Monday, July 30, 2012

DIY AR-15 that fires real bullets - 3D printed with $30 worth of plastic


Yesterday a friend and I were talking about the ability to manufacture objects in your own home. He brought up a case where a guy has 3D printed his own AR-15, which fired 2,000 rounds before it finally broke. This technology means the gun isn't registered and the evidence can be destroyed with a match. A 6 year old could create a Sten (Imperia Submachine Gun) with household items. Or any one of us could download a file and with $30 worth of plastic, have a working weapon capable of firing real ammunition.

Ammunition control? That's just as hard, if not harder, considering you can carry a pocket full of plastic bullets (just as deadly) into an airport and board a plane undetected. We have the technology already. The focus should be on creating an overall happier society and figuring out what to do when these things occur, not making legal, registered guns illegal. Criminalizing regular honest civilians should never be the answer to any small percentage of the population that doesn't follow the laws in the first place. Are they now going to limit the sale of plastic?



Friday, July 6, 2012

Robotics Club Online via Video Chat on Google

I am officially structuring a "Robotics Club Meetup Hangout" on Google Plus to take place once a week and streamed to YouTube.

I would like to be joined by those with a strong background in Robotics, Arduino, Open-source Hardware, etc. We will be discussing our opinions on the local Robot news and various topics. If you feel strong enough to be involved, please let me know. If you know someone who is, please let me know. This will be streamed On-Air so anyone can watch and ask questions and I may be able to get Kelly Ness to moderate questions and comments so that we can answer questions on the fly. Sireesh Adimadhyam , Richard Wooding , Steve Berry Andrew Smith and Axel Lottel are all definite invitees. We need to work out which evenings will work best - I'm leaning toward Saturday afternoon or evening seeing as how we have a real-live Robotics Club on Sundays. We may even use every other Sunday, for the days we aren't meeting IRL.