Some more for amusement.

Some terrifically titled papers from a discovered collection of NASA research documents found in a skip

(with thanks to @JuliaRez for the original pic)

@cccpresser you don't need to build it yourself! Just go to https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases
and you can download pre built executables for Linux, Mac or Windows. There's the v1.1 Release Candidate there and also even more cutting edge weekly builds.

@Acionna @FreeCAD yes, although I'd like to be able to do the meshing, case setup, and visualisation within FreeCAD (as already implemented for Calculix). I want to use Code Aster as it's better for shells (I need composites). I haven't used Code Saturne much, I mostly use OpenFOAM for full field CFD, through the excellent CfdOF workbench which does all the preproc. I still mostly postproc with Paraview. What are you using Code Saturne for?

@Acionna @FreeCAD Brilliant! For some time I've been trying to integrate Code Aster into FreeCAD, although not getting as far with it as I'd like:
https://github.com/AMRC-Composites/FreeCAD-CodeAster/tree/main

Continuing my series of posts on the development work we've been doing so far, this one is about the frame and how it works to give good handling:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/149280801

This is effectively a government backed advertising campaign for Big Tech for a product that doesn't work properly.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:nipumwx3u4mmucphtmz54kut/post/3mdhunr6q6s2u

@anne_twain @pluralistic another example of "even if you're paying you're still the product" is how much crap the software companies push into 'business productivity' software. Having used mainly Linux for several years I'm always shocked to see Windows (on a corporate managed system) pushing so many clickbait news story notifications. A company is paying for Windows and yet Microsoft is actively trying to distract that company's workers, all for a few fractions of a penny click through revenue.

@perthwolfman the bloody thing attacks hang gliders also!

A big thank you to everyone that's sponsoring my development efforts through Patreon (www.patreon.com/hgdev). We're making progress, so I'm writing up a summary of what we've achieved so far, the first section is here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/hows-it-going-1-147742037

I think one of the funniest things about Fedi is that you have an above average chance of interacting with someone who's an actual expert in something. Just did an inadvertent Bensplain to someone who's clearly an expert in the field I referenced. Oh you've probably never *heard* of this thing. What's that - you *invented* it? Oh sorry.

@bert_hubert @concretedog I think this ties is your question about why OSS engineering software isn't used in academia (and also in engineering companies, academia isn't really different to a corporation in this respect). "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" works just as well if you substitute CATIA/Creo/NX for IBM. People say they are "industry standard" (despite conforming to no "standard" in an accurate sense of the word), what they mean is "I can't be blamed for what they do/don't do".

To compete with AWS and other hyperscalers, you need more than technology. Large incumbent cloud providers are also selling comfort to corporate employees. And if you too want to rake in billions of revenues, you had best be selling that too: https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/aws-and-microsoft-are-selling-much-more-than-cloud/

Used @FreeCAD to design the moulds for the winglet. So printing the patterns (Prusa XL) to make moulds from which eventually the carbon parts will be made from. There's a pair of winglets, each mould is in 2 halves (plus some small loose pieces), the pattern for each half is printed in two sections and the print takes nearly 2 days. So about 2 weeks of solid 3D printing time to do the full set.

Neat paper I missed in 2024 - these guys took an ultrasonic wedge wire bonder - the kind that's used to attach wires to chips - scaled it up by 15x, and used it to 3D print aluminium! Pretty cheap to implement, not much to it. Pretty cool. Open access, DOI: 10.3390/ma17102188

@koen_hufkens @concretedog yes, actually as correction I shouldn't say just academia increasingly filled with bean counters, the same also goes for government and also for most large businesses!

@concretedog @koen_hufkens also measurement fallacy. Academia increasingly filled with bean counters. Bean counters need beans to count.

@concretedog one way to approach this might be to contact the "Value Added Resellers". One reason SolidWorks became so popular is the VAR network they built up.
https://www.solidworks.com/how-to-buy/find-solidworks-reseller/
Potentially these might see a good business in selling support and customisation for FreeCAD. Paying for engineering software is something that all engineering companies expect, but then they expect a level of service too. You or I aren't going to give them that, but these guys might.

@concretedog yes, the USP of Open Source is not having vendor lock in and digital sovereignty, so I'd see the ability to self host as pretty critical to that.

@koen_hufkens @concretedog unfortunately in some heads for FOSS "zero price" = "zero value"