
Slice and Carve: The Next Wave in Computer-Aided Creativity - danshapiro
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/slice-and-carve-the-next-wave-in-computer-aided-creativity/?_r=0
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mrcactu5
I think "technology" has become synonymous with mobile technology and their
screens. Too much attention is being drawn to phones, while changing our
ability to communicate with each other, our ability to physically manipulate
the world has not moved forward.

On top of that, 3D printers and laser cutting machines are still pretty
expensive. It will take about a decade before they are within reach to
everybody.

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danshapiro
Cost is one thing I'm not worried about. Makerbot lead the way by making an
additive 3D ready-to-use printer available at <$3k. Now Dremel's got a
consumer 3D printer at $1k. There are credible projects to get small-build-
volume 3D printers down at $250 and Peachy's taking a reasonable swing to get
it under $100 (disclaimer: kickstarter backer).

Glowforge is now tackling this for lasers. We're still a ways away from
shipping, but we're already confident we can get the price under that of a
Makerbot.

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keenerd
Laser cutters are probably where it is at. They are lower maintenance, faster
and can make sturdier objects. But not like this: "A camera inside the laser
cutting chamber and image processing in the cloud will take the place of a
part called a motion planner." Great, now we have a printer that needs a high
speed internet connection to proprietary servers just to operate, after
uploading everything you print to the cloud. As if the shenanigans that the
inkjet people pull are not bad enough, think of how anti-consumer and anti-
maker this is going to be.

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danshapiro
I hear you. As we set out to design the Glowforge, we did not make the
decision lightly to engineer it as a network-native device. It makes the
experience better in many ways - lower cost, more powerful, and easier to use
- but the flip side is that if you're not connected, you can't use it. That's
a real drawback.

That said, we prefer our Dropcams to our closed circuit TVs and our Fitbits to
our pedometers. We realize that some people may not like the tradeoffs we
made, but we hope some folks are as excited about it as we are.

~~~
keenerd
Ethically if it is truly nothing more than a cost saving measure, you'll do
the $0 option and release a completely unsupported server disk image for
people to self-host on their LAN. Think of how much money you can save on CPU
and network ingress.

On a purely technical side, I have a strong suspicion that "cost saving" is a
smokescreen. A camera would be useful for quality assurance, A/B testing new
routing equations and at most calibrating the origin point of the bed. But
maybe I am a little jaded from SimCity 5.

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stefanix
For everybody who was into legos as a child there is the ultimate open source
laser cutter: [http://www.lasersaur.com](http://www.lasersaur.com)

Build it like this:
[http://www.lasersaur.com/manual/build/](http://www.lasersaur.com/manual/build/)

Control it with your browser:
[http://www.lasersaur.com/manual/software](http://www.lasersaur.com/manual/software)

Disclaimer: I have a Lasersaur an I am a dev person for it.

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nfmangano
I would love to be able to pair their 3d printer with this ipad laser cutter
design app: [http://www.zotebookapp.com/](http://www.zotebookapp.com/)

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dcoriginal
What exactly makes it a "3D" laser cutter?

Also I have to call out Mr. Wingfield for calling a milling machine a "reverse
3D printer". Really!?

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joshu
I love my othermill. I ended up investing in the company.

