The Death of GitHub

So, it’s official – Microsoft has bought GitHub for a whopping $7.5B – enough to make Dr Evil’s pinky head mouth-ward.

I find this, in modern parlance, “problematic”.

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i3 Tiling Window Manager – xmonad-style keybindings

This should be a quick post. After spending far too much time lurking on /g/, I finally took the plunge and looked into the world of Tiling Window Managers.

Laptop interface with i3 & i3status

I generally use a laptop at home (and hate touch pads with passion) so avoid the mouse as much as possible. I’d heard lots of talk of them being great for keyboard-only use, so dipped my toe in and tried a few out… [click the image to go straight to config files]

15mm Sci-Fi Barricade – 3D Printed Scenery

I’ve started to design as much 15mm sci-fi scenery/terrain as I can before summer, with the hopes of having a sprawling mess of a gaming table for when I can get a proper group together for a while.

First up was a simple barricade, as pictured above – 4 or 5 of these can really help filter movement on the table! All files available from Thingiverse, as per usual – I’ll update this post if I can get better photos after painting.

Deep Space D-6 – Basic VASSAL Module

Recently I have been looking for board games to play solo, as I don’t always have other players around. Whilst trawling BoardGameGeek lists, I came across Deep Space D-6

And I think it is awesome! It was an entry in their annual Solitaire Print&Play competition, so I grabbed the files, printed out a set and got playing.

Car Phone Holder

Here you will find my latest useful creation, a phone mount for my car. It uses the CD slot for mounting, and from their my phone connects to a bluetooth FM transmitter to allow my music/GPS/phone calls to come in over my car radio.

Silhouette Miniatures

So whilst browsing Google+ one day (yes, someone still uses G+!), I discovered a wargamer playing with some paper miniatures, printed on their normal printer. Just simple silhouettes of modern soldiers, but effective enough for proxies on the cheap.

So I decided to go one better, and 3D print my own equivalent!

3D Printed Squad

3D Printer Setup – Learn from my mistakes!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything… Since being in the new house, tinkering with my 3D printer has absorbed roughly 75% of my free time. Although I got my printer and kit-form (with oh-so-useful hidden instructions written in Chinese), I was fully expecting some work to be involved. But I wasn’t expecting the learning curve I found! See these failed test prints…

3D printing is a wonderful and interesting new technology, but it is not consumer-ready by any stretch of the imagination. If you decide to invest in a 3D printer, prepare to learn everything about how it works. And if you’re not willing to spend many hours tweaking, learning, and failing repeatedly, I recommend not buying a printer. Just order 3D printed objects from a maker online if you desperately need something.

I faced several issues on my journey to reliable prints (and they could still be improved), but below you’ll find my essential setup tips.