¶ software engineer discovers joys of hardware Posted 20 years, 2 months ago on September 30, 2005
I've spent the last several months discovering all the awesome machining and fabrication facilities that we have at our disposal, and it's totally awesome. Even though what I've been doing isn't nearly as hard or complicated as building software systems, there's something to be said for building something that you can hold in your hand at the end of the day. The word heft comes to mind. I love it when I'm holding something that I made that has heft. It feels substantial, there's some instant gratification. It's hard to get that hefty feeling with software, there's just no way to get a sense of it.

The latest toy for me to obsess over is the laser cutter. You make a drawing in your favorite design tool (AutoCAD, SolidWorks, or even Adobe Illustrator), insert a sheet of plastic, plywood, glass, or any other material that vaporizes, hit "Print", and watch it cut your design out. I actually found a legitimate excuse to use it for my new project =P





Now I just gotta find some excuse to use the 3D printer... *grin*

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