Building Simulation: An International Journal
http://www.springerlink.com/content/1996-3599

Building Simulation: An International Journal will publish original, high quality, peer-reviewed research papers and review articles dealing with modeling and simulation of buildings including their systems. The goal is to promote building research by utilizing various modeling approaches. Of particular interest are papers that reflect recent development and application of modeling tools and their impacts on advances of building science and technology. Papers are submitted on:
* Theoretical and numerical modeling of building physics including heat and mass (moisture, air pollutants) transfer, air movement, architectural lighting and sound/vibration control systems.

* Simulation of performance of energy supply systems including heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, renewable energy systems, thermal storage, district heating and cooling, combined heating and power systems.

* Modeling health, productivity, thermal comfort of humans, fire/smoke and emergency control systems, cold/hot water supply systems, sewage systems. Simulation of building chemistry.

* Advances in modeling including optimization, product modeling, fault detection and diagnostics, inverse models.

* Advances in software interoperability, validation and calibration techniques.

* Simulation tools for sustainable buildings and experiences on teaching building simulation.

Hi, I found this Steve jobs Video, It really did changed my life! Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA[^] Do watch it, and reply, wat do u think, we must DO, DO and just DO. Cheers, Ravi S ravifree@gmail.com, //A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, //butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, //balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, //take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, //analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a //tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is //for insects. //- -Lazarus Long ravis

Schrey & Veit GmbH specialise in the fields of vibration technology. Our team has years of experience in shock and vibration isolation, vibration absorbing and acoustic and production engineering in the aviation and aerospace, car, military and railway industries. For vibration absorption and noise control on railway vehicles we took over the department INCT from DaimlerChrysler Aerospace in 1995. The absorbers developed and patented by INCT will be used on wheels of railways, from the ICE up to tramways, in gearboxes, on curved and tangent tracks, steel bridges as well as for general engineering, ship building and the car industry. The manufacture of prototypes and our well equiped laboratory guarantee a very fast and low cost development of our products. HIGH PERFORMANCE - LOW COSTS We place great value on adapting our products to "real life conditions". To prove the acoustic effectiveness of our products we offer measurements in cooperation with a special office of acoustics. WHEEL VIBRATION ABSORBER The wheel absorbers VICON-RASA are suitable for resilient and monoblock wheels of all wheelset manufacturers with different mounting types. They reduce rolling and squealing noise very effectively. The absorbers developed and manufactured by S&V have been in practical operation since 1995 in over 3,000 wheels of different vehicles like trams, coaches and locomotives. RAIL VIBRATION ABSORBER The rail vibration absorbers VICON-AMSA are suitable for all sizes of rails at ballast and ballastless tracks. Due to this new and simple construction of the rail absorbers, a very efficient reduction of structure borne noise radiation of the rail was achieved. The reduction of rolling and squealing noise has been demonstrated in operation. Because of the universal way the absorbers are built, they can be mounted on rails very quickly without closing the line and independently from environmental influences as well as without special pretreatment of the rails. VIBRATION ABSORBER FOR STEEL BRIDGES From a series of the rail vibration absorber, S&V developed an absorber system by doing a lot of modifications. With the new absorbers on a bridge structure in combination with absorbers on the rail, a noise level reduction of 6 dB was measured. This project was done in cooperation with the BMVIT, the ÖBB and the community of Vienna on a 90-meter long railway steel bridge. STANDARD PRODUCTS For applications where standard products (Rubber-metal parts, cable mounts, etc.) are sufficient, we work together with producers who come up with essential requirements on quality and price. SERVICE Vibration measurements Vibration analysis on electrodynamic shakers Acoustic measurements Modal-Analysis Analysis of operating mode shapes Fatigue test Endurance limit

is opening the fridge for lunch and seeing an icy cold bottle of your favorite beer on a humid day. Not that I think one beer is a problem during lunch at work, I used to have a beer at lunch with my co-workers all the time. I just know I can't stop at one today. A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long

Cambridge University professor Andy Hopper is leading a team ofresearchers at the Cambridge Computer Lab that will focus on ways computingtechnology can help maintain our current way of life and give more peopleaccess to the comfort, safety, and pleasures of technology whileapproaching the problem of building a sustainable and supportable economywith a focus on its environmental impact. The research effort, dubbed"Computing for the Future of the Planet," is examining whether digitalalternatives to physical activities such as shopping really make adifference, and if the environmental cost of creating an iTunes economy isactually greater than the CD-based economy that preceded it. During aspeech about such issues at the Royal Society, Hopper suggested that weshould start placing server farms near renewable sources of energy, as itis a lot cheaper to transmit data than to transmit energy and the datanetworks are often already in place. Doing so would require making cloudcomputing an effective tool so processing tasks can be distributed over thenetwork from desktop computers, laptops, and even mobile phones. Societyalso needs data centers that can cope with varying power supplies so serverfarms only use electricity that is locally generated. The Cambridgeresearch could be seen as overly optimistic, writes Bill Thompson, but hesays such research efforts, combined with small changes in our wastefullifestyles, offer hope.

A typical 1960s office block in the heart of Sheffield has been given a major sustainability makeover. Sorby House, a 3,500 sqm community project building, forms the centrepiece of the Burngreave New Deal for Communities (BNDfC) regeneration programme. Thanks to architects Bond Bryan, the former office building now incorporates many sustainable energy features, including twin wall façade technology to promote natural passive ventilation, and acoustic protection from traffic...

STARBREAKER/ex-TNT vocalist Tony Harnell will perform a special acoustic show on Sunday, July 13 at the Upper Merion Township Building Park (175 W.

In January, one of my Muay Thai instructor's best young students broke his ankle and foot in a car accident. The rub is that this kid was scheduled to fight in June. Long story short, I was asked to fill in and said ok. I've been dieting and training like crazy ever since. I'll be stepping back into full contact competition for the first time since I was 22. To date myself , it's been 13 years. Now, I'm getting really excited and felling a bit of trepidation. So, if my feet don't get too cold, I'll be fighting agin for the last time in 30 Days. Anybody else got something exciting coming up next month? A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long modified on Friday, May 9, 2008 5:49 PM

In January, one of my Muay Thai instructor's best young students broke his ankle and foot in a car accident. The rub is that this kid was scheduled to fight in June. Long story short, I was asked to fill in and said ok. I've been dieting and training like crazy ever since. I'll be stepping back into full contact competition for the first time since I was 22. To date myself , it's been 13 years. Now, I getting really excited and felling a bit of trepidation. So, if my feet don't get too cold, I'll be fighting agin for the last time in 30 Days. Anybody else got something exciting coming up next month? A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long

For seven years, building electric and acoustic guitars have been part of Joel Noble's curriculum, but this is the first time his students have tackled violins and drums.

economic and business studies, site selection and concept planning, building engineering design, acoustic design, logistics and traffic planning and design for fire safety and disabled access. From advisory to total design, Ove Arup offers these

The Musical Instrument Makers Forum. Acoustic guitar building. Great deals on guitars, basses, keyboards, amplifiers, drums, percussion, live sound, DJ, recording studio gear, signal processors, music accessories and. I bought that cable when I bough [New | License: Freeware 0 | Requires: Win 3.x/95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP | Size: 152KB]
[in Softpile.com - 25 Newest Freeware Titles]

Mukesh Ambani , the fifth richest man in the world, the 22-story home you share with your wife and three children is a little too close for comfort. The Indian businessman is currently building the wo...
[in NY Daily News]

In David Toop's classic book Ocean of Sound – something I cite repeatedly here on BLDGBLOG – we read about a musical performance that, by accident of circumstance, became a process of turning off all sources of noise within a building.

[Image: Felix Hess assembles similar sound machines, next to a photo of an unrelated concert hall].

For an installation of fifty specially made "sound creatures" – little interactive robots "inspired by the communication eco-system of frog choruses," Toop writes – experimental musician Felix Hess insisted that there be no "extraneous sounds" in the concert hall. Hess's miniature sound performance required absolute silence, or else the machines would not function.
Toop then quotes a lengthy description of the creatures' set-up:

We had imagined that the foyer, on an afternoon when nothing was being held there, was extremely tranquil, but not even one of them began to call out in response to any of the others. So first we turned off the air conditioner in the room, and then we turned off the one on the second floor. Then we turned off the refrigerator and the electric cooking equipment in the adjoining cafe, the power of the multi-vision in the foyer, and the power of the vending machine in a space about ten metres away. One by one we took away these continual noises, which together created a kind of drone there... Hess was very interested in this and said things like, "From now on maybe I should do a performance of turning off sounds."

It's amazing to think, of course, that anything could pick up, and even respond to, sounds that subtle; but it's also quite incredible to imagine one's own acoustic awareness of architecture as a process of subtraction.
You could even turn it into a game:

1) You are sitting on a stage, wearing a blind-fold.
2) Every electrical device in the building around you is on.
3) Suddenly, you detect a slight difference, a vague change in sonic pressure somewhere, as if an extremely distant mosquito has been swatted – a spot of silence, as it were, has appeared in the room.
4) "Toaster, fourth floor!" you call out – and you're right. Someone turned off the toaster.
5) You win a trip to France.

In any case, it's easy to imagine Hess and his assistants finding this process much more difficult than they'd imagined. At one point in the afternoon, then, with only hours to go before the doors open, they have to step across the street and turn off the appliances in a nearby high-rise – and then next door, to a block of flats, and then down the road to the neighborhood hospital. Still nothing.
Gradually they go on to turn off the entire world, street by street, city by city, in an ever-expanding ring of total silence.
The world becomes a sonic sculpture from which sources of background sound are constantly removed.
Finally, twenty-five years from now, as the very last radio is unplugged in a distant house in Tanzania, the "sound creatures" sitting with Felix Hess on stage begin singing.

PISCATAWAY, N.J., April 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Demands for occupant comfort, energy efficiency and total cost of ownership continue to increase, placing added pressure on building professio...

Regardless of your opinion global warming, if you enjoy comfort and saving money, you'll want to look into "green" building techniques and products.

Sidney Kimmel , the state and other sources.Kimmel Center officials say now that the debt is being paid, they can deal with other issues like improving acoustics and making the building more pedestria...
[in Examiner]

ixi audio is an experimental project concerned with the creation of free digital musical instruments and environments for generative music.

ixiQuarks is a software environment designed for live improvisation that allows for user interaction on hardware, GUI and code level. The environment enables innumerable setups with flexible loading of tools and instruments. The ixiQuarks consist of different types of tools: basic utilities, instruments, effects, filters, spectral effects and generators.

This videoa above shows the ixiQuarks tools browser, opens up the AudioIn tool and a spectral view and wave view. Then a bufferPool is loaded (into RAM) and soundfiles viewed in a soundfile view. A live sound is then recorded into the bufferPool and played back. We then see an EQview (showing 31 bands). The sounds from the bufferPools are then manipulated in the SoundScratcher instrument which allows for warp (granular synthesis), buffer scratching, and various other methods of granular synthesis. We see how two windows can be used at the same time.

Here’s some more info on the ixi audio philosophy:

We are interested in the computer as a workshop for building non-conventional tools for musicians, i.e. not trying to imitate or copy the tools that we know from the world of acoustic instruments or studio technology. We currently work with open source software such as SuperCollider, ChucK and Pure Data, but our aim is to distribute our applications packaged in a way that allows everybody to use them. Simplicity and ease of use together with depth in interaction and expressive scope is the aim of our experimental music software.

We are interested in free and open music software in all senses. Free as in “free beer”, free as in “free speech” and free as in “free jazz”. The last “freedom” being the most important one. We acknowledge the constraints that software puts on the musician, the limits that the tool sets for the creative process and we therefore promote and try to disseminate technologies that open up the limits of software (or define new boundaries). We think it should be the artist that defines the scope of his or her instrument (and therefore music), not a commercial software company.

Our belief is that controlling musical structures graphically in screen-based instruments such as the ixi software, can be helpful and inspiring for the musician. We try to build “non-musical” interfaces, i.e. controllers that do not contain musical concepts from any tradition or cultureis can be liberating and open up for new directions. Visualising musical patterns is one of the main ideas here, but in a way that is open and not predefining the music. Intelligent interfaces is also one of our aims and we’d like to see instruments that understand and interact with the musician.

More videos area available at the ixi audiosite.

Immediate on-screen analysis of sound insulation, using Bruel and Kjaer's new BZ-7228 building acoustics software, means that problem partitions can now be quickly identified on site