Hasta La Gadget!

3D printed objects are usually rigid, or at least made of parts that were printed separately. This makes it time-consuming if not outright impossible to print large objects or ones that need to be flexible or adjustable. But what if you could break down an object into smaller, foldable parts? That’s the idea behind Kinematics.

Made by Nervous System in collaboration with Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects group, Kinematics is a proof-of-concept 3D modeling software that lets you design a complex 3D model made of interlocking triangles. In the same way that you can make 3D graphics using two-dimensional triangles, Kinematics can theoretically make any 3D object out of interlocking triangles.

The 3D models it makes can be printed without modifying existing 3D printers. They don’t need to be assembled because their hinges are printed in place. Kinematics can also make a scrunched version of the 3D model, allowing you to print objects that are larger than your printer’s capacity. You just unfold the printed object into its final shape.

For now, the Kinematics app can only be used to make a 3D model of a bracelet. Nervous System also set up a Kinematics shop where you can design and then order a bracelet, a necklace or earrings. But as pointed out by several commenters at The Verge, imagine if the app could be improved such that it prints very tiny triangles, the way 3D graphics eventually improved from being spiky and blocky into the smooth and realistic ones we see in games and movies. It’d be like turning a 3D printer into a loom.

[Nervous System via The Verge]

This week there’s a game collection being released by the name of NES Remix. This set of games takes on some of the most classic titles from the original Nintendo … Continue reading

This article was written on May 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

There has been some good news lately on the progress of Firefox 3. Mozilla was able to get the backend of Places back into the latest nightly releases, but as of right now you won’t notice many differences. Once Places has been completed, it will offer a central location for users to manage things like their RSS feeds, website history, and bookmarks.

Firefox 3 Alpha 5 is due out around June 1, and by that time they will have Places functional, but it is doubtful that they will get around to polishing the frontend (the actual interface) by that point. Here are some tips that were pointed out in the forum regarding the use of Places as it stands right now:

• Backup your bookmarks before running the latest nightly of Firefox 3! The file that you need to backup is called bookmarks.html and is located in your Firefox profile folder. Of course, there is an automatic backup created called bookmarks.preplaces.html just in case anything terrible should happen and for those who are too lazy to back it up themselves.
• When you run the Firefox 3 nightly for the first time it will migrate from bookmarks.html to places.sqlite. The places.sqlite is the new storage location for your bookmarks, but Firefox 3 will also keep the bookmarks.html file up-to-date in case you want to switch back to Firefox 2. However, if you switch back to Firefox 2 and modify your bookmarks the changes will not appear in Firefox 3 the next time you launch it. This is because Firefox 2 doesn’t keep the places.sqlite file up-to-date like Firefox 3 does for bookmarks.html.

Here is a quick screenshot to show you that there is no difference to the interface yet, even though the backup file for Places has been created which verifies that Places is running:

Click to Enlarge

I also did a little digging, and noticed that in Firefox 3 Alpha 6 (due out June 29) more functionality will be added to Places, including tagging capabilities. I eventually came across this image that demonstrates four different methods of implementing tags in the bookmarks:

Click to Enlarge

The problem that they are trying to conquer is getting around those people who don’t understand what tags are and how they are used. Judging by the smiley faces in the mockup, they have determined the last option (the one furthest to the right) to be the best. I would have to agree with that because if I was going to bookmark or tag a site I would want to have a nice unified interface for doing it. This solution provides just that. The only thing that I’m hoping they implement is an auto-complete feature that will show a listing of matching tags as the user types them.

So what do you think about the tagging being built-in to Firefox?

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

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