Starting your own business is a lot harder than working as an employee/programmer/engineer etc. There's a lot of BS you have to deal with, and at 10:30pm if the order has to get out for the morning, guess who's running the machinery? And if you are just breaking even, that 10:30pm isn't even going to end up in your own pocket. I started a small businesss with a friend, worked 30+ hrs a week on it, had to work 40hrs a week as "high income earning consultant" to pay my bills, and for 7 years I was flat broke. From new BMW to 25 year old Mercedes (mind you i did learn that an old Mercedes is 10x the car of a new vehicle, but that's another story). :) Once we gave up on the business, after paying off the most impatient of the creditors, then working down the more patient ones, I can finally enjoy things like going out for dinner and buying "stuff". Since I'm used to working crazy hours, I can put in 10 or more overtime hours and that's just gravy. My advice; get attached to someone who has experience starting a business, and has deep pockets, and help them to get from $10 million in net worth to $50 million (or whatever their goal is). You'll get a taste of business, possibly be "in control" of your work and you'll have a lot less pain than just going out on your own.

The machine he used to do this is actually really cool. Basically an old-fashioned plotter with a medium power laser attached to it. Actually the first laser engravers were modified Roland plotters that someone decided to bolt a laser onto. Cool hack if there ever was one.

I've been a programmer for ten years, but recently invested in one of these machines as a bit of a sideline. I couldn't resist having my own laser.. now if only I could get shark-mounted ones then I would be really happy!!

I haven't been brave enough to put my laptop into the machine, but maybe now I'll try. :) I'm thinking maybe engraving an image of a Commodore 64 or maybe a VAX logo into it would be good..... or possibly just "DON'T TOUCH!" in 4 inch high letters. :)

Another thing that looks great to run through a laser engraver are regular computer cases. The laser basically vaporizes the powder coat on the case, leaving bare metal for a really high-contrast effect. Our company, INSIGNO http://www.insigno.ca/ (shameless plug) has done a couple of these for casemodders and they looked really great when they were done.