Towards the *fully* 3D-printed electric cars.

The whooshing sound you hear is the point and all it's details going over you head.

The Strati is little more than a $30,000 golf cart and the finish is an abomination.

Do you understand the difference between hobby and professional?

Fully recyclable thermoplastic so you can grind up your $30,000 golf cart when you are done playing with it.

The printing speed is achieved by using thick layers which makes the finish horrible. Check out the finish in the photo near the end.

No.

All hail and glory to the 3D printer, savior of humanity.

Happy?

I never encountered CAD before the micros, so have nothing to add to the argument. But I'm enjoying the discussion.

The amount of aluminum in a soda can has decreased dramatically over time. I remember seeing an article on can engineering in SciAm twenty or so years ago. It's probably halfed again since then.

Cars once had frames under the body. Now, carefully shaped bodies serve the purpose that once required a frame.

New technologies can dramatically reduce the amount of aluminum or plastic that you require to do something.

You can overdo it. My mother believed in bulk purchasing and in having suitable treats on hand when the grandkids arrived. When preparing the estate, we discovered a five foot stack of soda in one of the closets. One flat (24 cans) of Costco "Simply" cola had pinhole-ruptured almost all of the cans, but had leaked slowly enough that nothing sprayed and nothing escaped the cardboard flat that the cans were sitting on. The white carpet under the dark brown leaks was untouched. All of the plastic two-litre bottles had lost their pressurization - the CO2 having presumably leaked past the caps in the time since purchase. (She was in various forms of care for about a year before the end, and we held the house off the market for another five months for price-cycle reasons. I don't know how long the soda was there before she went into care.)

Pencils that don't need to be sharpened are only about a century old. (Electronics company Sharp started that way.)

When I was a kid, my mother had one that cost $18 and took a minute or so to withdraw a new lead into its body. Other than lacking the magnet (hers could be stuck onto stuff for convenient access), better pencils are now about the price of six wooden pencils. I haven't sharpened a pencil other than on an "emergency" basis for 45 years.

Pencils were a nickel when I was a kid and a dime now. Since I was a kid, the value of that dime has decreased tenfold. So pencils are now five times cheaper than in the sixties. I assume technology did it. (Perhaps containerized TRANSPORT technology to bring us the product of chinese semi-slaves.)

Bullshit. The technology in a PC today is quite different than that of a PC made in 1988. Nothing in a PC from 1988 would even "plug into" a PC bought today, except maybe the keyboard and mouse. And the PC today is literally orders of magnitude faster.

Jeff

So what?

Nothing from a 1988 Ford F150 would even "plug into" a Ford F150 bought today.

BTW, a current Ford F150 costs about the same (in adjusted dollars) as a

They are a different thing but they haven't changed much since invention either.

Mass production in huge quantities by automated traditional manufacturing techniques and cheap shipping from China.

The original mice I first saw plugged into a special jack on a card that plugged into the PC. I had mine on a combo card with video. The technology to allow a mouse to run on the low power in a serial connection came later. And serial connectors vanished around Y2K. I don't know how the data signals in the PS2 mouse connectors compared to the 9 pin serial connectors.

Keyboards plugged into a large DIN connection. This was gradually replaced by the smaller PS2 connection, then again with USB connections.

I don't know if any desktop computers still provide PS2 connectors. I don't think so.

I'm still using my 1994 laser printer. It plugs into a centronics-parallel to USB adapter. I guess similar adapters are available for serial ports and PS2 connectors.

Hmmm, come to think of it, the Centronics port was designed for the

Lug nuts. Maybe whole wheels. Antifreeze. Gasoline (so long as we stay this side of 1972 or so.) Does Ford still use a different tranny fluid than everyone else like they did in the seventies?

Are modern "power points" heat resistant enough to take an old cigarette lighter?

Has the trailer ball hitch changed since WW2? I realize that "hidden hitch" sockets are a newer idea, but the old trailers can still be "plugged in". You might need an adapter for the lights on the trailer.

The controls have stayed remarkably steady. You've got the PRNDL tranny setting, probably using a lever identical to the one thirty years ago. You've got the steering wheel and two pedals.

Some desktop computers I've seen recently still have the smaller PS2 connectors for a keyboard and mouse. All of our "professional" machines at work have them. For example, the HP Z240 Desktop "tower" computer has them. All you need to go from the old DIN keyboard connection to a PS2 keyboard connector is a simple, non-active, adapter. Ought to cost about $0.99 on eBay.

Not sure any active adapters do that, but some older mice would work with either with a passive adapter. At any rate, you can buy USB to serial port adapters. I have one. It works well.

Software drivers are tricky, but yes the USB adapter will allow the electronics to communicate.

Jeff

Try fixing a broken current Ford F150 with parts from a 1988 Ford F150 and see how far you get.

Not quite.

The Centronics connector, also known as IEEE 1284, was designed by Centronics in the 1970's as a general parallel port interface.

Crankshaft, pistons, rings, spark plugs, poppet valves, gears. Hasn't changed much in over a century.

Try taking any of those from a 1988 Ford F150 and installing them on a current Ford F150.

Again, SpaceX 3-D prints rocket engine combustion chambers and turbopump parts. I think it will stand up to Arizona in the summer if it will stand up to rocket exhaust.

No, because you're still just acting like an anachronistic d*****ad.