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3-D Printers: Intellectual Property Will Be All That Matters

3-D Printers: Intellectual Property Will Be All That Matters

Three Dimensional printers or 3-D printers, are just like the printers we all know and love, except instead of printing an image of a thing, it prints the thing itself. That, and they may look a tad different from your desk jet. 3-D printers can print products almost without regard to geometrical limitations, through subtraction and or fusing methodologies, providing a designer or inventor incredible flexibility, freedom, and speed in sketching an item having said item in hand. Excitingly, while 3-D printers have been around for quite a while, they have become increasingly affordable, efficient, and accurate. 

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Moto X: 2 Cents

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Lots of speculation going on about the Moto X, and no doubt you have seen the picture  of the excited couple leaping to their doom with nary a lifeguard in sight. There are rumors of minor exterior hardware customization, which is likely since this is fairly easy, having little to no impact on manufacturing processes. Additionally, the phone will be assembled in the USA making the time from consumer order, until the Moto X is in hand short, and thus feasible. 

The New Mac Pro: Expandability Outside The Box

The New Mac Pro: Expandability Outside The Box

Since when has the sole criterion for measuring expandability been how much crap one can shoehorn into an aluminum quadrate?  The new Mac Pro was previewed at this years WWDC. It looks amazing, carrying an all new simple stunning form factor. There's been a lot of talk that it looks like the Death Star. That's incomplete. It's much more like the Death Star and the Obelisk from '2001: A Space Odyssey' had a baby, a beautiful alien baby, come to kill us all. Additionally, the new machine sports seemingly quiet, innovative effective cooling, it's available in beastly configurations at the outset, the ports even light up on rotation, and of course it has a bunch of Thunderbolt 2 ports. 

So what's there for people not to like (the vast majority of whom will never buy a Mac Pro)? Well, in a word so called "expandability."

E3: The Only Specs That Matter

With E3 days away, no... hours away, I thought it would be important to cut through the fat and post some key specs for the Playstation 4, Xbox One and the Wii U. Below you will find a quick comparison chart of the only specs that matter when considering what game system will deflate your wallet this holiday season.  I know who will be shutting up and taking my money.

Honda Designers Have Been Years Behind Themselves and Modders

Honda Designers Have Been Years Behind Themselves and Modders

I've owned three vehicles, of which my 94 Honda Accord Coupe was the first. As such it has special meaning and I may be somewhat biased. Notwithstanding my bias, I believe reasonable persons would agree that this model is one of the best designed Honda Accord Coupes to date. It carried subdued lines that were simple and timeless.

Even now, seeing a 1994 Coupe next to a 1999 Coupe, one would be all but certain that the '99 Accord is the older model. I would argue that it has continued this way, with the 1994 remaining much more of a timeless design than Accord models from 1999 to 2007.  Keep in mind here that I am only referring to the Honda Accord Coupe and not the sedan, which carried on its fugliness through 2012. Those years were a kind of dark ages for the Accord, where at least styling wise, customers essentially bought an old american car, but not classic-good-looking-1969-old.

The Nintendo Pii U

A few days ago, I clicked over to ign.com to settle into a nice rumor binge about the Xbox 720, or infinity, or whatever the Xbox 360 successor will be called. Those plans were quickly derailed as I noticed a headline that read 'EA Senior Engineer: Wii U is crap’. How do I not click that?

That link lead to the most fantastic series of tweets from an EA senior engineer, Bob Summerwill, tearing the Wii-U and Nintendo a new one. Just then I remembered something: somewhere in my house there was a Wii-U. It had been there for quite a while. My cousin had left it in my care for safe keeping and enjoyment while he set sail on his summer-sea-term. I also remembered that he had returned my 'Zelda: Skyward Sword', which I purchased for the Wii, but never played for more than an hour.

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Automobile Dealers Fight “To [allegedly] Protect the Public” from Tesla Motors

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First, no intelligent person believes that automobile dealers are fighting to stop Tesla from selling cars because they care about us consumers. While it is disgusting that automobile dealerships and various dealer associations have asserted “protection of the public” as a primary reason why Tesla should not be allowed to sell directly to customers, at least this type of action is expected by such entities. Simply, dealers and their lobbies are expected to be disgusting, slimy, and self-serving. What would be truly disturbing is if legislators and other politicos who should at least pretend to have consumer and U.S. economic best interest at heart, begin supporting ridiculous arguments and taking positions damaging to the market. Such arguments would be disrespectful to consumers, and waste judicial resources leading to outrageous litigation against essentially the essence of the already stymied American automotive consumer market: competition that begets progress.

Should corporations like Apple forego the benefits of board members beholden to other corporations that operate within the same industry?

At a town hall meeting shortly after introduction of Apple’s iPad tablet computer, former CEO, and Chairman, Steve Jobs reportedly said:

“[Apple] did not enter the search business. [Google] entered the phone business.  Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them. He reportedly continued to say:  “This don’t be evil mantra” [Google’s informal motto], “It’s bullshit.”[i]  

Many corporations have Directors that are on several boards or are high-level executives of other corporations or both.  For example, Paul Otellini is president and chief executive officer of Intel and currently sits on Google’s board of directors.  Dan Mead is chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless, a member of the Board of Directors and an officer of CTIA, the wireless industry trade association. Also, Mead is on the Board of ISIS, an emerging mobile commerce company. Tom Ryder a director at Amazon since 2002, was director at Virgin Mobile from 2007 to 2009.  Inevitably, these companies are sometimes in the same industry or operate within the same sphere.  As a new industry becomes particularly sought after – such as mobile telecommunication/mobile computing, or entry into this industry becomes necessary for the survival of a particular company, these same corporations can become direct competitors. This can lead to corporate fall-out between company ‘big-wigs,’ not including the larger problem of creating a board that may at some point operate outside the best interest of the corporation.   

Accord Coupe: 9th Generation HFP Wheels on 8th Generation

This is what the 8th generation (2008-2012) Honda Accord Coupe EX-L with HFP aero-kit looks like with the 9th generation (2013-20xx) 19 inch HFP Accord Coupe's HFP wheels. What a mouthful. I purchased the wheels from College Hills Honda. Great price through their "this sale goes to 11!" Christmas promotion, at $234 a piece.

Tom Bihn's Brain Bag Survives Law School and More

Tom Bihn's Brain Bag Survives Law School and More

I already had a Timbuk2 messenger bag. I had treated that bag terribly and it was still standing, so I was all but certain that I would simply get whatever backpack version of that bag existed when I needed a backpack. As it happened, Timbuk2's offering was lacking, and after  researching the other brands I knew of, (Brenthaven, Tumi, Dakine, InCase, Briggs & Riley, Samsonite, High Sierra, etc.) I simply could not satisfy the things that weren't up for compromise in a backpack. 

I wanted a black backpack, with simple smart design, that was huge, and oh yes… durable. It had to be able to withstand three years of law school. 

I'd heard that a Constitutional law book alone could do in a backpack, and I refused to be the person wearing a backpack and dragging a suitcase filled with books through the halls of academia and elsewhere. 

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Satechi's Bluetooth Remote Adds a 'Siri Button' to Your Car

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Satechi's bluetooth remote adds a 'Siri button' and may save you a traffic ticket or worse.

We really shouldn't be fiddling with our phones at all while we drive, whether it be to answer a text or enter a navi location, or simply to play some music. For such obvious reasons I decided to install some sort of remote for my iPhone. After some research, I went with the only real choice, the Satechi Bluetooth remote for iOS. The quick verdict? It works extremely well.

Hey SEGA, how about an iPhone game controller?

Hey SEGA, how about an iPhone game controller?

I wrote this a few years ago.  Of course, it either fell on deaf ears or more likely, was relegated to junk email abyss. Still, I think it was one of my superior harebrained schemes. 

Greetings SEGA,

What if you could make a handheld system that could eat into the Nintendo DS market by making what is essentially only a controller?

 Imagine that.  A fraction of the cost and you would have your own portable system more powerful than Nintendo’s DS, and rivaling Sony’s PSP, by only making an accessory.

... Analog controls coupled with a multi-axis accelerometer would be utterly amazing for controlling a fighting or first person game.  Imagine tilting the system to strafe, but still having a real button to fire.  All this in a Hand held system would put that system miles above the competition.  

Delve into the post for the rest of the letter and more mockup pics.

DIY Phone Dock and BlackBerry Remote Stereo Bluetooth Gateway

No matter what automobile manufacturers tell and sell you, nowadays you only need one thing for infotainment in your vehicle – your smartphone. Like you, I use my iPhone for listening to Pandora, Mule Radio (the talk show, new disruptors etc.), Podcasts (The VergeCast, Science Fantastic, The Joe Rogan Experience, The Critical Path, Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast etc.) and for navigation. With voice assistants like Siri built into any real mobile phone, its also safer to use your phone while keeping your eyes on the road than ever. I don’t need the elaborate multi-screens designed to look as if they run android, iOS or the like. In fact, it is quite telling that automobile manufacturers will not work more closely with Apple or Google, and just allow certain apps (Google maps /iOS maps) to be mirrored unto our vehicle screens.  These actions tell you that automakers really don’t care about truly integrating vehicles with prominent mobile OSes. Truth be told, automakers think you are just stupid enough to be fooled and satisfied with a vastly inferior more expensive system. They’re betting that as long as the icons on their OEM screens looks similar to an iOS or Android icon you will remain lobotomized, as they take the load off, via your wallet.

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