Protect Your Identity

Last month, news broke that hackers stole and sold personal records of 2.9 billion people. The records were stolen from a company called National Public Data which provides services to staffing agencies, employers, private investigators, and other organizations who perform background checks. This apparently places a vast majority of people who live in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom at greater risk for fraud and identity theft. Also, while this was perhaps the largest data breach of personal records, there are countless other data breaches that have likely resulted in your personal data being released to the dark web. To protect yourself, here’s what most experts recommend.

1. Set up accounts at all 3 major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. While all 3 credit bureaus offer security products and services, setting up an account is free. Remember to safely store your username and password information (that is perhaps the topic of another blog post).

2. Check your credit report from all 3 major credit bureaus. If you’re not accustomed to doing this, the key things to look for are the accuracy of your contact information, revolving lines of credit, and inquiries. If a criminal has attempted to open up credit cards, take out a loan, or change your home address, you should immediately spot those. In the unfortunate event that someone has tried to steal your identity, follow the steps at IdentityTheft.gov.

3. Place a fraud alert on all 3 major credit bureaus. This will make it harder for a criminal to obtain credit in your name because businesses must verify your identity before issuing credit in your name—note that this is why it is important to verify your contact information in item 2 above. All 3 credit bureaus offer fraud alerts for free, and it lasts a year, after which you can renew it (also free). If you were a victim of identity theft and have a police report, you can place an extended fraud alert which will last for 7 years.

4. Place a credit freeze on all 3 major credit bureaus. This provides even greater security than a fraud alert because when your credit is frozen, nobody will be able to access your credit report or open a new credit account until your account with the specific credit reporting bureau is unfrozen (or “thawed”). Like all the other steps above, credit freezes are also free, and they remain in place until you thaw your account. Note that when you thaw your account, you do not necessarily need to thaw all 3 credit bureaus. Let’s say you want to buy a car, and the dealer wants to check your credit before issuing you a loan—if you know which credit bureau they use, you can temporarily thaw that one and then freeze it again after you complete your transaction. Also visit this FTC site to read about differences between fraud alerts and credit freezes.

5. Optionally place a credit lock on all 3 major credit bureaus. I say this is optional becuase the differences between freezing and locking your credit are minor. According to NerdWallet, freezing your credit usually occur within 1 business day and thawing occurs within 1 hour if done online, while locking and unlocking occur instantaneously. Although Equifax offers locking/unlocking for free, Experian and TransUnion charge a fee for this service. If you value the convenience of instant locking/unlocking and are willing to pay the fees (if any), then this may be a desirable option. Otherwise with just a little bit of planning, you can skip this step and achieve all 4 prior steps for free.

One last word on Equifax credit locks. As I mentioned above, Equifax offers credit locks for free, and this is done through its Lock & Alert service. Just note that if you sign up for Lock & Alert, you will need to register with another account that is separate from your “regular” Equifax account where you check your credit report, place fraud alerts, and freeze/thaw your account. I don’t know why they don’t just combine them together, but just note when storing your account information that these are 2 separate accounts. If you’re an Apple user like me and use iCloud to store your passwords, note that there seems to be a limitation where iCloud tries to be helpful by merging these 2 accounts because they have similar domain names. Do NOT overwrite your “regular” Equifax username/password with your Equifax Lock & Alert username/password or you will lose one of them. Hopefully Apple will come up with a solution for this scenario soon.

Wildfire Maps

In California, the fire season generally starts in June or July and runs through October or November. Currently there are many fires burning in California and in many other parts of the United States (and all over the world for that matter). If you’d like to visualize wildfires on a map, you have several options.

CAL FIRE displays current wildfire information in the state of California. There are options to display recent perimeters, active air assets, and other options.

Google Maps can display wildfire information if you click on Layers > More > Wildfires.

MSN Weather Map also has a map with a dedicated Fire Information layer.

All screenshots were taken within the last hour, so you can compare and contrast the available information and visual presentation. Be safe out there!

Bambu Lab A1 Timelapse Videos

I recorded a timelapse video while printing an object with my Bambu Lab A1. While printing from the micro SD card, I noticed that after selecting my print file, there was a “Timelapse” button on the touch screen that could be toggled on/off prior to starting a print. I turned it on and started the print. A timelapse video was then saved to the micro SD card which I transferred to my computer upon completion.

I learned afterward about the Bambu Studio slicer options for timelapse recordings. You can choose between Traditional model and Smooth mode. Because filament can leak while the print head moves out of the way for the camera to take a snapshot, this can result in imperfections in your print. In Smooth mode, a prime tower is added to your print so that the excess filament can be ejected into the prime tower, resulting in preservation of print quality. So basically you’ll need to choose between compromising print quality or wasting filament in your purge tower. Refer to the Bambu Lab Wiki for more information about Timelapse Functionality.

The timelapse video is in 1536x1080 resolution and is saved to the micro SD card is a .avi file that is encoded with a MJPG codec which is basically a video that is composed of a series of JPG images all compressed into 1 video. The problem I encountered is that many macOS applications cannot decode this format. QuickTime chokes entirely, while VLC displays a “Broken or missing index” error but then eventually allows me to view the video. Final Cut Pro is unable to import the .avi file at all. Fortunately, HandBrake is an open source video transcoder that easily converts the .avi file to .mp4 which is more or less universally compatible with everything nowadays.

Besides the filament leakage issue that I discussed above, another disadvantage of recording timelapse videos is that it adds several seconds of print time to every layer. I won’t be regularly recording timelapse videos of my 3D prints due to the tradeoffs, but it’s great to know that the Bambu Lab A1 has this capability.

Daddy’s New Toy (Bambu Lab A1)

In May 2023, I purchased my first 3D printer, a Creality Ender-3 V2 Neo. For the past 16 months, I have enjoyed learning about 3D printing, model design, model slicing techniques, and getting the end result of having a physical object in my hands. My 3D prints were often for entertainment, although many of them were also gifts or even serving a functional purpose (e.g., repairing and/or upgrading household items). For this, my Ender-3 V2 Neo served me well. On several occasions I’ve had to replace various parts such as 2 hot end fans on separate occasions (which unfortunately required me to disassemble and reassemble all the wires connected to the main circuit board), nozzles, and PTFE tube pneumatic couplers. I also upgraded my heat sink to lessen the chance of filament clogging. Last month I started to experience a higher rate of print failures, particularly on more complex objects. I noticed that my nozzle temperature was no longer holding steady but rather bouncing above and below my set temperature by 1 degree Celsius. To me, that was a harbinger of dreaded additional repairs. Had it not been for the high rate of maintenance work, I probably would have kept my Ender-3 V2 Neo a lot longer.

Earlier this month, I upgraded to a Bambu Lab A1 3D Printer. In addition to much faster print speeds and a larger build plate, the Bambu lab A1 has the ability to print in multiple colors using its AMS or AMS Lite systems. Additionally, the Bambu Lab philosophy seems to be aimed at making 3D printers easier to use and less prone to failure. For example, the A1 is programmed to perform automatic bed leveling, vibration detection, and filament flow calibration by default (most of these can be disabled) prior to each print. The Bambu Studio slicer is similar to Cura and other open source slicers, although there are some nice features that I’ve appreciated seeing in Bambu Studio such as the ability to define filament-specific profiles where nozzle and bed temperatures can be defined for different filaments, rather than defining them per model in Cura. Bambu Studio is also integrated with Maker World which is an online repository of 3D models that also allows users to upload Bambu Studio print profiles—this lets Bambu Lab 3D printer owners to print directly from Maker World to their 3D printer.

I’ve done some test prints just to get familiar with the hardware and software, and I’m impressed so far. In the near future, I will be experimenting with multi-color prints through my AMS Lite system, timelapse videos, and other new features.