Free 3D tech “lunch & learn” for aerospace industry

The event will be held at the SculptCAD office near downtown Dallas next Wednesday, February 24. This seminar on 3D technology for the aerospace industry involves 100 percent inspection and reverse engineering for maintenance, repair and operations (MRO). Topics include exploring Steinbichler’s White Light Scanning technology and how it differs from laser scanning, CMM measurement and why white light scanning is a better scanning option with more value and speed, and discussing the inspection and reverse engineering features of the GeoMagic Studio and Qualify software package.

Here’s what SculptCAD founder and president Nancy Hairston told me about the upcoming seminar, “This event will be a great opportunity to view the newest white light scanner from Steinbichler and the pairing of GeoMagic for aerospace applications. GeoMagic’s inspection, reverse engineering and parametric exchange toolsets enable fast and accurate workflows with seamless transfer into CAD systems.”

This “lunch & learn” includes demonstrations of the Steinbichler Comet 5 digital sensor and  GeoMagic’s Studio 11 3D modeling software.

Details on this “lunch & learn”

• Date: Wednesday February 24, 2010
• Time: 11 am – 2 pm
• buffet lunch provided
• Cost: free!
• registration required in advance

From the first and last links in this post:

Topics expected to be covered but are not limited to include:

· The use of 100% noncontact inspection complementing traditional CMM inspection including the use of robotics
and automatic geometrical dimensional & tolerance report generation

· “Best practices” regarding the scanning of physical objects directly into your CAD system

· How to digitally recreate, modify and/or repair existing tooling

· Examples of applying cost saving 3D technologies to structure, engine, systems and interior components by
Engineering, QA and Inspection departments

Lookin’ for hookers

Today has been something of blog stat anomaly because this post is getting some traffic. The reason it’s unusual is the linked post is an article I wrote years ago that went unpublished (I got a kill fee from the publication that contracted the piece) until I posted it this past January. The post is on Dallas’ “Frog Town,” a red light district in early 20th century Dallas given an official imprimatur of sanction by the city council in 1910.

Why today is an anomaly? With no other way to determine when the weekend arrives, I could check my blog stats and see that post getting plenty of hits. And judging by the search terms used to find the post it’s mostly people — I’m guessing men — searching for prostitutes in Dallas. Of course some legitimate historical searches figure into the mix as well. Here’s just a sample from the last week or so: “prostitution in dallas,” “red light district in dallas,” “prostitution boundaries 1910 dallas city,” and the most searched-for related term this year, “dallas prostitutes.”

From the link:

A 1910 city ordinance adopted by Dallas city commissioners designated new boundaries for the prostitutes in an area just north of the Old Red Courthouse. Three of the commissioners wrote a report rationalizing the ordinance and in “Big D” Payne quotes the report, “We find that under the existing conditions bawdy houses and bawds are promiscuously scattered throughout the City, greatly menacing the decent neighborhoods and offending decent and respectable communities and parts of the City … We feel that the measure hereby suggested by us will entirely eliminate such objectionable characters from the decent neighborhoods of the City.”

Payne writes about the location, “This was immediately east of Lamar Street, from Cochran Avenue on the south to the MK&T railroad tracks on the north, and bounded on the east by a small stream known as Dallas Branch.” Payne points out three areas of particular interest in the district, “The 2100 block of Wesley Avenue, the 1000 through 1300 blocks of Broom (recently changed from Audrey), and the 2100-2300 blocks of Griffin Street.” The designated area was known as “Frogtown,” likely because of the calls of frogs that came up the stream from the Trinity River. Once the area became a designated red light district it was also referred to as “the reservation.”

Frogtown’s location relative to the downtown Dallas of today is an area straddling Woodall Rogers Freeway, beginning just east of the West End historic district and running north toward the home of the Mavericks and Stars, the American Airlines Center. One feature of early 1900s Dallas faded away and was resurrected in 1989, the McKinney Avenue Trolley. Payne points out that streetcars would pass by Frogtown and passengers would rubberneck to look down the streets of the reservation with curiosity.

Frogtown, Dallas' red light district in 1013

Nanny lawsuit — Dallas-style

This is about the dumbest thing I’ve read in a long, long while. Read the comments to see exactly how reviled these two attention-seeking ladies are among readers of this article. Talk about a frivolous lawsuit.

From the link:

A Dallas woman has filed a lawsuit seeking six figures from a former neighbor and landlord for damage she says was caused by cigarette smoke wafting through adjoining walls of her high-end townhome.

“Smoking is not a right, it’s a privilege,” said Chris Daniel, a retired nurse. “I’m sorry that people smoke. I think it’s foolish, but when it comes into my house and hurts my health and my daughter’s health and our belongings, it’s a different issue.”

More from the link:

A manager and attorney for Estancia Townhomes, a 52-building community near Prestonwood Country Club in North Dallas, said it’s unlikely the Daniels sustained any smoke damage. There is a solid, two-hour fire wall from the foundation to the roof between each of the homes.

And even if some smell did seep through, the Daniels renewed their lease at Estancia – where smoking is permitted – six months after they say the problem began.

“Why do people file lawsuits?” asked Ginger Tye, an attorney representing the property managers and owners. “They’re asking for money damages.”

Trammell Crow, RIP

The man was a Dallas real estate legend.

From the link:

Trammell Crow, the renowned Dallas developer who reshaped the city and other metropolitan areas with his commercial developments, died Wednesday night. He was 94.

Crow founded the Trammell Crow Co. in the post-World War II era.

The Dallas native began his real estate empire by constructing his first commercial development in 1948. Crow’s initial project was an 11,250-square foot-warehouse in the Trinity River Industrial District near downtown Dallas. From there, Crow partnered with Dallas civic leader John Stemmons and pioneered a real estate boom the district.

Dallas’ Frogtown — a true tale of prostitution

This article was written a number of years ago and by chance never ended up published to the best of my knowledge. I was paid my kill fee and moved on.

I thought it might be of interest to my blog readers — imagine a city-sanctioned red light district in Dallas, Texas …

“Frogtown”
By David Kirkpatrick
“The City of Dallas approves ordinance to OK prostitution” — a headline you expect never to read? It probably didn’t make the papers of the day, but in 1910 that headline would be correct.
 
Dallas was a bustling city in the early 20th century with many similarities to the Dallas of today. The earlier burg was full of commerce and civic activity, and was a transportation hub. Darwin Payne, professor emeritus, SMU, and author of several books on Dallas, opens “Big D: Triumphs and Troubles of an American Supercity in the 20th Century,” with a quote that could apply today. Payne writes, “In 1907 a local businessman rendered this thumbnail portrait of Dallas: ‘A city of skyscrapers, resounding with the roar of trade.'” But the Dallas of 100 years ago had one thing today’s city does not — Frogtown, a red light district that operated within shouting distance of the Old Red Courthouse, Dallas’ civic center at the time, with the full blessing of the city’s leadership.

(head below the fold for the rest of the story)

Ron Kirk to be Obama’s trade rep

Congrats to Dallas’ first (and only) black mayor. He did great things for the city and ought to do just as well in DC.

From the link:

Looks like Obama’s cabinet will get a southerner after all, albeit perhaps not the sort some people were looking for.

Obama has chosen Ron Kirk, who was the first black mayor of Dallas, as his trade representative, a senior Democrat tells us, confirming multiple reports today.

The choice of Kirk came after Obama’s first choice, Rep. Xavier Becerra, pulled out. Becerra had cheered some on the left because of his trade record — he confessed he regretted his vote for NAFTA, and subsequently voted against CAFTA, among other things.

As for Kirk, business leaders like his record of supporting free trade, and labor leaders seem wary. But with the stimulus package front and center, trade policy seems unlikely to be a top priority, and labor leaders have already been given a big gift in the form of new labor secretary nominee Hilda Solis.

Possible light blogging coming up

Along with professional writing I occasionally work in the fine art conservation and preservation area. I blogged about one very cool project here.

Right now I’m getting into what looks like a major project that falls more under the historic preservation umbrella restoring some original iron work at Dallas’ Union Station. To the best of our knowledge this work is in the ballpark of 90-years-old.

Hopefully I’ll get the chance to get some images and do a post on this project, but in the meantime I might not blog as often as I do at times. I’m sure I’ll get a post, or a few, in each day.

Dallas’ VanDuzen — “World’s Best Technology” 2008

Dallas-based VanDuzen, a 3D visualization and modeling company I provide communications services for, won “Best of Show” at the 2008 WBTshowcase. A great honor for a great company creating cutting edge technology. Congratulations!

The WBTshowcase release:

Texas Company Named 2008 “World’s Best Technology”

VanDuzen is First Texas Firm to Win WBTshowcase Top Honors

March 27, 2008 | Arlington, TX – The nation’s leading technology commercialization experts, venture investors and Fortune 500 licensing scouts today named a Texas software technology the best emerging technology of 2008.

Dallas-based VanDuzen Inc.’s software system, affiliated with the UT Southwestern Medical Office of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, won the “Best of Show” award today at the 2008 WBTshowcase

The WBTshowcase, representing the largest collection of undiscovered technologies emanating from the world’s leading universities, labs and research institutions, was held March 26-27 at the Hilton Arlington.

“2008 marks the first year ever that our judges have awarded our top prize to a Texas technology,” said Paul Huleatt, WBTshowcase CEO. “We look forward to watching VanDuzen take their award-winning technology to market and beyond.”

VanDuzen’s software technology was among the over 75 world-class deals presented this year to more than 450 attendees, including over 100 venture investors and Fortune 500 licensees.

At tonight’s award ceremony, VanDuzen was awarded a $10,000 cash prize presented by private equity fund manager Cimarron Capital Partners.

“This award will help take us to the next level,” said Nancy Hairston, Van Duzen CEO. “The knowledge I gained from the WBTshowcase was exactly what I needed as an entrepreneur.”

VanDuzen’s licensed technology allows surgeons to digitally sculpt and then manufacture custom implants matched to patients’ facial anatomy.

2nd place went to Deerfield, Michigan’s Hybra Drive System LLC. Hybra-Drive is developing a novel fuel-efficient Hydraulic Hybrid Power Train (HHPT) for the light and medium truck markets.

“With great mentors you can do a lot of interesting things in life,” said Rick Goldstein, Hybra-Drive President and CEO.

Kinetic Research & Development from South Elgin, Illinois, took 3rd place with its high power density internal combustion engine technology.

“This award gives us credibility and, I hope, potential funding,” said Michael Boruta, Kinetic’s President & CEO. “We interacted with so many people, from VCs to potential licensors, at this extremely well-run event.”

“Innovation leading to new technologies is the primary driver of economic development,” said Wes Jurey, President and CEO of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. “It is critical for the US to link discoveries with the funds to develop tomorrow’s revolutionary products. The WBTshowcase does precisely this.”

ABOUT WBTshowcase
The WBTshowcase is the nation’s premier event showcasing the largest collection of high-potential technologies emanating from top universities, labs and research institutions from across the country and around the globe. The WBT is produced by Development Capital Networks, LLC in cooperation with the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) and the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF). http://www.wbtshowcase.com

Dallas DA Craig Watkins

I’ve posted before about the excellent work being done by the current Dallas district attorney, Craig Watkins. Reason magazine has a great interview with Watkins covering his work with the Texas Innocence Project and his effort to change the way his office goes about its business.

From the second link:

In 2006, Craig Watkins became the first African-American elected district attorney of any county in Texas history. More interestingly, the 40-year-old Watkins was elected in Dallas County, where the DA’s office has long been known for its aggressive prosecution tactics. A former defense attorney, Watkins says the Dallas DA’s office has for too long adopted a damaging “convict at all costs” philosophy, an argument bolstered by a string of wrongful convictions uncovered by the Texas Innocence Project in the months before he was elected. Watkins ran on a reform platform, and pulled out a surprising victory against a more experienced Republican opponent.

After taking office, Watkins dismissed nine top-level prosecutors in the office. Nine others left voluntarily. He established a “Conviction Integrity Unit” to ensure proper prosecutorial procedures, and began working with the Texas Innocence Project to find other cases of possible wrongful conviction. reason Senior Editor Radley Balko recently interviewed Watkins by phone.

Nanny state in decline — Dallas-style

It looks like my hometown, Dallas, is scaling back its use of red-light cameras because they work too good. People are running fewer red lights, so the city isn’t getting the revenue expected from the devices.

From the linked article:

Dallas City Hall has idled more than one-fourth of the 62 cameras that monitor busy intersections because many of them are failing to generate enough red-light-running fines to justify their operational costs, according to city documents.

Initial gross revenue estimates for the red light camera system during Dallas’ 2007-08 fiscal year were $14.8 million, according to city records. The latest estimate? About $6.2 million. City Manager Mary Suhm on Friday estimated net revenue will fall $4.1 million under initial estimates.

That leaves Dallas government with a conundrum. Its red-light camera system has been an effective deterrent to motorists running red lights – some monitored intersections have experienced a more than 50 percent reduction. But decreased revenue from red light-running violations means significantly less revenue to maintain the camera program and otherwise fuel the city’s general fund.

And more:

The results of Dallas’ 2-year-old red-light camera system are mixed blessings for City Hall, Mayor Tom Leppert said.

“The good news is it’s having the effect everyone in this community wants: fewer red lights being run. The goal was not to make money on this,” Mr. Leppert said. “But these are numbers and realities we’ll have to deal with.”

The mayor added that under no circumstances does he expect a decrease in red-light camera revenue to affect the city’s public safety budget, although the overall budget may not enjoy as much revenue, perhaps resulting in the city streamlining other items.

Council member Angela Hunt, long skeptical of the reasoning behind such camera systems, says she’s not surprised Dallas is faced with altering its efforts to reduce red-light running.

“The idea of the red-light cameras is that they’ll be used as a revenue generator instead of being implemented for public safety purposes. It’s imperative that the council review this program, especially when the results don’t align with the initial performance projections,” Ms. Hunt said.

She cited national statistics suggesting that the cameras increase rear-end collisions.

Texas caucus report

Yeah, I’m a bad citizen. I did vote in the Democratic primary which allowed me to participate in the caucus going on right now. I opted against going to the caucus for a number of reasons (mostly household considerations), and I think I may be glad I did.

A friend just phoned from a caucus in Dallas. He described barely controlled pandemonium with a very, very large turnout and only five sign-up sheets provided for the unfortunates who are running the show at his location.

I’d read reports this thing was going to be a mess. Some locations weren’t aware they would be hosting caucuses as late as last week.

The way I look at it, states that always hold caucuses have organization problems. It was a safe bet this primary-plus-caucus in Texas was going to be far less than smooth.

If I hear more about tonight’s events I’ll be adding to this page rather than starting a new post.

Update: Sounds like my friend’s experience was the norm tonight. From The Bastard’s Blog :

My best guess is that more than 200 people were present.  So many people were in attendance because Webb Elementary was hosting two precincts – my precinct, 2148,and our neighbor to the west, 2190.

It was a zoo.  Everybody talked over everybody else.  Precinct 2190 had a microphone, whereas 2148 had no voice augmentation.

It was difficult to hear a damned thing.

We had numbers from the day’s voting in the precinct, but no early voting numbers.  Obama led Clinton by seven votes in 2148, but that was hardly represented in caucus goers.  Obama folks outnumbered Clinton folks by two-to-one in my estimation.

The Obama campaign did a marvelous job mobilizing the base.  I’ve never seen so many Democrats in one place. 

There was a painful absence of leadership.  No clear direction provided, it seemed rather like herding cats.  By eight o’clock we had just begun the proces of signing in.

Others have reported similar circumstances. 

Interested in the JFK assassination?

Hit this link to a Dallas Morning News document dump.

From the link:

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins announced this week that documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were found in a little-known vault in his office. He said his intention was to release them to the public. The documents were compiled by Henry Wade, the district attorney at the time of the assassination. Mr. Wade and his successors never made them public.

Below is one, large chunk of the documents. In the coming days, dallasnews.com will share more of them for your review.

The documents contained here are those that the district attorney’s office made available in electronic form – an estimated 90 percent of all the documents from the vault. Another 10 percent had not yet been scanned when these files were released to The Dallas Morning News.

The contents include transcripts, personal and official letters, newspaper clippings, lists of jurors, police reports, rap sheets, autopsy reports, trial notes, police notebooks, photographs and much more.

The documents appear here exactly as they were received by The News . They are neither cataloged nor indexed, and they are in no apparent order.

Given the volume, we haven’t been able to review most of the files. That’s why were calling on you. Here’s your chance to review never-seen-before materials related to the JFK assassination.

Take a look, and let us know if you see something interesting.

It looks like Kidd to Dallas …

… is still on. I’m not really sure why the Mavs are pursuing this trade so hard. I’m equally ambivalent on how I feel about the trade. Seems like the Mavs are giving up an awful lot for a short-term fix.

Update 2/19/08: It’s done.

Saving the Mercantile mosaics

Dallas’ Mercantile bank complex, with a tower from 1943 being one of the few skyscrapers erected during WWII, sat empty for a number of years and was purchased in the mid oughts for renovation and partial destruction — the demolition slated to befall later additions to the complex. At the eleventh hour, historical preservationists realized the area slated for demolition contained a large number of mosaics created by noted industrial designer Millard Sheets, fabricated in Venice and installed in the Mercantile in the late 1950s.

Two friends of mine — Michael van Enter of Studio van Enter and Wes Sorensen of Conservation Arts Group — won the bid to save these works of art. The project covered a few months in early 2006, and I helped in the process.

A number of groups joined forces to save the mosaics which are currently in storage awaiting reinstallation in Dallas at a later date.

(check out more information and some photos after the jump.)

Doing good in Dallas

I must give some praise for my hometown district attorney — Dallas County DA Craig Watkins. He won the job in a recent municipal election that swept Democrats into what had previously been a very GOP-centric judicial system.

He’s a trailblazer in many ways, not least of which is being the first black DA in Texas. What really sets Watkins apart, though, is alongside fighting local crime he’s also focused on undoing the past wrongs of his office (link goes to Google search).

Watkins is working with the Innocence Project to set free the innocent sent behind bars by DAs past. Thirteen people have been exonerated in Dallas County since 2001 and Watkins has a task force looking into more than 350 additional past convictions.