MakerBot’s Interface Board Kit does PC-less 3D printing, turns your superhero fantasies into reality

If you’re like us — that is to say, wildly popular and devastatingly good looking — then you’re probably wondering why someone hasn’t produced an action figure in your likeness yet. Well wonder no longer, for the folks over at MakerBot just announced yet another handy tool to make at home 3D printing even easier. An addition to the aptly titled Thing-O-Matic, the Gen 4 Interface Board Kit v1.1 is billed as a DIY interface that lets you operate your thingy printer without having to attach it to a PC. The kit comes equipped with an SD card slot for easy independent operation, and because the board’s fully hackable, you can use it to control your robots or homebrew CNC devices, too. It sports nine programmable buttons and an LCD screen for feedback, and allows you to set and read temperatures, view build progress, or start a new project stored on the SD card. So what are you waiting for? Your self-aggrandizing bobblehead isn’t going to make itself.

MakerBot’s Interface Board Kit does PC-less 3D printing, turns your superhero fantasies into reality originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video Demo Of Real Photoshop On iPad

Eric over at Photography Bay captured this demo of Adobe’s in-development Photoshop app for iPad on video. It’s way more full-featured than the Photoshop Express already available — if file management was a little easier, this would go a long way towards making my iPad an actual full-powered blogging station.

Look at that layers animation! That’s insane. Is it practical? I don’t know. But it’s definitely cool.

There’s no release date yet, but I can’t wait. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear more.

Taken from:
Video Demo Of Real Photoshop On iPad

“Meat glue” sounds kind of awesome

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I know this story on Planet Green—all about the edible “meat glue” that holds together everything from imitation crab sticks and chicken nuggets to modernist chef cuisine—is supposed to make me freak out and only want to eat organic, whole foods from the farmer's market.

Trouble is: I kind of think meat glue sounds pretty cool. I like the fact that we've found new ways to use scraps and parts of meat that aren't sell-able on their own. That alone is nothing new. Humans have been doing that for centuries (See: sausage, soup stock). Transglutaminase—meat glue's real name—is just a newer tool. And it doesn't even sound particularly scary or gross. At least, not to this honest-with-herself omnivore.

Technically called thrombian, or transglutaminase (TG), it is an enzyme that food processors use to hold different kinds of meat together. TG is an enzyme that catalyzes covalent bonds between free amine groups in a protein, like lysine, and gamma-caroxminid groups, like glutamine. These bonds are pretty durable and resist degradation once the food has been formed.

Thrombian is made from pig or cow blood, though you’ll see it on labels, if at all, as “composite meat product.”

It's a naturally occurring enzyme, derived from animal blood. When you put it that way, it's easy to understand why the EU—which tends to be more stringent on rules about food additives than the United States—voted nearly unanimously in favor of allowing transglutaminase to be used in products sold in EU countries.

Personally, I’m with wrecksdart, who Submitterated this, in wondering where I can get transglutaminase, and what ridiculous foods I can make at home with it. Animal-shaped meatloaf pops, here I come.


More here:
“Meat glue” sounds kind of awesome

Boxee Outlines The Upcoming Boxee Box Firmware Changes

Talk about timely. Boxee’s Avner Ronen just posted the worklist for the next Boxee Box firmware, which is schuduled to drop in May. Among other fixes the browser is getting a major update that seems to address many of my concerns. Also, Boxee Box support for the iPad app is coming. May can’t get here soon enough.

See the article here:
Boxee Outlines The Upcoming Boxee Box Firmware Changes