Monthly Archives: October 2010

Working on my automated build platform

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I had some technical trouble with my automated build platform today.  (Yesterday?  Last night?  It all blurs.  :) )

I’ve fixed some problems and found others.

Right now I think there may be a slight kink in my filament spindle box.  The extruder motor kept running but no plastic came out in one build job.  I can successfully print using the ABP as a heated build platform – but it is only really successful with single print tasks.  More than that and it screws up the raft.

I’m tempted to lightly sand the automated build platform belt to see if that helps.  If not, a friend suggested using blue painter’s tape on the platform.  I’ll try the tape first tomorrow.

I will never ever use MS Office again, unless forced to at gunpoint

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MS just released this video bashing open source tech. There are some really amusing points about it. The testimonials describe how wonderful MS Office 2007 is – but MS wants you to buy the 2010 version. Guys, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is a word processor – for most people they just need a version of Notepad with grammar and spellcheck.1 This isn’t rocket science. I can’t imagine a business model that requires you to sell your software to your customers every 2-3 years – when the original package TEN YEARS AGO was good enough. Let alone a business model founded on a product that peaked ten years ago with XP. Seriously, the best thing about WinXP was that I never really noticed it. If I notice my OS, it’s because something is horribly horribly wrong.

The testimonials also include people who say their IT support costs soared with questions from users – and that people were used to their old MS interface. Increased support costs? Yeah, that can happen. People resistant to IT changes? Yeah, that happens too. But, the software is free, remember? Each and every license is several hundred dollars. And it needs to be effectively renewed every few years. How’s this for a new MS slogan: “Drink the kool-aid”

Several years ago I bought a pair of brand new Dell laptops with XP. Just before the warranty expired they started to go nutty, shipped them to Dell, Dell lost them, and Dell eventually replaced them – with new models that had Vista. My copies of MS Office 2000 I had bought with my original Dells refused to work with Vista. There was some “bug” that caused any MS Office component to take 10 minutes to load, operate super slowly, and crash. The fix? Oh, just buy 2003. No thank you.

I have used OpenOffice for the last several years and convinced many friends to do the same. I just cannot see spending several hundred dollars for a product the company looks at with an eye towards planned obsolescence.

No, MS, I’m not coming back. And, as soon as I can get Ubuntu to work on my computers and network, you can have my copies of XP as well.

OSS/OSH FTW!

  1. Some more than others. [↩]

I am ambivalent about this photo

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Ambivalence

Ambivalence

On the one hand, I support marine research and head-mounted sensors for all aquatic mammals.

On the other hand, just look at this poor bastard.  That’s pretty messed up.  Just look at his right eye – there’s a reflection of the photographer.  This seal looks completely resigned to his fate.  I have a hard time believing the scientists who superglued this thing there are shocked that seals who wear these contraptions are hanging around on the antarctic floor.  If you glued one of these things to my head I’d be tempted to sit at the bottom of the ocean too.  I bet they were just as astounded when they discovered that seals who wear these things never reproduce. 1

Thanks be to clothbot for this find.

And, yes, I agree.  This seal would be so much more awesome with a freakin’ laser on its head.

  1. I’m sorry, which eye should I be looking into? [↩]

You know you’re prone to over-engineering when…

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The California DMV is a scary and terrifying place. It’s so bad that their website’s horrific navigation and UI seems comforting in comparison. Both give you the impression that you want to spend as little time dilly-dallying there as possible.

I will say this though – for any given DMV location they have a little box that tells you the wait time if you have an appointment, if you don’t have an appointment, and the wait times for nearby DMV locations.  I loosely monitored the wait times at the nearest DMV location throughout the day yesterday.  However, this is the sort of thing that feels like a waste of time.1

I was actually tempted just now to build a scraper that would hit their website once a minute, check the wait time, and text me when it drops below a certain threshold. 2  And, if their website decides that’s too often, I would need to find a list of proxies and write a program that would pick a random selection of the proxies and run the scraper through them. 3  Then I remember I wrote something similar about nine months ago and ponder how long it would take me to repurpose that program for this task.

And then I realize I just spent more time daydreaming about defining the problem, thinking of a solution, holes in the solution, and fixing those holes than the amount time I will devote all day tomorrow to hitting F5 to refresh the DMV website.

  1. Well, the DMV thing as well as checking their site. [↩]
  2. This is the over-engineering part. [↩]
  3. Heck, if I did that I could ping their server once a second… [↩]

Dilemma or opportunity

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About a year ago on a totally separate blog for a totally separate topic I put up a series of posts reviewing my experiences in ordering a products from two online services. 1  It’s something innocuous, but also something that you’d hate to invest money in and then find out is worthless.  I’d rather keep these sites separate, so just pretend I’m talking about aftermarket replacement laptop batteries.

In any case, I also joined their affiliate programs and posted a coupon code.  That in mind, I gave a completely honest and frank review of each.2  Both were decent services and I became rather highly ranked for those search terms.

Fast forward a year and I’ve made a little3 money off the affiliate links in those posts.  Well, along with my payment recently I also received an e-mail from one of the companies – asking me to write an updated review and how much it would cost.

For some reason, if felt okay to give an honest review and include an affiliate link.  For some reason, being paid to review… feels different.  Now, at no point did they ask me to write a glowing, favorable, or otherwise review – just asked me to write a new review and how much it would cost.

What would you do?

This moral dilemma has been brought to you by the Pet Shop Boys

  1. Vague enough for you? [↩]
  2. Even though one affiliate program was far more lucrative than the other. [↩]
  3. And, I mean little [↩]

Can a MakerBot make a healthy marriage?

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Tony Buser posted this comment over at the MakerBot blog:

My wife bought me my makerbot last year for my birthday and I know someone else whose fiance bought him on too. I’m sensing a trend here – 3D printer operators fall in love with awesome people.

All very “causation or correlation.”  Are 3D printers a sign of a healthy marriage?  Or, instead, do they actually have a health-generating effect on a marriage? 1

  1. Also, can you be a “3D printer operator” without a 3D printer?  I suspect you can.  See, I have a regular 2D printer and I live in 3D, as an operator of said printer I am quite literally a “3D printer operator.” [↩]

Well, *I* thought it was funny…

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Yesterday morning I attended a meeting where the person holding the meeting was trying to mediate a dispute between two groups.  In considering the nuances of various points, she asked aloud, “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”

I blurted out, “Forty-two!!!” 1

  1. Here’s the thing – you don’t get many chances to quote cool books in every day parlance.  I will shoehorn them in whenever I get the chance. [↩]