I think behavior visualisation modelling is really interesting and a presentation on Visio 2007 (ppt) shows how you could do basic visualisation using data overlays.
More advanced products, such as VideoMining's Test Store Platform to help companies plan store design, including different behaviour engines.
Similar to the Eye Tracking analysis often used for website usuability.
Hughes Associates Inc. Fire Science and Engineering have People Movement modelling software which aims to show building design effects.
ZamZar is a free online file conversion site:
- Make your PDF documents editable by converting them to MS Word
- Convert your ITunes (aac) files to mp3
- Upload up to 5 files at a time to convert simultaneously
- Take advantage of over 150 different conversion types
Not that you would want to use often or with anything private or confidental, but maybe handy for one-off uses.
Well first of all what is a software factory?
"General speaking, software factories represent a collection of guidance that helps architects and developers build a specific kind of application."
The guidance tends to be a combination of written documentation, guidance packages and reference implementations.
The general consensus is that today's software developments are too often one-off bespoke pieces of work and to move forward we need to use reusable frameworks & models that we can bolt together for increased productivitiy and quality. To me it seems we are getting there on the one hand with tools like .NET framework, Application Blocks and to an extent SharePoint but on the other hand we've still a long way to go.
Anders Hejlsberg video talks along the same lines, moving developers from one-offs to generic solution builders - it's a fundamental change.
Also check of the Guidance Automation Toolkit, which is an "extension to Visual Studio 2005 which allows architects to author integrated reusable assets including frameworks, components and patterns". One example is the Web Services Software Factory (download) which provides information on building web service applications. Note: if you are installing on Vista, follow these tips to run the install as Administator.
More on software factories in the latest issue of Architecture Journal and Measuring Success with Software Factories and Visual Studio Team System.