This is only true on the discontinued Makerbot Cupcake. The Thing-O-Matic rods are VERY solid.

The print head moves in Z. There are some problems due to moving the model, but the plastic sets immediately, and in fact most people use heated platforms to print on to keep it a bit warm and tacky, but it still isn't going to jiggle around.

The mass of the entire model and platform moving around does mean you have to have things tuned pretty well and big models can sometimes shake things up a bit.

I just assembled one myself.... here's a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpAw5SCR7gQ

But let's compare to some other businesses. Banks, for instance, are businesses that are often targeted by criminals. They - OH MY GOD - list their addresses publically! I feel the bank's right to privacy has been violated here. Not only that, but how can the banks survive now that the criminals know where they are?! OMG!

Seriously, people. If you legalize the growing of marijuana, it's just like any other product now. You want to run a respectable business, then do it. If you are concerned about security, do what any other company concerned about security would do, put down the pipe, and GET SOME SECURITY.

Guns don't make killing easier 'in some ways' - guns make killing easier period. It's the first killing weapon where you don't have to be within physical contact of your victim to kill them,

I guess you've never heard of the crossbow, the bow and arrow, the slingshot, or the rock. You should check up on your killing technology.

If you hurry, you can get the Cupcake ULTIMATE kit from Makerbot.com for $200 off the usual price of $899 for one more day (good through the 6th) using the coupon code; I think it's on their site (MAKERBOTFRIEND or something).

Otherwise, check out the other models they have, as well as stuff from makergear.com, and the various sellers of repraps. You can get a decent 3D printer for your desktop for under $1000, easy. You'll have to build it yourself, but it's not hard.

These printers print with ABS, the same stuff LEGO is made from, so it's pretty sturdy. Check out thingiverse.com for a nice gallery of free things to print and examples.

I'm not familiar with the particular 3d printer in the story, but a RepRap or MakerBot CupCake/Thing-O-Matic prints with ABS plastic. That's the same stuff LEGO and car bodies are made from. I've got LEGO that are probably older than you and still get played with and snap together good as new. Those printers cost (much!) less than $2000 and can sit on your desktop.

Also there's several 3D printing companies (see: shapeways.com) that'll print your design in anything up to and including stainless steel... so, tell me that's not durable.

You probably haven't looked into this industry in years.

This thread isn't closed yet, but I accept the diminishing probability this comment will ever be read. Just to set the record straight, I was just pointing out what no one else in the thread had; this IS a standard and shouldn't really come as a surprise.

I think in a perfect world, the bankers would be familiar with these standard and know when to tell a customer the facts. In actual fact, most bank employees you will ever have contact with are low-wage automatons who don't know the business any better than you do. And the 'back office' people generally aren't any better. At any large company there's a tiny handful of people who understand what's going on and how the system works, and the rest of them go by the book, and often haven't even read the book themselves, just what they've been told.

So... as a realistic consumer you do have to know about the systems you're using if you don't want to get surprised. Money's one of those things that justifies learning about in direct proportion to how much you have, I suppose. If you're making a giant deposit, you should probably at least know the mechanics of what's going to happen to it after you turn it over to the bank. Again, in a perfect world, the teller you talk to would know what happens to it and if any of what's going to happen is relevant, they'd tell you. In actuality, they know to type the amount in their computer, verify the account matches, and put it in a drawer to be collected by someone else later.

I'm old now - or I feel old, which is the same thing - and it seems to me that the knowledge of the people you interact with at stores and banks and everywhere is vastly eroded. There was a day when the people at the store were directly responsible for all communication and education of the customer - if you had a major complaint about your bank, you'd go in to the bank and complain, and it would get solved by someone there, if not your teller, then at least in his presence so next time the problem came up, he'd understand it. He'd learn pretty quick about how everything worked 'cause he had to.

Today, you have a major problem with your bank and unless you just happen to be at a branch at the time, you'll make a phone call. To some guys possibly halfway across the country, who only know how to solve your problem by reading from a script... If you DID happen to go to your bank, none of them would even know that script and would (eventually) refer you to call the bank instead of asking them.

What was I saying? Get off my lawn, damn kids! Makin the dog bark again...

OK, the Bible never specifically says that's a good thing Lot did. But it DOES say repeatedtly he was the only righteous and good man in the towns of Soddom and Gomorrah, and the famous events that make those cities household names include Lot willingly offering his daughters up to mob to be raped. Then, just a few moments later, God turns his wife into a pillar of salt for LOOKING THE WRONG DIRECTION! Check it again. Offering your daughters up for a giant gangbang = ONLY HOLY MAN IN TOWN. Looking the wrong direction = SUFFER THE WRATH OF GOD.

So it would take someone who's never read the Bible to say God disapproved of Lot's actions.

Read a bit later, lot gives the same daughters up to the men of his town to be raped, because he'd rather let the townspeople rape his daughters than what they wanted to do -- which is to rape some angels God had sent to have a chat with him.

Oh yeah, and Lot was God's man, the only one righteous and pure enough to be saved by God when he destroyed the town. So... yeah.

They are 100% clear about this. It's a part of the NACHA standards. It's typical to get the funds in your account the day after a check is wired to the Fed. But it's a very clear part of the standard that the recieving bank has 3 (IIRC) days to return an "NSF" and the customer has up to 60 days to dispute the check, and if either one happens, the funds are immediately pulled from your account. This is all part of the documented standard.

I'm not making any claims, I'm just asking honestly - how do you know the dropoff in editing isn't due to Wikipedia now being so complete? Remember back in the old days when anything you'd search for on Wikipedia would have a half-written article or be missing completely? I can't remember the last time I couldn't find a thing on Wikipedia.

The fact that you've seen the begging means that despite your disagreement with how it's operated, you still find it a valuable and useful service.

You're just making excuses to not support a service I'd bet a dollar you use /every single day./

For the record, I think they're a bunch of dicks, too, but they're dicks doing something with an /actual value,/ not just value invented by marketing people and mindless masses.

You didn't think this through before you started calling people idiots. LOTS of folks have chosen to become Americans.

You don't have to research anything. I work for a company that's closely related to First Data Corp and I have been in the industry for over a decade. OF COURSE FDC reports to the Fed. First off, from a pure logistics standpoint, there's no reasonable way for FDC to deposit funds in the merchant's account without doing it though the Fed. This is so obvious it hardly bears stating. But then there's other laws recently that also require us to report all merchant activity to the IRS... so... one way or another the "G-men" have all this info. Obviously. Whether they can correlate it, use it to track you, etc, I will not speculate.

For those of you not in the business, I don't have the actual numbers but I wouldn't blink an eye if you told me FDC processes over 75% of all credit card transactions in the United States.