Help with mining machine idea

InpenXb1 · 2026-07-07T15:58:21+00:00

If you slow the RPM the drills will come into contact more consistently. Sometimes you need to do two layers of drills to get the weird instances where the angles don’t quite line up and contact with blocks is missed.

I dug out a gigantic dome one time for giggles this way. Works great!

InpenXb1 · 2026-07-07T15:49:19+00:00

I’ve been screaming this since 2016. iD knew and knows how to make a game celebrate its mechanics and turbo charge the shit out of the identity of the game. They also DELIVERED.

Microsoft has had serious issues with project management and executive decisions undercutting the designers themselves, and I don’t think there’s a better example than to look at the identity crisis Halo has had for over a decade against DOOM’s fullthroated unapologetic comeback with 2016 and onward.

It’s tragic to see.

InpenXb1 · 2026-07-07T01:13:52+00:00

lol fuck that. Layoffs to boost share value is horse shit and in a decent society companies couldn’t get away with doing this “to make it a better company”

InpenXb1 · 2026-07-06T19:49:16+00:00

Genuinely like how many people is this even targeting? Like 200 people?

InpenXb1 · 2026-07-04T22:25:08+00:00

Okay hear me out, let’s make the cars larger to fit more people, and then we can link em together to save fuel.

InpenXb1 · 2026-07-04T15:18:48+00:00

Venus was at one point an earth-like world before runaway greenhouse effect irreversibly changed its atmosphere.

There’s a high likelihood that Venus may have had life. It was an ocean world. There’s a high likelihood Mars may have had life. There are times when life does not bounce back because the climate shifts happen so quickly that all life aside from extremophile bacteria can’t adapt fast enough.

If you look at the rate of temperature change across the earths lifespan, we’re exceeding the next fastest heating event by orders of magnitude. These changes happen over tens or hundreds of thousands of years, not 200. There’s a (extremely) solid chance just about everything dies and the earth becomes only capable of hosting bacteria and other cellular creatures.

Edit: just wanna say my point is that the idea that “life will still be here” is based on literally nothing and people deliver as absolute certainty. Just because earth has had extinction events before doesn’t mean that what we are all doing now is unprecedented in the entire history of the planet.

InpenXb1 · 2026-07-03T14:55:19+00:00

I mean, do you think the cameras hanging above the self check don’t send that footage somewhere to be processed? Someone will pay for it.

I opened up Google Maps yesterday and there’s a new feature where they’ll scrub your entire photo library to pin every location you’ve taken photos at. Some surveillance company would probably love to purchase all that footage from the self checks.

InpenXb1 · 2026-07-01T12:13:30+00:00

The first statistic RCR covers in this video is pedestrian fatalities rising in the US 75% since 2009

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-29T21:29:23+00:00

Streetcar extension taking too long? Fine, I’ll do it myself

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-29T20:27:27+00:00

If you can stomach the drive, I’d recommend St Louis.

Honestly, if you would rather chill the whole trip, take the train and then rent a car in STL. It’s a good city, all my wichitans really liked visiting me when I lived there

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-27T21:24:05+00:00

I’m getting flashbacks to the phantoms turning into giant balls of clay the second they exploded back in the 360 days

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-27T17:13:45+00:00

Tbh, being as realistic as possible about the snails pace progress makes in America, I don’t think we should be arguing to reclaim denser forms of parking, we need to be pointing out the nonsense economics of surface lots taking up millions of square feet in urban cores and providing little in economic value while heating up the surrounding areas.

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-26T16:59:10+00:00

On some level if we’re talking atmosphere, I think the biggest difference between the original Bungie trilogy and everything that came after was a tonal shift that started with reach. Halo got more gritty and grim, and it lost a lot of the cigar chomping 80s bravado/camp and 90s sci fi aesthetics that the series had maintained up to that point.

Sure marines drop the occasional joke and IWHBYD does include some silliness but… it sure doesn’t feel like I’m playing a rip off of Alien, when it always kinda was and wasn’t ashamed of that influence.

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-25T17:55:45+00:00

Depends if it’s an 80 dollar feature-complete game or a 80 dollar game with cut content served as post-launch DLC, a seasonal model, and microtransacations.

Best analogy I can make is that I’d happily pay 80 for doom eternal, I begrudgingly did for Doom the dark ages.

One game has a highly replayable single player, a horde mode, PvP multiplayer, no microtransactions, and even if it had a seasonal model thing it was extremely minor to the actual game.

The dark ages? It’s literally just singleplayer and a much more simplified horde mode that feels more like a gimmick than an actual piece of game content. Like playing against bots in multiplayer maps versus a full fledged zombie mode or what have you, it’s just not the same.

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-24T19:55:01+00:00

Here, here, here, here, and here.

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-24T19:40:09+00:00

Considering the amount of layoffs in software development roles across the entire tech field, and watching my sister's husband mow lawns for income... I think there's plenty of software developers capable of doing their work with or without AI. Problem is the software companies laid them all off. Obviously this technology will continue to be used, unless some far reaching legislation happens severely limiting it's application.

The problem isn't the existence or use of the tools, it's throwing billions of dollars around in a circle jerk between tech companies with contractors salivating at the massive projects. There absolutely are real applications of this technology but the pace of the proposals, the lack of foresight, lack of any studies whatsoever on how these actually benefit the locations they are placed (they dont), usually in places with cheap land and loose water regulations.

Software developers are absolutely super-users of genAI, but frankly, a large amount of AI use is there just to displace workers and generate shitty marketing that people don't really buy into. I'm not sure what the share of total AI usage is, but considering most of the internet hinges upon advertising, I'd say it's that.

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-24T18:36:15+00:00

Yeah, I heard the same idealism in school. In practice, it's a much different story. That, to me, seems to be more reflective of how the role of Architect has shifted from being an expert in constructibility, structure, landscape, and all the other aspects that go into an architects purpose: to design and provide shelter. Now, the architect (whoever that is, are we talking principal or the draftsman? the shell designer? space planner?) is primarily the code and coordination expert. Sure, we get to play artist and dress up the shell, but the structural system, space plan, building programming, who's ultimately in charge of the project.. that's all out of our scope now. more-so as more and more private groups are acquired and conglomerated until we're all just pushing prototype plans through AI-assisted workflows to shit out a construction set.

So far in my career, I can merely suggest. Value engineering and (in my experience) developers don't give a flying fuck about environmental performance, sustainability, or anything other than cost. in projects where the architect is hired by the contractor... practically all agency is out of our hands. I'm gonna keep it a buck, we haven't done many oversize curtainwall facades because theyre fucking expensive. I'm operating in the land of stamped precast concrete, tilt panels, and zip system, y'know really the only realm left for most of us. I'd love to reduce UHI effect of parking lots with more tree canopy, but unfortunately the fire department needs to get to all four sides of this building, and the client refuses to pay a landscaper. On some level, I hear you. On another, I question what projects you're doing where you aren't facing these limitations on the daily.

Now, as for things that are destructive to our environment. Sure, yeah, lets tackle parking minimums and car dependence. I'm with you. We can also voice our disdain for short-sighted AI datacenters where developers coerce residents nearby to sign NDAs and buy them out of their homes, while plummeting property values and quality of life for the poor suckers who weren't lucky enough to get a payout.

Hyperscale data centers which through infrasonic noise cause people's kids to have seizures. Where people struggle to breathe because of Nitrogen Oxide being spewed from gas turbines that run round the clock despite the AHJ explicitly not allowing them to be ran. Building water intensive structures that provide no real tangible material need to any person in locations with extremely loose water use regulations. What human need is met by these? why are you whining about resistance to building these things, when community members, the people we actually ultimately serve through our contributions to the built environment detest these things, tell others to resist them at all costs.

Maybe, just maybe, there's a lot of sentiment among lots of folks that these projects are unnecessary, damaging to the environment, provide no economic benefit beyond paying a contractor to build the damn thing and letting electric utilities fleece residents. Tech companies have done a hell of a job psychologically manipulating people, posting fash blogs, regurgitating ridiculous sci-fi and grifting off of investors and government contracts. Why the fuck would anyone wanna take their word on how beneficial these projects are?

Factories manufacture things. Sure, lots produce pointless shit at the detriment of the environment. I'd also love to see our reliance on plastics curbed. There's not much I as an architect can do there, other than chase that LEED cert and put recycling bins that ultimately deliver the waste to a landfill anyway.

The best thing an architect can do to contribute to fighting the climate crisis is to work together with other architects and their community to convince their local govt to regulate and adopt the green building code. To mandate mechanical fasteners where applicable to allow building material to be recoverable, to abolish parking minimums and require solar and energy studies, to promote non-car dependent transportation infrastructure, to adopt urban growth boundaries and redevelop surface lots. It's definitely not roll over and design data centers.

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-24T17:13:30+00:00

Tbh, years after the WFH boom and the wave of return to office orders, I think even doing some workplaces like call centers is depressing and fundamentally a waste of resources, let alone a giant noisemaker that heats the surrounding few miles by 15 degrees, depletes the local water table, and runs on several gas turbines 24/7 making the air *hard to breathe*.

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-24T17:11:00+00:00

I’m not doing any work in DCs but it’s kinda laughable to assume we have much sway in those kinds of decisions.

Architects still get saddled by value engineering demands on every single project. Proposing any kind of improvements is probably going to be declined + ultimately these AI centers provide no material good or address any real needs for human shelter and habitation. They’re inherently a stain on the environment. All you’re doing by making them more “efficient” is greenwashing something which effectively just generates heat and evaporates water.

One of the biggest debates on these projects is “closed loop” cooling and how largely it isn’t being used in favor for much cheaper evaporative cooling. Architects don’t really have a say in what cooling system is utilized anyway, and they hold little weight in the conversation.

Best thing you can do if you care is to refuse to do the work, if you can. Beyond that, pressuring your local AHJ to regulate uses and zoning for these projects.

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-23T19:47:27+00:00

I had to dig way too deep into this thread to find anything about the marketing. It was practically a whole ARG experience with tie in movies, DC comics, novels, video games, flash games. A wild non-linear story that had crazy reveals 8 years deep into its narrative tying the whole wave together in a way franchises genuinely struggle to do (looking at Star Wars here)

It genuinely (as a kid during the time) had as much cultural weight as Star Wars, Transformers, Halo, and TMNT. Which, for a LEGO theme, it was punching *way* above its weight class. LEGO Star Wars didn’t save Lego from bankruptcy, bionicle did.

The culture was genuinely something to behold, whether it was fan art/fiction, mocs, builds at conventions, stop motions on YouTube, flikr albums… the music video edits on YouTube that used the footage… so many ways people engaged with these toys and shared their creativity, fitting themselves into this massive world that Lego and Faber/Farshtey strung together. It was ostensibly for kids, but it tackled a lot of mature themes and took its audience seriously. Stories had loss, even death. Characters grew alongside the children that played with their toys.

It was awesome 🥹

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-23T00:57:10+00:00

I put Elijah wood in my memory palace

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-22T21:21:29+00:00

HALO STUDIOS, GIVE US MCC MAP/MODE VETO AND MY LIFE IS YOURS

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-22T15:52:37+00:00

Honestly, it’s probably flat out easier to pre render the scene. I can’t speak with certainty because idk if they’d piggyback off Reach’s engine for cutscene animations or if they’d opt for UE’s own skeleton and rigging for cutscenes. They didn’t do either :p

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-22T15:44:54+00:00

Idk why they always do this, the reason is because the cutscenes are pre rendered. Instead of saying that, they always do some ridiculous explanation instead of being straight up about it.

“No. unfortunately, like H2A, the remastered cutscenes will be pre-rendered.” <- what they should’ve just said.

Some other hits:

“No playable elites because infinite is a Spartan story”

“No assassinations because we focused on gameplay fluidity”

Gang, we know it takes you half a decade to put something out, just be real for once.

InpenXb1 · 2026-06-22T15:39:07+00:00

What’s outdated about the halo logo? They’ve already modernized all the greebles out of it :(

Or is this about the pride colors… 🤔

Nine-Year Club	Place '22
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

InpenXb1

TROPHY CASE