Linux gamer, retired aviator, profanity enthusiast

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • I really got used to a space mouse with a piece of software called Geomagic Wrap, which we were using to take point clouds from a 3D scanner and turn them into solid models. Part of that process involves turning the model every which way to look for holes and whatnot in it to correct, and being able to use both hands for this really sped up the process. At this point I just cannot stand doing the Click-a click-a click-a click-a required to move a model around with the mouse. And if I’m modeling something large like a building or a landscape in a video game? Forget it. I want to be able to fly the camera around.


  • One of the things I would do if I had control of FreeCAD would be to reduce the number of workbenches it ships with. Why does every copy come with the Robot workbench? Who is A) working with industrial robot arms and B) using FreeCAD to do so? Especially since it’s “Currently unmaintained?” there was awhile there where it also came with a “ship” workbench which could generate a container ship hull with one click. For my purposes I end up hiding the BIM, CAM, Draft, FEM, Inspection, Mesh, Points, and Surface workbenches as I never use them, and it declutters things quite nicely.


  • FreeCAD has long had open source disease in that it is very powerful and yet a pain in the ass to work with partially through crap UI design.

    1.0 includes a lot of changes that address this. They’ve modernized a lot of it, added a lot of missing features, and brought a lot of things up to modern snuff.

    There are things I like about FreeCAD better than Fusion360, for example FreeCAD has a spreadsheet built into it. Fusion360, last time I used it, had a kind of underbaked Parameters list that you couldn’t even sort, the ability to have a spreadsheet for your dimensions and such.

    All Parametric CAD software is complicated to use, you need to wrap your head around designing with rules, but once you get that basically all of them unlock.



  • Symptoms of a World War:

    • Several major military powers and their allies are in direct conflict with one another. No proxy wars where one side fights some smaller nation that is bankrolled by the other side like Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Afghanistan or Ukraine.
    • It is an actual declared shooting war. No more “police actions” or “special military operations.” In the United States this requires an act of congress which hasn’t happened since 1942.
    • Powers on both sides enter a total wartime economy. Food and fuel rationing, consumer goods go out of production to make more weapons, that sort of thing. In the United States, companies you don’t think of as arms manufacturers stopped what they were doing to build weapons. If Kitchenaid stops making stand mixers and starts making rifles, it’s probably World War 3.
    • Actual fighting takes place in several different parts of the world for distantly related reasons. The Battle of Stalingrad, the D-Day landings at Normandy and the Battle of Guadalcanal are all considered part of the same war; present day fighting in Gaza and Ukraine are not. At least, not yet. You know how a high school history textbook has a couple chapters about the Spanish Civil War and the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria, then after the chapter end questions about China you turn the page and it says UNIT 3: WORLD WAR 2 and on the page after that it says “Chapter 18: Germany Invades Poland.” I can imagine reading a future textbook that puts Russia in Ukraine in either chapter. I think we’ll officially call it World War 3 when NATO is fighting Russia, Belarus and probably Iran for some reason in Eastern Europe and the United States, Japan, South Korea are fighting China, North Korea and probably also Russia in the Pacific, probably over Taiwan, with the Middle East as a third front akin to North Africa.
    • Nukes. I think if anyone nukes anyone else we’ll call it World War 3 regardless.






  • A place to start might be a friend or family member who is into video games.

    Gaming hardware can be a little costly, so you may want to visit with someone and play a selection of games before deciding which direction you’d like to start in. I’ll also point out that video games are often the very most fun when shared with friends.

    If my 30 year old woman friend came up to me one day and said “Hey I’ve never really played video games before and I’d like to give them a try, but don’t know where to start,” I think we’d talk awhile first to see if I can find what games are interesting to you. I see a lot of people in this comment section recommending Stardew Valley, which is a game I deeply like and respect though I have seen people bounce right off it, including someone recently here on Lemmy. So while I would recommend giving it a look, if you do bounce off it, don’t just go “video games aren’t for me,” maybe cozy games aren’t for you.

    Some questions I might ask are:

    Are you looking for a more relaxing or more exciting experience?

    Would you like your play sessions to be challenging, contemplative, creative, or competitive?

    Are you more interested in story, or gameplay?

    How important are flashy fancy graphics to you?

    Where will your gameplay sessions fit into your life? Do you want something to do during your daily train ride? Will this replace your daily television hour? Is it what you’re going to do all Saturday afternoon?

    Do you see yourself playing games on your couch, at a desk, or on the go?

    Do you want to enjoy games alone, or with friends? Will you gather in one place to play together, or play across the internet?

    Do you have a genre of fiction you like? Are you into historical drama, sci-fi, fantasy, slapstick comedy?

    How do you feel about horror? Both the psychological Lovecraftian existential crisis type, and the “oh god a 10 foot monster with 50 mouths for a mouth just jumped out behind a tree and roared” type?








  • I have persuaded The Sims to run on Linux; though if the game wasn’t purchased through Steam it can take some doing. No experience with Cities Skylines. Stardew Valley runs very well, I think ConcernedApe releases Linux native versions. My understanding is Roblox deliberately prevents itself from running on Linux. Minecraft Java edition runs on Linux and you’ll find launchers for it in most package managers. An open source alternative called Minetest or recently changed to Luanti exists, but I know it’s not the one his friends play and that’s mostly the point. Can’t say for Stellaris or Slime Rancher.