Well, I’ve decided to no longer contribute to the Core77 website. After a recent post another one of the “cloggers” decided to add a comment inferring that I was advertising for the company covered in the entry. And his comment was subsequently reviewed and approved by the site webmaster. You can see the same text – just with more taken from the press release – also posted on this blog (Link). His comment:

Drop the cost to $50 and you probably wouldn’t have to keep advertising

To be honest, his comments confused me until I discovered he’s an editor at two magazines – one entirely geared toward the industry about which both he and I were submitting news. I’m not going to post what I suspect might be going on because I don’t know, but it’s enough to get me thinking that I’d rather just not bother. Besides, this site and some other things I have going on is keeping me plenty busy.

{Update: For those industrial designers that visit this blog, I wanted to append this post with some new information. The comment quoted above may have been posted by someone unknown to the people at Core77, since the unnamed person to whom I’m referring has informed them that he posted no comments and that apparently someone unknown to him accessed his account without his knowledge or approval. Given my ongoing battle with hackers and defacers, I can certainly imagine this to be a possibility; more so if this is motivated by more than just the challenge of the hack. Who knows, it could simply have been a visiting vendor with momentary access to that person’s machine. Given that possibility I should have reacted with a more level head and simply sent an email or made a phone call to resolve the issue. Unfortunately I didn’t.

That doesn’t, however, mitigate some other issues that concern me which have become apparent as a result of this situation. Because I don’t administer that site, I can’t immediately deal with comments that could be libellous and damaging to my reputation. And the Core77 site is too popular and the net moves too fast for me to want to wait on anyone else to deal with those potential issues. It’s enough that I don’t have time to monitor the Core77 site for myself due to my own workload. I certainly can’t expect them to babysit for me. So while the opportunity was there for me to continue contributing, that concern and my own projects, keeps me in an observation-only mode. Core is still without doubt the best site currently covering Industrial Design on the net and I’m fortunate to have had a chance to contribute. But now I think I’ll stick to pointing people to their entries and articles instead of writing them.}

Lots of news in the rapid-prototyping/manufacturing arena. Via Core77 comes late word that Objet Geometries Ltd has a new, lower-cost 3D printer coming to market. From their press release (Link):

Rehovot, Israel —23 January, 2006 — Objet Geometries Ltd., the world leader in ultra-thin layer photopolymer jetting, today announced the Eden250 3-Dimensional Printing System. The Eden250 leverages Objet’s market-proven Eden platform to bring high-quality, highly accurate rapid prototyping capabilities into the reach of virtually any design or manufacturing operation in a wide range of fields. Its unique combination of office-friendly design, advanced capabilities and affordable price point make the Eden250 ideal for virtually any organization, including consumer products, electronics, medical devices and fashion accessories companies, along with academic institutions and small businesses.

The more the merrier. I’m just still wondering if there’s any truth to the rumors of HP’s 3D printer.

Interesting post on the OGLE SourceForge forum pointing to an older tool called OGRE (Link – German language site). Unsurprisingly, it appears as if someone else coded an OpenGL videostream ripper. It may not be suitable for WinXP (I’ve not tried, but the site indicates as much), but it does do something I’ve not seen: it rips the UV map as well. That won’t make a difference to already-concerned Second Lifer‘s since there is only one universal UV map for avatars and this additional data doesn’t change anything for them, but it does point to a solution for eventually reconstituting a high-rez model from normalmaps. Stay tuned.

I caught this a couple days ago and wanted to write a well-researched blog entry since this sort of thing has been on my mind since seeing some of the reports over on Terry Wohler’s website (link) last year. However, something like this shouldn’t wait for me to get my act together to be disseminated.

Via Desktop Engineering I caught notice of the Open Prosthetics Project (LINK). If you have some relevant skills or some cash to donate, consider ways in which you might be able to assist. It sure beats playing anti-advergames.

From the press release (Link):

Stratasys announced it has reached an agreement with Arcam AB, Gothenburg, Sweden, for Stratasys to be the exclusive North American distributor of Arcam® rapid manufacturing and prototyping systems.

In Arcam’s patented electron-beam melting (EBM) process, called CAD to Metal®, titanium powder is transformed into solid metal parts for either functional prototyping or end-use. The process is currently used in three main industries: aerospace, automobile, and medical implants.

“This agreement launches Stratasys into metal-powder systems and closes the gap so that it can now go head-to-head with almost anyone in the world of additive fabrication technology,” says Terry Wohlers, president of independent consulting firm Wohlers Associates

“Our products range from entry-level 3D printers through systems offering high speed and resolution to high-productivity systems that build strong, accurate plastic parts,” says Stratasys CEO Scott Crump. “And now we offer the ultimate in rapid manufacturing and prototyping – the EBM direct metal process. This strengthens our position in the growing RP&M (rapid prototyping and manufacturing) market.

Sweet.

via Desktop Engineering