PHOTO: Selfie taken taken by Thomas Kraemer on Christmas Eve in 2016. Please excuse me if my selfie is poorly lit and composed, but I have been slowly going low vision blind over the last few years and I can no longer recognize faces, even of people I have known for years, due to my brain's neurological disorder, called prosopagnosia (i.e. face blindness), related to an ischemic stroke in the posterior cerebral artery area of of brain that has caused a diffuse area of brain death typical of an impact injury and not due to the more typical reason of fat cells breaking off the walls of the arteries. I was barely able to take this picture and upload it to Google Blogger and Photos thanks to the accessibility features built-in to Microsoft's operating system and Internet Explorer Browser for people with various disabilities. Of course, it has been much easier to adapt to using these accessibility features given my previous familiarity with the software commands needed, but as my symptoms worsen over time, I have been forced to adapt more and more, with a tradeoff of not being able to read or do as many things fast as I did them before. For example, if I lose the ability of using a graphical window and mouse interface and I am forced to use a text and command line interface like what was the only computer interface available when I first used a computer in 1964, then even using a modern accessibility feature of a voice and speech interface will not be quick and easy to use as the decades old computer command line interface.
As I said last year, I don't know how long I will be able to continue blogging given my worsening low vision blindness and muscle paralysis, but I am grateful to still have the ability required for posting my favorite links and posts from last year 2016:
- FAQ from WGSS faculty about OSU Foundation Magnus Hirschfeld Fund for research on humans or animals with a minority sexual orientation or gender identity (11/27/16)
- OSU gay frat Δ Λ Φ organized by student Cory Zimmerman (11/3/16) -- Note this is the same student I wrote about last year - See previous post OSU 'I am gay' writing class essay printed as paid advertisement in student newspaper (11/24/15) (11/24/15)
- OSU students' daily newspaper goes weekly for print edition and is inserted in local professional newspaper (10/8/16) for townies to read
- Gay marriage history summary by Jim Burroway's blog posts (8/36/16)
- Internet network research at OSU in 1970's vs. social network research needed today (4/6/16)
- Academic paper on recognition of tops vs. bottoms goes viral (3/15/16)
- My notes on autobiography by Michael McConnell with Jack Baker gay marriage activism (2/14/16) - stay tuned for a new court action in Minnesota that may clear up any of the remaining legal ambiguities concerning their marriage as being the first same-sex marriage to be legally recognized in the world
- Beatles 'When I'm 64' song in 'Yellow Submarine' movie - Happy 64th Birthday! (1/7/16)
- Why Trump is queer and loved by many men and women (12/23/16) - my letter about Trump's true nature of being a masculine and tyrannical football coach with a feminine and temperamental theatre arts director persona still in the closet
Also, my previous post HP 3-D printers praised by Jim Cramer CNBC Wall Street reporter (7/24/16) preceded two related newspaper articles of interest by Staff, "Future of 3-D printing is topic of forum," Gazette-Times, Nov. 1, 2016, p. A2 and a follow-up article by Anthony Rimel, "HP Plans 3-D printers for manufacturing," Gazette-Times, Nov. 3, 2016, p. A2, online as, "HP exec says company's 3-D printers will lead to new industrial revolution," posted Nov. 3, 2016 that mentions Tim Weber, global head of 3-D materials and advanced applications for HP Inc. talking about. Clearly, he has adopted the HP founder's strategy that avoided dependence on the retail market, like inkjet printers ended up in, by focusing on 3-D printers and materials for manufacturers. Tim's PhD in Mechanical Engineering makes this a perfect cap to his career.
. . . the company's new Multi Jet Fusion 3-D printers at a Chamber lunch, saying that while the printers were designed in Spain, they use printhead technology that was developed in Corvallis. . . . Weber said typically 3-D printers make things by extruding material from a single point, which he likened to a hot glue gun. According to Weber though, HP's 3-D printers use printheads based on their ink printers to spray a reacting agent from multiple points onto a nylon based powder and cause the two to fuse into a solid piece by using ultraviolet light to power the reaction.
Weber said this process is faster and allows for manufacturers to customize the material they work with and make parts that are comparable to what could be made through injection molding. Manufacturers interested in customizing the material used in their printer could work with HP in Corvallis to develop a powder that meets their needs. . . .
He said the machines will run from around $100,000 to $250,000, and are not intended as a consumer product. "Right now we're really going after manufacturing," he said. According to Weber, for runs of parts up to about 55,000 units, their 3-D printers would be cheaper than injection molding, which require expensive molds be cast.
See my previous ten annual reviews of my blog posts:
- Oregon State University 2006 in review (12/27/06)
- One year of blogging (4/18/07)
- Year 2007 in review (12/29/07)
- Two years of blogging (4/12/08)
- Year 2008 in review (12/28/08)
- Three years of blogging (4/14/09)
- Year 2009 in review (12/30/09)
- Four years of blogging (4/10/10)
- Year 2010 in review - 5 years of blogging (12/27/10)
- Year 2006-2011 in review - 6 years of blogging (12/1/11)
- Year 2012 in review - 7 years of blogging (12/23/12)
- Year 2013 in review - 8 years of blogging (12/11/13)
- Year 2014 in review - nine years of blogging (12/27/14)
- Year 2015 in review - ten years of blogging (12/30/15)
