Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic blog:

https://pluralistic.net/feed/

The American Prospect:

https://prospect.org/feed/?partner-feed=main-feed

The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/rss

You can get RSS feeds of any of the Guardian sections (US, World, Science, etc) just by adding “/rss” to the http address.

I’m running a flatpak version of Orca Slicer on Kubuntu 24.04. Personally, just prefer Orca after trying out a couple others. Found that it worked under Mint, and the 24.04 versions of Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Newer distros using Wayland instead of X11 seemed to have issues (which some people running Cura or Prusa slicers saw as well). Not everyone, but plenty of folks had software lock up at startup, or the build plate preview would just be a blank page. Might be a video driver problem, possibly depending upon if you use nvidia or AMD. I couldn’t find any real answers.

If there’s a slicer you prefer, you may have to find a Linux distro that it works under. Or if you are running a distro you’re sticking with, try slicers until you get one that runs. It seems to be hit or miss for people without any good reason for what does and doesn’t work.

Fuck, that’s amazing! That guy is pretty impressive.

Put in for a replacement power pack on Friday. Just had to enter the order number from Amazon, and upload two pictures of the power pack including the model and serial number. Bought the recalled one in 2018, and it was still working fine when I charged and used it last month. Oh well, I’ll drop it off for recycle next trip to the county waste facility.

Used to use Vent playing Eve Online 19 years ago. Worked great back then. Apparently it’s still around, but still no Linux support after all these years.

If you have an enclosure, I would say try out ASA. Similar to ABS, I’ve found it makes some really nice parts that are tough and UV resistant. Great for things you want to leave outdoors. Otherwise TPU is useful stuff too, and no heated chamber required. I was using it this weekend to print up seals and grommets for a trailer I’m rewiring. It’s nice being able to print up some parts I need rather than making a drive to the hardware store and hoping they’ll have something I can use.

I agree that it’s probably a speed issue. When I first started printing, I was seeing just how fast I could go with PLA and tuning for that. Decided to try out PETG a few months later, and it was a disaster. Layers weren’t bonding properly, and the filament would bridge across points on the print. Once I backed print speed down to 50, I started to get much better results.

Is it the color shifting filament, or coextruded type? I’ve used coextruded red-yellow-blue that looks really great when the prints were done. The three blend as they melt, so you get a rainbow effect of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple that shifts as you turn the finished piece. Anyway, for a short length of filament like you have, try doing a standard test print like a benchy or any small figure. Even if you end up short of filament to finish, you’ll have an idea of how the filament will look if you end up buying a roll.

I remember using a program called Turtle Tracks using Logo. You programmed a turtle cursor to move around the screen and create drawings. That was definitely a long time ago.

They neglected to include a M2 slot for a SSD. If they add it to a future release, I’ll have to get one. Could finally have my own Shadowrun rigger deck!

I find that being able to sketch up things I need in CAD and then print them is both cool and really useful. It’s the main reason I bought a printer in the first place. Thus far I’ve tried out FreeCAD, Solid Edge, and Blender. With any modeling package, you will have to dedicate time on a regular basis to really get used to them. FreeCAD is certainly nice for the fact it’s free, just as it implies. I used it to design a few parts that were functional. It works, has some useful workbenches and add-ons. My problems were the software having bugs that caused models to break when trying to make changes, and available training info was often outdated. Siemens offers a free version of Solid Edge to makers, which is really nice, even with some of the advanced features turned off. It’s a much more polished program with great training resources. You can only export designs as stl files, but that’s fine for 3d printing. Solid Edge will slice and print, but I always import files into Orca and go from there. Blender looks really amazing for modeling, but I admit I haven’t spent enough time learning it yet. You can use it to manipulate meshes, which is useful for customizing and fixing models. I’ve used it to Frankenstein together different models for custom prints I wanted. But yeah, while you don’t have to learn to use modeling software to do prints, it opens up so many options for you to be creative. I think it’s worth while.

It has been popular. People were traveling out of country for joint replacements. Costs were less for travel, surgery, and recovery than what they would pay for it here. Covid put a damper on travel for a couple years, so not sure if it’s still as popular. I would consider it if/when I need knee replacements done. Considering what I’ve heard about the quality issues of joint replacements in the US, I don’t want one here.

There really should be better options, but it’s where this country is currently at, where some home chemistry is something people would have to consider. You’re right, it’s dangerous and certainly has a lot of risks. With some background in it myself and access to resources that the general public doesn’t have, I would still be hesitant to try something I’d cooked up in the basement at home. But, I’m also not at the point where I’m going to die from a treatable but unaffordable disease.

I’m a quality chemist. I test the API’s that process chemists make to be sure they’re right. Yeah, reactions don’t always proceed as intended. These guys do understand the risks, and are only trying to provide an option. Here in the US the insurance companies are perfectly willing to let us die because funding expensive treatment hurts their bottom line. Unless you’re independently wealthy, a small scale reactor at home may become the only option a person has available. Definitely risky, but why not take the chance when corporate America has determined you’re not valuable enough to save?

Scepter televisions are a great option, no “smart” features at all. Bought two of them about 6 years ago and no issues.

I’m going to make the assumption that is PETG you are working with. I had cobwebs like that when I tried moving over from doing PLA. There were a few things I had to work out to get better prints.

1. Slow down the print speed and work up once you get acceptable prints. Try 40 to 50mm/s to start.
2. Increase filament retraction. Default I think is like 0.2mm, try 1.0mm instead.
3. Increase the travel speed. I’ve used 350mm/s, which helps break strings, as someone else already suggested.
4. Drop the extruder temperature. PETG gets more stringy as it gets hotter. Lower temp may help, and if you aren’t trying to print at warp speed, bonding should still be good. Do small test prints to see where your cutoff is. Also, if the cooling fan on that Sovol is a bit anemic then printing cooler lets each layer solidify before the next one gets added. Hopefully you get things worked out, good luck.

Fast & Furryous

I bought a couple Sceptre TVs six years ago, been great.

Not a laptop, but I had an old motherboard from over 20 years ago not doing anything. Screwed it to a board on the wall of my shop. Added an old hard drive and some components out of the same old box it was in, and now have it running Mint. Found an old wifi card that works too, so I can look up parts and repair videos while I’m working on projects. Works great.

I’d probably sit and play Unreal, or maybe Riven if I was feeling more chill. Could easily burn through 12 hours like that. Just need to be able to take a case of Jolt, a few bags of chips, and some Skittles along and I’d be set.