True but I think if you look at the grassroots movement of open source a different picture emerges. The hacker appeal of printing a kidney is far beyond that of a vacuum. The only reason it hasn't caught on so far with the hardware hackers pushing these printers is because the open source 3d printers are so far away from being able to actually print that.
When the price of open source 3d printers decreases to a couple hundred dollars and their quality has steadily improved for 5-10 years will it matter which cash cows corporations are chasing? In a world where you can just go to your computer and print a kidney for yourself they may just be entirely irrelevant.
disclaimer: if you print yourself a kidney, please get a certified doctor to install it :)
EDIT: watching the ted talk. He's using custom machines, very impressive in-body printing.
There are definitely people working towards this. Allot of 3d printable replacement parts are already on thingiverse but many have to be product-specific so it can be difficult to find exactly what you need. A perfect example is the remote control tab you mentioned which will be different on each remote control.
3D scanners have been touted as a way to solve this (scan your object, print a new one) but I don't think the resolution will be high enough any time soon to print reasonably aesthetic replacements. The real solution in my opinion is to make MCAD easier and more affordable so it's easier to design a replacement then to walk to the store.
yeah, Chris designed the vacuum as a side project because the lab's roombas are next to useless. We're definitely still working on the reprap world domination schemes :)
PS. Just emailed Chris, he'll be super excited to see this!
Frankly, this is not an efficient workflow for CoffeeScript.