How is it going with the 3d printing set up?

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Friday, March 20, 2026 - 12:47 pm: Edit

SVC I did not send them to Albert but will do so now.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, March 20, 2026 - 04:41 pm: Edit

Te new 3d company is setting up the cart.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 29, 2026 - 11:42 pm: Edit

LAST WEEK I didn't do the regular updates. With the four products released I kinda coasted, doing some things that were needing done and taking a dya off to take Leanna to see PROJECT HAIL MARY. I also kinda started dabbling in K2. I put Petrick to work getting some of the updated SSD books finalized or at least moved down the pipeline.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 29, 2026 - 11:46 pm: Edit

The 3D printing company thing is a lesson in business. We had two choices, buy a bunch of equipment an rent a separate building and hire people and create our own 3d print shop, or make a deal with somebody already in the business who already had the machines and skills and had surplus capacity (i.e., not enough business to keep his employees and machines busy).

We picked the second one.

That puts us in a position of bugging somebody constantly and pissing him off, or letting him get it done in his own time and finding out he made no progress because his other customers were bugging him to the point of pissing him off. Sigh. Albert has spoken with him and will brief me tomorrow.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 30, 2026 - 05:25 pm: Edit

MARCH 30th

I worked on K2 and fiction.

Petrick worked on SSD reports.

Mike did orders.

Albert remains in the field installing a new intelligence listening post in an allied country near Iran. Jean had joined him for the weekend but after suffering an attack of kouskous was unable to travel back to Texas.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, April 02, 2026 - 01:47 pm: Edit

APRIL 1ST
I worked on K2 and fiction.
Petrick worked on SSD reports, sending the X1 report to Nick and checking the revised K SSD book.
Albert and I had a meeting for strategery.
Jean and Mike did orders.

APRIL 2ND
I worked on K2 and fiction.
Leanna came in and she and Jean worked on some accounting things and on bids for the new AC unit.
Albert and I discussed the 3d printing vendor, who is waiting for clearances on credit cards for the shopping cart. Having done it, I know it can take a week or two (or four). We ADB first got theirs, we had to send photos of our inventory (and then new photos showing that the stacks of boxes were not empty boxes).
Mike, Jean, and Albert did orders.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, April 08, 2026 - 02:25 pm: Edit

APRIL 3RD
Steve Petrick, Steve Cole, and Al Beddow all had reserve duty.

APRIL 4-5 THE WEEKEND

APRIL 6
I took the day to be with Leanna during difficult but apparently successful treatments to prevent blindness.
Petrick worked on K.
Albert had reserve duty.
Jean and Mike did orders.

APRIL 7 TUESDAY
I had reserve duty in the SCIF 120 miles away; so did Petrick.
Albert, Mike, and Jean did orders.

APRIL 8 TUESDAY
Steve Petrick was in the office working on K.
I was here working on K2.
Albert, Mike, and Jean did orders.

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Wednesday, April 15, 2026 - 04:15 pm: Edit

SVC please see the email I sent you regarding the PF SSDs for Module K, I need some assistance to finish them up.

By Dan Bostwick (Danbostwick) on Friday, April 17, 2026 - 11:21 am: Edit

SVC, on 4/12 I emailed you a story to consider for Captain's Log. Just wanted to give you shout out since you've said your inbox tends to be overflowing. I sent it to the "design@" address. Please let me know if I should redirect.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, April 17, 2026 - 12:03 pm: Edit

I got two stories recently, one from you. I don't remember which is which. Petrick and I extensively discussed the one about a mutiny and feel that the ESS and schoolmaster elements don't conform to the background. I have a fix for one, the other would be up to the author. A full report will go out next week.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 18, 2026 - 08:50 am: Edit

Last Tuesday I saw the first robin of spring at the birdseed station on my patio. Today for the first time I can remember I saw a yellow headed blackbird.

We usually get nuthatches, finches, sparrows, collared doves, white wing doves, redwing blackbirds, black wing blackbirds, blue jays, grackles, and mockingbirds. Rarely we see a mourning dove, robin, a cardinal, and only once an actual pigeon. Decades ago we got a lot of roadrunners but not in years. We saw a duck in our yard once in 48 years.

That doesn’t count the occasional fox, three kinds of squirrel, two kinds of rabbit, prairie dog, skunk, possum, and only once in 48 years an actual coyote. I saw a wolf once, 52 years ago, but that was fifty miles north of here and the rangers were tracking him as the only wolf in the Texas panhandle in living memory. His genes are still found in local coyotes. Of course, there are the neighborhood dogs, cats, and kids.

In heaven, I think I want to spend the first million years with animals.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, April 19, 2026 - 05:14 pm: Edit

Lesson to men. I told Leanna we'd have date night and she could pick what movie/show/other we would see. She picked a dinner theater ... 250 miles away. Just got back having left at 9am yesterday.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, April 19, 2026 - 05:51 pm: Edit

How many times do we men need to be reminded to read the fine print?

Its those commercial papers are the worst, like contracts, installment agreements marriage licenses…

I got taken to the Opera.

I assumed it would be Carmen. Heck soldiers, bull fights factory girls… I ended up watching some Italian Opera about hebrew slaves by some guy whose name started with a ‘P’.

Good music, though.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, April 19, 2026 - 07:05 pm: Edit

I love opera but I just do not see why they cannot do every famous opera in English. Subtitles on a monitor aren't enough. The music is beautiful and there is no reason I cannot see Wagner's beautiful story of the Norse Gods and actually understand what is going on. There is just no reason to do it in German for American audiences. I saw a high school once put on Aida in English and the love story was all the more poignant.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, April 19, 2026 - 09:06 pm: Edit

I asked my wife, it was The "Hebrew Slaves' Chorus" (often called "Va, pensiero") is from Giuseppe Verdi's 1842 opera, Nabucco.

It appears in Act III and is one of the most famous pieces of Italian opera, often considered a second national anthem in Italy and a stirring anthem of hope. The piece is formally known as "Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate" (Go, thought, on wings of gold).

The opera follows the plight of the Judeans and their suffering under King Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar)

I had the initial wrong, but I enjoyed the music.

(The above information was from Google inquiry.)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, April 19, 2026 - 11:47 pm: Edit

The trip to OKC was, somehow, far more stressful and exhausting to me than I expected.

We got to McD's at 9am Saturday and had breakfast. Then drove four hours to OKC. Then we rested 3 hours and went to the theater for four hours of sitting, then back to the hotel to sleep for 8 hours.

Sunday I got up at 7am and immediately collapsed, to tired to walk. After a few minutes, I managed to make it to breakfast, then drove the four hours home, and have not exerted myself since then. I'm exhausted, beat, unable to function much. This greatly concerns me and I will speak with my primary doctor ASAP, perhaps to schedule tests. In the meantime, I will try to get more rest and some exercise. I also really need to lose the 20 pounds I gained after my health collapsed in the anemia crisis last year.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Monday, April 20, 2026 - 11:45 am: Edit

Please get the rest you need, my friend.

Also, please always remember the old saying, "A Man is not complete until he is married; THEN he is finished."

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, April 20, 2026 - 02:14 pm: Edit

Without Leanna I would have been dead long ago.

I am trying to get exercise. I ordered a new set of leather gym shoes and a leather gym suit from A. Hitler & Sons of Buenos Aries.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 - 09:28 pm: Edit

Today I got up early and went to the weekly meeting of the men's club at one of the retirement homes. They had invited me to come and show them biblical coins from my collection (widow's mites, tribute penny, Judas shekel, assorted Roman and Herodian coins, and a few odds and ends including an Alexander tetradrachma that is 2300 years old and a Lydian stater coin that is 2700 years old). They enjoyed my explanations of how commerce and payroll worked in an era before checks, bank notes, and credit cards. It was fun being the youngest man in the room for the first time in decades.

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Friday, April 24, 2026 - 05:10 pm: Edit

SVC I sent you an email with updates.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 25, 2026 - 04:37 am: Edit

Today I had my three-month appointment with my primary doctor. I was found to have done well. My blood pressure is too low, causing me to feel tired and dizzy. The doctor reduced my blood pressure medication. We will see how it works.

By Andrew Granger (Captaincf) on Monday, April 27, 2026 - 08:12 am: Edit

Quick question regarding drone construction: If I wanted to add ATG to a Type-I or Type-IV drone and increase the speed to 20, would it cost 1 point per drone?

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Monday, April 27, 2026 - 01:03 pm: Edit

Speed 20 (0.5 BPV) + ATG (0.5 BPV) = 1.0 BPV per drone

That is per the tables:

(FD10.52) PROPULSION MODULE COST
(FD10.53) FRAME COST ADDITIONS

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, April 27, 2026 - 03:13 pm: Edit

I might comment that this is the wrong topic to ask about drone costs. Needs to be an SFB Q&A topic. But at first glance I think Paul is right.