Ask MetaFilter member JannaK presented the community with a puzzle that had been troubling her family for nearly 20 years. Her grandmother died in 1996 from cancer and in her last days she scribbled down a seemingly non-sensical string of characters on index cards. Nobody knew what it all meant. Then the Metafilter community solved the puzzle in 14 minutes.
     |
A major discovery has been made in the asteroid belt — the dwarf planet Ceres is blasting water vapor into space. Such a finding has been called “unequivocal” by the … Continue reading
Chances are, your cable provider has allotted you with some kind of bandwidth cap, depending on your plan. You stream stuff on Amazon, download seasons of the HBO series du jour, but how often—if ever—do you go over that limit?
| |
With the release of the Meizu MX3, the company once again aims high with their ability to create a high-end device that, at first, looks like it’d be able to … Continue reading
In the wake of recent NSA leaks, Microsoft’s taking the tech road less traveled and committing to protecting foreign users’ data by storing it overseas. The controversial move, as reported by the Financial Times, would place that data out of the …
It may seem like small potatoes, but Polish 3D printer manufacturer Zortrax has chalked a 5,000 unit order from Dell. This is the first I’ve heard of a mass order of home 3D-printing equipment and it means a real boon for the budding Olsztyn-based company.
“Dell kept in touch with us when we were still in the middle of our Kickstarter campaign. We weren’t in a position to make them a reasonable business offer at that time, since our production volume was very limited,” said Rafał Tomasiak, Zortrax CEO. “At that point in time the production was very tedious, every single printer was quality checked and tested by us. Business negotiations with Dell were stalled at some point and we focused on shipping the printers to our Kickstarter backers. Now the situation is much different, we are prepared for large quantity orders.”
Zortrax launched last May and is now shipping to happy Kickstarter backers. I’ve used the printer multiple times and was very impressed by the print quality and build. The company is poised to be a major player in the European market and, with this investment by Dell, potentially globally. The company said the the printers are headed toward Dell’s central and east Asia offices.
“Frankly speaking, we were surprised that any company, even a company like Dell, wants to place such an order! But after a while we realized how many printers we use in our own office… For a designer who prints a large number of prototypes it is much more useful to use 10 smaller printers on one desk, which operate simultaneously, rather than one with a larger build volume,” said Tomasiak.
A car’s airbags are designed to absorb impact and protect passengers during a crash—and need to inflate immediately on impact. But the airbags that skiers wear to avoid being buried in an avalanche don’t necessarily need to inflate as fast. So Black Diamond’s new JetForce backpack uses a fan instead of compressed air which means not only can you try it out and practice beforehand, it’s also cheap and easy to reset.
| |
Netflix had a big year in 2013 with award-winning original content, new features and millions of new customers. Now, the company’s fourth quarter report reveals it wrapped up last year with over 44 million customers worldwide. Interestingly, an …
Very few of us will work at a single job our whole lives. Even fewer will work on a single, self-led project our whole lives. Spanish octogenarian Justo Gallego Martinez is an exception: He’s been the sole designer, engineer, and construction worker on a cathedral in Madrid since 1961.
| |
I know Gizmodo is one of our Gawker littermates and I love them, but I have to call them out like anyone else when they say something misleading about "car enthusiasts." Things like how Google Glass will "save car enthusiasts from extinction
| |
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
