Category: MakerBlock

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

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

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

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…

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

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?

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…

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. [↩]

Laptop woes

I probably own about four or five laptops – all in states of serious disrepair.  I have broken down laptops like some people have cars on blocks on their lawn or tires in piles in their backyard.  Here’s what I’ve got right now, with a description of what it would take to fix it:

  • Dell Somethingorother.  Purchased used, old, heavy, running Windows 98, one bad pixel1 , terrible battery life, and about 1/2 the keys on the keyboard do not register unless you literally hurt your fingers pressing/hitting it.  With an external keyboard it’s not that bad, really.  I’ve got a PCMII WiFi card for it.
    • This laptop just isn’t for most people.  If you want to surf the web and word processing, it would be fine with an external keyboard.  That said, it’s pretty slow.
  • Dell XPS.  This is one of the few computers I’ve owned since it was brand new.  Big hard drive, DVD burner, speedy.  However, it’s running Vista (boo!!!), the battery lasts about half an hour, and the monitor is extremely dim no matter what I do.  I leave this one plugged into my Cupcake.
    • Vista is a pain, but an endurable one.  The monitor is dim enough that it is noticeable.  There’s no specific thing keeping me from using this laptop except that it is heavier than what I would like to carry around.  It’s on it’s second battery, an after market special, that holds about an hour or so of charge.
  • Everex Stepnote.  A computer I fixed twice,2 the previous owner drained the battery and let it sit for six months, threw it around, broke off both hinge covers, and scratched it all up to hell.  The DVD drive is completely shot and the battery lasts about 5 minutes.  It’s only got 1 GB of RAM, so it gets bogged down with medium tasks.  Last, but not least, the “+/=” button does not work.  At all.  The lack of those two keys makes programming a bear. 3
    • I’ve been using this laptop almost exclusively for the last year or so.  But, having the +/= button go bad means I am disincentivized to program – which is a bad thing.  I’ve taken this laptop apart, but there’s no way I can see to fix that button short of replacing the keyboard.  At $35+, the replacement keyboard costs on eBay not cost-effective.  The cost to upgrade this computer is not appetizing – $50 for 2GB RAM, $35 for a keyboard, $30 for a new battery?  That’s $115 for an underpowered laptop that is weighed down by a non-functional optical drive.
  • Dell Mini10.  Another twice fixed computer, zero battery (it holds absolutely no charge), tight keyboard, and small screen with a pretty poor resolution.
    • Nothing can be done about the screen, its resolution, or battery.  I could get a new battery, but my concern is there’s some flaw on the motherboard causing it to systematically kill the battery.  When traveling I take this laptop with me and use it to connect into my home network via a VPN.  It would be better with a battery, but with the screen as bad as it is, I’m not looking to spend much time using this computer.  This is the laptop I booted with Ubuntu and wasn’t able to connect to my WiFi network. 4

I’m somewhat undecided on what to do.  Should I get a new computer or try to get one of these running better?

  • Anything over 2-3 hours is great.  Bonus points for more.
  • Minus points for an optical drive – I have an external and don’t need the extra weight.
  • Keyboard and monitor size can be small, as long as it has good resolution.
  • Any current processor is fine, I offload all big tasks (video transcoding, etc) to brainier machines on the home VPN, but 2GB RAM is pretty key
  • Lower price is better, obv.

Anyone have any suggestions?  Either for repairing or what you’d recommend for a laptop?

  1. Stuck on red, if you must know [↩]
  2. Seriously, Tom – who the hell deletes an operating system… TWICE??? [↩]
  3. Amusing note:  in order to circumvent this problem, there is a “+=” contained on every page of this blog – in white text on the white background.  When I need either symbol, I just pull up this site, copy the character I need, paste, and rock on. [↩]
  4. I suspect there was some problem with Ubuntu not recognizing my WiFi card [↩]