3 ms·

Presenting the alternatives as much worse than they really are just so you can promote your own service is pretty patronising of your reader. It reminds me of i

by leoedin 14y ago

Presenting the alternatives as much worse than they really are just so you can promote your own service is pretty patronising of your reader. It reminds me of infomercials and the over-acted non-problems they claim to solve. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08xQLGWTSag http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08xQLGWTSag to see what I mean). Saying that, this seems like quite an interesting concept. If you could get the reliability and per-unit cost low enough then it could possibly gain traction. My only concern is that actually 3D printing is a fairly niche market - most of my friends and family have no desire to 3D print anything, and can't even conceive of wanting to. Given that the technology's not going to compete with mass production on cost any time in the next decade, the only people who I could see being interested in 3D printing are technical or artistic types - the kind of people who already like to make things. They're actually quite rare.

gbog 14y ago
Rare? Remember we are Homo Faber. I can't imagine a kid not enjoying Lego. Adults may dismiss it as unproductive loss of time (compared to Facebook strolling?) but it could be a mistake. What is true is that one probably need to reactivate the Homo Faber in us, and the collection of pink or green uglies I have seen so far is not going to.
fudged71 14y ago
Are any of his claims about the current state of 3D printing actually false? Or even just slightly exaggerated? I'd like to hear how any of this isn't correct.
ricberw 14y ago
I fully believe in what I wrote - the current options really are quite bad. I can't imagine spending $80+ on a candy bar sized print, nor do I want to buy a machine and spend the time to learn to use it. I don't believe that the vending machine is the end-all solution, but it does seem to be one of them. What would you propose as another solution?
- dbecker 14y ago
  It's an emerging technology. It's got a long way to go, and fortunately people (yourself included) are moving the technology forward. But your article makes it sound like the shortcomings of 3d printing exist because the people before you were idiots. That's clearly not the case. If it's so bad, why don't you already have something better in production? I assume the answer is that it's a hard problem, and you are still working on it. Just like everyone else. The difference is that they aren't writing posts about how terrible your current prototype (or whatever you have) is.

by leoedin 14y ago

gbog 14y ago

Rare? Remember we are Homo Faber. I can't imagine a kid not enjoying Lego. Adults may dismiss it as unproductive loss of time (compared to Facebook strolling?) but it could be a mistake. What is true is that one probably need to reactivate the Homo Faber in us, and the collection of pink or green uglies I have seen so far is not going to.

fudged71 14y ago

Are any of his claims about the current state of 3D printing actually false? Or even just slightly exaggerated? I'd like to hear how any of this isn't correct.

ricberw 14y ago

I fully believe in what I wrote - the current options really are quite bad. I can't imagine spending $80+ on a candy bar sized print, nor do I want to buy a machine and spend the time to learn to use it. I don't believe that the vending machine is the end-all solution, but it does seem to be one of them. What would you propose as another solution?

dbecker 14y ago
It's an emerging technology. It's got a long way to go, and fortunately people (yourself included) are moving the technology forward. But your article makes it sound like the shortcomings of 3d printing exist because the people before you were idiots. That's clearly not the case. If it's so bad, why don't you already have something better in production? I assume the answer is that it's a hard problem, and you are still working on it. Just like everyone else. The difference is that they aren't writing posts about how terrible your current prototype (or whatever you have) is.