"Incorporating virtual and augmented reality in the design process allowed our Honda engineers and designers to merge digital content and physical assets in a cohesive way to interact with what they're experiencing and touching in an immersive environment," said Mathieu Geslin, VR technology leader, Honda Design studio. "Honda Prologue was key to fully using VR in a data-led design process, with clay modeling as the verification tool, something we will carry forward into the development of other Honda products."
Bottom Line Up Front. Simply this means (and warns the reader) that the key point is summarised at the start or top of the communication. BLUF is a wonderfully potent acronym, useful in many situations. BLUF (thanks M Callaham) originated in the US military in written communications, where it serves as as an immediate emphasis and prefix of the central point of the message or report. It equates to the expressions 'cutting to the chase' and 'without beating around the bush'. In structural terms, the BLUF technique equates to an 'executive summary', which is a very brief summary of the strategically essential point(s) positioned at the start of the communication. This itself is normally a very concisely reduced version of a larger summary at the end of the document, based on the greater detail within the main part of the document or communication. A major learning and usage aspect of BLUF is the communicator's responsibility to present information to the reader or listener or audience efficiently, especially for senior and very busy people, who often have neither time nor need to read and absorb lots of detail. Senior people especially want the main point(s) - the' bottom line' - first - 'up front'. In management, and in the military, senior people rely on junior people to take care of the detail and to provide the strategic interpretation by which big decisions can be made. Incidentally the term 'bottom line' is a figurative reference to the bottom line in corporate financial accounts, which contains the profit or loss figure, crucial to most organized ventures and organizations. While BLUF remains popular in US military communications, its usefulness has spread and its adoption can be helpful into very many situations where effective speedy communication is valued. This includes notably: business and management communications (especially involving strategic decision-making); quick report-writing and conveying updates and status; emergency response and reactions (reporting up and informing down the management structure); presentations and speeches and talks; writing of press releases, PR materials, and also advertising and consumer or 'general-public audience' communications (in which the actual inclusion of the term BLUF is generally not appropriate - here BLUF serves more of a structural reminder to the writer).
The Honda E Comes Fully Charged With A Feast Of Tech
Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. You will probably have used a captcha without realising that it has this strange name, or that it has a name at all. A captcha is the distorted code you copy and type into a website form. The code is unique and random and distorted so that computers (hopefully) cannot read and re-use it, which guards websites against mischievous or criminal automated attack. However, the speedy development of malevolent technology used by hackers and computer criminals (you could call it 'captcha catchup'..) means that the captcha designers must stay ahead of the bad guys, to keep captcha systems impregnable to automated computer violation. Incidentally when a captcha system is breached it enables what is known as a 'denial of service attack' (DoS attack), whereby a website or multi-user computer system is brought down by computer-automated enormous and unmanageable volumes of requests or actions, occasionally for the purposes of blackmailing the site operators, but often for reasons unrelated to monetary gain. The captcha is not the only angle of DoS attack, but the captcha does represent perhaps the earliest strategic battleground in the struggle to protect the web. Captcha is one of the most interesting and convoluted acronyms ever devised, seemingly by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford in 2000. The acronym reflects its technical meaning and origins, and also reflects its purpose, which while primarily acting as a security device, also enables the 'capture' of data. The Turing test element refers to the exceptional English mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing and his theory and test work, first published in 1950, dealing with artificial intelligence and comparisons between human and computer 'thinking' capabilities. Alan Turing (1912-54) was a fascinating character in his own right - regarded as a founder of computer science, he was part of the famous and pivotal codebreaking team at Bletchley Park in the Second World War, and subsequently went on to pioneer the development of early computers and artificial intelligence. Shamefully his country later saw fit to prosecute and convict him for being a homosexual, following which he committed suicide in 1954, aged forty-one. Today Britain is very keen to patronise and impose our holier than thou ideas on the developing world. As with any situation where one seeks influence and change, perhaps a little more humility and awareness of our own past (and ongoing) failings would be more constructive.
Director's Further Instructions/Different Flipping Idea. (Polite version). This wonderfully flexible and expressive term (thanks N Purcell) is commonly used in the film and TV industry when a change of plan occurs, typically after considerable (and now wasted) effort by the crew to achieve the original plan. In fact this frustrating and time-wasting shift in executive direction occurs very widely in all areas of management and leadership, including at the very highest level. The alternative interpretation of meaning - Different Flipping Idea - is the understandably sarcastic response from the teams, subordinates and victims of whimsical unthinking leaders, the world over. The original meaning 'Director's Further Instructions' conceivably dates from the 1930s golden age of film making when Directors of Photography (DoPs) wore white lab coats and Heads of Departments (HoDs) were always referred to as 'Sir'. Most film/TV technicians today are more familiar with the second ironic meaning of this acronym, perhaps reflecting an increasing tendency of mind changing among modern directors. The lesson of DFI teaches us the importance of good quality planning, consistent project management and communications, towards a properly considered aim. When leaders change their minds (methods and/or aims) half-way through a project it is nearly always the result of poor planning, even though leaders tend to blame changing circumstances and deny any personal failing. The advent of changing circumstances is not an excuse for poor planning. One of the most crucial and often overlooked elements of planning and leadership is to anticipate circumstances. This generally involves some good quality thinking and consultation, and probably some research too. Where the DFI effect arises, this aspect of leadership is almost certainly missing. By way of illustration, a certain ex-leader once said at a certain inquiry into a certain disastrous war: "It wasn't a lack of planning, it was that we discovered a different set of eventualities..." (See leadership tips, leadership theories, project management, and business planning.)
Deoxyribonucleic Acid, represented by the famous double helix, and the Human Genome Project which successfully mapped human DNA in 2003. DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) was first identified in salmon sperm by Friedrich Miescher in 1869, and was generally accepted to carry genetic code of all living things following the published work of Crick and Watson in 1953. A mischievous alternative interpretation to the usual meaning of DNA is National Dyslexia Association, which is of course cruel if used as such, but does offer the opportunity to explain a little about Dyslexia, which is widely misunderstood. As regards the word Dyslexia, its meaning, 'difficulty with words' is derived from Greek (lexis is Greek for speech), and that's what it means - difficulty with words, notably spelling and reading - it does not mean that the person is daft or stupid, in fact often the opposite is closer to the truth. Dyslexia is often called a gift, since for many 'sufferers' that's what it is. Interestingly as many as 10% of people at work are thought could suffer with this disability to one extent or another (source: British Dyslexia Association - not the National Dyslexia Association, which is a made-up organisation to fit the acronym). Two important points about dyslexia: Dyslexia is technically a disability as well as a 'gift', so employers quite rightly have to make appropriate allowances for sufferers or risk falling foul of disability and discrimination laws. An innocently intended workplace joke or email, like the outrageously non-pc "Dyslexics of the world - Untie!" (thanks L Scott..) would be grounds for a disability discrimination claim, or perhaps even a bullying tribunal, so be careful. Secondly and more positively, dyslexia sufferers tend to have special strengths resulting from the way their brains work, notably in problem-solving, innovation, creativity, trouble-shooting, entrepreneurialism, intuitive feelings and judgements, sport, politics, and artistic expression of various sorts. Famous dyslexics include Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, David Bailey, General George Patton, Robin Williams, John Lennon, Nigel Kennedy, Cher, Muhammad Ali, Steve Redgrave, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, John F Kennedy, Richard Branson, Henry Ford, William Hewlett, Charles Schwab, Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Erin Brockovich - see, it's a gift. This aspect of alternative strengths relates to multiple intelligence theory, which like the whole area of individuality, is much neglected in education and work. Employers, teachers, and individuals seeking more information about dyslexia should visit the BDA website. Finally, and nothing to do with Dyslexia, DNA might alternatively be employed (thanks S McCarthy) to mean Do Not Ask, which aside from other purposes is a witty response for anyone seeking the full scientific explanation.
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