Fastenerblog.net

Has anyone out there used the services of www.fiverr.com?  I recently heard about it and have checked out the site briefly.  I have not hired anyone to do anything yet.  But, there are loads of people willing and capable of doing a lot of different services for $5.  Yep, $5.

There are people who claim they can do deep internet searches for you on any topic.  I’m tempted to forgo a morning coffee at the local coffee joint and hire someone to do a search just to see what comes back.  Maybe, a search of all fastener distributors in a certain geographic location?  That search is not a terribly difficult one to do but maybe they’ll know more search engines than I do.  The different services include graphic designs, voice over work, musical composition and all kinds of random talents.

Let me know if anyone out there has ever used this.  I know one college administrator that uses them to collect data pertinent to their recruitment needs.  For about $40/month they get a ton of information and do not tie up their own personnel.  Just one example I know of, I’m sure you can find others on the site.

I’m in the middle of reading a book about Elon Musk, written by Ashlee Vance.  Fascinating book in a lot of different ways.  Of course, Elon Musk’s name is associated with PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX.

On page 257 there is a description of a spacecraft called the Dragon 2 which will be able to dock with the International Space Station without the intervention of robotic arms.  It will run on a “SuperDraco” engine, a thruster made by SpaceX.  And, get this…it will be “the first engine ever built completely by a 3-D printer to go into space.  This means that a machine guided by a computer formed the engine out of a single piece of metal – in this case the high-strength alloy Inconel – so that its strength and performance should exceed anything built by humans by welding various parts together.”

Wow.  That is kind of mind blowing.  I guess some industries see some advantage to using 3-D printing.