I got my first 3D Printer on January 6, 2016. I ordered a Maker Architect 3D Printer from Monoprice for $299. It turns out that the Maker Architect 3D is basically a Flashforge Creator, with a single extruder and no heated bed. It came with 1kg of white PLA filament.
When it first came out, I was really enamoured with the nest thermostat. The idea of a remotely-accessible, app-controlled thermostat appealed to the gadgeteer in me, but the price and lack of flexibility (it really wanted to be left alone to learn and do its own thing, as opposed to being controlled by a fixed schedule), plus my propensity to tinker, led me to build my own.
For a long while I had an Arduino-based thermostat running in my house, but I wasn't very happy with it. Writing code for the Arduino isn't always very fun (for me), especially when you want it to be web-accessible.
Then came the Raspberry Pi.
In Stephen King's, The Langoliers, we are introduced to the creatures that consume the past, preventing us from ever returning to it. Merciless devourers, they relentlessly follow us all through time, ingesting history, insatiably pursuing us in an eternal chase.
As the story progresses, the main characters find themselves face to face with these gluttons, and they must do their best to outrun them; winning the race is their only hope.
As a micro-business owner I awake most days with the weight of an awareness on my shoulders; I must to attempt to evade my own kind of Langolier, the ravenous and unquenchable monster of Cashflow.
Thwump.
The first time you feel it your blood goes cold. The hair on the back of your neck might stand up. Your pulse almost certainly rises quickly, which does nothing to help.
You sit perfectly still. You're probably holding your breath, but you don't realize it. Like your rising pulse, this also does nothing to help.
You wait expectantly, but nothing happens.