Piss & Moan Table

I’m always amazed by the foaming at the mouth hatred people have towards him. Personally I think he’s like every other NYC asshole. Do I agree with everything he’s done? No but he was the best of our choices.
I did not like Obama either but supported him after the election because he was our President.
NYC asshole

I take offense to that remark!...lol Not really...If you leveled NYC, it would make getting off this Island a hell of a lot easier and a bunch less friggen liberals along the way.
 
Glass half full. Glass half empty. My life is much more pleasant looking for the good folks do and focusing less on their failures. When I was younger and learning to weld my mentor pointed out the good welds and overlooked the bad. He had to look pretty hard for the good🤣. He was a good mentor.
 
I’ll never understand the postal service. I ordered a small part for my tractor. So far it left Pennsylvania, to Ohio, now back to North Carolina, and it’s probably going to Memphis next before it travels another hundred or so miles to north west Tennessee. Takes a tour of the U.S.A before making it to my house. 🤔
 
I’ll never understand the postal service. I ordered a small part for my tractor. So far it left Pennsylvania, to Ohio, now back to North Carolina, and it’s probably going to Memphis next before it travels another hundred or so miles to north west Tennessee. Takes a tour of the U.S.A before making it to my house. 🤔

Ordered something last week that was supposed to be delivered yesterday (Tuesday).

It was less than 10 miles away last Friday.

I get a notification that it's now running late and will be delivered on Saturday.
 
I’ll never understand the postal service. I ordered a small part for my tractor. So far it left Pennsylvania, to Ohio, now back to North Carolina, and it’s probably going to Memphis next before it travels another hundred or so miles to north west Tennessee. Takes a tour of the U.S.A before making it to my house. 🤔

I’ve had the same issue in ND. I track the package going around ND then going back to the same entry point before delivery. Yet I can send a fixed price priority mail parcel from SoCal to ND and it gets there in 2 days. They can be efficient when they want to.
Still better than FedEx.
 
Why do I hate Amazon? Placed an order July 9th 15 days ago. Ordered 2 items and got FREE shipping. Just got a notice that 1 item shipped today. Its literally coming from across town 4 miles away and arriving today. 15 days to process part of my order. The other item is still being processed and shows Sunday arrival 18 days after ordering. Good think they weren't critical needs.
 
Why do I hate Amazon? Placed an order July 9th 15 days ago. Ordered 2 items and got FREE shipping. Just got a notice that 1 item shipped today. Its literally coming from across town 4 miles away and arriving today. 15 days to process part of my order. The other item is still being processed and shows Sunday arrival 18 days after ordering. Good think they weren't critical needs.

My favorite is when you look into their "guaranteed delivery" reimbursement. They'll reimburse your shipping charges! Very useful when you have prime (I get it through work I ain't paying for that shit)
 
I don’t order enough from them for the cost of a Prime membership to pay. The thing that bugs me is that when I placed the order they said arriving in 1 week. On the order I placed 2 days after this one and paid for shipping just arrived 2 days ago. Again long after the promised receiving date.
 
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I don’t order enough from them for the cost of a Prime membership to pay. The thing that bugs me is that when I placed the order they said arriving in 1 week. On the order I placed 2 days after this one and paid for shipping just arrived 2 days ago. Again long after the promised receiving date.

I never paid for prime, however my wife insists on subscribing to TV, so I told her "It might as well be Prime, dump that fucking woke Netflix." She eventually did and likes it a bit better.
 
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My turn to P&M, fellers! If this is too long a read for you, scroll to the end and see the short version bolded. :ROFLMAO:

As I've been building my LJ, I've continued my life-long pursuit to learn every day. Lately, it's getting annoying. I've been designing parts in Fusion 360, which wasn't a huge learning curve because I used ProEngineer in the 90s for several years. Then, I decided to buy a scanner so that I can scan things with which my designs interface. That was about $500. So I scanned a diff cover (I plan to design a skid plate similar to what Currie does on their rear Dana 60). Scanning was 100% new learning for me. That technology didn't exist during my motorsports/powersports career.

I learned that the point cloud created by the scanner was not very useful - there are defects in it, and it's difficult to turn that into a solid model in the free version of Fusion 360. I did some reading and learned about a prismatic conversion process in Fusion 360 that allows you to turn the point cloud into a surface - in the pay version, not the free version. I guess it used to be free, but AutoDesk figured out it was an often-used feature by 3D printing enthusiasts, so they took it out of the free version. Honestly, I don't blame them. They are, after all, a for-profit company. That's not my rant this morning.

So, I waited for a sale and paid for the full version - another $350 spent on this learning. Of course, it's a subscription license, so at the end of this year-long license term, I'll no longer have access to the full version, and if I want to keep it, I get to pay full price, currently $680. Of course, I'll likely wait and see if I can get it for half off again. That's still not my rant this morning.

I tried using the prismatic conversion feature and gave up trying to use it. Too many problems to solve getting it to work. The scanner I bought is the Moose by 3DMakerPro. Yesterday, I bought the full version of the expensive software they tout as the magical software to make it easy to convert a point cloud into a surface or solid. They are having a summer sale, and instead of paying $2k for the software, I got it for $1500. Cool! I might finally get this figured out after investing almost $2.5k in new hardware and software. That high cost is still not my rant this morning.

So, other than the high cost of this new endeavor, what's my rant? Well, I bought the software, which is called Geomagic Wrap and is made by a company called Oqton, a big player in the 3D software market for industry (the automotive world uses it). The version I bought is specifically made for 3DMakerPro, and Oqton's full version of it starts at $10k! And I think it's an annual license. :oops:

When I bought it yesterday, I tried installing it. The link to instructions for the complicated installation process that I received was to Oqton's web site. Of course, what I saw on the screen didn't match the instructions. :mad: The instructions showed that you enter a 20 digit license key code, it contacts their server to validate the code, that enables a Validate button, and after you press that, you're golden.

But that's not what the software did. I entered that long code, then it emailed me a second, shorter code that I had to enter. Then I was made to fill out name, company ("Self"), address, phone, and my industry (no selection for "DIY"). After filling all that out, the Validate button was enabled. Cool - I'm there! Nope, I got a message saying that my validation is in process and I'll receive an email with further instructions. Huh?

That was last night. As I type this, I still haven't received said email. So this morning, I sent an email to support at Oqton. Less than ten minutes later, I received a response email from a human (I think) - impressive, right? Nope, here's what it said:

All support for this product must go through 3DMakerpro. Please contact their support team: 3DMakerpro - Contact Us

How are they going to help me? The licensing process is performed by Oqton, not 3DMakerPro! I've emailed 3DMakerPro before with questions. I've never once received an email response - they're based in Hong Kong and support is horrible.

If you're still reading this epic rant, here's the meat of my rant this morning:

The state of customer service today is miserable! I spent $1,500 on software, and I can't use it, and I'm not sure I ever will be.

{thanks for letting me vent, fellers!}
 
My turn to P&M, fellers! If this is too long a read for you, scroll to the end and see the short version bolded. :ROFLMAO:

As I've been building my LJ, I've continued my life-long pursuit to learn every day. Lately, it's getting annoying. I've been designing parts in Fusion 360, which wasn't a huge learning curve because I used ProEngineer in the 90s for several years. Then, I decided to buy a scanner so that I can scan things with which my designs interface. That was about $500. So I scanned a diff cover (I plan to design a skid plate similar to what Currie does on their rear Dana 60). Scanning was 100% new learning for me. That technology didn't exist during my motorsports/powersports career.

I learned that the point cloud created by the scanner was not very useful - there are defects in it, and it's difficult to turn that into a solid model in the free version of Fusion 360. I did some reading and learned about a prismatic conversion process in Fusion 360 that allows you to turn the point cloud into a surface - in the pay version, not the free version. I guess it used to be free, but AutoDesk figured out it was an often-used feature by 3D printing enthusiasts, so they took it out of the free version. Honestly, I don't blame them. They are, after all, a for-profit company. That's not my rant this morning.

So, I waited for a sale and paid for the full version - another $350 spent on this learning. Of course, it's a subscription license, so at the end of this year-long license term, I'll no longer have access to the full version, and if I want to keep it, I get to pay full price, currently $680. Of course, I'll likely wait and see if I can get it for half off again. That's still not my rant this morning.

I tried using the prismatic conversion feature and gave up trying to use it. Too many problems to solve getting it to work. The scanner I bought is the Moose by 3DMakerPro. Yesterday, I bought the full version of the expensive software they tout as the magical software to make it easy to convert a point cloud into a surface or solid. They are having a summer sale, and instead of paying $2k for the software, I got it for $1500. Cool! I might finally get this figured out after investing almost $2.5k in new hardware and software. That high cost is still not my rant this morning.

So, other than the high cost of this new endeavor, what's my rant? Well, I bought the software, which is called Geomagic Wrap and is made by a company called Oqton, a big player in the 3D software market for industry (the automotive world uses it). The version I bought is specifically made for 3DMakerPro, and Oqton's full version of it starts at $10k! And I think it's an annual license. :oops:

When I bought it yesterday, I tried installing it. The link to instructions for the complicated installation process that I received was to Oqton's web site. Of course, what I saw on the screen didn't match the instructions. :mad: The instructions showed that you enter a 20 digit license key code, it contacts their server to validate the code, that enables a Validate button, and after you press that, you're golden.

But that's not what the software did. I entered that long code, then it emailed me a second, shorter code that I had to enter. Then I was made to fill out name, company ("Self"), address, phone, and my industry (no selection for "DIY"). After filling all that out, the Validate button was enabled. Cool - I'm there! Nope, I got a message saying that my validation is in process and I'll receive an email with further instructions. Huh?

That was last night. As I type this, I still haven't received said email. So this morning, I sent an email to support at Oqton. Less than ten minutes later, I received a response email from a human (I think) - impressive, right? Nope, here's what it said:

All support for this product must go through 3DMakerpro. Please contact their support team: 3DMakerpro - Contact Us

How are they going to help me? The licensing process is performed by Oqton, not 3DMakerPro! I've emailed 3DMakerPro before with questions. I've never once received an email response - they're based in Hong Kong and support is horrible.

If you're still reading this epic rant, here's the meat of my rant this morning:

The state of customer service today is miserable! I spent $1,500 on software, and I can't use it, and I'm not sure I ever will be.

{thanks for letting me vent, fellers!}

Subscription models are obnoxious
 
Subscription models are obnoxious
They are, and the software industry has embraced them, not because they have an obscene profit motive, but because:
  • From day one, programmers (now called coders :rolleyes:) have been getting lazier and lazier about properly debugging their software, which creates a high support cost.
  • Like other products, each generation includes new features. Unlike other products, those new features interface with existing features that may have been created 10 years ago by those programmers that are gone. This feeds point one above - debugging completely as the software evolves becomes unsustainable.
  • Unlike any other industry I can think of, the actual product that you purchase is continually modified, and as the years go by, new programmers come on board that don't understand the product and old programmers leave. Imagine if, instead of buying a new car, you just kept sending it back to the factory to be re-worked - for decades, in the case of some Microsoft software. It wouldn't be pretty, and it would be expensive - you'd need more support because things wouldn't be re-worked correctly due to way the user used the product (think rust-belt vs. non-rust-belt vehicles). Instead, in most product-design scenarios, brand new products are designed, manufactured, and sold to replace the previous one you owned. This "clean slate" approach keeps customer support costs down because the team currently supporting the product designed all aspects of it and can both answer questions quickly and make revisions to replacement parts quickly.
The subscription model is here to stay, unfortunately. It allows the software companies to stay in business with their weird product lifecycle model.
 
They are, and the software industry has embraced them, not because they have an obscene profit motive, but because:
  • From day one, programmers (now called coders :rolleyes:) have been getting lazier and lazier about properly debugging their software, which creates a high support cost.
  • Like other products, each generation includes new features. Unlike other products, those new features interface with existing features that may have been created 10 years ago by those programmers that are gone. This feeds point one above - debugging completely as the software evolves becomes unsustainable.
  • Unlike any other industry I can think of, the actual product that you purchase is continually modified, and as the years go by, new programmers come on board that don't understand the product and old programmers leave. Imagine if, instead of buying a new car, you just kept sending it back to the factory to be re-worked - for decades, in the case of some Microsoft software. It wouldn't be pretty, and it would be expensive - you'd need more support because things wouldn't be re-worked correctly due to way the user used the product (think rust-belt vs. non-rust-belt vehicles). Instead, in most product-design scenarios, brand new products are designed, manufactured, and sold to replace the previous one you owned. This "clean slate" approach keeps customer support costs down because the team currently supporting the product designed all aspects of it and can both answer questions quickly and make revisions to replacement parts quickly.
The subscription model is here to stay, unfortunately. It allows the software companies to stay in business with their weird product lifecycle model.

Thanks, scrum/agile
 
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