Even though MakerBots have pushed development and adoption of consumer 3D printing, they have a built-in braking speed: their looks. A classic MakerBot Replicator looks like it belongs in a hackerspace or a high-school shop class; it looks feral. You wouldn’t put one in a corner suite.

When I saw a picture of the Stratasys Mojo, a prosumer 3D printer released in India earlier this year, I said to myself: that looks like something that every office has. That’s an ugly office machine. Coffeemaker? Inkjet printer? Who knows? Who cares? Sure, it’s not gorgeous like the Apple-slick Buccaneer, or as crazy-cheap. But it won’t scare the horses, and that indicates a design intention to make it a ubiquitous workplace object.

The Buccaneer, now, that’s a desire object- at a quotidian price. Which is why their Kickstarter is at $860k of their $100k goal, as of this writing.

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this post originally appeared on the T324 Blog.

Say you live in a tony hamlet that happens to be embedded in Criminaltown, USA.

Like, literally, your little town of million-dollar-plus homes is entirely surrounded by the city with the highest robbery rate in the United States.

You’ve already got your own school district, police and fire departments, and your property taxes don’t go into the coffers of those hooligan Oaklanders.

What else can you do to protect the borders of your Forbidden City? Continue reading →