Random Nonsense – Page 53

Why tweet?

Seriously, why “Tweet”? ¹

If I had never known about Twitter and were asked to start a company exactly like it, I would have called it “Bleeter” instead. Anything you said in 140 characters would be a “Bleet.” And, best of all, the phrase “Follow me” would just make SO much more sense when you’re talking about sheep.

I’m pretty late to the whole “Twitter” phenom. [↩]

Sometimes a good deal isn’t

Several months ago I made an impulse buy at the local hardware store. I picked up a utility knife that came with 6 blades for $1. It was a good deal, if even for just the razors, and I couldn’t find my usual $3 knife.

Here they are, side by side. My trusty Stanley utility knife on top. This knife has a good heft, stores a few extra blades in its handle, and is slightly wider, making for a more comfortable grip. The two sides also interlock as well as screw into one another. Clicking the blade out another notch requires a small amount of force – just enough so you’ll never do it by accident – and so that it will stay in each notch as long as you don’t intentionally depress the button.

On the bottom is my no-name brand knife. It’s lighter, slightly thinner, rattles with the extra blades inside, and the button to extend/retract the blade has a little bit of wobble and play to it. Also, there’s no interlocking between the two halves.

I discovered that the seams between the two halves of the cheapie utility knife left a lot to be desired. While using the knife I felt a sharp poke in my palm. Turns out that some of the spare razor blades were poking through the incomplete seam.

So, if you’re headed to the hardware store, invest the extra $2 in the better knife. :)

Lazzersaurus Rex, I choose you!

Tony Buser, my origami laser dinosaurs accept your challenge.

SyFy Movie: MakerBlock origami laser dinosaurs Vs Buser's Laser Dinsosaur

Oh. Dang. That did not appear to go well for Team Buser. ¹ You probably didn’t realize the scale of those origami dinosaurs before issuing your challenge. See, that’s a laser canon, not a laser pointer.

Also, sorry about your robot dinosaur. I’ll print you a new one. :) ²

You see, I use EVIL origami paper. [↩]
Friends again? [↩]

Dinosaurs with lasers

There’s a new poll to the right. Basically, “Should Makerbot hire MakerBlock to blog for them?” So, take 5 seconds and cast your vote. Then, on to pictures of dinosaurs with lasers!!!

Unrealistic expectations

The guys at MakerBot just posted a job opening for a MakerBot blogger. As if their list of qualifications wasn’t daunting enough, the tweet that follows… Well, I’ll just let it speak for itself.

MakerBot Blogger Wanted: http://bit.ly/dur4vK (also: dinosaurs with lasers wanted)

You want a robot obsessed dinosaur with lasers? ¹ What kind of a job posting is that?

I don’t recall that as an option on career day. [↩]

I’m sorry you had to find out like this

Dear lovely wife,

I never meant for this to happen. It just sort of happened. It all started so innocently – reading about the RepRap project, going to the MakerFaire, buying a MakerBot, starting this blog, extra plastic here and there… and then MakerBot advertised for a blogger.

Tell the kids I love them, don’t forget to feed the dog, and there’s a post-it on the dresser for my boss.¹

If you need to reach me, I’ll be camped out 87 3rd Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217 until they let me in and hire me.

Love,

MakerBlock

See? I can be succinct. [↩]

Real life sonic screwdriver

This morning I received an e-mail from Bre out of the blue introducing me to Travis Goodspeed. Apparently Travis has been working on building sonic screwdriver guts out of the GoodFET, a universal JTAG programmer, a “sonic screwdriver of hacking.” Travis suggested a GoodFET could be programmed to act as a TV-B-Gone, light show, or any number of other things. Given that his circuit board is about 3″ x 0.85″ x 0.2″¹ , there shouldn’t be a problem finding space for it in the sonic screwdriver I’m in the middle of designing. ²

Freaking sweet.

So, here’s my real life sonic screwdriver wishlist:

Lights. Red LED³ , white LED⁴ , green LED⁵ , and a UV LED⁶
An actual screwdriver bit or spot where you can attach a screwdriver bit. It would just be cool to have a sonic screwdriver that could be used as a screwdriver.
A shakey Tic-Tac container style recharger. Having a sonic screwdriver that doesn’t need batteries would be awesome.
A tiny speaker that played the sonic screwdriver sound.
A tiny magnet. I remember watching Doctor Who back in the day, black and white old school episodes, where he used his sonic screwdriver to take screws out of things, bolts out of doors, etc in the worst stop motion animation the BBC could get away with. Still, if this sonic screwdriver had a magnet, it could actually affect a physical change via magnetic force.
TV-B-Gone. On the episode “Midnight” Doctor Who shuts off a bunch of TV’s using his sonic screwdriver. This would be an INCREDIBLE feature!
Flash drive and/or mini-memory card reader. Perhaps with the entire library from PortableApps.com installed.

For those of you non-imperialists out there: 76.2mm x 21.59mm x 5.08mm [↩]
TBuser, if you want to help, lemme know! [↩]
For night vision. Also, there are suggestions that a sonic screwdriver can have a “red setting.” [↩]
As a flashlight. [↩]
The 11th Doctor’s screwdriver has a green light. [↩]
For making things fluoresce such as secret messages, blood stains, and monsters. [↩]

Tyvek Sled Kite… from office supplies

The picture to the right is of a kite that I built several weeks ago and only got around to actually flying this weekend. It’s basically made out of office supplies. :)

Originally I just wanted to make the Tyvek sled kite from the Howtoons shown in Craft Magazine, Volume 8. ¹ But then I wanted to see how much of the kite I could assemble just using things from the office. The answer is, basically all of it.

The Howtoons calls for:

A large sheet of Tyvek
Tyvek tape
A washer
Ruler
Scissors

Instead I used:

Tyvek from Tyvek office envelopes, rather than a large sheet or roll of Tyvek house wrap. My office is sent dozens of these things a day. It didn’t take long to collect 30 plus.
Clear packing tape. I used this instead of Tyvek tape. Tyvek tape would have worked a LOT better, but I have no complaints.
Rather than use a washer, I used a spare keyring. I had other various office supply bits hanging around in case this didn’t work out. Paperclips, binder clips, etc.
Yardstick.
Scissors.

Since the envelopes are significantly smaller than the sheet of Tyvek rolls, I had to either make my kite smaller or stitch them together into a larger sheet. I did both. I scaled the plans down to about 2/3rds the size from the diagrams and then used packing tape to put them all together. To get the most surface area out of each envelope, I burst all of the envelopes at the seams and then taped them up. Once I had a 36″ tall sheet, I started cutting it into the pieces I needed, re-taped it back together as indicated by the diagram, and then set it aside for weeks while I didn’t fly it. :)

On the day of the launch I made the tail out of strips of leftover envelopes taped together with the gluey bits from some of the envelope flap sealants and more packing tape. I punched a hole in the three ribs using a pen, ran the line through each of the three ribs, reinforced it with more packing tape… and launched.

The only non-office supply things used in the construction were:

Crayons for coloring the kite (hard to see)
The ruler – I don’t have a yardstick at work
The kite line, purchased from Amazon

It flew pretty well.

I found a copy of all three pages after googling around a little. Howtoons: Sled on a Thread pages 1 2, 3 [↩]

Measurements of a pen

Pictured are:

The pen end and handle. 9.89mm in outer diameter. 8.06mm in inner diameter. 76.92mm in length, when the button is totally recessed.
The pen front. 68.00mm in length. 8.25 in outer diameter at the middle. 7.91 in outer diameter at the screw threads. 6.35mm in inner diameter.
The spring. It is 19.67mm tall, uncompressed. 6.36mm, compressed. 5.53mm in outer diameter, 4.54mm in inner diameter. The wire is 0.47mm in diameter.
The rubber grip. 1.3mm thick. 8.41mm inner diameter. 37.77mm in length.
The ink cartridge. It is 6.03mm in diameter. 110.47mm in length. Filled with ink.

Why am I telling you these things? Stay tuned…

Advice for MakerBot based businesses

Pete Hinzy left a comment asking:

I am also attempting to start up a small business with the focus on providing low cost, custom parts. I have one customer now but have struggled trying to “reach the masses”. Any thoughts?

Hi Pete!

Well, you asked for it!

First and foremost, absolutely, positively, get a copy of Guy Kawasaki’s Reality Check. At $20, it is the best investments you’re going to make in your business, hands down. This book distills his advice from his several other books and insanely fantastic blog posts on starting a business, business development, etc. He gives simple actual concrete advice on how to take yourself from someone with an idea to a person who has their own business. I own two of his books and follow his blog and the ideas and suggestions in his book have been invaluable to me as a small businessperson and entrepreneur. You’re going to read and re-read this book, refer back to it, pour over it’s index, write in the margins, and dogear pages. It’s that good.
Invest in your own domain name, installation of WordPress, and a new theme. It’s cheap and seems more professional. There are hundreds and thousands of free themes. Once you get people to your website, you want them to stick around.
Tell people about yourself! Blog, tweet, and other stuff! Talk about the things about your MakerBot you’re enthusiastic about. Your enthusiasm will show through. Don’t just re-post or post a link to someone else’s information. Blogs are so much more than that. Put your own spin on it. They’re additive forms of communication, people keep building on things others have said or done and contribute to the conversation. You’ve posted a link because you find it interesting – tell us why.
Every week more and more people are searching for information about MakerBots and RepRap. What is a MakerBot’s print resolution? How hard is it to put a MakerBot together? What do I need to build a RepRap? Answer the questions your potential customers have and they will come to you.
One of Kawaskai’s best bits of advice is, “Let a thousand flowers bloom.” Basically, try anything, try everything, see what works, what doesn’t, learn and improve. I’ve done some prototyping for people with my MakerBot and am now running a pseudo-auction for a 3x2x1 Rubik’s Cube. I didn’t plan on selling this prototype – but it occurred to me that it was a fairly popular thing on Thingiverse, I won’t have need of this as I work on better designs, perhaps someone would like to own it? Try out some new ideas. You could focus on printing small-run custom parts – but what if there’s a better use or market for your MakerBot? Perhaps you might find it more lucrative to print Mendel or Mini-Mendel parts. Keep your eyes and ears open for new possibilities and new ideas and new markets.
Use your existing customer. Ask your current customer what they want, how they use things, how you can help them more, what other ideas they have.
I recently posted the results from my MakerBot poll. There’s a lot of good information in there about what people like about MakerBots and why they’re interested. This would be a good resource if you wanted to create a business geared towards these people or just write more content you think they would enjoy.