I mean, I could totally see Lego Racing League being a thing usuing small-ish scale cars. Maybe even use it to get kids to develop autonomous driving… Give kids a bunch of legos and watch them start getting shit done because… “its fun”.

Are going to have a full sized lego technic racing league now?

That’d be hilarious.

Or even just an R/C scaled league.

I imagine about a month after productivity drops because they’re having rampant sex at work… we’ll be seeing another article “Putin encourages Russians to get back to work and stop having sex.”

Well. yes. it does strongly depend on what you intend to do with it.

Python is a great language that’s very broadly used; there’s a reason that Apache added the python API; after all. (and why Scala is plummeting.) I wouldn’t even say Pascal was all that useful, to me. I think I ‘learned it’ enough to get through the dumb book, and then went on to something else. C++ was more fun anyhow.

oh. this will end well.

It’s also important to note that you might come out ahead in learning those abstract concepts using a harder language.

But my first language was Pascal. from a book stolen from my dad’s library. Then C++. I still wouldn’t call myself anything other than an amateur… I mean, my dad can do more with one line of C than most programmers can do in their entire career. (he really shouldn’t. but he does. Calls it “job security”.)

that pie looks delicious.

Can I come over? :) I need more varieties of pie in my life.

Wait. What?

We don’t need to.

It’s people having fun.

I will never understand nfl football. Dudes in tights chasing other dudes in tights. Idiots dressing up in cosplay being stupid.

How many fans are going to downvote that? (And how many would make fun of me for the DnD cosplay at a con?)

Smash garlic cloves with the side of a big knife to make the skin much easier to remove

not a technique per se, but whole garlic bulbs are usually significantly less expensive than the jarred minced, with shitloads more flavor (and more you can do with it.). and an extra-fine microplane grater will turn that clove into paste in seconds. (or ginger, super fine zest, super fine cheese if you wanna nice melty shred.

as for tomatoes… the reason canned tomatoes taste better is that the canners set up shop near the farmers, so they don’t have to pick them green. same with a lot of frozen fruits/veggies. with fruit, you tend to loose some texture (strawberries going ‘soft’ is an example,) but, if you’re not needing the whole fruit, they’re going to be better.

Not the illegal ones.

But it does cut down on the legal ones.

marinate your veggies before grilling. (onions, squash/zucchini.) 1-1 mix of oil and vinegar (or some other acid.) and salt. maybe garlic, herbs. whatever. brush on just a bit of a coating, it doesn’t take much.

also for grilled onions, get poultry skewers. before slicing the onion (so as to create rings,) run the skewers through, then just remove before serving. The skewer will keep them together. Perfect for burgers.

knife skills. This isn’t really a single technique, and it’s pretty freaking basic, but, work on your knife skills. Focus on being neat, the speed will come with practice.

any of the videos with Jaques Pepin doing omelettes, There’s alot of things in those videos that will 100% up your omelette game. The country omellete is a favorite around here. (Also the classic scrambled, even if they’re too wet for me… certain people like them better that way.)

(by the way… Jacques fancied them up first… that’s the ‘Classic Omelette’… though that one must be newer because it wasn’t filmed with a potato)

another video where he’s showing two, a slightly different country omelette, and a classic I mention this one because what struck me is… “one is not better than the other… it’s just a different way.” (we maybe have arguments here…)

I promise… it’s just enthusiasm!

even the linux-from-scratch snobs are usually pretty decent (really it’s only when it’s their first time out of the server room in too-long a time). I usually try to switch it up to something like "have you tried playing The Battle for Wesnoth. (it’s a turn based fantasy strategy game that’s… uhm. surprisingly good.)

mostly… I tell people who are using linux that I use linux, too.

The sudden moment of awkwardness when you realize they’re using ubuntu and might run back to microcrap because you came on to strong is real.

Can you actually make a healthy candy bar that doesn’t have all the qualities of sawdust-flavored sand?

Mostly by the cost? As for sets, they’re going to be 200+ easy.

Theres also some difference in tolerances, but to be honest, a super tight tolerance is a double edged sword. Bulk-produced bolts won’t be as tight anyhow.

For casual/infrequent uses, it’s totally fine to get the inexpensive ones. (I’d recommend going to a local hardware store, they tend to have not totally-shitty sets and most sizes/threads individually.)

Also, for printed parts, you can absolutely just cut in with the bolt, unless your printer is somewhat inconsistent, a with a well-calibrated printer, all you really need to know is how much your holes tend to shrink (the thermal contraction as the plastic causes the final diameter to be smaller. This is why we invented test prints…… well. Not me. Somebody’s smarter than me.)

So the stuff about the 1/8” rod is… just a general fabrication tip.

If you’re ever reading a bill of materials and they call for threaded rod- which is unfortunately common for a lot of printer groups- you can almost always use the same size smooth rod if you cut thread on the ends with a die.

It saves money (threaded rod is smooth rod with threads cut the full length,) and it looks neater. (A drill and some sand paper and a bit of scrapped t-shirt cloth doped with green buffing compound will make it shiny, even.)

What the other person is saying about tap magic, is just to use lubricants while cutting. 3-in-1’s og is my go to. Tap magic is a similar brand. You can get by with wd-40 if you have to.

all it’s doing is helping with temperature, and making cleaner cuts since it lubes every thing (the cutting edge still bites, but it doesn’t bind as much with the chips.)

The other thing to remember is that every turn or half turn, you should break off the chips (the metal coming off,) by backing off a quarter turn. This helps keep the cutting head free making a neater thread.

Other than that there’s no reason to be intimidated by any of this. For this, you can probably just cut the m5 thread, but you’ll want to predrill what ever bolt’s standard bore size is, and be sure to keep that square and straight as you do.

The uxcell is a “cheap” brand, for a one-time thing it’s fine but if you find you use it more and it’s getting frustrating to use… it’s lost its edge and is dull.

So, the biggest difference in quality is the steel and hardness.

For 2020 aluminum, it’s not that big of a deal. Even less so for “occasional” use. For harder metals, the cheapos will wear out faster and that maybe leads to frustration.

Guess my point was… we almost never use more than 2-3 in a set, so, it’s better to get the 2-3 and better quality at the same - but totally get the cheapie if you don’t want to spend that much.

At least I only use m3,5 and 1/8” sets.

Also, for the record, you can absolutely tap plastic for a reasonably strong thread. Just add a couple extra perimeters.

So the thread in the aluminum was stripped?

There’s a few options that might work. Threadlocker isn’t really epoxy or glue. I’d the thread is merely loose, it’ll keep it from coming out with vibration.

Another option is straight up epoxy- but this would be hard to undo.

Possibly, the best option would be to re-tap the thread. You might be able to get an m4 tap and clean it up with that.

If that doesn’t work, or it’s already that far gone, you could probably go up to an m5, though that would weaken the extrusion more than intended.

If you do want to try re-tapping, avoid the trap of buying tap and die sets. Just get the individual pieces you need (the chuck/holder thing and a the m4 or m5 tap.) a cheap set will still be more expensive than high-quality taps in the 2-3 sizes you actually wind up using.

(Also, general note 1/8” smooth rod is in every hardware store, and a die is much cheaper than 1/8” thread and usually looks neater, unless you need it fully threaded.)