#print automation tools

[flexiweb2print]

The Evolution of Online Printing Solutions: Empowering Businesses and Individuals

In the computerized age, where accommodation and effectiveness rule, Online Printing Solutions have reformed how organizations and people approach their printing needs. Whether you're a little startup, a developing undertaking, or a singular hoping to customize your tasks, the availability and flexibility of Online Printing have opened up a universe of potential outcomes.

Comfort Readily available

Gone are the times of customary printing processes that necessary different visits to neighborhood print shops or extended calls to orchestrate orders. Online Printing Solutions have smoothed out this whole experience, setting the ability to plan and print straightforwardly under the control of the client. With only a couple of snaps, you can transfer your plans, pick your determinations, and submit your request — all from the solace of your office or home.

Adaptability and Customization

One of the main benefits of Online Printing Solutions is the capacity to modify your prints as per your remarkable prerequisites. Whether you really want business cards, flyers, banners, or even customized gifts, Online Printing administrations offer many items and customization choices. From choosing paper types and wraps up to picking explicit sizes and amounts, the adaptability guarantees that each print meets your accurate details.

Cost-Viability and Time Proficiency

For organizations, overseeing printing needs online frequently demonstrates more savvy than customary strategies. Online Printing administrations normally work with lower above costs, permitting them to offer serious estimating and limits for mass requests. Also, the smoothed out process — from plan to conveyance — lessens completion times altogether, guaranteeing that pressing printing necessities can be met instantly.

Quality and Amazing skill

In spite of confusions, Online Printing Solutions focus on quality and impressive skill in their results. Numerous respectable web-based printers use cutting edge printing innovation and premium materials, guaranteeing that the eventual outcome meets or surpasses customary print quality norms. This devotion to quality stretches out to client care, where experienced help groups are accessible to help with requests and address any worries.

Eco-Accommodating Practices

In a period progressively centered around supportability, numerous Online Printing organizations are embracing eco-accommodating practices. This incorporates utilizing reused materials, limiting waste through proficient creation cycles, and offering choices for earth mindful inks and coatings. For organizations and people looking to diminish their natural impression, these practices present a convincing motivation to pick Online Printing Solutions.

The Eventual fate of Printing: Development and Joining

Looking forward, the fate of Online Printing Solutions proceeded with development and joining with computerized innovations. Progressions, for example, web-to-print stages, computerized work processes, and combination with plan programming are upgrading comfort and productivity further. Also, improvements in 3D printing and on-request printing are extending the extent of what's conceivable, offering new roads for imagination and customization.

Embracing Online Printing Solutions

Taking everything into account, Online Printing Solutions have changed the printing scene, offering unmatched comfort, customization, and cost-adequacy. Whether for business showcasing materials, individual tasks, or concentrated printing needs, embracing internet printing opens a universe of potential outcomes. By utilizing these arrangements, organizations and people the same can accomplish their printing objectives effectively, economically, and with inflexible quality.

Online Printing isn't simply a help; it's an impetus for imagination, effectiveness, and progress in the cutting edge computerized age.

[bulkmockify]

Want to scale your shop? Start with better images!

Selling digital artwork? Stunning mockups increase conversions! Generate high-quality product images for t-shirts, mugs, and sublimation files instantly.

[designmindsstudio]

Maximize Your Sales with Professional Mockups

Wildlife & Safari Coloring Pages – Adventure Awaits!

List your sublimation designs faster with BulkMockify! Upload, choose, and download professional mockups in minutes.

[subliprintpalace]

Want to scale your digital business? BulkMockify helps you grow!

[filehulk]

NoMachine

NoMachine is a remote connection application for PCs that allows you to access file systems and control target systems with additional features like video and audio streaming. If you’re in search of a reliable software solution for remotely connecting to any computer and accessing your files quickly, NoMachine is the perfect tool for a seamless remote desktop experience. With its intuitive…

[jcmarchi]

New computer vision method helps speed up screening of electronic materials

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/new-computer-vision-method-helps-speed-up-screening-of-electronic-materials/

New computer vision method helps speed up screening of electronic materials

Boosting the performance of solar cells, transistors, LEDs, and batteries will require better electronic materials, made from novel compositions that have yet to be discovered.

To speed up the search for advanced functional materials, scientists are using AI tools to identify promising materials from hundreds of millions of chemical formulations. In tandem, engineers are building machines that can print hundreds of material samples at a time based on chemical compositions tagged by AI search algorithms.

But to date, there’s been no similarly speedy way to confirm that these printed materials actually perform as expected. This last step of material characterization has been a major bottleneck in the pipeline of advanced materials screening.

Now, a new computer vision technique developed by MIT engineers significantly speeds up the characterization of newly synthesized electronic materials. The technique automatically analyzes images of printed semiconducting samples and quickly estimates two key electronic properties for each sample: band gap (a measure of electron activation energy) and stability (a measure of longevity).

The new technique accurately characterizes electronic materials 85 times faster compared to the standard benchmark approach.

The researchers intend to use the technique to speed up the search for promising solar cell materials. They also plan to incorporate the technique into a fully automated materials screening system.

“Ultimately, we envision fitting this technique into an autonomous lab of the future,” says MIT graduate student Eunice Aissi. “The whole system would allow us to give a computer a materials problem, have it predict potential compounds, and then run 24-7 making and characterizing those predicted materials until it arrives at the desired solution.”

“The application space for these techniques ranges from improving solar energy to transparent electronics and transistors,” adds MIT graduate student Alexander (Aleks) Siemenn. “It really spans the full gamut of where semiconductor materials can benefit society.”

Aissi and Siemenn detail the new technique in a study appearing today in Nature Communications. Their MIT co-authors include graduate student Fang Sheng, postdoc Basita Das, and professor of mechanical engineering Tonio Buonassisi, along with former visiting professor Hamide Kavak of Cukurova University and visiting postdoc Armi Tiihonen of Aalto University.

Power in optics

Once a new electronic material is synthesized, the characterization of its properties is typically handled by a “domain expert” who examines one sample at a time using a benchtop tool called a UV-Vis, which scans through different colors of light to determine where the semiconductor begins to absorb more strongly. This manual process is precise but also time-consuming: A domain expert typically characterizes about 20 material samples per hour — a snail’s pace compared to some printing tools that can lay down 10,000 different material combinations per hour.

“The manual characterization process is very slow,” Buonassisi says. “They give you a high amount of confidence in the measurement, but they’re not matched to the speed at which you can put matter down on a substrate nowadays.”

To speed up the characterization process and clear one of the largest bottlenecks in materials screening, Buonassisi and his colleagues looked to computer vision — a field that applies computer algorithms to quickly and automatically analyze optical features in an image.

“There’s power in optical characterization methods,” Buonassisi notes. “You can obtain information very quickly. There is richness in images, over many pixels and wavelengths, that a human just can’t process but a computer machine-learning program can.”

The team realized that certain electronic properties — namely, band gap and stability — could be estimated based on visual information alone, if that information were captured with enough detail and interpreted correctly.

With that goal in mind, the researchers developed two new computer vision algorithms to automatically interpret images of electronic materials: one to estimate band gap and the other to determine stability.

The first algorithm is designed to process visual data from highly detailed, hyperspectral images.

“Instead of a standard camera image with three channels — red, green, and blue (RBG) — the hyperspectral image has 300 channels,” Siemenn explains. “The algorithm takes that data, transforms it, and computes a band gap. We run that process extremely fast.”

The second algorithm analyzes standard RGB images and assesses a material’s stability based on visual changes in the material’s color over time.

“We found that color change can be a good proxy for degradation rate in the material system we are studying,” Aissi says.

Material compositions

The team applied the two new algorithms to characterize the band gap and stability for about 70 printed semiconducting samples. They used a robotic printer to deposit samples on a single slide, like cookies on a baking sheet. Each deposit was made with a slightly different combination of semiconducting materials. In this case, the team printed different ratios of perovskites — a type of material that is expected to be a promising solar cell candidate though is also known to quickly degrade.

“People are trying to change the composition — add a little bit of this, a little bit of that — to try to make [perovskites] more stable and high-performance,” Buonassisi says.

Once they printed 70 different compositions of perovskite samples on a single slide, the team scanned the slide with a hyperspectral camera. Then they applied an algorithm that visually “segments” the image, automatically isolating the samples from the background. They ran the new band gap algorithm on the isolated samples and automatically computed the band gap for every sample. The entire band gap extraction process process took about six minutes.

“It would normally take a domain expert several days to manually characterize the same number of samples,” Siemenn says.

To test for stability, the team placed the same slide in a chamber in which they varied the environmental conditions, such as humidity, temperature, and light exposure. They used a standard RGB camera to take an image of the samples every 30 seconds over two hours. They then applied the second algorithm to the images of each sample over time to estimate the degree to which each droplet changed color, or degraded under various environmental conditions. In the end, the algorithm produced a “stability index,” or a measure of each sample’s durability. 

As a check, the team compared their results with manual measurements of the same droplets, taken by a domain expert. Compared to the expert’s benchmark estimates, the team’s band gap and stability results were 98.5 percent and 96.9 percent as accurate, respectively, and 85 times faster.

“We were constantly shocked by how these algorithms were able to not just increase the speed of characterization, but also to get accurate results,” Siemenn says.  “We do envision this slotting into the current automated materials pipeline we’re developing in the lab, so we can run it in a fully automated fashion, using machine learning to guide where we want to discover these new materials, printing them, and then actually characterizing them, all with very fast processing.”

This work was supported, in part, by First Solar. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI can’t do your job

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in SAN DIEGO at MYSTERIOUS GALAXY on Mar 24, and in CHICAGO with PETER SAGAL on Apr 2. More tour dates here.

AI can't do your job, but an AI salesman (Elon Musk) can convince your boss (the USA) to fire you and replace you (a federal worker) with a chatbot that can't do your job:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/amid-job-cuts-doge-accelerates-rollout-of-ai-tool-to-automate-government

If you pay attention to the hype, you'd think that all the action on "AI" (an incoherent grab-bag of only marginally related technologies) was in generating text and images. Man, is that ever wrong. The AI hype machine could put every commercial illustrator alive on the breadline and the savings wouldn't pay the kombucha budget for the million-dollar-a-year techies who oversaw Dall-E's training run. The commercial market for automated email summaries is likewise infinitesimal.

The fact that CEOs overestimate the size of this market is easy to understand, since "CEO" is the most laptop job of all laptop jobs. Having a chatbot summarize the boss's email is the 2025 equivalent of the 2000s gag about the boss whose secretary printed out the boss's email and put it in his in-tray so he could go over it with a red pen and then dictate his reply.

The smart AI money is long on "decision support," whereby a statistical inference engine suggests to a human being what decision they should make. There's bots that are supposed to diagnose tumors, bots that are supposed to make neutral bail and parole decisions, bots that are supposed to evaluate student essays, resumes and loan applications.

The narrative around these bots is that they are there to help humans. In this story, the hospital buys a radiology bot that offers a second opinion to the human radiologist. If they disagree, the human radiologist takes another look. In this tale, AI is a way for hospitals to make fewer mistakes by spending more money. An AI assisted radiologist is less productive (because they re-run some x-rays to resolve disagreements with the bot) but more accurate.

In automation theory jargon, this radiologist is a "centaur" – a human head grafted onto the tireless, ever-vigilant body of a robot

Of course, no one who invests in an AI company expects this to happen. Instead, they want reverse-centaurs: a human who acts as an assistant to a robot. The real pitch to hospital is, "Fire all but one of your radiologists and then put that poor bastard to work reviewing the judgments our robot makes at machine scale."

No one seriously thinks that the reverse-centaur radiologist will be able to maintain perfect vigilance over long shifts of supervising automated process that rarely go wrong, but when they do, the error must be caught:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/01/human-in-the-loop/#monkey-in-the-middle

The role of this "human in the loop" isn't to prevent errors. That human's is there to be blamed for errors:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/30/a-neck-in-a-noose/#is-also-a-human-in-the-loop

The human is there to be a "moral crumple zone":

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260

The human is there to be an "accountability sink":

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/

But they're not there to be radiologists.

This is bad enough when we're talking about radiology, but it's even worse in government contexts, where the bots are deciding who gets Medicare, who gets food stamps, who gets VA benefits, who gets a visa, who gets indicted, who gets bail, and who gets parole.

That's because statistical inference is intrinsically conservative: an AI predicts the future by looking at its data about the past, and when that prediction is also an automated decision, fed to a Chaplinesque reverse-centaur trying to keep pace with a torrent of machine judgments, the prediction becomes a directive, and thus a self-fulfilling prophecy:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

AIs want the future to be like the past, and AIs make the future like the past. If the training data is full of human bias, then the predictions will also be full of human bias, and then the outcomes will be full of human bias, and when those outcomes are copraphagically fed back into the training data, you get new, highly concentrated human/machine bias:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/14/inhuman-centipede/#enshittibottification

By firing skilled human workers and replacing them with spicy autocomplete, Musk is assuming his final form as both the kind of boss who can be conned into replacing you with a defective chatbot and as the fast-talking sales rep who cons your boss. Musk is transforming key government functions into high-speed error-generating machines whose human minders are only the payroll to take the fall for the coming tsunami of robot fuckups.

This is the equivalent to filling the American government's walls with asbestos, turning agencies into hazmat zones that we can't touch without causing thousands to sicken and die:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/19/failure-cascades/#dirty-data

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/18/asbestos-in-the-walls/#government-by-spicy-autocomplete

Image: Krd (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DASA_01.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

--

Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[lune-moon-nuit]

Does our future depend on technology?

Since the Industrial Revolution, technology has established itself as a major driver of human progress, profoundly transforming our lifestyles, knowledge, and relationship to the world. From medical breakthroughs to information technologies, through automation, technology seems to guide the major directions of our future. But can we truly say that our future depends on technology? Does this mean that technology determines our destiny, as an unavoidable, even uncontrollable force? Or should we understand that, while humanity's future is shaped by technology, it still relies on other dimensions — ethical, political, spiritual — that technology cannot encompass?

Thus, we shall ask: Is technology the necessary and sufficient condition for our future, or is it merely one means among others, subordinate to more fundamental human choices?

We will first examine how technology appears to be the primary engine of human evolution and thus of our future. Then, we will show that it does not necessarily guarantee a desirable future and that it cannot by itself guide humanity. Finally, we will argue that if our future does depend on technology, it is insofar as we choose how to use it — which brings us back to our ethical and political responsibility.

I. Technology as the decisive engine of human development

Technology, understood as the set of means invented by humans to transform their environment, is one of the fundamental traits of humanity. Since prehistoric times, the use of tools has distinguished Homo habilis from its ancestors: technology appears as consubstantial to our species, as Henri Bergson points out in Creative Evolution: “Man is the being who makes tools.”

Since then, every technological advance has marked a major turning point in history: writing, printing, the steam engine, electricity, the Internet… all these inventions have radically changed our societies, our modes of production, communication, and thought. Today, innovations in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics, or energy heavily shape economic models, public policies, and ecological prospects for tomorrow.

In this sense, the future seems to depend on our ability to invent new technologies, to respond with technical means to the challenges of our time: climate crisis, pandemics, aging populations, resource scarcity. From a deterministic perspective, technology appears not only as a driving force but as a condition for humanity’s survival. This is what Heidegger discusses in The Question Concerning Technology, when he asserts that modern technology is no longer merely a tool, but a “challenging” of nature — a way of extracting all its available resources. It shapes our worldview, and therefore, our future.

II. But a future governed solely by technology is dangerous and illusory

However, to consider that our future depends exclusively on technology is to forget that it does not think for itself. It is a means, not an end. It is at the service of human intentions — for better or for worse. History abounds in examples of technology being used for destructive purposes: nuclear weapons, mass surveillance, uncontrolled genetic manipulation. As Hans Jonas warns, technological progress does not necessarily imply moral progress.

Technology can therefore both serve the future and harm it, depending on how it is used. It is a power that is fundamentally ambivalent. The atomic bomb and radiation therapy both use nuclear energy, but their aims are radically different. Far from automatically ensuring a better future, technology raises fundamental ethical questions: how far should we go in manipulating life? Are we still free in a world dominated by algorithms? Who truly benefits from technological innovation?

Consequently, reducing the future to a technical dependency would be to deny humanity’s capacity to choose, to exercise free will. It would mean abandoning our future to a logic of efficiency and profitability that ignores essential values such as justice, freedom, or human dignity.

III. Our future depends on technology, insofar as we remain its masters

Rather than viewing technology as a fatality, we must acknowledge that our future depends on how we design, regulate, and direct it. Humans remain the originators of technology: it is the fruit of our inventive mind, but also of our collective choices. In this sense, our future depends on technology only insofar as we integrate it within a broader political, philosophical, and ethical vision.

Hannah Arendt, in The Human Condition, emphasizes the distinction between labor, work, and action. While technology belongs to the domain of “work” — that is, fabrication — “action” involves freedom and responsibility. It is through political action, democratic debate, education, and critical reflection that humanity can direct the use of technology toward a desirable future.

Moreover, some of the most crucial questions for our future — such as the meaning of life, social justice, the relationship to others or to nature — cannot be answered by technology. These questions concern our deepest humanity. Technology can offer solutions to problems, but it does not define what a good life is, what a just world is, or what a harmonious society looks like. These concerns belong to philosophy, culture, and ethics.

Therefore, our future does not depend on technology per se, but on our ability to inscribe it within a vision of the world that is both humane and responsible.

Conclusion

It would be unrealistic to deny that technology plays a fundamental role in shaping our future: it transforms our ways of living, addresses major challenges, and opens unprecedented possibilities. But it is not neutral, nor self-sufficient. The future cannot rely solely on a means, without reflection on the ends.

Thus, our future does depend on technology, not as a fatality, but as a choice — the choice to use it for the common good, in accordance with human values. The real question is not whether technology will shape our future, but whether we will be able to shape technology toward a truly human future.

[tmntxthings]

heyy so I literally got this kind of idea like not really long ago, how about a donnie x reader fic/scenario/prompt where donnie makes a new AI hologram assistant (the reader) but ends up falling in love with them ?? (kind of blade runner 2049 inspired)

thanks ! luv your work (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

一∑ Dizzy・゜・。

author’s notes: so this may not be exactly what you asked for, this donnie is a bit… cagey? protective? overbearing! but hopefully the ending is a good indication that he did indeed fall?? :D

warnings: fluff, platonic to romantic, cursing, very unedited, & super short >.<

word association: sentience, slight yandere!donnie, light projection, holograms, creation, possessive, obsessive, fluff, change, feelings

song: “ Round & Round by Selena Gomez ”

—————————————————————————

“Y/n”

Donnie waited for you to appear in his vision as he was glued to a new construct. Both hands busy with small tools that required the utmost care and attention. And patience.

He waited a couple of more seconds before a crease appeared between his draw on brows.

Seriously?

“Y/n!”

Donnie shouted louder. There was no way you couldn’t hear him. He was this close to pushing up his goggles but like magic you apparated in his vision. A tiny version of yourself in the corner of his eyesight, “Yyyessss?”

You drawled, dipping forward dramatically but not obscuring his view of his hands so he could continue his work.

“Where are you?”

Habitually it seemed he had to ask you this. He was like this with Shelldon too. But ever since you started getting curious and venturing out of his lab, he just had to at least check in…

He would have just checked your holo-tracker but his hands were busy at the moment. So calling out your name was more efficient. His wrist tech was voice automated and connected to your system easily enough.

“And why did you ignore my first call?”

He questioned further, eyebrows still drawn. His tongue peeked out between his lips as he carefully pieced together two small bits in the right formation.

“I thought we agreed Donnie. If you didn’t need me, I could explore the perimeters!”

You glitched momentarily, moving from the corner to right in the center of his vision before going back to your original place with a raised brow.

“Yes yes. That was the agreement but addendum six was—“

You groaned.

“Y/n it’s been… how long has it been..?”

He just knew it had to be four or so hours since you last checked in. Which meant he could call! As per agreement! If you didn’t check in then he would worry and a time frame was even added into fine print for this very purpose! Donatello prided himself on thinking of every-little-thing!

“It’s been 30 minutes.”

His eyes widened. Looking at you now and squinting.

No way.

You sighed dramatically as you brought up the time. Sure enough. It was only 2:30 in the morning. Not 5.

“Ah, well my mistake.”

Donnie placed down the tools and pushed up his goggles. The zoomed in version of his project gone, as well as the time and your miniature self.

He could still hear you though with his headphones on.

“You didn’t answer my first question…”

He still wanted to know.

“I think that should be void considering you can just check now!”

Your voice was exasperated but it had a teasing quality.

“I’d rather you tell me,”

“With your brothers!”

“What?!”

No response. “Y/n?” No response still. He grumbled bringing his goggles back down and yep, you were gone. He shoved them back up and shot out of his chair.

Two years ago. Donatello went a step further from robots. A step further from Shelldon, definitely still a very proud achievement of his! You were a hologram program. One that connected just like Shelldon to all of Donatello’s devices and gadgets. But you didn’t have a physical body. You were a pure light so to speak. And while Donnie had agreed for you to explore…he hadn’t really disclosed another sentient being in the lab to his brothers.

Selfishly… Donnie had created you solely for him. While Shelldon had been sort of a prank but definitely for his brothers… you weren’t.

“Y/n.” Shelldon whispered harshly as he peeked out of the doorway from his lab. You were nowhere in the vicinity. He scowled. “If this is supposed to be funny, let me be very clear! It is not!” Then Donnie started to rush with his words while he crept further out into the lair.

“Those dumdums have no idea of your existence Y/n! For all we know they could— I don’t know! Attack?!”

You were radio silent. And it annoyed to Donnie to know end. You were ignoring him on purpose. Dragging him away from work to chase you down. And he would do the dragging this time, right back to his side if he must!

The further he went, the more apprehensive he felt. He could hear music. He could hear hollering. It was not the right cues that said ‘Y/n is just pranking me! They wouldn’t reveal themselves without my go-ahead! Surely!’ Yeah none of that was feeling close to happening right now. Donatello’s teeth ground together as he gave up being stealthy in favor of finally seeing what the fuck was happening.

And boy was he in for a shock.

As he cleared a corner that gave him a full view of the arcade that stretched down a distance away. The DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) was on, bass pumping throughout the room. A beautiful voice beckoning him closer like a siren’s song. Where Raph was dancing on one side. And you on the other.

Donnie stopped short. His breath catching as he watched your hologram dance, when your shoes met the correct arrows your whole body took on a glow of purple, blue, red, and yellow. It reflected throughout your entire being. You hit perfect after perfect, head tipped back in laughter as Raph started to trip up, losing his footing and sweating profusely. You on the other hand would never tire.

You were completely energized. You were having fun! It shined in your eyes. It reminded him of how you were when he first created you. When everything he introduced to you excited you.

Donnie felt like such an ass. Keeping you tucked away from the rest of the lair. From his brothers. From the world! As he watched you now he knew he was going to have to change. Because he surely wasn’t letting you go completely. But maybe he needed to loosen up, him and his contract.

Because he wanted you to be like this more. To smile more. To be exuberant and full of life! And he couldn’t stop smiling as you tilted your head towards him. You didn’t falter, you just smiled brighter and winked as the song came to a close and the points were tallied up.

Of course anything created by Donnie would be extraordinary at dancing. Therefore it didn’t surprise him one bit that you received a maximum score of 10,000,000. What did throw him off guard was the rapid pace of his heart. And maybe a bit dizzy? He hadn’t even been the one dancing!

Yeah this wasn’t good!

—————————————————————————

[adorablediscoveries]

Artist Transforms Aluminum Cans into Intricately Detailed Sculptures Using Just His Thumbs

Noah Deledda’s intricate aluminum can sculptures appear to be the work of precise automated machinery, but the Tampa Bay-based artist crafts each piece entirely by hand, using only his thumbs to shape the soft metal into flawless geometric patterns.

Deledda has even shared videos of his process, proving that his stunning creations are the result of patience, skill, and an extraordinary attention to detail.

The process begins with sanding off the can’s printed exterior, revealing the bare aluminum underneath. Deledda then polishes the surface until it shines before carefully pressing dents and creases into the metal—without the aid of special tools.

“Crushing, denting, and creasing become a method to create design, precision, symmetry, and balance,” Deledda explains on his website. “It’s important to me that this is all carried out by hand without special tools or extraordinary manipulation.”

Over the years, Deledda has refined his technique, developing increasingly complex geometric patterns, each more mesmerizing than the last. Despite his success, he remains amused by the common reaction to his work: disbelief. Many people claim they’ve never seen anything like it before, though, ironically, crushed aluminum cans are a common sight. What sets his pieces apart is their transformation from discarded waste into high art, proving that even a typically destructive force—crushing—can be used to create beauty.

Remarkably, this entire art form was born out of boredom. During a long car ride home from Orlando, Deledda absentmindedly toyed with an empty Red Bull can, noticing how small dents could be manipulated into shapes. He made a mental note to explore the idea further, and through trial, error, and an artistic eye for repetition and form, what began as a simple distraction evolved into a globally recognized art style.

Today, Deledda’s sculpted aluminum cans are celebrated worldwide, with individual pieces selling for over $2,000 each. His work stands as a testament to creativity, patience, and the potential for artistry in even the most unexpected places.

[alexanderwales]

I've had a number of jobs that I would consider blue collar, mostly when I was younger, just not skilled blue collar work. I worked at my uncle's landscaping company for a summer (planting bushes, repotting stuff, watering plants), and on my other uncle's farm for a few years (feeding animals, helping hook up equipment, being an extra pair of hands, doing a lot of the various odd jobs that farming seems to consist of). I was a janitor for two years when I was taking a break from college, and did enough manual labor that I had some actual muscles from it.

When I worked as a janitor, one of my duties was to bale cardboard, which means taking all the cardboard generated by the store and placing it into a baler, having it crushed flat in bulk, then tying the bale of cardboard up with wire so it could be placed in a corner of the loading bay and later, shipped of somewhere else for processing. I imagine that before the baler was invented, this was a lot more labor, and even with the baler it felt like a significant amount of labor. And I did always think that it could have been easier, simpler, faster, except that it was cheaper for a human to do everything. Even the very primitive baler probably cost thousands of dollars, and it was just a glorified hydraulic press. But I didn't respect the work, and would have been happy for that to no longer be a thing that humans had to do.

I guess my opinion on automation is that it's generally good insofar as it means that people can stop doing things that they would rather not be doing, things that they do because they've been coerced into doing them for money.

But I do think there's something to working with your hands and seeing some tangible results from your labor. I took wood shop in high school, and every now and then I have cause to use those skills for something, even if I am outcompeted by giant factories that can make the same things by the hundreds with better precision. There's also the question of customization: my wife is far more handy than I am, and is always making little custom things for us, either 3D printed or with tools at the local Makerspace that she helps run. I think it's good to look back at something you've done and being able to say "yes, I have done that". And of course there are other ways to compete against a factory that's shitting out things by the thousands, and not just by having things bespoke: there are things that benefit from not having to be made in quantity, or with fresh ingredients, or locally sourced products.

I guess there are a lot of things that I would replace with robots, if I could, but also a lot of things that I wouldn't, because I place some value on doing them myself, or having a process that I can control, or an end product I can take credit for.

We're entering a new era of automation, assuming that AI doesn't just fail and escape from the public consciousness like a weak fart. I'm hopeful that it can kill a lot of grunt work, things that people didn't ever want to be doing, and worried that it will kill the kinds of enriching labor that people actually enjoy. But of course I worry that it's going to be like a lot of automation has been, making an inferior product at prices so low that only the very rich can afford what humans do.

[bulkmockify]

Your digital shop needs pro mockups—start now!

Want to grow your digital shop? Start with better mockups! BulkMockify helps you generate polished, high-quality product images that make your listings more attractive to buyers.

[designmindsstudio]

Save Time & Sell More with BulkMockify’s Automated Mockups

Editable Name Coloring Pages – Perfect for Gifts!

Boost your Etsy sales with professional mockups created in minutes using BulkMockify. Simplify your workflow and grow your business!

[subliprintpalace]

Turn Your PNG & Sublimation Files into Eye-Catching Listings

Your designs deserve the best product images! Let BulkMockify help. Easily create mockups for hoodies, tumblers, and mugs, so you can focus on designing while your shop looks professional on Etsy and beyond.

[amassimgwires]

Good Afternoon everyone! Wires here!

I am hear to dicuss HORUS pattern groups and how maintenance on them tends to be. For most of them, they are highly personalized machines — either designed this way by the pilot or manifested in such way. Because of this, there isn't really any standardization for many of these frames, a mechanics nightmare.

However, due to our constant salvaging and occasional fight with HORUS frames, we noticed a few patterns with various pattern groups, as well as some basic dos and don'ts when handling such equipment. If you operate outside of the core worlds, I heavily recommend giving this a read if you find yourself deep into Frames internals frequently.

First of all, DO NOT, under any circumstances, Treat electronic systems as 'Off'. This practice will save your equipment and lives, especially if handling a BALOR. Keep an automated defense system using basic electromagnetic pulses and other relatively non damaging e warfare equipment on hand.

Second, Always identify the pattern group of EACH subsystem. Not just the frame, or the weapons- every piece of it. An Manticore frame is already dangerous, but knowing it has //SCORPION derivative installed or an H0R_OS system installed will massively effect what you have to do to make sure the system is running smoothly after repair work is finished. This may also affect how you run diagnostics — it is heavily recommended to reinstall your diagnostic tools OS after every run through to begin with, but Metahooms and Mimic Meshes often times have inbuilt viruses to prevent study of the frame. If not purged, this can ruin equipment or infect your entire shop if you aren't careful.

And the third and final one for now, never, under any circumstances, assume that there is NOT HORUS systems on anything when you are out in the Long Rim. Even the most well kept ISP-N and Harrsion Legionnare forces can, and eventually will, encounter HORUS systems manifesting upon their printed frames, and some keep the systems. And for those who aren't attached to regulatory superiors? They are far more likely to have them without knowing. So please, be diligent.

[dailypokemoncrochet]

Bouncing back and forth between trying to code the birthday pokemon quiz with html and in excel and again I just do not like this whole coding thing, makes not enough sense.

I know conceptually how it should work but not how to make it actually work.

I have 3 images split into 4 subsections each, and every possible combo (64) corresponds to a regional dex and a few Pokemon types.

I have 3 lists:

every calendar date corresponding to a group of Pokemon

key for the 64 image combos

every Pokemon and their types

What I want to happen is

you enter a birth month/day, it gets checked in the calendar list for the group of Pokemon

you pick from the 3 images, it gets checked in the key for a regional dex and types

the group selects one or two pokemon that either match that regional dex or best match the pokemon types.

you get that/those pokemon as your birthday pokemon

I think it's gonna take too much effort for me to figure out on my own coming from very little coding knowledge and I don't even know what specific things to search to do so. I'm pretty sure the whole automating it part is gonna be some kind of javascript which i have even less understanding of than html.

SO! Putting that back in my head to marinate for another year probably. Gonna work on printing out pokemon photos and then I'm gonna open up my laptop and clean it out. Haven't done that in a while (ever, actually) because I have only just recently acquired a set of little tools to unscrew the tiny bits on the back. I imagine it's going to be very dusty and gross and also possibly I might break the laptop in the process of trying to clean it but we'll see!