Tempest in a Teapot of idiots. You can legally or illegally buy or steal a gun 100 times faster than doing it on a "3D Printer."
No criminal would waste his time. Only a person who is super interested in being a designer would take the time and expense to do this an exercise.
Reliable guns need metals for critical parts to function reliably for any length of time and they need to be done to tolerances and surface finishes that RP printers can NOT accomplish.
When the inside of computer code, not just built in access to a program, becomes known to an inside coder who decides to go rogue, you get...the $45 million heist from ATMs that just occurred. Is the 'Bloomberg Break In' any different?
Dozens of articles on Slashdot over the last 12 months concern various security flaws and the dozens of ways they are subverted.
There is a real question as to whether keepers of large databases and their executions can be kept safe doing it the way it has been done to date.
As Bill Gates was just quoted, 90% of MS software in use in the Chinese government offices and in large companies (mostly government owned) is pirated.
If Adobe is doing this to stop piracy in foreign countries that is their choice. That doesn't mean Adobe will be my choice.
I think I will do my light duty image editing in other applications from now on. No way am I going to store images of patent pending proprietary products on Adobe's servers or my own equipment that Adobe can deny me access to whenever I don't come up with their monthly fee, for whatever reason (ever heard of credit card theft and a card is cancelled: been there already).
Private equity people who have industry insider knowledge about digital video or a company that wants to partner for being able to co-brand or use the technology may be a better partner where they can see a benefit to their current work, clients or product output.
These people may value the product and investment higher than a VC...
I have gone through this before. I have had a pitch where 100+ VCs would not return with an email or other response.
Get the right insider who used to be with "the competition" or "the industry leader" or "just sold his company" in this field and you can see a deal in a few weeks. Why? Because they already know the market, difficulties and reason why your answer is what is needed for people's needs. These types of people have their own sources and often sell themselves on the deal. That is what you want to aim for.
Plus you are likely to see a higher valuation on your work. Instead of you and your partner getting 20% of the company, maybe you both split 40% or more.
Seriously, who these PATENT EXAMINERS think they are ? God incarnate ?
ANSWER: Yes!
I had a valuable patent rejected because the patent examiner said a straight spline item in my product was a helical spiral and therefore was prior art like all other screw threads.
I didn't ask my patent attorney to yell at them, but nothing he could do including a personal call resulted in the examiner backing off their erroneous position. I just had to give up.
Once you get familiar with 3D solids and RP printers, what does it take to get a custom box with a lid and latch as someone above considered?
You have to model up at least 3 pieces and how the fit, hinge, lock and go together. Been there, done that and sometimes that is 10-20 hours if there are subtleties you must develop for sealing, locating, strength, draft & such.
Then you email the models to your contract job shop RP modeler. His guys evaluate the models and may let you know you have defects in the 3D model and ask you to fix them. More modeling. Then you send them off they quote and if it is shoe box sized, you pay by the cubic inch and machine time, so don't be surprised if the RP machine takes 8 hours for the parts and costs you $1000.
I personally would go to K-Mart, The Container Store or Home Depot & find a stock plastic box.
Hobbyist RP printers are just that. It is like the difference between a go-cart and a McLaren F1.
Each printer does only 1 or 2 material types, each with its own characteristics that can be good for some uses and not so good for others.
Soft elastomerics & elastomerics on hard plastic can be done on Objet machines and they are very useful for mocking up co-molded parts that would be produced by multi-shot injection molding later. They can look nearly like finished molded products.
Strong Nylon parts can be made in Stratysis laser sintering machines, but the layer thickness, dimensional accuracy and fuzzy surface of finished parts can result in a lot of cleanup hand work to get a decent part.
For snap fit parts there are some newer materials that act more like Polypropylene now, but there are still limits to judging "feel" from RP parts because the surface finish is not like molded parts at all.
No RP machine produces the equivalent of injection molded parts that I am aware of.
You have to dive into the real world and get hands on to be able to get familiar with and judge the real world conditions of the various RP materials to find out what you can and can not do.
Been using 3D solids for rapid prototyping new medical equipment for over 15 years.
Job shops can make your parts quickly and relatively inexpensively compared to other machining and hand working methods, so that part is OK for prototyping and functional parts that can stand being done in the limited rapid prototyping materials & processes available.
Skills need are the understanding of the design of physical parts with all the subtleties and the desire to learn to use a competant 3D solids modeling environment. You don't walk in to this expecting a familiarity with PowerPoint as enough skill to do the job.
Competent 3D solids software from the likes of SolidWorks, AutoCAD or other similar programs start at about $5,000 per seat and they don't become highly usable until you get near $10k. It easily takes 1000-2000 hours to become good at doing 3D modeling, assuming you are already familiar with design and 2D CAD.
There are 3D solids RP machines in half a dozen types and you can't afford to buy them for hobby uses. Stratysis laser sintering for Nylon, SS & Titanium type things cost more than a Ferrari, so forget it, unless you are Jay Leno.
"What they did do was actually spend time talking to me and watching me."
Israeli security are trained heavily in how to watch, talk to, ask questions, banter, and totally focus on all reactions from the traveler to see any signs of tenseness, irritation or unusual reactions, however slight. These guys are true pros and not the wimpy minimum wage TSA types (yeah I know they make more than minimum wages).
From what I see of success it is spelled "Vertically Integrated" in mass market electronics and now with Google getting more adept and buying a "SIRI competitor" I am looking at Google getting its act together and making its own hardware and becoming more like Apple.
If Google does that and controls the updates for their customers like Apple does and possibly changes the Android license to HTC, et al, then I would count Google as being more consumer friendly and good.
If you come at it from the "Don't be evil" side for consumers, then I win: Google should license only phone vendors that promise to update their phones automatically for 5 years.
Very good question and it deserves to be answered.
If you are going to be good and do good, you should plan things in such a manner so that result occurs. Setting up a whole multi-hundred million or billion set of hand held computers that does not have inherent auto-upgrades (at least for security) as a part of the agreement to license your OS and use it safely is rather absurd in this day and age. We have gone through 20 years of malware on desktop PCs before Android hit the mainstream and Google could have been done right.
When you design a complex system and then go to implement it and tell everyone it is great and the future and the way it should be done, it must encompass maintenance issues to EOL conditions.
Google by putting out an entirely open system and promoting it without any constraints sounds nice but obviously puts users at risk and this was understandable when the project was started by Andy Rubin, so don't say Google was not warned.
Humans are far too delicate in space environments to continue to withstand the barrage of stellar battering by constant particles and radiation and the lack of gravity, where no objective evidence shows we can reproduce & expand a population in an extra-terristrial environment.
Slashdot Mirror
It is more complex than you suggest.
Tempest in a Teapot of idiots. You can legally or illegally buy or steal a gun 100 times faster than doing it on a "3D Printer."
No criminal would waste his time. Only a person who is super interested in being a designer would take the time and expense to do this an exercise.
Reliable guns need metals for critical parts to function reliably for any length of time and they need to be done to tolerances and surface finishes that RP printers can NOT accomplish.
If RIGHT, can you do anything about it with 7 billion people in the world, most of which don't care!
People don't get sucked into a "gadget" when they have real needs. Users want a product with a real answer they can RELY on.
You run an ex-pat travel agency, right?
3D guns are ludicrous to anyone who has ever used 3D printers and knows anything about the tolerances, surface finish and strengths needed for a gun.
Any criminal can by a top quality gun for far less than the software and printer needed to make a 3D printed toy plastic so-called gun.
Politicians have no clue as to the real world.
When the inside of computer code, not just built in access to a program, becomes known to an inside coder who decides to go rogue, you get...the $45 million heist from ATMs that just occurred. Is the 'Bloomberg Break In' any different?
Dozens of articles on Slashdot over the last 12 months concern various security flaws and the dozens of ways they are subverted.
There is a real question as to whether keepers of large databases and their executions can be kept safe doing it the way it has been done to date.
What is next?
As Bill Gates was just quoted, 90% of MS software in use in the Chinese government offices and in large companies (mostly government owned) is pirated.
If Adobe is doing this to stop piracy in foreign countries that is their choice. That doesn't mean Adobe will be my choice.
I think I will do my light duty image editing in other applications from now on. No way am I going to store images of patent pending proprietary products on Adobe's servers or my own equipment that Adobe can deny me access to whenever I don't come up with their monthly fee, for whatever reason (ever heard of credit card theft and a card is cancelled: been there already).
Well, if Adobe's $23 Billion market cap goes down when they go all subscription, maybe Apple will just buy it with pocket change.
I can see the viability of Adobe's functionality coming out of the Apple App Store with the updates and reliability I expect from Apple.
But the Board of Directors seems dominated by a few insiders like Gate & Ballmer, while the King is pretending the crown still fits.
Private equity people who have industry insider knowledge about digital video or a company that wants to partner for being able to co-brand or use the technology may be a better partner where they can see a benefit to their current work, clients or product output.
These people may value the product and investment higher than a VC...
I have gone through this before. I have had a pitch where 100+ VCs would not return with an email or other response.
Get the right insider who used to be with "the competition" or "the industry leader" or "just sold his company" in this field and you can see a deal in a few weeks. Why? Because they already know the market, difficulties and reason why your answer is what is needed for people's needs. These types of people have their own sources and often sell themselves on the deal. That is what you want to aim for.
Plus you are likely to see a higher valuation on your work. Instead of you and your partner getting 20% of the company, maybe you both split 40% or more.
As others have said, 'It is all about how the business makes cash.'
Who buys it, why and for how much money?
Is it an online processing via a web portal & FTP or does the customer license for use on a PC/Mac/Linux?
Bo.
That way your payments you dole out will really drop fast.
Executives in any industry tend to follow the lemming herd. Customers follow what works best.
Seriously, who these PATENT EXAMINERS think they are ? God incarnate ?
ANSWER: Yes!
I had a valuable patent rejected because the patent examiner said a straight spline item in my product was a helical spiral and therefore was prior art like all other screw threads.
I didn't ask my patent attorney to yell at them, but nothing he could do including a personal call resulted in the examiner backing off their erroneous position. I just had to give up.
Sounds like one more boost that will give impetus for more people to become involved in open source projects.
Once you get familiar with 3D solids and RP printers, what does it take to get a custom box with a lid and latch as someone above considered?
You have to model up at least 3 pieces and how the fit, hinge, lock and go together. Been there, done that and sometimes that is 10-20 hours if there are subtleties you must develop for sealing, locating, strength, draft & such.
Then you email the models to your contract job shop RP modeler. His guys evaluate the models and may let you know you have defects in the 3D model and ask you to fix them. More modeling. Then you send them off they quote and if it is shoe box sized, you pay by the cubic inch and machine time, so don't be surprised if the RP machine takes 8 hours for the parts and costs you $1000.
I personally would go to K-Mart, The Container Store or Home Depot & find a stock plastic box.
Hobbyist RP printers are just that. It is like the difference between a go-cart and a McLaren F1.
Each printer does only 1 or 2 material types, each with its own characteristics that can be good for some uses and not so good for others.
Soft elastomerics & elastomerics on hard plastic can be done on Objet machines and they are very useful for mocking up co-molded parts that would be produced by multi-shot injection molding later. They can look nearly like finished molded products.
Strong Nylon parts can be made in Stratysis laser sintering machines, but the layer thickness, dimensional accuracy and fuzzy surface of finished parts can result in a lot of cleanup hand work to get a decent part.
For snap fit parts there are some newer materials that act more like Polypropylene now, but there are still limits to judging "feel" from RP parts because the surface finish is not like molded parts at all.
No RP machine produces the equivalent of injection molded parts that I am aware of.
You have to dive into the real world and get hands on to be able to get familiar with and judge the real world conditions of the various RP materials to find out what you can and can not do.
Been using 3D solids for rapid prototyping new medical equipment for over 15 years.
Job shops can make your parts quickly and relatively inexpensively compared to other machining and hand working methods, so that part is OK for prototyping and functional parts that can stand being done in the limited rapid prototyping materials & processes available.
Skills need are the understanding of the design of physical parts with all the subtleties and the desire to learn to use a competant 3D solids modeling environment. You don't walk in to this expecting a familiarity with PowerPoint as enough skill to do the job.
Competent 3D solids software from the likes of SolidWorks, AutoCAD or other similar programs start at about $5,000 per seat and they don't become highly usable until you get near $10k. It easily takes 1000-2000 hours to become good at doing 3D modeling, assuming you are already familiar with design and 2D CAD.
There are 3D solids RP machines in half a dozen types and you can't afford to buy them for hobby uses. Stratysis laser sintering for Nylon, SS & Titanium type things cost more than a Ferrari, so forget it, unless you are Jay Leno.
"What they did do was actually spend time talking to me and watching me."
Israeli security are trained heavily in how to watch, talk to, ask questions, banter, and totally focus on all reactions from the traveler to see any signs of tenseness, irritation or unusual reactions, however slight. These guys are true pros and not the wimpy minimum wage TSA types (yeah I know they make more than minimum wages).
From what I see of success it is spelled "Vertically Integrated" in mass market electronics and now with Google getting more adept and buying a "SIRI competitor" I am looking at Google getting its act together and making its own hardware and becoming more like Apple.
If Google does that and controls the updates for their customers like Apple does and possibly changes the Android license to HTC, et al, then I would count Google as being more consumer friendly and good.
If you come at it from the "Don't be evil" side for consumers, then I win: Google should license only phone vendors that promise to update their phones automatically for 5 years.
Very good question and it deserves to be answered.
If you are going to be good and do good, you should plan things in such a manner so that result occurs. Setting up a whole multi-hundred million or billion set of hand held computers that does not have inherent auto-upgrades (at least for security) as a part of the agreement to license your OS and use it safely is rather absurd in this day and age. We have gone through 20 years of malware on desktop PCs before Android hit the mainstream and Google could have been done right.
When you design a complex system and then go to implement it and tell everyone it is great and the future and the way it should be done, it must encompass maintenance issues to EOL conditions.
Google by putting out an entirely open system and promoting it without any constraints sounds nice but obviously puts users at risk and this was understandable when the project was started by Andy Rubin, so don't say Google was not warned.
Open is nice until users are harmed.
Yeah, I know our stock is down near $12 right now, but that's nothing...
Humans are far too delicate in space environments to continue to withstand the barrage of stellar battering by constant particles and radiation and the lack of gravity, where no objective evidence shows we can reproduce & expand a population in an extra-terristrial environment.