Friday, September 5, 2014

Let's Hope Barnes & Noble Does Well In The Book Print On Demand Space

The latest news from Barnes & Noble testing out the Espresso book publishing system in busy New York locations is great news for printers.  The reason is that the alternative would be to see another retailer closing stores.  The machines have worked in smaller book shops printing a title on demand while you wait from multiple publishers that made their works available on the specific network or open source works that anyone could download, print and bind into a readable volume on demand.  It eliminates the risk of storing outdated books on store shelves or in warehouses.

If the locations also offer great coffee, and other material to read while you wait to go along with the wait, it will bring new life to Barnes & Noble and make the stores a destination for me and my family when we're shopping and there is an opportunity to get a printed copy of whatever is available on the Nook.  
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Friday, July 18, 2014

Fascinating concept of 3D Printing concept at organic molecule level - go GE!



I was never a big fan of GE the company when they took government money rather than selling off assets to meet short term capital needs during the credit crisis in 2008, but I loved some of my favorite customers who worked there and became lifelong friends one in GE Transportation designing light rail signal systems and another who was an old buddy from the Marines who grew up at GE to become a senior VP of syndication at GE Capital.  The people at least that I knew that worked at GE were the good guys.  I can't say that was true of the collective company.  But as American Giants go, GE is as American as it gets and their innovations in everything related to their business lines are testament to American innovation and ingenuity. That is why my money will be on GE advanced additive manufacturing to create breakthroughs in science and technology that will again change the world to be better and more like the world envisioned by Star Trek  creator, Gene Roddenberry as pure science fiction.

Who wouldn't love to work for free (no concept of money in the future) on a project sponsored by GE, IBM, Apple, Google, Amazon, Boeing and Dupont together using additive manufacturing technologies combined with life science applications to deliver life changing products with grant funding from international agencies who collaboratively function with the same mandates of our US agencies at NIH, DARPA and NASA to build shields, energy based weapon systems, delivery drones and vehicles, food products, clean air and water and who embark on developing spacecraft capable of long term deployment like the 5 year voyage of the science fictional star ship Enterprise.

Anyone reading this, won't live to see it, but I imagine Roddenberry's world was an ideal shared by many who think like me, that one day there will come a day where there is no concept of money or greed, diseases are a thing of the past, ideas are shared freely for the enhancement of learning and building on existing knowledge, synthetic enhancements are designed to make the quality of life for all humans better, not for the purpose of greed, and a prime directive exists that says we don't kill or cause harm to others including other species or environments starting with ours and further as we encounter others possibly through space exploration.  For some reason, I think GE is going to be at the forefront of the future world over the next hundred years. Let's hope there are some Star Trek fans that work there as well.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Reimagining Print with 4D Printing Skylar Tibbits: The emergence of self folding sheets

The possibilities for printers who adapt and imagine the possibilities to come from the technology of 3D printing will be the difference between a robust industry that is prepared to meet the demand of their customers with a solution that will allow for success.  Pretty amazing world!