Random Tech Questions you want answered.

Also the Steam Deck has a custom GPU that we don’t really know much about yet.

Does upgrading to 5G greatly improve cell service? I don’t care so much about download speeds - I just want to be able to even send texts from my T Mobile phone. Their coverage is spotty in my new 7th floor office but supposedly they just installed a 5G tower downtown.

I recently got an idea for an invention and i think I would like to experiment with 3d printing to see if i could get it to work and then try selling it online later down the road.

Does anyone have a suggestion on which 3d modeling program would be free and easy to use? The thing I want to design is fairly straight forward so i don't think i need all the bells and whistles. I have experience working with creo in from a class i took in school, but i am probably not interested in paying a ton for it for one thing that may or may not work.

Afterwards, I need to find a 3d printer i could use. I've read that public libraries are starting to have them as well as ups stores. Is there standard dimensions that I need to comply to in order to fit a public 3d printer like these?

Thanks!

FiveIron wrote:

I recently got an idea for an invention and i think I would like to experiment with 3d printing to see if i could get it to work and then try selling it online later down the road.

Does anyone have a suggestion on which 3d modeling program would be free and easy to use? The thing I want to design is fairly straight forward so i don't think i need all the bells and whistles. I have experience working with creo in from a class i took in school, but i am probably not interested in paying a ton for it for one thing that may or may not work.

Afterwards, I need to find a 3d printer i could use. I've read that public libraries are starting to have them as well as ups stores. Is there standard dimensions that I need to comply to in order to fit a public 3d printer like these?

Thanks!

Dorkmanship recommended Tinkercad to me https://www.tinkercad.com/

There is freecad which may be accessible due to its similarity to creo.
There is also formZ free which is like a hybrid between creo and sketchup.

There is blender which is really powerful but a more traditional 3D modeler versus those CAD centric programs.

The guy that made magica voxel has a more traditional modeling program called magica CSG. It focuses on creating and manipulating primitives.

Kenney.nl has made a cheap (free version?) kit bashing program called asset forge. Also there is a $3.99 program called Kenshape which lets you draw pixel art in layers to make 3D models.

I'll list more as I think of them. SculptGL is a free online 3D sculpting program. (like sculptris which was killed by pixologic) Speaking of pixologic there is zbrush free. (very limited)

awesome, thanks for the tips!

Here is something I threw together in Assetforge in about 20-30 minutes. Kit bashing is the fastest way to model without sacrificing detail. I could probably remodel this in about 2 hours but not off the top of my head. You can iterate and experiment so much faster with kit bashing.
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/SjUQlGV.jpg)

Spent about 20 more minutes and you can see the rapid improvements:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/krLJGIW.jpg)

jdzappa wrote:

Does upgrading to 5G greatly improve cell service? I don’t care so much about download speeds - I just want to be able to even send texts from my T Mobile phone. Their coverage is spotty in my new 7th floor office but supposedly they just installed a 5G tower downtown.

Consider 5G to be another independent network. It'll have great coverage in some places, awful coverage in others.

Which is to say, there's no easy answer to your question and it'll vary if you drive 5 miles down the road.

Jonman wrote:
jdzappa wrote:

Does upgrading to 5G greatly improve cell service? I don’t care so much about download speeds - I just want to be able to even send texts from my T Mobile phone. Their coverage is spotty in my new 7th floor office but supposedly they just installed a 5G tower downtown.

Consider 5G to be another independent network. It'll have great coverage in some places, awful coverage in others.

Which is to say, there's no easy answer to your question and it'll vary if you drive 5 miles down the road.

Much less than 5 miles. Google indicates that the range of a 5G tower is 1000 feet, maybe 1500 feet (if you believe Verizon). Compare that to the 10 mile range of a 4G tower. So don't upgrade to a 5G cell phone in the hopes that you'll get better service in an area that you already don't get good 4G service.

As far as I understand it, the main purpose of 5G is provide better connections for very densely packed areas, think like downtowns and sports stadiums. It theoretically enables higher bandwidth, but over a smaller coverage area, so outside of those densely packed areas it is mostly marketing fluff.

I am not an expert but that is what I remember from reading about it last year.

merphle wrote:
Jonman wrote:
jdzappa wrote:

Does upgrading to 5G greatly improve cell service? I don’t care so much about download speeds - I just want to be able to even send texts from my T Mobile phone. Their coverage is spotty in my new 7th floor office but supposedly they just installed a 5G tower downtown.

Consider 5G to be another independent network. It'll have great coverage in some places, awful coverage in others.

Which is to say, there's no easy answer to your question and it'll vary if you drive 5 miles down the road.

Much less than 5 miles. Google indicates that the range of a 5G tower is 1000 feet, maybe 1500 feet (if you believe Verizon). Compare that to the 10 mile range of a 4G tower. So don't upgrade to a 5G cell phone in the hopes that you'll get better service in an area that you already don't get good 4G service.

This isn't necessarily the case for T-Mobile. Their 5G does channel aggregation, meaning it can connect to multiple channels at once. Also, 5G uses the same frequencies as 4G - since it's a mobile protocol, not a specific frequency. If a 4G frequency can reach you, the same frequency can while using 5G.

Edit: To help jdzappa a bit... 5G is currently a bit screwy right now with T-Mobile. Most phones will stop communicating altogether every so often until you turn airplane mode on and back off. It appears to be a tower issue (since it's happening on iPhones and Androids), and T-Mobile is working on it. Affected users can switch their phone to LTE-only in the meantime and it'll work fine.

Another postscript: A lot of folks confuse millimeter wave with 5G, since it's being deployed along with the protocol. Millimeter wave is a set of new frequencies which can be deployed with smaller antennas, has a shorter range, and has faster speeds. 5G is a protocol that can work on any frequency and uses bandwidth more efficiently. __--==* The more you know!

Do y'all know a way to prevent websites from hijacking browser shortcuts like ctrl+f?

I cannot think of a single instance in my life when I've wanted a site's built-in search to replace search in page, so it frustrates me.

I haven't found an extension or anything that across the board disables the behavior, and doing it per site is a bit annoying. Perhaps I'm not using the most accurate terminology?

ccoates wrote:

Do y'all know a way to prevent websites from hijacking browser shortcuts like ctrl+f?

I don't know if there's a more permanent way, but what I always do is defocus the page by clicking somewhere in the browser chrome. If the browser is focused but the page itself isn't, then key events won't go to the page and browser shortcuts will always fire.

Does a printer exist that will not piss me off? What I need is just a normal printer for my house, so my son can print out regular stuff like homework. There might be text, there might be images, and hell, maybe even both at the same time. I'll gladly spend more than $50 but I mean, not $300.

I'll say that I have a deep and undying hatred of printers that goes back many years. I will despise printers with a fiery passion until the day I die. Unfortunately however, they are required in life for various things, including school homework. The inkjet printer I've had in the house for maybe a couple years at this point has decided that all it wants to do now is blink all its lights and make weird noises. The "Reset the Printer" instructions from HP has no effect (and must mean "unplug it and plug it back in" because there is no other explanation for resetting it). So, I need something new.

d4m0 wrote:

Does a printer exist that will not piss me off?

No. Printers are designed by engineers sprung forth onto the world from the deepest layers of hell. Their hatred of humanity is unparalleled.

I've had a Canon MG6850 for a few years now. I get third party ink for about $20 once a year, so at least the ink isn't horrible upkeep on it. The only issue is that occasionally an error pops up and Canon's only solution to that particular code is "buy another printer". Literally.

Someone online found that if you open the printer like you're replacing ink, wait for the tray to start moving, and then shut it somewhat hard, it works again. I've been doing that here and there for about 6 months. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a random issue intentionally coded into the printer specifically to get people to replace it.

I've heard laserjets are far better, but I'm just not interested in the upfront cost to get one set up. Not when it takes me about a year to get through small ink cartridges, I just don't print enough to feel it's worth the investment.

d4m0 wrote:

Does a printer exist that will not piss me off? What I need is just a normal printer for my house, so my son can print out regular stuff like homework. There might be text, there might be images, and hell, maybe even both at the same time. I'll gladly spend more than $50 but I mean, not $300.

I'll say that I have a deep and undying hatred of printers that goes back many years. I will despise printers with a fiery passion until the day I die. Unfortunately however, they are required in life for various things, including school homework. The inkjet printer I've had in the house for maybe a couple years at this point has decided that all it wants to do now is blink all its lights and make weird noises. The "Reset the Printer" instructions from HP has no effect (and must mean "unplug it and plug it back in" because there is no other explanation for resetting it). So, I need something new.

Buy a Brother Laser printer, and it'll become an appliance. Those are what HP laser printers used to be. Inkjets can DIAF.

LouZiffer wrote:
d4m0 wrote:

Does a printer exist that will not piss me off? What I need is just a normal printer for my house, so my son can print out regular stuff like homework. There might be text, there might be images, and hell, maybe even both at the same time. I'll gladly spend more than $50 but I mean, not $300.

Buy a Brother Laser printer, and it'll become an appliance. Those are what HP laser printers used to be. Inkjets can DIAF.

Agreed. I bought my Brother HL-2040 in 2006. My only fear is that drivers will no longer be available for it at some point.

The best injket I ever had was a Brother. It was just an asshole about ink cartridges, demanding changes to ones with plenty of ink still in them. (I had to resort to electrical tape over the transparent part of the cartridge that the machine used to measure ink levels).

I felt like you folks, so when I needed a new printer years ago, I stumbled into an Epson EcoTank printer and could not be happier. Why? It comes with a huge amount of ink, and that ink comes in *bottles* that you *pour into* tanks in the side of the printer. Obviously, the ink never expires. When you need more, just buy a bottle and pour it in. The printer itself is rock solid, not flimsy and touchy, and the wifi is fast.

Best printer I have ever owned, by far.

bobbywatson wrote:
LouZiffer wrote:
d4m0 wrote:

Does a printer exist that will not piss me off? What I need is just a normal printer for my house, so my son can print out regular stuff like homework. There might be text, there might be images, and hell, maybe even both at the same time. I'll gladly spend more than $50 but I mean, not $300.

Buy a Brother Laser printer, and it'll become an appliance. Those are what HP laser printers used to be. Inkjets can DIAF.

Agreed. I bought my Brother HL-2040 in 2006. My only fear is that drivers will no longer be available for it at some point.

We have a Brother HL-L2350DW Laser printer as well connected via wifi. Seems like 50% of the time we want to use it I have to go power cycle it to get it to show back up on the network (it sits around for weeks between uses). Other than that we have had no issues. One of the smallest printers I have ever seen that supports two-sided printing.

I got a Brother HL-5450DN in 2013 and it’s by far the most reliable printer I’ve ever owned. And quite possibly the most reliable printer I’ve ever used.

I've got a big Canon multifunction laser printer that I've been pretty happy with. It was a little pricey, but my wife needed to take some sort of open book professional certification exam that was open book, and she worked out that for slightly more than the cost of said book she could get a printer capable of printing it out. For a while there we had trouble with printing to it across the network, but that turned out to be the network's fault. (I don't recommend running two routers on your home network, especially when you don't know that one of them is a router).

Historically I've also had good experiences with Brother laser printers.

Another +1 for Brother. We have an MFC-J995DW (trips off the tongue...) that is feature-laded and reliable, and - most importantly for me - the ink lasts forever.

+1 for a Brother laser printer. I only replaced the first one to gain the ability to print from my phone.

Wow thank you all! This is great. It sounds like a Brother laser printer is clearly the way to go. Time to do some shopping.

I would never use wireless connectivity on a printer unless there was literally no possible way to plug it directly into your network.
I tried a lot of stuff with my Brother inkjet, including setting up a static DHCP reservation on my router, and it was not reliably online for printing and scanning until I hard wired it.

I had that problem until a few years back when I moved to the Epson. It's got a better wifi chip and always joins the network within about 20-30 seconds at most. FWIW.

I second Phishposers point. I explicitly bought a Brother printer to use wirelessly. 6 months in, I'm relocating the printer to where a hard wire is available cos it literally needed troubleshooting every single time i wanted to print something.

I hard wire into a 4 year old HP Printer/Scanner/Copier inkjet that works in a home office, and others in the house have had only minor wifi issues after some other hardware updates and I've experienced only some Windows based software scanning issues, including one that usually causes a failed scan the first time after a computer reboot. Other than that, no complaints beyond the price of ink.