MAGIC. (clintonfoundation.org)

Just when you thought CES couldn't get any randomer than Qualcomm's "Generation Mobile" atrocity, guess who showed up? Bill Clinton, who stopped by to speak in the middle of Samsung president Stephen Woo's presentation. Not only that, but according to CNET's liveblog, in the midst of his remarks he digressed and started talking about gun control.

The man used to be the leader of the free world; you really thought he'd get on stage at a trade show and stick to the subject? Child, please.

Mr. Clinton's appearance seemed a little random, but his philanthropic work involves attempts to close the technology gap between richer and poor countries, and he's specifically partnered with Samsung to work on the issue. Also, as much money as they've got flowing around that conference, why not hire a former president to speak?

And yes, he did start out on the topic of technology: "On the day I took the oath of office, a grand total of 50 sites on the entire Internet," he opened, before tacking toward the reason for his presence in Las Vegas, reminding everyone that poor countries need tech for things other than Evernote-integrated fridges.

That's when he started to drift. CNET says Mr. Clinton started talking about bad things that've happened all over the world, but like a record hitting a scratch, he got hung up on "unjustifiable neglect of gun safety":

Clinton talking about gun control and the death rate in the U.S. compared to other countries. "I grew up in this hunting culture, but this is nuts," Clinton says. "Why does anybody need a 30-round clip for a gun?" Half of all deaths have occurred since the assault weapons ban expired, Clinton offers.

Apparently he got a huge round of applause, then meandered through a discussion of anomie: "We have sorted ourselves out in our living patterns so that we look for people who agree with us," he said. Then finally he circled back to the topic at hand, by saying he wants technologists to find ways to bridge that gap.

Stay roguish, Bill. Never change.

(h/t Mike Isaac)

We hate it when that happens. (Photo: screencap)

Defense Distributed, the group that wants to create an entire Wiki of blueprints for 3D printed guns, tested out one of its new models this weekend. And it turns out that as of right now, it ain't worth a damn, son. Wired reports that the AR-15 rifle (which was only partially 3D printed) got off a mere 6 shots before the back popped right off, hitting the ground with a sad ping.

Yeah, that's not something we'd want to rely on in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Not to mention that in even the best of circumstances, you don't really want spare parts flying off your rifle.

The creators, however, are playing off the disappointing results, pointing out that this was just a test:

“We knew it would break, probably,” says Cody Wilson, who heads the Wiki Weapon project. “But I don’t think we thought it’d break within six [rounds]. We thought it’d break within 20.”

Recoil is the likely culprit, and they've already got a few ideas for possible solutions. In the meantime, watch one of the Defense Distributed guys looking rather rueful as his piece disintegrates:

Morning, sunshine! (Photo: flickr.com/photos/wordridden)

How do Stanford students get the human education they need to lead startups? Many of them take CS198, a program that teaches computer science TAs how to teach, but ends up being a crash course for future CEOs. [New York]

Steven Sinofsky--the dude who spearheaded the newly released Windows 8--has decamped from Microsoft. That doesn't look bad at all, guys. [New York Times]

Yahoo Mail is reportedly working on a Gmail-like redesign. Just don't expect that to attract any CIA directors to the product. [AllThingsD]

"The advent of 3D printers shows that technology continues to exceed the limits of gun control." That's a comment from a pro-gun group, by the way. [Animal New York]

Lockheen Martin--the top supplier to the Pentagon--has seen a sharp upswing in the rate of cyberattacks. [Reuters]

Mr. Wilson (Photo: Twtrland.com)

A couple of weeks ago we told you about the Wiki Weapon Project, the brainchild of a group called Defense Distributed that was initially raising money on Indiegogo to develop open source blueprints for a 3D-printable gun. Indiegogo suspended the campaign and refunded all the backers, but never gave an explicit reason for doing so.

"I put in the basic appeal with Indiegogo once they sent me the email that all of our funds were being refunded to contributors," Cody Wilson, a student at the University of Texas School of Law and cofounder of Defense Distributed, told Betabeat by email. "I got a thank you and a help ticket, but no word back. Basically TOS violation is the reason I think they're sticking with."

Betabeat reached out to Indiegogo at the time, but still hasn't heard back. It does seem that the Wiki Weapon project violates at least one term, though it gets a little definitionally murky:

You may not use the Service for activities that:

(h) ammunition, firearms, or certain firearm parts or accessories

But the fundraising setback has not deterred Defense Distributed. Mr. Wilson said that in the days since Indiegogo canceled the campaign, "Wiki Weapon project has received $12k, as well as the promise from one angel investor to match all contributions received above $10k dollar to dollar. There are some big offers potentially coming down in the week upcoming as well. We've begun prototyping as well."

We asked Mr. Wilson--who claims he is working towards "realizing a private law society"-- to name the investor, but he played coy: "I can't name the investor! They wish to maintain some anonymity :) Let's call them an inventor." Hmm, too bad Nikola Tesla is long gone.

Despite getting kicked off of Indiegogo's platform, the Wiki Weapon project has been collecting money through its donate page. Mr. Wilson said that 90 percent of donations collected to date have come via PayPal or Bitcoin. The team is over halfway funded, with just $8,000 more to raise before reaching its $20,000 goal.

The Wiki Weapon Project is a rather terrifying prospect; while it might seem downright pornographic to libertarians and gun-toting Tea Party patriots, it raises some uncomfortable questions about the implications of certain technologies. Would a fire arm printed using a 3D printer require a license to make or operate? Could it undercut gun control laws? And given the spate of mass shootings recently, could 3D printed guns serve to exacerbate gun violence?

Mr. Wilson says he and the team are already heading off these concerns. "We consulted with a pretty prominent firm in Richmond, VA early on," he told Betabeat. "The legalities actually involve a broad range of issues, from future products liability issues, ip export problems, and then your basic statutes like the undetectable firearms act. But no, our research and counsel suggest we do not need licensing to print the firearms unless they would be considered class II weapons (autos, etc.). Our main concern is detectability, so when we print we're adding x-ray signature blocks."

"Given mass shootings, I'm not concerned about the marginal increase to access this technology initially represents," he added. "As of this morning, I'm not sure ABS or other composites will even yield something safe enough for people to adopt. The topic is worthy of serious discussion, but at least in the US, cheaper and much more reliable firearms are far easier to get your hands on."

For the trigger happy, a 3D-printed gun is still a fevered pipe dream; for others, it might better resemble a budding nightmare.

We've reached out again to Indiegogo for comment, and will update when we here more.

(Photo: Indiegogo)

Though Indiegogo has largely been the go-to campaign site for non-artistic endeavors and bullied bus monitors, it turns out that there actually are some projects that the site will not allow. Forbes reports that a group of 20-somethings called Defense Distributed collaborated on a campaign called the Wiki Weapon Project to develop open source blueprints for a gun that can be made with a 3D printer.

According to the Indiegogo campaign, accessible now only through Google cache:

The WikiWep project is to produce a CAD file for distribution and sharing across the internet. This CAD file will be a schematic for a modest, 3D printable plastic firearm. In a world where 3D printing becomes more ubiquitous and economical, defense systems and opposition to tyranny may be but a click away... Let's pull the world toward this future together.

The printed gun (Photo: AR15)

While we're all for robotic mechanisms that build things to make our tummies happy (love u/miss u BurritoBot), we're justifiably wary about a 3D printer that can apparently print weaponry. A gunsmith over at the gun forum AR15 claims that he has assembled and successfully tested the first fire arm printed with a 3D printer.

The thread, spotted by WebProNews, was started a few days ago by a user named "HaveBlue," who wrote:

I have an old Stratasys 3D printer (mid-to-late 90s machine, but works fine) and early last summer I printed a modified version of the lower from cncguns.com (I beefed up the front takedown lugs, bolt hold lugs, and added an integral trigger guard).

In the end, HaveBlue claims he used the printed parts to assemble a .22 pistol, which he fired 200 rounds with and it still "runs great." (Clarified one Beteabeat commenter: "he only printed the lower receiver, which is what the ATF considers to be the 'firearm.'") HaveBlue notes that he believes this to be the first 3D printed fire arm to be tested, but that he's not positive. Forum users seem to agree that he's the first, with a slew of members chiming in to congratulate him.

Of course, the ability to easily and cheaply print fire arms using a 3D printer elicits a slew of rather terrifying implications, particularly following friction over gun control laws cued by the Aurora theater shooting. How do we encourage innovation with hardware and 3D printers without also stoking the possibility that these exact materials could be used to illegaly develop weaponry? It's a tough question, made tougher by volatile partisan politics. Webpronews points out that gun blueprints are already readily available on 3D printing websites.

"This is the future," wrote one user on HaveBlue's thread. "If we can spread this core technology to every kitchen tabletop, there will no longer be a meaningful way to restrict and infringe on the private civilian ownership of modern firearms."

Yikes.

(Photo: flickr.com/nostri-imago)

In keeping with today's theme of aggregating news you can perhaps use if you have more money than common sense, we thought it worth pointing to Gizmodo's in-depth investigation of the dark Internet's hub for ordering weapons online.

Wares for sale at the aptly named Armory include everything from the humble Glock to the aforementioned AK-47, and yes, you will need to pay in Bitcoins. Guns are shipped in a series of small, discretely wrapped packages (just like vibrators!), which you then reassemble into your mail-order death machine.

The best part: Gizmodo called the ATF, as in, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. And they sounded, frankly, a little befuddled?

The ATF later called back to say they'd located The Armory in Virginia Beach, and that it was a fully licensed, legitimate operation. This, despite the fact that I'd explained again and again that it existed only within a marsh of online encryption, with the explicit mission of illegally selling illegal guns, illegally. I explained how a storefront in Virginia was sort of the opposite of The Armory, but it wasn't much good—the ATF said it'd have to dig around itself again and get back to me. It hasn't.

Getting to the site will require a little IT jujitsu, however, starting with the installation of the software program TOR, which "routes and reroutes your connection to the Internet through a sprawling maze of encrypted nodes around the world, making it a herculean feat to find out who's who."

So unless you're looking to stage an outright coup d'état, maybe just stick to gun shows for now.