I'm a mechanical engineer. I could tell you ideas behind how your car works but I wouldn't go near trying to repair it.
What does a CS major specializing in compiler theory need to know about net masks?
A decent car mechanic might not know the building code by heart but he's probably unblocked a drain or two in his time simply because he's the sort of person that enjoys using tools to do stuff.
You'd be wrong. Car Mechanics have become specialized enough that some of them only work on certain brands of cars. I wouldn't hire a plumber that did residential installs to plumb a hospital. The codes and requirements are completely different.
I'm a Mechanical Engineer and could tell you nothing about how to fix your car. I could tell you how your car worked, theoretically. I couldn't tell you what was wrong with it.
I work with PhD'd engineers that can barely tie their own shoe, but could tell you more about fluid boundary layer conditions than any other human I know.
If you wanted people that knew how to calculate IP ranges maybe you should have hired someone that took some sort of vocational IT training not someone with an advanced degree.
We had an excel VBA that ran our production lines. Talked to Oracle, talked to the hardware test at the end of the line. VBA was responsible for millions of dollars of product going out the door on time.
Because that's what tools the people that designed it had available. It was either that or Matlab but everyone already had Excel and it was 'free' to use.
Now I would love to see something redone in Python.
I don't sell the code I sell the support.
I release everything I work on under BSD and if a company has questions about it I have contact information and an hourly rate available for support. If a company takes it and runs with it (Tivo) then it's not like it was something I was going to get around doing anyway.
If they don't want to pay for support and their product is good enough, a competitor will.
I don't lose out on anything. My code gets used (what I wanted and why I released it) and in 5-10 years if some company wants a subject matter expert I have my contact information and hourly rate available. Beyond that I honestly don't care.
You're decoding it wrong
It's like Redditors have discovered how to use the Anonymous Coward account.
Plus the "small" issue that until recently the EU didn't regulate NOX, so eurodiesels didn't comply with USA limits.
And for the years before we regulated NOx? All through the 70s, 80s, and 90s?
USA diesel in most areas is still filthy despite reduced levels in the last 5 years.
Where do you live that this is the case? Pumps have had ULSD since Jan 1, 2007. There were maybe a few exception areas but I think those were all phased out by 2010. They're now moving to ULSD for off highway diesels as well.
"Grand" money? What's that?
Typo, Grant money.
What nonsense. 15 years ago was the year 2000. Has human genetics changed? Have computers changed so much?
What does anything have to do with genetics? And computers have changed. You don't need a multi-thousand dollar AutoCAD or CATIA license to do modeling.
Why do you post such utter nonsense?
Why do you post as AC?
In your home?
At home some of us have garages, shops, driveways. If you can grill meat you can smelt iron.
No one is telling you to do this in your kids bedroom.
It has a use for some small, niche scenarios, but it doesn't do anything for most of us here, and I really wish we would stop seeing stories on it every other week.
With a 3D printer you could run a ~19th century machine shop from your own home. You don't use the 3D printed model. You use it to check fit up and then to turn it into molds.
You can melt iron with used motor oil even charcoal. Sand casting is still used almost everywhere for cast iron.
Give me a 3D printer big enough and I'll build you a tractor. Engine and all.
Who cares? I want my plastic to melt at 105C. I want it to melt at just above room temperature.
I can make molds. Anything I can think up to print I can turn into a mold for metal. With a furnace and some wax I can cast iron.
9L+ diesel engines are still cast. If your bed as large enough you could 3D print yourself a small 2 stroke engine, check for fitup and then build yourself an entire engine from scratch.
"Die Cast" used to be a marker of quality. With a 3D printer at home you can make anything the average machine shop could have made during the industrial revolution.
And because you can do it in 3D with cheap plastic first you can reduce costs. You think a bad 3D print job is expensive? Imagine screwing up a mold design for a 12L engine.
They're for your kids. I'm shocked at the number of Slashdotters that are talking about 3D printers like this.
Our local library bought one through Grand money and there are kids in there every week trying to learn to use it. MakerBot and Thing Verse work really well together.
It's how I learned how to Program. First I copied someone's program. Then I modified someone's program. Then I wrote my own programs. Kids are printing things out. Some get bored with it, some spend a lot of time with it. Guys are making desk top figures or monster trucks. Girls are 3D printing jewelery. The librarian has asked me to help out with teaching them some 'theory' behind stuff and I just gave them my parametric modeling book from freshmen year in college.
There are 10 year olds out there that can model better than your average college senior could 15 years ago. FIRST robotics is going to get a lot more interesting when you have people that can actually model. People that may be contracting your CNC shop to make a part. Kids that have grown up doing parametric modeling and actually know how to design for machining. (Because if they screwed it up on a cheap piece of ABS plastic and not your CNC machine.) There are going to be girls that will be asking their parents for a Revo 540CX CNC machine so they can make their own rings.
Your stove knobs get to 105C? You should have that looked at.
"A car is just a big purse on wheels." -- Johanna Reynolds
