I’ve always been curious about 3D printers, so last fall when there was a Black Friday deal on a great model, I picked one up. I wondered if it would be one of these gadgets my family would play with for a couple months then forget about, but it turns out: we haven’t stopped printing since.
Whenever I tell anyone about it, the first question is, “What do you do with it?” At first it was making lots of silly fidget toys and figurines for my kid. Then it became about a lot more than toys.
Anil did a nice job building and publishing a fun project: a DIY Touch ID-like fingerprint sensor that can unlock your Mac, called
Dashboard Touch. I liked what he wrote about making it: “Nearly every task in this project has had me stretching to do things that I’m pretty bad at, from firmware coding to security review to detailed carpentry to video editing.” Working at the edge of your capabilities across different skills is the most uncomfortable and satisfying kind of project.
(
via) I can’t get this lovely
second-half story out of my head: Paul Lundy, a man in his mid-50s, left his lucrative and unfulfilling corporate career behind to repair typewriters. There’s just something irresistible about
fixing things with your own two hands.
Last weekend’s Black Friday deals lured me to my local computer superstore, where I picked up a bunch of parts, went home, unboxed them all, plugged them into one another, pressed the power button, and crossed my fingers. Beep! My new server booted up, in all its redundant storage glory. Now I have enough room to store and search all my photos and videos and files, without relying on Google or Apple or Amazon to do it for me.
