3D Printing

I like the idea of 3D printers. You have a device that can repeatable produce low volume, highly customizable items. This won't change the Henry Ford assembly line approach. The assembly line is great at producing large quantities of exact copies.

So, it stands to reason the best initial application for 3D printing would be clothing. Clothing has very high variety (style, color, shape, size, etc), and thus low volume. (With the assumption that the current size system is a generalization to help mass production.)

Use Case:
You walk into a store full of samples, and find something you like. Step into the 3D scanner for measurements (already exists, and in limited use). The printer then prints a tailored shirt, shorts, etc.

The new "Old Navy" would maintain its standing by using different materials, machines, designs, and public image. Thus duplicating the current model.

The scanner would not be required for clothing production, you could save your last scan and provide it to the store.

It could also be applied to online shopping. You order a pattern and take it to be printed at a store's printer. Of course, you would suddenly get piracy and DRM problems just like other industries that cannot cope without exclusivity.

Lightning Makes the Economy Go Round

A few days ago, I arrived home to a clock flashing 12:00, a dead modem, damaged router, and no sound from my computer. After replacing all the dead components, I turned to my router.

The WAN port was the only part damaged in the strike. So, I felt I could save my router. During a previous failure I flashed my router with the DD-WRT firmware, thus making it, in my opinion, fully configurable. A few hours of searching yielded an architecture diagram. (Note: I have a Linksys WRT54GL v1.1. Other Linksys routers might have a different structure.) I combined it with the instructions on http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/WAN_Port and http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/VLAN_Bridging_WAN_and_a_LAN_port, and moved one of the LAN ports to VLAN1. One router saved by Linux. Go Linux.

The future of mystery meat

I love watching the old “Home of the future” films and thinking about the ideas they came up with. Sometimes, I am pleasantly relieved.

Many of the “Future Interfaces” I have seen are flashy mash-ups of current metaphors mixed thoroughly with mystery meat (to add mystery). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Meat_Navigation

http://honeybrown.ca/Pubs/BumpTop.html
My PC already organizes my files better than I organize my desk. I guess everyone forgets the time before Align to Grid was added in Windows. The only plus I see is the addition of physics to the computing experience.

http://www.tactile3d.com/tac.php?opt=overview&subopt=docs
Where did I put that bash script to close the Velociraptor cages?

http://asktog.com/starfire/
Sorry Tog, but Starfire also fits into this category. I admire many things about the Starfire concept. It has the document centric approach, complete integration with all systems, interoperability of programs, big honkin’ screens, and much more. But, where are the giant lists of verbal commands available to the user? Where is the letter “I" on that keyboard? This system would require as much training as a jet aircraft. (That might not be a bad thing.)
I still would advise anyone interested in feeling depressed about where we are in mainstream computing to watch it and read Alchemi’s blog entry afterwards (http://alchemi.co.uk/archives/hum/2_past_projecti.html).

But, don’t take my word for it. (Geordi La Forge)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4750948381745911864
MSR TaskGallery

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=455297590267492017
interactive desktop 3D handelprojector handeled projector

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8100222800051574872
2010 vision

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2711786759085611061
Andy Wilson @ Microsoft Research

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3304682858126153303
Linux XGL

http://www.msdewey.com/
No explanation necessary.

Two Zeros

Have you heard of this one? I was surprised when I read this.

The rule of two zeros:
In decision making, small and large are two orders of magnitude away. Anything over two orders is no greater or less.

Essentially, if you have $100, $1 is small and easy to part with. On the same token, $10,000 is large and seems almost unobtainable.