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3D printer for the masses

3K views 20 replies 10 participants last post by  Nastybutler 
#1 ·
#2 ·
Backed that few weeks ago. I'm excited. I hope they make it to production. There's an inexpensive 3D scanner on kickstarter also that has already funded. You print the parts for the scanner and they provide the rest of the parts. I'm waiting for reviews on that and will get it if it works out.
 
#9 · (Edited)
I backed the M3D micro that was 299 and i just got it about a month ago. I was a November backer so getting it early Febuary isnt all that bad considering that they went from prototype to mass production in under a year. I think it was well worth the wait. Ill upload some pics later of stuff that i've printed if any of yall are interested.

Im really impressed with mine so far, and would reccomend a 3D printer to anyone. The TIKO looks like a great deal.. hoping it does well.
 
#16 ·
Patents are a huge deal in the modern industrial scheme of things. China gets away with rampant industrial piracy because their government subsidizes manufacturing and they currently have slave labor, and short of war we can't stop them. It will eventually catch up to them, they have just been enjoying a bonanza for now.

Patents don't just arbitrarily sit, it takes a lot of money and time to be issued a patent and the developer has/had full intentions of putting the said product into production. A lot of good or bad things can happen and the idea loses production funding or demand. If anything - perhaps patent protection lasts too long a period of time, especially medicine.
 
#17 ·
Court dockets will soon be getting filled up with retards printing components that are critical to safety, i.e. lowering shackles/links for their cars/bike, ect. Anyone can hack out a 3D part that will physically fit within a certain space and look good, but that doesn't mean the part is functionally safe for the job.
 
#21 ·
This thread sure took a turn. Didn't expect it to turn into a patent debate, although I guess I was the one who initially started us on this topic by expressing my distaste for proprietary files and whatnot.

That being said, the patent system, by all objective measures, is broken. Billions of dollars that could have been spent on innovation are instead wasted on lawyers either attacking tech company's competition or defending a company that's just trying to innovate. The patent office is partially to blame by issuing overly broad patents which are in turn used by patent trolls to stifle true innovation. Politicians are, of course, useless since enough of them are in the pocket of those who benefit from the broken system that the few good politicians who actually want to fix the system are stonewalled, getting us nowhere.

I've spent a lot of time reading about these and other "IP" issues. A good resource if you're interested in this, admittedly dry, topic is Techdirt.com. The guy who runs that blog has a background in economics so comes at it from that angle. I find it fascinating, even if it is depressing to read many of the stories of patent trolls holding back truly innovative companies.
 
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