spriteleigh

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has announced the inauguration of a new WikiLeaks political party and declared his candidacy for a seat in the Australian Senate in national elections to be held later this year. He remains inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has received asylum for more than a year now, so he can avoid being extradited to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning for accusations of sexual assault. [nytimes.com]

The key patents covering a 3D printing technique called "laser sintering" are set to expire in the next year or two -- there are a bunch of them, so they'll trickle out -- and this will radically reduce the price of printing and printers. Laser sintering involves melting a fine powder (usually plastic) in order to fuse it with the powder below and around it, and it's a technique that produces a very smooth, even finish. The big 3D printer manufacturers, who control the laser sintering patents, have used patent law to lock up the market for devices, and to prevent device-owners from sourcing their powder from third parties. As a result, simple, cheap plastic powder can cost more than filet mignon by weight, which means that the cost of 3D printed objects is very high -- especially when you factor in the extremely high cost (and high profit margins!) on the printers themselves.

As these patents expire, it will mean that mass-manufactured printers from China and elsewhere will be able to integrate laser-sintering, setting aside the extruded plastic wire technique that is presently standard. With wire-extrusion, a wire filament is melted inside a print-head, and then forced out of a fine nozzle, like icing coming out of an icing bag. This produces a rougher finish and is prone to delamination during the print-process.

Patent expiry will also open new horizons to the world of hacker/maker printers, like the RepRap and its derivatives. These open-source hardware printers will likewise be able to integrate laser sintering, and to take advantage of a coming explosion in plastic powder suppliers.

All told, it's an exciting moment to be in. 3D printing is a minefield of stupid patents -- there's a patent on putting see-through plastic windows on the sides of a 3D printer! -- but thankfully, they're mostly old and starting to expire. Give it a couple of years and there will be a very robust, open marketplace of cheap, innovative, and open printers flooding the market.

Within just a few years of the patents on FDM expiring, the price of the cheapest FDM printers fell from many thousands of dollars to as little as $300. This led to a massive democratization of hobbyist-level 3D printers and injected a huge amount of excitement into the nascent movement of “Makers,” who manufacture at home on the scale of one object at a time.

A similar sequence involving the lifting of intellectual property barriers, a rise in competition, and a huge drop in price is likely to play out again in laser deposition 3D printers, says Shapeways’ Scott. “This is what happened with FDM,” he says. “As soon as the patents expired, everything exploded and went open-source, and now there are hundreds of FDM machines on the market. An FDM machine was $14,000 five years ago and now it’s $300.”

3D printing will explode in 2014, thanks to the expiration of key patents [Christopher Mims/Quartz]

(Image: tvrrug reprap "3d printer", a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from osde-info's photostream)

Boing Boing reader Michael Hacker [website] shares his illustration work in the Boing Boing Flickr pool and says,

Chicago’s Galerie F invited eighteen artists to interpret eighteen stories of famous British author Roald Dahl for their “Fantastic Mr. Dahl” art show. My contribution is an homage to Dahl’s hilarious book “The Twits” about a horrible couple that is cruel to animals and keeps on playing mean tricks on each other. Like putting glue on a tree to catch birds and make them into “Bird Pie” or serving worms with tomato sauce instead of spaghetti.

Here are my two illustrated recipes.

Available as limited screen prints at Galerie F (from Monday, July 22nd) and soon in my online shop.

Two colour screen print on heavy paper, 35×50 cm, Limited edition of 45.

My brother Carl Hamm, aka DJ Carlito, is a club and radio DJ who also sometimes mans the turntables at South Asian weddings along the Eastern US. He whipped up this "specially requested remix" for one such fete. It was used in a choreographed dance that the groom and his brother, who are accomplished bhangra dancers, performed for the bride and all the wedding guests.

"Many of the guests told me afterwards how much they loved it," says Carl. More from him about this bespoke remix:

Daft Punk's original "Get Lucky" is a truly great pop song, but I've heard it so many times in the past few months that it was kind of cathartic to be asked to change it into a bhangra song. The original bhangra song sampled is "Giddeh Vich - Ricky Bhalla ft. Kaka Bhaniawala." Giddeh Vich means "lady's dance." On April 12, 2009 Kaka Bhaniawala passed away unexpectedly from liver failure in Ludhiana after a routine blood treatment. He was a very popular and much loved punjabi singer. RIP.

Listen to Carl's weekly radio show "If Music Could Talk" 7-9pm EST Sundays on WRIR 97.3 FM, Richmond Virginia's Independent Radio.

The Trekkie Has the Phone Box has analyzed the way women are presented in the second of the Star Trek reboot movies; and compared it to Gene Rodenberry's original show, which went to great lengths to establish gender parity and racial diversity in its depicted future. The analysis goes into some convincing detail and makes me think that the reboot is a very retrograde move in the history of the Trek franchise and how it deals with women.

Star Trek 2 Bechdel Test

Artist Dan LuVisi is great at bringing the precious characters of your childhood to life...and death. Recently, he took characters from The Simpsons out of Springfield and placed them in Grand Theft Auto's Liberty City. You can see Lenny, Carl and Homer at the link.

Link -via Hi Consumption

One of Schindler's Lists is up for auction on eBay. The starting bid for the document, 14 pages typed c.1945 by Itzhak Stern (played By Ben Kingsley in the film), is $3 million. Background at CNN.

Dave sez, "Yarrly is an anonymous, remixable two-panel meme generator for Android. Users can make a Yarrly, and then it becomes as public as they make it by where they chose to share it. It's entirely anonymous - there are no profiles or login. Where it gets interesting is any Yarrly can be remixed by anyone who sees it - they can open the existing Yarrly on their phone, change up the images and text and send that on. It means you end up with remixes upon remixes as a meme morphs and changes as it builds. It's predictably dominated by cats during launch but it's a lovely little experiment in no-social and builds on the creators love of memes and remix culture. It was built in London over the last few months by Dave Ganly & Holly Clarke in their spare time."

Yarrly (Thanks, Dave!)

A death compilation from character slaughterhouse Game of Thrones was unveiled at Comic-Con to whet fans' appetites for the forthcoming fourth season: looks to me like plenty are missing!

Ed Felten comments on the news that MIT has moved to delay the release of the Secret Service files on Aaron Swartz:

It seems unlikely that MIT will find information redactable under FOIA that hasn’t already been redacted by the Secret Service.

But there are two things that MIT’s filing will more likely achieve. First, it will delay the disclosure of facts about MIT’s role in the Swartz investigation. Second, it will help MIT prepare its public-relations response to whatever is in the documents.

MIT is acting like it has something to hide. This is deeply worrying for people like me who think of MIT and American universities more generally as unique and valuable institutions.

What made MIT great is the way it made itself a mecca for the Aaron Swartzes of the world. Over the years, MIT was willing to make investments and take a few risks to build a community devoted to the creation and dissemination of knowledge. If someone broke the rules in a way that didn’t strike at the institution’s core values, they faced consequences that were proportionate and aimed to educate—not a relentless Federal prosecutor threatening decades in prison.

What I fear most of all is that we will learn that MIT encouraged the U.S. Attorney to behave the way she did.

MIT asks to intervene in Swartz FOIA suit

My friend Aaron Swartz's suicide, just over six months ago, brought attention to MIT's role in his prosecution over downloading scholarly articles from their network. JSTOR, the service that hosted the files Aaron was accused of downloading, dropped its case against him, and it was widely reported that the only reason the Justice Department was able to go ahead with its threats of decades of time in prison for Aaron was MIT's insistence on pressing the case against him. MIT's administration was so shaken by the negative publicity following Aaron's death that they commissioned professor Hal Abelson (a good guy, in my experience) to investigate the university's role in his prosecution.

Now, though, MIT has blocked a Freedom of Information Act suit by Wired's Kevin Poulsen aimed at forcing the Secret Service to release their files on Aaron. A court recently ordered the Secret Service to stop screwing around and release Aaron's file, but before that could happen, MIT intervened, arguing that if the world could see the files, they would know the names of the MIT employees who insisted that Aaron deserved to go to jail for what amounted to checking too many books out of the library. MIT argues that its employees would potentially face retaliation (though not, presumably, threats of felony prosecutions, million-dollar fines, and decades in prison) if their names were known.

MIT claims it’s afraid the release of Swartz’s file will identify the names of MIT people who helped the Secret Service and federal prosecutors pursue felony charges against Swartz for his bulk downloading of academic articles from MIT’s network in 2011.

MIT argues that those people might face threats and harassment if their names become public. But it’s worth noting that names of third parties are already redacted from documents produced under FOIA.

I’ll post MIT’s motion here once it’s filed.

I have never, in fifteen years of reporting, seen a non-governmental party argue for the right to interfere in a Freedom of Information Act release of government documents. My lawyer has been litigating FOIA for decades, and he’s never encountered it either. It’s saddening to see an academic institution set this precedent.

I agree with Poulsen. This is a dark day in MIT's history. Today, the administration devalued the reputation of every student, alumnus and faculty member. The "MIT" on your resume is in danger of becoming a source of shame. MIT's stakeholders must demand better of their administration.

MIT Moves to Intervene in Release of Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service File [Kevin Poulsen/Wired]

(YouTube link)

Clara Darko and Brutzelpretzel edited together 139 clips from 93 movies to make a supercut of people in movies going to the movies. After all, this is the kind of behavior that Hollywood wants to encourage! Contains NSFW language. Things get really exciting about halfway through, when the theater experience goes bad. You'll find a list of the films used at Slackstory. Link -via Laughing Squid

Disney princesses might be cute, but few of them are really bad ass. But when Aegiskitty combines them with female DC and Marvel characters, they suddenly look a whole lot tougher. In fact, even the formidable Mulan looks more intimidating as Psylocke.

Link Via The Mary Sue

Artist Heropain created this image of Boba Fett carrying Grumpy Cat and managed to work in about a dozen other geek references from sources as varied as Iron Man, The Wizard of Oz, The Jetsons and Mortal Kombat. How many can you recognize?

Link Via Geeks Are Sexy

CNet's Declan McCullagh reports on a rumor that Google is testing a system for encrypting its users' files on Google Drive; they are reportedly considering the move as a means of making it harder for government spies to harvest user-data. There are lots of things this could mean: if Google encrypts the files but retains the keys, it would mean that any government spying would be more visible within the company, since it would require the government requesting access to the keys before it could snoop on users. On the other hand, it might mean that Google would encrypt its files in a way that even it can't encrypt it -- called "zero-knowledge encryption" -- which would be much more robust against spying. McCullagh talks about companies that do similar things:

Some smaller companies already provide encrypted cloud storage, a concept that's sometimes called "host-proof hosting." SpiderOak says its software, available for Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, and Nokia N900 platforms, uses "zero-knowledge" encryption techniques that allow it to store data that's "readable to you alone." SpiderOak also offers a Web access option because of "overwhelming customer demand," but suggests the client application is more secure.

Wuala is an application for Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, and Android created by Zurich-based LaCie AG that also uses client-side encryption. "LaCie employees have very limited access to your data," the company says. "They can only see how many files you have stored and how much storage space they occupy."

Google tests encryption to protect users' Drive files against government demands

The Daily Beast investigated the autocomplete on Apple Ios devices (Iphones, Ipads, etc), and discovered that there was a long list of "sensitive" words that the devices have in their dictionary but would not autocomplete -- you would have to type them out in full to get them into your device. This list includes words such as "abortion," "rape," "ammo," and "bullet." They documented their methodology in detail.

According to a Daily Beast analysis, iPhones running Apple’s latest software will not suggest corrections for even slight misspellings of such hot-button words as "abortion,” "rape,” “ammo,” and “bullet.” For example, if a user types "abortiom" with an "m" instead of an "n," the software won't suggest a correction, as it would with nearly 150,000 other words. (Many modern spell-check and predictive text engines understand that the “n” is located next to “m” on a standard keyboard, so replacing it with its neighbor is the low-hanging fruit of the correction world.)

...But among this list as well are more frequently used (and sensitive) words such as “abortion,” “abort,” “rape,” “bullet,” “ammo,” “drunken,” “drunkard,” “abduct,” “arouse,” “Aryan,” “murder,” and “virginity.”

As a parent, I can understand wanting to limit the autocompletes available to small children. Autocomplete turns out to be a great way to help kids with complex spelling beyond their immediate ability -- my five year old, who is able to read simple words, uses autocomplete while searching for and reading lists of cartoons on YouTube, and the additional context of knowing that the drop-down list likely contains the word she's looking for helps her correctly locate it, even if it is not a word she'd be able to read on her own.

But I am not a five year old. I want a device that spells the words I'm trying to type, without deference to potential screaming Fox News/New York Post headlines like "Five year old tries to search for rope, finds rape!"

I'm pretty sure Android does something like this. "Fuck" and other swear-words never, ever autocomplete correctly for me on Android; the article in the Beast goes on to quote an exec from a company that makes an Android replacement keyboard cheerfully admitting that the Chinese version of his product has a list of words not to autocomplete that is mandated by the politburo.

It's not quite censorship, but it's a patronizing, nudging, nudzhing design decision that is infuriating. The lack of transparency is even more exasperating.

The Apple ‘Kill List’: What Your iPhone Doesn’t Want You to Type (via JWZ)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed suit against the NSA for its surveillance program on behalf of a wide, diverse set of actors, from the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Calguns Foundation, Greenpeace, Human Rights Watch, People for the American Way, and TechFreedom.

The US Department of Homeland Security is warning its employees that they can be punished for opening up this Washington Post article, which includes a classified slide (above) illustrating how the National Security Agency spies on communications:

An internal memo from DHS headquarters told workers on Friday that viewing the document from an “unclassified government workstation” could lead to administrative or legal action. “You may be violating your non-disclosure agreement in which you sign that you will protect classified national security information,” the communication said.

The memo said workers who view the article through an unclassified workstation should report the incident as a “classified data spillage.”

"DHS warns employees not to read leaked NSA information." [Washington Post]

[SPOILERS IN THESE VIDEOS!]

The AMC dramatic series Breaking Bad returns on August 11 for its final episodes, and Boing Boing video collaborator Joe Sabia has built a very cool project for trufans to enjoy. Above, "9 Minute Breaking Bad," a supercut of every Breaking Bad episode to date.

I did this with my childhood friend Paul Gulyas, and it was our first recap since Seven Minute Sopranos 6 years ago. We did this to promote BettingBad.com, a website me and some friends made that lets everyone bet on what they think will happen in the final season of Breaking Bad, collect points throughout the season on correct bets, and compete with friends and strangers. It's like a Fantasy Sports experience for TV dramas.

Game Trailer video for Betting Bad is below. I can't wait to play.

Rick Lax developed a new magic trick, only to see his performance, right down to the mood and meter, knocked off within weeks. At Wired, he explores magic's intersection with U.S. intellectual property law. The reveal: there's not much to help magicians short of trick gadgets that may be patented and the expressive details of performances: "hope lies within the magic community’s informal, internal policing."

(Video Link)

In Dori-to's well-written and animated fan film, Stan, Kyle and other boys and their school discover My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Naturally, they become bronies. This video is funny all the way through to the final classic South Park gag at the end.

Content warning: foul language.

-via Equestria Daily