3d printing – Stay N Alive

Category: 3d printing

How Your Cub and Girl Scouts (and Youth) are Being Cheated in the Personal Manufacturing Era

Posted on by jessestay

Our youth are in for a wake-up call when they grow up. Gone will be blue-collar work. Gone will be factory and manual labor jobs. Gone will be construction and mechanical jobs. The fact is, machinery, robotics, and computer programming are replacing all of this, in favor of devices average families can buy and set up in their living rooms. It is so important that we get these skillsets to our youth so we can survive as a society as my generation retires and our kids take over.

For long-time followers of this blog, you are well aware of my passion for 3D printing, and predictions for the disruption of modern manufacturing within just years from where we now stand. Within 5 years, it will be very possible for entire, room (or larger) sized manufacturing processes to be taken over by a simple machine in your office through 3D printing. It’s already happening in fact. I call this “The Personal Manufacturing Era”, because it’s the closest disruption we have in modern times to the Personal Computing Era and what it did to the mainframe.

Of course, all youth are affected by this, but there’s one group I want to address more than any, and I think they have the greatest potential to make a difference in this new era of manufacturing – it’s the Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts of America (of course, I’m talking to mostly a US audience here, but you likely have equivalents in your country). Both groups are missing out on a HUGE opportunity here to prepare their youth for the future.

Currently my wife and I volunteer for the Cub and Boy Scout organizations in our area. Each year there is an annual competition – usually it’s the Pinewood Derby. Some times it’s the Space Derby, or Raingutter Regatta. The thing is I’ve always hated these competitions because they focus on skillsets (woodwork, mostly) that are hardly valuable to the boys as they get to be our age. Not to mention that the dads do most of the valuable work for them anyways.

I propose that these boys, and in equivalent activities for the Girls in Girl Scouts (I’m mostly familiar with the boys organizations because most of my service has been there, but girls need it even more than the boys), be exposed to more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) related activities. True, Pinewood Derby does have some engineering that applies. But how much better would it be if the ENTIRE activity was centered around logic and engineering? How about a computer programming competition? Or what about a robotics competition? Kits could be provided to give boys a basic start, and understanding of these, and a fair base to start on.

My concern today is that we’re perfectly okay asking boys and dads/moms (and girls and dads/moms) to build a car they can race from scratch, many of those dads/moms not having previous woodworking experience (I’m one of those), but when we propose that we do a “computer programming competition” or “robotics competition”, two activities that really aren’t much harder to do if a kit is provided to show them how to do it, people say, “It’s too hard.”

We need to get away from this notion of woodworking being seen as a “manly” thing to do and computer programming and robotics being seen as “too geeky” or “too nerdy”. The fact is, our childrens’ futures depend on it! Every “too geeky” statement you make hurts your children and the future of this country, and the world in general.

I’m very worried about the future of our children, and the future of this nation. Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts of America all have a HUGE opportunity here to fix this. They are making steps with new computer programming merit badges, and computer safety programs. I’m concerned they’re not moving fast enough though. To change, these programs need a complete overhaul of the system, one focused on STEM as a main, core component of each program, and outdoor activities to balance it all. Right now it’s much, much too heavily balanced toward the latter.

If you have kids. Take a stand. Reach out to your local Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts, or Girl Scouts organizations (to have the most effect you really need to do this at the district or council level), and let them know you share this concern. Am I alone in this? Are our youth missing out?

Glass Explorer Shares 3D Printable Adapter for Your Prescription Glasses

Posted on by jessestay

I’ve got to admit – I love my Google Glass. A little awkward and geeky looking, yes, but for a geek like me that’s part of the appeal. There’s one thing I don’t like about them though, and that’s that I can’t wear them with my glasses, and I hate wearing contacts. It appears one Google Glass Explorer has fixed that though, and being the geek that you are, you can fix the problem as well, using a torx screw driver and a 3D printer (of course you probably have one of those as well – it’s cheaper than your Google Glass after all).

Thingiverse (the Makerbot community for sharing 3D plans you can download and print yourself) user “DDRBoxman” (Colin Edwards – Follow him on Google+ here) uploaded plans and pictures of a 3D attachment you can attach to your prescription glasses and have the Glass prism and computer there with you, no contact lenses required. The hack requires a simple torx screw driver to remove the main computer and prism from the metal that straps around your head from Google Glass, and then you attach it to the plastic clip, which attaches to your glasses.

There’s no doubt with the simplicity of this hack that we’ll see similar options from Google in the future. But this goes to show you the possibilities that are available when you can print bits to atoms and build whatever you want. I guarantee there will be a secondary market for accessories and attachments like this for Google Glass in the future. I bet Glasses manufacturers get in on the act as well at some point.

The big question now becomes when can I just print my own Google Glass altogether?

If you have a 3D printer, go ahead and print your own prescription Glass “Glass” attachment over on Thingiverse! (Note, Thingiverse seems to be down as I write this – you can find another post in the Glass Community, but you’ll have to wait for Thingiverse to come up to download)

The Solution to Offshore Manufacturing is Technology, Not Politics

Posted on by jessestay

In The Biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, it talked about a meeting Steve Jobs had with President Obama. Jobs was quoted saying, ‘“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” Jobs told Obama at the outset. To prevent that, he said, the administration needed to be a lot more business-friendly. He described how easy it was to build a factory in China, and said that it was almost impossible to do so these days in America, largely because of regulations and unnecessary costs.’ 

It was clear in tonight’s State of the Union address that this particular conversation weighed on President Obama’s mind, as he addressed it directly. In the Address, President Obama talked about solutions to fix our current American manufacturing processes. He mentioned possibilities such as reducing taxes for companies willing to manufacture in America, and making it more expensive for companies that chose to manufacture overseas. I argue that this is not enough though, perhaps not even necessary, as in an era of technology and brilliant minds technology itself will replace the need for offshore manufacturing.

Silicon Angle has a great post about “The Era of the Physible”, a take on a new category of the file sharing website, Pirate Bay, that shares 3D designs for printers that can print objects in 3D. In it they discuss the future of 3D printing, and how we are getting near the real possibility of Star Trek-like “replicators”, which can manufacture just about anything you can imagine.

I believe the future of manufacturing is in these devices. I think we are just years away from replacing entire factory lines with simple, polymer ink-based printers not much bigger than the printer that prints on paper in your own house. Here’s the best part: each of these “factory-in-a-box” devices will be in every home in America. (They’re already on their way in simple forms – see Cubify for example)

I predict, in the not too distant future, not only will you be able to shop, buy, and order phones, devices, and gadgets online (most likely through a mobile device if current trends have their way), but you’ll also be able to print those devices out, right in your home, just like you do a piece of paper right now. That’s right – the future of manufacturing exists in the homes of every single American, and every person in the world. We won’t need those offshore factories in the future! It’s an industry that, just like the automotive industry, just like just about any mechanical, human-powered industry, is quickly being replaced by computers!

Apple’s meticulous about its manufacturing processes. Steve Jobs instilled a culture where even the factories of Apple themselves were decorated in pristine white design, beautiful, well-functioning processes that got things out quick. With Apple’s focus on end-to-end solutions and control over the entire process, Apple could very well move in this direction.

Imagine a world where Apple, like their current factories, made beautiful 3D printers that created their devices in the homes of every customer, instead of building expensive factories in China. Imagine if Apple could reduce that cost, and give complete, full control to the manufacturing process of their phones in the homes of their customers. What if they put one of these in each Apple Store for customers that couldn’t buy their own 3D printers?  And guess what? Government doesn’t have to do anything to make this happen (other than making it cheaper and easier for businesses to do this). Because it’s a cheaper, more efficient process, businesses will do this for Government.
I truly believe this is the future of manufacturing, not factories and jobs of blue-collar workers. We need to be preparing for this, rather than worrying where our manufacturing is taking place. The next President’s 4 year term will start to see this major shift in manufacturing, and if they’re not prepared it’s going to hurt the American economy.
I’m concerned that we’re focusing too much on where our factories are located, and finding ways to hire more blue collar workers, when we should instead be finding more ways to get those blue collar workers interested in more white collar jobs, giving them the education they need to do them. In the future, we won’t have a need for blue collar factory jobs, period – the trends are showing that. We’ll have a need for white collar engineers, software developers, and those that can design the devices, yes, devices, that will manufacture every product created by corporate America.
In an era of the computer, internet, and mobile device, my kids aren’t even getting simple computer classes in their schools. Many children aren’t even learning how to type. I learned how to program when I was 10, in elementary school (part of this was due to lack of laws such as COPA) – I fear we’re losing this focus in America, and that’s why we’re seeing a severe shortage in high knowledge engineering talent. Kids simply aren’t seeing the importance or value of this stuff, so they don’t want to learn it.
My hope is the next President of the United States can keep this in mind as they plan their job creation strategy. Instill a love of computers and engineering in our kids. Get rid of laws like COPA that prevent kids from looking things up on their own and take the power away from parents. Bring computer and engineering education back into our school system, from elementary school age! This is a huge wick that has been lit and is heading towards a big stick of dynamite waiting to blow up. Once it does, this whole offshore factory problem won’t be an issue any more. I’m afraid none of the current USA Presidential candidates realize this.
See the above video for an example of Cubify at CES this year