User talk:Eky5006

Blog#1

Part A:

After browsing thingiverse I found the following designs which I think are the most useful, artistic, pointless, funny and scary:

1. Useful: Measuring Cup http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:36980

This measure cup can be used to measure liquids up to 2 cups. It’s a useful kitchen tool that can be used in everyday life, as long as it is printed without leaks.

2. Artistic/Beautiful: Nautilus Gears http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27233

The spiral design combined with its ability to actually function like gears makes this especially intriguing. It’s certainly not very useful, but it’s nice to watch.

3. Pointless/Useless: Finger Plate http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:24601

When would I ever need a tiny plate on my finger to hold food? Never.

4. Funny/Weird: Cat Space Helmet http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:38652

If I had a cat, I would definitely print this for my cat to wear. I can’t pass up the opportunity to have my cat space-ready.

5. Scary/Strange: Occulus http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:42028

It’s a one-eyed monster creature. Shouldn’t have a problem scaring small children.

Part B:

I am a tinkerer to some extent. Many times I try to fix my electronics on my own if something goes wrong. I also have family members and friends who I would consider to be tinkerers as well. I personally believe that the DIY tinkerer attitude should be preserved. What big corporations are doing to stifle this is wrong and without people who tinker, I feel that the country will fall behind in terms of innovation.

As for David Kelly, his design theory is unique. It’s definitely unorthodox combining the talents of a huge variety of disciplines when creating designs, but I can certainly see why it would be helpful. His concept of observing how people behave and making designs that help the user is not new, but it is definitely a necessary component for design success. When I saw that he too was working on a 3D printer project, it gave me further reassurance that 3D printing is the next big thing. His idea of bringing people of different backgrounds together in order to create synergy is perfectly applicable to the open source environment. The Rep Rap open source printing movement embodies this idea of collaboration from all sorts of people.

Blog#2

"Mother of all Demos"

In the first part of this video, I see that features of a text editor are being showcased. Functions like copy/paste and save/load. In a way, I am not very impressed because these are features that I have grown up expecting as a given when it comes to computing. At the same time, I am also impressed because even the IPhone/IPod, a modern device, did not even have a simple copy/paste function for a long period of time, whereas this function was clearly developed as early as the 1960's. If I was in the audience at the time watching this demonstration, I am not sure whether or not I would have recognized the importance of this work. At the time, it would've been more convenient to simply write by hand any "statements" or shopping lists. I may have very well dismissed this work as not showing any real use. However, if there were features shown such as password encryption or perhaps being able to save these statements onto external media, I would have immediately been able to understand its importance.

Professor Richard Doyle: Open Source Futures

When the professor mentions the "Mother of all Demos" video, he said that the people at the times were very impressed by what was being showcased. Apparently people at the time were absolutely mind-blown by this personal computer.

When he refers to the open source movement, he promotes the idea of sharing knowledge and open science. It helps us advance technology faster. He also brings up a good point that sometimes the process of acquiring intellectual property rights is many times a huge block in progressing technology. This is why the RepRap open source movement is a great way to progress the 3D printing technology. The way that information is shared online freely on the wiki is probably the best way to share this knowledge.