Category: Hardware

Posted on

John Robb: 3D Printing of Weapons – Public Power by Printer

10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Hacking, Hardware, Liberation Technology
John Robb

Printing Weapons at Home for Fun and Mayhem

It's now possible to print functional weapons at home.  This is going to progress rapidly now.

Think: global file sharing of designs for servicable weapons, from pistols on up to ?, that can be printed at home.  What you can print — from the materials to the size/quality of the object to the completeness (snap together construction) — is already moving forward quickly.  The weapons effort will just be along for the ride.

Click on Image to Enlarge

“HaveBlue” has tested the first “printed” firearm and it works.  Here's his site, but it's VERY slow.   It didn't blow up in his face.

Granted, he used an older professional grade Stratys 3D printer to do it.   Printeres are much better now and handle many new materials.

Haveblue has been testing the “market” for distributing CAD/CAM weapons designs.  His post of an earlier design to Thingverse (a site for 3D printing design patterns) led to a change in their policy (although it hasn't been enforced).

Click on Image to Enlarge

Haveblue's work is based on the Solidworks files available for download from the CNCguns site.  Here's his earlier project:

Phi Beta Iota:  Violence should be a last resort — publics today are far from fully exploiting the use of public intelligence in the  public interest.  However, it bears mention that both Gandhi and Martin Luther King were quite clear:  non-violence is preferable to violence, but violence is preferable to continued oppression.  Most governments, including the European governments still favoring banks over people and refusing to honor the Iceland model, no longer represent their publics and have lost all legitimacy in the eyes of many.  We pray they will awaken to the reality that those governments that do not empower, protect, and respect the public, will ultimately be abolished.  In the meantime, they are merely ignored.

Posted on

SmartPlanet: From DIY to Disruptive Tech: A bicycle made of cardboard

Hardware
Home Page

From DIY to Disruptive Tech: A bicycle made of cardboard

f the weight of your bike frame is a chief concern, you can drop many thousands of dollars on a carbon fiber frame. Or you could talk to Izhar Gafni, an Isreali entrepreneur and rather obsessive tinkerer who has built a low-cost, good looking, functional and lightroad bike from cardboard.

We’ll let the well-produced video below tell the tale of the bike’s origin and development. But first, consider the potential here to scale up production of such steeds. Gafni figures the bike could be produced for about $12 in materials. That means the bike would retail for well under $100 — likely much closer to $50. Sure, you can walk into a Walmart today and pick up a Huffy cruiser for $90. But that weighs about 45 pounds, compared to the featherweight cardboard bike.

As Inc.com notes, this could be a boon for companies that offer bikes as amenities, such as resorts. I also think it would make for great campus bikes for large corporations or warehouses. For bike-sharing fleets, however, the cardboard might not be able to withstand the abuse that riders are sure to dish out.

Read full article and watch video.

Posted on

Reference: Stand Up for a Free and Open Internet

Access, Autonomous Internet, Hardware, P2P / Panarchy, Software, Spectrum
Click on Image to Enlarge

Last week, a group of activists and organizations came together to publish the Declaration of Internet Freedom, a set of principles that make up a vision for a free and open Internet. Groups behind the document include Free Press, Fight for the Future, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as others that fought against and helped defeat SOPA/PIPA earlier this year.

Since its launch, the Declaration has attracted a wide range of signees, including orgs like Amnesty International, the Harry Potter Alliance, and Mozilla; as well as individuals like artist/activist Ai Weiwei, musician Amanda Palmer, and Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf. And just yesterday, Rep. Darrell Issa became the first member of Congress to sign the document.

Read the handy infographic below and voice your support for an open Internet by joining thousands of others in signing the Declaration. Then use the EFF's action page to send a letter to your congressional representative asking her or him to join Issa in signing the Declaration. And if you've got ideas for additional principles or any general feedback about the document, you can contribute your thoughts and suggestions on Step2 and Reddit.

Read full post including Declaration of Internet Freedom.

Phi Beta Iota:  Another term of art is “Autonomous Internet.”  A broader term that includes this one is “Liberation Technology.”

See Also:

Autonomous Internet (139)

Liberation Technology (9)

Posted on

Michel Bauwens: New Books – Open Source Model for Nanotechnology

Hardware, Knowledge
Michel Bauwens

New books advocate ‘open source’ model for nanotechnology

Franco Iacomella16th May 2012

Source: UTS

Nanotechnology and Global Equality, by Dr Donald Maclurcan, and Nanotechnology and Global Sustainability, edited by Dr Maclurcan and Dr Natalia Radywyl, build the case that global prosperity now demands innovation without economic growth, and nanotechnology shows such innovation is possible.

“Practices like ‘open source nano-innovation’ offer game-changing avenues for bypassing inhibitive start-up costs and ensuring scientific knowledge is freely shared,” said Dr Maclurcan, an Honorary Research Fellow with UTS’s Institute for Nanoscale Technology.

“For the first time in modern history, the right ingredients have surfaced for us to seriously consider innovating without economic growth,” he said.

A US $254 billion market in 2009, recent data – outlined in the books – shows an expected rise to $2.5 trillion by 2015. More than 60 countries are engaging with nanotechnology research and development at a national level, including 16 ‘developing’ countries.

“Nanotechnology research around the world is largely focussed on creating unnecessary products that ensure big gains for multinational corporations and bigger losses for our ecosystems,” Dr Maclurcan said.

“In a world with biophysical limits and vast injustices, our survival depends on the redirection of science towards human need, not human greed.”

The books were officially launched last week by Dr Vijoleta Braach-Maksvytis, former head of nanotechnology at the CSIRO.

Posted on

Michel Bauwens: Is Open Source Hardware Creating an Open World?

Hardware

Is open hardware creating a more open world?

Feature | April 25, 2012 | By Adrian Giordani

international science grid this week

Just as retro ideas from a bygone era can inspire modern fashion, film, and TV trends, today’s researchers are being empowered by the revival of an innovative technology concept from the past: open-source hardware.

Open-source hardware is the public availability of designs, mechanical drawings, or schematics of physical technology, such as computer processors or network switches. The Arduino electronics board is one popular example.

The concepts behind open hardware have been around for decades. But, with the rise of intellectual property in the 1980s and 1990s, open hardware fell out of favor. Today, perhaps thanks to the success of the open-source software movement, open hardware is back, according to its proponents. In 2012, it allows researchers to measure the time-of-flight of neutrinos, enables poor rural communities to communicate freely, and creates new business markets.

Continue reading “Michel Bauwens: Is Open Source Hardware Creating an Open World?”