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That is all nice, amazing and innovative. Yet I think it is time to stop calling devices which create something and connected to a PC via USB a "Printer". Pri

by tzury 15y ago

That is all nice, amazing and innovative. Yet I think it is time to stop calling devices which create something and connected to a PC via USB a "Printer". Printer, print a material which you read. Anything else, is a robot which does X or Y.

blhack 15y ago
Do you consider it a printer if it's photos? A friend of mine owns a print shop that does very large scale advertising photos (like, building sized stuff). Should I inform his industry that they should stop referring to themselves as "printers" because they're not producing text?
- russell 15y ago
  I think of printers as devices which produce hard copy 2-dimensional images. Star Trek coined "replicators". I think it fits pretty well even if the current versions are only 1.x of a pretty big n. "Robots" better fits the advanced articulated milling machines.
  - dhughes 15y ago
    I thought maybe lithography but instead of lithos(stone) maybe a general term for the prefix such as Dimiography or something like that.
kragen 15y ago
I think "printer" evokes more illuminating associations than "robot". A "printer" is something where you feed in bits and get out a physical product, which has largely replaced mass production (the very oldest kind of mass production!) with one-off custom production, in the particular domain where it's applicable. A "robot" is C-3PO.
- regularfry 15y ago
  > the very oldest kind of mass production Actually, it's not. In ancient Egypt, bricks for house-building were mass-produced by casting mud in reusable moulds. That's the oldest example of mass-production I know of, but it would't surprise me if there were others of a similar vintage.
  - kragen 15y ago
    Holy shit, I had no idea. What were the other kinds of mass production from then until Gutenberg?
    - Someone 15y ago
      Ones i know of: coins, pottery (http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/r/roman_pottery_terra_sigillata.aspx http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_inde...), gadgets for tourists. I guess the Roman army mass-produced weaponry, too. Ships, forts, and bridges were semi-mass-produced (one design, adjusted to circumstances, small numbers)
      - kragen 15y ago
        Ships still aren't mass-produced. Coins, though, that's a very good point. And I didn't know about pottery!
        Someone 15y ago
        It depends on what you call 'mass'. I think most people would agree Liberty ships were mass-produced (fairly large production run, assembly line, interchangeable 'parts' welded together) Even today, you still get production runs of fairly large ships, such as http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2011/01/us-navy-plans-to-order-20-new-littoral-combat-ships.html http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2011/01.... It has two companies each build a series of 10 ships.
        kragen 15y ago
tzury 15y ago
from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing. So perhaps, printer is a device which does printing.

by tzury 15y ago

blhack 15y ago

Do you consider it a printer if it's photos? A friend of mine owns a print shop that does very large scale advertising photos (like, building sized stuff). Should I inform his industry that they should stop referring to themselves as "printers" because they're not producing text?

russell 15y ago
I think of printers as devices which produce hard copy 2-dimensional images. Star Trek coined "replicators". I think it fits pretty well even if the current versions are only 1.x of a pretty big n. "Robots" better fits the advanced articulated milling machines.
- dhughes 15y ago
  I thought maybe lithography but instead of lithos(stone) maybe a general term for the prefix such as Dimiography or something like that.

kragen 15y ago

I think "printer" evokes more illuminating associations than "robot". A "printer" is something where you feed in bits and get out a physical product, which has largely replaced mass production (the very oldest kind of mass production!) with one-off custom production, in the particular domain where it's applicable. A "robot" is C-3PO.

regularfry 15y ago
> the very oldest kind of mass production Actually, it's not. In ancient Egypt, bricks for house-building were mass-produced by casting mud in reusable moulds. That's the oldest example of mass-production I know of, but it would't surprise me if there were others of a similar vintage.
- kragen 15y ago
  Holy shit, I had no idea. What were the other kinds of mass production from then until Gutenberg?
  - Someone 15y ago
    Ones i know of: coins, pottery (http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/r/roman_pottery_terra_sigillata.aspx http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_inde...), gadgets for tourists. I guess the Roman army mass-produced weaponry, too. Ships, forts, and bridges were semi-mass-produced (one design, adjusted to circumstances, small numbers)
    - kragen 15y ago
      Ships still aren't mass-produced. Coins, though, that's a very good point. And I didn't know about pottery!
      - Someone 15y ago
        It depends on what you call 'mass'. I think most people would agree Liberty ships were mass-produced (fairly large production run, assembly line, interchangeable 'parts' welded together) Even today, you still get production runs of fairly large ships, such as http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2011/01/us-navy-plans-to-order-20-new-littoral-combat-ships.html http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2011/01.... It has two companies each build a series of 10 ships.
        kragen 15y ago

tzury 15y ago

from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing. So perhaps, printer is a device which does printing.