Help with finding old www story (urban legend?)

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone has heard, or know, the story of a guy who made a web page, claiming people could download stuff for free and use their printer to actually print out things like a real DVD-player, TV, coffee-machine... stuff like that.
The funny part was that some people had actually believed the spoof, and had sent him complaints that their new stuff didn't work(!) - I believe he posted some of the letters.
I remember reading the story on the net many years ago, but can't remember where, and i' totally lost as to what I should google for.

I'm trying to find the story and somewhat confirm that it did happen, because I'm using a variant on that to introduce a lead female character in a mini-series I'm developing.
I'm getting huge resistance from a couple of other guys I use to bounce ideas off - they claim it makes her borderline insane, or at least close. My argument is that actual people have done this, and I don't believe they would nescesarily be considered insane. In my world, I see it more as kooky, anti tech-savvy and naive - I could picture Amelie (from the movie) do it.

If anybody has any clues on this, it would be most helpfullest to the max Smile

Apparently, they are actually starting to experiment with 'printers' that can do this, albeit not yet with things as complex as Coffee Makers. More like, 'printing' out plastic parts to assemble a toy, or a puzzle, I believe. Or maybe I'm just a sucker, too...

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Stuart Hooper
Arte Del Asombro

	Stuart wrote:
	Apparently, they are actually starting to experiment with 'printers' that can do this, albeit not yet with things as complex as Coffee Makers. More like, 'printing' out plastic parts to assemble a toy, or a puzzle, I believe. Or maybe I'm just a sucker, too...

Well that sounds very authentic, considering large, expensive 3D-printers have been around for at least a decade. Companies that have these printers allow you to send a 3D file to them, and they'll "print" it for a significant price. If you reverse that scenario with a modern, smaller consumer version, people can instead pay to download files that can "print".

Which is a very interesting scenario I think, because then, objects we usually think of as physical, will also be represented as information that can be copied.

(sorry to the original poster, I believe this is off topic)

can't find anything like that a www.snopes.com

remember at the beginning of (I believe) Jurassic Park 2 - the assistant prints out a 3d model of the sound cavity of the raptor - which goes on to play a significant part of the plot? (of course in real life it wouldn't be hollow so you wouldn't be able to use it as a whistle, but 3D printing was not uncommon way back then.

Sorry way OT - have never heard of that particular urban legend - reminds me of when my daughter was about 3 my computer got a worm - she graphically remembers a "worm" crawling out of the screen - funny how memory works.

well, so far, no good Wink

It might have gotten lost or pulled down a long time ago I guess.

that story sounds vaguely familiar, just had a good search for you - but damn to no avail Sad

scam, parody & hoax....

That story reminds me of a few years ago when the Playstation2 came out. Some people were selling pictures of the thing on ebay for $300 to people who apparently just couldn't be bothered to read the bold text that said "This is Only A Picture!"

Or perhaps it's like when, back in the dot-com boom, Larry Ellison of Oracle put up a website called "iamanidiot.com" It was one page with a picture of a button that said "Buy Stock" on it. People were actually emailing the site complaining that the button didn't work.

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jrutledge
www.ghostcraft.com