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Submission + - Makerbot Cracks Down On 3D-Printable Gun Parts (forbes.com) 1

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: In the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut shootings, the 3D-printing firm Makerbot has deleted a collection of blueprints for gun components from Thingiverse, its popular user-generated content website that hosts 3D-printable files. Though Thingiverse has long banned designs for weapons and their components in its terms of service, it rarely enforced the rule until the last few days, when the company’s lawyer sent notices to users that their software models for gun parts were being purged from the site.

Gun control advocates were especially concerned about the appearance of lower receivers for semi-automatic weapons that have appeared on Thingiverse. The lower receiver is the the “body” of a gun, and its most regulated component. So 3D-printing that piece at home and attaching other parts ordered by mail might allow a lethal weapon to be obtained without any legal barriers or identification.

Makerbot’s move to delete those files may have been inspired in part by a group calling itself Defense Distributed, which announced its intention to create an entirely 3D-printable gun in August and planned to potentially upload it to Thingiverse. Defense Distributed says it's not deterred by Makerbot's move and will host the plans on its own site.

Comment Re:Yeah! (Score 1) 123

by Icculus (#33405398) Attached to: MIT Unveils Oil-Skimming Robot Swarm Prototype
Well the how of the burning is significant. Think of the smoke produced burning oil in a Diesel engine des vs lighting a pan of it on fire in your garage. The combustion could be just slightly bad instead of extra bad. Otherwise, agreed. Better to turn it into smoke and CO2 than kill the sea critters.

Comment Re:Yes! (Score 1) 478

by Icculus (#29446135) Attached to: "Right To Repair" Bill Advances In Massachusetts
VW is one of the few makes for which you can get your own fully functional scanner (not just OBDII) for a relatively reasonable price: VAG-COM (I didn't come up with the name). It lets you interact with pretty much everything in the car with their hardware dongle and software and a laptop. It's still a little bit steep for what's essentially a serial-to-USB converter, but I suppose you're mostly paying for their reverse-engineering time.

Comment Re:Dimmer Savior! (Score 1) 569

by Icculus (#28609595) Attached to: Incandescent Bulbs Return To the Cutting Edge
I tried some Feit Electric brand ones in my can fixtures attached to an electronic Lutron dimmer with no luck. The dimmer must have some kind of check for load or something because it would just blink its indicator. That bums me out because my wife insists on having a dimmer (exactly that dimmer) in that room which means we're stuck with 360W of halogens for now.

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