It’s true. The future is here. Really. Anything you can dream in 3D can be made real. MakerBot’s affordable Cupcake CNC, a slightly larger than a breadbox 3D printer, will take your 3D modeled dreams and make them manifest. MakerBot’s Bre Pettis, a man who knows how a lot about making robots and dreams come true, gives Irina the skinny on what MakerBot is and how it works.

Episode links: MakerBot, Bre Pettis, Thingiverse, Google SketchUp, Blender, Forkbot, Martha Vader, Maker Faire 2009

O’Reilly’s Emerging Technology conference is often ground zero for useful and meaningful tech stuff and the geeks who invent them. In 2004, Flickr debuted here. In 2008, many DIY projects bloom, such as Socialbomb, aerial drones, binary LED watches, modular programmable open source gadgets and cheap open source robots. We talk to a few of their inventors, capture a brief moment with Nikita Chrusov of Soviet Unterzoegersdorf and close on a serious note as former AT&T technician Mark Klein accepts the EFF’s 2008 Pioneer Award.

Episode links: ETech 2008, Socialbomb, Nate True, Bre Pettis, Soviet Unterzoegersdorf, monochrom, IPRE, Bug Labs, EFF Pioneer Awards, Mark Klein