Oh god, as if marketplace wasn't already enough of a toxic cesspool. I miss Craigslist more and more every year, unfortunately FB marketplace seems to be where everyone in my area has congregated.
I mean, it's also in Microsoft'S business interest to keep a major computer manufacturer like Asus selling windows machines. That's one of the main reasons windows is the default OS for most people.
That seems oddly user hostile for apple. Especially for Wi-Fi passwords, which are a very common thing to share. Android has had a feature for years that generates the password as a plaintext-encoded QR code so you can share a wifi password without the other party even needing to type it in. And at least on my pixel 9, I have a toggle on the password entry field to toggle visibility.
I don't have an iOS device handy to compare against, but it surprises me that Apple wouldn't also recognize that Wi-Fi passwords in particular are extremely common things to share.
The other reason someone might want a screenshot specifically isn't to share a location, but to share a route. For instance, I might want to text a friend a screenshot of my driving route. Maps can sometimes route weirdly, so this is definitely a use-case I've needed before.
I mean if we're going to get pedantic like that, then here is the classic Dropbox evaluation:
BrandonM on April 5, 2007 | parent | context | favorite | on: My YC app: Dropbox - Throw away your USB drive
I have a few qualms with this app:
1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software.
2. It doesn't actually replace a USB drive. Most people I know e-mail files to themselves or host them somewhere online to be able to perform presentations, but they still carry a USB drive in case there are connectivity problems. This does not solve the connectivity issue.
3. It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating. I know this is premature at this point, but without charging users for the service, is it reasonable to expect to make money off of this?
Out of curiosity, do they give you a proper design file from their Ai builder? 'Proper' being ideally a Solidworks or equivalent file, but even a dimensioned vector file would be OK. I've never used sendcutsend, any time I quoted parts they came back more expensive than my local shops, but I do like the business model they have and it seems like a cool service.
I wasn't able to find anything about output files in their FAQ, and making a part in the AI builder didn't give me any answers unless I wanted to go all the way through ordering.
I mean, there's marketing copy on this page that makes me think the team doesn't really have any real manufacturing or design experience in the real world.
>>"Make this enclosure lighter while keeping it strong.
Optimized the geometry while maintaining structural requirements.
31% lighter
Structure verified"
Are we supposed to believe the AI just intuitively knows how strong is strong enough for the hypothetical enclosure? Engineering is about designing against actual constraints, and often those constraints are the actual hard part. For example, determining how strong an enclosure is is very easy, analysis tools in CAD/Cam software have had that for years and calculating yield is a 1st or 2nd year undergrad problem. The actual hard part is knowing how strong is strong enough. Rarely, if ever, are actual limits given in hard units. The engineer needs to determine how strong the enclosure needs to be to survive the intended use, and balance that with cost. But those design limits normally aren't given as "this needs to withstand this many kPa of point load", determining what that load is is often the hard part. There seems to be a lot of hand waving going on with this marketing copy and absolutely no details, only a 'book a demo' link.
I'd also be very, very skeptical of how useful and modifiable the design files produced are. It's really easy to crap out a design in parametric CAD that is un-modifiable. Sketches can be done poorly or the model can be structured badly, so it becomes hard to edit later. I notice that their example files are all 3d meshes and not proper design files. If I'm making a physical product, having just a STL file doesn't help me much if I need to actually modify 'my' design. Am I to believe they can actually export a Solidworks file? I'm skeptical.
While in theory it's a cool idea, this marketing copy amakes me think this is a vibe-coded project by a team with very little real-world experience. They are likely going to struggle landing any real customers, since their sales team won't be able to answer the questions a serious customer is going to ask. However, they will probably book some demos from people who have a idea of a product but no real road map. As someone who has done software consulting adjacent to this space (focusing on small manufacturers and design houses that would be their customers), the type of customers that will book a demo off of this page are also the type of customers you don't want to have.
an agent could run a finite element analysis or some kind of generative design algorithm, it's not new stuff all of it is already available in Fusion by Autodesk.
Not the parent poster, but I've been getting really tired of 3d printed crap and Ai generated slop models have just made it worse.
For background I've been into 3d printing since 2013, my first printer was an acrylic i3 clone with a RAMPS controller running Marlin. I've built 3 printers over the years and use my current one pretty regularly. I've been a 3d printing evangelist for years.
That said, going to any sort of craft fair or places like Etsy, and low effort 3d printed garbage is really getting annoying. I was at my small, local renfaire earlier this summer and 1/4 of the booths were just selling 3d printed and laser cut stuff, most of which were designs that are easily found online. I've seen this kind of stuff taking over at other similar spaces, and have seen people complaining about it for a year or so. It would maybe not be so much of a problem if people were making their own designs, but when it's just a model off of printables with at best some minor tweaks made by an AI tool, I have trouble getting excited.
For reference, of the 10 vendors I actually talked to who were selling these kinds of things, none had made any models themselves or were even familiar with blender, tinkercad, or any other modeling tools. There were 3d printed 'ale steins' that had had text embossed onto them, or plywood tchotkes with AI art lasered onto them. Annoying, since anyone who has done even a basic Google search should be well aware that 3d printing, especially FDM, is a terrible process for something like a drinking glass, that will be bacteria heaven and impossible to properly clean without very specific post-processing.
So while I can't say this is why the parent poster was annoyed, this is one of the reasons someone would be annoyed with 3d printing. If I'm browsing at a renfaire, I'm looking for a handmade thing to add to my costume or home decor. The last thing I want to see in that type of environment is a Ai-generated image of a dragon burned onto a cheap set of bamboo coasters bought off of alibaba. I've seen videos and posts onli3of people expressing similar annoyances, but the have been crafting, sewing, and similar creators so probably outside the general HN zeitgeist.
Yes that's exactly where I'm coming from. I love 3D printing as a concept (funny how people will make up a whole life story for you online) but it has one very strong parallel with generative AI.
I see zero reason in the slightest to ever put a product of it in front of someone else. If I want a 3D printed dragon I can get the exact dragon I want printed for me. If I want an AI stock image I can have the exact image I want generated for me.
One of my concerns lately is the mountain of absolute crap that grows exponentially by the day. Any initiative to add yet more crap to the pile is something I'm against. There's already 1000+ crappy versions of every possible invention. Are we really in such dire need of more that there should be AIs shitting them out like machine guns?
You're not going to be able to find ANYTHING on amazon.
I mean, I wasn't inventing a life story. I added the detail to provide background on why I'm not anti-3d-printing generally. I'm coming from a place where I've helped multiple friends build their own 3d printers and have actually done the reprap thing of printing parts to make new printers.
>>"I see zero reason in the slightest to ever put a product of it in front of someone else"
That is many people's problem with it. It's super easy to set up the physical equivalent of AI slop at a craft fair. I'm not wanting to delve into it, but given the rise of vendors I wouldn't be surprised if selling 3d printed and laser cut stuff is the new meta being pushed by the same types of people who sell 'make money online' courses. Think the same type of worthless courses that a few years ago would be pitching dropshipping courses. Per my other comment, 3d printed beer steins. Anyone with any 3d printing experience should know that's a bad idea, but I saw multiple for sale.
Amazon is less infested, since they require you to print and ship up front for FBA, but it's still there. That was the 1st result for "3d fidget cone". Looks like they are selling at least some, although no clue how profitable it actually is. Amazon search is awful, but having to parse through garbage like this certainly doesn't help.
we had a lot of people ask us for help with their art projects.
try xfgr.ai where we tried super hard to preserve artistic intent, while also still managing to make press-brake simple bend brackets.
sendcutsend can do it as well, reasonably so. but you don't get the file. you have to buy the part from them, and they still own the file, you'll never get it for yourself.
Plus, couldn't a theoretical bailout come with pretty onerous terms and focus on just the actual space launch & starlink divisions? It isn't hard to argue that they are as critical of a defense contractor as Lockheed. However, supposedly ~80% of the value is AI and Twitter, which certainly aren't in the same category.
I agree that stockholders would likely not come out well at all in a theoretical bailout. A bailout would likely involve chapter 11 or something similar, and shareholders would be last in line behind other creditors. They might get additional protection if it looked like the collapse of the company would significantly affect retirement and pension funds, but that hypothetical certainly doesn't give me any additional faith in the stock.
reply