Yeah, uh...

I think your second paragraph is kind of a given. Your first paragraph is actually only ideally true anyway... i'm sure you've seen examples of corporations dictating the status quo, and sometimes that does extend to legal matters.

for example (after a cursory goog, so i'm not all that sure about the credibility...): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/jeff-olson-california-banks_n_3499177.html?1372199922&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

I agree with you regarding public infrastructure. You can't increase functional efficiency (that is, the pipes and wires) on a natural monopoly easily without providing an inferior service (i.e. reduced maintenance).

To be fair, those people were lawyers and politicians.

But yes, GP... it is about as bad as the AC claims. People here appear to be encouraged to have no frame of reference.

I've never understood why some people are so concerned about big government but then give monopolies to big businesses.

Wish i could mod you up.

Turns out it was both unfeasible (i mean, it was obvious even to people who weren't going to have to implement it) to monitor everything and not everyone here is a complete idiot. Lucky for us, i guess.

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=pjcis%2Fnsl2012%2Freport.htm

It's about volume, right? That music is criminally loud.

Also terrible fucking puns.

Stop being logical.

Next you'll be telling me there's a .US tld.

Mmmm it'll probably be the (apparent) fact that you have to enter a code manually into the box after purchasing a game in order to have it 'verified online and linked to your Xbox Live account', coupled with the fact that your friend who wants to borrow the game will have the opition to do so... but only if they pay the full retail value of said game.

Oh, there's also the brand new, feature packed online trading system for second hand games... which will be extremely popular with retailers (who are already totally enthused about the auth code system), as well as gamers who will be able to see that they're still paying significantly more for '2nd hand' digital content than they can get back by rescinding their rights to it.

...but not much about the shape of the bones, OP.

If you use old school tech for its own sake and it's really a cultural affectation then there's no real reason not to switch.

However, if you use them because you're interested in the raw stuff that makes the modern world work and you're not content to just accept that every new toy is a magical box controlled by Apple or Microsoft or Samsung... you should probably both stick to the old stuff and branch out into finding out how the new technologies do what they do.

Designers will probably do the obvious thing: Continue to freely use fully paid up legacy versions of the software and ignore the cloud.

You mean like this: http://thingiverse.com/ ?

Yes, i know it's not exhaustive. Contribute.

You have some pretty big hurdles ahead of you if you can't differentiate between 3d modelling and programming... Luckily 3d modelling in the 21st century is a bit easier than programming IF you just want to sculpt.

As deathguppie suggested, look at blender (or zbrush). You will need to learn some skills, but probably not as much as you'd think.

Unfortunately... the OP article is completely off the mark: The software is the easiest thing to fix. The printers themselves generally require A LOT of supervision and maintenance.

You mean like the reprap: http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page ?

you might be late to the party.

1000-2000 hours?

Seriously?

What if i told you that the high school around the corner from my work has a 3d printing group that gets kids started on Google Sketchup and has them making their own 3d models within an hour? Sure Sketchup is much much simpler than Autocad or Solidworks, but the principles are the same and the techniques are additive; once the user knows the techniques, they can be transplanted from application to application, with the widely varied interfaces between different applications being the biggest hurdle. Some of these kids have produced functional multipart models in blender after as few as 10 hours of supervised play.

I agree that this is totally different from functional design, but engineering and 3d modelling are actually fundamentally different skills...

Also, blender (and 3dsmax, and maya and zbrush... but blender is free & open source) has supported native .stl export for a while now.