Visiting Smidgens

Maybe I don't get out enough, but a visit with Bob Kremens to Smidgens (Gary Villa, the LaserGuy) was one of the high points of my break!




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By way of thanks, I sent him a few links to current trends (with notes on opportunities, you might want to explore...perhaps with some of our more entrepreneurial innovation students.)

• A New Zealand company that has brilliantly "consumerized" your business. I send them line drawings, they send me laser-cut objects. ( http://www.ponoko.com/ But they're shipping from New Zealand . I imagine they could use a North American fab-site.)

• Fabbing as popular (geek) culture. (or, why you are changing the world)
  

The beckoning promise of personal fabrication 4 min 30 sec www.ted.com

TED Talks: Neil Gershenfeld 18 min video.google.com

FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop ... by Neil A Gershenfeld - 2005 - 289 pages

• http://www.fabbaloo.com/ a blog that tracks this stuff

• Google Sketchup. An extraordinary, and extraordinarily free, 3D modelling program.
  http://sketchup.google.com/index.html
  Soon, someone will tie this right in to a laser cutting rig...
  http://jonschull.blogspot.com/2008/12/shopbot-buddy-cnc-routers-and-zomadicam.html
  

• A few pictures from our visit http://picasaweb.google.com/jschull/Smidgeons#