More hilarity: as of about a week ago, it appears the reddit algorithm has also started boosting posts with negative karma on their horrible mobile app. Guessing it’s a move towards ‘negative engagement’. I have not seen it myself (I don’t use the reddit app) but I see users complaining about it.
I would try local library first, then your local Discord community, and then maybe Nextdoor.
I know Nextdoor can be a real shitshow of paranoid street watchers and bad political takes. But I have found it very helpful when it comes to stuff like this (and getting recommendations on local services / shops in general). Be sure to say you have the STL and are willing to pay a reasonable amount for help with it.
The link below isn’t the fundamental reason, but I think it helps to explain the shift in mindset. With the best of intentions and a desire to innovate and help people live better…the ersartz movement became corrupted by conspicuous consumption and a “disruptor” capitalist mindset:
They’ve been saying this kind of bullshit since the early 90s. Employers hate programmers because they are expensive employees with ideas of their own. The half-dozen elite lizard people running the world really don’t like that kind of thing.
Unfortunately, I don’t think any job is truly safe forever. For myriad reasons. Of course there will always be a need for programmers, engineers, designers, testers, and many other human-performed jobs. However, that will be a rapidly changing landscape and the number of positions will be reduced as much as the owning class can get away with. We currently have large teams of people creating digital content, websites, apps, etc. Those teams will get smaller and smaller as AI can do more and more of the tedious / repetitive / well-solved stuff.
This is very cool.
I have printed a few functional things with my resin printer. Like some pieces I designed in Blender that I needed in order to make some minor repairs to stuff around the house. Was really fun using calipers to measure, come up with a design, and puzzle it all out.
It’s much easier than modeling for games or animation, because you can make objects out of multiple overlapping simple shapes, and don’t have to worry about mesh geometry. The slicer will just convert the layers into 2d slices.
And I’ve made some custom gifts, too. Put people’s names on things, stuff like that.
But 99% of my prints are miniatures for tabletop gaming.
My guess is that phase three will work for a while. But I think you’re right that eventually they are going to drive that thing into the ground. Because it’s never enough pure profit for rent-seeking scum, and there is no lower limit to the abuse they’ll inflict on their content creators (who they call users but think of as products).
The tech bros very much need to be reigned in, but I understand a nuanced approach is necessary because it’s an area where the US is still somewhat competitive, and millions of jobs are on the line.
As for Lina Khan, I hope Kamala Harris, if elected, will give her full support on Khan’s investigation into PBMs. Pharmacy Benefits Managers are one of the primary reasons prescription drugs are outrageously expensive. And up until recently, most Americans didn’t even know they exist.
Both Big Tech and Big Pharma need much stronger regulations and oversight by the feds.
I’ve worked in various and sundry IT jobs for over 35 years. In every job, they paid a lot of lip service and performed a lot box-checking towards cybersecurity, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
But, as important as those things are, they are not profitable in the minds of a board of directors. Nor are they sexy to a sales and marketing team. They get taken for granted as “just getting done behind the scenes”.
Meanwhile, everyone’s real time, budget, energy, and attention is almost always focused on the next big release, or bug fixes in app code, and/or routine desktop support issues.
It’s a huge problem. Unfortunately it’s how the moden management “style” and late stage capitalism operates. Make a fuss over these things, and you’re flagged as a problem, a human obstacle to be run over.
Here’s an updated way to bypass it. This Youtuber is a little cheerful-cheesy, but the info is good.
I won’t claim it’s the equivalent of the Bambu Labs FDM printer, because I’ve never done FDM printing.
On top of that, I’m only familiar with the one resin printer I’ve used.
Anyway, it’s an Anycubic Photon Mono X 4k. I’ve had really good luck with it, and I’ve printed over 200 miniatures and other things. I’ve had some failed prints but they were almost always my fault for doing something dumb, and there haven’t been that many overall. I’m guessing easily less than 5%.
I wouldn’t recommend the exact same model as mine, because they have newer ones (like an 8k version of mine and some others).
But I would definitely recommend the Anycubic Photon line as worth looking into. Read some reviews & watch some videos.
Good luck!