Peer To Peer Meets Manufacturing

Crashmarik writes "Small times has an article detailing UCB advances in desktop manufacturing. They raise the possibility for effectively downloading physical objects through the net. We have allready seen the reaction "Property Holders" over downloading music, what is the likely upshot of being able to copy physical objects. More importantly what are the implications for our society as we move out of an age of scarcity to an age of plenty ?" Great article - the author of it also won The Foresight Institute's prize in communications for 2002.

Comments

Some suggestions for the Linux community

[JismTroll]

Hi,

I've always used Windowz and I consider myself an exceptional Visual
Basic programmer, so I know computers pretty good. In fact I got an A-
in my programming class last term. But I'm a little wary of how much
power Microsoft has in the computer field. Many of my friends use
RedHat and I've recently installed it on my machine at home. Although
I haven't had as much chance to play with it as I'd like, I've been
greatly impressed.

This weekend I gave some thoughts to the things that are wrong with
Linux. I hope no one minds having some flaws pointed out. I'd like to
help make RedHat stronger so it can conquer MS. Hopefully RedHat will
hear this (crossing fingers) and address these. I think with a little
effort, RedHat's Linux can defeat Microsoft's Windows! :)

To begin with, there are too many different flavors of RedHat.
Browsing a list on Amazon, I saw they made varients under the
codenames of Mandrake, Debian and Slackware, just to name a few. I
know that I'm very new to RedHat so maybe this is obvious but it seems
like RedHat should just sell a few different flavors of its operating
system. Perhaps one for the desktop and one for a server? Could
someone explain why RedHat produces dozens of different versions of
Linux?

Secondly did you know that anyone can view the source code to Linux! I
think that RedHat shouldn't make its code available. After all, what
keeps Microsoft from stealing RedHat's ideas and putting it into
Windows? My friend says that FreeBSD stole the TCP/IP stack from DOS a
long time ago and Microsoft is always looking for revenge for that.
Plus it seems to me like RedHat is just giving away its ideas for
free. And what keeps hackers or terrorists from tampering with the
code and putting a virus in every computer?

On a related note, why doesn't RedHat write Linux in assembly? My
friend says that's what Microsoft does for Windows, and that's why
Windows is faster and more stable than Linux.

Next RedHat definitely should kill -9 (ha, ha!) the command line.
Microsoft finally gave up DOS when Windows 2000 came out. I'm suprised
that RedHat hasn't migrated away from...whatever its version of DOS is
called (Bash, I think?) But maybe this is planned for a future
release?

Finally Linux needs games! RedHat will never be successful in the home
without games. They should also tell M$ to release a version of Office
for Linux too. And Internet Explorer!

Have a nice day! Go Linux!!

I wonder

[mjmalone]

How much they're gunna charge for the ink...

Whole new meaning to adult entertainment online

[192939495969798999]

How long will it be with this system in place until you can download the most ungodly of things from adult entertainment sites? EEEEW!

Slashdot 20 years from now

[daveo0331]

We'll all be complaining about the CIAA (Car Industry Association of America), CBAA (Coffee Brewers Association of America), BBAA (Beer Brewers Association of America) etc etc etc

Re:Slashdot 20 years from now

[radja]

but why would you want the recipe to bud light?

Re:Slashdot 20 years from now

[richie2000]

but why would you want the recipe to bud light?

Because it's the cheapest one to replicate? You just run some tap water over a can of Real Beer(TM) and drink the resulting fluid. Make sure the can is clean first and remember to not open it, that will ruin the unique Bud flavor.

One step better

[m00nun1t]

I already downloaded a piece of software from a site and as soon as I ran it a cupholder appeared from my PC!

remember "All Tomorrow's Parties"?

[mblase]

I'm holding out* for the day when we can go to the corner 7-11 and order up a beautiful woman, right through the nanobot replicator.

* Dear God, no, not in that sense.

Re:remember "All Tomorrow's Parties"?

[micromoog]

I'm holding out for the day when we can go to the corner 7-11 and order up a beautiful woman

You can do that today at the corner of 7th and 11th.

Let me be the first to announce...

[Lord_Slepnir]

Let me be the first to announce the open-source Car project. I'm currently on version 0.2. We have the chasis mostly bug-free, with occasional glitches on an Interstate network. Seat-Belts are available on the nightly builds, but aren't supported yet. You'll still have to use a closed-source engine module, and we're not planning on adding it until version .5 when we have the chasis, firewall, and fuel system components some-what bug free. I've heard some people saying that they've been able to use the engine module from the Open-Source-Lawn-Mower project, but it will only work under light loads. For now, I have to get back to developing the lights module. BTW, we're looking for someone to design a module-hot-swaping system, similar to linux.

p2p Cadillac

[AtariAmarok]

Oh great. Instead of the RIAA wondering about those songs on your hard disk, you'll have the NAM (National Association of Manufacturers) getting after you because you have 60 full-sized plastic Cadillacs downloaded from Repster in your back yard.

Please god, not on windows.

[Lord_Slepnir]

C:\buildColt.exe
C:\buildDeagle.exe
C:\buildAmmo.exe

Clippy: It looks like you're going on a shooting spree. Would you like me to help?

Re:Yeah and if we do have cold fusion what happens

[katre]

Infinite free energy, along with infinite free labor, = socialism/communism, just like the P2P networks.

SO you've perfected a way to turn energy into food? I don't think these printers will make a nice juicy steak as well as they make blenders.

No it�s from bbspot!!

[PEdelman]

And it was intended as a joke...

WARNING

[Lord_Slepnir]

I just noticed on the Nightly build that one of the seatbelts hacks I put in will lock-up the steering wheel if you try to lean too far forward. I think the cause is an oil leak in one of the components. One of my testers reported a Red-windsheild of death after this happened on a Pennsylvania backroad.

Obligatory Book Reference 2: HHGTTG

[scrawny]

what happens when we want tea? we get

'...a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.'

sweet

[Leahar]

does this meen i can now download a 60" flat screen of kazaa??? when this goes go live my internet connections going to get bent over a table and brutaly shafted till i have enough screens to wall paper my room with :) oh what a glorious sight it will be any one know of a video card that can support 60 or so monitors? (wipes foam from mouth while ignoring nerious looks of surounding office workers)

Re:Wrong word, bro

[Nugget]

Errors like this are pardon parcel with someone having learned the language from speaking and not from reading. This is slashdot, after all, and we're not looking for people to post pullet surprise quality comments, but it is discouraging to see people make mistakes like using the wrong word. The original poster could of used a dictionary or thesaurus to avoid that mistake. For all intensive purposes your words are the only measure that others can use to judge your credibility. You loose credibility if you can't form a coherent and compelling argument. This is the affect of writing poorly.

So, to the original poster I say this: "Your a idiot."

Read.

Would have made a good Star Trek episode

[Lord of the Fries]

P2P Replicators! Imagine an episode where Picard & Pals visit some forlorn world, cast in societal chaos because of P2P replicating. Wesly of course uses a diothermal tectride coated coconut to offer a compromise solution and Picard offers some sage advice about the Prime Directive at the end. If only I was a couple of years earlier :(