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Comment Re:Amazon Showroom Effect (Score 1) 207

Comment Amazon Showroom Effect (Score 4, Interesting) 207

When Amazon started out, big-box stores became a showroom: people would look at that new TV, and go buy it on Amazon.

Now, I go to Amazon to check reviews, but do most of my shopping on specialized vendors like Newegg or B&H Photo & Video. The specialized stores tend to have slightly better prices, or better selections, or better recommendations. Amazon is now my showroom for the rest of the Internet.

Comment Re:WIRED (Score 1) 363

Yes, it was exactly when they started the digital version of the magazine. The advertising started to take up increasing space in the magazine. The worst were the not-too-subtle iProducts sentences interspersed into articles apparently at random.

Comment Mint experience (Score 1) 863

I just went Mint with my home desktop and HTPC. Works well for both! Been using it since January, and will continue to do so.

Pros:
- Most Steam games work great via PlayOnLinux! This was a very nice surprise.
- All HTPC functions work really, really well (filesharing, video + music playback, emulators for old console games). XBMC is amazing.
- Sweet, sweet terminal. Oh, how I have missed you.
- Programming is way easier, especially for Python and C++.
- Lots of historically rough spots (e.g. sound playback) have been recently overhauled and work much better than they used to.
- The Software Manager is awesome. You type in what you want, and it gives it to you. Fast, intuitive, no hassle.

Cons:
- Learning curve will be harder than Win8 if you're coming from a Windows background like me. The options and settings are all very accessible and well laid out, but learning where to look for them takes a while. I Googled "how to change my wallpaper in Linux Mint" for several minutes last night, to find out the answer was "right click on the desktop". Setting up VPN access to work was a similar adventure (answer: "click on the network connection icon.") I kept expecting things to be harder than they actually were.
- Some games are just not meant to be, and won't work on Linux. Guild Wars 2 was more trouble than it was worth.
- GIMP is a pretty bad image editor.


Overall, I love Mint, and I'm sticking with it.

Comment Re:Guerrilla guide (Score 1) 218

Depends how much larger, and how many of them you want. Milling machines are more expensive in setup cost, but *possibly* cheaper in the long run. As long as you don't break too many cutters, and you buy cheap wood. The author of the "guerilla guide" notes that he's spent tens of thousands of dollars on his milling setup over the years.

Another consideration when it comes to filament is that you don't need the total volume of the object to be filled in. All you need is a solid outside, and the inside of the object can be perhaps 10% full and still be pretty solid. So it doesn't take as much filament as you might think, although you're right -- cheap wood or MDF is still cheaper.

If you're making a large enough quantity that the cost of the machine isn't a factor, actually you don't want 3D printing OR milling. You want molding and casting. Plastic's cheaper than both. Send your model into Shapeways, get back one of the thing you want to make, make a mold of it, and cast a million. Or pay a Chinese guy to do it even cheaper.

Comment Re:Guerrilla guide (Score 1) 218

Yeah, that doc is pretty damn awesome overall. There's a ton of great information in there.

However, it does push milling over 3D printing. For the author's application, making teeny tiny gears, he's right: milling machines are the right way to go. But 3D printing is awesome for making larger things, and it's a MUCH faster and simpler process than milling is. Not to mention cheaper. So bear that in mind as you read it.

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