Messages

1

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 28, 2015, 05:43:36 PM »

I feel like we need a definitive answer about if the site were to change hands.

How much would sheep sell it for? Or if he would be happy to just pass it over to someone else.

Detailed current running costs would be nice too.

I already told most of the operating costs, though I have to pay taxes on the ads too, which were not included and can be significant since Google (and other ad services) uses 1099-misc's. It puts you on the hook for $1500 in taxes.

If you want it, you better make a serious offer, I'm not going to just let it go for nothing. Not because it makes me a bunch of money, but because I want to make sure whoever were to buy it, values it enough to make sure it survives another decade or more. You wouldn't be the first to make an offer and most likely wouldn't be the last. Even if someone had the money, I would still investigate their plans for it, as I did before.


What makes you think someone else would run it any better? Other than some missing posts, I haven't really done much. Most websites don't even last a year, this one has been running for 13 years (14 if you count the original site). There aren't many sites online that have even survived that long, much less without significant overhauls, change of ownerships, etc... Bike sites in particular come and go.

If I did sell it, what makes you think the new owners wouldn't also monetize it, make it even more family friendly or simply change it's entire direction? BG is run by the community, not some overlord and it's not profit driven.  Yes, it has ads, but I try and make sure they are non-intrusive as possible, I've always encouraged ad blockers, even though it costs me money when you use them. Other than this change by Google this place has been left alone as much as possible. Name any other site where it has been handed over to the inmates for years at a time?

And I know what you're thinking... Get everyone to pitch in money to buy it and run it as a community. Okay, so who's name does it go under? Who's in charge?  Given the way people here are you might get together the money, thanks to 4 or 5 dedicated people, then the place would falter over the next year and disappear. Which is almost better than what usually happens in cases like this, where one of the new "owners" decide the others are stupid and takes control of the domain name, and walks away with it or another decides they are tired of it and cancels hosting, etc... I've seen it many, many times.

You can't just buy a website and expect it to run on donations, ESPECIALLY with bmx'ers. As I said before, this site had the most users, ran the longest, and offered the most in return and still generated less money than all my other sites combined when in came to donations. One site I run is dedicated to some the cheapest cell phone service you can buy and even they donate FAR more than this place. I'm not trying to say you guys are cheap, I'm saying you ARE. Even when something is free, you can't stop thinking it needs to be more, have more and give you more. I've tried almost every suggestion to get people more involved with the site and it has NEVER produced much of anything at all. While you have been here a while, most of this was tried before even you were a member, if that gives you some idea of how long this place has been around.

Your initiative right now is about how much you can expect from most people here (not all), lots of talk and promises, and almost zero actual action. As I said, I learned long ago not to rely on the people here for much. Yes, some are older and have more income or respect for websites do, but most people here are the same as they always have.

Want more evidence?
Since this was started do you know how many people have made even a single dollar donation?  One.
I'm not kidding, one person has bothered to donate anything, and while significant (my sincerest thanks!), it is exactly what I have been saying, a few people will do the bulk, the rest are just along for the ride. If it involves more than a few click of a mouse, most won't lift a finger no matter how much bitching moaning or complaining they may do.



As for it running better, the place runs on the community. Always has, always will. The more you bitch and moan, the more you bring down the mood. Want a secret... How you effect the mood, also determines how hard mods are on you for violations. Why? Because people who make others happy contribute something. If you want the place to be better, get involved, write something, bring people. Trowing money at it does NOTHING. It doesn't bring people, it doesn't encourage discussion. Involvement does. Look at the largest chat sites online, they aren't driven by money or one person, they are driven by the community being involved. You can run the crappiest of software, if the people like the community, they will stay.

I can always pull the plug and kill BG, but only you guys can actually make it better and grow. Stop bitching and start helping. Yes, you lost some threads, get started rebuilding them. I have always maintained that this place is only what YOU make of it. I can't make all of the content. So if you want content, get started making it.

2

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 28, 2015, 05:42:14 PM »

Thanks for that huge reply, much appreciated since I know you are busy. I did check out the Griffin site and browse through the boards you have there so I knew your thoughts on big heated beds not really being viable (which I agree with to some extent, though I would think it doesn't need to be that bad if the bed is well insulated underneath and there aren't fans blowing half the energy away). I haven't even tried my HIPS yet, but the word seems to be that a heated enclosure is better anyway, and a Delta would obviously suit this well. But my worry with this is that any printed parts of the printer itself are going to start softening and melting, so ideally everything in the enclosure needs to be heat tolerant (at least up to say 80C).

In terms of inverting a delta, I can see it having limited value due to the arms striking the print, but if the hot end is underneath then some clearance is created and most prints tend to be smaller by the top anyway, it would add print height or let the side corner rails be shorter and therefore cheaper and stiffer. But I can see the code being a pig too.

My original plan was to use my current Prusa as a doner for parts to build a new cartesian but I might try a Delta as a second machine and be able to print parts for each other or print two things at once... not really short on space.

Water jet leaves such a clean cut. I often want to make small shims or plastic washers that are very difficult with most cutting methods. Lasers leave a thick edge which makes the part useless. Waterjet cut parts have a perfect edge and dont need any more preparation before welding which is nice too. With jet washers I was wondering if they could be run in series to boost the pressure.. though admittedly three 3000psi pumps in series is getting a bit much probably. 


G.

Sorry, I was out of state for a while and it wiped me out, just getting back into the swing of things. Long days, little sleep, and loads of work.

There are some instances where a big heated bed could be beneficial, multiple small parts, or just a larger column of air to be printed in. If people want to do it, fine, but it will need a relay, a HUGE power supply, and then there is the amount of heat given off. It just ads up to a bad idea in most situations. So while I give people clues on how, I certainly don't want to deal with it, I've seen what 60 amps DC dead shorted is capable of doing.

I've actually never owned a cartesian, I've dealt with them and used them, but never owned one. I had plans for a CoreXY but then we started Griffin, and that's all a distant memory. Everything now is about growing, our next product and shipping current orders. Someday we I'll get back to it, if the market allows for it, or we just get a bug up our asses. I still want a resin printer.

On your chamber, ABS will survive those conditions, my understanding is most chambers are only heated to 60c, and the bed is the standard temps. I don't know why the chamber is so low, and I suspect it was someone blowing smoke, but that's what I've heard. I would expect 80c for the chamber as well.  If ABS isn't enough, there are some other materials you could use, polycarbonate is one, but there is some new stuff from Taulman as well which can handle some serious heat. Don't use nylon, it lacks rigidity necessary for a printer.

Multiplying pumps sounds like a good idea, I had it as well, but they still operate in ambient and would blow out. You might squeak out double for a short time if they were quality pumps, but eventually they would fail and I'm not sure I would want to be around for that. I've been around 3500psi hydraulic leaks and failures, it's not good.

3

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 16, 2015, 06:36:32 PM »

You surely cannot deny that changing the board did  kill off a lot of activity.

And as for the less spam, I'm sure most of us who stuck around after the change saw how well that went.

Changing the board was the biggest mistake in the history of bikeguide. I'm sure it was easier for you to manage your other forums with but it was terrible for this community.

You can point out how bad it was all you want, it doesn't change the fact that IT HAD TO HAPPEN.

The server was outdated and constantly being attacked (once every 10 seconds, after blocking all of Asia and Russia, as well as most free email systems), the software was at risk for being hacked and was no longer going to be supported, the server was costing twice what it should, and would have cost even more if it was hacked.

I'm not saying it was good, I'm saying it was necessary, bitching and moaning will not change that.


Lastly,
What I did was only the final straw. People come for the community and information, not the software, if they left, it's partly on you guys as well. People will put up with a lot of crap for good company and info.

4

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 16, 2015, 06:02:40 PM »

This looks great. Really wish you would have given it a plug on here when it was a kickstarter.

What is the likely leadtime on an XL kit at the moment? I have been planning on building a bigger machine for a while but this looks like a quick solution rather than the issues I was looking at scaling a cartesian machine. Do you use a heated bed? How does the Gorrilla glass handle heating? I generally print with PLA so need a heated bed, but am looking at printing with HIPS soon so a heated enclosure might make more sense.

I have always wondered if a Delta bot could be made to flip half way through the print to be able to use the entire height for the print? ie. Raise the print head; then drive the print head outside the normal print envelope right off to one side; and then flip the opposite carriage to below the print head. Then repeat for the other two carriages. Then carry on printing with the carriages below the head right out the top of a shorter fatter printer... I hope this crappy description makes sense.

I would also love a small waterjet. Been wondering if it would be practical to make a sort of two foot square one for the home. Waterjet has so many advantages and if a typical pressure washer could be adapted to provide the pump it might be pretty affordable. The hardened and scruffy edge on plasma and laser cuts is a big issue sometimes.

All the best with it.


George

Sorry about that.

Lead time... depends on our electronics supplier, we've gotten our ass kicked by them. The Chinese are a royal pain in the ass to work with on anything. We hope to have a bunch start shipping early next month, and to be caught up by mid to end of the month. The problem is, we are about sold out of our first batch, before all our parts even arrive and we don't know how long it will take to resupply (again, China). Batch 2 will also have a price increase, but be a bit better and have a heated bed option on the mini and mid. The XL is impractical to heat as it would take about 750 watts to heat it. Not only can the controller not handle 60+ amps (solved with or external power), but that is a small space heater running for hours or days at a time in a small room. We do have some customers who plan to do it though. Price is set to rise this week ($200), if my partner hasn't done it already.

Just so you know, you can only do about 100-150mm in ABS without problems even with a heated bed, to get more, you really need a heated chamber, or get creative. Which is another reason heating an XL is kind of silly, since you would still be limited to that length before it curls in on itself. Heated beds also create errors in the print dimensions. I've seen many times where the print is hourglass shaped due to the temp differences as it went up. ABS needs a heated bed (3% shrink rate), as does some nylon (1-5% shrink rate), PLA does not (.03% shrink rate). It's the shrinkage that causes it to warp. We also do T-Glase (PETT) without a heated bed, in fact we are using T-Glase instead of ABS for our effectors, it's a bit more expensive but a WHOLE LOT less fickle than ABS (I HATE ABS*). Enclosures create a lot of issues, and were/are under a patent (as were windows until recently!).

There is also the OS (Open Source) version of the printer, which starts at under $500 to build, and can be upgraded to a Pro. I have a full B.O.M. with links to suppliers and an assembly manual in the forum. The Pro grew out of the OS, which was built to be home buiilt, cheaply, while the Pro was meant for production and was built with a dream list of parts. The Pro will also be open sourced for the most part, though a few parts will not (hobb, bed plate..) since they aren't really easy for someone to make without access to a machine shop or laser cutter.

Gorrilla Glass takes heat WELL, it spreads heat about as good as aluminum and doesn't chip like Borosilicate. We've crashed the head a ton and not scratched it, it's probably the best glass you could use. While it can be flexed to remove a print, I've shattered one doing it. It's tough stuff when hit head on, however, if it's hit on the side, it shatters, just like an Iphone. It's also not cheap. Corning wanted $700 for the XL glass prototype, as a result we use normal tempered glass on that model. Even in a batch of 500, they wanted $250 wholesale for the glass. Our cost on it in bulk for the mid and mini is what most other glass retails for. We are still evaluating the practicality of it, if it doesn't sell well, we may abandon it, but for the moment, we are the only ones with it. If it does do well, we'll get the price down some, but also square pieces.


Cartesians don't scale well, neither do most common deltas, the Griffin and Wolfstock (another open source design) were built to be scalable from the start. If you do a cartesian, look into h-bot and Corexy (modified h-bot), they are a better option.

Yes, you could flip the delta as it went up (and that made sense), and I thought of building a reverse one, however, your build volume at the top would be significantly smaller as your arms could hit it as they move. Otherwise, it's just a matter of making sure you have enough range of motion and finding someone to code that into the slicing system (or do it manually). To have it built into slicer, if you had to hire someone to write the plugin, based on our current investments in software, you would probably be looking at about $1000-3000.

The thing to remember on a delta is that it's very efficient in terms of deskspace, the loss is vertical, so it's not a huge deal for most people. on the other hand, a cartesian becomes more and more efficient as it gets larger. CoreXY makes more sense for a short, wide printer, it also runs fast like a delta and handles dual nozzles better.

Not all is well with big printers, our XL already caused some work for slicer creators as our XL was causing them to crash due to size. Going much beyond that brings a whole host of issues. The largest you can really do with standard parts is about 16in unless you know what to watch out for. There's just a lot of little gotchas as things get bigger, and that applies to deltas and cartesians. Not to mention build times, our XL regularly goes 24hours+ and has gone as long as 100 hours. We had one have a slicing issue at hour 38 of 40. Our Ironman helmet did that, and there's $160 worth of plastic in that print. That said, we are working on a 28inx28in (70cmx70cm)build volume delta. It will allow dual nozzles in two modes (dual filament types or 75% speed increase), 3mm filament or pellet feed and eventually a clay system. No heated bed though. It's about 80% complete and a beast, it will probably weigh 120 pounds (50 kilos)when done and start at $3-5k

If I were you, I would do a CoreXY, and a cheated chamber. I would probably use dual "all metal" hot ends, with water cooling, and put the motors and electronics outside the box (something many miss). I would NOT use Arduino, and instead use Smoothie and 400 step motors with 1/16th or 1/32nd stepping and 16t pulleys. Not a small or cheap project, but would give you the best results for space and performance. If you haven't built a printer (or similar) before from scratch expect this to run you up around $2000 to $2500, with experience, it could be done for about $1000-$1200. Just how it is with projects like this, your first one tends to cost double by the time it's working how you expect.



There was a guy on Hackaday recently who built and documented a small waterjet, almost the size you want for about $5k. Scaling it up isn't really a big issue once you understand the mechanics of it all (cnc, 3d printers, lasers, waterjets all move in similar fashion and use similar controls), but there's just not a good way to get the pressures needed cheaply. The pumps and nozzle are what get you. A pressure washer usually runs 1000-2000psi with high end ones reaching 4000. Even a low end water cutter is 10,000, and some are now up to 80,000. You might get through wood with a pressure washer, but probably not metal.

I haven't done much with laser cutters, but the one at the hackerspace doesn't seem to have rough edges. Not sure what the deal is there. The only thing I can see it being is either it's garbage, or you are talking a VERY high wattage laser on metal, which I haven't dealt with.


*Abs can be roughly about 10% stronger than PLA when done right, and handles heat better (won't warp in the sun). It also flows faster, so in theory you could print faster with it. Unfortunately it's so fickle in terms of cooling, that if you get it wrong, you can crumble it in your hands, and it's very easy to get it wrong. Keeping it from delaminating is a hassle. If you spend the time and get it right, it's fine, usually slwo and little or no cooling works, but it's just a pain in the neck and it stinks. T-glase has a temp range between PLA and ABS, and is as easy as PLA to print, but costs almost twice as much. Considering how often ABS screws up though, it can be cheaper in the long run. Also T-glase is made by one company, who knows what they are doing, whereas ABS can have different formulas, or be made by questionable companies, I've had some so out of spec it jammed by feed tube and hot end to where I needed a wire coat hanger and hammer to get it back out after it jammed. I learned on ABS, and sometimes there is no replacement for using ABS, but these days I avoid it like the plague.

5

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 16, 2015, 05:02:16 PM »

right on. Still get not he bmx from time to time, or has that come to an end (whether it be for age or work related reasons)? I wish you had resurfaced sooner, I took a big trip last year and past by St,Louis, where I think you lived (at least at some point). Would have been cool to meet you since BG certainly had a huge effect on my whole life ultimately... from that awful race report I did that you posted, which got me on a race team, out to inter bike and many other opportunities.

You're welcome.
At one time I was doing 35 mile rides on the road bike or 29'er, but then I really wrecked my back, so I haven't really been riding much. Then I built the printer, which turned into a whole other monster to deal with. I've been working 6 or 7 days a week, and usually 100 hours plus for the last 2 years. So yeah, not exactly a lot of free time. I'm determined to get back on the MTB though.

I don't live in STL, our shop is there though. I live about 60 miles out.

So why was the penthouse closed?

Inactivity and not wanting to just nuke everything in it.

wouldn't it have been in your interest to post on BG and your other forums when you had the kickstarter campaign going tho?

Possibly.
I usually try and keep my online presence compartmentalized. I've had entirely too many weird encounters and I tend to be a private person.

6

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 14, 2015, 10:28:48 PM »

So that works out to about $1800 a year, or 150 a month to keep the site running...  That's actually a pretty big chunk of change.

How many active users do we have?  and I wonder what percentage of those would actually be willing to pay like 10 dollars a year?  Probably less than 15%.

What was the cost for premium membership when that existed?  and how many people opted in for that? 

Sorry for all the questions.  I just "feel" like there's got to be a way to make this site self sustaining that doesn't rely on google advertising.  I know from work experience, though, that what I feel and what reality is don't always line up.  Still doesn't hurt for me to take a look at it, and run some numbers.

I have 4 forums, and I don't want to have 4 different chat forum software on them, therefore if I'm going to run Vbulletin on one, I'm going to run it on all 4.
Vbulletin plus mobile (which is BS) is $369 for a license, so there's $1480.

As for hosting, before I changed hosts, BG was on a dedicated server, because when BG was younger, servers were less powerful, and it required a full server to handle the load, this was about $105 per month. Even today some hosts will not put BG on a cheap hosting plan. Part of this is because of the size of all attachments, the other half is the database, it uses a lot of resources.  When i changed hosts, I dropped to a virtually private server, which is about $45 a month.

As for sustaining, the site earns a bit more than it costs to host. Am I getting rich, hell no, I make enough to pay for everything and buy lunch once or twice a month, that's about it.  Kurt can back that up.

could always take a page out of radbmx's book and have to buy an annual membership to post for sale and wanted adds and maybe a private locked sort of category where you can  post anything aslong as you have paid a bit like bmx-forum.com  have/had befor that turned to shit, like almost every other decent bmx related forum has.

maybe a monthly/bi-monthly raffle  £5 a ticket to win some part or frame from some company or some shit?

failing that could always find a way to create a spam bit and spam every other forum with this ones web address and perhaps get some new members and a bit of life/income into this place?

No, I have always said BG will be free. You want to see people leave, that's a great way to do it.
We tried a premium membership, it didn't do well at all.
We tried raffles, it was a joke.

It's good to see you are still around... I thought you handed over the site to Kurt @ BMX Union a while back though?

He handles some of the ads, and has a greater say in the day to day operations.

It's apparent Sheep doesn't really give a damn about this forum anymore and is just doing whatever he can to make the most money from it while he can before everyone get's so fed up with the bogus rules and unanswered suggestions that they jump ship, like 3/4 of the members did when he switched to the Simple Machines engine.

Yes, I totally make a fortune off this place...
3/4ths of the members didn't jump ship at the time, I purged a ton of spam members.

As for the rest, if they leave at the first change, they were just looking for a reason to leave and weren't going to be here much longer regardless.

Any time you change something on a forum a ton of users bitch and moan and a few leave, a whole bunch say they will but don't or find their way back. I could change the background to black and 20 people would shout they were leaving because of it. If I offered to go back to Vbulletin, exactly as it was before, a quarter would cheer, another quarter would scream saying don't mess with it, the other half would just shrug. Even sites that HAVE to update because things are outdated (as BG was), users will complain. Some despise change, no matter how beneficial it is.  Was all of the change for the better, maybe not on your end, but from mine...  Absolutely.

We have far less spam, I mean truckloads less. I don't have to deal with Vbulletin's fees or service, I have cheaper hosting, and in many ways, this software is actually better. Don't get me wrong, I liked Vbulletin, I still think it;s one of the best chat forum software you can get, it's very fast and low resource. It's also lagging behind on features since they sold, and their price more than doubled since I started using it.

7

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 14, 2015, 10:10:05 PM »

Get some products donated from co's and run lottos for users to generate site funds

Yeah, we tried that years ago, the products were worth far more than the money raised and then half went towards shipping everything. That was included in the $400 I stated earlier.

Well, you didn't even try by the sound of things. There are a fair few dedicated mods on this board and countless extra users who could of helped. But instead you just removed (deleted?) some of the communities favourite threads and a large section of its history.

And how much is the ad revenue? Googles input must be considerable for you to take the action you did. Maybe some transparency, rather than treating us like children. This isn't some huge mega forum, it's a fairly close knit group of people

Do you really honestly think I just went in and deleted everything? Really?
I spent 5 hours the first day, only to be denied my appeal. Then another 5 hours the second day cleaning house making absolutely that there was no way to lose the second appeal.

I think you have 24 hours to respond to Google before it's done. Once a site is blocked from Google, it will NEVER have Google ads again. Google has a limited appeals system, and once gone, you are gone. Screw up too many times, goodbye. Didn't get it right the first time, you run the chance of them denying your appeal and deciding not to consider another. Google is judge, jury and executioner and they really don't give a damn what you think. They don't listen to reason, and they don't care about evidence, comply or die.

Google is not the only ad company around, they aren't even the highest paying. They are the safest (they keep adware to a minimum), least intrusive (like pop-unders?) and most reliable in terms of actually getting paid.  Other ones will allow you to do anything you want, but you guys would have 30 popups behind your browser and a computer infested with spyware after a few days.

As for the money, I'll explain in a bit.

Start a new one, but without the tits or other sinful content that was presumably in there polluting the internets.

Interesting stuff with the printer sheep, any videos of it in action?

Exactly!
They can rebuilt over time. Nothing was really lost, you guys constantly add to it, so it's always growing. Do you honestly start from the start every time? Tastes change, styles change. Besides, dumping those HUGE threads sped up the site.

On Youtube just search delta printer, you will find tons of them. I'm not sure how much footage we actually have, we have been hard pressed to hire pro photographers and such, and our camera rigs don't do it justice.

doesn't 4chan have google ads?

Doesn't matter what anyone else does, when Google sends a notice, you are the one in their crosshairs.

8

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 13, 2015, 03:34:28 AM »

How much does it cost to run Bikeguide for a year?
Seeing your other Kickstarter success, I think you should start a "Keep Bikeguide Alive for the next 45 years" kickstarter.
I'd be down to throw in like a hundred bucks if I know the site wasn't going to have to censor itself for google ad revenue and wouldn't go away for a long time.

Most Kickstarters fail horribly and it requires lot of effort to pull off a good one.

Then there is BG, everyone says they would be down and will throw in money, a few will truly kick in but most will actually only contribute a dollar or two. In 13 years, I don't think BG has broke $400 in total donations and that even counts the raffle.

9

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 13, 2015, 03:16:23 AM »

Sheepdogs achievements:
1. Moves forum over to 'better' host, many old members lose log in details.

2. Removes rep

3. Deletes popular threads

Thanks m8

You're quite welcome!
Next time I need to verify 3,500,000 posts in 24 hours I'll be sure to call you and then you can do it. I have a lawyer on retainer, he'd be happy to draw up the contract for this, penalties and all.

A few passwords were corrupted, but many simply didn't know their passwords or were disabled because they were too f'ing easy to guess. As for the host and software change, just let me know where to send the bill and I'll switch it right back to how it was. That will be $1600 for software every 3 years, and $105 every month for hosting. No seriously, let me know and I'll send you the bill.  No? Then shut the hell up.

10

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 13, 2015, 02:25:55 AM »

That printer is amazing,  never seen a delta one before and took a fair old while to figure out what was going on,  it can't be as accurate as a regular one with 3 linear sliding axes is it?

Can't really find any videos or much else about them

Cartesians (normal printers) are based on 40's milling machines designed to be operated by humans, ours (a delta) is based on more modern robotics. A cartesian is linear across the surface (it's steps per mm never change), while a delta changes precision as it moves out from the center (more or less steps per mm).  However, in terms of accuracy, everything else matters far more than your movement resolution once you reach a certain point, how fast you can make such precise movement, how good your filament is, slop in the drive system, etc...

The good side of a delta though is the combination of speed and precision, there is less weight being moved, so there is less mass to switch directions and develop slop. We went so fast and developed so much back pressure in the system that we were breaking everything we got off the shelf, including the nozzle. Unfortunately a delta requires twice the processing power as a cartesian, and on ours, we went with double the motor resolution as well, making it need even more processing power, which is actually a serious limitation for some. We fixed that by using a cell phone processor, rather than using toy robotics electronics.

For the same level of detail and quality, we can run 3 times as fast as most other printers on the market, and often 3 times as fast.

11

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 12, 2015, 06:53:36 PM »

You guys are welcome.

By the way, for those wondering what I've been up to... 
3d printers... lots and lots of 3d printers.

A friend and I started a new company a while back building 3d printers (Griffin 3d) based on one I designed. Since then, we've raised $50k on Kickstarter last September, been to investor conventions where we had some offers, went to Makerfaire, invited to TedX, interviewed on PBS, and done local web based TV shows. It's been nuts.

We are building our own laser cutter (4ftx3ft, 110watts, cuts almost anything but metal) and invested in some software that will change 3d printing, it could result in 75% faster prints. Up next is a bigger shop so we can get a cnc, which we will more than likely buy or trade a printer for, and at some point I'll probably build a waterjet if we have the space.

12

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 12, 2015, 06:16:08 PM »

I used to have about 3700 posts. Guess ill never reach the exclusive penthouse now.

Penthouse is on hold.

13

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 12, 2015, 05:13:22 PM »

You can rebuild them if you want. I had to go through pretty much EVERY thread and post on the website trying to get Google to re-enable the ads. There is no way I, or even a small army could have gone though 300,000 pages. Which is what Google wants.

They send a not saying "you have a violation, here is an example, however there may be more", then expect you to go through and find them all.  I already tried once (4 hours worth) and apparently missed some. What gets me is they already have a list of them, so why not provide them.

I'm seriously about to tell Google where they can shove it.

14

The Lounge / Re: Sheepdog still out there

« on: March 12, 2015, 02:52:53 PM »

Yeah, I'm still around, I've just been busy as all hell.

Google is being a pain in the ass.

15

The Lounge / Re: No more boobs, buts and sexy poses.

« on: March 11, 2015, 04:30:23 PM »

Since some of you are too stupid to understand what that means...

Google is who keeps the lights on. It's not just BG effected by this, any website using Google ads will have to comply as well. You want to bitch, bitch to Google or find a new revenue source.

If you think the latter is easy, I recommend talking to Kurt at Union (Or anyone else I had helping with this) and see what he has gone through.