|
Advertisement:
|
OCAU News |
Friday Afternoon
(1 Comments)
(link) Friday, 28-June-2013 13:40:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Microsoft have added 3D printing support to Windows 8.1. Today, Microsoft announced a crucial step to empower the next wave of 3-D printer adoption. Windows 8.1 will be the first OS to support 3-D printing natively on desktops and tablets. “Our thinking was, let’s make this as easy as writing and printing a Word document,” says Shanen Boettcher, general manager at Microsoft’s Startup Business Group.
ArsTechnica meanwhile explain why basic 3D printers are crazy cheap now. “I think it's a combination of cheaper hardware, economies of scale, and figuring out where to cut corners on low-end printers,” Mark Frauenfelder, editor of MAKE magazine, told Ars, pointing out that some of the low-end printers are using higher-quality ABS plastic (think LEGOs). If 3D printing is your thing, check out our Hobby Engineering Forum.
PetaPixel have an interesting article about preventing gear theft. It's aimed at photographers but could cover geeky gadgets as well. For example, if you buy an expensive guitar or even surfboard, there’s a good chance it has an implanted security RFID chip (they simply drill a small hole, put the chip in, and glue the hole shut before they paint and finish the item). These are truly tiny devices and much less likely to be found by a thief than a barcode.
The surviving members of Pink Floyd have accused Pandora of trying to rip off artists. The members of Pink Floyd closed their piece by saying there is room for compromise and that they hoped Pandora and artists could work together to find common ground on the royalty issue (including finding an end to AM/FM radio's exemption for such fees). "But," they conclude, "tricking artists into signing a confusing petition without explaining what they are really being asked to support only poisons the well."
The new Andoid games-on-tv mini-console OUYA has started shipping, with an early video review out now. More info in this thread.
A Kiwi ISP is offering access to overseas services as a product, thanks rush. New Zealand ISP Slingshot is letting customers hide their location so they can access overseas online services that would normally be restricted to specific markets. Slingshot markets the “Global Mode” service as one that allows visitors to New Zealand to access the same online services that they would at home. But there’s nothing to prevent local Kiwi customers using the service to bypass so called “geo-coding” that is used to prevent customers in certain countries having access to services based on their IP address.
Return to OCAU's News Page
|
|
Advertisement:
All original content copyright James Rolfe.
All rights reserved. No reproduction allowed without written permission.
|
Advertisement:
|
|
|