User:Mxe5022
Penn State
Blog#1 Thingiverse Designs Entry
1. Useful- Adjustable Monitor Stand
I find this useful because of the money that would be saved just by printing this out.
2. Artistic/Beautiful- Flame Light Shade
This is a hollow model of flames, after adding a light source you have yourself a beautiful little light.
3. Pointless/Useless- Toothpaste Squeezer
First off who even needs one of these, secondly it just a big waste of plastic.
4. Funny- Bottle Opener
A wall mounted bottle opener is one of the best things I found on thingiverse, joust add a penny and screw it on a wall to get your drink on!
5. Weird- Creepy Alien Catapiller
I don't understand who would even want this let-alone waste the time to print it.
Blog#2 Adrian Bowyer
1. Do you think his goal of a ‘self-replicating universal constructor’ is feasible? What remains to be done to achieve this, or alternatively what would prevent such a goal?
How feasible is his idea... I would have to say that as of today it is unfeasible, but with time his idea make come to be.
2. The phrase “wealth without money” is both the title of his article and the motto of the reprap project itself. What does this phrase mean? (To him and to you if they differ). Discuss implications, problems, and possibilities associated with this idea.
His motto "wealth without money" means anyone with one of these machine would be able to own any and every "thing" at just the cost of materials. He clams that your friend could just print you off another machine at cost so almost everyone will have one, so I guess one can have wealth with money or you could say wealth with good friends. Materials would end up being one of the biggest problems, as more people needs for raw materials increase so will the price.
3. The Darwin design was released in 2007. It is 2012 now. Imagine future scenarios for RepRaps and their ‘cousin’ 3D printing designs (Makerbots, Ultimachine, Makergear, etc.) how do you think the RepRap project (community, designs, website, anything and everything) might evolve in the future? Describe as many scenarios as you can envision.
Much has changed sense Darwin, and I believe much more is in the further. For one I would think a circuit board printer is in the near future, but as for making stepper motors, that's a different story. I don't think it will go much bigger than that, open-source is great as long as there are a number of smart people chipping in. But as soon as it hits "mainstream" people will want to make money on there work and not just give it away. If the future does contain evolve(which it probably will) I believe it will happen slow with a lot of small changes.
