Open Hardware and Shareable Design News
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-02-28 08:22:07 UTC
- Modified: 2014-02-28 08:22:48 UTC
Summary: Recent news about hardware that can be modified and it permissive in that regard
SkyNet
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At the former Wired editor’s start-up, 3D Robotics, open-source robots take to the skies
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In the meantime, he’s hard at work on a new project called SkyNet Firmware, which will run on the open source Arduino circuit boards, devices you can use to build all sorts of computerized gadgets. “The idea is that you can load SkyNet Firmware on any Arduino compatible device or board,” he says. “The Arduino connects to SkyNet and just waits for commands.” This would let you attach almost anything to SkyNet.
3D Printers
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At the forefront of the 3D printing boom for consumers is MakerBot, whose Linux-based Replicator printers sell for between $1,300 and $3,000 and are small enough to sit on your desktop. Their MakerWare design software runs on any platform and the Thingiverse online community allows more than 13,000 users to download or upload designs in an open source, collaborative model for do-it-yourself manufacturing, according to a sponsored post in The Atlantic.
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So far, in short, I can describe 3D printing as: Building an object, by depositing layers, and creating every layer by drawing it with melted plastic. The key to understanding 3D printing, and thus learning how to do it better, is to think about the objects as a stack of layers. Then, consider how the layers will look like as they are being stacked.
Charles Babcock's Series of Articles
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References to Linux come up naturally because it is one of the most successful, sustained, and adopted open-source software projects. New releases of the Linux kernel now appear every 70 days. Each contains up to 10,000 updates and patches, a rate of change that equals 7.14 an hour. Linux's fame rests not on the fact that it's frequently modified. Rather, it's frequently modified and also respected as having a long-term future in the enterprise datacenter. The way things are shaping up, it also very likely has a permanent place in cloud architectures.
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Facebook, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, and other leading IT users think the open-source movement is ready to shake up the hardware industry the way Linux did in software.
Misc.
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Intel announced a Developer Program for IoT, which will offer 5,000 Arduino-compatible Galileo SBC-based IoT development kits, plus hackathons with prizes.
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AS you may know, just few weeks ago OSHWA published the results from 2013 Open Hardware Community survey. You can find original datasheets and everything here. Despite raw data is good, I thought it was good to spend some time looking at the data trying to gather more insights, when possible, still keeping in mind that the survey samples a very limited and polarized (OSHWA centric) chunk of the community. But we need to start from something in a way.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- If We Move Everything to Devuan...
- IRC, Git, Apache and so on
- Campinos is a Lame Duck President This Year at the European Patent Office (EPO)
- The strikes are not ending. If anything, they intensify further.
- Links 29/04/2026: "Snowden Affair 13 Years Later" and "Landmark Data Center Pause"
- Links for the day
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- In Past 6 Months IBM Lost About 100 Billion Dollars in 'Value' While Debt Ballooned to 70 Billion Dollars
- Welcome to a universe of fake finances and phony accounting based on fictional assets with made-up 'worth'
- Dr. Andy Farnell on Weaponising Morality Against Technofascism and Slop
- It's longer than a "tweet", so social control media addicts are likely mentally unfit to read it
- Six Months
- Techrights will be around (and active) for a very long time to come
- Why We Publish "The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt"
- We intend to report the facts, fearlessly, until real and lasting solutions are reached
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 61 Out of 200: Garrett and Graveley Must Understand That Reporting Women's Issues in the United States of America (“the US”) is Not Impermissible
- when you cover Microsoft corruption and have real effect
- Weeks After Mass Layoffs of Red Hat Engineers We Learn of European "Buyouts" and Layoffs at IBM
- At Microsoft, they tell us there are merely "buyouts", but they don't tell us what happens if you say "no!"
- OS Upgrade Tentatively Scheduled for Tomorrow
- We have some contingencies in case the upgrade goes wrong
- Links 29/04/2026: LLM Chatbot Usage Goes Down Sharply (as Do Stocks Associated With Them), Microsoft's Circular Financing Accounting Fraud at Risk
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 29/04/2026: Returning to an Exodus and Farewell APU
- Links for the day
- Slop Has a Long Way to Go Before It Gets Basic Facts Right
- Please do not rely on slop for anything
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part IX - European Patents That Are Illegal (But Serve Non-European Monopolists in Exchange for 'Quick Cash')
- People who shamelessly violate the European Patent Convention (EPC) have the audacity to lecture workers on "ethics"
- Canonical is Selling You, Ubuntu is a Data-Collecting Platform
- Canonical is looking for money in the wrong places
- Seems Like Only Techrights Covered IBM Laying Off About 33% of Confluent Staff
- How can such a large round of layoffs evade today's media?
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 28, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, April 28, 2026
- Gemini Links 29/04/2026: Bad Diet, New Middle Ages, and Temperature Model
- Links for the day
- IBM is Already Doing 'Voluntary' Layoffs This Year in Europe ('Buyouts' Ahead of Mass Layoffs)
- IBM's efforts to hide or belittle layoffs is noteworthy
- Tracing Back the Misuse of the Word "Buyout" to Describe Merciless Mass Layoffs
- So we can assume very large Microsoft layoffs are on the way, this time not spun as "buyouts"
- Growing the List of Sites That Are Rogue
- It's very important to raise and spread awareness of which ones are fake
- Links 28/04/2026: Uganda Criminalising ‘Foreign Agents’ and China’s Economy "Starts to Show Cracks"
- Links for the day
- Anthropic and Claude Are National Security Risks Not Because of Politics But False Marketing and Vandalism, Plagiarism Sold as Innovation
- The slop hype is causing severe damage
- Like GAFAM, US Telecom Industry Has Severe Debt Problem
- Maybe their real problem is true profitability
- Gemini Links 28/04/2026: Misfin, ELPiS, and Developing Another Gemini Client
- Links for the day
- US Government Sites See More Traffic From Apple Devices Than Microsoft Windows PCs
- Keep this in mind when Microsoft talks about mass layoffs while calling these "buyouts"
- Layoffs Versus Buyouts
- Microsoft has mass layoffs and those target the most experienced people in one of the best-paid locations
- Latest Example of False Marketing by Anthropic
- Like Scam Altman, they're better at buying publicity (paying for hype) than they are at delivering something of genuine value [...] That has the full make-up of fake news and a publicity stunt
- IBM: From RAs to "Workforce Re-balancing" (New Names for Mass Layoffs)
- Well, "workforce re-balancing" means "RAs", which is a misleading acronym IBM has devised to soften if not hide mass layoffs.
- Aaron Hillel Swartz Would Have Turned 40 This Year
- Aaron Swartz killed himself in 2013
- The Trumps Are Making Jimmy Kimmel More Famous and Popular
- Comedy has long been "controversial", but trying to get people sacked for the 'wrong' joke results in having no comedians or only pseudo-comedians who are the dictator's jester/joker
- Microsoft's Grip Has Slipped, Market Share Steadily Declining
- This is why Microsoft is having financial issue
- Links 28/04/2026: Microsoft's GitHub Upselling After Two Leaders Jumped Ship (Losses Pile Up), "Inflation Jumps," and More
- Links for the day
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 60 Out of 200: Talking About Corruption at Microsoft and Arrest for Strangulation is "Malice"
- At the moment Brett Wilson LLP has no new clients
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part VIII - "Red Line" When the European Patent Office (EPO) President Sleeps With Sister of "Cocaine Communication Manager" (Whom He Unconditionally Protects)
- If only management took its own words (idealistic pontification) seriously
- IBM Laying Off Thousands of Workers Again, Based on Q1 Earnings Call
- under the guise of "workforce rebalancing" we are again seeing that IBM plans to pay people (severance) to leave
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 27, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, April 27, 2026
- Gemini Links 28/04/2026: Good Sunrise Viewing and Self-hosting from Home
- Links for the day[1;5C
- Microsoft Insiders: If You Don't Take the Lousy Severance-Like Offer, They'll PIP You Out (Microsoft Signals to People Over 40 That They'd Better Vacate the Place)
- Microsoft targets its most experienced (read: expensive) workers
- "AI" 16 Times in One 'Article'. The Register MS Got Paid to Post This Spammy, Promotional Piece of Slop.
- Pay closer attention to who pays and who gets paid
- Links 27/04/2026: Chernobyl Disaster at 40, "Heartbreaking" Decline of Australia
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 27/04/2026: Gopher Catchup, MNT Reform, and Injuries
- Links for the day
- Red Hat Circling Down the Slop Drain
- IBM, governed by slop fanatics, is going to do a lot of damage
- Slop is an Addiction, Its Users Find It Addictive
- please do not tolerate people who slop
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part VII - Secrecy at the EPO (Regarding Cocaine and Nepotism) Has Undermined Trust in Management
- If Europe's second-largest institution is run by the "Alicante Mafia", does this mean that other key European institutions are "Mafia"?
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 59 Out of 200: Mentioning the Fact Alex Graveley Arrested and Charged for Strangulation in Texas is "Reckless" and "Malicious", According to His 'Hired Guns' in London
- it was framed as "malicious"
- Links 27/04/2026: Strikes, Corruption in Spain (Spanish PM Sanchez' Wife), and YouTuber Faces Jail Time
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 27/04/2026: Gopher Catch-up, Year of Contentment, and Path to Freedom
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 26, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, April 26, 2026