Skip Navigation

wjrii

@ wjrii @kbin.social

Posts
4
Comments
35
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • I'm amazed at FreeCAD's abilities. It needs a better name. Thinking of it as simply "cad software" like calling a 2-GHz computer in your pocket a "phone".

    Jump

  • If you are comfortable with all your models being available for download and some wonky Terms of Use that may let random internet people profit off your designs but not you, then OnShape in a full-screen browser feels about as good as F360 does. I guess you could also pay for it, but despite finding it pretty nice, I am iffy about paying Solid Edge prices for something browser based. I understand SolidWorks has slapped together a browser version as well, but nobody likes it.

    Linux wise, there's just not much outside FreeCAD and SolveSpace. BricsCAD is an okay evolution of AutoCAD, and VariCAD is a less good one.

    I may have done a longer writeup than anybody needed the other day.

  • A new global gender divide is emerging

    Jump

  • "When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression."

    As a white cis hetero American male, trying to have a little empathy is literally the least I can do.

  • Is Framework actually "good" for the industry?

    Jump

  • I think it's a nice enough idea, and I hope it sets a reasonable baseline for what enthusiast and workstation laptops will be as the entabletification of the mainstream computing device continues, but right now it's sort of a solution waiting for its problem. Economically, it doesn't make much sense for one person to buy one. In an actuarial sense, it's almost certainly better to buy something you like that's less modular, and replace it if it breaks or stops being useful for your intended tasks. Of course if no one who wishes them well buys their computers, they won't last long enough to be relevant.

    Strictly speaking, just standardizing and providing the physical specifications ends up making their dongles more like headers on a desktop motherboard, potentially a commodity piece that anyone could replicate. Their other modular components seem to have a similar idea. It all seems elegant enough, and ready to "backscale" into a distributed niche industry if the big companies stop making powerful proprietary machines at the scale that keeps them cheap. As it stands, they sort of ARE de facto proprietary, but I guess the idea is that there will be enough enthusiasts, hardware hackers, and evangelists paying a sizeable, but not crippling, premium to keep them afloat and gain the mindshare to become a new standard (and hopefully halo brand) when people need to build laptops like they build towers now.

  • Ventoy 1.0.97 Released

    Jump

  • Just used it to do a clean install to move my ThinkPad from Ubuntu 22.04 to Kubuntu 23.10. Good tool, and much nicer than constantly "burning" ISOs to the flash drive.

  • The Self-Checkout Nightmare May Finally Be Ending

    Jump

  • A few stores, in my area it’s particularly clothing discounters, seem to have moved to that model, and as long as you plan your checkout areas even sort of halfway well, it’s a million times better.

    And god what a sad death Fry’s had. It went from the bona fide nerd store to a disaster. Eventually the ones in Dallas-Fort Worth were just zombie husks riding out the leases and selling leftovers on consignment from the few manufacturers who couldn’t be bothered to come repossess the inventory after the store failed to pay their invoices.

  • TIL eating 1 gram polar bear liver can be fatal due to an overdose of vitamin A that makes your skin fall off

    Jump

  • "Tolerable upper intake" is based on more than a single does. One gram would almost certainly be fine. There's some slightly sketchy 1940s "fuck them lab-rats" science going on, but some scientists at Cambridge guesstimated it would take making it into a significant side-dish or main course to REALLY fuck you up:

    It is questionable what factor should be taken to convert doses used for rats to the corresponding doses for man, but the ratio of 75 taken from the relative food intakes of the 100 g. rat and 70 kg. man would seem reasonable. If we take 100,000 i.u. of vitamin A as sufficient to cause immediate illness in the rat, then about 7,500,000 units should cause illness in man. This amount would be present in 375 g. of bear liver containing 20,000 i.u. of vitamin A/g., not an excessive portion to be eaten at a single meal.

  • I keep salt and sugar in identical bottles. A mistake was bound to happen, and it just did.

    Jump

  • I was assured by Ted Lasso that this will turn out okay.

  • Pope calls for universal ban on surrogacy in global roundup of threats to peace and human dignity

    Jump

  • Yup. In the US, I think there are something like 20 potential adoptive parents qualified for every infant that comes through the private and semi-private systems. There is literally zero "saving" that goes in with healthy infant adoption. If people just don't want to be pregnant or have some genetic issues (official or not) that they'd rather not pass on, then there's a place for it (though I wish it were regulate much, much better), but they need to understand that it's for their own benefit and to just get in line.

  • 3D printed keyboard case, feet, and cable grommet.

    Jump

  • Thanks! LOL.

    Those specific issues could be changed with software and a keycap puller in about 5 minutes. Obviously I can't get ESC back exactly where it "should" be, but the idea with this layout was to look and feel a bit like old 8-bit computer keyboards without forcing a drastic departure from modern "ten-key-less" layouts.

  • Dark side of Starbucks app: Coffee giant accused of rigging payments to the tune of nearly $900 million over 5 years | Fortune

    Jump

  • So, in the linked complaint (not a full lawsuit yet, btw), they cite "breakage" where Starbucks corporate makes an estimate each year as to the amount of banked gift cards they reasonably believe will never be spent. It looks like it has averaged about $185M in the last few years. This can be moved from deferred revenue to actual, and thereby improve the financials. This could theoretically be fucked with on the margins and allow execs to pocket more money, and to some extent it obviously encourages Starbucks to promote gift cards (in the broad sense) over other payment methods.

    The whole complaint is odd. Starbucks obviously feels like they have a winner in this scheme, and almost everything alleged in the complaint is kinda fucky, to the point that I think it's worth pointing out as a consumer protection issue. That said, the individual impact on any one consumer is very small and there are numerous workarounds for a slightly motivated person, and the tone of the complaint comes off kinda like pearl-clutching and paternalistic. Maybe you have to write it that way to make sure it's taken seriously, but it's not making for very persuasive reading.

  • Designed and printed an air assist nozzle for my laser cutter.

    Jump

  • Good info. I'll need to make sure I keep an eye on it. Safety wise, I have a decent fire extinguisher nearby, a camera pointed at the laser, and never leave it unattended for more than a few minutes. Haven't had any flareups in a while, but I know it can happen if the motors stop and the laser doesn't. As for damaging the module, not that I want to, but there might be worse things in the world than needing to replace the 5-watt laser.

  • Everything's Fucked, The Tableau

    Jump

  • How much is a new "brain"? I have the CNS, and it's working fine, but I clench up thinking about the electronics getting weird or breaking. While I figure I probably COULD bypass the entire safety system, at that point it's just a Craigslist-equivalent Rigid motor-hanger with a better fence.

  • Bluesky sees record signups day after Musk says X will go paid-only

    Jump

  • Gmail was also both "federated" and an insanely good product compared to its contemporaries. G+ had a couple of interesting innovations, but it wasn't all that special and invite-only on a closed ecosystem is very iffy.

  • Pretty funny indeed (Crossposter note: thought it would fit here very well)

    Jump

  • It was a legitimate protest of a stupid law that uses a legacy of inconsistent thought and limited perception to do an end run around the first amendment, but the text of the law requires a poster per building, so if they have enough in English, there would be no "need" to accept or post them. Now, if a principal or administrator had some balls, I certainly don't see why they couldn't use one of these or to flank the posters they do post with lots of context or more diverse ideas.