41–50 of 281 posts
Wozniak had this great insight. It's like lathe. Everyone knows a guy who has one, but no one is actually bothered to get one. It's a nice thing to have in your workshop, but also requires lots of skill.
And then one day everyone has one, and you can buy them at your local appliance store.
I got together with 15 of my friends and bought one for us to share. We each had to pay under $50, which made it very attractive. None of us use it enough to justify owning one ourselves, so sharing was the obvious solution.
I don't think I can find 15 people to share a 3d printer with...though I can't speak for anyone else.
I'm not sure if it makes sense as an investment to own a 3D printer when you can order anything custom from Shapeways when you need. I don't have a constant need for 3D printed parts, so it probably wouldn't pay itself back. Edit: To add, I've never even needed to order anything from Shapeways to date. For sure I'll need it when I start building robots. I think there should be some kind of new trend hobby which requi…
I got together with 15 of my friends and bought one for us to share. We each had to pay under $50, which made it very attractive. None of us use it enough to justify owning one ourselves, so sharing was the obvious solution.
I don't think I can find 15 people to share a 3d printer with...though I can't speak for anyone else.
In any case, 15 sounds like a bit of a logistical nightmare even if you did have that many people in your local friends circle interested enough to go in for a 3D printer.
Here's a working turbine compressor model that I built http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjU-1aS_mHQ
Here's one of the more practical things that I made: http://www.heroicrobotics.com/img/pixelpusher_case.jpg (We used another "consumer grade" 3d printer for the first 60 units; it's about time to switch to injection molding)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know, all my close friends and family are running Linux as their main OS. You might just wake up one day to realize that Linux on the desktop has already happened.
Or you might wake up one day to realize that you and your friends are in the extreme minority.
Edit: I stand corrected.
What are the chances that in the next month pg publishes an essay calling for why more startups should be doing hardware, bitcoin, and/or 3D printing?
I'm waiting on the day that 3d printers can print hardware (ex. CPU's, RAM chips) and the designs/models become available for sale or become FOS.
I think 3D printers are firmly in the "Linux desktop" stage for now. You will hear it's revolutional arrival announced every year, but it will never materialize.
3D printers on the other hand have 3 big barriers: 1) they're rather expensive, 2) creating an CAD object ≢ creating a word document and 3) there are not many truly compelling printable objects yet.
Relevant: http://youtu.be/rO54gzfite4?t=1m41s
