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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • Yeah, I made nearly that mistake. Twice, actually. First with a monoprice, then a creality. I probably have more money in upgrades on my CR10s than I have in the purchase, and I still haven’t upgraded the board. I keep thinking I’ll fix it but I’ve resolved to strip a couple of parts and throw it away. My Prusa XL preorder came last month. I made one update to it (for better TPU performance), and printed one QoL add-on (nozzle wipers). That’s it. I’m done. It prints like a dream, multi-material supports are indistinguishable from magic, and even swapping nozzles is fairly quick and easy. Now I’m (almost) exclusively printing things for my other hobbies rather than worrying that something on my CR10s will fail or need re-tuning.



  • Me: Should I buy a prebuilt 3D printer?

    Reddit 3D printing sub: Oh, heck no. I put mine together for $18.22 plus some spare parts from seven printers I got of craigslist for $1 from some widow. Only took me three weekends to do it, plus a couple hundred hours to update the firmware to match the parts and troubleshoot it.

    Me: Uh, so does it print better than the one I could just buy?

    Reddit: Well, I’m still tuning it for all my filaments. I’ve been through about 40kg, and I’ve got a trashcan full of benchys though. The last few have been pretty good.

















  • Algorithms push content to produce engagement and retention. If someone is getting radicalized by algorithms it’s because they are engaged by the radicalism.

    My TikTok fyp (algorithmic content) is full of artists - mostly vocals and strings, but some brass too, along with Creepy Dave animal videos and a few British (and British style humor)comedy sketches. It’s quite enjoyable. I think the only political content I can remember is a couple of Jeff Jackson videos (NC US House if Rep), and that’s because I looked him up after my wife forwarded me one of his online bits.

    People who get radicalized are ripe for picking, not converted. And if we are concerned about SM, we need to outlaw most talking head TV and talk radio along with it.


  • It won’t happen. You might end up with a “basic” model which, for them, is a zero profit vehicle - possibly even sold at a slight loss. But everything will be installed and cryptographically keyed to your car (like Apple dies with their screens and cameras, “for security”). All the waste will be baked into the car- extra materials you can’t sell, extra weight that reduces efficiency, extra expense should something break or be damaged.

    You’ll get a car with a 100kWh battery, ABS, Traction control 4 wheel drive, autopilot (actually it will be 4 levels of cruise control), auto braking, cameras, side air bags, heated and cooled seats, mini fridge, swivel chairs, ac, heat, heads up display, 24” touch screen, battery heaters, dual charging, home-power, solar charging, regenerative braking, the works. You’ll have single, slow charging, 20kWk, no regen braking and no amenities except the minimum required by law in your are (ie backup cam but not front or side, driver/pass airbags but no side) But just adding ac, heat, and terrestrial radio (controlled using a 7” area of the 24” screen) will be 100% profit and only accessible by monthly subscription. And when you sell the car, it will have zero fuctions and require new payments.

    I’m calling out car makers, but tech is front and center. Why not sell one, sealed Xbox with a 2TB drive, but charge a monthly fee to unlock all but 500GB. Or 10Gbit wired and 6EWi-Fi, but throttled to 100mb. . Or limited to 2.4G, with 5G being $2.99 and 6G channels bring $3.99. 1GB hardwire is $2.99, 10G is $3.99. For 5.99/mo you can unlock their MaxNet service with 10G and 6E Wi-Fi.

    Oculus might sell one SKU of headset with 512GB storage, but 256/512 are $50/100 price tiers. Apple might do the same on phones and iPads.

    Laptops might go to soldered ram, discrete gpu, SSD and get you to pay once or monthly for activation of anything more than the minimum. Batteries migh be the same. Or even a 4K screen that is limited to 1080p without a paid unlock.