Pritzker Prize Buddies

A discussion with Pritzker Prize Winners Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Renzo Piano.

Space Navigator

Space Navigator from 3dconnexion changes the way you navigate in 3d programs.

Imagine the sensation of reaching into your display and grasping your 3D model. Or flying through three dimensional scenes. Whether you're creating dazzling 3D models or exploring virtual worlds, a 3D mouse enhances your digital life and sets your imagination free.

Enhances sh*t I say: (Review added 29 Aug. 2008)

You'll see many (paid) reviews saying it's a steal for $50. Let me tell you my story of getting this device.

Bullsh*t #1: I've checked their website and contacted their dealers in Turkey. The people I've talked in both firms didn't even know they had such a device. In the second firm they hopefully found someone that remembered that they were a distributor.

Bullsh*t #2: I've found out that these firms were in fact solidworks retailers. They had no intention in selling Space Navigator. When a client asks for a discount they give one as a gift instead. But they didn't hold themselves from charging me $100 + %18 = $118. (I'm still getting spam from the program that comes with the navigator to upgrade my $50 licence to $100 licence. Suckers! I've paid $118 so give me the licence and refund my $18. Or stop bugging me!)

Bullsh*t #3: To be fair I've waited more than a month to write a review. It's NOT faster NOR more accurate than the middle mouse click and ALT, CTRL or SHIFT (what ever the program uses). PERIOD. It's only more fluent in the movement. So only possible reason a Power User needs a Space Navigator would be for a presentation purpose only. You know.. You can navigate as fast as you want but a spectator will have a sea sickness watching the same screen. I like this gadget. But I'm some sort a geek and like most of the gadgets anyway.

Bullsh*t #4: Biggest bullsh*t of them all! Do you know why 3dconnexion sells this device for $50?

You expect from a company who markets a CAD device for such a low price, to work hard on bringing better drivers and supporting the wishes of their users. Can you believe that the only generic driver for this gadget is written by a USER and you can only find it somewhere in their forum? And ofcourse 3dconnexion doesn't support this driver. Well they have another strategy in their minds.They have other models with the exact same parts of the Space Navigator and some additional buttons or a screen for $300 and $400. For selling these highly overpriced devices they want the CAD software companies and Microsoft to recognize them! They want their own standart, category.. what so ever!

For this reason they're flooding the market with the $50 toy and the advertisements of how this thing "enhances your digital life and sets your imagination free". And whenever a user asks for something they're redirecting them to the CAD companies telling them there's nothing they can do. (Remember a user in their forum can, but they can't.)

Their toy sure did set their imagination free!

Space Navigator used in Sketch Up:

Quote of the Day

I'm at the center of the universe.
I'm a point.
Every direction is a way for me..

Mustafa Alpay YILDIZ
06.16.2008

Nasreddin Hodja had a similar saying.
One of my best buddies upgraded that unintentionally in a daily chat..

Near Death Experience Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright, Hilla Rebay, Solomon Guggenheim
at the unveiling of the model for the Guggenheim Museum, August, 1945
www.westporthistory.org

Ol' Frankie (Frank Lloyd Wright) once said:
"Space. The continual becoming: invisible fountain from which all rhythms flow and to which they must pass. Beyond time or infinity"
"The space within becomes the reality of the building"
"Space is the breath of art"

He was an exaggerator, a provocateur and an arrogant.
He's the most hated one by his colleagues. Architects try to silently underestimate Ol' Frankie when ever they can. But thank god none has the pingpongs to do so boldly!

To tell the truth I'm not a die heart fan of most of his works either. But I know to appreciate him, as The Architect. His courage, his self esteem, his vision..

There was this hatred going on around him when he was alive too. He had to run away from cops once just because he fell in love.
The architects declared their hate for him late his career and our Ol' Frankie Shut 'em Down with his Guggenheim N.Y.

Now that building to me is The Ninth Symphony Presto composed in concrete.
(You kick a fallen man with the rest just for the fun of it. And that fallen guy changes your chemistry by his creation. He's infact a giant leap for mankind.)

This is why haters today should endure in silence. Because he can kick bottoms no matter if he's dead or alive.

Weapons of Mass Deception won't suffice for such a Statement!

Today we have this mediocre, this magazine architecture.
Starchitect wanna be's are after creating buildings that can give one or two good photos. This became the way of drawing attention.
Not the quality of space. Infact no one talks about the space anymore.

Can you imagine any architect today, who's just been asked for a house by a waterfall, persuading the client to a deeper understanding of human and nature?

Space:
When I was in high school they used to teach us Space as the ultimate emptiness that surrounds all the planets and stars.
Today Physicists say that with all the strings wiggling and the spacetime woven in it's fabric, Space is far from emptiness. Infact there's more going on in the space than what's happening in the stars and planets!

Sounds like Ol' Frankie? Wright?

A good architecture is drawing a movie. A movie that defines a living within.
You put all the ingredient into the project to kick start life.
Good architecture seeks this mystery. Not a beautiful corpse that looks good in magazines.

Both scientifically and architecturally, Space is the habitat of life.
Easy to say. Hard to swallow.
Some are aware of it, some become after a near death experience, some just can't..