Watabou is my go-to for low-prep toolbox apps in gaming. Between that one, and donjon (https://donjon.bin.sh/), and a name generator like https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/ , it's basically everything you need for a quick jaunt into the dark with your buddies.
Readit Newscountzeroasl commented on Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project? · Posted by u/as89
Angel's Citadel, my TTRPG publishing company (https://angelscitadel.com). My wife and I do it together becuse we want to. No real other reason.
That's the great thing. You don't actually have to know anything about anything you're talking about and people will listen to you because you are a "celebrity". It happens all the time, across all spectrums and views. It's been happening for a very long time. This isn't particularly surprising, or unique.
countzeroasl commented on Show HN: Our Fun lil' 404 page gitkraken.com/404... · Posted by u/chuckdries
That was way more fun that it should have been. Good job.
countzeroasl commented on If San Francisco Is So Great, Why Is Everyone I Love Leaving? medium.com/s/story/if-san... · Posted by u/jseliger
>With that being said, I drove across the US two years ago and if you keep your eyes open you realize it is all over - Portland and Seattle are no better, just less talked about.
It's not that it's not talked about, it's that other cities manage to not have it right in the middle of the city.
Seattle is every bit as bad as California. Interestingly enough, when California started getting bad, Washington was where they moved. Now? Hellloooo TEXAS!
countzeroasl commented on If San Francisco Is So Great, Why Is Everyone I Love Leaving? medium.com/s/story/if-san... · Posted by u/jseliger
Cost of Living. I was born in California. I lived there for two years again starting in 1998. Even 20 years ago, cost of living was stupid. And that was in rural northern California. It was worse in the city. And it hasn't gotten any better in the last 20 years.
In fact, I've even excluded California from my last and any future job searches because as a plastics engineering manager, a company can't pay me enough for my family and I to live on there. It's crazy.
countzeroasl commented on Plastic Injection Molding (2015) [video] youtube.com/watch?v=RMjtm... · Posted by u/jstimpfle
I run a contract manufacturing service in China. We mostly work with US companies bringing new products to market. I'm a little uncertain what you're asking, but my email is in my profile. In general, I can say that individuals trying to start anything hardware related almost universally run into funding problems before they finish (or their idea was just not what the market wanted).
My usual recommendation to people trying to start something hardware related is to do as much as you can in the beginning to make "sales", with sales being defined as whatever you can get that proves someone would actually pay you money for your widget. Prove you have a market before you pay for expensive tooling. That process can vary, but crowdfunding is one example.
Some rough rules of thumb if all you are interested in is cash outlay:
need 2 parts: 3D print or CNC
need 10 parts: silicone mold or CNC
need 200+ parts: injection mold
If lead time to first part, part uniformity, or uncertainty about design changes are factors that might also swing you toward or away from injection molding.
For injection mold tools, assuming the part has a normal level of complexity:
2cm cube: ~$3k, 5 weeks to first shot
15cm x 5cm x 2cm: ~$4k, 5 weeks to first shot
25cm x 15cm x 5cm: ~$8k 8 weeks to first shot
First shot means the first time the tool is tested to make samples. Generally there is a sample approval and testing process you have to go through before any remaining tweaks are made + the final mold texture or polish is added. I find the total time has more to do with how organized and diligent the client is in responding, but assuming nobody drags their feet we generally can be production ready in another 2 weeks or so.
We only work with production tooling (hard steel, lasts a long time). From checking around, if you use aluminum tooling or other "cheap" fast turn prototyping stuff the price doesn't seem to be any less, and in many cases is more. Tooling made in America is usually significantly more... maybe 1.3 - 3x more.
As an engineering manager that does these types of projects for a living, I would be happy to chat with anyone who is interested in the actual process, design/manufacturing issues, or rough costs/timeline of this type of project.
countzeroasl commented on Plastic Injection Molding (2015) [video] youtube.com/watch?v=RMjtm... · Posted by u/jstimpfle
You can I think get simple short run molds made for under $5k. Molds made out of CNC milled aluminum instead of hard steel.
Possible, depending on how simple the molds are. Typically, this is easier if you have a MUD unit (Master Unit Die) where you can just mill inserts, rather than the whole injection mold (ejection, injection, clamp plates, etc...)
countzeroasl commented on Plastic Injection Molding (2015) [video] youtube.com/watch?v=RMjtm... · Posted by u/jstimpfle
At my job, we extruded plastic sheets, so we had dies which were 84 inches wide with an opening of 0.020 inches. It's quite a challenge to get the plastic to spread evenly from the barrel opening all across that width like a river delta. There are two flexible lips inside, you can supply more heat to individual die zones to make it meltier, and at the very edges you stretch the plastic out a little so that several inches of the die end up contributing to one inch of the finished sheet.
The other option that is commonly used is using a mold with an internal manifold to heat the plastic, which is injected through heated tips or pneumatic/hydraulic valve gates. This shortens the space on the part such that the flow length of the plastic will be sufficient to fill the part, where with a single gate, it may not due to the part thickness and thermodynamic freeze.
Every part is horrible:
recruiters that don't know the industry beyond buzzwords. this is frustrating, they cant think outside their box "oh you havent done exactly this for 10 years, so i guess youll never do it." I dont think people know how bad of a filter these hr people are. I wrote code that handled tens of millions of requests a second, then you get "oh but were really looking for a sr backend api engineer, this doesnt seem like a good match" like what do you think I was doing?
random interviews with no clear goals. "system design" wtf is this, i have no idea what anyone is looking in these within an hour. you want me to design facebook in 45min on a clunky ui? it takes 20 minutes just to talk about some of this stuff. you have to hope to hit their random keywords, but you have no idea what it is. leetcode has been beat to death, that to is horrible. we need you to optimize this exponential algorithm on the fly. basically if you haven't seen the exact problem before, you are not passing these interviews. or you run into the sr engineer, been with the company for years, that seems stuck in their local maximum that's interviewing you, your subjected their random questioning and expectations.
the slow pace of everything. schedule an intro call a week ahead with a useless recruiter, schedule your tech screen another week out, now 2 weeks to get 3 engineers to screen you, talk with a hiring manager another week out.
> worse getting no response at all.
yeah, some company sent me an offline question, one question was write a k8s yaml file, right now, along with 2 other algorithm questions. like wtf was that looking for. no, i havent heard anything back. cant believe i wasted 1.5 hours on that. i dont think ill do any take home assements anymore, there is no guarantee anyone will look or respond.
the low balls, "were looking for a staff/team lead, pay is 140k" you are out of your mind with these.
I can keep going, the whole thing is horrible. thanks for reading my mini rant
I am not even in the Tech Industry (Plastics Manufacturing Engineering), and this is the case. There are maybe... MAYBE... a handful of recruiters that have been in the business, working with my industry long enough to actually know what the heck they are talking about. They are ones that have actually gone to plants, gone on tours, asked questions, and tried to understand the difference between a dryer, a hopper, and a barrel on an injection molding machine. Modern recruiting is as much a numbers game as modern job hunting (for the most part) and it is completely idiotic.
I don't have really any advice, just wanted people to know that it's not just Tech that is seeing what you're seeing. The rest of us career professionals (16 years here) feel your pain and empathize.