I want this!

[Helevitia]

I know similar things have been posted before but it's still cool to read about. The possibilities are endless...

Imagine your kitchen blender conks out the day you’re hosting a large cocktail party. You search an online catalog, decide on a model, and click the “buy” button. But instead of waiting three days for the appliance to be shipped to your door, a new kind of printer on your desk springs into action. Layer by layer, the miraculous machine squirts out various materials to form the chassis, the electronics, the motors – literally building the blender for you from the bottom up in a matter of hours.

http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=6413

Dave

[Tjalfe]

Computer : Tea, Earl Gray, Hot

it may happen still.. they have 3D "printers" that work for simple plastic parts for prototype use.. I guess eventually they will expand on that, but it will be a while
e.g.

http://www.ind.tno.nl/prototyping/rapid_prototyping/3d_colour.html

[UtwigMU]

Yep, late for work, beam me up Scotty.

[Technoid]

Remember when this was posted here origianly
that was a while ago

[Zao]

Imagine what the warez people will do when this hits the market.

Free stuff...

[bsdgeek]

Originally posted by Zao
Imagine what the warez people will do when this hits the market.

Free stuff...

ROFL!

[Tjalfe]

I am sure the "Ink" for these printers would make it prohibitly expensive to use .. just look at the price for regular printer supplies

[Technoid]

then use Pirate ink, insanely cheap, but kills your printer :P

or used to kill printers, there have been less "printers killed by parate ink" this year

[Admiral]

You’d no longer pay for a product, Canny says, you’d pay for plans. I look forward then to a generation of do-it-yourself industrial designers, tinkerers who tweak commercial product designs to improve and customize them. How will I access the fruits of their labor? Peer-to-peer plan networks, of course, where designs for blenders and mobile phones and TV remote controls are swapped like so many MP3s.

hmm

[cochese]

computer: Human female, 5'6", blonde.... hot

scary isnt it

[Tjalfe]

Sounds like an order to real doll

[Duty]

Originally posted by cochese
computer: Human female, 5'6", blonde.... hot

scary isnt it

Sounds messy to me, putting it together, that is...

Jeff

[ZokesPro]

Would one of those I could invent plastic engines! Good for 100 miles then it just starts to melt!

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by cochese
computer: Human female, 5'6", blonde.... hot

scary isnt it

Don't laugh too hard. Printer technology or variants thereof are being used in whole new methods of tissue engineering;

Growing bones: http://www.cmu.edu/magazine/02summer/bonegrowing.html

Building tissues: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993292

Anyone remember that scene in Fifth Element where Leelu was re-created? Nice effect but unrealistic then; not so unrealistic now.

A sideshot of this is that they're already talking about growing meat cell cultures so you could "print" a steak that never was part of a living animal.

Dunno how the vegans & PETA will handle that prospect

OTOH this could also lead to a form of food generation for long term space flights that wouldn't require hydroponics. Cell cultures are a lot easier to maintain.

Dr. Mordrid

[Kooldino]

MMm, printing meat.

PETA would still bitch about eating meat...they'd just have to invent another reason.