The Internet is a fascinating place, providing the creative, industrious and entrepreneurial with an equal and open platform from which to be heard.
Our elected Representatives have been misled to believe that the needs of a few increasingly irrelevant corporate entities outweigh all the great things a free and open Internet has brought to the world.
Join us in reminding our congressional delegations that by altering the rules to protect the few, they will close the door on so many infinite possibilities the future may have held.
The rule of thumb is that a letter is 100X the value of a phone call. If a 2D action gets a 100X multiplier, then a 3D action could get 1000X the multiplier.
As a special treat for CES this year, MakerBot posed a set of provocative questions:
Remember the playsets, dollhouses, action figures, army figurines, and plastic ponies you played with so passionately in your youth? Dreaming up secret worlds — or creating narratives with friends, neighbors, classmates, and siblings?
Well, what if you could produce these tools of imagination with the push of a button? And what if you could roll up your sleeves and invent your own characters, furnishings, and buildings — and share them not only with your children, nieces, nephews, neighbors, or friends, but also, and instantly, with the rest of the world?
Handcrafted dollhouses are nothing new to the serious Maker, but MakerBot is taking steps to make this practice easier and more widely adopted than ever before. For the rest of January, MakerBot and a squadron of Makers will be introducing the MakerBot Playsets to the Thingiverse: 1:18 scale dollhouses as full of imagination and mischief as craft, modeling techniques, and cleverness.
MakerBot’s own design superstar Michael “Skimbal” Curry, creator of such Thingiverse megahits as the Turtle Shell Racers and Gothic Cathedral playset, starts the ball rolling by architecting a pair of MakerBot Playset buildings. Introducing two new Thingiverse superstars: Cushwa and PrettySmallThings are doing a tremendous job furnishing these playsets with their imaginations.1
Long Long ago in a land far away, there was a little castle surrounded by an industrious town. The townspeople loved their little castle and wanted it to be perfect. But the little castle was empty. Its owner had left long ago, taking all the fine things with him and locking them away.
The Townspeople resolved to re-furnish there castle. They learned to craft and create. Making chest and chairs, tables and beds, gadgets and gizmo's, they filled the castle with things that reflected themselves and their experiences. They created so many things that at the end of each day it looked like little castle couldn't hold any more.
But the castle had a secret. Every night, it grew. Sprouting new towers, chambers, and cellars. The town's people would awaken and rejoice, ready for another day of crafting and creating. The town was proud of its magical castle, and everyone wanted to fill it with the best that they could offer.
But wasn't a magical castle, it was a MakerBot Castle.
Each night the daring Damsels deftly deployed their wondrous Replicator, creating new rooms to extend the structure. Floor by floor they built up into the sky. Until one day the little castle had become the tallest and grandest in all the Thingiverse.
And the small town around the castle had grown into a great city, filled with the incredible things and spectacular ideas. The Makers, Crafters, and Hackers had learned from furnishing the castle. They had perfected their crafts and honed their skills. When they looked out on the world from the tallest tower, and saw that it too was a place they could rebuild. And they spread across the land, sharing their knowledge and teaching others how to improve the world around them.Created by Thingiverse user Skimbal, designer of the Turtle Shell Racers, MakerBot Botmobile and the Gothic Cathedral Playset.
The daring MakerBot Damsels are in no manner of distress -- they deftly define their own world of wondrous wizardry. Making, Creating, and Crafting, they dexterously develop designs for castles, creatures, and contraptions.
Deploying Cupcakes, Thing-O-Matics, and Replicators, dozens of Damsels distribute production precisely for punctual perfection.
Dastardly deed doers and nefarious ninja gnomes beware, the Damsels don’t take kindly to klepto capers and would-be kidnappers.Created by Thingiverse user Skimbal, designer of the Turtle Shell Racers, MakerBot Botmobile and the Gothic Cathedral Playset.
So, you’ve probably heard by now that we got a few awards while we were at CES last week, but what you may not have heard is that we were also giving out a few awards there. As a team we spent some time exploring the tradeshow and seeking out some of the raddest robots, the coolest companies, and the products we could really get behind to present them with MakerBot Awesome Awards. Here’s some pictures of a few of the honored recipients.
Will Smith and Norman Chan from Tested are definitely keeping it awesome – they do a segment on their show called the MakerBot Mystery Build.
Derek from iBallz is keeping it awesome too with his inexpensive and incredibly fun ipad cases.
This triangle would be a little harder to explain (Penrose Triangle Illusion by chylld)
This morning I was helping my daughter brush her teeth. As I was putting toothpaste on her toothbrush, she told me she had composed a song for me. Her song went like this:
“I love making toys with my daddy
My daddy’s robot goes zoom zoom when it makes things out of triangles”1
Several weeks ago I was trying to explain to her how my Thing-O-Matic converts our designs into physical objects. I told her I save our designs as STL files. I explained that any thing we see in the world could be expressed as a bunch of polygons. I then explained that any polygon could be expressed as a bunch of triangles. So, really, anything we could see or draw could be described as a bunch of triangles. And, once we have our file that is comprised of a bunch of triangles, we give it to our robot2 to build into our toys and tools.
