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🗨 LPF: Laser Chatroom

CurtisOliver

CurtisOliver

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Hi Everyone,

I don't doubt that many on here have seen a serious decline in activity and laser related content on this forum over the years.
For the first time in a long time, I have been extremely busy yet I don't appear to have actually missed much of worth in that time.
I have decided to try and initiate some hobby related discussions whilst combatting an issue I am seeing reoccurring.

The truth is, it appears we no longer can sustain multiple threads. We can post some content, but that thread will die out and get lost very quickly. Whilst dominant threads, or rather the dominant cousin 'General News Discussion' aka 'The Politics thread' always stay in the foreground. I would happen to guess that around 90% of all activity on this forum in the last 6 months have gone through that thread.

As this is a laser forum, and this is where our original passion lies. It makes sense to try and re-spark a little bit of what bought us together in the first place. Yes, times have changed. It is not the same out there as it was 10 years ago we can all admit. Discuss it. Get some nostalgia flowing.

Remember when like it or not. Wicked Lasers were the catalyst for a lot of our interest? With all their false claims of 'Most powerful handheld laser' and their underspec ratings?
Remember when we first got our hands on some amber/yellow photons for the first time?
Remember when a greenie was a good old fashioned DPSS and you had to warm it up to get them to work?
What happened to the gas laser lovers, and those that experimented with making their own?
How about when we would rip apart scam companies like Laserpointerpro?

And then there are the many great laserists that have blessed these forums throughout the years.
Whether it be Pman with his absolutely colossal collection that would make us all drool.
ArcticDude with his self-made RGB pointer before Sanwu made their own and photography that the said company still use to date.
Brucemir with still in my opinion, the best laser photography I've viewed in all the years. The true king of laser photography.
A shoutout also to Radim with his laser art photography with his unique style.
We can't forget Styropyro with his huge YouTube success and for better and worse got many people interested and enthused in the hobby.
Laserbuilder with his fantastic gas laser builds.
And DTR and Lasersbee for their long term contribution to the laser community. And, for contributing to us being a tad skint.
Lifetime17 with his unique and fantastic host building.

And many many more. Especially before my time on this forum. Forgive me, if you haven't been mentioned. Far too many to list if I want to keep this post readable.
A rather sad addition, but a necessary one. A shoutout to PiRSquared and Hakzaw1 which have sadly passed on.

So lets get down to business.

What is there to post about these days?

  • Got any new laser news/research or technological breakthroughs you want to share with us all?
  • Just received a new laser you want to show off?
  • Want advice regarding a laser purchase you're about to make?
  • Got a interesting or favourite laser in your collection that you want to dust off and present to us?
  • Any niche applications you're experimenting whilst utilising lasers?
  • Any groupbuys or bargains you've stumbled across?
  • Anyone planning to build a laser and want to bounce ideas?
  • Simply want to reminisce about 'The good ol' days!' Any fascinating/humorous stories from the past that you want to relive and share with some of our newer members?
  • Got any important announcements regarding laser legislation or laser safety that are good for people to know about?
  • Any recommendations/warnings for laser companies that people may wish to use?
  • Any positive or negative social media regarding lasers you've come across on your internet travels?
In other words, feel free to post anything in this thread that have anything to do with lasers.

What rules are there?

Hard rules:

  1. Always remain respectful of other individuals using the thread. If you disagree, do so in a mature and sensible manner.
  2. No personal attacks/insults.
  3. No political discussions. Please use the Thread 'General News Discussion' to discuss these matters. This is a strict '⊘ No Politics Zone'
Soft rules:

  • Try not to derail conversations with unrelated nonsense. No-one minds a subconversation every now and then when its on a interesting subject. But please refrain from deliberately discussing non-laser related content. Please use 💬 'LPF: General Chatroom' if you want to chat about off-topic matters.
  • When responding to a post, please use the 'Reply' function so people know who you are talking to. And the person gets the notification.
  • Try to refrain from double posting and keep the thread clean.
  • Necro-posting is only allowed if adding something of value to the discussion. Always check the dates of what you are replying to. Want to add more information regarding a topic, then feel free. Just raising the dead to say 'I like it' maybe could be done with a (y).
Why the one-stop chatroom?

As a man that does not particularly like change, I have to accept change is happening whether you like it or not.
This means the need for adaptation. It's not just the laser hobby declining that is contributing to the lack of thread activity.
Forum usage is also in decline. I am a big fan of forum formats. I like organisation and separation of topics. It makes things easier to find later.
However trends are in big favour now of chatrooms and group messaging style platforms. Like I said at the top, individual threads are no long active enough to survive on their own. They are dying out quickly and getting buried before we know it.
By creating a single chatroom, we can bring the tone down to a less formal and engaging style of interaction. And hopefully keep traffic and conversation flowing in one spot. The 'General News Discussion' and my own 'Politics Thread' proved that this format works. We just need people to engage in content other than politics again.
 
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Another major win for computing.
newatlas.com

Laser cooling breakthrough could make data centers much greener

Lasers are great for heating things up, whether you need to do it quickly, hit a precise target, or do it from a distance. Under specific conditions, lasers can also cool things down, and that might be JUST what we need to tackle way-too-toasty data centers.
newatlas.com newatlas.com

Data centres often have intense cooling issues. Laser cooling could actually provide efficient cooling at the fraction of the power consumption.
 
ukdefencejournal.org.uk

Britain to fit laser weapons on four warships by 2027

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed an additional £2.2 billion in defence funding for the next financial year, describing the measure as a “downpayment” on the Government’s plan to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027.
ukdefencejournal.org.uk ukdefencejournal.org.uk

Exciting news for me in the UK. If the UK are are already planning to fit laser weapons on active deployed ships, then we are officially out of experimental and testing stages of laser weaponry. Laser weapons behind the scenes must actually be ready and more importantly viable for military usage now.
 
I can think of a few reasons for the decline.

1. People are migrating from traditional forums to websites like Reddit nowadays.
2. The novelty factor has worn off as lasers are now a lot more common than they used to be. Using a laser to pop a balloon or light a match no longer has a "wow" factor.
3. A lot of companies have moved away from portable lasers. They are either limiting sales to non-U.S. buyers or have discontinued portable lasers altogether.
 
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New laser technology will come along, holographs displays are coming for the auto industry and I expect that tech will bleed over into household devices, quantum dot laser diodes are being used in industry in the NIR spectrum but they should be developed in the VIS spectrum as well, it's just a matter of investment funding driven by potential sales, anyway new laser tech will reinvigorate interest eventually, hopefully sooner than later.
 
ixfd64 said:
I can think of a few reasons for the decline.

1. People are migrating from traditional forums to websites like Reddit nowadays.
2. The novelty factor has work off as lasers are now a lot more common than they used to be. Using a laser to pop a balloon or light a match no longer has a "wow" factor.
3. A lot of companies have moved away from portable lasers. They are either limiting sales to non-U.S. buyers or have discontinued portable lasers altogether.
Click to expand...
Nothing untrue about what you said. I did touch on these vaguely in the OP.

RedCowboy said:
New laser technology will come along, holographs displays are coming for the auto industry and I expect that tech will bleed over into household devices, quantum dot laser diodes are being used in industry in the NIR spectrum but they should be developed in the VIS spectrum as well, it's just a matter of investment funding driven by potential sales, anyway new laser tech will reinvigorate interest eventually, hopefully sooner than later.
Click to expand...

I really can't wait for QDLD's to become accessible. Even the NIR QDLD's could provide more SFD and SHG DPSS laser wavelengths.
 
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