Oct 12, 2007
Oct 11, 2007
3-D Printers for home market?
See full story here
"Computer, earl grey, hot." One of legendary captain Jean Luc Picards most memorable catch phrases. The pahrase in question would activate the molecular assembler built into the wall of his ready room, and a cup of hot tea would appear..
Nonsense? Apparently not - According to this speculative article, we may soon see the appearance of 3d printers within our homes.. now ok, so i've overstated the hot tea thing, but it may well become possible, and cheap, for us to conveniently select and download a design and manufacture any object from 3d plans.
"Computer: Lampshade, ikea, cat no: 3446/7d"
Or, for anyone with basic CAD skills, skills not that hard to pick up by the way, it will become possible to custom print any object we can think of.. although some assembly of moving parts will still be required...
Two distinct process are currently available - stereo lithography, wherein lasers describe a shape in a polymer gel, which solidifies due to the heat, and sintering, wherein molecules are laid down on top of each other and encouraged to bond....
Currently, machines like this cost from 20000 - many millions of dollars, but like all very useful technologies, expect prices to keep dropping!! Give it 5 years...
My first print job? An army to do my bidding...
"Computer, earl grey, hot." One of legendary captain Jean Luc Picards most memorable catch phrases. The pahrase in question would activate the molecular assembler built into the wall of his ready room, and a cup of hot tea would appear..
Nonsense? Apparently not - According to this speculative article, we may soon see the appearance of 3d printers within our homes.. now ok, so i've overstated the hot tea thing, but it may well become possible, and cheap, for us to conveniently select and download a design and manufacture any object from 3d plans.
"Computer: Lampshade, ikea, cat no: 3446/7d"
Or, for anyone with basic CAD skills, skills not that hard to pick up by the way, it will become possible to custom print any object we can think of.. although some assembly of moving parts will still be required...
Two distinct process are currently available - stereo lithography, wherein lasers describe a shape in a polymer gel, which solidifies due to the heat, and sintering, wherein molecules are laid down on top of each other and encouraged to bond....
Currently, machines like this cost from 20000 - many millions of dollars, but like all very useful technologies, expect prices to keep dropping!! Give it 5 years...
My first print job? An army to do my bidding...
travel between worlds....
what an awesome idea...
and timely too, as i have spent that past week updating, reviewing, and unifying my online identities, and understand now the importance of such transferability. Harder than you might think. For example, while this blog is ostensibly about a certain subject matter, it also provides a useful way to provide updates on my life and interests to all my various electronic personae - thus unifying my online self, in a roundabout sort of way...
But as the world gradually moves increasingly into a secondlife (as it were), tools like facebook, blogs etc will become embedded within the virtual communities represented by secondlife, home, and metaverse. It is therefore incumbent upon you and I, future users of the internet, to both familiarise ourselves with these environments and take initial steps at learning them.
However, what is great about this avatar announcement is that it provides us early adopters (yes, early adopters - theres centuries of development yet to come) with a wonderful parachute from which to jump between platforms as they variously become ascendent or obsolete, thereby removing the possibility that time spent developing our online selves is rendered a waste through the collapse of some proprietery world...
Jump in!!!
and timely too, as i have spent that past week updating, reviewing, and unifying my online identities, and understand now the importance of such transferability. Harder than you might think. For example, while this blog is ostensibly about a certain subject matter, it also provides a useful way to provide updates on my life and interests to all my various electronic personae - thus unifying my online self, in a roundabout sort of way...
But as the world gradually moves increasingly into a secondlife (as it were), tools like facebook, blogs etc will become embedded within the virtual communities represented by secondlife, home, and metaverse. It is therefore incumbent upon you and I, future users of the internet, to both familiarise ourselves with these environments and take initial steps at learning them.
However, what is great about this avatar announcement is that it provides us early adopters (yes, early adopters - theres centuries of development yet to come) with a wonderful parachute from which to jump between platforms as they variously become ascendent or obsolete, thereby removing the possibility that time spent developing our online selves is rendered a waste through the collapse of some proprietery world...
Jump in!!!
Oct 9, 2007
Drunker Example....
Here's the other thing...
Apart from education, which sadly we can't all possess, there is another weapon which can be deployed to conquer Fear...
Statistics.
In this example, we learn that increased distance, well, you'll see...
Apart from education, which sadly we can't all possess, there is another weapon which can be deployed to conquer Fear...
Statistics.
In this example, we learn that increased distance, well, you'll see...
Oct 8, 2007
And yet another fun Monday thought....
Science continues to deliver awesome ways to spend your time, Japanese science in particular... As a young man, I remember wanting a way to view cheerleaders from all angles all at once, and, though it seemed greedy at the time, this decadent century has finally delivered that little boys dream...
X-Wing!!!
No joke folks!!!
Here's a short video of the 21-foot-long X-Wing rocket launching at Plaster City, California, and then desintegrating spectacularly in mid-air. And no, it wasn't Darth Vader or those pesky deflector towers, just the stress from the launch. I can only say two things. The first is: absolutely amazing. And the second: poor Porkins. [UPDATE: new close-up video after the jump.]
Here's a short video of the 21-foot-long X-Wing rocket launching at Plaster City, California, and then desintegrating spectacularly in mid-air. And no, it wasn't Darth Vader or those pesky deflector towers, just the stress from the launch. I can only say two things. The first is: absolutely amazing. And the second: poor Porkins. [UPDATE: new close-up video after the jump.]
Come back later today for our exclusive feature, with full video and interviews with the Rebel engineers.
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