If all you needed to do was vector math, a dedicated vector processor with eight cores that are capable of running as fast as the extremely wide bus could feed them with data is the way to do it. You couldn't buy anything close to it's capabilities (for that specific task) for the money.
I remember the course we used them in being hard as hell, and the professor didn't really have any projects prepared that would really push the system.
From what I understand (may be wrong) this is exactly the reason that they stopped allowing Linux installs on PS3s.
People were buying them just for this purpose. However, the consoles were sold at a discount because Sony expected users to buy games, controllers, etc. If someone bought a PS3 alone, without anything else then Sony lost money.
Spotlight search is infinitely more useful than the Windows 10+ start menu. 99% of the time I'm just using it to open an app or a recent document/download.
In Windows, if I hit [Win], type "fusion" (to open Fusion 360, an app in the "Start Menu" folder, for what that's worth nowadays), there's a 70% chance it will do a Bing search for "fusion".
Spotlight works great for me but the index can occasionally become corrupted. There’s a set of commands you can run to force a rebuild if you’re having issues. I’ve had to do this a few times over the years. This is another place where it’d be nice if Apple had a GUI to manage things like this.
You can thank Apple for that. I even have autocorrect turned off yet it still insists on doing it... Most annoyingly it will change the word previous to the one I'm typing...
I forget what combination of settings does it but my Windows start menu now only searches the two start menu folders. It's perfect, completely deterministic, instant.
Trying to turn the app launcher into the magic "accio <anything>" bar was a huge mistake. You can have a second UI element for search, I promise it won't scare me.
While "The Liberator" (one of the first 3d printed guns) was interesting as a test of the technology and what it means for the law, I don't know if I'd trust using one to not blow up in my hands. Pretty sure you could assemble a zip gun in a Home Depot (they even sell cartridges for powder-actuated tools) that's less dangerous for you, more dangerous downrange.
It is a total mystery how the Washington bill's cited "blocking technology" is supposed to work. If you load a pipe-shaped object into your CAM software, how the hell is it supposed to know if it's an illegal firearm part or just a manifold? Maybe before each time it generates some G-code, you need to submit a signed affidavit to the government, and they'll conduct an investigation. Three months later you can print your fidget spinner.
I think the designs have advanced a lot since the first but what hasn't changed is that printed guns are mostly for hobbyists while criminals mostly use normal guns.
Currently, building a ghost gun is merely a matter of loading the right files into the appropriate software, purchasing the necessary materials, and beginning the printing process. The assembly instructions are as straightforward as building a Lego set.
Do we really want that?
Every day, people are actually murdered with these guns.
While they may not be more dangerous than a 1911 made in the jungles of the Philippines, acquiring a traditional firearm requires engaging with real people, which gives law enforcement a better chance to intercept someone before they can commit acts of violence with an illegal firearm.
What this bill does is not make it impossible to build a firearm with the available technology, instead, it raises the entry point beyond what the average American can navigate.
Let's be honest. Many of the individuals printing guns aren't doing it out of curiosity but to use them criminally. These individuals typically have a 30-second TikTok attention span, minimal resilience to failure, and little to no physical skills. Most of them have likely already been incarcerated and are therefore prohibited from legally purchasing firearms.
By creating a database of unique hashes for the publicly accessible printing files, we would deny about 95% of those individuals access to easily obtainable illegal firearms.
This list can be updated by authorities whenever someone modifies a public file needed to print a firearm, and with online access, similar to many normal printers, it could even alert law enforcement when someone tries to print these files.
This approach enhances safety for everyone, as guns, legal or not, shouldn't be in the hands of irresponsible individuals. Regardless of your views on firearm possession, I believe we can all agree on that point.
If you possess the skills to modify those files to make them printable, you must be smart enough to recognize that printing a gun, unless it’s purely as a project to build and then destroy for the sake of personal achievement, is inherently a foolish idea.
Additionally, the Liberator design had a singular purpose, it was inspired by French resistance fighters who needed just one bullet to take out Nazis and then acquire their well-functioning, fully loaded submachine guns.
This allowed them to kill more Nazis and obtain more weapons for their resistance efforts.
The U.S. is not currently under Nazi occupation, and law enforcement already faces significant challenges. They shouldn't have to worry about every individual they encounter potentially possessing an untraceable firearm, which may even resist fingerprint identification.
Society owes it to those risking their lives daily to keep the community safe. A world in which anyone can press a button and create their own unregulated, untraceable firearm is not safe for any of us.
> This list can be updated by authorities whenever someone modifies a public file needed to print a firearm, and with online access, similar to many normal printers, it could even alert law enforcement when someone tries to print these files.
Not really, we use a similar system for court ordered DNS blocks.
So to get on that DNS blocklist they need probable cause and a federal judge reviewing the request.
So if your 3D printer is no longer printing anything that is not illegal to print, you can always contact a journalist or tell the public on whatever channel you choose to that they are blocking a file/object that is not prohibited and provide video evidence.
That doesn’t guarantee the file gets unblocked, but if they want the system to be publicly accepted, both sides have to play by the rules, and with transparency comes trust in institutions.
Same if they abuse the system to get notified whenever you print something that is not illegal. They do it once, and then that whole project is toast.
the cuii list blocked a person's blog for reporting the existence of the cuii list - the person who created cuiiliste.de - and yet the cuii list still exists and is not toast.
I respect your opinion and I think you have a very healthy view on what freedom means and how much influence the government should have on your life.
If I read comments like yours it reminds me whom I fought for, and in a perfect world you should be able to print as many guns as you desire. Unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world.
I don’t need to persuade you that my solution for this problem is the best or even worth pursuing, it probably isn’t and I never think I’m the smartest person in the room. I just say this is how it’s technically possible, because the person I replied to asked about how it could even be done.
Thank you for taking time out of your day to exchange thoughts with me. Take care and stay a free and independent human being.
I should mention that I don't even have a 3D printer or a CNC machine. I'll be in my fifties soon and maybe I get grumpy, but I sometimes have the feeling that more and more aspects of our lives fall under a law of some sort, down to very precise details. It's death of freedom by a thousand paper cuts. And it's always in the name of a good thing, of course. But in the end, it's really taking responsability away from the people.
Didn't know this. It kind reminds me of MIME multipart messages (used in email attachments, MMS, etc.) where the header includes a "boundary" tag which the parser will look for to terminate the part. It feels strange, like it could be some injection risk where if the file knew what the boundary was going to be, it could desync the bounds and turn one malicious, inactive file into one or more bad files.
I believe the spec intends that a decent mail handler is required to scan the text and make sure the delimiter is not present or pick a different one. Or use a different encoding (eg base64) to prevent conflicts if you want streaming ability. Although bugs of course could break the best of intentions
I've noticed diskprices.com getting increasingly bad with filters, probably because the source data is garbage with Amazon sellers trying to jam all the keywords into titles or descriptions/features..."M.2 USB-C 3.2 PCIE NVME"
This kinda reminds me of error correction, and where at some level you can have detectable but not correctable error conditions. Adding Bob is just like adding a parity bit: can give you a good indication someone lied, but won't fix anything. Adding Charlie gives you the crudest ECC form, a repetition code (though for storing one bit, I don't think you can do better?)
I guess if you only need to store one bit you could store either 0 or 11 and on average use less than two bits (for bit flips only), or 111 if you have to also worry about losing/duplicating bits.
Decades ago, there was less competition for eyeballs, much more high-quality content (vs. slop), and investors were a bit willing to just build an audience without seeking immediate returns. Early social media was aspirin: a useful drug, but not addictive. Now it's super-cocaine and hyper-meth trying to keep the user high.
Also, what's an 'ad' is an extreme spectrum nowadays with free stuff given out in exchange for a post, people trying to act like paid influencers to fake it until they make it, paid influencers, and listicle affiliate link slop.
I get that Chernobyl is near the border of two countries at war, but why the everloving hell is anyone targeting anything within miles of the exclusion zone? Are there any military units anywhere near there, or is it intentionally being targeted as an oblique dirty-bomb threat?
Yup. Science/math/chess/music and literature to name a few are better with russians involved. Then there's the russian government: that's a problem. Their military subdues by shelling to bits civil targets come what may. Then there's the Ukranian POWs and kids ... the Russia gov doesn't give a cats whisker.
Agree. What putin's government understands is a 2x4 upside the head. I'm reminded of the cool hand luke line: "If that's the way he wants it, he gets it."
That's even worse. They are humans who want to see more suffering. The famous quote from one Russian propagandist about Ukrainians dying: "I don't pity them at all". Me and you care and think that losses on both sides are atrocious. Russians don't care.
When you're at war you just want to hurt the enemy; you're not thinking straight so to speak. It takes enormous professional restraint - both personal and organizational - to not say fuck it all and just press the nuclear launch button after a bad day on the ground.
Because any resource which is thought to be safe from bombardment will be utilized. Sadly this is extremely common all over the world. In war zones, armed forces use hospitals, schools, etc, as a base of operation (which invalidates its protected status by international law), then cry fowl when their cover is eventually bombed.
Not saying Ukraine used Chernobyl for military purposes, but it would definitely not surprise me if they did, or if Russia wanted to rule this out. Either way, war is awful, too bad we are only going towards more war and more conflict. We're a dumb species.
Diverted from regular target, then they bombed it because it's a vaguely industrial looking structure? I don't really see the logic in deliberately bombing Chernobyl, but Russia has not been particularly discriminate. Active nuclear plants have lost external power for cooling due to targeted strikes on energy infrastructure before.
(**Distributed computing is very cheat-y compared to a "real" supercomputer which has insane RDMA capabilities)
reply