[Vo]:Skeuomorphs ride again!
"Skeuomorph" means "an ornament or design on an object copied from a form of the object when made from another material or by other techniques, as an imitation metal rivet mark found on handles of prehistoric pottery." In my book I described this: "with ingenuity and extra effort, the limitations of the old are imposed on the new." Nowhere in modern technology do you find skeuomorphs more often than in automobiles. There are many amusing examples. Years ago when continuously variable transmissions were introduced, some were engineered to produce fake "jolts" as they went from one pretend gear to the next. The Prius starts to move the moment you take your foot off the brake, before you press the gas pedal. There is no need for that, but that is how conventional automatic transmissions work, and the car is designed to imitate them. Here is a recent example of a ridiculous automotive skeuomorph. This is from a description a luxury plug-in hybrid automobile that costs $136,000. Hybrid cars are inherently quiet, both inside and out. Apparently the designers thought this one is too quiet on the inside, because they added a feature to make it noisy: http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-autos-bmw-i8-review-20140502-story.html "2014 BMW i8 plug-in hybrid: High performance but with a conscience" . . . the best way to play is with the i8 in its Sport setting. That's also where the car does its most efficient recharging. Sport mode tightens up the steering and adaptive suspension, quickens the transmission shifts, makes the throttle more eager and lets the electric motor kick in earlier. It also pipes the engine's divine whir into the cabin — in a way the company calls 'augmented.' BMW prerecorded the i8's best engine noises. When driven in Sport mode, the car plays this sonic mixture through its speaker systems. Of course, this is ridiculous and fake, and represents everything that's wrong with the future of motoring. But it sounds so good that you feel dirty and cheap for loving it. . . ." (Note that being too quiet on the outside is a genuine problem for hybrid cars and electric cars. Pedestrians sometimes cannot hear the cars coming. In Japan they are thinking of adding a noise about as loud as a cell phone ring which will sound at very low speeds.) - Jed
RE: [Vo]:Skeuomorphs ride again!
Thanks for teaching me a new word. I sure see a lot of that in architecture: Steep roofs that could shed snow really well ( but it doesn't snow here, or rain much for that matter). Shutters that don't close and wouldn't be needed even if they did. Greek and Roman columns that don't hold up anything. Wooden beam ends that don't support anything, but look as if they are structural. Shingles -- taking perfectly good roofing material and cutting it up into little pieces. Big masonry chimneys containing nothing but 8" diameter steel tubes inside ( and fireplaces with fake logs inside). Fake dormers. Lots of other useless protuberances. It's really hard to find a house without those things. P.S. I live next to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesen West compound and admire his designs. Hoyt Stearns Scottsdale, Arizona US From: Jed Rothwell [mailto:jedrothw...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 9, 2014 1:30 PM "Skeuomorph" means "an ornament or design on an object copied from a form of the object when made from another material or by other techniques, as an imitation metal rivet mark found on handles of prehistoric pottery." In my book I described this: "with ingenuity and extra effort, the limitations of the old are imposed on the new."... --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [Vo]:Skeuomorphs ride again!
Hoyt A. Stearns Jr. wrote: Thanks for teaching me a new word. > > > > I sure see a lot of that in architecture: > That's true! I had forgotten about architecture when I cited automobiles. I guess I was thinking of high-tech machinery, such as automobiles, generators, computers and so on. > Steep roofs that could shed snow really well ( but it doesn't snow here, > or rain much for that matter). > I do wish I had a steep roof here in Atlanta. It would shed the pine needles better. But then again maybe I don't want one, because I could not safely climb it to get at the ones that are not washed off by the rain. The new MacMansions have much steeper roofs than the houses made in the 1950s, such as mine. > Shingles -- taking perfectly good roofing material and cutting it up into > little pieces. > Actually, there is a good reason for making them the size they are. One package of shingles is about as heavy as an ordinary worker can lift. (It is as much as *I* can lift, anyway.) Make them any heavier and you would need a fork lift to get them on the roof, plus the package might break through the plywood -- which is not very strong. What we need is a machine to lift a continuous roll of roofing material to the level of the roof, and then position it. Sort of like a cherry picker, or one of these machines they used to pour concrete into tight places. The machine would lift the material up, and then a human would grab the end of the roll and pull it into position, and nail it down. You would cut off the material at the end of the roof. Actually, what we need are houses build mainly in factories by robots. Pre-fab houses and components such as bathrooms are more common in Japan than the U.S. They are kind of soulless but cheap and well made. Human strength is still the limiting factor in many tasks in construction, farming and other industries. The civil engineer Samuel Florman pointed this out in one of his books, describing a mistake he made when he was starting out. He ordered wooden beams that were twice as big but much cheaper than the ones they usually purchased to shore up some construction. The problem was, they were too big for the workers to install. - Jed
Re: [Vo]:Skeuomorphs ride again!
>> > > >> > > > >> >> > > > > > Actually, what we need are houses build mainly in factories by robots. > Pre-fab houses and components such as bathrooms are more common in Japan > than the U.S. They are kind of soulless but cheap and well made. > > > http://phys.org/news/2014-07-kite-bricks-prototype-smarter-approach.html > Here is a brick that can be laid by robot.
Re: [Vo]:Skeuomorphs ride again!
Jed wrote: "The Prius starts to move the moment you take your foot off the brake, before you press the gas pedal. There is no need for that, but that is how conventional automatic transmissions work, and the car is designed to imitate them." Actually this is a useful function when you are starting on a hill, to prevent the car rolling back when you take your foot off the brake before you can put it on the accelerator
Re: [Vo]:Skeuomorphs ride again!
a.ashfield wrote: > Actually this is a useful function when you are starting on a hill, to > prevent the car rolling back when you take your foot off the brake before > you can put it on the accelerator > The transmission would prevent that. It locks it forward. You may be thinking of it as something like a standard shift with a clutch. Starting up a steep hill with a clutch can be challenging. I have done it a zillion times. Then again, I have worn out two clutches in 60,000 miles, driving very short distances in stop-and-go Atlanta traffic. - Jed
