Architects Anonymous

CAD outsourcing helps improve team productivity

When you outsource your CAD services, it can cause your staff to feel as if they have been shortchanged. However, if managed carefully, this process of Outsourcing your CAD services need not be such an ordeal or a painful process for your employees. In fact, if managed carefully, CAD outsourcing can actually improve your team’s productivity. Outsourcing your CAD services will cause a lot of changes in the morale of your employees and staff. However, this change need not be a negative one. You can ensure that this transition in your company ends up being a positive and helpful one for both your company and for your employees.

To do that you will have to employ effective change management techniques that will ensure that this process is as smooth as possible. And as a result of these effective change management methods, you will find that this process of outsourcing these CAD services actually helps improve the productivity of your entire team.

As you outsource your CAD services, you will be faced with existing staff who are now poised to do something else. You can help identify what they can do to enhance the outsourcing process. Here are some ideas which you can use to ensure that CAD outsourcing actually helps you increase your team’s productivity.

• Your staff can be in the position of training the staff working with the outsourced services provider – this way your staff can ensure that they are also active participants in the process of outsourcing CAD services undertaken by your company.

• Your staff can now be in charge of ensuring the quality of the product that you receive from the outsourced services provider. This means that you get the same superior quality of output, while ensuring that your outsourcing services partner also retains the same high level of quality output in the long run.

• Your staff can be re-trained to perform tasks which will benefit from their existing skills and training. Your staff can now be involved in sales and marketing activities – thus creating and bringing more business to your company.

These are but a few methods with which you can make sure that your staff members can be re-positioned within your organization to still remain productive and contribute to your organization.

In this fashion you can ensure that your company’s team productivity not only remains high, but also improves consistently and considerably with the implementation of the process of outsourcing your CAD services.

Commercial Construction Design Build Inland Empire Riverside

Commercial Construction Design Build Inland Empire Riverside

What is design-build?

The design-build method is a coordinated approach of the teaming of the owner, general contractor and design team from the onset the project development; a collaborative effort between the team preparing working drawings and those who will construct the project.

The Alliance Group Commercial Construction Inc. (TAG) is a coalition of skilled individuals dedicated to assisting clients; meet their development and construction goals while exceeding expectations in service, quality and value.

Whether your project is large or small the same high level of attention will be provided to your project.

How does Design build work?

As the project manager of the design process The Alliance Group (TAG)’s role is:

•First learn about specific project criteria: use, timing, spec level, and budget

•Assist in the selection of the design team based on the specific project requirements

•Work with governing agencies to incorporate requirements

•Create and manage a schedule for the various steps of design

•Coordinate architectural, structural, plumbing, mechanical, Electrical, fire sprinkler, fire life safety and fire alarm design

•Provide comprehensive budgeting, segregated by Construction Specification Institute (CSI) cost codes. Update budgets at milestone points of the design process

•Provide value engineering to achieve the desired results in the most cost effective manner

•Obtain governing agency and utility permit and fee schedules

•Monitor agency plan check and approval process

•Facilitate competitive subcontract bid process

•Prepare Owner/Contractor Stipulated Sum agreement

•Construct project according to design documents, budget and schedule.

What are the benefits of Design Build to the owner?

•Single Point of Contact

•The Alliance Group Commercial Construction Inc. functions as the central point of contact for the owner, coordinating the efforts and timelines of the various engineers.

•Assistance with selection of the design team

•The members of The Alliance Group Commercial Construction have enjoyed first hand experience with a number of architectural and design firms in the local area and are familiar with their respective areas of expertise. Choosing an architect and design team well matched for a specific project is invaluable.

•Cost Savings

•Realized by incorporating efficient construction methods and materials with greater value into the design

•Time savings

•Realized by streamlining the project design, overlapping the construction budgeting, subcontracting and scheduling. This results in quicker occupancy of the facility and reduced interest expense

Church Design Principles For Master Planning

If you pick up a Bible, you don’t have to look any further than Genesis 6:14-22 to learn about Gods approach to Master Planning. It was only through God’s tremendous vision and skillful planning that Noah was able to successfully complete the task of building an Ark large enough to save mankind. While this was certainly a God sized task, the principles are the same today. Through Noah, the Lord was able to assess the problem, take stock of materials on hand, and carefully put together a blue print for the construction of a three story boat, capable of housing all of the species of the world.

Many churches today find themselves faced with exactly the same types of challenges in planning for the growth of their congregations. While the pressures may be the same, over crowding of facilities, new ministry opportunities, and or the need for a fresher look, the challenges can be quite different as we untangle the maze of legal restrictions, internal differences, code impacts, and of course, let’s not forget financial challenges.

So let’s take a look at the four elements of a developing a long-term church master plan.

I. Prayer

When preparing to enter into a building program, always start with prayer. Jesus told us, “I am the vine and you are the branches, and you can do nothing unless you abided in me.” When assembling the project’s committee structure, appoint a Prayer Committee to encourage each other, the staff and the congregation to bathe the project in prayer from start to finish, and continue to lift each other in prayer as He unfolds the vision for your church before your very eyes. Make sure you are well grafted in the vine!

II. Clear Sense of Purpose

Before you embark upon building on existing property, moving to a different location, or even renovating an existing space, it is important to assess carefully the church as it stands. These key questions need to be asked:

• What is the core purpose of our church?
• What specific ministries tie directly into our core purpose?
• Which ministries are growing the fastest?
• What is the major reason that we feel a need to expand?
• Are there other alternatives available?
• What are our immediate needs?
• How will they impact our long term needs?

A clear understanding by church leadership as to the future direction of the church, and the support behind the long-range vision becomes critical in master planning. If you change your direction every couple of years, you may find yourself wasting millions of dollars on a facility that becomes more of an albatross or hindrance to your ministry than an architectural beauty.

III Facilities Evaluation

One of the first steps in any facilities master plan is to survey what already exists. Because churches typically expand their facilities over a period of several years and sometimes decades, it is important to take stock of several areas that can impact your future decisions.

• Environmental Impact- Several facilities built in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s were designed with asbestos and unsafe materials throughout the buildings. It is important to know if you have environmental hazards that can adversely impact your overall project budget, or if it makes sense to start a demolition or renovation project. A more recent issue that has cropped up over the past few years is the handling of mold growth in buildings, as well as land issues like spotted owls, gopher turtles, or even ancient burial grounds.

• Code Impact – Over the last few decades the building codes have changed dramatically with their new calculations of structural loads, uplift requirements, glass impact resistance, American Disabilities Act, electrical requirements, life safety requirements and even the number of restrooms available to the members. Without proper assessment, the simple tearing down of one wall could require you to go back through the entire facility and bring them up to code, which could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so.

• Parking Impact- One of the most restrictive elements on church facilities today is the number of required parking spaces to meet the overall codes of the local governing authority. While many local authorities have a 2-3 people per every car requirement, in actuality many churches are experiencing a 1.5-2 people per car requirement, which can cause overcrowding and traffic problems for both ingress and egress issues.

• Zoning Impact- Due to the tightening up of zoning allowances in municipalities all over the country, you can no longer assume that your new property will be approved for zoning. Churches are not wanted in residential zones because they generate too much traffic. They’re not wanted in commercial zones because they don’t generate taxes. And they are not wanted in industrial areas because of the potential hazards to the health and safety of people. In other circumstances if your expansion exceeds 30% of the overall square footage of you existing buildings you may be required to have your entire property go through new zoning procedures all over again.

• Water Retention and Drainage- In many states the issue of storm water, waste water, and how you place your standing water, have become a great concern for many municipalities. In many places several years ago you could pretty much do what you wanted to with storm water, and not really worry about how much run off impacted your neighbor. However, today our municipalities are taking this very seriously, and are requiring very detailed civil engineering drawings to determine the impact of drainage, sewage, utility hook ups, and environmental issues that could adversely effect the immediate area.

IV Identify Specific Needs

Demographic

Early stages of a religious facility master plan may also include the gathering and analysis of comprehensive data. Information such as demographics and psychographics, where you begin to understand the racial mix of your demographic area, age mix, social economic status, area growth rates, worship preferences, and program preferences of the areas in which your church serves.

Because of the dramatic growth of both churches and the areas that they serve it is important to attempt to forecast the growth of your church based upon historical growth within age populations, along with future growth of the area. In many areas it becomes a mirror of the area that you serve. So if your area has seen explosive growth, and you have been keeping up with that growth in your church, it is reasonable to believe that your church may continue to grow at the same pace in the future. You may also want to consider a mapping service that will actually take your church membership and map where they live in relation to your current facility or the area that you are contemplating expanding to, thus, giving you a better feel of where your congregation is coming from.

Space Utilization

Your church may be one of the fortunate churches that are able to provide worship seating, education facilities, and even banquet space for all of the members of your church. However it is becoming more and more important due to pure economics, for churches to expand to two and three services during the weekend and maybe one on Friday night. For other ministries they are having to rethink their Sunday School Space, as it becomes too costly for the church to keep up with their Sunday School population. While there are certainly numerous churches that are busting at the seams, and couldn’t put another body in the building with a shoe horn, others are too eager to spend millions of dollars to provide expansion space that they really don’t need. A simple rearranging of service times, building schedules, and knocking out of a couple of walls, could make all the difference in the world, without the added expense to the church.

Space Proximity

You arrive on Sunday morning with your three year old and your seven year old to a brand new church only to find that you have to park 300 yards away from your toddlers class, walk another 50 yards around the building through the rain to drop off your 7 year old. Once that is done you then have to cross the property through the mud in your brand new shoes to enter into the Sanctuary, as you finally make it to your choir seat, catch your breath, and try to to sing “Amazing Grace” on key. How you position your buildings, ministries, parking, entrance ways, walkways, indoor space, outdoor space, and future senior living facility, can have a gigantic impact on the function of your overall master-plan. This is why it is important to carefully think out how you will use each building and how you can make it easier on the people attending your church, as well as, the financial implications of those decisions.

Aesthetic and Architectural Beauty

Have you ever tried to put together a 1000 piece puzzle without ever knowing what the finished puzzle should look like? This is what a lot of unplanned church campuses look like, a series of unrelated building add on’s that were thrown together at different times, by different people, with different architectural themes, only to get to a point that all of the pieces of the puzzle put together, are not very pleasing to the congregation. Maybe you should have a block stucco theme with South Florida Colors, in Miami, but it would look pretty silly next to a 150 year old cathedral in Boston, with an all custom made stained glass replica of the Last Supper ordaining the entire front of the cathedral. Master Planning takes into consideration the aesthetic, cosmetic, functionality, and cost factors of a building plan, and balances them on paper, before you commit to embarrassing yourself, and your community with an ugly building.

Phasing and Implementation

There are very few churches in America that wouldn’t love to be able to complete all of God’s vision and the next five phases of their building program all at once. However, due to economic factors most ministries must balance their God given vision, with their God given provision. Even Moses didn’t realize that he was embarking upon a 40 year mission, when Yahweh gave Moses the vision of taking the promise land.

Likewise, God gives different visions to ministries throughout the world, what He doesn’t always give is the necessary timing and financial understanding to complete the vision in our own human strength. We must be patient, we must plan, we must trust the Lord and His perfect timing. By planning to phase the first phase of your project within the financial limitations that you have been given, you are then in a position build all of the phases at once if the Lord indeed blesses your ministry by opening the gates of heaven blessing you with all of the money necessary to complete them all.

Eco Friendly Property Construction

Eco friendly property in Spain.

“Go Green” – “ECO friendly” – “save the planet” – “Global Warming”. All words we are very familiar with unless you have lived on the moon for the past 5 years or so. Now everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and offering green products and services. But how green are they and is it just a token gesture to be popular? We have been researching the possibilities of building eco friendly and economical green villas in Spain after I inadvertently made the mistake of asking my wife how she would like her new house built. “Eco friendly” she replied.

Those two words began a journey of thousands of miles across Europe and countless hours researching the web to find out how “eco friendly” I could build her dream home. Initially I found that an eco friendly home was just a cave house…I didn’t fancy living in or building a cave house, or they had thicker lagging on pipes or they offered solar water heaters…BIG DEAL, I expected that as standard, in fact it is law in Spain now to have alternative water heating supply, one company even classed a home as eco friendly because the heating had a thermostat.

Two years later and after securing the sole rights to build with a German quality ICF system we are beginning our first two new eco friendly villas in Spain for clients and have several scheduled to begin next year. The interest has been amazing; unfortunately this means my wife’s dream home has been put on hold for a while but our business and our attitude to all things green is being transformed. We are offering geothermal heating systems, solar power, grey water systems, water saving systems inside and outside the home, wind turbines, appliance advice, lighting systems I never knew existed and even water less toilets (the jury is still out on that one with me) all this to make our eco friendly villas in Spain as economically friendly as we can. The fantastic thing about the Eco friendly build systems is the speed and insulating values they offer. A traditional styled villa of a 100m2 villa can be erected within 10 days! Saving weeks of labour charges thus bringing the cost of these new eco friendly properties on par or even cheaper than traditional block and beam villas. The insulation values are amazing and they even have fantastic sound insulation (great if you have noisy teenagers like me).

When we first introduced this system to an architect he looked blankly at the proposal and smiled that smile you see in Spain when you know they think you are mad and after experiencing this manic suppressed grin over a lengthy period of time with a lot of old – maybe not old but my age – ok old Architects! We finally came across a young enthusiastic architect who believed and embraced the system as we did. We drew up a set of plans and submitted them to the local town hall and put the project forward to the bank for a valuation. The town hall was thrilled with the idea and the bank valued the project over 40% higher than we charged the client! Now this could have a lot to do with the fact that we are inexpensive builders but the manager did tell us they are valuing homes with eco friendly factors higher than traditional homes.

We are not jumping on the bandwagon … we’re driving it!

All the information can be found on our web site.http://www.1st2spain.com

The Theory of Meaningless Numbers

August, 2007

The Theory Of Meaningless Numbers

By

Applause Software

Peter A Donovan

What is a meaningless number?

Meaningless numbers are ID and CODE columns which uniquely identify a record in a database table. They were made up by computer programmers, and in traditional programming, they formed the first entry window where you were responsible for remembering that “D” means Doctor, and “402” is your best customer. Since it would be wrong to discriminate against an entry window just because it’s a letter and not a number [age of equality] I’ll include meaningless letter combo’s in this theory also.

The point?

Users should not be required to remember “402” for General Electric of Massachusetts and “791” for General Electric Turbine Division”, but programmers should indeed still make use of them as the basis of relationships between database table records. Just don’t expect the users to enter or remember them: the truly meaningless numbers and codes can be totally hidden from users and as a study, I will refer to RoloFlex by Applause Software as a good example where each table is based on a unique meaningless number. [reference: http://www.applausesoftware.com/ : free RoloFlex]

What is a meaningful number?

A meaningful number is those database records that are referred to commonly by number such as PO #4067, Sales Order #1, and Speeding Ticket #352-4635A. These numbers exist on paper and are the primary way of referring to a record of this type. When you go to look up my speeding ticket, you might indeed look it up under my name also, but when a payment is received [good luck] you want to be able to enter the printed number 352-4635A and quickly locate and apply payment before my check bounces.

Can a meaningful and meaningless number co-exist?

Yes. Numeric meaningless numbers are the foundation of unique identifiers of each record, and a meaningful number can co-exist as [both] uniquely indexed [findable] columns in the same data table.

There’s a space here while the programmers hold their heads.

Let’s say you are a database programmer and know that numbers rather than a string which varies in length [throwing off the sort order completely] should be the foundation of the database record [for speed and relationship purposes only], you can program your unique (meaningless) ID column of speeding tickets, and also have a unique (meaningful) column which is ascii [mixed numbers and letters] which is used for finding it.

Why not make the key column a automatic increment number for relation purposes alongside a humanly enterable column consisting of alpha-numeric characters? Hands please? How many programmers have written 200 lines of code to auto-increment “#352-4635A”? The role of the meaningless number is to get auto-incremented in 1 line of code, being totally hidden from the user, and the foundation of the relationship to it’s parent database table. The role of the Speeding Ticket number is to humanly find a record more easily than 12342345345565.

Table Layout Proposed:

-Fines-

Column: Element: Type: Length: Index: Relates To:

1 ID Numeric 16.0 1 (unique)

2 TicketNo Ascii 20 2 (unique)

3 VIN_ID Numeric 10.0 3 VIN.ID // Not VIN (Ascii Field)

4 SSN_ID Numeric 10.0 4 SSN.ID // Not SSN (Ascii Field)

-VIN-

Column: Element: Type: Length: Index: Relates To:

1 ID Numeric 10.0 1 (unique)

2 VIN Ascii 20 2 (unique)

-SSN-

Column: Element: Type: Length: Index: Relates To:

1 ID Numeric 10.0 1 (unique)

2 SSN Ascii 11 2 (unique)

This structure makes use of meaningless numbers and meaningful numbers side by side, each fulfilling their job.

Hopefully there is a programmer slapping his/her head here like the V-8 commercial.

The ROLE of a meaningless number:

Let’s face it. Meaningless numbers are here to stay. Everybody’s got one, but programmers are still stuck on what to do with them. HIDE THEM! In a relational database model, where the child is related to it’s parent by the ID, the value will automatically drop down to the child upon a successful save, making display of this number absolutely unnecessary. I should point out that many good programming firms are based on “Intelligent Design” such as Auto-Mate Software of the USA http://www.automatesoftware.com/. Please visit this site to read about the story about “Enter the field matrix number”…. It’s a great story.

Let’s go a step further and call a byte a byte. Whether it’s a field matrix number or a part number, due concern needs to be put into the design of a “key field” lookup to determine whether or not it’s meaningful or meaningless. On a part number, why not both? To programmers, here’s my argument: why not use this technique so that if the part number is mis-entered, or changes, you can simply reenter the part number without altering the relationship? Madness or magnificent? It’s your opinion that counts.

Let’s take an example in RoloFlex 12.3 from Applause Software (open source and freeware). The database tables all have a unique ID that is 10 digit numeric: Please refer to the running program and you will see that none are visible. In addition, I have coded the key fields as “noenter” so that if they were made visible, they could not be used! Ten digit ID numbers for everything? Meaningless or Madness?

Hands again? Each programmer who has had to increase a user’s key ID field from 6 to 8 to accommodate 20 years of data entry please stand up! I’ll bet there are a good many among us. Let’s also note in passing that dates on computers are stored as 6 digit integers, and in the western world we are almost out of numbers in the six digit length! Why have we not expanded our dates to 8 or 10 digits? I guess we’ll have to wait until “Y6K” to find out!

The design of meaningless numbers in action:

Let’s take on a RDBMS [relational database management system] example and specifically look at parent and child table design. My first point should be obvious to most programmers, that a parent ID field is used to uniquely identify the parent but (being meaningless) is not displayed to the user at all. In RoloFlex, please note that the parent database tables of the main table have a unique ID which drops down into the main table upon a save, forming the relationship without being seen.

Please note (when inspecting the inner table def’s for RoloFlex tables) that the Key ID column has a noenter attribute, meaning that the user cannot change or type in a new value to that column should it appear on the screen. It is auto-incremented from the system file “sysfile” and is totally meaningless to even the database designer other than being a unique value. No surprises here, but let’s look at a child table to see the same technique:

So, what’s the surprise here? On many occasions, I have noticed the lack of a single unique key field on child records. For example, the child of order header would have a key combination of HeaderID and Linenumber. If I applied the same consideration to the CallHist table, then there would be a combo of RolodexID and Call Date as the first index. What [the used] this technique does is to form the basis of a future child table to CallHist. From the get-go, a strong ID field exists to form a potential one-to-one column relationship to a child of CallHist which may exist in the future. The point, then, is to always program an ID column as a unique meaningless number for every table and index it accordingly. Then, progress onwards to specifying all the other columns of the database table.

As an extra bonus, you will see that “recnum” or record number is not defined in any of the indexes making a move from any one back end to another manufacturer’s back end a relatively easy job.

Whitepaper Summary:

I believe I have defined the difference between a meaningful number and a meaningless number and stated that meaningless numbers have no place in data entry! On the other hand, the argument for placing a meaningless number as the foundation of your relationships overwhelms the reasons that you might have for designing a meaningful number as the relationship key: It is my contention that an alphanumeric or string column has no place as the relationship key, and lastly that each table should have an ID field for forming the relationship which totally frees you to change the secondary key column with data entry without compromising the relationships.

Let end users see meaningful numbers only, but put your foundation on “meaningless design” with [hidden] data architecture!

Not Relishing your Dinner? Here is How to Change That

Too busy to spend time with your family and the only time you spend is on the dining table while having meals together. But what happened? You are not enjoying? The food is good, you love your family then where lies the problem? Yes! You are right – the culprit is your dining room. Change the ambience of your dining room and then see the difference.

You modify your drawing room, your bedroom and even your bathroom often but then you ignore one of the most vital parts of the house – your dining room. This is the place where the furniture generally isn’t given its due. Here is why, and how to make it better.

Most people tend to miss this most essential part of the home. People overlook the fact that the dining room furniture is perhaps responsible for creating the pious ambience for the eating rituals of the family. And when you notice sometimes that the appetite of some guests has diminished, perhaps it is time to change the decor of your dining room.

The attraction of a dining room is enhanced by stylish and elegant dining furniture. The dining furniture includes the dining table and the dining chairs, not to forget those stylish and always useful sideboards, dining hutch, cabinets and the bar stools.

Dining tables which are the most important piece of the furniture, come in a variety of shapes – simple, square, circular, ovals, single podium, double podium etc. Whatever base you choose, the tops also give you further choice between wooden, glass and other materials.

So instead of using the dining room table merely to wipe those hunger pangs, you should also use it to emit some positive vibes and of course reveal some class associated with your social status. The dining chairs where you are going to sit for at least half an hour at a time should be very comfortable. The height of the chair and the table should be comfortable enough for a person with an average build to enjoy his meals. The dining table is not the be all and end all as far as dining room furniture is concerned, but it definitely holds the centre stage of elegance.

Here are few things to keep in mind while designing your dining room:

1. The architecture of the room needs to be done up in a way that it is free from pollutants.

2. The shape of the table should be according to the shape of your room.

3. The height of the chairs and the table should be proportionate.

4. The design of the table and the chair should not be too intricate as that welcomes dust to stick to it, involving the requirement of more than just regular cleaning.

5. Paintings or accessories on the walls should match the dining theme.

6. Carpets preferably should not be placed in the dining room as they attract dust.

7. The sideboards should be spacious enough to place all your crockery inside it and well designed so that the microwaves, toasters and other gadgets are quite handy while having meals.

In the end, I would say that the dining room is the most important part of your home. Beautiful furniture is available in the market, but don’t go by the price and buy the furniture which suits best to your room.

Interior Design Salaries

Before discussing interior design salaries in more detail, I would to make a distinction between the interior designer’s and the interior decorator’s career. Many people think the two careers are one and the same thing but this is not true. An interior designer has a wider range of skills compared to the interior decorator. For this reason, interior design salaries are higher than interior decorator salaries. An interior designer combines engineering with art while a decorator simply deals with aesthetics. 

As with any other career, interior design salaries are influenced by various factors. First, interior design salaries vary depending on the geographical area. Different locations have varying costs of living and demand for interior designers. Interior design salaries in larger cities are expected to be higher than that in much smaller towns. 

Interior design salaries are also dependent on the level of the job. Qualifications and credentials play a large part in interior design salaries. Most entry level jobs in the US will pay an average annual salary of anything in the range of $22 000 and $40 000. 

Interior design salaries also vary depending on the area of specialization. One can specialize in various areas in interior design. A good example is specializing either in residential design or commercial design. Interior design salaries for designers whose training allows them to work with architectural firms or engineering service firms are higher than in any other sector. 

The experience of designers also influences interior design salaries. Highly qualified and experienced interior designers have the opportunity to earn interior design salaries in the six figure range. 

Interior design salaries are dependent on the nature of employment of the designer. If you are employed by a well established architectural firm, you can earn anything near $40 000. If you seek employment in a little known company you can be almost sure of earning a lesser amount. 

Interior design salaries for self employed designers are dependent on how they charge their fees. Many self employed interior designers charge per hour fees for consultation. Although interior design salaries for these self starters varies greatly, the average salary is $51 000. This means that most self employed designers earn higher interior design salaries than their counterparts. Interior design salaries for self employed designers can be as high as $100 000 per year. 

If you are planning to pursue a career in interior design you are probably happy to note the high interior design salaries even for entry level employees. This field not only offers you job satisfaction but also a chance to make your pockets deeper. If you are considering a career move you might want to try interior design.

The Modern Eco Friendly Home Movement

For several years there has been a strong movement that grows continuously, involving the manufacturing of modern eco homes. This movement has seen many new and existing companies, mainly located in the United States, which are successfully marketing modern prefab homes to a much wider audience than before.

But why would anyone buy modern prefab homes when so many preconceived prejudices make them unattractive? Simply because it is more profitable not just economically, but also environmentally. Modern prefab homes can reduce construction costs while lessening the environmental impact of construction projects.

These modern eco homes are designed by professional architects, many of whom previously only worked in traditional construction, but now find themselves drawn into this more eco-friendly and flexible building.

One reason these architects are turning to this construction method is the amount of control they can have over every aspect of construction. It is far easier for them to oversee every detail in a controlled environment, like a prefabricated home construction centre, than it is on a cold, wet traditional on-site building location.

Another reason is that a house may look fine on paper, but as construction continues problems may arise in terms of practical design or a feature that is unappealing to the eye, it is a much simpler and cost-effective to alter the design in this situation, than it is out on a construction site.

Modern prefab homes are also intended to be reproduced multiple times with slight variations, as opposed to a one-off construction on the site. Therefore, it is far more practical to make changes to a plan when the same design may be used multiple times, rather than it is when you are dealing with a single unit.

Eco friendly prefab homes are beautifully adapted for modern life, and it make sense from a financial point of view, because of the lower cost of construction. Also these prefabricated houses are of superior quality because it is easier to control the quality of work in a factory than on a construction site.

This modern eco homes movement was born from the needs of ordinary people for affordable housing. Typically, modern houses are too expensive to build for many people’s pockets; modern prefab homes offer an affordable, quality alternative to traditional construction methods.

One reason is the care and craftsmanship that is needed to build modern-style prefab homes compared with a traditional-style, on-site built house. For example, the architecture of the modern-style house often needs a backbone of steel or concrete, which costs far more than modern wooden frames.

The prefabricated house is an option for ordinary people to have access to modern eco homes in an architect designed style that works in harmony with nature, rather than abusing it.

Virtualization

Copyright (c) 2007 Dean Barnard

With a plethora of storage devices attached to a computer, management becomes a crucial issue. It therefore becomes imperative to create one large logical storage which consolidates the different physical storage devices. This effectively means that a user would look at the storage system as a single logical device instead of multiple ones. This is called virtualization. Many organizations are considering storage virtualization as an important mechanism to trim costs. Through storage visualization, storage devices from different vendors can be consolidated into a virtual storage pool. This gives customers the ability to choose storage hardware independent of the functionality that they need from it and to change and upgrade it without disrupting existing data. This may seem like a simple problem but on ground hardware sourcing from different vendors and their consolidation can be a source of major headache. In this context virtualization assumes importance.

The technologies that would play a pivotal role in the future are adoption of Information Lifecycle management (ILM) by enterprises and creation of virtualized infrastructure. The ultimate goal for most companies would be to create a service oriented Architecture infrastructure. Disc visualization hides physical complexity from the user and delivers better performance. Virtualization results in a high rate of utilization, automation, better control and is simple to operate. Large enterprises find virtualization not only useful but also unavoidable. The geographical spread of some organizations itself is a major reason for selecting different vendors for their numerous locations. Consolidation therefore is a major issue. Virtualization insulates the users from the complexities of the actual storage mechanism. The flexibly and expandability provided by virtualization when there is tremendous pressure on operation due to stringent SLA’s, is unparalleled.

To cope with ever-expanding data volumes, increased pressure due to SLA and compliance, there is a need for scalable systems that enable massive consolidation. San switches that scale all the way up to 500 ports in a single chassis and arrays that scale up to hundreds of terabytes together with the intelligence are some trends for the future. The key to intelligence in storage networks is that of centrally hosted third party intelligent fabric applications for improved operational efficiencies, storage utilization and data mobility.

Due to the reasons stated above, virtualization has become extremely popular, especially with organizations which have an insatiable need for data storage and devices. The service level agreements are driving vendors to offer better virtualization solutions which are intelligent with built in expert knowledge.

The future of virtualization is without doubt a must for large computer networks. What is essential is for intelligent devices which would automatically expand resources in accordance with the needs of the systems. Consolidation has to lead to better efficiencies and ultimately to lower cost of acquisition and maintenance.

Virtualization can also be viewed from the software applications point of view. In this context , virtualization means operation of applications irrespective of the system software. This has many advantages the primary one being that no specific hardware profiles may need to be established for operating the virtual application.

Enlightenment Period – Romantic Age Comparisons

Enlightenment Period – Romantic Age Comparisons

Researched and Authored by: Michael J. Spindler

The authors of this paper are going to present to the reader five areas of the humanities, art, music, architecture, philosophy, and literature from the Enlightenment period as well as the Romantic Age. The examples chosen are meant to reflect the developments and forces that affected world events and how these examples molded cultural patterns. This evolution of humankinds views of the world and humans place in the world profoundly affected the following century and the course of the modern people in today’s society.

Art has traditionally been a reflection and an artist’s interpretation of the world around the artists. During the Age of Enlightenment, there were five major types of art movements; Neoclassicism, Romanticism, French Naturalism, French Realism, and Impressionism. “In part a reaction against baroque and rococo excesses, neoclassicism is associated, in France, with a return to “virtue” and an acceptance of the new ideological demands of the French Revolution.”(Boguslawski, 2005) This form of art reinforced society’s responsibilities to honor, duty, and more important, patriotism.

Impressionism in the Age of Enlightenment lends to a play on light within common themes. Claude Monet is perhaps the best example. While not politically inspiring, Impressionism allows the viewer to spend time reflecting on the beauty and the play of colors and lighting.

“Romantic artists interpreted things through their own emotions, and these emotions included social and political consciousness–as one would expect in a period of revolution, one that reacted so strongly to oppression and injustice in the world.” (English Department, Brooklyn College, 2001) Despite the term Romantic, the period was a time of revolution and social upheavals as society on all levels struggled for a voice and a place in the evolving world. Across all fields of expression, the period was a movement away from rationalism towards an exploration of human nature. Emotion became both the subject and the object of most popular art forms of this period. Rather then just picking a specific work of art, the authors’ intention is to enlighten the reader to the influences and motivations of the artists in this period, rather than describing how a portrait may have affected the few.

Music in the Enlightenment period was immortalized in the works of Amadeus Mozart. Though gifted from a young age, it was through diversity and necessity that forced Mozart to achieve his potential. Most musicians of the period were at the employ of churches and royalty. The free lance lifestyle Mozart led, lent to a freedom of expression… “This step in the direction of artistic and intellectual freedom was a central part of the Enlightenment.” (Donelan, 1999) Interestingly, Mozart’s work may have reinforced his attachment to the ideas of the Enlightenment period, while a feeling of subversion is also equally expressed at times.

Mozart was not easily impressed that was until Ludwig van Beethoven performed for Mozart in 1787. Beethoven had a singular brilliance about him; as a result, he went through a number of instructors, some of histories most memorable composers of the time. Beethoven’s hearing loss was a progressive deterioration over a 16 year period beginning in 1801. Around the year 1802, his hearing loss opened new doors in his composition. Compositions were written that challenged the traditional characterizations of music of the time. “Beethoven’s influence on following composers has been immeasurable. Aside from his architectonic innovations and expansion of the classical sonata and symphony, he brought to music a new depth and intensity of emotion that was emulated by later romantic composers…” (Angelfire.com, n.d.)

The Romantic era could easily be split between two types of composers. A conservative approach embodying the Romantic periods styling and ideology, yet in close quarters to traditional sounding classical music. Prominent composers of this type of composition include Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms. Representing a more forward thinking expression of music included Berlioz, Strauss, and Wagner. “Berlioz, Strauss, and Wagner were all progressives whose music challenged the audiences of their day.” (Schmidt-Jones, 2007) All composers of the Romantic period faced a common problem, taking music in a new direction. The composers mentioned composed memorable works of music, but nothing notable that truly changed the music world. This period was more of a transition that led the world to begin experiencing new innovations that led to modern music.

British architects of the Enlightenment age include Colen Campbell, James Gibbs and Robert Adam whom also happen to be of Scottish descent, “interpreting the first phase of Classicism in the Palladian form.” (Boyd-Brent, 2008) Architecture of the period, inspired by the classic forms of Rome and Greece, gave rise to a styling that conveyed influence, power, and wealth. Clients of architects admired and wished to embody the ideology of Roman power and exhibition into their own homes and public buildings, conveying to the observer a sense of virtue, wisdom, and harmony.

In the Romantic Age, America’s diversity was celebrated by the diversity of and supported by an explosion in the size of growing population. Architectural stylings of federal buildings are obvious interpretations of Greek and Roman architecture, an attempt by leaders of a young struggling country to convey structure and the power of the government. More important, the use of iconic architectural types fosters the loyalty and faith of the people in the new democracy.

Philosophy in the Renaissance era was greatly influenced by the bubonic plague also known as the Black Death. An example of philosophical change brought on by the plague was the shift in thought that caused people to challenge traditional seats of authority. Because of the lack of skilled labor due to shrinking population, laborers began demanding higher standards of living and a more equitable place in society.

The randomness of the plague, the fact that it afflicted people from all social and economic classes lead to the abandonment of traditional religious practices and changed the way people thought of death. During the enlightenment period intellectuals attempted to understand and explain their environment. This inquisitiveness bore a set of principles which were believed to govern all human interactions. These principles were believed to be part of the universe and mandated by reason as opposed to being ordered or forced on people by kings or the church.

A second example is the political theories that framed the debate of the social contract between rulers and those being ruled. John Locke’s view that the ruled possesses ultimate power and have a natural right to life, liberty and estate clearly influenced Thomas Jefferson as he wrote the American Declaration of Independence 100 years later.

Christine De Pisan’s Book of the “City of Ladies”, which championed women’s importance to society, was milestone in society. The work is written as a debate where she interviews three goddesses on moral issues. The authors selected this work because this example is a milestone in women’s emergence as equal partners in Western society in that it was one of the first instances of the subject being addressed from a woman’s point of view by a woman. Niccolo Machiavelli’s book “The Prince” was a practical guide of how to establish political stability through the use of arbitrary power. The author selected this work because Machiavelli ignored morality in his explanations of how rulers imposed their will on friend and foe alike. This ideology gave form and a certain level of legitimacy to the “ends justify the means” mentality common to many autocratic governments thereafter.

The first example is Locke’s “Of Civil Government”. The author chose this because it serves as the basis of thought behind the ideals set forth in our own Declaration of Independence and Constitution. While reading “Of Civil Government” the author came to understand that our Declaration of Independence was Jefferson’s affirmation of Natural Law as applied to the social contract between governments and their citizens.

The second example is Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. It applied Natural Law to labor and trade and defined free trade.

The authors have explored specific examples, people in history, and how social tides changed the directions taken in of each category that was explored. The world that is known today is a product of generations who were able to express themselves through art, music, architecture, philosophy, and literature. The emotions, ideas, and energy conveyed through time, give humans a better understanding of where they have been and the courage to continue the journey forward.

References – Do Not Strip Article References

AngelFire.com (n.d.). Ludwig van Beethoven. Retrieved January 22, 2008, from http://www.angelfire.com/music6/enlightenment/Beethoven

Boguslawski, A. (2005). 18TH-Century: Intorduction. Retrieved January 22, 2008, from http://www.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Russian/18intro.html

Boyd-Brent, J. (2008). The Architects of The Enlightenment. Retrieved January 22, 2008, from http://www.aboutscotland.co.uk/edin/jane.html

Donelan, J. (1999, September 26;). Mozart and Enlightenment Thought. Retrieved January 22, 2008, from http://www.writing.ucsb.edu/faculty/donelan/Mozart.html

English Department, Brooklyn College (2001, September 23,). Introduction to Romanticism. Retrieved January 22, 2008, from http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html

Schmidt-Jones, C. (2007, October 31;). The Music of the Romantic Era. Retrieved January 22, 2008, from http://cnx.org/content/m11606/latest/

Researched and Authored by: Michael J. Spindler

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