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More Why I Love MediaWiki and Process Control

I hate making mistakes.  I know they happen and are sometimes inevitable.  That doesn’t mean I’m going to make the same one twice if I can help it.  Instead of kicking myself I look at the mistake as a lesson I’m being taught – provided I’m smart enough to recognize what the lesson is.  That’s why I set up my Wiki – to document how things should be done so that it never happens again.

My Private Wiki grows daily. It’s a clone of MediaWiki, the same system that runs Wikipedia.  My top level menu now contains:

• Business Plan (eye on the prize)
• Roles (who does what)
• Tools (equipment and how to use it)
• Materials (consumables like wood & ABS)
• Processes (how to do things)
• Event triggers (things that happen and how to deal with them)
• Holidays & Major Events (to set up sales and such)
• Blue Sky (future projects)

Today I added “Event Triggers” to that menu.  Event Triggers are “when a thing happens deal with it like this.”  When a bill arrives, this is the right way to pay it.  When a package arrives, this is how you file the contents and update the shop.

Already my brain is boiling with ideas: I’m thinking I might add event triggers to specific sub-pages, like “events that only matter to 3D printing”. As a programmer I can’t help wondering if processes will eventually be consumed by event triggers and everything will be a “if this then that” clause. Maybe soon I’ll have a “main loop” for daily activities.  How much of this can I document, and then how much can I automate?  I’ve already got event triggers that trigger other events.  Will there be a recursive loop?  Do I need try/catch blocks?  Can a company SEGFAULT!?

I’m reminded very much of a book I read not so long ago about a guy who created companies that ran on computers and their only job was to serve as legal structures to screw with music companies.  Doctorow?  Stross?  Tip of my tongue.

William, on of my new favorite-est VHS members, once said to me “an accident is always three mistakes”.  Three lessons in one and all it costs is a risk of serious injury or death.  Woo hoo?

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Makelangelo Update: Higher Resolution Images

v0.9.4 is now available from the official page and is, of course, checked into Github. There are two changes.

First, when dithering the image it now uses the average tone of the image as the cutoff value instead of just 50% grey. On the whole I find this means more of the important details are preserved.

Second, Settings > Preferences now includes an “Image Resolution” slider that goes from 50 to 500. The default value is 100. If you increase the value you’ll get more dots in your pictures that are closer together. Here’s a sample at different resolutions.

at 50

at 100 (as normal)

at 150

at 250

That last one is estimated to take almost three hours to draw!

On a side note, I love my personal wiki. I wrote down all the steps to update Makelangelo software the last time I did it and followed the steps today. I had forgotten at least three important things and found two ways to improve the method. Process control FTW!

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Delighted Customer Feedback, March 2013

Caleb sent in some pictures of his 3-arm Delta robot. He says “I’m looking forward to posting on the forums about a stand I made for the delta robot that hides the electronics, including a wireless Wii Nunchuck interface for controlling it (though I haven’t had time to program that just yet).”

Check out this beauty:

Johan also wrote in to say “I finally got some sound coming from the pickup I made from your 3D print! It actually sounds better than the original pickup I copied. Any chance you [know a machinist] who can make me an aluminum version of what you printed?”
Gladly!

Speaking of forums, I’ve just activated a new feature – when you create an account in the store it will create an account for you in the forum. One less registration form.

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Let’s Make a Makelangelo 2 Box

This tutorial shows how to assemble a DIY Makelangelo 2 Box. With this and the other video about the pen holder you should be able to get all the mechanical components together. You’ll need a hot glue gun, a screwdriver, and some patience. I’m really glad that people seem to like the fast-forwards and the extra comment ticker. I used Youtube Annotations until I realized most people have them turned off.

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MANTIS: A Giant Walking Crab Robot

I’m a huge fan of Micromagic systems. My very first crab robot was based on their design. Last year I heard they’d finally completed their giant hydraulic crab robot. I’m delighted to finally see a video. You can find out more at the Manis offical homepage.

I still want to build my own. I’m going to need a lot of help. Do you know anything about hydraulics? Drop me a line.

What do you wish you could build?

Found a whole set of videos about MANTIS