Tag Archives: someone

Open Source Monopolies, Unicorns, and Perpetual Motion Machines

Posted on by

Want a hint?  They’re all imaginary.

There’s no such thing as a monopoly on a truly open source hardware project.  So what if someone cornered the market on some critical widget?  The plans are open source and your options are infinite:

  • Build your own widget.
  • Hire someone to make it for you.
  • Design an alternate part.
  • Design a new assembly using more available part.
  • Hack a work around until you can get the part.

Or, my personal favorite:

  • Start your own business producing and selling that very same critical widget.

These are not problems.  These are opportunities for creativity and innovation.

MakerBot starter kit

Posted on by

A little while ago someone posted on the MakerBot Operators group that they were looking for printed pulleys.  Apparently he had managed to scavenge or hack together everything else.

This got me wondering – what printed parts would someone need to get a MakerBot rolling?  There’s the obvious printed pulleys.  If I had a friend who was putting one together, I’d probably want to give them a spare insulator retainer ring and Z axis pulley.  What else should be in a MakerBot starter/welcome kit?

Upload right now!!!

Posted on by

Do you have an idea for a printable object that’s been kicking around in your head?  Perhaps you even designed a digital object and you’re patiently1 waiting for your MakerBot to arrive.  Sure, it might be untested or even unprintable.  I discovered that no matter how obscure one of my designs might be someone else is going to be interested in it.  Someone is going to print it, improve it, or give you some feedback.

So, upload the design files and see what happens!

  1. or impatiently [↩]