Michigan Tech Sponsors A 3D Printers For Peace Contest
Now that Defense Distributed is on the defensive, it’s time to think a bit harder about what 3D printing really means. To that end, Michigan Tech is sponsoring a Printers For Peace contest that is encouraging designers and engineers to make amazing stuff using a 3D printer that can change the world for the better. “Unfortunately, the only thing many people know about 3D printing is that it can be used to make guns,” writes Dr. Joshua Pearce, founder of the project.
“This is an open-ended contest, but if you’d like some ideas, ask yourself what Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, or Gandhi would make if they’d had access to 3D printing.”
The deadline for the contest is September 1st and they’ll announce winners on the 4th. They are looking for designers to build things that will help, not harm, people.
low-cost medical devices
tools to help pull people out of poverty
designs that can reduce racial conflict
objects to improve energy efficiency or renewable energy sources to reduce wars over oil
tools that would reduce military conflict and spending while making us all safer and more secure
things that boost sustainable economic development (e.g. designs for appropriate technology in the developing world to reduce scarcity)
tools to help pull people out of poverty
designs that can reduce racial conflict
objects to improve energy efficiency or renewable energy sources to reduce wars over oil
tools that would reduce military conflict and spending while making us all safer and more secure
things that boost sustainable economic development (e.g. designs for appropriate technology in the developing world to reduce scarcity)
The winner of best project will win a Type A Machines Series 1 3D Printer and the runner-up gets a simpler RepRap Prusa Mendel 3D printing kit.
With all the press attention on 3D printing is the gateway to firearms anarchy, it’s refreshing to see someone take a different path. By backing 3D printing engineers into a corner, DefDist and the government are simply using fear to achieve competing goals. The results will be both needlessly draconian legislation and a variant of the Streisand Effect that will spread these arguably faulty plans far and wide. When the government outlawed DVD decryption code you could buy a T-shirt with the code printed on it. The same will happen in this case, although this code, when run, could take off fingers and give legislators more ammunition for a full crackdown on home 3D printing.
Let us know if you enter and good luck. We need more weapons against poverty and fewer weapons against each other.
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Do you feel lucky? Picksum Ipsum replaces your Web placeholder text with quotes from Hollywood legends
Web designers and developers of the world, listen up. Your clients don’t want jumbled Lorem Ipsum placeholder text – they want proper, meaningful sentences. Better still, they want the wise words from some of Hollywood’s finest.
This, at least, is according to the good folks behind Picksum Ipsum, a quirky Web app that offers up quotes from Morgan Freeman, Jim Carrey, Clint Eastwood and Michael Caine, instead of a meaningless malaise of text.
How it works
First up, pick your protagonist from the top of the page. It’s worth adding here there’s a little ‘Rumble’ feature that lets you put two of the actors up against each other.
Indicate how many paragraphs of text you want and whether you’d like the HTML
tags or not.
Then, you’re served up a page of text which you can simply copy/paste to your site. Here’s a sample of what Mr. Clint Eastwood has to say for himself, which seems to be very Dirty Harry-centric:
“This is my gun, Clyde! When a naked man’s chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher knife and a hard-on, I figure he’s not out collecting for the Red Cross. You want a guarantee, buy a toaster. Man’s gotta know his limitations. You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig. Here. Put that in your report!” AND “I may have found a way out of here. Well, do you have anything to say for yourself? This is the AK-47 assault rifle, the preferred weapon of your enemy; and it makes a distinctive sound when fired at you, so remember it. don’t p!ss down my back and tell me it’s raining. Ever notice how sometimes you come across somebody you shouldn’t have F**ked with? Well, I’m that guy. What you have to ask yourself is, do I feel lucky. Well do ya’ punk? Are you feeling lucky punk.”
Picksum Ipsum is the handiwork of Adam Collins and Sam Colledge, designers and developers at UK-based agency Creare.
“Myself and Sam were getting more and more frustrated at having to use boring lorem ipsum as filler text on our homepage designs” says Collins.” So we have put together a movie alternative to lorem ipsum. It’s a great little tool and I am sure Web designers will love it.”
There’s no shortage of Lorem Ipsum alternatives, including Slipsum which is a Samuel L. Jackson-focused version that uses shall we say ‘colorful’ language. We also recently covered Lorempixel, which dynamically generates placeholder images.
But for movie fans, Picksum Ipsum is a fun and free addition.
Feature Image Credit – AFP/Getty
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Google teams up with site builder Wix to let its 33 million members use Google Apps for Businesses
Popular site building service Wix has struck a deal with Google which allows Wix users to purchase Google Apps for Businesses.
Wix tells us its users will now be able to buy Google Apps for Businesses for $4.08 to $4.95 per month “directly from their Wix dashboard.” That includes access to branded Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive.
For Wix users, it’s certainly not a life-changing deal. For Wix itself, however, integrating with Google will help it expand its brag-worthy feature set while forwarding new customers on to Google.
While Google certainly rules the Web in terms of its overall reach, Wix claims to have over 33 million members, and is adding more than 1.3 million new users monthly. If you compare those figures to Google Apps for Businesses, which currently has just 5 million businesses signed up, you’ll see why this deal could help Google in the long run.
For Google, this deal will ultimately boost its ability to connect with small businesses — ones that can’t afford to hire Web designers or developers but don’t mind dropping around $5 per month on Google apps.
See the rest here: Google teams up with site builder Wix to let its 33 million members use Google Apps for Businesses
99designs expands its crowdsourcing service to the Netherlands after paying out $52M to designers
99designs, a startup which lets businesses crowdsource their designs, has expanded heavily over the past year with launches across Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Latin America. Now, the company is looking to further that momentum by launching in the Netherlands today at TNW Conference Europe 2013.
With a Dutch site and local currency support, 99designs is clearly looking to solidify its dominance in the crowdsourcing space — an area which is not foreign to controversy and has received opposition from major design organizations like AIGA.
This in mind, 99designs clearly has its fair share of fans. So far the company claims it has hosted over 200,000 graphic design contests and has paid out $52 million to designers.
According to 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn, the Netherlands is already one of 99designs’ top ten markets. “As the Dutch startup scene accelerates,” he says, “we’re looking forward to helping even more entrepreneurs there source great graphic design work.” Catering to the country specifically could boost its growth in the area.
With this launch, 99designs is also announcing a partnership with Netherlands-based startup incubator Rockstart Accelerator.
If your interest is piqued, you can check out 99designs in Dutch via the link below.
Image credit: Thinkstock
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Houzz Expands Its Pro+ Service For Remodeling And Design Professionals To 425 Markets, Launches New Analytics Tool
Houzz is mostly known for the pretty pictures of homes on its website and mobile app that will stir up house envy in even the happiest of home owners, but the service also offers a wide range of tools that aim to help design and remodeling professionals find new clients. Late last year, Houzz launched its Pro+ platform that allows professionals to market their services on the site in 12 markets after raising a $35 million Series C round. Today, it is expanding this platform for professionals with its new Pro+ Dashboard analytics tools and opening it up to contractors, architects, designers, landscapers and other professionals in 425 new markets in the U.S. and Canada.
The importance of Houzz in the home remodeling market continues to increase. At the end of last year, the company reported that about 168,000 home professionals were using the service actively and today, Houzz says this number has now increased to 190,000. Overall, the service currently sees over 14 million unique visitors every month.
Houzz quickly sold out of spots in the original Pro+ program when it first launched. For an annual subscription, the Pro+ program gives professionals additional visibility in their local area and allows them to highlight their work to attract new customers. The new metrics dashboard gives professionals additional insight into how their photos are doing on the site and includes real-time data about the total number of photo impressions, the number of clicks on them, click-through rates and add rates (how many people saved a photo to their Houzz ‘ideabooks’). This data, Houzz says, will help professionals “to optimize their marketing and brand-building efforts.”
“With this powerful new analytics tool, remodeling professionals will be armed with real-time insights on how their profile and portfolio are resonating with the homeowner community, enabling them to make adjustments and craft the most effective brand presence possible to attract the right clients,” said Houzz CEO Adi Tatarko in a statement today. “Our goal with Pro+ is to deliver a service that helps professionals build their brands and increase their exposure to homeowners in their local area the way they want.”
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