User:Dwj131
Douglas Jordan
Penn State University Schreyer Honors College Computer Science and Mathematics
RepRap OS3DP Blog
Makerbot’s position (as far as we know), Prusa’s concerns, and ownership of designs. Should we look for a new thingiverse?
Blog 1:
1. useful: eStand for iPhone This little stand is the perfect iPhone dock. It's small, relatively simple to print, and has a smooth and elegant design. On top of that, one could easily make a derivative of it that included a hole for you to place the Apple dock connector to USB cable to make it a functioning dock.
2. artistic/beautiful: Alien Egg Vase I think this vase is incredible. Like most of the Math Art on Thingiverse, it contains many complex mathematical shapes. It is also rather abstract which is why I like it so much. I think it is really cool how the beauty of the design overcomes the fact that it is only one color.
3. pointless/useless: iPhone Mixer Attachment The iPhone mixer attachment is really pointless. Why would you want to every attach your phone to a high speed motor, especially one that is meant for food? Unless you are trying to use your iphone as a mixing blade, this is useless. Or maybe it is meany for taking videos of mixing food, that is if your iPhone survives.
4. funny: Minimal Surface Pencils Holder While this abstract pencil holder looks really funny, I think in reality it is also useful...that is if you like alien art. I am not entirely sure how one would go about printing this as it contains some holes that may have to be bridged. But all-in-all a pretty funny shape.
5. weird: Thing5 Whoever made this really wanted to confuse anyone who looked at it. The designer decided to randomly place things on a base and call it a day. I think that if you were to print this, it would just be a waste of plastic.
Blog 2
1.) I think that while not currently feasible, eventually we will be able to create (almost) self-replicating universal constructors. Currently, a few major tasks still remain. First, we cannot and probably will not be able to print integrated circuits. They are currently made in pressurized argon gas. Printing them is not possible, but it would be possible to use the printer with another type of extruder that effectively acted as a pick and place machine. Another issue is the metal. Any extruder hot enough to melt metal would most likely not be able to replicate itself. But if we were able to melt metal quickly we could potentially make many more of the parts on the machine.
2.) Wealth without money is the idea that currently, many commercial products are extremely expensive due to licensing issues. But if we could simply make whatever we need from raw material, we could save incredible amounts of money. Some problems with the idea are one; there are only a handful of materials that currently can be printed. Yet almost all products are made with at least a handful of materials. Also, currently the exact model of an assault rifle is posted on the Internet. If you were able to print out the parts you could make a fully automatic ar-15 rifle, which is currently illegal to purchase.
3.) I think the RepRap project will do one of 3 things. Either it will take off because people like us can spread the ideas and continue to innovate. Or it will simply stay where it is now and not improve very much over time. Lastly it could die off because nobody is innovating.
Blog 3
1.) I think that ultimately, this will not be an issue. The government may try to place restrictions on 3d parts, but considering that the RepRap project is entirely community driven, the community will always be able to find workarounds. In addition, everything is man made-with music, the publishers want content to be protected from stealing it. But with 3D models, the creators want them to be given out for free.
2.) I think my passion is computers. I love helping people fix them, or building them, or even trying to break them. I think that while it is not the best way to attract future mates, it can diffidently make me money. I think that one of the best aspects of the human population is that we all have our own niche and enjoy spreading that knowledge.
3.) I think that there will still be IP because people will still be greedy. While 3D printing may solve lots of those problems, I think that creativity is still worth money and people will still want money for it considering the effort put into it. Also, while some people are creative others are not and need to rely on mooching off that and providing other service to communities, like engineering.
