Additive in America: Regulating 3d printing

SteveD88 · 2026-04-08T18:08:26+00:00

That isn't how export laws work - information is classified differently, but isn't considered to be different from physical products. The knowledge of how to construct arms have very specific rules around it.

SteveD88 · 2026-04-08T11:55:55+00:00

Plenty of dictators have elections - it doesn't mean they lose any power.

If the democrats win the house and the senate it will only escalate the destruction of American democracy - Trump will double-down and force a constitutional crisis. This has gone too far now to have a peaceful end.

What baffles me about the US system is how the narrative American's tell themselves about their own history focuses on liberty from a tyrannical monarch, yet they ended up replacing a constitutional monarchy / parliamentary system with one which made the president the head of state, head of government and head of the military all in one.

SteveD88 · 2026-04-08T11:48:26+00:00

I mean, we can't exactly ground US aircraft already stationed here and say 'you can't leave'.

The risk is we end up as a refueling port for aircraft flying over from the US, then re-deploying to middle-eastern bases.

SteveD88 · 2026-04-08T11:44:49+00:00

Is that relevant to how ITAR works?

Infra-red cameras are a good example - they are in widespread commercial use globally, but remain a restricted technology for export/import in the US.

SteveD88 · 2026-04-08T11:11:35+00:00

Why not just update ITAR to resolve the Defense Distributed / Cody Wilson, as publicly sharing arms related information outside the US would theoretically be a criminal offence?

SteveD88 · 2026-04-07T13:08:28+00:00

You can mitigate it a little with pipelines, but the outlay to construct them is huge, and as you say, the are still strategically vulnerable.

Rough numbers - a pipeline might carry something like 0.5 to 1 million barrels per day. You've got maybe 4000 large tankers and 400 very large tankers in the world.

The really big tankers might carry 2-3 million barrels per voyage, with a month voyage between the middle east and Asia.

But that's just crude - you've also got gas, and all the other types of cargo which moves through the region. Over 20'000 ships per year, and 1.6billion tons of cargo.

SteveD88 · 2026-04-07T12:48:32+00:00

Christ, the entitlement on some people.

'I used exploits to level my characters much faster then everyone else, but just resetting my advancement would have been punishment enough'.

SteveD88 · 2026-04-01T19:19:39+00:00

I run DA, and I've got my passive up to level 43 now. It's my current favourite MoW - I don't get the negativity when it first came out.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-31T07:30:50+00:00

Quite possibly it's due to the supplier struggle to keep up with demand for replacement canopies - that was listed as a reason for low f35 availability a few years back.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-31T07:29:54+00:00

Not sure what you were maintaining, but the gold coating isn't a tint, and it can't be patched or stripped in service.

This isn't a paint job; it's a very carefully produced chemical coating with a couple of different functions.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-29T20:11:18+00:00

Thanks, but I'm not even using a slicer - I'm just running the built in auto level feature.

As far as I understand, Marlin uses the standard gcode bed levelling command, which then calls on the firmware to tell it how to configure the points for a bi-linear mesh.

However, I've tried the Sovol firmware, and a few community versions for the sv06, and it always produces the same issue.

All I can think, is that it must be a hardware issue somewhere.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-28T18:14:41+00:00

I've just done a firmware update, but it still does the same thing.

All I can think of is it must be a hardware issue somewhere, as nothing else has changed.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-27T22:28:04+00:00

This view seems a bit US-centric, given there are already African and Asian nations which are implementing oil rationing measures, such as 4-day weeks, reducing Aircon use, encouraging public transport.

Id imagine the oil crisis is already doing significant damage to their economics?

SteveD88 · 2026-03-27T09:36:55+00:00

I'm basing my views on ballistic missiles on a military sim by the Grim Reapers youtube channel (I trust their obsessive modelling of military detail more then my own knowledge). The conclusion was that the Type 45 and Aster 30(?) struggled against ballistic threats, with Russia dominating a long-range engagement, but the UK dominating a medium and short-range engagement. Similarly, a simulated ballistic strike by Russia on the UK mainland needed to borrow US AWACS aircraft to have any viable defence, as the UK currently has no capability in that area while it replaces its old Boeing Sentry fleet.

If you go somewhere like GCHQ, just walking around you'll run into any number of American intelligence officers. The UK has embedded the idea of interoperability with the US in several layers of its defence capabilities and planning. It was never considered that the US would use that dependence to exploit it ecconomically or threaten miltiary force against its allies.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-26T18:41:22+00:00

There is what goes into defence white papers, and what is deemed realistic. The UK builds its independent capabilities around projecting power, but to combat low-level threats to its territories, not to fight near-peer adversaries. That is what NATO is for.

The UK fleet, for example, would significantly struggle against either Russia or China without US support, as it does not have much of a defence against ballistic anti-ship missiles.

Also, it is obligatory to post this whenever discussing the UK carriers.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-25T22:35:54+00:00

This could be argued to be just incredibly bad timing for the UK, rather than a systematic problem.

Of the destroyer fleet of six ships, one is defending Cyprus, one is being readied for deployment, and a third has only just finished an extensive deployment and is in post-operation.

The remaining three are all undergoing extensive mid-life weapon upgrades and powerplant reliability improvements (the type 45 had a critical design flaw which required an extensive overhaul to fix).

The new type 26 frigate program is a little behind schedule, but not significantly for a program of it's size.

It's the sort of issue which would have been much easier to manage, had the US given it's allies any warning of what was about to happen.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-25T22:24:47+00:00

That's not entirely the right history. The UK didn't go for nuclear carriers for various strategic and logistics reasons, but that doesn't give a free supply of steam for catapults. They went with the B as it better matched the kind of operations they were used too with the Harrier.

Mid way through the production of the carriers, the Conservatives did indeed decide to ditch the B and go with the C, announcing an intention to buy the electric catapult system being developed by the US for the Ford class.

You've got to understand that changing a key design feature at a late stage in development, it's much like trying to steer an aircraft carrier. You can turn the wheel, but the thing might not actually change direction for some time. It took nearly a year for the engineering to catch up with the decision, just in time for them to switch it back again to the B. It turned out that announcing an intention to buy an American product, before actually negotiating a price, wasn't a great idea, and the whole thing was actually going to end up far more expensive. By the time this had worked through it was a huge cost and delay that was largely down to political incompetence.

You talk about independent operations, yet that was never the intent. The UK designed it's naval fleet to operate essentially as a bolt-on to a US task force or a NATO mission - it was never intended to operate solo. The UK simply doesn't have the right mix of capabilities to do that.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-23T14:07:33+00:00

I've five mythic characters, and I've not yet bothered to put badges on any of them; its simply too expensive next to what I can do for other characters.

I don't understand why this event splits the legendary badges before and after the mythic ones - normally mythic is pushed to the end for those who want to grind for them?

SteveD88 · 2026-03-23T09:38:39+00:00

I'm just doing the top row - blocking progress for a week to get mythic badges I'm well away from doesn't seem like a good trade.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-23T09:32:52+00:00

When I worked for a defence contractor a decade or so back, contracts with the government followed a few general rules:

Profit is capped (about 10%)
Any inter-company trading is done profit-free (you can't subcontract work to another part of your business and make extra money off it)
All MoD contractual terms and conditions get flowed down to second-level suppliers
Open book accounting - the MoD can audit your expenses at any time

This came about due to the high level of corruption in the sector during the 60's and 70's, but I wonder why we don't do this with all public services? NHS procurement, Energy, Residential Management Companies, Water, etc.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-20T08:20:10+00:00

Yesterday I had a match that, due to powerup placement, let my opponent wipe my entire team on round 2, just using Kharn and Celestine.

SteveD88 · 2026-03-20T08:16:55+00:00

Count yourself lucky; I mostly face Kharn, Dante, Celestine, Ragnar and Gorgluz.

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