For those of us that don't work on the factory floor, it's rare to see an object get made in its entirety, from start to finish. But here NYC-based designer Jimmy DiResta—you'll remember him from Dirty Money, the Discovery show where he and his brother dumpster-dove for raw materials—shows us how he whips up a tool bag from scratch. While every step of the process is shown, it's fast-forwarded during the tedious parts, providing a comprehensive look while still coming it at sub-six-minutes:

If you couldn't guess by the watermarks, DiResta recorded the video for Make, who visits his studio twice a month. The complete materials list for the bag is posted here, along with a brief description of the project. "I think learning how to sew," he writes, "is a must for all makers!"

See also: Kai Hsing × John Cho Moore: Beauty through Bamboo; Making-of the Dunhill Tradition Case

We've seen plenty of variations on the now-canonical input device known as a keyboard, from touchscreen interfaces and, um, exterfaces to a tactile surface treatment (currently available on Kickstarter). However, a new keyboard concept has more in common with so-called index typewriters—as seen in hipstomp's typewriter round-up—than these superficial keyboard treatments, at least to the extent that it offers a more economic layout.

source

Specifically, Minuum improves on the concept of a linear arrangement of letters: screen-based UI and predictive text allows for a QWERTY layout to be transposed into a single line of letters. (It's worth noting that index typewriters were initially developed as a less expensive, more portable alternative to keyboard-based typewriters, though they were reportedly slower than handwriting in most instances.)

Minuum is a tiny, one-dimensional keyboard that frees up screen space while allowing fast, accurate typing. Current technology assumes that sticking a full typewriter into a touchscreen device is the best way to enter text, giving us keyboards that are error-prone and cover up half the usable screen space (or more) on most smartphones and tablets.

Minuum, on the other hand, eliminates the visual clutter of archaic mobile keyboards by adapting the keyboard to a single dimension. What enables this minimalism is our specialized auto-correction algorithm that allows highly imprecise typing. This algorithm interprets in real time the difference between what you type and what you mean, getting it right even if you miss every single letter.

The video is, as they say, a must-see:

Yes, the last bit is cool, but nota bene: it's currently an alpha-stage prototype, and Will Walmsley & co. are currently seeking funding on IndieGoGo. Suffice it to say that we'll be keeping an eye on this one... if all of the hypothetical wearable implementations become a reality, we could see the emergence of a new set of curious rituals.

Hat-tip to Nik Roope

What do you think was the first absolutely straight line that a caveman ever saw? I'm guessing it was a shaft of sunlight poking through a cloud. Or maybe the horizon line on a large body of water, which also provided them their first view of a flat surface.

As soon as we humans could make our own flat and straight surfaces, we did. The Romans and Egyptians pulled it off with hand tools. Closer to modern times we invented sawmills and could make our own flat boards to build wooden houses with. Then the Industrial Revolution happened and we had straight and flat down to a science.

All of those human advancements in the mastery of materials came from centuries of hard work. Which is why photographs like these are all the more amazing:

That's not a manmade object. That's a microscopic-level photo of a platinum crystal, shot by photographer R. Tanaka. And it is astonishing to see how machined it looks; the bevels, angles, surfaces and edges are all so freakishly precise.

Here's a shot of Ruthenium, another metal within the platinum group on the Periodic Table:

Is that not almost disturbingly rectilinear? And that's not even the cake-taker--have a look at this bismuth crystal:

My mind is officially blown.

Tanaka, by the way, heads up Cat's Glove, a Japan-based "microphotography studio," and these shots are part of their documentation of the Periodic Table of the Elements. I've never seen these materials this close, and it strikes me that for most of human history we've been trying to make straight lines and flat surfaces (with the exception of Frank Gehry) and all this time, nature has been silently, invisibly mocking us.

Hit the jump for more shots.

Is it possible to make a government services site useful for citizens seeking information? Ben Terrett, Head of Design at the Government Digital Service, not only thinks it's possible, but believes it might be the world's best brief. In 2011, the British government established the Government Digital Service (GDS) within the Cabinet Office. It was established as a direct response to a government-commissioned survey conducted by Martha Lane Fox that recommended that the government strategy be "Digital by Default," along with key tenets to overhaul the public-facing websites that served as portals for government services and information.

The key concepts as outlined by Fox included:
- Establish a digital team in the Cabinet Office with absolute authority across all government online services.
- Fix Publishing - With over 2000 websites for citizen needs versus business links, departmental and public bodies with individual websites.
- Fix Transations - For people who pay for services online
- Go Wholesale - opening up APIs to third parties

By October 17th, 2012, the GDS launched GOV.UK, a single portal to access governmental information as a citizen or a business. A month later, the team began folding over 400 departmental agencies. To date, 14 out of 24 ministerial departments are live on gov.uk along with 17 of over 300+ public bodies within the department. In the video below, Ben Terrett chats with Willy Wong, Chief Cretive Officer of NYC & Company, New York City's marketing, tourism and partnership organization. Ben shares about designing for user needs through simplification, the history of British public design as well as the GDS' plans for opening up information to third parties.

wants a Sr. Industrial Designer
in Chicago, IL

Can you live by the Little Red Rule?

Radio Flyer is seeking an outstanding Senior Designer with 5 to 10 years of experience in toy and/or consumer product design who is a dynamic combination of creative powerhouse, analytical thinker, challenge crusher and brand champion.

Radio Flyer is one of Inc. Magazine's fastest growing companies, was named one of the Top Workplaces by the Wall Street Journal, and continues to be named as one of the Top Places to Work in Illinois, so the right candiate for this job is jumping on board a great organization. Read more to find out if you're the right candidate.

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Choosing courses in design school was occasionally agonizing: Do I take Transportation or Furniture Design? Why the heck are they on the same day? but after you graduate, you realize what a luxury it was that you had those options at all.

Now let's say that you're out of school and you want to pick up a new skill. A company called Skillshare aims to offer the same wealth of creative educational options, within a miniature timeframe and decidedly lower tuition: Three-hour sessions are as low as $20 a pop for an intro to graphic design, while heavier classes, like how to make objects out of concrete, clock in at $65.

Skillshare's tagline is "Make, Build & Create," and most of the classes subjects reflect this; but there are also outlier courses like "Life Hack: How to Live Rent-Free in NYC" ($70.) Taught by a retired Sotheby's realtor, most of the four sessions are, unsurprisingly, already sold out.

Classes are either local or online; you search for the former by entering your zip code, while the latter are globally available. (The course examples I listed above are all NYC-area classes.) And if you've got an area of expertise that you're looking to share with prospective students, you can apply to teach a class either online or locally. Skillshare lets you keep 88% of the tuition. The other 12% goes in their pocket, as that's how they keep the lights on. Not a bad deal, considering they take care of the promotion and sign-up, leaving you free to plot your syllabus.

Why won't the internal combustion engine die? To oversimplify the issue, it's partly because of its incumbency and partly because it's very good at what it does. Environmentalists hate it because it's dirty, and while some engineers pursue alternate energy forms, there are still plenty of smart people tweaking the internal combustion engine to make it less dirty, more efficient, and more powerful.

One person in the latter category is Christian von Koenigsegg, the rather brilliant inventor behind the Swedish supercar skunkworks that bears his name. Anyone with a basic understanding of how engines work is bound to be impressed by von Koenigsegg's latest breakthrough: He's developed an engine with no cams.

With a conventional engine, the valves are driven by cams that are necessarily egg-shaped, with each cam driving its attendant valve stem into its deepest extension at the pointiest part of the egg as the cam rotates on the camshaft. Simple physics dictate this be a gradual process; because of the egg shape the valve gradually opens, maxes out, and gradually closes. If a cam was shaped like an off-center square, for instance, the valve stem would break on the corners.

With von Koenigsegg's radical "Free Valve" engine design, the valves operate independently and electronically to depress/open, while a mechanical spring returns them to the closed position. This means the valves quickly slam open, allowing fuel to flood the combustion chamber, then quickly slam shut. Ditto for the exhaust valves. So fuel is not gradually seeping in and exhaust is not gradually seeping out—it's going BAM in, BAM out. The benefits? The engine is much smaller, of course, requiring no camshaft or timing belt. On top of that they're projecting 30% less fuel consumption, 30% more torque, 30% more horsepower, and a staggering 50% less emissions.

In the video below, von Koenigsegg walks you through it:

Why won't the internal combustion engine die? To oversimplify the issue, it's partly because of its incumbency and partly because it's very good at what it does. Environmentalists hate it because it's dirty, and while some engineers pursue alternate energy forms, there are still plenty of smart people tweaking the internal combustion engine to make it less dirty, more efficient, and more powerful.

One person in the latter category is Christian von Koenigsegg, the rather brilliant inventor behind the Swedish supercar skunkworks that bears his name. Anyone with a basic understanding of how engines work is bound to be impressed by von Koenigsegg's latest, a camshaft-free design.

With a conventional engine, the valves are driven by cams that are necessarily egg-shaped, with each cam driving its attendant valve stem into its deepest extension at the pointiest part of the egg as the cam rotates on the camshaft. Simple physics dictate this be a gradual process; because of the egg shape the valve gradually opens, maxes out, and gradually closes. If a cam was shaped like an off-center square, for instance, the valve stem would break on the corners.

With von Koenigsegg's "Free Valve" engine design, the valves operate independently and electronically to depress/open, while a mechanical spring returns them to the closed position. This means the valves quickly slam open, allowing fuel to flood the combustion chamber, then quickly slam shut. Ditto for the exhaust valves. So fuel is not gradually seeping in and exhaust is not gradually seeping out—it's going BAM in, BAM out. The benefits? The engine is much smaller, of course, requiring no camshaft or timing belt. On top of that they're projecting 30% less fuel consumption, 30% more torque, 30% more horsepower, and a staggering 50% less emissions.

In the video below, von Koenigsegg walks you through it:

From May 26th through June 9th, SVA will once again be running its Masters Workshop in Italy. You can check out last year's blog, projects, and videos, and learn more about the program at the site. To get you started:

Study graphic design and typography this summer in Rome—the birthplace of Western typographic tradition. This workshop is a unique way to learn about type and typography, book and lettering design, as well as architecture, art, archeology, epigraphy, and even Italian cuisine. Work with the best typographers and designers in Italy. Tour the Trajan Column and partake in exclusive guided visits to the Roman and Imperial Forums, the harbor town of Ostia Antica an ancient site that best reflects the grandeur of Rome and a "behind-the-stacks" tour of Biblioteca Angelica, the oldest library in Europe that houses original Bodoni type books. Participate in hands-on workshops. Examine the inscriptions on Roman structures that have long been accepted as a typographic ideal. Your appreciation of type and relationship to typography and design will be forever transformed.

Joe Warren's QMB, or Quad Micro Bar, is nifty way to seat four in a temporary setting. Washington-based industrial designer Warren observed that "bars and chairs are cumbersome, space-consuming assemblies that take up extra space when they are not in use," and set out to design a piece of furniture whose footprint was shrinkable.

The QMB is made from natural growth forest products and uses non-polluting dyes, retaining that American Northwest healthy-living vibe. And while I'm not sure about the price point from a consumer perspective—Warren's aiming for $700 a pop on Kickstarter—I could see a bunch of these rolling off of a catering truck for on-site events.

It's starting to seem inevitable that we will end up on the bandwagon that is self-tracking, whether we like it or not. While most of the recent tech-enhanced products seem to focus on logging fitness data, you might be wondering, "What about other things I could be tracking?" Well, if there happens to be room in your cloud after an onslaught of Nike Fuel Band data, CubeSensors are a set of environmental sensors that allow you to keep tabs on your indoor spaces.

The CubeSensors record interior conditions and store them in the cloud for access from any mobile device. A cleverly designed app sends you notices and suggestions about how you might better your indoor environment for greater productivity or comfort. Likewise, in contrast to the number of wearable tech items, the cubes are being pitched as an addition to both the home and the office. Essentially, they appear to give you the option of blaming your environment—not your boring powerpoint presentation—for low employee productivity.

Want to build a wheeled, revolving bookcase designed in 1890? Yeah you do

Tools for Working Wood is the name of a Brooklyn-based company that sells, well, guess. And in addition to their retail arm, they've got a website featuring articles on craft along with some very interesting information for makers—from 1889. The company somehow got their hands on several volumes of Work: An Illustrated Magazine of Practice and Theory for All Workmen, Professional and Amateur, a 19th-Century British magazine aimed at craftspeople. And the team at TWW has decided to scan every issue they've got, releasing new updates each Friday and making them freely downloadable.

While the information listed in Work is over 120 years old—TWW goes so far as to include the disclaimer "[some of the articles] describe materials and methods that would not be considered safe or advisable today"—I've totally fallen down the rabbit hole. Advertisements for tools of the day, like this crazy-ass hand-powered table saw...

...share space with articles on how to build a workbench that folds into the wall, or breaking news like the then-new production method of metal spinning, or why you should make your own "callipers" rather than buy a set, and an "Our Guide to Good Things" section where they review tools and materials of the day.

One surprise is their letters section, called "Shop: A Corner for Those who Want to Talk It," whereby craftspeople of every stripe—metalworkers, furniture builders, watchmakers, toolmakers, and even people toying around with these newfangled things called cameras and electricity—sound off with tips, techniques and criticisms. Which brings me to a second surprise: Trolls existed even in the Victorian era. One reader writes in to criticize an article from a previous issue, opening with "I would point out that the description you give of the process is evidently far from correct, nor have I any idea as to what is intended...."

Remember the Thonet bicycle concept, and how we weren't sure if the seat-tube-less design would be possible to execute in steambent wood? Seeing as there's still no word on whether it will become a reality, Japanese design student Yojiro Oshima has done them one better with a prototype of his unconventional bicycle concept. For his degree project at Musahino Art University's Craft & Industrial Design Department, he has designed and built a Y-Foil/Softride-style frame by hand (it wasn't based on a chair per se, but I'm seeing a little Wegner myself).

The designer recently sent the project to James Thomas of BicycleDesign.net, where Oshima notes: "This proposal is about the shape of the frame and the handle mainly which doesn't concern what material it's made out of. The maximum comfort can be put into practice by wood." Thus, the frame concept also echoes that of the previously-seen (steel) Van Hulsteijn, which is currently in production.

A visible seam

Regarding the construction and other carpentry/bike nerd concerns, Oshima adds,

It is all hand made. The down tube and seat tube are hollowed with plenty of thickness left not to disturb the surface when planed too much. As a result, it weights about 14kg in total. The thickness is uncertain though, I guess it's about 6-12mm. It is bonded the half and half into one.

I was also curious to learn that the trispoke-style wheels were originally known as "baton" wheels—the renderings of the Thonet concept has a set of HED's top-of-the-line carbon fiber version—and that the clover-like construction is intended to "soften the ride." Similarly, the cantilevered saddle intended for comfort, while the short stays speak to performance by "assuring the stiffness."

Check out the full-size images at BicycleDesign.net

A couple of years ago, Core77's Dave Seliger dug up History of the IDEO logo, in a post by Scott Underwood, former IDEO jack-of-all-trades. Scott's post shows a clear evolution from version one to version two—and makes it clear that we were ahead of the curve with our identity in both 1991 and 1997. Look at our current logo. It was on the edge of complex expression via combinatorial geometry. This wasn't a popular corporate idea until the mid Aughts, when the redesigned AOL logo was released. Since then, there have been lots of great combinatorial logos, many of which are on our Tumblr. (Just a note on this, we weren't the first. The most famous expressive logo I can think of is MTV's first and that was several years before IDEO.)

Now we're exploring version three. Why? In part, because our current logo is a location-based system. It's not designed to adapt to new situations. For example, look at IDEO U and "design by IDEO" in Scott's post. Today, look at IDEO.org and OpenIDEO. Put those four logos next to our corporate logo, and you'll see some of the same DNA, but the differences are bigger than the similarities. They're primarily static signs or flags, like most logos. They indicate presence, but not intent.

This is the big idea we're interested in: an evolution of our identity system that responds to new organizational needs and new experiences. How might we move from a system of rules to a system of behaviors? How might our identity system transform to communicate presence (like all logos and flags) as well as intent (e.g., are we in learning mode or authority mode? are we a service or a product? are we serious or fun?). I can't think of any identity system that does this yet, though maybe the new USA Today identity is trying.

I think this is going to be the direction most identity systems go in the future. Why? In part because new technologies make it possible. Monolithic solutions are a necessity of yesterday, because of the permanence and cost of communication. Now we're in an ephemeral and affordable age, and mass distribution at low cost is possible thanks to the digital revolution.

Now if all this is too academic, check out the Six Themes Tumblr for a visual expression of these ideas and more details about the process we've gone through so far.

There are interesting implications here for global identities and sub brands. This idea of designing behaviors makes sub brands feel like an old idea now. We are exploring what's next, not just for us, but for strategic identity design broadly.

Stay tuned to Core77.com/IDEO as we prepare to launch the Make-a-Thon from our Tokyo office later today!

wants a Sr. Design Manager
in Sausalito, California

Heath's designs, new and old, are know for their bauhaus roots - driven by their materials and simplicity in form. Their goal is to design products that last a lifetime, that get better with age, and that help create a diverse community through our commitment to local manufacturing.

Can you help them reach this goal?

As their new Senior Design Manager, you'll be responsible for realizing the vision and direction of the creative director, while carrying out and helping to develop Heath's design language moving forward. Everything else you need to know is waiting for you behind the apply button below.

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You've heard of MakerBot, Cubify and Solidoodle. And if someone finds out you're into ID and asks "Hey, what do one of those 3D printers go for?" you can spit out a ballpark figure, and maybe some basic stats.

But there are tons of other 3D printers available on the consumer market, and plenty of questions you might not have the answers handy to: Which can I most easily buy if I'm in India, the Netherlands, or Taiwan? What are the build envelopes and prices? Which use fused filament fabrication, which go with fused deposition modeling? Are there affordable ones that do stereolithography?

To answer these questions and more, the good folks over at 3Ders.org have put together a handy database listing over 100 different types of 3D printers with their relevant stats, countries of origin, current stock availability, and prices (the lowest-priced DIY machine starts at US $189, while the high end of the consumer market goes into five figures). Anyone across the globe who's looking to get into 3D printing will find it a handy place to start narrowing options.

Here's something we're curious about—in a year's time, do you reckon this list will be longer, or shorter?

Times are local to location.

7:35 a.m. - The IDEO Tokyo Team (Sungene Ryang, Davide Agnelli, Mike Peng, Kenichi Nonomura, Seisho Sumida, Evin Dempsey, Mai Yamada, Yoo Kyoung Noh) begins to slowly trickle into the office. Physically present, but mentally still waking up, the team is greeted with a selection of breads and a jug of coffee to stimulate the brain.

8:02 a.m. - The Global Make-a-Thon officially begins! The design teams are split into two groups of four, each balanced with members from different design disciplines and backgrounds. Mike begins the session with a short introduction of our collective challenge and reviews the six themes that the rest of IDEO has been thinking about.

8:10 a.m. - The brainstorming begins! Lots of chatter from all corners of the office. A big emerging theme seems to be about making the IDEO identity culturally relevant to the geographical location of the office. Lots of ideas around bringing in Japanese inspiration: Robots. Cherry blossoms. Seasons. Bento boxes. Zen. More ideas are drafted on Post-It notes. Sharpie sketches begin flying off desks and onto foam core boards.

8:26 a.m. - Crossing over to digital: Computers begin to open. People are bringing up inspirational videos to share with the larger group. One around Windows of NYC. Another one around beautiful clock and weather apps. Others look back to the Tumblr site to see what else has been submitted. Big ideas begin to form and passion is heating up.

8:45 a.m. - With brainstorming time winding down, the team begins to gravitate across a few ideas. Should we keep these ideas apart? Or should we combine them? Which ideas feel scalable across different offices? Which ones are we just excited and passionate about? The infamous IDEO "voting dots" are passed around the table. Each person gets a couple of stickers and places them on the ideas they want to take forward.

The simple French Cleat technique is a clever way to hang things on a wall, whether permanently (as with a cabinet) or temporarily (as with rearrangeable modules you can easily pull on or off). Here popular woodworking YouTuber Steve Ramsey uses it to add some order to a tool collection that's spun out of control. (And sure, the hyper-animated Ramsey seems nutty, but he's nutty to the tune of 56,000 subscribers.)

I was kind of surprised that he didn't slant the tops of the screwdriver holders towards the wall, to prevent the problem he addresses around 5:00, but his eventual solution seems to handle it fine. And that's part of the fun of watching maker videos anyway: Seeing what you would do, what you wouldn't do, and how different folks solve different problems.

On Monday, IDEO Singapore started the day with Skype cameras on and speakers turned up loud, ready for the Global Make-a-Thon baton passed from the Tokyo studio.

Our friends in Tokyo had spent the morning integrating different aspects of the cultural context of Japan and expressing what it means for IDEO.

In their work, we saw a window into their world. One of many examples included the "I" in IDEO turning into a paper Shoji door that revealed an image from Hanami, the cherry-blossom flower viewing.

Other themes that emerged from our talk with Tokyo included gamification and the local transposition of their daily lives, contexts and environments.

This notion of windows out into the world resonated with us here in Singapore, too—every day, we see things in Singapore that shape the way we design, change the way we feel about the world, and influence our process and outcomes. How could we represent the experience of being a part of IDEO and being a part of Singapore at the same time? Or for that matter, being a part of Asia as a whole?

Three of our early concepts here in Singapore:

1.) IDEO Everywhere: Ben Forman and his team used photos of "I" "D" "E" and "O" snapped around Singapore to create a recontextualized logo. Bamboo fences, bowls of noodles, cups of tea, and bicycle wheels, in shapes that represented the letters of IDEO, were just a few of the many images that serve as the building blocks of IDEO. Inspired by Japan's Shoji door concept, Amy Bonsall and her team hacked away at what a window to the world would mean for Singapore—in these cases, a heritage shophouse shutter, or a plate of Singapore's national dish, chicken rice.

2.) Alternate History: One of our designers, Yishan Lam, said she's always seen Chinese name chops (a seal that's often used in lieu of a signature in Asia) in the elements of the four red "IDEO" logo squares. She experimented with changing the "I" to the Chinese character for love, which is pronounced "eye." Another variation on the same theme included a representation of the food diversity in Singapore, with each character formed by a different cuisine, all found within the bounds of the island: Hong Kong toast, basmati rice, ramen and roti prata served as visual ingredients for the letters.

3.) Experimenting with the Physical: Three 3-D concepts emerged. Why physical? As Jens Wiemann put it, "In IDEO it's always about doing with your hands, fast prototyping, doing a lot of stuff instead of just talking about it and trying it out." Referencing Tokyo's "windows" he thought about the materials that might shape the logo, including rope, steel and tubing. Philip Man and Keith Oh's team tried out a series of 3D cubes that went from larger to smaller. These could represent stories, ideas or the journey of a project. They represented the divergent/convergent nature of design. Finally, Nancy Xu and her team hacked away at a childhood origami game that spans across cultures. The Germans, Dutch, Chinese, Singaporeans, British and Americans around the table had all played a version of it. The paper object opened up to reveal IDEO's values underneath the flaps.

Pete Overy summed up the Global Make-A-Thon big picture for IDEO Singapore: "It's interesting to see how something that could look so classic could start to come to life through different kinds of media—across the digital space and in physical media. Just as Google can iterate on its logo for Van Gogh's birthday or for holidays, we're now able to make what represents us be more than four squares. We are able to bring the classic shape to life through these new expressions of who we are, what we do, and why we do it."

Check out Singapore's concepts on our Six Themes Tumblr site.

Brand New IDEO centers on a 24-hour global Make-a-Thon taking place on Monday, March 25th in IDEO's eleven offices around the world, starting in Tokyo and ending in San Francisco.

Brand New IDEO:
» Preview with Michael Hendrix and Paul Bennett in Conversation
» Opening Remarks by Michael Hendrix
» Tokyo: Robots, Cherry Blossoms & Bento Boxes
» Singapore: Origami & Experiments with 3D
» Mumbai: Minimum Viable Logo & Windows on the World
» Shanghai: Morning Exercise, Jump Rope and Calligraphy
» Munich: Personalize, Simply and Move
» London: The Grid Grows
» Boston: Crafting and Prototyping with Wood, Dye & Cornstarch
» New York: Exploring Music, Verbs and Cubes
» Chicago: Sketching Sine Waves to R&B
» San Francisco Bay: Build to Think, Dive Into Abstraction, and Embrace the Infinite Grid

While debate rages in the U.S. over drone surveillance of its citizens, drones were pressed into service over London on Saturday for a less contentious purpose: To promote the upcoming Star Trek movie. Ars Electronica Futurelab, an Austria-based media art lab, collaborated with German quadrocopter manufacturer Ascending Technologies to give Paramount Pictures publicity via "spaxel."

Thirty autonomous, LED-equipped "Hummingbird" drones took to London's evening skies, then self-assembled into the Star Trek logo, which then rotated as a whole. If that sounds simple, it sure ain't; Futurelab's software has to keep the drones from crashing into each other while they take off and find their positions, and the matter was complicated by both wind and snow, the former affecting the navigation and the latter affecting the drone-to-drone communication. Nevertheless, they were able to pull it off: