Continuing with the them today of do-it-yourself - with a WYSIWYG interface -  here comes the  FabLab. 

John Silvester Boafo stands next to a small scale, metal prototype of what he calls a fu-fu pounder. "In every Ghanaian home, the main dish is fu-fu," says Boafo, Principal at the Takoradi Technical Institute, home to Ghana's Fab Lab, which opened last year.

"Fu-fu is made of plantain and cassava, which are cooked," he explains.

"After they are cooked, they are put into a mortar, and pounded by hand. People go through hard labour, just to get a meal to eat.

"So, we thought we could fabricate this machine to alleviate the hard labour they use in pounding." Boafo says the fu-fu pounder is a good example of the practical projects that the Ghanaian Fab Lab wants to tackle.

So, people are becoming more empowered to not only generate their own energy - or publish weblogs and websites like this one - but they can also start fabricating their own products - right down to the specs.

Notice also, that the software that tells the machines what to do, are open source. 

I wonder if this applies to housing communities - extending to the water, septic tank, and hook-ups to the water and the electric grid?

If there is going to be some type or form of Peak Oil Crisis, well, things like this will help alleviate some of it...

These type of products look amazing.  Welcome to the world of personal power generation.

I find them interesting not only because of the lack of batteries, but also because of the Do It Yourself aspect.  Like "personal publishing", if these type of products are done right, it's another area of life that - easily - comes under one's personal control.