SimpleSynth now supports Snow Leopard. You can find out more, or just download it.
Big thanks to Steven Palm for doing most of the work on this release.
SimpleSynth 1.1 should work on everything from OS X 10.4 up, on Intel and PPC. If you're using something earlier than 10.6 and have problems, please let me know.
Machinist 1.0 is now available on GitHub!
The major feature is DataMapper support. Big thanks to Daniel Neighman for his help with this.
Update: I wrote up a simple example of how Machinist intelligently handles associations in DataMapper and ActiveRecord.
You can also now blueprint plain old Ruby objects.
It's easy to add support for other ORM layers. If you're keen, take a look at lib/machinist/active_record.rb for a comprehensive example of how it's done.
On April 25, the Lady Sandra, an oil rig support ship off Cairns, helped rescue 60 Afghan asylum seekers who arrived in an unseaworthy boat. The Lady Sandra's skipper, exposed to the human side of the issue for the first time, immediately changed his views on boat people. He talks about it eloquently in an article from the Cairns Post.
Our policy of locking away asylum seekers means it's easy not to think of them as individuals. As a group, they're often portrayed as a threat, or as greedy people wanting to sneak into the country and take our jobs, or somehow undermine our way of life.
Think about this: What would it take to make you give up all your possessions, leave behind your home, your friends, your family? What would it take to make you risk your life by getting on a crowded, leaky boat, and try to sail half way around the world?
Would you do it because you wanted a holiday? Would you do it just because you felt you could make more money in another country? Would you do it if you were a terrorist wanting to attack a country?
No. You'd do it because you felt it was the only alternative. You'd do it because you were desperate, because you feared for your freedom, or your life.
The vast majority of asylum seekers are people just like us, trying to escape horrendous circumstances. I wish Australia's treatment of them reflected the compassion I feel when I think about that.
More cool developments in personal fabrication: the RepRap prints its first circuit board, and some very clever folks have worked out how to make a 3D printer print in stone.
Last weekend, I gave a talk about personal fabrication at Trampoline. For anybody who was paying attention, here are links to some of the bits and pieces I covered: