So some people are commenting on Steve's sanity, and others seem to see it as a piece of art. However I am left with the question of what symbolism it might contain. Certainly Steve has been fascinated with cubes for quite awhile. But what would a cube might represent to Steve? I have some ideas, but would like to see what others see first.
I think it evokes Steve's memories of his "Happy Fun Cube(TM)" from his youth.
I doubt it. Have you ever seen large glass structures? You can't just stack panes on edge and expect it to have anything resembling structural integrity, especially in strong city winds. There's a lot more engineering there than you think, especially if Steve demands the hardware be inconspicuous.
You can see in the picture that it is made up of individual panes. Obviously there is a structure holding it together. I'm just saying it's not like a solid piece of glass or anything like that. It looks rather boring.
Boring? Perhaps...but I would prefer to describe it as simple, elegant, sublime. Attempting to design and manufacture a structural assembly system which disappears and reduces glass and transparency to its most elegant and simple refinement is extremely difficult.
You can see in the picture that it is made up of individual panes. Obviously there is a structure holding it together. I'm just saying it's not like a solid piece of glass or anything like that.
True...but it is probably very expensive glass. Not to mention the engineering and construction costs of the whole thing. $9M seems high to me too. But have no idea what panes of glass like that must cost. Lots of $ I'll bet.
"That has nothing to do with the Louvre glass pyramid. Its a CUBE for gods sake" = "Win 95 has nothing to do with Mac OS. The trash can is ON THE LEFT SIDE for gods sake"
I say, get the design just perfect. We can't have any scratches or mold lines in this thing. :-) And, no matter what anyone says, Jobs is a genius, his redoing this now is probably covered in the contract and just generates free buzz for the grand opening.
I'm not sure. How much do 32' glass cubes usually run?
I saw one at Sears on sale last week for $50,000, but it did have some titanium hardware.
Now what I'd like to know is who's hanging outside this thing enough to catch it with its planks off. I mean, I can almost see its final unveiling as looking something like this:
I say, get the design just perfect. We can't have any scratches or mold lines in this thing. :-)
I guess that could be what it is: an example. An example of how Apple does things, i.e. perfectly. An example of what to expect of the products inside the store.
I guess that could be what it is: an example. An example of how Apple does things, i.e. perfectly. An example of what to expect of the products inside the store.
Apple doesn't do everything perfectly. I don't think they do anything perfectly. The thing is that they do tend to try to do better than everyone else.
Attempting to design and manufacture a structural assembly system which disappears and reduces glass and transparency to its most elegant and simple refinement is extremely difficult.
Precisely. Building a 32' cube is easy. If you were doing it with steel, wood, concrete, etc. Doing it with glass is something else altogether. Any engineer will tell you that glass is not a structural material when you get more than a couple of feet in size. It's sheathing for the structure beneath. Making that structure inconspicuous is more difficult than laymen think. Even the massive glass cube around the Rose Center at the American Museum of Natural History uptown has a far more substantial and noticeable space frame inside the glass. As for the glass itself, I imagine it's something along the lines of 1/2" tempered glass. That makes it even more difficult to engineer. Tempered glass will not withstand any point loads. One nick and a whole sheet will shatter, so like I wrote, you can't just stack panes edge to edge.
Quote:
Originally posted by Anders
Jobs is such a copy cat
"That has nothing to do with the Louvre glass pyramid. Its a CUBE for gods sake" = "Win 95 has nothing to do with Mac OS. The trash can is ON THE LEFT SIDE for gods sake"
Actually, geometrically speaking, they are different. A pyramid is half of an octahedron, or more precisely a square dipyramid. Also one-sixth of a cube. But you can't just tilt a cube and come up with a pyramid.
I read in Da Vinci Code that the Louvre's pyramid has exactly 666 panes of glass. I wonder what the number of glass panes are for TheCube(TM).
As many other things in the Da Vinci Code, this might be wrong. A pyramid has 4 equal sides, which are - we might assume - built exactly equally, i. e. the same number of glass panes. According to the Mac OS X Calculator, 666 / 4 = 166.5, therefore no (perfect) pyramid may be constructed from 666 panes.
But it seems I'm wrong. According to wikipedia , some poor guys actually counted the panes (took them 8 hours to do it), and they say it's constructed of 666 panes. Maybe the doors make the difference.
I hate to see what some kid with a slingshot and some spare time will do to this thing. If this is "glass" it won't last long.
Why is the rest of Midtown still okay? Do you have any idea how much street-level glass there is in Midtown Manhattan? This cube is one drop in a very big bucket, roughly the equivalent of only one building's street level storefronts.
Just looking at the low-res photo on this page, I've got to agree with Jobs!
Those nasty metal connecting plates jump out at you! It LOOKS like a grid, which you can BET is not what Jobs conceived. We all KNOW what Jobs is getting at... he wants to see pure GLASS with minimal obvious visual breaks in the masses of glass.
Look at the couplings on page 2 and some of the project examples that follow.
The connecting hardware make the glass panels float in front of them, literally. This stuff is incredibly cool! The New York Museum of Natural History used the same stuff for the Hayden Planetarium glass cube.
Comments
Originally posted by blue2kdave
So some people are commenting on Steve's sanity, and others seem to see it as a piece of art. However I am left with the question of what symbolism it might contain. Certainly Steve has been fascinated with cubes for quite awhile. But what would a cube might represent to Steve? I have some ideas, but would like to see what others see first.
I think it evokes Steve's memories of his "Happy Fun Cube(TM)" from his youth.
Originally posted by Kolchak
I doubt it. Have you ever seen large glass structures? You can't just stack panes on edge and expect it to have anything resembling structural integrity, especially in strong city winds. There's a lot more engineering there than you think, especially if Steve demands the hardware be inconspicuous.
<obscure Cube joke> But, actually, those aren't cracks. They're mold lines. Honestly. </obscure Cube joke>
You can see in the picture that it is made up of individual panes. Obviously there is a structure holding it together. I'm just saying it's not like a solid piece of glass or anything like that. It looks rather boring.
A square cube is simple...or boring.
<obscure Cube joke> But, actually, those aren't cracks. They're mold lines. Honestly. </obscure Cube joke> [/B][/QUOTE]
Originally posted by 1984
You can see in the picture that it is made up of individual panes. Obviously there is a structure holding it together. I'm just saying it's not like a solid piece of glass or anything like that.
True...but it is probably very expensive glass. Not to mention the engineering and construction costs of the whole thing. $9M seems high to me too. But have no idea what panes of glass like that must cost. Lots of $ I'll bet.
"That has nothing to do with the Louvre glass pyramid. Its a CUBE for gods sake" = "Win 95 has nothing to do with Mac OS. The trash can is ON THE LEFT SIDE for gods sake"
Originally posted by Bancho
I'm not sure. How much do 32' glass cubes usually run?
I saw one at Sears on sale last week for $50,000, but it did have some titanium hardware.
Now what I'd like to know is who's hanging outside this thing enough to catch it with its planks off. I mean, I can almost see its final unveiling as looking something like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mecca_skyline.jpg
I've got to wonder whether this is the image Jobs is going for.
Hey, that's it! iMecca!
Originally posted by Skittles_the_cat
I say, get the design just perfect. We can't have any scratches or mold lines in this thing. :-)
I guess that could be what it is: an example. An example of how Apple does things, i.e. perfectly. An example of what to expect of the products inside the store.
Originally posted by Anders
Jobs is such a copy cat
I see someone here is seeing things in a similar way...
Compensation for dealing with a man of Job's temperment: $8.8M.
Floating Glass Borg Cube: Priceless
Originally posted by ascii
I guess that could be what it is: an example. An example of how Apple does things, i.e. perfectly. An example of what to expect of the products inside the store.
Apple doesn't do everything perfectly. I don't think they do anything perfectly. The thing is that they do tend to try to do better than everyone else.
Originally posted by JeffDM
Actual cost of cube: $200,000.
Compensation for dealing with a man of Job's temperment: $8.8M.
Originally posted by k squared
Attempting to design and manufacture a structural assembly system which disappears and reduces glass and transparency to its most elegant and simple refinement is extremely difficult.
Precisely. Building a 32' cube is easy. If you were doing it with steel, wood, concrete, etc. Doing it with glass is something else altogether. Any engineer will tell you that glass is not a structural material when you get more than a couple of feet in size. It's sheathing for the structure beneath. Making that structure inconspicuous is more difficult than laymen think. Even the massive glass cube around the Rose Center at the American Museum of Natural History uptown has a far more substantial and noticeable space frame inside the glass. As for the glass itself, I imagine it's something along the lines of 1/2" tempered glass. That makes it even more difficult to engineer. Tempered glass will not withstand any point loads. One nick and a whole sheet will shatter, so like I wrote, you can't just stack panes edge to edge.
Originally posted by Anders
Jobs is such a copy cat
"That has nothing to do with the Louvre glass pyramid. Its a CUBE for gods sake" = "Win 95 has nothing to do with Mac OS. The trash can is ON THE LEFT SIDE for gods sake"
Actually, geometrically speaking, they are different. A pyramid is half of an octahedron, or more precisely a square dipyramid. Also one-sixth of a cube. But you can't just tilt a cube and come up with a pyramid.
Originally posted by sunilraman
I read in Da Vinci Code that the Louvre's pyramid has exactly 666 panes of glass. I wonder what the number of glass panes are for TheCube(TM).
As many other things in the Da Vinci Code, this might be wrong. A pyramid has 4 equal sides, which are - we might assume - built exactly equally, i. e. the same number of glass panes. According to the Mac OS X Calculator, 666 / 4 = 166.5, therefore no (perfect) pyramid may be constructed from 666 panes.
But it seems I'm wrong. According to wikipedia , some poor guys actually counted the panes (took them 8 hours to do it), and they say it's constructed of 666 panes. Maybe the doors make the difference.
Originally posted by futuretheory9
I hate to see what some kid with a slingshot and some spare time will do to this thing. If this is "glass" it won't last long.
Why is the rest of Midtown still okay? Do you have any idea how much street-level glass there is in Midtown Manhattan? This cube is one drop in a very big bucket, roughly the equivalent of only one building's street level storefronts.
Those nasty metal connecting plates jump out at you! It LOOKS like a grid, which you can BET is not what Jobs conceived. We all KNOW what Jobs is getting at... he wants to see pure GLASS with minimal obvious visual breaks in the masses of glass.
Check this PDF out and see what I mean:
http://www.pilkington.com/resources/planar.pdf
Look at the couplings on page 2 and some of the project examples that follow.
The connecting hardware make the glass panels float in front of them, literally. This stuff is incredibly cool! The New York Museum of Natural History used the same stuff for the Hayden Planetarium glass cube.
http://www.amnh.org/rose/?src=e_p
I wonder if Jobs ever saw examples of the hardware that was used?
Somebody's head will roll over this one.