I was surfing through a bunch of links I recently found and one of them included a link to an article on Laser Focus World from last year (Link) which mentions a company with which I’m unfamiliar: TRUMPF. From the article:

Another emerging process in the field of rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing involves the use of high-power lasers and metal powders to create end-use products. Since the mid-1990s, engineers have been working to advance rapid prototyping technologies for metal alloys, and their work is now paying off. According to industry analyst Terry Wohlers, at least a dozen companies now offer systems that produce metal prototypes layer by layer.

Foremost among these manufacturers is Trumpf (Ditzingen, Germany), which offers both direct laser forming (a stereolithography approach) and direct metal deposition (DMD) systems for the rapid manufacture of metal parts.

I assumed MCP might have a lock on some of the patents which was why I’d not heard of anyone else. I guess not. In any event, here’s another one to add to the list.
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I’ve previously mentioned how virtual weapons (reLink) will become an increasingly problematic issue as the “metaverse” starts to take shape, but what I’ve not mentioned is how difficult it might be to get a metaverse started so long as there are people who get a thrill out of sabotaging it during its infancy.

For the second time inside of 48 hours or so, the Second Life virtual world has been attacked and the grid knocked offline. The technique is always the same: releasing self-replicating objects that exponentially chew into the computing resources until everything fails.

The question is: why has there been no definitive word from Linden Lab regarding their prosecution of any previously-involved parties (like those involved in attacks from last Fall – reLink)? They keep saying they’re trying. Robin Linden says, “We’re working with the authorities to go after the people responsible for these attacks, as you know.” But no, I don’t know. What does that really mean?
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If you’ve read my rant related to Wikipedia’s “public overseers” intent to delete “kirkyan” from the site without having done any apparent research into the concept, this might tie things together.

Referenced with my original post on the concept is another post elsewhere which attempts to explain the concept but misses the mark. I posted a rather long comment to it which has since been posted separately (Link) on that site as it helps clarify the concept and corrects a number of misunderstandings. Hopefully that additional clarification will be of interest to some of you who surf through.

I was following some hits around and came upon a nice post (Link) on the Institute for the Future’s blog I thought I’d point out as it has a long list of rapid-prototyping* links . A quick scan doesn’t show anything on either Electron Beam Melting (EBM) or Selective Laser Melting (SLM) which are of particular interest to me at the moment. However, there is doubtlessly a nugget or two in all the links provided.

* should it be “rapid prototyping” or “rapid-prototyping”? I’ve always hyphenated it but am seeing it spelled otherwise and am now finding myself dropping the hyphen.

Well, it’s one week away and I thought now would be a good time to mention the Metaverse Roadmap Conference (Link). For the sake of publicity, here’s the intro:

What happens when video games meet Web 2.0? When virtual worlds meet geospatial maps of the planet? When simulations get real and life and business go virtual? When your avatar becomes your blog, your desktop, and your online agent?

What happens is the metaverse. Taking its name from the immersive virtual world imagined by Neal Stephenson in his visionary novel, Snow Crash, the Metaverse Roadmap (MVR) is the first public ten-year forecast and visioning survey of 3D Web technologies, applications, markets, and potential social impacts. Areas of exploration include the convergence of Web applications with networked computer games and virtual worlds, the use of 3D creation and animation tools in virtual environments, digital mapping, artificial life, and the underlying trends in hardware, software, connectivity, business innovation and social adoption that will drive the transformation of the World Wide Web in the coming decade.
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