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Really great summary of future themes at SXSW. The less sensational headline is "the internet considered as something distinct from everyday life is over".

"Austin, Texas (CNN) -- Four years ago an unknown startup called MakerBot showed up at the South by Southwest Interactive conference here with a prototype of its first desktop 3-D printer, which spit out plastic replicas of small objects. Bre Pettis, the company's co-founder, took the machine around to Austin's watering holes, set it on the bar and showed off its capabilities by printing shot glasses. "They were pretty popular," he said. On Friday, Pettis was back at SXSW, this time as a keynote speaker before a packed hall of 3,000 people, further evidence that 3-D printing is a hot trend in the tech world. Once again, he brought a new prototype with him."

"When asked by his interviewer about the "modest title" of his new book, The Future - Six Drivers of Global Change, former Vice President Al Gore replied, "Random House came up with that title." It's not an auspicious beginning to a talk about the perils of the Global Megacrisis, when you more or less say your title was chosen because the marketing team liked it best. Nevertheless, when Al Gore speaks, people listen. And hundreds of people lined up last week for his live South By Southwest (SXSW) interview with Wall Street Journal and All Things D tech reporter Walt Mossberg. It was to a sympathetic crowd that Gore laid out the tenets of his newest book, which was born in 2005 as an off-the-cuff but "adequate" answer during a post-appearance Q&A session. "