Re: my goodness

From: Brock Hinzmann (bhinzmann@sric-bi.com)
Date: Thu Jun 27 2002 - 00:12:37 EEST


And Apple continued to lead in user-friendly design, picking up
(stealing?) ideas and technologies from other companies. The Macintosh and the 1984
advertising campaign helped to finally win over a lot of consumers.
Perhaps what Elaine is trying to get you to think about is, what obvious
user-friendly, cost-reducing innovations are you missing? A lot of the
technology on the Mac was 15 or even 20 years old by the time Apple put it all
together in a neat package. On the other hand, you had a lot more companies to
choose from. In the late 1970s, close to 100 companies, maybe more, were
making personal computers. Lots a lot of creativity and innovation. Where
else can RP look for innovation?

Brock Hinzmann
Technology Navigator

Nick Osborn wrote:
>Elaine
>
>As has been mentioned a few times before, there is a strong parallel
here
>between the birth of the personal computer (from early beginnings in
the Homebrew
>Computer Club in the US in 1976, Apple, IBM, etc.) and the 2k system one
can imagine.
>
>Remember what set Apple apart from the competition was initially the
floppy
>disk drive; the relatively large internal memory of - wait for it - 48kb
(which
>meant it could run longer programs more quickly) and finally the
software
>breakthrough of VisiCalc in 1979.
>
>My guess is that a 2k machine (or similar) is likely to follow a similar

>development pattern, with early differentiation / advantages based on
hardware
>capability, to be followed by a "software" breakthrough of some sort
which clearly
>demonstrates the usefulness of such a machine to the previously unaware
/ uninterested.
>
>As Steve Jobs recalls: "When I saw that people that could never
possibly
>design a computer, could never possibly build a hardware kit, could
never possibly
>assemble their own keyboards and monitors, could never even write their
own
>software, using these things, then you knew something very big was going
to happen."
>
>[Extract from: "The Dream Machine" Exploring the Computer Age, published
by
>BBC Books - ISBN 0 563 36221 9]
>
>Regards
>
>Nick
>
>Nick Osborn
>Managing Director
>Swift Technologies Limited
>Tel: +44 (0) 1354 650 789
>www.swiftech.co.uk
>
>"Real Parts Real Quick - Because Time is Money"
>
>>>> Elaine Hunt <ehunt@ces.clemson.edu> 25/06/02 20:16:35 >>>
>where is the vision? innovation? promotion?
>
>Get rid of the idea that younger generations will not invent things we
are
>yet to think of..........
>
>I am not pushing the development of a commercial system but the need to
get
>design, prototyping, and imagination into the class room while RP
vendors
>are focusing on your pocket book....
>
>Yes Pete Sferro did refire my dream of a 2k system and helped me realize

>that a commercial system does not have to exist as long as the attempt
to
>make such a machine educates students. John Miller, while a RPA board
>member, did RP in a Box but his plan did not call for the use of a RP
>system. While Pete and John both realized the importance of RP, I,
along
>with others, am calling for a competition to make prototyping part of
the
>educational process.
>
> If you look at the numbers of commercial RP installation at
educational
>institutions (over 350 worldwide) you will find that they are used for
>education less than 15% of the time. That is sad...... and the bottom
line
>is that if a system is purchased it has to be maintained and therefore
>education comes in last behind research and SB work. Of course I'll be
>flamed for saying research is not education. It is education but limited
to
>a select few which again is sad...
>
>As long as students can design a part in CAD I don't care if second
graders
>use bread, peanut butter and jelly to build a better sandwich....... as
>long as the machine does it without hand labor from a CAD file....... I
>would think that other grade levels would be more inventive..Martin Koch

>demonstrated RP with a glue gun before getting a commercial system so
this
>event should be a piece of cake for him.
>
>Tim is correct that now is the time to push the technology up through
our
>educational institutions and make RP fit into the education box.
>
>
>Elaine
>
>
>
>
>
>"In war (or business), attempts thought to be impossible do often for
that
>very reason become possible and practical, because nobody expects them
and
>no precautions are taken to guard against them." Benjamin Franklin
>
>
>Elaine Hunt, Director
>Laboratory to Advance Industrial Prototyping
>100 Fluor Daniel Building
>Clemson University
>Clemson, SC 29634
>864-656-0321
>
>
>
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>From: "Nick Osborn" <Nick.Osborn@swiftech.co.uk>
>To: <ehunt@ces.clemson.edu>, <rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi>
>Subject: Re: my goodness
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