Category: MakerBlock

All things MakerBlock: RepRap, MakerBot, Cupcake CNC, open source, and plastic building toys!

Dear Movie Studios… would you like to borrow my glasses?

…’cause you are apparently as nearsighted as I am.

I netflix’d the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. The World a few weeks ago.  It was pretty entertaining.  I don’t often check out the “special” features on movies, but I went to that menu option after watching the movie.  In doing so the DVD notified me that the disc contained only the movie itself – but that I should purchase the DVD myself to watch the extras.

Here’s the thing.  I don’t want to buy your movie.  I’m never going to want to buy your movie.  It was good, not great.  But, really, that’s why I have Netflix.  I’m not going out to invest $20 in your movie and then have another DVD case clutter my life.  I’ve already paid for the privilege of watching your movie – I’m not going to run out and pay $20 (or more) on top of that to watch 15 minutes of people screwing up their lines.

Let’s look at this from a wider perspective.  The sorts of people who are willing to pirate a movie don’t really care overmuch about the DVD extras – they’re content to watch the main movie.  So, now you’ve created a system where the people who are actually paying for the privilege of watching your movie are getting the same content they’d see if they pirated the movie??  Shouldn’t you be doing the opposite?!  Doesn’t it make more sense to add more content to DVD’s, not less?  Why not make the actual DVD so incredibly enticing with extra features that those people who would normally pirate a film want to either (a) Netflix it or (b) buy it?  I mean, it’s not like the Netflix business model is going anywhere.  They’ve only gotten bigger in the last ten years and basically put brick-and-mortar movie rentals out of business.

Anyhow, for all you film execs who closely hang all over my every word – if the film industry wants my $20 directly, here’s what they have to do:  Make a movie so freaking awesome I’m going to want to watch it again – and soon.

ProfileMaker Version 2.0 is coming!

A few cosmetic details to work out yet…  but I’m almost ready to launch the second version of my ProfileMaker.  I released the first version late last night.

I’d like to think that I’ve increased the number of options while still keeping a slim and intuitive user interface.  I would really appreciate any comments, criticisms, or questions you may have.

Cross-Platform Profileinator Web App

Some of this write up is over at Thingiverse and some of it is at the end of the ProfileMaker page.

Dave Durant’s program for solving for flowrate is really incredibly helpful.  It is truly a shame that it isn’t more widely used.  I think part of the problem might have been people were intimidated by all the buttons and part of the problem was that it was a Windows only application.  There has since been a port to Java, but that’s not as convenient as a truly web based version.

I’ve hard coded the most common options, but fully intend to bring them back later as advanced options.  For now I just wanted to whip something together to help people out and show them just how easy calibration can really be.  Give it a shot.  If you haven’t printed at 0.2mm layers before, give it a whirl!

I’m really really looking forward to being able to enter values into Skeinforge from my cell phone.

Your suggestions, comments, questions, criticism, e-mails, etc are all welcome and invited.

 

Google, what the hell?!

Apparently I can’t access Google Groups.  Which sucks.  I have several different Gmail accounts and I can’t use any of them with Google Groups.  As a result, I can only read what’s going on in the Google Groups on my RSS feed – and not respond to anything.

Google, this may not be evil…  But it is just plain mean.  Cut this out, please, and restore access to Google Groups to Gmail users.

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A friend of mine was talking about homeopathy…

… the other day and how he liked natural solutions and remedies.  I asked him if he knew what homeopathy is.  He thought about it and said, “You know, natural stuff.”  I told him that homeopathy is the belief that exposing yourself to very small doses, parts per million, of a harmful or toxic substance will in some way provide you with a resistance against such compounds.

Astonishingly to me, this did not appear to phase him at all.

I just don’t get it.  How in the world is a small shark bite supposed to protect you from a big shark bite?

@giseburt, if you hated the circus…

…then don’t go to Disney On Ice.

It’s hard to say which would be worse.  I’m not sure if I hate clowns because I fear them so, or because I fear them because of my deep and abiding hatred for them. 1  On the other hand, Disney On Ice is miserable, miserable, miserable.

  1. That said, I like balloon animals.  And red noses.  Face paint?  Not so much. [↩]