This is the look of the future

There is this article about Awesome Multicolor Reprap printing. But what I mean by 'the look of the future' is these gears:

They look almost steampunk. Those decorative details are a feature you don't see in modern gears very often. I suspect they would complicate standard manufacturing. Even if not, the realities of mass production makes it difficult to get something that is not a standard style.
The look of the future is decorative detail added to almost any part of any device.

3-D Printing's Legal Morass

Clive Thompson on 3-D Printing's Legal Morass

I think this will be even harder to stop than media filesharing. (and that's a good thing)

Filabot: Plastic Filament Maker

Filabot: Plastic Filament Maker by Tyler McNaney — Kickstarter

Nanoengineer-1

"NanoEngineer-1™ is an open-source (GPL) 3D multi-scale modeling and simulation program for nano-composites with special support for structural DNA nanotechnology. It features an easy-to-use interactive 3D graphical user interface for designing and modeling large, atomically precise composite systems.

For simulation and analysis, NanoEngineer-1 supports multiple molecular dynamics and quantum mechanics systems in a single environment, providing a wide range of nano-scale simulation capabilities."

This software is abundantly Awesome:

• Surprisingly easy to use
• Open Source
• Simulates individual Atoms

Dig up a plastic fork

More on the intersection of Minecraft and 3D printers.

Minecraft.Print()

Case for Mars

Printing a [Model] Building

Metalab - Architecture Modeling with the RepRap from Christian Benke

This doesn't look like it's a reprap to me, or at least not a standard one. Am I wrong?

Copyright City

Imagine a city where everything is available for free and no one has to work. If you want to throw a party every day, just go get the stuff you need and make it happen. The catch? To live in the city, you sign over all your intellectual property rights to whatever entity runs the city. Your art, writing, music, or whatever is marketed to the rest of the world and that money pays for the needs of the city.


Would this work as a real city? No, probably not without careful selection of the inhabitants. But with only minor variations, this exact scenario plays out every day, in a wide swath of industries.


What does it take for living in Copyright City to be a good deal?

Sketch Chair well on their way

As of this Writing, they have raised $12,455 of their $18,000 Kickstarter goal.

Meshmixer

Meshmixer is a program that lets you easily piece together 3D models from existing designs.

In addition to 'simple' editing tools that let you sculpt a mesh like clay, it also helps you cut objects apart and seamlessly recombine them in creative ways.

Follow the link above for a video, and don't miss the gallery.

The Economist Covers 3D Printers

3D printing: The printed world

"The printing of parts and products has the potential to transform manufacturing because it lowers the costs and risks. No longer does a producer have to make thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of items to recover his fixed costs. In a world where economies of scale do not matter any more, mass-manufacturing identical items may not be necessary or appropriate, especially as 3D printing allows for a great deal of customisation. Indeed, in the future some see consumers downloading products as they do digital music and printing them out at home, or at a local 3D production centre, having tweaked the designs to their own tastes. That is probably a faraway dream. Nevertheless, a new industrial revolution may be on the way."

Not so far away I hope.

Trimensional

A 3D scanner iPhone App from Trimensional could kick demand for 3D printing in to high gear.

Given technologies like this, people with little to no 3D model making ability will be able to create copies of any distinct object or part.

On Accessibility

"There are tens of millions of people that because of their background are not getting the same internet experience that literate engineers and college students are getting. Everybody that makes a site that you think of as being crap and noise isn't trying to pollute the internet. Especially as programmers, we need to realize that the web is used by folks who couldn't plough through Wikipedia articles even if they wanted to.

Instead of adding HTML 5 and new apps, maybe we should be doing something more for those folks, you think?"

-Confession: I am Facebook Login Scum

Secret to Learning Electronics - Fail and Fail Often

Procedural Objects

This Minecraft Like Rendering Experiment is extra-interesting from a rapid prototying perspective because it suggests a method to create a near infinite number of unique designs that fit some parameters, and are physically manufacturable. (if you design the procedure correctly)



It won't be long before someone gets a full color 3D print of their minecraft world.

Fab@home, RepRap or MakerBot?

A nice reply in the Fab@home Forums:

"I'm a little biased in my answer, but here is my honest assessment.

Fab@Home has a dremel attachment tool and can do 3 axis CNC milling. So if you were considering getting a 3 axis CNC machine, get a fabathome instead. You can use our software for controlling and planning the prints, or you can use the Snap motors program listed on the JRKERR website to use G-Codes to do milling and interface with MasterCAM or other G-code based programs.

Fab@Home has a much larger build area than the makerbot or repraps and can use a wider array of toolheads. Repraps are cheaper in terms of BOM but take a lot more care to build, and take a lot longer to build. Not to mention to cost of getting your initial plastic parts made. If you want something that you can order and use in a day, your options are Fab@Home and Makerbot."

Open Source Machine

"The MultiMachine all-purpose machine tool that can be built by a semi-skilled mechanic with just common hand tools."

Mr.doob Voxels

Mr.doob Voxels is a nice simple little 3d editor that will work in any modern browser. It seems to work best in Chrome.

Make the Most Difference

When you give to charity, you should pick the charity that will do the most good with your money.

The work you do should be treated the same way. Your skills and time matter, and you shouldn't waste them. You should find the most important thing you can do, and do that.

This doesn't mean everyone has to do the same thing. Obviously everyones' skills are different, but it's also true that any given task can become saturated. No matter how important a task is, if enough people are working on it, your added individual effort might not do as much good as working on some less important, but understaffed project. It's great to be a Doctor, but it's possible for a society to have too many Doctors. On the other hand the skills you have (or could get) must have some field of application which is currently the least well served, relative to it's importance.

This is where you can make the most difference.

Alien and Monolith

I was experimenting with cute mascots in Inkscape and I got this.