Prevailing thoughts on Technical Problems

Things are changing, excuse me for being impatient, but its taking a really long time. And skewing in a direction that, leaves most people with little to no control over things we should have control over (I think).
I just wrote a post about the new Glowforge "3d laser printer"

It looks amazingly useful and easy to use.

Much much better software and use of modern hardware and software to enable amazing things.

The prevailing thought has been for the longest time:

 "It should be hard"

I have never understood this.

People all up and down the chain of engineers and company management for dozens of companies putting out tools (like laser cutters but dozens of others) don't think about the time and effort value of thier customers. The software is terrible, it barely works, it's frustrating and time consuming. More of a hindrance than a help. You Have to stay within these parameters or it won't work AT ALL.

Why should it be hard?

I don't get it. Good on Glowforge for putting in the work to make using a cutter easier, its long overdue.

The bad skew I see in this is; everything is in the cloud. Which none of us users have any control over. Even worse, if you are in a less fortunate geographical situation, your machine may not work at all. I know local server management and image processing has distinct disadvantages, but what if glowforge (one day) goes belly up. Like so many abandoned music services suddenly their servers go dark.

Ease of use: Good, finally
Cloud: So So
Another thing I can't fix myself: Bad..

What's Next 9/24/2015

What's Next: A quick look into future technology news

Today we have great innovations and developments in ease of use in the small CNC industry.

Printrbot Releases the New Crawlbot:

This new CNC router from printrbot does not include a table! Instead you attach it to the plywood or sheet material you are cutting (or alternatively it is sized large enough to build a table bigger than a sheet). But at its core it's "the size of a golf bag", so it can easily be transported to a site or the material. As opposed to other full sheet machines, that need a crane to be delivered.

I've had my eye on printrbot since they first debuted, they seem like an exemplary company from what I've seen.

Image Credit; Makezine Review;

GlowForge Looks to Revolutionize Laser Cutting:




Using advanced sensors and software (why has no one done this yet?) and even more advanced software, the Glowforge laser cutter takes the user interface completely out of using a cutter. Just draw a design, the cameras inside record the design and convert it to laser motions. Then hit go, basically. There's no CAD, no drivers, no illustrations,

Additionally no privacy, but quick don't think about that (every design goes into "the cloud" for the magic image processing and other mysterious things).

It looks like an amazing machine, the bigger one with an included pass through, (use any length material as long as it's no wider than 20in) the machine tracks the material as its pulled through.

More: Here; Here; and Here.