With the different types of printer systems (FDM,SLA, etc.) you have different results. All are dependent on how well the calibration is of a printer. I have seen FDM printers (The hot plastic type) that are very accurate and print very nice parts. I have 2 of these machines myself. Many of the parts I make don't have to be "flawless" but are able to make life easier. Making brackets, tools, parts for prototypes, etc. Depending on what material you are printing with depends on how "Fragile" or "Bumpy" It sounds to me like any you have seen were crap machines and crap machines print crap parts. If you know what your machine is capable of, and what choices to make in the part design, as well as the settings for the print, you can make a product that looks like it was mass produced at a factory. And if you need metal parts, print a part in a water soluble filament like Hips and then sand cast it. Pour the molten metal in and then enjoy your part manufacturing capabilities. . The SLA printers (the ones that use photo resin) are extremely accurate and create high quality parts. Maybe not as strong as FDM systems, but still very accurate and used in many industries. They do have small build areas, but any home use or diy system will usually have that anyway. Even if it is a device like a CNC plasma table, Laser cutter, CNC Mill or Lathe.

I used to work at a franchise store long ago. They operate differently than the corporate stores and are allowed to meet market demands better in certain localities. The problems are these. 1. Staff do not know the product and cannot sell it. 2. They have been hurt by their own "Online initiative that came out years ago called "Radio Shack Unlimited or as we called it RSU" which was a corporate attempt to keep stock low and have people buy online at the store. It flat didn't work and gave Mouser, MCM and Parts express extra business. Jameco is as close as a radio shack should be online. 3. Parts are not stocked well due to problem 2. 4. Prices are out of line with market. 5. They are not consistent with their stock. 6. They don't promote hobbies or hackathons. There is a huge market for joining the Make movements that are getting kids and teens back into electronics, 3d printing, etc. They need to embrace this and get active to bring the community in to see their wares. I would love to have a place to pick up 3d filament locally or components related to these items. (I know they are not completely mainstream yet, but radio shack used to be about the innovators and creators where it started from. They could be involved to their benefit as well.) 7. Placement is a problem. Like was mentioned above, they are always in the wrong place for the type of business. Between a Cato clothes store and a Cici's pizza? really. 8. Partnerships. Radio Shack could use some of it's old talents and become a "Grainger" type store for business. They did not pursue that and have been hurt since retail has fallen off so much in the phone sector push they run. Anyway, I will stop rambling. I hate to see this, but it is time to re-invent the stores.

BS Obama-phones aren't being paid for by taxes. Any person that has any kind of a telecommunications service (And actually pays their bill on it) are taxed to provide services those that cannot (And in many cases choose not to) pay for their own service. They call it a pool of money that is "voluntarily" collected by telecommunication providers, but the consumer has no choice in the matter other than discontinue service with that provider. I dare you to try and find another provider that doesn't collect it in the US. Anything that is put on my bill, in the form of a mandatory payment, which is not managed by the provider but instead the federal government is a Tax to me. You can wordsmith all you like, but it is a tax regardless what they call it. Only the people that can pay the bill get the honor of paying for the Lifeline/Universal Service Fund. Those that receive service from it, and their initial monthly minutes allotment are not putting into the system. This is just a fact. Take from the Rich (Read Broke) and give to the poor. Not a safety net my ass. And a correction for you as well, the Obamaphone process was created with President Bill Clinton in it's first inception.. . I'm sure you meant to say that though..

Exactly. Hope is no where to be seen and the change sucks. This crisis is ficticious.There is enough money coming in to pay our primary debts. But the leaders don't want to make the hard cuts. Our kids are going to be paying for our generations mistakes and they have no say in the matter. Giving habitual spenders more money doesn't solve the problem. Banks don't give people that can't pay bills more credit. That isn't the way it works. What I want is this: 1. No debt ceiling raise. Simply to make the people realize that calmities do not come just because politicians tell you they will. 2. Not have to pay into Social Security. Make it voluntary 3. Balanced budget amendment 4. TERM LIMITS on Senators 5. Declare War or get out of other countries. (What happened to the Libya news, Where did that go all of the sudden?) 6. People to wake the hell up and start to pay attention and not just rely on the news for thier information. You are getting half truths and following blissfully. 7. Deal with these problems now so we can keep our country from collapsing like the other European and other eastern countries.

with haven't notified me. This is more troublesome than the ones that have. I don't really worry about spam overall, but the like others said, the lack of credible information about the issue is annoying. Epsilon should be notifying us directly and furthermore, most of these companies agreed not to share our information with outside firms for marketing. Doesn't Epsilon qualify as an outside firm for marketing?

While there is more to this story than meets the eye, there is no excuse for not having redundancy if you are a state body. It could be a case that there is a backup of the data and maybe that the needed parts to fix the issue are not availible yet or haven't been delivered. Nevertheless, without details of the infrastructure, we cannot jump to conclusions of why this happened. Most contracting companies like that clearly state that they will design the system to run and build it, but backup managment is the responsibilty of the customer. That is the normal CYA tactic. We don't know that NG was even tasked with the Backup or redundancy. I will be looking for more of this to come to light in regards to the actual cause and resolution.

Exactly, you nailed it. It makes the companies more money if they restrict the Serials and the OS to specific models for the disks that include the drivers. Etc. On the other hand, it also makes more money for me in my business as the person that gets to source the new drive and then re-install the software. The comments about the links in bios, etc for being able to get the ISO image and reload. There could be some use in that but on the networking side, there would be limitations. Sounds like a good way to start up a new company.. I'm sure that many of the major manufactureres would add this, but I would also think they would still charge for the "Extended download service"

You piss off, if you want details look them up yourself. There are a number of reports on the net about how shitty the ATT service is without having to defend my statement. I posted my opinion whether you like it or not, whether you like it or not. The only whiny little bitch is the one complaining that the post didn't give him any relevant info to dispute so your attack the poster yourself. Classic.

Um. Yes I did. http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1731258&cid=33017256 [slashdot.org]

I have some experiance with the Yankee group before and as such, I was labeled a troll because I didn't believe the poll without listing facts. I'm so happy :-)

I did offer evidence, http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1731258&cid=33017256 Poor Thinking huh? I didn't get the memo that said I had to explain myself, or that opinion wasn't allowed without permission.

"Who did they ask? People inside of Apple's campus.. You've got to be kidding me." That was my original post on the other topic, and guess what. I still stand by it. I didn't find it surprising that the poll was found inaccurate, I already knew based on my history and the undred or so clients that I support that use AT$T. While the results were regional, they still apply. I would guess in the same way that Yankee applied thier poll to a region. Like I said, I have both an Iphone and Droid X. I like the Droid X BETTER for what it IS. The Iphone is OK, but does have problems since the new update. I think AT$T needs to quit lying about it's coverage map and show 3g vs edge and GPRS. There are alot of places that 3g doesn't work in my state and that is Fact. It didn't take a poll for me to figure that out. Again, the original article was about AT$T, not specifically the Iphone, but the details remain the same.

1st, your a fanboy. 2nd, what is wrong with having a phone that can work like a PC. It isn't that far fetched for people to like android. After all, if you say that most people don't like android because it is PC like. Why do most users of the Iphone have a PC or a Mac to use Itunes with?

oops, meant Droid vs Iphone debate............

I have both an Iphone and a Droid X. The reality of my issue is ATT and not the phone. My Iphone 3g was fine until it was updated with IOS4 which prety much caused it to act like a 10 year old PC instead of a 2 year old phone. Is that ATT's fault no, but I was limited to thier network which truely sucks in this area and from what I hear is a concensus around the California area on the tech news I watch and listen to. So my question still stands, where was this poll taken? As for the Droid Vs android debate. I like the Android better than the iphone. That is just my personal opinion based on using them both. When apple can provide me with a mobile hotspot, and a different carrier,. I will look at them again, but I believe by that time, Android will be refined to a point that Iphone will be a boutique item like it was in the beginning.