User:Crosby Owens
Contact Info
Thingiverse Account
http://www.thingiverse.com/dbpc/overview
Intro
Hi, My name is Crosby. This is my user page where I will post my weekly blog posts and projects that I am working on in. I will continue to update this page as I progress through the class.
Blogs
Blog #1
A) Something amazing/beautiful
I felt that a lot of the designs posted on thingiverse did not have very many beautiful designs. Most of them seemed very blocky or crude. I really liked this lamp because of its abstract flowing lines. I also liked it because it seemed like something that would actually be harder to make by hand than using a 3d printer.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:19104
B) Something funny or strange
I found this rabbit holding a gem to be particularly strange for a couple of reasons. One reason that it looked really strange to me is the rabbits face. It has a kind of evil possessed look to it which is pretty weird. I also found it strange because the rabbit was holding a black gem. This lead me to believe that the gem it is holding is possessing it.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:135905
C) Something useless
To me anything that is made out of plastic to look like food is a complete waste. All it does is make me hungry. This fake zebra cake doesn't even look that realistic. The only possible use I could see it having is to be used in a prank but even that would not be very good. Therefore I feel that it is completely useless and a waste of plastic.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:115387
D) Something useful
I thought this generator was really useful because it allows you to use the 3d printer to make electricity. This seemed really cool to me because you could potentially use something like this to power the Raspberry Pi or even the printer itself. It could also be used to power other things too. The only downside is that it isn't made from al 3d printed parts (wires and electrical stuff.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:145186
E) The ‘best’ printable Raspberry Pi case you can find
This Raspberry Pi case stood out to me because of its stackable design. I thought that would be very useful in a class like ours with multiple Raspberry Pi's because it would allow them to be neat and organized which would save us space. The design also didn't seem too complicated and looked relatively easy to print which is key for making any Raspberry Pi case good.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:19978
Blog #2
Write about a topic (or two, or three) which interests you which we've discussed so far - or not discussed in detail yet. It could be your project, or a particular type of 3D printer, or something you think would be cool for us to explore in the future.
One topic that we have discussed in class that I find really interesting is using 3d scanners and printers to print detailed versions of objects. I believe that the future of 3d printing will be with using 3d scanners. I also find it amazing how the scanners can take real life objects and turn them into models on a computer. As printers start to get better scanners will allow us to print complex shapes that couldn't be rendered using CAD. These better quality models could be really useful for in the health care industrial for creating prosthetic limbs or dental fillings. This could also be really useful for people historians trying to recreate old objects. 3d scanners working with 3d printers also bring up a lot of interesting copyright issues. If someone scans something they buy in a store and print it is that copyright infringement?
A different type of 3d printing that we have not discussed in detail yet is three dimensional printing of food. As of right now it seems that the 3d printing of food is still in the under a lot of development and is not in wide spread use yet. But considering how fast 3d printing has taken off and that NASA is funding research on 3d printed food, it wouldn't be surprising to see it become a reality in the near future. The benefits from 3d printing of food would also be huge. For one creating food using an additive process could greatly decrease food cost and food waste. If the technology becomes cheap enough it could even help solve world hunger. 3D printed food would also be much quicker to prepare (if already printed) since the only preparation of the food left is cooking if any. Overall 3d printing food is one of the more interesting 3d printing topic that we haven't really touched on in class.
Blog #3
Read some of your classmates blogs (you should be able to find them on the link above). I want you to look for the best post or two you can find, and link to it. Explain why you chose it, and what makes it good in your opinion. If there is anything you can think of to improve it, comment on that.
One of my favorite blogs from blog post 1 would be Dimitar's I thought his chart layout for that post was a really cool idea. I also thought the octocat that he found was awesome. One slight improvement he could do to make it even more awesome would be to turn the chart vertical and make one column description and the other one column pictures. This is more of a personal preference but I wanted to mention it.
One other blog post that I found to be really interesting was Justin's Blog post 2 about variable geometry hot tips. I liked this idea and thought it was really cool. It does sound very complicated to make but it doesn't sound impossible to design. This idea really stood out to me because it was something cool that I didn't know existed. This topic is so new that when I googled "variable geometry hot tips" I couldn't even find anything about it.
I also thought that Brandon's blog post number two was very interesting. His post focuses on the economics of 3d printing. He brought up some interesting points that I had not really thought about. The one suggestion I have for him to make his post better would be to fix the link for the video.
Blog #4
Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j84BDoNkt8
Comment on each project, and their mode of operation (give it away for free). How does this compare with traditional business models? Can you point to any companies using a similar business model? How does this sort of thing strike you?
The first project that is discussed in the video is the arduino project. The arduino is a micro controller that has an open source hardware and software design. The purpose of the arduino project was to teach people who are not familiar with electronics about electronics by making the arduino cheap and the software easy to use. Since the design of the board is open source they do not care if you modify it and sell it as long as they are credited.
The other project mentioned in the clip is RepRap. The idea behind RepRap is making 3d printers that can make themselves. The design for the rep rap printer is put online and is open source so that anybody could make changes or improvements to design. This allows the RepRap design to be evolve with input from thousands of designers. It also allows the number of rep rap printers to grow continuously like an ecosystem.
Very few companies have a similar business model to these companies. One company that I can think of that is similar is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is also non profit and gets most of its money to host the the website from donations. All of its pages can also be edited by anybody just like the designs for RepRap parts. Wikipedia in nonprofit and its purpose is to create a free encyclopedia for everyone to use. This is very similar to how Arduino and RepRap operate. One other company that follow a simillar model is craigslist.
I think all of the projects and companies like this are really cool because they help a lot of people learn and gain knowledge which is awesome. I think that the number of companies like this will continue to grow. Also as 3d printing technology gets cheaper and better we may see more and more companies like this start in the future because it allow physical objects to be shared almost like data.
