My Robot Nation’s proprietary, browser-based platform lets average consumers quickly and easily personalize an object in 3D, then order their unique creation as a full-color 3D print delivered to their door. (Source: My Robot Nation)
@CadmanLT: My guess is that the consumer-oriented printing services may not be as precise as some of the manufacturing-oriented print services like RedEye and others. I could be wrong, but I would imagine those manufacturing hardcore parts would have some real questions.
Yes, I think you're right, Ann, about ti being harder to go from Mac to PC than the reverse. I has surprised me to see friends recently have trouble with Apple. This includes the iPhone and the iPad. I still find Apple fairly easy. I thought the Blackberry was way more difficult than the iPhone.
I'm still on a PPC, although it's UNIX-based OSX, and that's not as intuitive as the proprietary System 9 and previous generations, either in the OS or in Word. The few times I've tried to use my husband's Intel OSX it's been a lot worse. OTOH, switching from either platform to the other requires a lot of adjustment, although it's apparently a lot worse from Mac to PC than the reverse.
Do you still find that Apple is more intuitive? I have a handful of friends who switched over tro Apple during the past year. They were having a hard time adjusting.
The graphics and publishing programs on PCs are still not good enough, AFAIK, all publishing art departments use Macs. Re editorial, I think the main reason was cost. As a writer, Mac is just plain easier and more intuitive to use, even after the switch to Intel and OSX (although much less so than on the PPC platform).
Yes, I spent a period where I was Mac as well. But then I started getting issued PCs. The reason editorial works with PC is becasue they're less expensive, and if you're primary use is Word and the Internet, the PCs are good enough. As for art, for years they insisted on Mac because the graphis and publishing programs that worked on PCs were not adequate to the job.
That divide between PCs for editors and Macs for art continued for a long time. I always wondered why, since the Mac is much preferred by nearly all other writers I've known. I was the only editor admittedly writing on a Mac for a long time.
@cadmanLT: Actually, I think they've come a way in terms of offering alternative kinds of materials other than the plastics. Some of the 3D printing services like Shapeways specialize in metal material choices--they're big in for consumer-oriented innovators like jewelry makers.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
PTC will offer a virtual desktop environment for its Creo product design applications, potentially freeing engineers to run them from remote desktops on a variety of operating systems and mobile devices.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
Now that solar and wind harvesting technologies are a thriving market, researchers are seeking other environmentally related energy sources for which they can create harvesting devices.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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