Comment "from the type-13-planets dept." (Score 1) 608
Nice obscure reference there...
Nice obscure reference there...
I don't doubt that there is little use for something that can produce plastic parts for cars that were made before 1990.
Looking at my 2006 Korean car, there's actually rather little metal left in that rice cooker.
What battle? I didn't even know I've started fighting.
I didn't say that we should abandon laws in these areas. I just complained that there is no rhyme or reason to them.
Sex: Age of consent alone is enough material for a rather awkward stand up routine. When you look around the globe, you get to see pretty much everything between 12 and 21 years of age as "old enough". Care to tell me what makes people from country A mature twice as fast as people from country B? And don't get me started on laws concerning certain sexual practices. If you want a good laugh, take a look at the sex laws of countries the name of which ends in -stan. You'd be surprised what law makers consider their business in some areas of the planet.
Drugs: Pot is illegal. Alcohol is legal. Well, in some areas of the planet. In others it's the other way around. Tobacco is legal. But not everywhere and not for everyone. Smoking is banned in schools. That makes sense, kids should not be subjected to smoking. Smoking is legal when you're pregnant. Because
Do I have to go on to copyright?
The cartel door swings both ways. Too bad it always hits us, consumer or employee, in the face.
"I shot an employer." "In self defense" "Yeah, that's what I made it look like"
It's not that easy to hide the phone. Having glasses on your head you can claim that you're not recording. Holding a cellphone in front of you, no such luck.
We're still a far cry from the prices asked for car spare parts. Parts that cost cents in plastic are sold for double digit dollars.
Yes, filament costs money and the power to heat and print it even more. But even everything included we're still far from the prices you have to pay for spare parts.
Plastic has been the staple of the car industry for a few decades now, long enough that soon even "classics" will be made mostly of plastic. Wait a decade or two and the "classics" you restore will need plastic parts.
Well, to be fair, if 3D printers were anything like 2D printers you'd get them for 30 bucks but the filament would cost about 100 bucks a yard and you could only put the manufacturer made one in.
This is why we can't have nice things!
In more than one way it will be the killer application, for not only will it be the application that makes everyone want one but also the application that will send a very, very powerful enemy onto 3D Printing: Printing car replacement parts.
Think of all those small and not so small little bits of plastic that you have to pay for through the nose when (or should I say, as soon as) they crack. On your car, your motorcycle, your various other appliances. But with car manufacturers this will not be very popular, as one can imagine. They make quite a bit of money with spare parts and the planned obsolescence of various parts that "just so happen" to wear and tear.
Now, with patents it's fairly easy to keep other manufacturer from ruining this very profitable market. It's way harder if every Joe Random can make their own parts, essentially for free.
If you thought the battle of content owners vs. file sharing was fierce, just think what the battle between car part manufacturers vs. part printers will be.
Probably only after we make it illegal and actually punish people who do it.
Since the people who benefit from not making it illegal are the same that could make it illegal, I wouldn't hold my breath.
Building it is part of the fun!
Hand in your geek card on your way out...
Exploding glasses? Who designed this, the same idiot that designed the computers for the bridge of the Enterprise?
Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun.