Category: MakerBlock

All things MakerBlock: RepRap, MakerBot, Cupcake CNC, open source, and plastic building toys!

Laptop woes

I probably own about four or five laptops – all in states of serious disrepair.  I have broken down laptops like some people have cars on blocks on their lawn or tires in piles in their backyard.  Here’s what I’ve got right now, with a description of what it would take to fix it:

  • Dell Somethingorother.  Purchased used, old, heavy, running Windows 98, one bad pixel1 , terrible battery life, and about 1/2 the keys on the keyboard do not register unless you literally hurt your fingers pressing/hitting it.  With an external keyboard it’s not that bad, really.  I’ve got a PCMII WiFi card for it.
    • This laptop just isn’t for most people.  If you want to surf the web and word processing, it would be fine with an external keyboard.  That said, it’s pretty slow.
  • Dell XPS.  This is one of the few computers I’ve owned since it was brand new.  Big hard drive, DVD burner, speedy.  However, it’s running Vista (boo!!!), the battery lasts about half an hour, and the monitor is extremely dim no matter what I do.  I leave this one plugged into my Cupcake.
    • Vista is a pain, but an endurable one.  The monitor is dim enough that it is noticeable.  There’s no specific thing keeping me from using this laptop except that it is heavier than what I would like to carry around.  It’s on it’s second battery, an after market special, that holds about an hour or so of charge.
  • Everex Stepnote.  A computer I fixed twice,2 the previous owner drained the battery and let it sit for six months, threw it around, broke off both hinge covers, and scratched it all up to hell.  The DVD drive is completely shot and the battery lasts about 5 minutes.  It’s only got 1 GB of RAM, so it gets bogged down with medium tasks.  Last, but not least, the “+/=” button does not work.  At all.  The lack of those two keys makes programming a bear. 3
    • I’ve been using this laptop almost exclusively for the last year or so.  But, having the +/= button go bad means I am disincentivized to program – which is a bad thing.  I’ve taken this laptop apart, but there’s no way I can see to fix that button short of replacing the keyboard.  At $35+, the replacement keyboard costs on eBay not cost-effective.  The cost to upgrade this computer is not appetizing – $50 for 2GB RAM, $35 for a keyboard, $30 for a new battery?  That’s $115 for an underpowered laptop that is weighed down by a non-functional optical drive.
  • Dell Mini10.  Another twice fixed computer, zero battery (it holds absolutely no charge), tight keyboard, and small screen with a pretty poor resolution.
    • Nothing can be done about the screen, its resolution, or battery.  I could get a new battery, but my concern is there’s some flaw on the motherboard causing it to systematically kill the battery.  When traveling I take this laptop with me and use it to connect into my home network via a VPN.  It would be better with a battery, but with the screen as bad as it is, I’m not looking to spend much time using this computer.  This is the laptop I booted with Ubuntu and wasn’t able to connect to my WiFi network. 4

I’m somewhat undecided on what to do.  Should I get a new computer or try to get one of these running better?

  • Anything over 2-3 hours is great.  Bonus points for more.
  • Minus points for an optical drive – I have an external and don’t need the extra weight.
  • Keyboard and monitor size can be small, as long as it has good resolution.
  • Any current processor is fine, I offload all big tasks (video transcoding, etc) to brainier machines on the home VPN, but 2GB RAM is pretty key
  • Lower price is better, obv.

Anyone have any suggestions?  Either for repairing or what you’d recommend for a laptop?

  1. Stuck on red, if you must know [↩]
  2. Seriously, Tom – who the hell deletes an operating system… TWICE??? [↩]
  3. Amusing note:  in order to circumvent this problem, there is a “+=” contained on every page of this blog – in white text on the white background.  When I need either symbol, I just pull up this site, copy the character I need, paste, and rock on. [↩]
  4. I suspect there was some problem with Ubuntu not recognizing my WiFi card [↩]

All that is wrong with Intelectual Property laws

This year’s Nobel prize for physics went to Andre Geim for the development of a process for creating a sheet of graphene 1 atom thick which has useful electrical and physical properties. 1 Apparently Geim approached an electronics manufacturer about his discovery and whether his company would be willing to sponsor their patent for the next 20 years.  Here’s the guy’s direct quote:

We are looking at graphene, and it might have a future in the long term. If after ten years we find it’s really as good as it promises, we will put a hundred patent lawyers on it to write a hundred patents a day, and you will spend the rest of your life, and the gross domestic product of your little island, suing us.

That guy just epitomizes all that is wrong with intellectual property laws.  Believe it or not, most lawyers aren’t all that bad.  They’re basically tools, robots, if you will, when you think about it.  You tell them what you want and they go about trying to make it happen.  It’s not all that different than using a computer to do something for you.  You don’t care about all the zeroes and ones that change hands, you’re just happy that Facebook now reflects that you like puppies who think they’re people. 2

Someone approaches you because they think you might like their idea and you respond with:

I will sue you.  I will sue you until your life is nothing but a smoking crater.  I will personally see to it that everything you have ever loved or that has ever loved you is burned.  The very earth under each of your footsteps since birth shall be salted so that every living thing on this planet will know in their bones that you have lead a cursed life.  Your words will be twisted by soulless ghouls until even your own memory betrays you.  And, after all of that, you will look upon today and this moment as the least painful thing you have ever experienced.3

Why not just say, “Oh, no thank you.”

I mean, maybe we’re only getting half the story.  Maybe Geim just said something about this guy’s wife.    Maybe Geim said he was going to sue this guy.  Maybe Geim is a mean drunk.  But I tend to doubt it.

As much as I love open source projects, I also think intellectual property laws can be a very good thing.  If you have a great idea, why not get paid for it?  That said, I’m in favor of very short terms for copyright and patents.  Let a big company make a huge breakthrough – and let us, the guys in the garages, take it farther once the patents are up.  That certainly happened with Stratsys’s patent on FDM.

Profit and compensation are not bad things.  Intellectual property laws allow people to devote themselves to great ideas, advancing science and understanding.  They also allow people to make a living based on the quality of their ideas, rather than the quantity of their ideas.  This is to be encouraged.  But, ,making terms too long allow for crazy abuse scenarios – and incentivizes jerks who are willing to hire a hundred automatons to file a hundred patents and tie up a scientist in a nightmarish litigation hell for the rest of his life.

</rant>

  1. Thanks Slashdot [↩]
  2. What do you mean you don’t?  What kind of monster are you?!? [↩]
  3. How’s that for a scary Halloween story? [↩]

Go, UPS! Fly like the wind!

I’ve been SOOO anxious to use my Cupcake again.  The withdrawal symptoms have been insane.  And the cool stuff on Thingiverse keeps rolling in.  I swear, ever since I melted one of their servers, their service has been suuuuuhhhhhh-lloooooowwww.1

My new extruder board is set to arrive today…  I can’t wait!  I’ll have to find an excuse to leave work early…

  1. I don’t know how to design a printable server, so my promised replacement will have to wait… [↩]

Moore’s Law of Blogging

“MakerBlock will double his nonsense output and become more incomprehensible every six months.”

Thanks Erik!

Edit: For those of you who don’t want to click through, Erik de Bruijn’s tweet was:

The amount of #RepRap news also appears to double every 6 months. It’s becoming hard to follow even a good portion of it, @makerblock! ;)

Hey, Erik – if you think it’s hard following even a good portion of RepRap news, try following the bad portion of it here!

Wakka wakka wakka! 1  I’ll be here all week – try the veal!

  1. For some reason I’ve been channeling Fozzie Bear… [↩]

Unbelievable deal on Cupcake CNC’s

Apparently MakerBot is getting ready to launch a new 3D printer and is putting their Cupcake CNC’s on sale.  I’ve had an absolute blast with my MakerBot over the last nine months.  I bought the Deluxe Kit for $950.  With shipping and taxes it came to just over $1,000.  I haven’t confirmed it with MakerBot, but it looks like their new Cupcake Starter kit is the same thing as their Deluxe kit except it doesn’t have the extra 5 pounds of plastic.  Sure, this kit doesn’t have the MK5 plastruder, heated build platform, or automated build platform – which means it’s basically identical to Cupcake kits sold a year ago.  Oh, and the Starter kit is only $650.

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a 3D printer anyhow, this is your chance.  I don’t know what the new printer is, but $650 is a crazy deal for a kit with everything you need.1

  1. Yes, I now write for the MakerBot blog, but all I really do is post what I would have written here anyhow over on their blog.  I don’t get kickbacks or anything for saying how awesome I think this deal is. [↩]

Why is NPR suddenly talking about the zombie apocalypse???

I don’t know what the deal with NPR is, but they’ve been giving a lot of attention to the zombie apocalypse lately.  I’m being totally serious.

Last Friday they interviewed someone with a book about math and the zombie apocalypse.  A few days before that they had a bit about a course in zombie studies.  Today I heard a caller on their morning call-in show ask a question about the zombie apocalypse. 1

What is it about zombies, apocalypses, or zombie apocalypses that has brought these issues to the forefront of NPR’s coverage?

Halloween?  Full moons?  The recent Resident Evil movie?

  1. It seems that this trend may go back well over a year… [↩]

Inside scoop on the MakerBot decision to launch an announcement of an impending launch

This morning MakerBot tweeted:

Last week we launched the MakerBot Automated Build Platform and the MakerBot Cyclops 3D Scanner and this week we’ve got more to launch!

Uh, let me guess guys – this week you will launch an announcement announcing the launching of a MakerBot Cyclops Automated MK37 3D Build Plastruder Platform Scanner DIY kit. 1

This just isn’t fair.  I’m still enjoying my Plastruder MK5 and looking forward to automated building.  Just because Christmas is a lot of fun doesn’t mean sixteen Christmases back to back are sixteen times better. 2  Besides, we’re in a recession hoping for an economic recovery – and here you are basically causing the financial ruin of Tony Buser. 3

  1. These announcements of launches of announcements remind me of the recent Daily Show / Colbert Report build up for their competing rallies… [↩]
  2. Just 2 to the power of 4 times as many paper cuts. [↩]
  3. With Tony unable to afford clouds, where will our SCADs live??? [↩]