LD27 Ten Seconds of Thrust! - Post Mortem

Finally getting around to doing a postmortem on Ten Seconds of Thrust!  

It is my first Ludum Dare 48hr Solo Compo Entry. (though I've participated in a couple of group game jams and they where a BLAST!) I would have to wait until a 90deg day in Seattle to write this... I'll prob have to clean this post up later (or not).  

Pre-Game - Strategy and Intentions

• Rapid Game Prototyping Knew I didn't have much time to participate so choose tools that i could get something done solo in little time.
• Low barrier to Entry - I like the concept of getting something out quickly to showcase a technology and lower the barrier to entry for people who would like to be creative...
• Ubiquitous to create and play - I'm also using older computer systems so wanted it be playable on almost anything within the browser.
• Wanted something Visually appealing and interesting play
• Playable and posted in time allowed

Tools

• InkScape - awesome and powerful. free vector drawing package (svg) ported to most systems (also exports to png)
• Stencyl - drag and drop code blocks like MIT scratch, good for beginner (or rusty) programmers. exports game to flash (free) and others (paid).
• Linux Desktop - free os, with lots of free tools.

Theme Vote and Time 

Not my first choice on a game theme... forgot I had someplace to be on Friday evening so, either cancel it or just go into it knowing I'd only have a limited time to work on things... hence working with tools that can produce something quickly... I've done this before... just not with a game... I can pull this off.... (see Thought to Thing in 1hr or Less) and (Thought to Thing in 2hrs or Less) I didn't even know what the theme was until Late Friday evening.

The Good 

48hr Solo Compo - the good distilled...

• Total creative control
• success (or fail) due to your own efforts
• spend as little (or as much) time on something as you decide
• no obligations other than to yourself (and those who may play it)

This has possibly turned into...
Rapid Game Prototyping with Stencyl and Inkscape in 8hrs or less...
and now the ramble about the game...
Theme and low time actually worked to an advantage... not knowing what the theme was until late Friday night. having to brainstorm and make a decision quickly and on my own actually worked well. I really couldn't even get to a computer to work on things during a good portion of the compo but that wasn't much of an issue early on. I could see the game play and some of the basic level design already in my head well before sitting down at a computer. so most of the game ended up being (virtually) pre-built before I was able to sit down and actually create it. however, eventually you have to sit down and goto work on things. also knowing I'd have limited time in front of the screen helped me to work with the limited pallet so to speak. prior commitments kept me from spending too much time in front of the computer and forced other activities like... take a walk, fix dinner, visit with friends... having played around extensively in Inkscape and some in Stencyl (particularly in tile creation)... made level design, layout, visualization pretty effortless and fun. after finally getting down to the coding bit... it eventually all started to come back (I'm multi year rusty at coding). was almost as much fun as doing the graphics... got a lot of positive support from GF on tackling (and finishing) my first Solo project... something to show others at our local after LD27 meetup. and talk about at PAX Prime the following weekend.  

The Bad 

The solo compo can be a lonely endeavor... Really missed the group dynamics in game creation.

• No one to bounce ideas off from
• coming up with everything on your own
• no show off what you doing (and get their help/feedback).
• no one to take up the slack when you are short on time (or talent).

granted I got some feedback from GF... she would have loved to have helped... but nope. Time crunch, lack of sleep... couldn't sleep well Friday night... so had to sleep in on Sat to catch up and be functional. so had a couple of hour to work on things before next time commitment and actually see the sun... got a couple hour in Sat before noon doing graphics, but really didn't get to working on game until late Saturday night... and only for a couple hours at that.  

The Ugly 

Yea...
GF was very supportive in my tackling a solo project... however... she just started new job, so she required TLC. poor communication and scheduling on my part (the game jam is THIS weekend?!). all lead to way too much stress. even without the solo compo or jam it would have been a difficult weekend. and afterward fallout from poor sleep schedule, life stress, etc. ... getting too old for this. my great push to finish the game (just before the deadline) involved having to hack together the timer countdown code... I really need to spend more time in the Stencyl code base to figure stuff out... and not on such a crunch... maybe a few hours a day. don't leave things like this till the last min... or Ten Seconds... as the case may be. oh... and so bloody exhausted that literally botched the after LD27 show and tell... almost didn't make it due to melt down stress.    

ToDo Differently

• Practice more with Stencyl Coding (hr or so a day till awesome)
• Schedule more time
• concrete communication about plans with others
• do jam instead of solo
• spend time after compo to polish game (and post)
• have others playtest during jam/compo

Done Right

• Tool Choice of Stencyl and Inkscape
• publish to web
• waiting a bit before code/build
• honed Inkscape skills before hand.

  Done Wrong

• no laptop availability
• time and personal commitments
• not enough code familiarity to write w/o extensive research

-L   p.s. as a side note... would do the tiles (and collision detection) differently... I'm prob the only one to find the bug... but collision blocks need to be bigger to keep from allowing your ship to sometimes pass through the wall and end up behind... (would require and complete level and graphics rebuild).

BioCharStoveBuild

BioChar Stove Build stuff here...

Contact pages and info currently resided here...

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BioCharStoveBuilder
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BioCharBBQ
Email: BioCharStoveBuilder@gmail.com

BioChar Stove

Biochar Stove Workshop and workbook stuff here...

Seattle Mini Maker Faire Robot Coin / Key FOB

2 Color Maker Faire Robot Coin

There was a good turnout at the "Thought to Thing in an Hour or Less" workshop at Seattle Mini Maker Faire on Saturday, June 2nd, 2012.

I was there to promote our local Seattle Makerbot/Mendel Users Group (and RepRap) [SMUG(r)], open source 3d printers and users, and our local area Maker Spaces.

T2T 2010

Due to time constraints this workshop was quite a bit less collaborative than the workshop from back in 2010 which was held at Jigsaw Renaissance.

However, we did end up with a 2 Color Maker Faire Robot Coin / Key Fob design in about 45min.

From a group of about 30 people, we had 3 design ideas with the Key Fob option seeming to be the most appropriate coming from someone wearing a black Maker Faire Robot T-shirt.

We quickly went over some of the tools that can be used to design, from OpenSCad, Blender, Google Sketchup, Autodesk 123D,  to Rhino3d (which is what we used).

Going out to the Maker Faire website, we snagged the Maker Faire Robot image from the main page and saved it to our working folder. Here are the steps we went through:
Open up InkScape, import the low resolution image into a new document, and enlarge it by 10x to fill the page after locking the aspect ratio.

Next, select "Trace Bitmap" under the "Path" menu, to bring up the tracing options dialog.

Select Multiple Scans - "Colors", set the colors to "2", check the "Remove Background" and uncheck the "Smooth", and hit the "Update" button, then OK. Close the dialog box to get back to the main document.

Here, we no longer needed the Maker Faire Robot raster image so we deleted it, leaving just the somewhat cartoon-like vector image.

 Under "File" - "Document Properties", bring up a dialog box where you'll select the "Page" tab, then "Resize Page to contents", and click the "Resize Page to Drawing" button before closing the Dialog box.

Saving our work as MakerFaireRobotExport as a standard InkScape SVG (no options) we also used  "Save A Copy" as PDF under the same name to import it into Rhino3d. (You may need to save it as another format, like dxf, to import into OpenSCad or another 3d packages).

In Rhino3d or another format, open up a new file, from preexisting templates, that is already set up to your 3d printers' build platform size. (Mine is a Makerbot Cupcake, so it was 100mm square).

Then select File, Import, to bring up the dialog box, choose PDF under file types, and 'Fit to default screen' on the next dialog. We selected our MakerFaireRobotExport.PDF.

With your import still selected, draw a 4cm circle for your coin/key fob outer rim, and another 1.5mm - 2.0mm circle for the inside coin rim, and use that as a gauge for resizing your vector.
We selected and centered the imported Maker Faire Robot vector to as close to the middle of the coin/key fob as possible.

Resize your vector image by selecting the Scale tool from the bottom. Click the center [0,0,0] as your first point, then click the vector's furthest diameter  out from the center for the second point, and drag the vector to scale so that it fits inside your inner rim (leaving a 1mm gap between the two rims). This is probably a good time to save your work as well.

A 2mm coin this size should print fairly quickly and be strong enough for demonstration purposes, although 3mm would probably be better for strength and durability. 

With your vector image still selected, choose the 'Front' panel window, and use the 'Box' tool tab drop-down to select the 'Extrude Closed Planar Curve' option.

 With the 'Front' panel selected, drag the vector to 1mm in height.

You will be selecting the poly surfaces that you have  just created, and raising them up to 1mm off of your build platform.

Next, you need to make a 2mm high outside ring for your coin/key fob. Select the two outside rings, and repeat the 'Extrude Closed Planar Curve' process again but this time for 2mm high. (It will automatically make a ring rather than a disk, with the two objects selected).

To finish, we selected just the inside circle and extruded it up 1mm, to make a disk that would meet the bottom of our Maker Faire Robot that we previously raised up 1mm.

To finish your coin/key fob model, click the 'Perspective' window panel, then 'Shaded view' toolbox from the top window -  and marvel at what you've created in such a short amount of time.

The model is done now, but you need to get it into a form that your 3d printer will understand, which means converting it from the NURBS, that Rhino3d is working with, into a MESH .stl file that ReplicatorG can then convert into G code for your printer.

Do this by selecting the Polysurfaces you've created, under Edit, Select Objects, PolySurfaces.

Then from the Tools menu, choose Polygon Mesh, From NURBS Object, move the Simple Controls slider down a couple of notches and hit the preview button. Find something that looks like it still holds the shape well, but doesn't have way too many polygons (2 left from center looked good to me), and hit OK.

Click anywhere in a window to deselect all objects, and select only the meshes you've just created by selecting only 'Polygon Meshes, instead of 'Polysurfaces' like you did previously.

If you are just going to print in one color, you should export the whole mesh out as a single file. Under File menu, Export Selected, choose STL as your file type, save, and click OK under the new STL options dialog.

This STL file should theoretically be good to print - just run it through ReplicatorG that is set up to your particular 3d printer.

(For our Maker Faire Robot Coin / Key Fob, this didn't work out to be quite that easy after all, but was able to work it out with some nifty new cloud based tools. SEE BELOW)

Since we had a new handy 2 Color printing Makerbot Replicator available at the Seattle Mini Maker Faire this year thanks to Emmett of Thingivese fame and Makerbot Industries .... we pushed the envelope and decided to go for true 2 Color Printing ( hopefully in under an hour).

2 Color Snap together hack

rather than my old snap together 2 color hack from back in the dinosaur days (2 years ago!)








Moving on to converting our model to a 2 color version...

With all of your models' polygon meshes still selected,  push down the 'Control' key and click the center disk mesh (under your center image), to deselect the background of the coin. You should now have all the meshes selected except for the center disk mesh. You want to export these meshes as a single file now, to print in one color.
Choose File, Export Selected, name it something like ColorOne.stl. and hit OK on the second dialog. Next, you deselect everything (click any blank spot on the perspective window) and just select the small background disk mesh. Export that as above, but name it '...ColorTwo.stl', and hit OK.

These files SHOULD be done. Run them through ReplicatorG and print....

However...

These should have been watertight meshes, but at Maker Faire, something didn't work right and ReplicatorG choked on them.

 Luckily there is a nifty 'Cloud Based' Mesh fixing service on the NetFabb website.

Upload them, running the files through their free service, and download the fixed files.

RepG is then able to use the files and print them up on Emmett's new MakerBot Replicator (named Venus).

For our Maker Faire Robot Coin / Key Fob first print quality turned out better overall on the single color version.

But the 2 Color version looked really cool by far even with the lesser print quality.







It could have had something to do with printing black PLA over clear PLA which may not have bonded well, the singular mesh being more intact, or something gone wrong with the mesh fixing/creation process.

In any case, the 'Experiment' was a success, even though at the event it actually took about an hour and a half to go from Thought to Thing... what with having to Sneaker Net the design files across to the other side of the Maker Faire, and the mesh snafu.

The Seattle Mini Maker Faire Robot Coin / Key FOB design files will reside here on Thingiverse. I'll try and update it with a beefier 3mm version, and beveled version with some draft that could be easily sand cast in metal.

3D Design & Print Workshop - Thought to Thing in an Hour or Less

Location: Seattle Mini Maker Faire (at Seattle Center)
Date: Saturday June 2nd
Time: 2:35 PM to 3:35 PM

An brief introduction to 3d Printing and Design with a Makerbot and/or Rep(St)rap printer.

The workshop will encompass a brief history of open-source Rep(St)rap, printers, their capabilities, and possible future.

We'll quickly go over the steps it takes to design and print from a Rep(St)rap machine.

There will be an "experimental" part of the workshop where the class will collaboratively design a (small) printable object that we'll then
attempt to print out in on a 3d printer at the Maker Faire.

The whole design process from idea, to computer model, to physical object can take less than 1 to 2hrs for simple designs.

The instructor will guide the design process, operate the CAD
software, and then hand the design file over to another Makerbot printer operator.

Prerequisites: Attendees are strongly encouraged to visit
http://www.makerbot.com and http://www.thingiverse.com to gain some knowledge of printing capabilities and possible design ideas.

Due to time constraints we are limited to 15min to come up with a design, 15min to design it, 15min to get the design machine readable, and 15min to print.

After the workshop the collaboratively designed object will reside on Thiniverse for the world to enjoy.

Cheers,

Larry James
Wulf Design

More info See:

Wulf Design - (previous workshop)
http://wulfdesign.blogspot.com/2010/04/thought-to-thing-in-2hrs-or-less-3d.html

Thingiverse
http://www.thingiverse.com/wulfdesign/
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2701

SMUG(r) - Seattle Makerbot/Mendel Users Group (and RepRap)
http://groups.google.com/group/seattlemakerbot

FaceBook Page (may change, but search if it does)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SMUGr-Seattle-MakerbotMendel-Users-Group/204515209658497?bookmark_t=page

Facebook Group
http://www.facebook.com/groups/SMUGr/

Vulcan 3d Printing (Emmitt and his Makerbot 3d Printer)
http://www.thingiverse.com/emmett

Near Space Balloon Launch Workshop

I'm in the process of putting together materials for a Near Space Balloon Launch Workshop through Space & Robots. Something I've been wanting to do for some time now. Near the end of the workshop we should be taking some photos like this.



more news to follow...

Thought to Thing in 2hrs or Less - 3d Print & Design Workshop

The "iPod Cord Cleat".
Designed by Raven Gildea (design inspiration), Larry James[a.k.a. Wulf Design] (CAD & Print operator), and the other participants of the 3d Print & Design Workshop.

With a Makerbot Cupcake CNC we Collaborative Designed and Printed a "iPod Cord Cleat" in about an hour and a half. One of the participants (Raven Gildea) proposed the design, basic function, and shape. I ran the CAD software and the class gave direction on how to best implement the design and make it functional within the print parameters of the Makerbot.

Having extra sets of minds and eyes helped speed the design process, catching potential errors before the moving on to the printing stage of the workshop.

The first design and print was completely functional after a little clean up with a knife.
Way to go guys!

The design now resides on Thingiverse for anyone whom want to print it out and/or modify the design.

Here are some pictures from the class.

3D Print & Design Workshop - Thought to Thing in 2Hrs or Less

I'm putting on a 3d Print & Design Workshop later this month on Saturday, April 24th 2010 from 2pm ~ 6pm.

It's through the Seattle Free School where I've taught some No-Knead Bread and Pizza Making classes.

Register at 3D Print & Design Workshop - Thought to thing in 2Hrs or Less

It's being held at Jigsaw Renaissance Maker Space at their New 1026 Madison Location on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

additional info at Thought to thing in 2Hrs or Less

Snowflake X-Mass Ornament

I created a Snowflake X-Mass Tree Ornament a while back and posted it up to Thingiverse.

Pretty much immediately someone in the Ohio and the UK printed out the object. It's kind of nice seeing one of your designs being used half way across the world in a matter of hours.

Today a picture of someones printout of the design ended up on the Makerbot Blog and Make Magazine Blog (snowflake on lower left).

This is really great since my 3d printer has been down for the last few weeks. I've got parts on order so it should hopefully be functional again sometime this week. In the meantime I'll have to settle with the knowledge that other people are enjoying my designs.

-L

[UPDATE 12/11/09]
looks like a link to this item made the Makerbot blog again with Bre Pettis using it for "Skeinforge Battle". Since it prints out fairly quickly you can compare iterations to check your Skeinforge settings (and hang all on your x-mass tree).

Maybe this will end up being the most printed item on Thingiverse other than 608 pulleys?

MakerBot No. 214 Birthday

Officially she was finished on the 3rd of November 2009.

Unfortunately we didn't have any beer on hand to christen her right.

So from now on her birthday (launch day) will be celebrated on the 4th of November.

Long Live MakerBot No. 214
Affectionately named WulfBot.


-Larry

Wulf Design

P.S. more pics below later...

No-Knead Bread Baking Dish Cheat

I was house sitting for a friend last month and I didn't have my Dutch Oven available for Bread Baking.

I was able to use a couple of their Pyrex Baking Dishes instead of a Pizza Stone.

Just preheated the dishes in the oven like you would a pizza stone.
preheat a broiler pan with them to add a cup of water for when the dough goes in.

It turned out about the same as the Pizza Stone Method.
all in all the Dutch Oven Method works best but these tweaks work well in a pinch.

Next Avalanche Tech

Seems I'm not the only one who equates the arrival of the MakerBot as being similar to the arrival of the Apple Computer. See Thingiverse Blog article Are 3D Printers the Next Avalanche Tech? for their take on it.

btw, I finally got my order in for a Cupcake CNC on August 31st. Should be getting a Batch 7 machine sometime after the October 5th ship date.

Do you have a Big Kitty?

Well do you?

a friend sent me this email about kitty Blood Donation.
it's a worthy and often overlooked cause.

email below...

We just got a call from Access Blood Bank - part of the 24 hour hour
vet on Aurora that there is no cat blood, and animals will suffer. Our
cat Stanley Fuzzbutt donates 3/year and has saved 2 cats already.
Access is the only local organization running a blood bank for pets...
i know its important we do it for humans to, but this is often
overlooked by people and its only important when your pet gets hurt
and needs it. This is not just needed for emergency, but planned
surgeries as well.

Access gives you free blood work as part of the program, 3 times per
year - once with each donation. You have to be 10 pounds or more to
give blood, so many cats do not qualify (Fuzzbutt is 15-16 pounds...
too bad for him), but if you have one, please contact them to see if
you can help out.

Normally i don't broadcast these sort of things, but i don't plan on
having kids, so Fizzgig and Fuzzbutt are daddy's little monsters and i
don't know what i would do if anything were to happen to them... so
please, if you can, check into this program and spread the word
around.

http://www.criticalcarevets.com/

http://www.criticalcarevets.com/newbloodbank.html

Re-Purposing 24 volt Black & Decker Electric Lawn Mower

I picked up a 24 volt Black & Decker electric lawn mower used at goodwill for 8 bucks last winter. I want to use the parts in an electric tadpole trike project and possibly as an Vietnamese style outboard on the sailboat. I've already converted the wheels and metal framing into a bike trailer. I tested the motor and batteries the other day and they seem to work fine. Still need to test out the electronics and salvaged charge controller. maybe it was fully functional before I tore it apart??? oh, well... sure don't need no lawn mower when you live on a sailboat that's for sure.

I was going to throw out the rest of the main body parts but I’m looking at how pretty all that red plastic looks. It how it would be great to re-propose it into a printable material and use it in a RepRap or Makerbot CNC machine. Worse case other than throwing it away is melt it down and CNC it into corner pieces on a Red Rep(St)Rap Machine. If I can re-use the plastic it’ll have re-purposed be about 95%+ of the original components.

Will post updates and hopefully pictures on the project later.

update 9/8/09 - I threw out the housing cause it was taking up too much room in storage. this project is on hold until I get the Makerbot up and going. The Bike trailer has come in handy a couple of times and I'm sure the motor will get some use eventually.

Wulf Design now on Twitter

Now using Twitter intermittently @wulfdesign
Will try and keep updates interesting and relevant.

No-Knead Bread Cast Iron Skillet Cheat Idea

I thought of a way to cheat on making the 'good' style bread.
Getting by without a dutch oven or pizza stone.

Substituting a large cast iron skillet for the pizza stone.

No-Knead Bread and Pizza Making Class

Monday, March 23rd. 2009
I gave my second No-Knead Bread and Pizza Making Class for the Seattle Free School at the Cascade People's Center.

12-15 people showed up to my first class I did on February 5th which went extremely well, especially since it was my first. (with a write up from one of the attendees blogs)

Around 18 - 20 people showed up to the March 23rd class and in it and went fairly well considering it was more of a lesson on how NOT to give a class. In any case it turned out alright despite the following...
1). bringing 'sugar' instead of 'flour' to make bread
2). no pizza pan to cook pizza on
3). only sauce, Italian seasonings and cheese for the pizza
3). burning said pizza worse than the February 5th class.
4). being totally disorganized.
5). forgot to bring the free Seattle Green Festival tickets to hand out.

The primary lesson was if I can do, it you can doing it.

The pizza was by far the worse I've ever made. It was still pretty good, maybe has something to do with the caramelized cheese. a good reminder to keep an eye on the pizza especially if you are not use to the oven. maybe keep the temperature around 400 deg F (also not cooking bread and pizza at the same time in the same oven would help). oh yea, here are the New York Times links I promised.

Original New York Times Recipe and video from this page. along with the Speedy No-Knead Bread and Faster No-Knead Bread versions. I personally think there is too much water in the recipes they give. I've adjusted mine below with good results.

my quick and dirty, long winded, and not completely edited, recipes below...

my modified recipe is
1). 3 cups (bread) flour (1 cup of this may be white whole wheat for best results)
2). 1 tsp (up to 1 & 1/8 tbs) salt
3). 1/4 tsp yeast (can be 1/2+ tsp yeast if in a hurry)

mix thoroughly in a medium bowl (I use a butter knife). then add

4). 1 & 1/2 cups (filtered) water or a little less (maybe 1/8 cup less)

If you want your dough ready in 3hrs time use warm water (around 95 deg)
otherwise use room temperature or cool tap water if you are making it for the next day.

mix into rough dough with same butter knife (keeps hands clean).
cover and leave overnight or 3hrs if you used warm water.
use 1/2 batch for single 12in. pizza or whole batch for bread.

bread in dutch oven method -
on heavily floured surface (with oats, bran, etc. if you like) fold 2 opposite edges of dough over onto itself then the other 2 edges to make a ball. turn over the ball and place on floured surface and cover. wait if you can until it's doubled in size or just go ahead and go to the next step if you are in a hurry.
preheat oven with dutch oven in it for 30 min. at 425 deg F.
quickly remove lid to preheated dutch oven and place dough (seam up) cover lid quickly and get back into oven to keep from loosing heat.
bake for 30 min. with lid on. take lid off and cook for another 15 min (45 total).
adjust time and/or temperature depending if your first loaf come out too dark/over done. if bread seems too wet reduce water a little on next batch.

for best results use a little less water if making pizza dough.

Baking (Pizza) Stone and Broiler Pan Method -
if you don't have a dutch oven you can 'cheat' by using a pizza stone on the middle rack in the oven and a broiler pan on the bottom rack. preheated in the oven for 30 min. at 425 deg F. place your bread dough onto a piece of parchment paper with a little cornflour on it. put this setup onto some sort of flat pan you can slide easily onto the hot pizza stone in the oven. after it's preheated put the dough onto the pizza stone in the oven and quickly pour 1 cup water (pre measured) into the broiler pan. do it quick, keep your head away from the steam, and close the door quick. keep oven door closed for 30 min at 425 deg F. open the door carefully, keeping your head away from the escaping steam and then cook for another 15 min. to crisp up the crust of the bread (45 min total cooking time). again adjust time and/or temp a little if it come out with burnt edges.

you can pre-make multiple batches and keep them in the fridge for a number of days so you can have fresh bread on tap. also spreading a batch (or two) out on an well oiled baking sheet with sides and putting on melted butter and freshly crushed garlic makes some fantastic garlic bread sticks in about 20 min.

Here is a good article from Mother Earth News that follows the same basic idea in Five Minutes a Day for Fresh-Baked Bread. Notice that they use slightly less than 2 to 1 on their flour to water ratios as well.

Makerbot Industries - Cupcake CNC

wow...
the future is here..
and the revolution begins.

The Cupcake CNC is the

New Apple for a New Era

Only it's Open Source, will follow Darwinian evolution on Internet time, and is completely hackable.

I'd like to thank Bre Pettis, Zach Hoeken (from RepRap Research Foundation), and Adam Mayer of Makerbot Industries for their work on the Cupcake CNC 3D printer.


I've been planning on building a RepRap for some time now but haven't quite gotten around to ordering all the parts to put it together yet.

I think this neat little package will do the trick since it pretty much includes everything you'll need to get started.

Bre has a great write up on his blog about the Makerbot Launch.

Hope to be designing and printing out parts for myself, friends, and neighbors soon.

thanks again guys.

-wulf

p.s. see this baby in action...

Makerbot Industries - Cupcake CNC from MakerBot Industries on Vimeo.

City Repair - Permaculture for Urban Spaces [Youtube Video]

Some of this video interview may sound a little newagey (rhymes with sewagey) but listening carefully I found that the premise, culture, and logic are sound.

I particularly like the insight that Mark Lakeman (Co-Founder of City Repair Project of Portland Oregon) puts forth in a segment of his interview...

[I'm sure this could be paraphrased better...]
The city [state] infrastructure is a landscape of dominance that comes from patterns of unsustainably that have been used thought time. The infrastructure of imposition, dominance, and exploitation is really underlying the whole "urge to empire" of the city [state].

There is some good insight in this 27 min. interview even if you need to run it through your newagey filter.



-wulf

P.S.
Here is a shorter and more to the point video about the work that City Repair is doing. Thought it doesn't go into much of the deeper insight and systemic problems that have brought us to this point in our civilization.