Todd Sampson

3D Systems Acquires FreshFiber

Mon, 07 May 2012 11:27:28 -0700

I find it fascinating that 3D Systems is already making the jump into acquiring custom content companies for 3-D printing. This is ahead of my most optimistic timeline by far. Second content acquisition by 3D Systems in as many weeks.

WIRED Business Conference: Drones, Tractors & Beyond

Fri, 04 May 2012 12:13:15 -0700

WIRED Business Conference: Drones, Tractors & Beyond

"I’m generally of the opinion that VC funding is suitable only for accelerating certain kinds of..."

Fri, 04 May 2012 09:03:18 -0700

“I’m generally of the opinion that VC funding is suitable only for accelerating certain kinds of growth, but not very good for early-stage R&D, or businesses that have slow-but-steady growth models.”

- MAKE’s Exclusive Interview with Andrew (bunnie) Huang – The End of Chumby, New Adventures

austinkleon: John Cleese on Creativity Reposting this John...

Thu, 03 May 2012 19:14:52 -0700

austinkleon:

John Cleese on Creativity

Reposting this John Cleese lecture that Merlin posted because some assholes had it taken down off Vimeo. (I was on the road, so I didn’t grab the hi-res copy, but I did download this YouTube version, so…) I watched it twice last week — both times before I was scheduled to give a talk.

Creativity is not a talent, it is a way of operating.

Before, I’d only seen this lecture of his, which I quoted in STEAL: “We don’t know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we don’t get them from our laptops.”

John Cleese is brilliant. In this talk on creativity he lays out a structured way to get good ideas before you switch into getting things done mode to make them happen.

You should watch this video. It meshes with many of the things...

Thu, 03 May 2012 18:03:28 -0700

You should watch this video. It meshes with many of the things we have been paying with — robots, 3d printers, sensor networks, etc. He even hit on how toys sneak up to become the future. Love it! (“In the Studio,” Shasta Venture’s Rob Coneybeer Envisions an Internet of Things via @fusion94)

"A number of remarkable technologies are converging: clever software, novel materials, more dexterous..."

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:14:59 -0700

“A number of remarkable technologies are converging: clever software, novel materials, more dexterous robots, new processes (notably three-dimensional printing) and a whole range of web-based services. The factory of the past was based on cranking out zillions of identical products: Ford famously said that car-buyers could have any colour they liked, as long as it was black. But the cost of producing much smaller batches of a wider variety, with each product tailored precisely to each customer’s whims, is falling. The factory of the future will focus on mass customisation—and may look more like those weavers’ cottages than Ford’s assembly line.”

- Manufacturing: The third industrial revolution (via @cbtacy)

3d-bots: Scientists Grow Bones Using Lego Robots Gotta love...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:43:54 -0700

3d-bots:

Scientists Grow Bones Using Lego Robots

Gotta love Legos.

MorpHex part III (by ZentaOlbaid)

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:42:01 -0700

MorpHex part III (by ZentaOlbaid)

3d-bots: 3D Printer Robot Creating a Chair (by Dirk Vander...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:09:37 -0700

3d-bots:

3D Printer Robot Creating a Chair (by Dirk Vander Kooij)

"In any deep transformation, industries do not so much adopt the new body of technology as encounter..."

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:00:32 -0700

“In any deep transformation, industries do not so much adopt the new body of technology as encounter it, and as they do so they create new ways to profit from its possibilities.”

- W. Brian Arthur in The second economy - McKinsey Quarterly - Strategy - Growth (registration required)

3d printed model rockets with a bottle of scotch for scale...

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 07:57:13 -0700

3d printed model rockets with a bottle of scotch for scale pic.twitter.com/OBlxqnk6 (via @fusion94)

"When you start looking at a problem, it seems really simple—because you don’t understand its..."

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 22:03:55 -0700

“When you start looking at a problem, it seems really simple—because you don’t understand its complexity. And your solutions are way too oversimplified, and they don’t work. Then you get into the problem and you see it’s really complicated. And you come up with all these convoluted solutions. That’s where most people stop, and the solutions tend to work for a while. But the really great person will keep going and find the key underlying principle of the problem and sort of come full circle with a beautiful, elegant solution that works.”

- Steve Jobs, 1983 Steven Levy Interview for Rolling Stone

Friday was our last day at BigDoor. Eric, Steve and I had a great time working with the BigDoor...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:19:38 -0700

Friday was our last day at BigDoor.

Eric, Steve and I had a great time working with the BigDoor crew; so much so that we ended up staying on two months longer than initially planed when BigDoor acquired OneTrueFan. We built some cool shit, made new friends, and learned a ton — can’t ask for much more than that.

Thanks guys! It was a pleasure working with you all. Keep kicking ass.

Now on to building more cool stuff… I’ll tell you about that soon.

Completely awesome presentation using iPads and a bit of...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:47:20 -0700

Completely awesome presentation using iPads and a bit of magic… Stockholm with Charlie Caper and Erik Rosales - from MIPIM in Cannes (via TheNextWeb)

A VC: Yahoo! Crosses The Line

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:55:48 -0700

A VC: Yahoo! Crosses The Line:

“Yahoo! has broken ranks and crossed the unspoken line which is that web companies don’t sue each other over their bogus patent portfolios.”

Right on Fred!

A cautionary tale about “people discovery” apps

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:25:43 -0800

A cautionary tale about “people discovery” apps:

Great post by Ian Kennedy about the *new* “people discovery apps” and the work/legal walls at Yahoo! in the MyBlogLog MeetSpace days.

Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing (by TEDtalksDirector)

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:32:37 -0800

Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing (by TEDtalksDirector)

World First: First Flight of Fully Printed Aeroplane (UAV/drone...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:15:06 -0800

World First: First Flight of Fully Printed Aeroplane (UAV/drone by Laser Sintering)

Steve Ho: 3D Printing Is Coming

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:29:25 -0800

Steve Ho: 3D Printing Is Coming:

steveho:

We may have witnessed something great coming out of this so called Great Recession, and that is 3D Printing. 2011 was a big year, an inflection point if you ask me, for the industry: scores of startups, few are well funded; lots of buzz and excitement; technologies improved; prices are dropping;…

UC Berkeley Leaping Lizard & Robot with a Tail (by...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:02:16 -0800

UC Berkeley Leaping Lizard & Robot with a Tail (by ucberkeleycampuslife)