I’m really excited about this weekend’s Mini-MakerFaire taking place at Park Day in Oakland! There’s going to be at least 100 different exhibits and things going on. I can’t wait!!! (Just bought my tix)
Are you going? Are you an exhibitor? If so, leave a comment so I can be sure and stop by your booth and say hello!
So, I am just a guy. Prior to assembling my Cupcake 3D printer I had never fiddled much with electronics, let alone attempted something as audacious as building a robot. I don’t have a tech degree, I don’t work in a tech field, basically I’m a glorified cubicle plant. With what little spare time I get, I spend it fiddling with my robot making awesome things and writing about the awesome things people do with their robots.
But, it occurred to me today… By virtue of building one robot from a kit and writing about robots… and given my total and complete lack of knowledge and training1 is it fair to call myself a roboticist?
I finished printing 16 pieces in black ABS.
I’m experimenting with the Skeinforge settings for clear PLA again before I move on to the remaining pieces.
Default Series TitleA friend of mine is a small business owner in the Sacramento area. He has seen the light and is finally developing his stuff in WordPress. (Sorry Drupal guys, he gave that a whirl) However, he needs a good WordPress developer to help him out. I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure he’d be okay with telecommuting. He’s got several online publications and website based businesses, so he’ll definitely keep you busy. If you’re interested, shoot me an e-mail through the contact form and I’ll forward your e-mail to him.
I’ve been working on printing a chess set today.
Yesterday I was troubleshooting my automated build platform. I could use it reasonably well as a heated build platform, but the automated part was not working so well. The main issues I was having were the thermistor only registered 255, the automated build platform only ran backwards1 , and the extrusion would not stick to the conveyor belt.
Believe me, some of these issues were incredibly dumb. No worries, I’ll fill you in on the extent of my ignorance soon enough. It’s not like I’ve got a finite supply, right?
I took out the automated build platform conveyor belt – and lost one of the little plastic bushings in the process. I’m pretty sure I can rig a serviceable facsimile, but my printer has been down so much lately that I just want to actually PRINT things. I’ll work on fixing up the automated build platform and troubleshooting it later.
So far I have, in black ABS, 8x pawns, 2x knights, 2x rooks, and am in the process of printing a bishop right now. (I know that’s more than 1/4 of the way done – but I was 1/4 of the way when I started this post).
Default Series TitleThanks @NYCDesigner – you made my day with that tweet!
@makerbot Can’t stop reading @makerblock blog or wiki.makerbot.com Must. Sleep. Now.
I had some technical trouble with my automated build platform today. (Yesterday? Last night? It all blurs. :) )
I’ve fixed some problems and found others.
Right now I think there may be a slight kink in my filament spindle box. The extruder motor kept running but no plastic came out in one build job. I can successfully print using the ABP as a heated build platform – but it is only really successful with single print tasks. More than that and it screws up the raft.
I’m tempted to lightly sand the automated build platform belt to see if that helps. If not, a friend suggested using blue painter’s tape on the platform. I’ll try the tape first tomorrow.
MS just released this video bashing open source tech. There are some really amusing points about it. The testimonials describe how wonderful MS Office 2007 is – but MS wants you to buy the 2010 version. Guys, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is a word processor – for most people they just need a version of Notepad with grammar and spellcheck.1 This isn’t rocket science. I can’t imagine a business model that requires you to sell your software to your customers every 2-3 years – when the original package TEN YEARS AGO was good enough. Let alone a business model founded on a product that peaked ten years ago with XP. Seriously, the best thing about WinXP was that I never really noticed it. If I notice my OS, it’s because something is horribly horribly wrong.
The testimonials also include people who say their IT support costs soared with questions from users – and that people were used to their old MS interface. Increased support costs? Yeah, that can happen. People resistant to IT changes? Yeah, that happens too. But, the software is free, remember? Each and every license is several hundred dollars. And it needs to be effectively renewed every few years. How’s this for a new MS slogan: “Drink the kool-aid”
Several years ago I bought a pair of brand new Dell laptops with XP. Just before the warranty expired they started to go nutty, shipped them to Dell, Dell lost them, and Dell eventually replaced them – with new models that had Vista. My copies of MS Office 2000 I had bought with my original Dells refused to work with Vista. There was some “bug” that caused any MS Office component to take 10 minutes to load, operate super slowly, and crash. The fix? Oh, just buy 2003. No thank you.
I have used OpenOffice for the last several years and convinced many friends to do the same. I just cannot see spending several hundred dollars for a product the company looks at with an eye towards planned obsolescence.
No, MS, I’m not coming back. And, as soon as I can get Ubuntu to work on my computers and network, you can have my copies of XP as well.
OSS/OSH FTW!
This morning I arrived at work about 2 minutes before a silver Prius. He is a Joss Whedon fan.
On the one hand, I support marine research and head-mounted sensors for all aquatic mammals.
On the other hand, just look at this poor bastard. That’s pretty messed up. Just look at his right eye – there’s a reflection of the photographer. This seal looks completely resigned to his fate. I have a hard time believing the scientists who superglued this thing there are shocked that seals who wear these contraptions are hanging around on the antarctic floor. If you glued one of these things to my head I’d be tempted to sit at the bottom of the ocean too. I bet they were just as astounded when they discovered that seals who wear these things never reproduce. 1
Thanks be to clothbot for this find.
And, yes, I agree. This seal would be so much more awesome with a freakin’ laser on its head.
