ClockTHREE

Ever since I first learned to tell time, I’ve had a fascination with unusual time pieces… from an old collection of pocket watches to the penguin clock I have hanging in my kitchen. Imagine my surprise when my husband forwarded me the link to ClockTHREE.

ClockTHREE is a clock that essentially tells time in words, instead of numbers and what’s even cooler is that it’s an open source design, which means people can buy the parts, build their own clock and even improve the design to meet their own needs!

Make sure to check out ClockTHREE’s website and watch their videos here. Also be sure to stop by and see it all in person at this year’s Maker Faire , because really… it’s just too cool to miss!

Sign up for FOSS Fair 2011

The NC State Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community will hold FOSSFair 2011 on Saturday, Feb. 12 on Centennial Campus. The FOSS Fair is done unconference-style--completely driven by its participants. Any and all topics related to free and open source software is fair game. Visit the FOSSFair website to register, suggest a session, or volunteer to give a talk yourself.

Open Source Objects and Furniture

Having access to a CNC router, LASER cutter, 3D printer, and CNC plasma cutter has changed how I see the manufactured landscape.  I don't automtically assume that I must buy the things I want because it is now an option to fabricate them all.  The decision, instead, is whether it's worth my time to engineer the item from scratch, build it, and then ultimately have the design languish on my hard drive.

I want a marketplace for machine-ready designs: an iTunes Music Store for objects.  I recently purchased an assortment of IKEA's iconic Billy bookshelves knowing full-well how trivial it would be for the ShopBot to cut them out.  I would have been far happier had I been able to download a toolpath from some sort of ShopBot App Store or Ikea's Build-Yourself Store, thrown in a piece of veneered particle board, and not had to drive three hours each way.

There are services and communities that are close to working as a repository of manufacturables but they're not quite there yet. There isn't one that has it all.  Part of that is the industry (few standards, wildly different tooling options, etc.) but perhaps a bigger part is that the culture.  Many of us want to buy things.  I like the mall and I'm in the revolution!

One operation that's in the revolution yet doesn't eschew commercial interests is Ronen Kadushin.  Kadushin's furniture sells in galleries and boutiques (at gallery and boutique prices, mind you) but that doesn't mean you can't have one.  Kadushin's designs are all available for free under the Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial/Share-Alike license!

The Bird Table (left) can be made in minutes on an CNC router out of 12mm Birch plywood.  Why don't you go make one now?

The only thing missing is the centralized store for dowloading (buying?) the designs.  When you build that, let me know.