A few days back I caught a link somewhere to Defense Tech’s article “Tomorrow’s Insta-Weapons” (Link). That of course brought to mind my own posts on the subject here, like “The Kirkyan Weapon” (reLink). But the article – and most of the comments on it – are, in my opinion, too focused on CNC (computer numerically-controlled) machining. Not that many of the comments aren’t valid; they are. Fabbing metal components just isn’t commonplace in today’s world. But it’s just a matter of time until metal rapid-manufacturing units do make their way to the battlefield.
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I caught an entry this morning on 3pointD (Link) announcing a business plan competition taking place within Second Life. You can read the contest guideline page for yourself – Edelman/Electric Sheep Company Business Venture Competition Official Rules (Link).

Where to start?

While on the surface the business plan competition may sound good, I’d be hesitant to enter for the same reasons I tell Industrial Designers to steer clear of design competitions (and you should recall my objections to those kinds of competitions – reLink). I didn’t do more than briefly review the contest page, but this is apparently the relevant section: Continue reading →

With all the recent discussion about automakers (Scion, Nissan, Pontiac) establishing virtual dopplegangers by entering into Second Life, I thought this commercial mashing up Honda with the classic movie “Tron” was appropriate.

Via WorldCAD (Link) comes word that Google is apparently integrating some of the previously professional-level drawing tools into their free version of the Google Earth application. From the GE 4 beta page (Link):

We have improved icon management by creating a new icon palette, added line and polygon drawing tools to our free product, added the ability to print search results and placemarks, made it easier to select icons that are overlapping, and much more.
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Drawing Tools: The path and polygon drawing tools are now available in the free product. You can easily sketch figures on the imagery for richer annotations and can share these overlays as KML or KMZ files. These features can be accessed from the toolbar.

One wonders at what point there’ll even be a paid version.

When I first learned about sandcasting, I’m almost certain that the seemingly wacky thought “Hey, you could do this at the beach” entered the minds of half the people in my class. Well, here’s someone who has done exactly that. Designer Max Lamb shows (Link) how he cast a pewter stool at the beach in a series of images. Interesting.

via PingMag

{Image Copyright © Max Lamb}