The Maker Bot Petting Zoo. 3D printing technology in the main stream.

Back in March of 2011 I wrote a blog post about 3D printers and how I thought it would change the lives of our kids, kids.  I don't think my foreshadowing was too far off the mark. This last week, the creators of the MakerBot held Maker Faire, their expo for fans and enthusiasts. If you are unfamiliar, MakerBot is a company that makes the Replicator (right) an affordable, home version of the 3D printing technology that previously was only available to major manufacturers due to the cost. It appears that it has taken off. One of the very cool things they did for the fair was to create a 'petting zoo' with a band of misfit robots that were all created using the Replicator. All I can say is hey, - isn't Fathers Day right around the corner?

Check out these two very cool videos on the project.

Another interesting side note… I have had this blog for about 18 months now and during that time have written 65 posts. Based on my traffic flow statistics, even 14 months later, that original post still drives more traffic to my blog than anything else I have written. It must have gained some traction in Google search results on the topic. Yet another indicator that this technology will likely be ubiquitous when our kids have kids.

--- Bonus material

If you are interested in this stuff. Cory Doctorow wrote a great book (fiction) called Makers that utilizes 3D printing technology as a central character. Its with a read, and its free from his site.

Inspiring personal philosophy - and great advice.

Each spring, schools from across the country produce another graduating class of seniors, and occasionally a commencement speech or two bubble to the top, (and as a result to my attention) Many are worthy of worthy of consumption. This year is no exception and a recent speech by Neil Galman to the University of the Arts class of 2012 tastes especially good. Mr Galman's soft spoken philosophy on life is spot on, and is something it took me more than forty years to realize. With my youngest daughter set to graduate in just a few days, this information is timely and my hope is that she discovers her passion - what ever it ends up being, and pursues that with reckless abandon.

Taylor, I am immensely proud of you!

My personal favorite part is his take on 'three important values'

1) Do Good Work (make great art).

2) Always be nice to people.

3) Meet your deadlines.

He further riffs: 'Only achieving two out of the tree is just fine, and it does not matter which two… You can be an ass, if your work is good, and is on time. You can be late if your work is good and you are nice to people. Your work does not even have to be that good, if its is on time and people like you (because you are nice to them!)'  - A truer statement was never spoken.

The speech is most definitely worth the twenty minutes.

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Bonus content….. if you have the time.

Steve Jobs' excellent commencement address to Stanford in 2005.

Personal Data Lockers, the Semantic Web and Digital Exhaust. (Tangent of the week) - If you have a few minutes….

Personal Data Lockers and the Semantic Web.

Today I was wandering amlessly about the inter webs and discovered something very cool and amazing. It was akin to the very first time I ever saw Google Earth. I knew technology was at a milestone, and our lives were about to change for the better. - Now, five years later, everyone has a smart phone, and communicates ubiquitously.  Between Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Street view - you can see anywhere in the world (and even Mars!)

Thats how I feel again. I consider myself pretty tech savvy, however I must have been under a rock for the last couple of years, because apparently this concept and stuff has been out for a while now, but this is the first time I am hearing about it. I'm talking about the concept of Personal Data Lockers and the Semantic Web.  Are you not sure what the heck that is?  Well rather then try to explain it to you, David Siegel does a very nice job in this little video.

Ok, so I know what you are now saying to yourself.  Sure, thats a pretty utopian prediction of what could be an Orwellian future. - So stay with me for just a moment. Toss in the vision of a company like IBM and you get the Semantic Web. Here are some of the possibilities.

This led me to a new term I have never heard of. Digital Exhaust. In essence all of the footprints left behind from your and my web searches, browsing activity, check in's, etc. Aggregated, this data has proven to be very powerful, and also predictive of our future needs. This makes a lot of sense to me - as humans are repetitive by nature, and as a result, their future needs can be predicted by their past behavior. As your high school Social Studies teacher often said - History repeats itself. Here is another take and "intro for Noobs" on the semantic web.

 So now your thinking - well, thats all good and fine - in ten years…

-  No. There is currently an open source project called The Locker Project.. Founded  by Jeremy Miller. There is a couple of pretty interesting articles on what he is trying to accomplish here and here.

Well - if you have made it this far, here are a couple of more interesting videos on the possibilities of this kind of data aggregation and use.

Back to David Siegel again - this time on the concept of pull.

 Well now that I've taken up an hour of your life… you may return to what ever it was you were doing - with your head spinning as to the possibilities. I know mine is.