Any recommendations on CAD software for hobbyists?

I've been getting by with FreeCAD when I need to be precise, Blender when I don't (both use python scripting 🐍)

I used Autodesk Inventor ~10 years ago, but it seems like everything moved to Fusion360 or Solidworks

Any freemiums I should try?

You gotta switch to the "Street Fighter" version control system

• Desktop
• Desktop II
• Desktop II: Champion Edition
• Desktop II Turbo: Hyper
• Super Desktop II
• Super Desktop II Turbo
• Hyper Desktop II: Anniversary Edn
• Super Desktop II Turbo HD Remix
• Ultra Desktop II: The Final Folders

Hello 👋 I'm Cloud, and I like to make stuff.

10+ years in Healthtech as an analyst, developer, architect. Now working at a hardware startup.

Enjoyer of IoT, 3D Printing, Modern/Retro gaming, DIY woodwork, and other geek stuff (big fan of Python especially 🐍)

Love puns - a glutton for PUNishment

Resumes and educational background are important, but experience can typically be verified pretty quickly.

I think something like this applies in every industry - it's important to know what the "White Balance Test" is for yours. (4/4)

I've used similar shortcuts in the software dev space

There's a broad spectrum of "software developers" out there - plenty of self-taught devs will outshine many folks with a CS degree

The best candidates may not know a specific tool/framework/solution, but they'll have the basics down cold (3/4)

To vet a candidate, he hands them a camera & asks them to white balance it.

To anyone in the biz, this is second nature - find the settings, perform the process.

Meanwhile, amateurs struggle or ask, "do what now?"

It's not hard, but if you have to Google it, you probably aren't a good fit. (2/4)

The "White Balance Test" ⬜️ 📹

My videographer friend occasionally has to hire an extra cameraman for a gig, but has to separate the Pros from "guys who own a nice camera".

So, he uses the "White Balance Test" 🧵 | 1/4

- the occasional herpetology enthusiast recommending ball pythons as starter pets
- the rare Monty Python gif
- one guy with a gym mirror selfie who still calls biceps "pythons"

PVP games before balance patches existed

There is an entire industry built around the balance-patch-to-tier-list-youtube-video pipeline that couldn't exist in the cartridge-or-disk-local-multiplayer-only era

Everyone who just joined and is looking for Python people to connect with, I made a "starter pack" with many of the fun accounts. Add them to your followers list, #python:

go.bsky.app/3Uzma1g

Relevant xkcd:

xkcd.com/1179/

Results:

- Excel mixes up minutes and months due to formatting, show up on the wrong date; disqualified

- Unix shows up 70 years after Excel; disqualified

- ISO 8601 has to fight itself, but nobody watches it because they didn't designate a timezone; declared winner by default

Undercard:
The guy who started using ISO format without hyphens vs the guy who started using ISO format with a space instead of a "T"

We need to find the folks that created the ISO datetime format, the Unix timestamp, and the Excel date/time float, and throw them into the octagon to see whose UTC format is the standard for all time series.

Call it "The Timestomp" or "UTC UFC" or "Prime Time Zone" or "The Format Floor Spat" or...

There's definitely a rabbit hole on each of those 3-

SQL -> Views, subqueries, indexing, stored procedures...

Python -> jupyter, numpy, pandas, matplotlib, sklearn, win32com...

Excel -> Tables, pivot tables, data connections...

Every tool's an iceberg, and it's worth it to dig deep on the basics

I was an analyst for ~10 years, mostly at small/medium-sized businesses. I gotta say, a lot of the "Big Data" tools out there are overkill for most applications.
If you aren't at a FAANG, (ie, you don't have 1,000+ data points for 50 million users), you can mostly get by with SQL, python, and Excel.

Throwback to lockdown, when I turned our apartment into a Zelda-themed escape room. One of my favorite projects to-date!

Learned a lot about RFID, as most of the puzzles were introduced by scanning knock-off amiibo cards with the Sheikah Slate.

imgur.com/a/i-made-aze...

Your bird box is just fledgling

Just make sure your cat boxes all stay indoors until its flight panels come in

Couple of seasons ago, I was monitoring a nesting box and saw some Black Capped Chickadees fledge! Built with a Pi Zero and PiCam

Thinking of giving it another go this Spring!

www.youtube.com/live/BCSlqEj...

Oh we do this now

⚙️ Maker
💻 Software Development
🐍 Python
🧱 3D Printing
♾️ Arduino
🥧 Raspberry Pi
⚗️ Data Science
🔨 DIY
🕹️ Gaming
🐦‍⬛ Birding

I find my projects end up in 1 of 3 categories:

- rat's nest of wires
- spent too long designing an enclosure
- "the kit took all the fun out of it"

Feels like there's still room for a set of modular controls/sensors that "looks nice" but still feel "hacky" and isn't tied to a specific environment