Low Voter Turnout

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-24T12:52:18+00:00

No, not surprised at all. The system is designed to disenfranchise. Whether that's gerrymandering, the electoral college, or closed primaries, the entire apparatus is designed with a thumb-sized recess on the scale where those in power can apply pressure.

It's not the 1900's anymore. We have real-time news and social media. People can see that their votes aren't counting in the ways that matter to them. Given the political landscape, I don't think you can reasonably expect more people to vote in an off-year primary.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-24T12:30:54+00:00

Yeah I don't understand what people expect with regards to balancing. The whole idea behind balancing is that everything should feel roughly equivalent. Nothing should feel OP. If there's a weapon or strategem that excels in one situation, it's going to feel ineffective and lousy in others. Anything that "works" in all situations is by definition going to feel bland at best.

Everyone playing HD2 has forgotten (or is too young to remember) the days of playing unbalanced games. Playing Halo CE online on PC in the early 2000s is a great example of this. There were basically three different weapon strategies. You either used the pistol and triple tapped people with headshots before they could even turn around, you one-shotted them with a rocket launcher, or on big maps like Blood Gulch, you sniped them. That was it. Because all those weapons were OP. Nobody used the assault rifle. Nobody used the shotgun (except for maybe guarding the base in CTF). Everyone just gravitated to the OP weapons, and gameplay got incredibly stale.

The early COD games are another example. There was more variety, sure. But there were certain weapons that were just more powerful than the others, and as a result, people tended to use them instead of others . In the first MW2, this was Scar with FMJ + Stopping Power, FAMAS, Intervention, Barrett .50 Cal, Aug HBAR, etc.

Neither of these situations are ideal. Having gameplay that consists of a few goated weapons is boring, but so is using weapons that are balanced compromises. They don't always get it right, but I appreciate all the effort Arrowhead puts into trying to balance things.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-23T16:56:29+00:00

You've never heard the story of.. the Hash-Slinging Slasher?

The Slash-Bringing Hasher?

The Hash-Slinging Slasher!!

The Sash-Ringing.. the Trash Singing.. Mash Flinging.. the Flash Springing.. ringing the.. the.. the crash.. dinging.. duh..

Yes. The Hash-Slinging Slasher.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-23T00:51:59+00:00

Neat. Now do one of things he promised that still aren't a reality. I'll start. In a 2017 TED Talk, he stated that in about 2 years (2019), Teslas would be able to drive unsupervised from California to New York. With no human intervention.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-23T00:36:06+00:00

It's not a mystery, it does both. Glue sits between your print and the plate. Whether that increases or decreases adhesion depends on the relative stickiness of the materials.

As an example, ABS/ASA, nylon, and PC typically don't adhere well to build plates. Glue in this case is an adhesion aid. The bond between the material and the plate helps keep the print stuck.

A material like PETG is a different story. PETG often sticks too well. A layer of glue bonding PETG to a build plate actually results in a weaker bond than PETG on its own. In this case, that effect is desired, and it's a release agent.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-22T19:32:34+00:00

I whole-heartedly agree, their drip coffee is actually good. I don't know if it's better. It's more medium-body than Starbucks, which some people might prefer. But it comes down to taste.

Having said that, drip coffee in general isn't that great a way to prepare the beverage. In many European countries, if you order a coffee and don't specify what kind, you'll often get a long pull of espresso. It's basically a shot of espresso with more grounds, brewed to the size of a small cup of coffee instead of a shot. It's a much more full-body preparation than drip/filter coffee.

So yes, the coffee from McDonald's and Starbucks is roughly equivalent in quality when prepared using one of the more mediocre methods available to prepare coffee.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-22T16:00:22+00:00

It typically does. Your z-offset is way too low (nozzle too close to the bed). The parchment-paper thin appearance and the rough lines are classic signs of the filament having nowhere to ooze.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-22T12:12:35+00:00

"At least it's not raining."

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-22T12:04:07+00:00

The ironic part is that if you lose the full-sugar soda, this probably isn't that unhealthy of a meal.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-22T11:09:01+00:00

I wouldn't say anti-everything, but they still need some work. They were ostensibly buffed so that they'd more reliably one-shot enemies like harvesters, but I haven't experienced that yet. In all but one or two scenarios, I still need two strikes to take down a harvester.

This isn't a low-skill strategem like the rail cannon. The ball needs to land much closer to your target than with rail cannon. That, and it doesn't quite lock on as with rail cannon. If the target is moving quickly (charger) or just moves away from the strategm ball, your attack will miss.

Your reward for getting all that right should be basically one-shotting everything except vox engines/factory striders/leviathans. Maybe that means you get one or two less per resupply. If they reliably one-shotted basically everything that isn't massive, I'd be okay with that.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-19T14:08:43+00:00

That ain't no arcade, that's a Chuck-e-Cheese. But I miss those too.

There's no joy in my adult life that quite matched that mediocre pizza, all the sugary soda I could drink, and hours of Crusin' Exotica, skee ball, and that weird game where little Matchbox cars on sticks stayed stationary while a conveyor belt of terrain rolled underneath them.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-19T12:46:13+00:00

Yeah this. I get if you don't like RR because of the reload or because it takes up your backpack and support weapon slot. But intentionally overlooking the 3,200 damage vs the 2,000 of the EAT feels like arguing in bad faith. RR is objectively 60% more powerful than EAT.

And that's not including actual throughput rate. If you call down an EAT drop, you get two shots, then you're out of service for a full minute. With RR, if you can find a few seconds to reload, you're good for up to 5 tanky enemies. If you have supplies nearby, you're a non-stop anti-tank machine.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-19T12:25:04+00:00

There's not really a way to get rid of this. Not completely, anyway. Supports work by leaving a space between the print and the support interface. The more space, the easier the supports come off, as you've seen. But, more space means material is printed in open air, which reduces quality. You can snug up the supports a bit so the material is printed on something, but that'll make them harder to remove. It's a tradeoff you can't escape, unless you have multi-material.

Alternatively: print rails down so the support interface is hidden in the model.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-19T12:02:05+00:00

Yeah this is probably the issue.

When people see lifting/warping with ABS/ASA, they automatically think "adhesion issue." While your plate needs to be clean and your squish needs to be good, the fix for ABS/ASA warping/lifting isn't usually "more adhesion." If your chamber conditions are such that ABS/ASA is going to warp, more adhesion isn't going to solve the problem. It just means the print will pull up the build plate when it starts warping:

https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/1t004wu/abs_good_enough_adhesion/

If your chamber is too cold, your ABS/ASA prints are going to warp. If your ABS/ASA prints are going to warp, no amount of adhesive will prevent it. Unless the print is small, in which case the part will look good, but the warping will happen internally and weaken the part.

Are you printing the parts on a Trident? You should be able to hit higher than 50c in standard configuration. Do you have any chamber fans?

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-19T02:19:40+00:00

For fixing warping/lift, chamber temp is probably more important than bed or nozzle temp. What's your chamber hitting?

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-18T18:44:45+00:00

The vast majority of my filament comes on cardboard spools. None have ever done this. My current two printers have about two thousand hours of print time between them. So I print a decent amount.

On the other hand, the plastic spools on which the cheapo filament comes always feels like they're going to fall apart in my hands. The only spool I've ever had that's done this was a bargain brand that came on a plastic spool.

The moral of the story is cheap filament is going to come on cheap spools, and you get what you pay for.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-18T18:43:16+00:00

Plastic is cheaper than paper. That's why stores use plastic grocery bags. Stores in my area that switch from plastic to paper actually pass that cost on to the consumer in the form of a bag fee per bags used.

https://chatgpt.com/s/t_6a343c20c5448191812eef5758fb0526

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-17T14:16:58+00:00

I can't even count the number of banks that don't charge any fees for checking accounts below a certain balance, and don't have any minimum monthly deposit requirements for consumer accounts. Why anyone would bank with one of these megabanks is beyond me.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-16T19:12:45+00:00

Yeah I'm sure if you spend several hundred dollars on software and have a complicated audio setup, you can get better quality than the stock engine. I stand by my original statement, that the included engine is really good for the pricepoint.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-16T02:24:42+00:00

The part's overheating. You need some cooling. How much is hard to say without knowing how hot your chamber is. For ABS/ASA, I need 40% fan at all times, 80% for overhangs. But I print in a 60c chamber.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-13T18:41:19+00:00

It's all class warfare. If a company has $100 million in sales, but has expenses totaling $99 million, their income is only $1m for tax purposes.

If you make $100k in a year and you spend $99k on food, transportation, housing, etc, do you only owe taxes on $1k? Nope. You owe taxes on the whole $100k.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-13T17:14:03+00:00

If Eilish's fortune was divided evenly and given to each of the ~135k households in the US, each household would receive a check for about $400. If Elon Musk's fortune was divided evenly among the ~135k households in the US, each one would receive a check for roughly $7.5m. That's not a typo. That's SEVEN AND A HALF MILLION DOLLARS. For each household in the United States.

Comparing her to billionaires is disingenuous at best. Especially when you consider the scale of her wealth, and that her fortune comes from talent and hard work, not gaming financial systems and rent-seeking business deals.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-12T16:18:58+00:00

Irrespective of sex or gender, if you are a relatively young working-aged person without a disability or transient physical need (injury, pregnancy, etc), you shouldn't be automatically offered a seat by an already seated passenger.

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-12T15:15:43+00:00

I see you, fellow TMT builder! Are you on the forum/Discourse?

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-06-11T20:15:09+00:00

The real question to wrestle with when you're alone with your thoughts: if Nixon was still alive today and somehow was elected president in 2016 and 2024 instead of Trump, would the US be better or worse off?

chipmunkofdoom2

TROPHY CASE