Interview with Dan Shapiro, creator of the Glowforge laser cutter

I certainly get your point, but it doesn’t change the fact that their use of the word “printer” has caused a lot of unnecessary confusion in the marketplace. Perhaps that was just part of their original plan to get people talking about it more.

And If the Glowforge is indeed a printer then so is any CNC milling machine, as it too receives vector files and cuts or engraves the medium and has the ability to make signs. But then again I have never considered a vinyl cutter to be a printer just because it makes signs either. It’s literally a vinyl cutter. It cuts out signs, it doesn’t print them (unless of course it also has a print head option in addition to the knife).

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I have heard that lasik machines take a commission on every surgery.

Still, this is a consumer product. The Glowforge site implies you don’t need a subscription, but at the same time, it’s not entirely clear what the subscription is for.

Dan looks like Agent Smith a bit

Still waiting for my Glowforge to ship. Been years now. Apparently air filters remain vastly more sophisticated technology than lasers, electronics, and software. For someone who, literally, wrote the book on entrepreneurship and runs ads touting the home business potential of this machine, this fellow sure isn’t doing a hell of a lot to help my own aspirations toward that. I’ll probably be on the street before that cutter ever turns up.

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