of planning we have decided to leave our comfy home in Phoenix for an adventure in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The process has been slow and the work difficult, but the hope is that struggling through a Masters in Architecture from Harvard will all be worth it. The real difficulty will not be the long hours, grueling schedule, harsh critiques, or cold winters. Oh no, the kicker is named Miss Sophia - our beautiful three month old little girl.

little pink box 26 April 08 | Academia, Architectura, Family | Comments (2)

Mixtape (is) history

my muxtape mix
Every christmas I give friends and family a mix tape of my favorite songs from the year. It is a big production using Jewelboxing and some cool graphic design. During December I labor for days trying to curate the best music for my eclectic mix of friends. Now with muxtape, I can make an organic mixtape that grows throughout the year! I am endlessly excited about this - you can find a permanent link to my current mix on the sidebar at the top.

little pink box 25 April 08 | Music | No Comments

Configuring a Treo for Mac

I tired of not finding a concise tutorial on how to make this work. If you have a Treo using Palm software bookmark this entry and you should never have trouble getting sync to work again.

1. From your Mac download and install the appropriate Palm Desktop.

2. Open iSync on your Mac and go to Devices -> Enable Palm OS Syncing… Follow the instructions and select OK to close the window. The instructions at the end of the process are confusing so just continue.

3. Go to your Mac’s hard drive and browse to Applications -> Palm -> HotSync Manager. In the HotSync manager go to HotSync -> Edit Users then click on the New User button. Enter your desired name for the Treo you want to sync and click OK.

4. Make sure that the HotSync window has the HotSync Enabled button selected.

5. Still in the HotSync Manager go to HotSync -> Conduit Settings… and double click on the item iSync Conduit. In the iSync Conduit window check the box Enable iSync for this Palm device and select OK.

6. Back in the Conduit Settings dialogue select each of the conduits and give them the desired functionality for your Treo / Mac synchronization. Once complete close the Conduit Settings and HotSync Manager windows.

7. Go back to iSync and you should see your device shown. Click on your device and the window will expand to give you options for syncing your Treo.

8. Configure your synchronization for iCal and Address Book as desired. Note: there is some bug in iSync that will not allow categories in Address Book - you MUST delete the categories in Address book for any iSync synchronization to work in Leopard. While this is lame, the Palm will not really utilize categories anyway, so they are of limited usefulness.

9. Connect your Palm to the your mac using the USB cable and press the sync button. HotSync should launch on the Mac and Treo and you should be synchronized!

I have no idea why this is so complicated, but I have an inkling that the iPhone is quite a lot simpler. Too bad I am locked in a contract with Sprint and the iPhone’s internet is so slow. Once they release a 3G capable iPhone, Treo goes bye bye.

little pink box 13 April 08 | Technologies, Tutorial | No Comments

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The content of Wood and Plastic is published with some restrictions.