[jfrancis]

http://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Printed-Photograph/

[hatts]

cooler than I was expecting

[mtripoli]

It's a Lithophane. I saw these at a tradeshow over 10 years ago in wax done on a 3D machine. It's a cool thing to do, but it torques me off a bit when people act like they've come up with something new instead of just saying "I made a Lithophane", like about 20,000 others have done. Check out Wikipedia; according to that source the first ones were done in 1820...

[jfrancis]

It's a Lithophane. I saw these at a tradeshow over 10 years ago in wax done on a 3D machine. It's a cool thing to do, but it torques me off a bit when people act like they've come up with something new instead of just saying "I made a Lithophane", like about 20,000 others have done. Check out Wikipedia; according to that source the first ones were done in 1820...

Sometimes it's because the patent system allows people to act like a tiny incremental change is a revolutionary new thing.

[mtripoli]

Don't get me started on the patent system...

[Thomas An.]

Don't get me started on the patent system...

It is a big joke. Apparently, according to the PTO litmus test "nothing" is EVER obvious to those skilled in the art ... or rather the idea of the proverbial "skilled" person is a 1sec old newborn infant.

We are down to the point that you can patent a "new" rectangle because this one is exactly 2.12212243435 centimeters wide unlike none other.

Patents drive prices up and slow down technological progress (in the amount of energy invested working around other people's patents and technologies forgone; that could have benefited from multiple ideas held up by multiple parties each trying to prevent others from getting theirs).

In a way I am glad NewZealand banned software patents.

[mtripoli]

The word "patent" makes the bile rise up in my throat every time I hear it (even my own). Don't get me wrong; its a good idea for good, original ideas. Problem is, there aren't any of these anymore. People have perverted the system to the point that this: http://www.scarydesign.com/pat/pat6025810.pdf is available (the yellow highlights are mine). It is in fact a schematic of a power supply (and not a very good design at that). It has become nothing more than a reason to sue someone else, scare tactics, UGH

A friend of mine got a "cease and desist" letter from someone that claimed to have a patent on some cockamamie aspect of his product (it didn't). He replied with a letter that said if they pursued this line of "attack" he would not just fight him in court, but fight to have the "patent" invalidated as a whole. Never heard from them again. This should be the law; if you sue someone and its found that there was no infringement, the "patent" gets invalidated. That would make at least a few people think twice...

[mtripoli]

BTW; the words "inventor" and "entrepreneur" also cause my intestines to ball up and force projectile vomiting.