0 Just Lie In the Sun Like That

0 McMaster Carr Is Sweet

My CAD professor today introduced me to McMaster Carr's website. I had heard about it before, but only today did I witness the sheer colossal project of mechanical products, specifications, and drawings for each one of them. In our engineering studies, we sometimes comes across component names, nomenclatures and so forth that we might never have seen or heard before. Where do we go? Its a nice thing to have a website at your side, no popups, absolutely clean and efficient and all you have to do is punch in the name of the product in the search box. You can then go ahead and order some samples for free to try them for your project, because Mcmaster knows that you'll eventually buy 10,000 units of that from them if that's what you're looking for. So along the way, you get tons of freebies. But in the end, its a marvellous reference tool for mechanical engineers and students.

1 WHEN IN ROME, JUST DO IT and get the hell with IT!!

Note : I'm listening to dance music and trying to motivate myself here. This is a ritual I do once or twice a month. I do it through writing. Its my way of staying alive, and preserving myself in this world of myriad rat races.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its an eternal question lingering in your mind. Or atleast in mine. How on earth do you find time to do everything you want and like to do with all those classes, job, homework. We clearly spend 10-12 hours in school or just doing school based work nowadays. What about the things that you like doing? I lost touch with my passion for writing and drawing. I don't get to be with friends a lot too. I would love to spend time riding my bike more, continuing my self-taught learning in 3d modelling and animation or play chess. Where am I going wrong? Or is someone going to promise me that I'll get these things once I get my degree? Wait, then I have to worry about my job, getting a car, my insurance policies, money.

Seems like life today is so busy we've lost touch with the child in us, who wants to laugh, cry out loud, experiment with things around him for fun, be with friends. How do we find a time to give an expression to this side of ours? Its waiting in me to explode. Unfortunately, it has sunk. I find it highly impractical to make a schedule and stick to it at all times. Its impossible. I mean who would want to live like a robot. I'm only 21 for Christ's sake.

It also seems like an engineering school passes one year after another, and as class sizes get smaller and students smarter or otherwise, I'm one of the very few introspective people left behind. I think stress builds on you when you're left doing the things that you're forced to do all the time, not the things that you necessarily enjoy. These days, I don't feel that adventurous, or energetic. Don't tell me I'm growing up. This is defintely a stress. A pressure. When you're given papers of rules, quizzes, homeworks, projects etc from 6 or 7 classes, more papers, rules and regulations from airports, from the country that you're in..when you're trying to stick by your roots and not go astray in a world where its so easy to start a habit if you're favorite filmstar or music person did it, or your friend influenced you...when you're expected to do more from your parents far away in another country....it is a pressure that could change you. It could make you stoic. It could make you stop enjoying your life. You could be seen with an IpoD in your ears to motivate you, as you enter school, talk with absolutely no one, and exit school the same way you came. Wait, I don't even listen to music all that much.

Now I am. Someone told me that I'm ruining myself and can't be a butterfly in a world of beasts anymore.

If you got to get something done, and you don't have the time to do it, you have to a little selfish to GET it done. Go catch the people who'll help you. Hear music. Stop thinking about this big mountain of work on you and stop telling yourself you enjoy doing it either. JUST DO IT, right? Why should you change? Why can't you be the same person you want to be? Go do your thing, boy! Yeah, thats what I'm talking about.



Be a cheetah in the wild. Be a peregrine falcon in the air. Catch your prey. Do it humbly. Leave your pride for another day, when you look back and say, I went through that and came out ALIVE!

0 Stress Tests on Campus : Brainwashing has come to UB!

This week, I saw a free stress test being done at a table in Commons. I didn't think much further to realise they were the scientology group on campus giving these free tests for unwary students. A friend of mine named Eli who's from the Dominican Republic took one of these tests last semester. Ofcourse, he didn't know what it was all about, neither did he sign up for the follow-up courses they offered him due to time contraints. But he gave me a ridiculous picture of the so called 'stress machine' that these people use. Seems like the needle is so sensitive that it can be moved even by a momentary flow of wind. Whats the truth in a measurement like this? Besides, if you don't know the hideous character of scientology, maybe you should stop gaping at all your favorite film starts who joined scientology (because they have the money to) and give yourself some education, since I like all my readers not to end up commiting suicide or have major mental problems.

I wish I had my camera the other day to get a few pictures, but I wondered if they would chase me down with their dark 'agents' or something like that.

Basically, they had an huge equipment that could pass as a 70's AM/FM Taperecorder with a needle, and they have a pile of books close to it authored by Ron Hubbard (Dianetics). In actuality, this instrument they use is a galvanometer and I really have no idea how they measure your 'stress' since I never took the test.

There was a lady handling all this, and her face looked pale, and battered-like, as if she was the victim of domestic violence. Basically the scene looks like this, which I obtained from Rachelleb's blog. You can scroll down and read a comment of a reader on his/her experience of the 'stress test'.

Here's some information about what Scientology is. You will read about the origins of the cult, and what harm it has done to several of 'recruited' people over the years.

Here's another article appropriately titled The Brainwashing of America :Vol 1, where a person describes the whole process of the stress test.

0 Halitosis, anyone?

POH gives me an MSN health link for top five causes and cures for bad breath. Hey, we've all had it or have it at some point or another.

For people who live on protein all day and exclude carbs, cause of concern is, quote :

High-protein, low-carb diets cause your body to burn stored fats for fuel instead of carbs and can lead to a condition called ketosis. “As fat burns, ketones build up in the body, and some are released through breath,”explains Moloo. “Unfortunately ketones don’t smell particularly good.” And bad breath trumps six-pack abs.

0 Weekend Bike Work

0 The Linda Yalem Run and other things..

The 17th Annual Linda Yalem Safety Run is on Sunday, Sept 24.

The famous 5k run along Elicott Bike Path is a legacy in UB. It is a tradition done in honor of Linda Yalem, a UB student, who was raped and murdered on Sept 29,1990 while running on the path. The event this year, as in all previous years, seeks to spread awareness about campus safety and one's personal choices when alone.

The run starts tomorrow at 9:30a.m. Registration is at 7:30am.

Uusally, the UB Cycling Club serves as volunteers on the day of the run to patrol the path and the runners and be of any help. We're doing that again tomorrow, but since my bike will only be in full shape by Monday, I probably will not bike.

I might even do the run with over a thousand other people. I don't know if I'm in shape, but I'll go slow and easy and just show my support.

Besides those things, there is an open forum over the topic of torture every Wednesday at 5:30pm at 112 Center for the Arts building. This runs till November. Its a controversial subject to discuss, but I can sure learn something from it. I'll go for the next meeting this week!

I've got to study and get some homework done!! Byeee!

0 How "Thin" is Fashion Thin?

Somewhere below 18-25 BMI (Body Mass Index) 'Safe Zone' recommended by UN Health Experts.

Fashion is an illusion, and is far from reality. Besides, I've always wondered how draping some fibres on anorexic or near to anorexic women can make any significant fashion statement. What is the fashion? The clothes? Or to stay gaunt like that? Honestly, if it weren't for a bunch of fashion shows notorious for displaying stick-like human figures in clothes, many young girls and even some women, particularly in Western countries, would appear healthier and have far lesser risks for disease,mental and physical ill-health etc. Wait, maybe I can't generalise that these populations of females are particularly influenced by fashion shows. But the argument is that some are!

And maybe a good note in this direction would be the recent banning of 5 superthin models from Madrid's Top Annual Fashion show, the Pasarela Cibelas. The models who were over 5 feet and 7 inches tall and weighed less than 121 pounds were all rejected. A lesson for London or New York, perhaps?

But things are pretty different in the music scene. Quoting from this morning's edition of India's Hindustan Times (Delhi Edition),

Thankfully, in the world of music, women like Shakira and Beyonce are already seen to be way 'cooler' than, say, Avril Lavigne, or shudder, Paris Hilton. A greater nudge in the direction of curves, rather than diktats, should do the trick in the fashion world.

0 Dura-Ace! Here I come!

My Specialized Allez is getting a facelift. The new group I'm putting on is Dura-Ace. I thank the people who helped me get all the stuff, espcially POH!! My friend Dave is helping me put it on! By the end of this week, I'll be riding Dura Ace 9 speed babyyyyyyy!!

0 Event of the Week! The Dalai Lama's Visit

Yesterday, 19th of Septermber, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet visited UB and delivered a dissertation that included various themes like mental happiness, unbiased compassion and wholeheartedness.

Before a crowd of almost 30,000 (seriously, this must have been beefed up by the media), he addressed a few words of wisdom for the annual Distinguished Speaker Series held by the Student Association of our University.

It was a windy day. I got there at 2:45 pm along with a friend, Dave Kina, from our Cycling Club, just to attend the final 10 minutes of a solo piano pre-performance from Philip Glass (2 Etudes and Mad Rush). I also missed a time-lapsed video of the construction of a Sand Mandala by the monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery.

It wasn't a bad turn out for an event which turned UB into a Buddhist center for almost 4 months. Everyone was talking about it. The news had it. The libraries were showcases of books and cultural specimens from Tibet. The UB bookstore at North Campus was selling hundreds of books but how many people bought them and read them is questionable.

I don't have the time and energy tonight to completely describe the events of the day. I patiently waited for a man I had only seen on t.v. He was something of a t.v phenomenon really. But every now and then when I thought that the Dalai Lama was the human incarnation of the Buddha, it got me wondering with awe on a higher plane.

OK. Probably the most interesting statement by Dalai Lama was right after he was handed the mic after being honored with a SUNY Doctorate in humane letters. He remarked :

I've been to many universities (and received many degrees) without a single day of study of modern education. So that is something interesting.

Wish I could do something like that!

Some of the main points, however, that truly struck a chord in me were :

1. Mental health and well being is the most important of all. Physical comforts and material things cannot really make one happy or mentally sound. A contended mind canw even endure physical discomfort such as pain.

2. Human beings are rewarded with highly developed senses than animals. Why humans have feelings, problems, good health or ill-health are all derived from the highly complicated sensory play.

3. We can be truly happy if we develop a sense of warm-heartedness and develop unbiased compassion towards another. (basically, how can we improve the life of another person?)

4. Relations at school or at home within the family should strive to develop warm-heartedness. He emphasized incorporating warm-heartedness in class to professors and lecturers, and also to mothers and fathers.

5. He wants to go to mainland China and over the past years, has submitted many proposals for a dialogue with Chinese leaders. However, his petitions were disregarded or denied.

6. Its hard to make a generalisation that the United States is responsible for all the ills in the world today. They have done good things. They have (again, these were his words) been a champion of democracy, liberty and justice throughout the world. But he specifically pointed out an occasion in his memory when the United States acted strange when they leaned more towards Pakistan during the Pakistani Civil War in the 70's. How much of that is true, I dont know.

In the end, he was practical and modest. He did not bring a magic tantra or any special healing powers with him that afternoon. It is something that we all might have heard at different point in our lives but it is endorsed now by His Holiness. He concluded his remarks by saying that if we don't believe what he said or we want to disregard it as nonsense, its alright and there is no problem! Wow.

However, sitting in the chilly noon on the bleacher chairs and not being able to see even an inkling of Dalai Lama's face (save for the big screens) must have irritated a lot of students. More importantly, Chinese students were heard to be protesting on campus, some even calling him a liar.

I've stuck the front page from our Student Newspaper, the Spectrum. You might be able to zoom in and read it!

Good bye, Dalai Lama! Have a safe journey back.


The above can also be accessed at www.spectrum.buffalo.edu for better viewing. Check the archives for September 20.

0 ABET's Meaning of Engineering Design

Quoted from The Engineering Design Process (Ertas,2nd Edition):

Possibly the most definitive, and certainly the most applicable, interpretation of the meaning of design for engineering students is that promulgated by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) stated in the Criteria for Accrediting Programs in Engineering in the United States,1995-96 Accreditiation Cycle:

Engineering design is the process of devising a system, component, or process to meet desired needs. It is the decision making process (often iterative), in which the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering sciences are applied to convert resources optimally to meet a stated objective. Among the fundamental elements of the design process are the establishment of objectives and criteria, synthesis, analysis, construction, testing and evaluation. The engineering design component of a curriculum must include most of the following features: development of student creativity, use of open ended problems, development and use of modern design theory and methodology, formulation of design problem statements and specifications, consideration of alternative solutions, feasibility considerations, production processes, concurrent engineering design, and detailed system descriptions. Further, it is essential to include variety of realistic constraints such as economic factors, safety, reliability, aesthetics, ethics, and social impact.

1 Sprocket Ratio Design and Analysis

Boy, talk about a busy week! Classes and homeworks pile up on top of me like a bunch of elephants and its overwhleming! Ok, ignore my silly whining and get on with this post.

Anyway, so I was working on my first CAD design this semester, something called Sprocket Analysis. We had to design this five speed drivetrain. Remember, I mentioned this is my old post. So I learnt quite a little about what I forgot since the last time I touched AutoCAD (that was 2 years ago).

Maybe its just me, but I dont like Autocad too much. First impression is last impression. The interface could improve. Some things just take a lot of time to do. Its an extensive software! I'm sure its easy to get frustrated.

Anyway, here's what my homework looks like. The front sprocket looks a bit weird, I know...but hey, whats something without a new concept? Its just art, not engineering! I had very limited time to work on this, so I didn't pay too much attention to details there.

If you want to learn how bicycle gear works, this is a good place to start, but I'm assuming you have some knowledge about gear ratios. We were all assigned a 5-speed bike, which means 5 sprockets at the rear with 5 different speeds possible.

For a constant pedal revolution, as the chain jumps onto different sized sprockets, the speed proportionately jumps or falls according to the sprocket ratio.

In my case, Sprocket Ratio = Rear Sprocket/Front Sprocket. A sprocket, again, is a tooth on a wheel used to drive a chain.

I've provided magnified pictures for my calculations for one speed, like 20m.p.h. You can do the same for other speeds, and come out with the required rear sprocket diameter. Its basically a whole lot of number crunching, nothing too rocket-science like.

Just remember, it all starts from your Base Speed calculation, which is the speed for a 1:1 rear to front sprocket ratio. You can then extend this to a modern 9 speed or 10 speed bike to get the best out of your machine!! Have fun!!

P.S : Pictures are done in photoshop with a resolution of 300ppi.

* * *

0 The Three 9/11's... Choose Your Own.

There were three 9/11s in history.

The New York one of 2001.

The neo-liberal one of Chile 1973.

The non-violent one of 1906—Gandhiji's satyagraha
in South Africa.

The authors of all three tried to change the world. Two brought bloodshed,
destruction, misery, and chaos.

But the Mahatma's WMD — Weapon of Mass Disobedience—helped change the world
for the better.


9/11 # 1

FIVE YEARS on, the world is a more dangerous place than it was prior to September 11,
2001. Acts of terror, real and presumed, cause panic each month across the globe.
Hundreds of people have been killed in terror attacks in many countries. Tens of
thousands have been slaughtered in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone. Both nations
have been ravaged and devastated. Millions of lives have been disrupted forever.
Lebanon lies shattered. And more and more flashpoints — even nuclear ones — emerge.
In a divided planet, there is one zone of agreement: the worst is yet to come.

The appalling crime committed in New York on 9/11 — when close to 3,000 people
were murdered in the WTC bombing — is still fresh in memory. One claim of the
time was that it had "changed the world forever." Did it? And in what ways?
The West's search for security against a global threat continues. It was there in
the 1960s too, when the satirical song writer Tom Lehrer sang an ode to it in his
"MLF Lullaby." The `multilateral force' set up to `deter' the Russian threat was
its subject. "MLF, will scare Brezhnev," crooned Lehrer, "I hope he is half as
scared as I."

9/11 # 2

In 1973, September 11 also fell on a Tuesday and, in Santiago de Chile, produced
a tragic act of international terrorism. The Chilean military, with support from
the U.S. government, brought down the democratically elected socialist Unidad Popular
(Popular Unity, UP) government of Salvador Allende (1970-73) and initiated one of
Latin America's longest and bloodiest dictatorships. In another striking coincidence,
the terrorism of September 11, 1973, involved planes; fighter jets belonging
[End Page 272] to the Chilean air force bombarded the presidential palace (La Moneda),
leaving this symbol of Chilean democracy in flames.


9/11 # 3

The first of the 9/11s did help change the world. That was the day Gandhiji's
Satyagraha in South Africa first began — September 11, 1906. Today is the 100th
anniversary of that launch of his non-violent resistance movement. Gandhiji was
quite clear it was a war he was fighting against racism and colonial oppression in
South Africa. A war he saw as touching anti-colonial sentiment in India as well.
A war he felt he had a strategy for. "Only the general who conducts a campaign can
know the objective of each particular move," he later wrote. "And as this was the
first attempt to apply the principle of satyagraha to politics on a large scale,
it is necessary any day that the public should have an idea of its development."

For decades, the weapon of mass disobedience he had developed rattled the British
in India. Gandhiji always referred to 9/11, 1906, as the day it all began.
"The term satyagraha was invented and employed in connection therewith," he wrote.
And listed the times where he used it again — in India. It was to be used yet again
in South Africa much later. It was also used by Martin Luther King in the civil
rights struggle in the United States.


Source: Unknown

0 I'm back in the U.S!

The ride was good. 100, maybe more people, headed out to Canada yesterday for two seperate rides - a 60 and a 100 mile.

We crossed Peace Bridge smoothly into Canada and rode along the Niagara Parkway. As our trip neared the Falls, the roads got wetter, the shoulder disappeared and suddenly, we were riding past lots of cars and a sea of tourists. We stayed on that road for something like 40 miles. I had a chance to ride with a friend from where I work, Larry Mordue who operates the energy management computer system at UB's Chilled Water Plant at North Campus. He had a friend over from Ithica who also happened to ride yesterday.

The view of the Falls was precious. A part of the ride went over the water, and I cannot tell you how breathtaking the view was. Friends behind joked that 'its not a good idea to dive off to the right'. Other saw how fast I was riding and resorted to the idea of putting stones in my bag, so customs would catch me at the border.

We saw the Brock's Monument, a towering structure, which has been closed since 2 years due to the ongoing restoration work. It was near a designated rest stop from where we had berries and melons, water and bananas for free.

Later that evening, after 60 miles of riding, I decided to stay over night at a cheap motel. The following day, I rode alone and crossed the span of the Peace Bridge, visited customs officials at the border, got my paperwork done, and I was back in the U.S. Once I got into downtown Buffalo, I raced myself on the route back to UB and made it there in about 40 minutes.

No pictures this time for such a memorable ride. Lame excuse is that I ran out of batteries for my camera. But real good times. My Canadian visa expires in 6 months, so I might go back there once again.

Its a ride you'll never forget if you undertake it, especially for the first time like me.

I've got cold knees, a sore Vastus Medialis and I need some food before class at 3pm. Good times.

0 Another Person Annoyed with Facebook - Me!

"Hey Julie......blah blah blah...oh okay, I gotta go..are you on facebook? Oh ok, cool. I'll add you..."

From every usual snippet of conversation you hear as you walk past students on campus, the above is there, somewhere...or if one of them forgot to mention it and slipped away, he is she will remember it soon enough to run back to the other person to "socialize" on facebook...

No seriously, checking facebook every 2 hours is an eternally important thing to do. Students will swear by it. Its what gets them through college man...

Okay, I don't use Facebook, period. I just belive that there are tons of other ways to make friends. It can be consuming if you make the mistake of falling in love with it.

I had a facebook account months back. I conveniently got rid of it. Recently I came to know about Facebook's teamup with Microsoft, and a change in the user interface. You might ask how does it affect me? Ofcourse it affects me. For the past one week, I had to get up in the morning or even get back from school just to hear my roommates whining about facebook's new look. In fact, it has left many in confusion, and even anger. Facebook became so transparent for a while that you could see which one of your friends broke up with, what he did thurday night. what she did during her free time and ridiculous things like that.

My roommates were infact so annoyed that they formed a facebook group called 'I miss the old Facebook'. It was hilarious. They got so many hits and members, that withinthe first 24 hours, the number of people who joined climbed to 1200!!! Thats one of the fastest growths I've heard of.

So, not only had I to hear their whinings, but also their loud, jubilant exclamations every 2-3 minutes as they watched their group membership growing in real time.

Facebook, gosh..I hate you!

0 Time Saver

Such time consuming work does we mechanical engg. students have to deal with that sometimes you just yearn for some solutions and definitions to help you with the daily work. Thats when my friend lend me this book which became a total life and time saver.

Rules of Thumb for Mechanical Engineers by J. Edward Pope contains the most essentials on fluids , heat transfer, thermodynamics, pressure vessels and what not. You name it and its in there.Its easy to read and provides quick, accurate solutions to engineering problems. Its too much to ask in one volume but it has fast, accurate answers to design issues ( which was totally eating most of my time!),
practical "how-to" methods in one convenient volume. What totally made me fall in love with the book was the fact that it was 'point perfect' all without wading through pages of theory.I believe this book is a must have for all Mechanical Engineering students since it helps save the industrial practitioner valuable time.

I own one!!

0 Paul Virilio's Concept of Two Realities

Paul Virilio, a renowned critic of art, has a notion about the two realities we live in.

One is real and is intimately and physically connected to us. We have a physical feel for it. The other, or the virtual, is a concept. It lives side by side with the actual. It is a lightshow. It does not even occur in matter but in light and images. It might even be all in the mind. Paul Virilio begs to differ from proponents of simulationaism. He does not believe that through virtual reality, there is any achievement of simulation at all. He rather believes that it is a substitution, in that new technologies are throwing virtual or a modified concept of reality in place of actual reality - what we were all born into.

Conventional art is where the artist had a direct physical connection with his work, but in the post-modernistic age of silicon chips and high speed data manipulation of today, it is on the verge of disappearing.

Digital art exists in virtual reality. Most digital art is just a combination of computer digits, and has nothing to do with the traditional settings under which this art was done or practiced.

1 The idea behind 'DSL'

You do most of your work using the internet. And its nothing new if u want to use the telephone while you are online. 'DSL' is on high demand yet very few people ponder about how it works.
Digital Subscriber Line is a technology for bringing high-bandwidth information to homes and small businesses over ordinary copper telephone lines or simply a method for moving regular data over phone lines.


The copper wires from the standard telephone installation have lots of room for carrying more than your phone conversations - they are capable of handling a much greater bandwidth, or range of frequencies, than that demanded for voice. DSL exploits this "extra capacity" to carry information on the wire without disturbing the line's ability to carry conversations. The entire plan is based on matching particular frequencies to specific tasks.By limiting the frequencies carried over the lines, the telephone system can pack lots of wires into a very small space without worrying about interference between lines. Modern equipment that sends digital rather than analog data can safely use much more of the telephone line's capacity. DSL does just that! The idea behind it.... just amazing!

0 Early Computer Art

So I'm reading about Michael Noll, a computer researcher and scientist, who did pioneering work in the area of producing art through a digital computer solely for aesthetic purposes. He was among the first to bring out computer generated imagery in the 1960's, while working at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey (now AT&T) . During that time, he also produced a number of 16mm computer animations that now are exhibited at the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences in L.A.

One of the images that was produced by him (copywrited) is an abstract work (as most of his art) called Gaussian Quadratic. It was done in the summer of 1962. The image has 100 points with 99 lines connecting them all. Horizontal co-ordinates of the dots are Gaussian and vertical co-ords increase according to a quadratic equation. I wish I knew what this equation looked like.




So, what do you think, looking at that? As the points reach the top, it is reflected to the bottom to continue its rise. This might have been devised to condense the image. But its creative and brilliant. There is a certain art in it that I see. Its an amalgam of the principles of math, science and electricity. The proportions of the image are also (according to the websites above) related slightly to the Ma Jolie (Woman with a Zither or Guitar) by Pablo Picasso. Also, according to the Chapter 4 in the book New Media in Late 20th Century Art (Rush, Michael,1999),

"he [Noll] began producing abstract, computer-generated images, such as Gaussian Quadratic (1965), which he found suggestive of Picasso's Cubism."

Here are some good links to the timeline of computer graphics evolution and a list of early computer artists and some of their works, including Noll.

0 Weather Watch

For those in Buffalo, here's a weather warning for today from AccuWeather. Tropical storm Ernesto has somehow found its way here.

0 Hi! From CAD Class!

Okay, I'm seated in a one of our sweet computer labs in Furnas Hall on the 10th floor. Its well lighted and the computers are brand new. Unlike previous years, we've now got a new version of Pro/E! Its the Wildfire 2.0.

Our professor, J.DiCorso, who now stands before us, is stringent with the rules and regulations of the course. No late work, no haphazard submittion of assignments. I previously thought I could get away with an older textbook of an older version of Pro/E, but it seems there are so many new things in wildfire that the older textbooks and tutorials could have no relation with the new. Atleast that's what the professor says.

He says that we're going to do so much work in Pro/E this semester that he guarantees we'll learn more here than possibly anywhere else. Besides, to help us learn, he's giving us all the resources, one of which includes a 24/7 access to this state of the art lab.

For Project#1 is in AutoCad : My data with which I should design this drivtrain is the following :

Pedal Speed - 84rpm
Front Sprocket Diameter(inches) - 7.2
Rear Wheel Diameter(inches) - 24.4

I'll be working on this and will post any pictures as I work on it a bit later. Later!

How we're going to go about this course is that we're going to be spending some time working with AutoCad (about a month) to get comfortable with 2-d and brush up what we learnt from the breezy Cad Intro class we had in freshman year. The first project is called Gear Ratio project. I'm excited about doing this simply because it features the drivetrain of a 5 speed bicycle. Seriously, I'm absolutely guilty about my noob-iness in AutoCad or any engineering Cad program for that matter. I'm determined to get to the bottom of this, and not only have a solid understanding of Pro/E and AutoCad, but extrapolate the principles of solid modelling to applications such as SolidWorks or Unigraphics or any other for that matter. This will undoubtedly extend my possibilites for a engineering job.

I've got to be in HOT contention for it!

0 Niagara Falls from Above

Source : Space imaging