totm nov 2023 Thread to discuss negative things in a very general way, just see where it goes y'know?

[DDE]

On 4/19/2021 at 1:15 AM, richfiles said:

Why does CAD feel so unintuitively obtuse? Why do I feel my soul die a little inside when I just want to make a simple shape, and have this thing connect to that thing, and not have to go through a billion steps to define what feels like it should be the same constraint for multiple objects. How do people DO this and not just snap! 

They end up unemployable, perhaps.

Earlier today, I flunked a job applicant who wasn't able to complete even a third of our up-front finance-themed online test; this evening, his resume finally showed up in the system. Fresh engineering design BSc grad from Baumann, and yet he's clumsily knocking on doors in banking and finance instead.

I hope he's just covering his bases, rather than this being an indicator of Russian manufacturing being all the way down in the excrementster.

Edited May 5, 2021 by DDE

[richfiles]

On 5/3/2021 at 6:33 PM, Nuke said:

crypto currency seems absurdly complicated. after farming a couple hundred bucks i tried to buy something. and encountered mystery fees, absurdly high withdraw limits and needlessly complicated authentication. no wonder it hasn't caught on in the mainstream. the purchase i made seems to have gone through, if i get in in the mail in a couple months il know that the whole thing wasn't a waste of power and gpu time.

I imagine, I could have made a little cash if I'd have gotten into crypto years ago, but I choose to donate my spare CPU cycles to Stanford's Folding@Home. My computer keeps me warm in winter, when I run it the hardest, and I give a little something back to medical research. The fact that for two years in a row, I've not turned on my central heat, I think offsets a portion of the extra energy used... since it's actually being used for a functional purpose. Of course, that's countered in summer, unfortunately.

[Nuke]

21 hours ago, richfiles said:

I imagine, I could have made a little cash if I'd have gotten into crypto years ago, but I choose to donate my spare CPU cycles to Stanford's Folding@Home. My computer keeps me warm in winter, when I run it the hardest, and I give a little something back to medical research. The fact that for two years in a row, I've not turned on my central heat, I think offsets a portion of the extra energy used... since it's actually being used for a functional purpose. Of course, that's countered in summer, unfortunately.

being an alaskan kind of helps. i need heat 10 months out of the year anyway. i was actually rather surprised how little power it needed.  you actually clocks the card down for the best hash rate to power usage ratio which turns out to not run the card at full tilt. at least for the 2070 super it uses less power than gaming. the old 1060 gives me a little more than half its hash rate for roughly the same power so its better to use newer hardware whenever possible. old hardware which used to rot in my closet can at least serve a purpose and earn me a couple bucks a day rather than becoming e-waste. i certainly dont intend to scale up to an industrial level operation with a million dollar power bill, but enough to live on would be nice.  

[kerbiloid]

3 hours ago, Nuke said:

being an alaskan kind of helps. i need heat 10 months out of the year anyway

+4°C inside the fridge, -20°C outside.

[Nuke]

16 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

+4°C inside the fridge, -20°C outside.

if you get enough snow, just open a window and shovel out a fridge size hole out of the roof high snow pack. put your beer in there. 

[kerbiloid]

6 hours ago, Nuke said:

put your beer in there

ice-beer vs beer-cream

[Selective Genius]

On 5/5/2021 at 3:04 AM, DDE said:

Earlier today, I flunked a job applicant who wasn't able to complete even a third of our up-front finance-themed online test; this evening, his resume finally showed up in the system. Fresh engineering design BSc grad from Baumann, and yet he's clumsily knocking on doors in banking and finance instead.

Yeah, I am preparing for the banking sector as well, despite having an engineering background. I have work experience in a national lab which specialized in Metallurgy and material science and I was all set to get a permanent job in that laboratory. However, office politics and Covid got me kicked out and it has been a grind ever since.  I used to design stirrers and ball mills using CFD-DEM and now I am struggling to get a clerical job in banks. It is tough being unemployed when my sibling and my cousins are doing well. (I should not be jealous but its tough not to). My social standings is lower than my uncle's pet golden retriever, I dont have many friends to hang out with, my gf broke up with me after pressure from her parents (Apparently they only tolerated my presence because of my promised government job at the lab i worked. But I am just another jobless hobo right now).

I don't want a happy ending, I just want this to end, one way or the other.

[DDE]

3 hours ago, Selective Genius said:

Yeah, I am preparing for the banking sector as well, despite having an engineering background. I have work experience in a national lab which specialized in Metallurgy and material science and I was all set to get a permanent job in that laboratory. However, office politics and Covid got me kicked out and it has been a grind ever since.  I used to design stirrers and ball mills using CFD-DEM and now I am struggling to get a clerical job in banks. It is tough being unemployed when my sibling and my cousins are doing well. (I should not be jealous but its tough not to). My social standings is lower than my uncle's pet golden retriever, I dont have many friends to hang out with, my gf broke up with me after pressure from her parents (Apparently they only tolerated my presence because of my promised government job at the lab i worked. But I am just another jobless hobo right now).

Not really sure I'm the best person to give advice (my only actual employment at a bank proper ended in three months, after they found a person willing to do the same job for free smh), but I've worked in an adjacent industry ever since. Try bringing up anything to do with programming and modelling, might have to brush up on some basics to fit in with an analyst team, or in parts of the risk management departments.

Although, to be honest, the hype is on for non-financial risks these days, especially stuff like Environment, Social and Corporate Governance - which calls for novel writers, not number-crunchers. Which is why I've been clocking in 15-hour days with no overtime pay...

[YNM]

If you need something to make you feel guilty today :

 

Edited May 11, 2021 by YNM

[kerbiloid]

This should force the silly birds to develop the ability of digesting the plastic.

The evolution always works this way.

[FleshJeb]

On 4/18/2021 at 8:32 PM, TheSaint said:

Because AutoCAD is the gold standard for CAD interfaces, and the AutoCAD interface was created in 1982, before the widespread acceptance of graphical interfaces, the computer mouse, etc. So every release of AutoCAD, and every competing product, has been all about maintaining that interface, because that is what all the CAD professionals know and love. And if they went and made that interface simple and easy to use, then there would be no such profession as "CAD professional" anymore.

That's a trifle reductive. The core benefits of AutoCAD in the professional setting are sustained drafting speed, dimensional accuracy, as well as ensuring that the accuracy of what you're modeling is maintained. Command-line input is EXTREMELY fast (and RSI-friendly), as well as being explicit--Everything executed is intentional. This comes at the cost of memorizing approximately 300 shorthand commands, and benefits from autocomplete.

AutoCAD is so fast and precise that I actually prototype my Factorio builds in it prior to rebuilding them in-game. (Even considering the instant-build sandbox mode.)

For me, what defines "professional" is not being able to produce a product, it's being able to spot when things are going wrong, knowing what to do about it, and figuring out how to avoid it in the future. This means creating and adhering to best practices and workflows, and modifying them as necessary.

If you want to see what unprofessional modeling looks like, I refer you to the multiple rocket engines in KSP that were modeled with the thrust axis off-center and published without that being spotted and corrected.

Things you can't do in Blender or Sketchup:

Below is a model of a boat ramp and the grading necessary to tie it into a model of existing terrain (not shown). There are a couple of minor flaws in the model (I didn't build it), but it's good enough at this stage to do the necessary volume calculations with. Every dimension and slope meets strict engineering standards and will be located in the real world and built to a very high degree of accuracy with minimal field revisions or modifications. (Those cost time and money.)

Spoiler

Plan view of 3-dimensional model of about a mile of city streets, with utilities, and property boundaries, in real-world coordinates.

Spoiler

Plan view of a 3-dimensional model of a large park, with real-world coordinates.

Spoiler

 

[richfiles]

On 5/11/2021 at 2:46 AM, FleshJeb said:

That's a trifle reductive. The core benefits of AutoCAD in the professional setting are sustained drafting speed, dimensional accuracy, as well as ensuring that the accuracy of what you're modeling is maintained. Command-line input is EXTREMELY fast (and RSI-friendly), as well as being explicit--Everything executed is intentional. This comes at the cost of memorizing approximately 300 shorthand commands, and benefits from autocomplete.

 

That's a fair argument. I understand it, in the sense that I know people who went to college for drafting and design. I can certainly see how it more or less takes a proper education and years of practice and experience to learn professional software like that, to the degree of capability you're describing. I think that a lot of open source applications probably try to imitate this capacity, while likely failing to perfectly emulate what AutoDesk has managed to refine over nearly 4 decades. The software I've tried using, so far, has been unintuitive and cumbersome. I suspect that it's trying too hard to be AutoCAD, without any of the refinement that makes real AutoCAD... The result is my suffering. 

A *lot* of my personal hate for AutoDesk, as a company, stems from their business practices. They have a history of buying out low level competition (products like Eagle, that were once a staple of hobbyist and small scale creators), and then taking these affordable, free with limits-to-fixed cost one time purchase products and transforming them into subscription licenses. Even if they keep the costs low, you can never buy a version sufficient for your needs and just stick with it... You must always pay the piper and follow along, whether you want to or not. Given their level of support, I understand why companies like Adobe and AutoDesk distribute their professional tools under a subscription model... It's not just the software companies are subscribing to...

The problem is, AutoDesk has clearly targeted the hobbyist and the small time creators and makers of the world. They've produced software like Fusion 360, and bought out Eagle, and they even still provide aspects of these tools for free... But they still trap you into this subscription license model. It's not free... it's a 1 year subscription, for free. There is never a guarantee behind the product's continued accessibility, past the upcoming year. No matter how likely AutoDesk will be to continue the product under the free model, you are forever at the mercy of their whims, if you choose to follow their path. Oh, they decide the free subscription license version cuts too deeply into a paid version... You now have X less space to work with in said dimension. Need more space, upgrade to a paid subscription. forever. I don't want to be at the mercy of some big corporation, just to do my hobby. The cost of falling outside of the bounds of their free subscription is not worth it, and the mental cost of hoping next year they'll still do the free version and it'll not get nerfed, is simply not worth it to me.

Taking away the ability for a person to buy a piece of software and just use it for as long as they are comfortable with is disgusting, to me. Subscription models have left a bad taste in my mouth. While I fully understand their value for large corporations that need the software and the support behind it, taking away even the option to have long term license options for small time individuals, and even to indoctrinate small time users into the sub model, even for the free stuff, just feels gross and shady. That's where my feelings stem from.

 

As for my needs, I just wanna find some basic, simple tool that lets me preferably put objects together graphically, either by additive or subtractive shapes. I could figure out the line by line, point by point thing, if I could figure out relative object relationships, but I've yet to figure out how to do that in FreeCAD. Tells me I have a kajillion redundant things, yet I can't figure out how to make line A originate at line B's end point. Ugh... I almost feel like I could actually do better with some command line thing, but then, like you said, I'd need to know that "language". If I could just click a point, and then tel it to do a line, and give relative coordinates from that origin point, or click a point on a line, and tell it to add a new point to the existing line X units from the point clicked. I know these things have to be possible... I just can't intuit how to actually perform these tasks, and it's driving me crazy. I also think FreeCAD is a bit buggy (I'm stuck on an older version, cause of my Hackintosh being so out of date), so it's bugs I just need to work around, I guess.

Even if I wanted to suck up my pride and use something like Fusion 360, it wouldn't run on my system anyway. My Mac OS install is grossly out of date, and it being a Hackintosh, is a very tedious process to upgrade. Fusion 360, because it is limited to that yearly free subscription, won't just keep running as an older version. It'll cease to run until the license and software are both updated, meaning it's 100% impossible for me to even run it. Another strike against subscription software, and another reason I loathe it! Why should I have any need to have a project computer even need to be online, and always at the whims of updates to potentially break a process... It's just added risks and security vulnerabilities.

Edited May 13, 2021 by richfiles

[Shpaget]

Met my first antiwaxxer. Had I played the "drink a shot for each facebook argument" I'd be under the table.

[Nuke]

i for one do not like simplified interfaces. like the one that my mom's orthopedist, has what is essentially the same old online form that you may have filled out a million times before. the only fundamental difference is you cant tab through the fields, and the fields don't even have a box around them, so you cant make them out from the background. i wish phone ui designers would stop screwing it up for the rest of us. 

speaking of my current health care rant. after our fourth trip to anchorage to visit my mom's orthopedist. the first to install a radial head screw, the second to install an external fixator and do tendon reconstruction. plus two more trips to take an x-ray and ask a couple questions. presumably because they have a special x-ray machine that our local clinic supposedly doesn't have. the ratchet did come out on the second of those, and the fixator crossbar was removed (its the jointed type, this frees the elbow for pt while still providing extra support). well after we got back mom started complaining that the joint was very loose. she called the orthopedist, and they sent us down to our clinic for an x-ray. turns out they have the exact same machine a 10 minute walk from our house. they could have zoomed this whole thing in. your tax dollars at work. 

all this travel is starting to get to me. its not helping my anxiety any. dont much like the fast pace of city living, or the nightmare of air travel, constantly needing to breathe lint. im starting to have chest pains. but after seeing our health care system in action, i don't want those people touching me. im going to have some whisky and maybe put some leaches on my fore arm, perhaps something from the dispensary. im starting to question if humans have any business living past 40. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by Nuke

[FleshJeb]

@richfilesSomehow I missed the notification.

I don't disagree with anything you said about Autodesk. I live within driving distance of their headquarters, and the number of times I've wanted to throw a brick through their window is uncountable.

I've seen some REALLY impressive modeling done in SketchUp, but it doesn't suit my needs, so I haven't played with it. I took a look at the FreeCAD manual and I found a couple of things that might help you along.

For snapping to the endpoints of lines and such: https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Draft_Snap

How to input relative coordinates (press R to toggle):  https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Draft_Coordinates

If there's anything I can help you with, free to hit me up here or in a PM. Since I have a decent understanding of the CAD paradigm, I might be able to point you in the right direction.

The last time I did what AutoCAD calls "solid modeling" was 1994, but I remember the basic concepts.

[DDE]

Candidate image for thread header.

Spoiler

 

[kerbiloid]

From yearbook

Spoiler

 

[TheSaint]

17 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

From yearbook

  Hide contents

 

Oh to be young again....

[StrandedonEarth]

Last week I noticed Shaw (cable) trucks working around the 'hood. Then Saturday, apparently they started pushing updates, judging by the messages interrupting the TV (as reported by my wife; I was at work). Even before that, my wife was complaining about the 'net being off and  on and off again all day, as I noticed when I left for work at omghundred . Nothing I did when I got home fixed it.

Sunday, same BS. If I reset the Bluecurve router/modem supplied by Shaw, it works for a few minutes, then cuts out. Then the teenager reports something weird: the internet is working through the third-party wifi extender that he insists on using although I think it's useless. But yet connecting directly to the router, the network says there's no internet connection. Huh wha?

So, eliminate the variables. reset the router again, and while that's rebooting, unplug the extender and hide it. Poof! Wifi has been working just fine here now ever since, nice and fast. And no, I don't care to experiment with it to find out if I can make them play nice.

[DDE]

7 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Sunday, same BS. If I reset the Bluecurve router/modem supplied by Shaw, it works for a few minutes, then cuts out. Then the teenager reports something weird: the internet is working through the third-party wifi extender that he insists on using although I think it's useless. But yet connecting directly to the router, the network says there's no internet connection. Huh wha?

So, eliminate the variables. reset the router again, and while that's rebooting, unplug the extender and hide it. Poof! Wifi has been working just fine here now ever since, nice and fast. And no, I don't care to experiment with it to find out if I can make them play nice.

Mynoks?

I used to rely on an extender myself. I'm guessing the kid is now whining about long ping and whatnot.

[YNM]

13 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

reset the router again, and while that's rebooting, unplug the extender and hide it. Poof!

me fighting for bandwith between my laptop and the TV in the family room

Much as resetting stuff usually is a low-level fix it works great in many cases.

[Mukita12]

Earlier today. I was talking to a friend of mine about military equipment and hardware and such, and then a guy comes to me saying that the Eurofighter Typhoon is better than F-35 in everyway possible and will always defeat the F-35 in anyway possible

I told him no that wasn't the case, and even if that's even the case, what are the reason that it will be the F-35 most of the time. He then explained some stuff that isn't well supported by any data that's available (because of course, this is military hardware, most of it is classified) and pulled stuff out of thin air. I told him that wasn't the case and explain the reason why the f-35 will absolutely win supported with Data, Pilot Testimony and other Factual Sources. He then flatout called me "a propagandanist" despite the fact most of my data comes from a reliable sources. 10/10 wouldn't recommend experiencing this

 

[kerbiloid]

Explain him that Eurofighter Tycoon can't win because F-35 owns Monopoly.

Let him stay puzzled.

[DDE]

1 hour ago, Mukita12 said:

Earlier today. I was talking to a friend of mine about military equipment and hardware and such, and then a guy comes to me saying that the Eurofighter Typhoon is better than F-35 in everyway possible and will always defeat the F-35 in anyway possible

I told him no that wasn't the case, and even if that's even the case, what are the reason that it will be the F-35 most of the time. He then explained some stuff that isn't well supported by any data that's available (because of course, this is military hardware, most of it is classified) and pulled stuff out of thin air. I told him that wasn't the case and explain the reason why the f-35 will absolutely win supported with Data, Pilot Testimony and other Factual Sources. He then flatout called me "a propagandanist" despite the fact most of my data comes from a reliable sources. 10/10 wouldn't recommend experiencing this

Ah, yes, F-35, the starter of many a flame war. The program's tall costs and significant overruns do make it a big fat target, and sniping at it has turned into a genre in itself.

[TheSaint]

2 hours ago, DDE said:

Ah, yes, F-35, the starter of many a flame war. The program's tall costs and significant overruns do make it a big fat target, and sniping at it has turned into a genre in itself.

Belly laugh.

But, to be fair, even the Air Force has started walking back on the F-35. I don't know if I would go so far as that article does and say that the F-35 "failed", but the program suffered from breathtaking levels of scope creep and produced a product that was nowhere near the original project goals.

In short, the Air Force needs a new Fighter Mafia.

Edited May 18, 2021 by TheSaint