I'm a gadget guy; I love anything with bells and whistles, or more appropriately, circuits and buttons. I also like building things. So you can imagine my delight in discovering a company called RepRap. They've been around for awhile, and I've checked in every so often to see how they are progressing, and they've finally reached the point where I want one.

RepRap is a company that is founded on the idea of OpenSource. In this case it's hardware and ideas rather than software. They make a device called the RepRap that is a rapid prototyping machine. These machines already exist in the market, costing tens of thousands of dollars. They can build three-dimensional objects out of one or more materials, driven by any computer design. RepRap is different in that the design is completely OpenSource. The cost for the materials to make a RepRap is about $500. If you build one, it can then in turn make about 60% of its own parts so you could then build another and give that to a friend. So this is a cheap technology that can almost self-replicate. They are working on the next version which will hopefully incorporate the ability to work with multiple materials and print its own circuits.

Imagine having a machine on your desktop that can fashion any object you can design. Currently it only works with plastics, but they are working to design new print heads for different materials. The truly amazing part of this is that since the design of the machine, as well as all the software itself, is OpenSource, everyone in the world is able to make improvements to the design and operation, collaborating to continually improve it. People also share designs for items they build with the machine, from shot glasses to iPod holders. So all the brilliant engineers in the world who like to tinker can get involved in the project and keep refining it

"[RepRap] has been called the invention that will bring down global capitalism, start a second industrial revolution and save the environment..." - The Guardian, UK

This gets to the core of what I've talked about a few times. We are on the verge of major breakthroughs that are going to truly alter our culture. This tool allows us yet another way to express our creativity and uniqueness as a species, plus its just plain cool.

I'm a huge fan of Halloween decorating, and I'm thinking that this just might be a good investment; I could design and build all kinds of great props that look exactly how I want them. I'll let you know if I end up building my own!

This technology isn't just on the desktop. Caterpillar is backing a new technology called "Contour Crafting" which is basically concrete-jet rather than ink-jet printing. Imagine a huge gantry-type piece of equipment that is hooked up to concrete trucks. This gantry has a printing head that is computer controlled. It can basically "print" out the walls of a structure in just hours, including leaving spaces for conduits for all the utilities. This technology could cut construction costs to 1/5 of current costs. The equipment itself is estimated to cost around $500-$700k, which is only a few hundred more than a concrete truck. The first commercial units were to be delivered by the end of 2008. It will take awhile for wide-scale adoption of this technology, but it promises to revolutionize the construction industry.