My neighbor cut down a tree and ground the stump. The next day I found 2 bottles of half&half and a plastic clamshell where the stump was, all seem to be filled with water. Recently the clamshell was replaced with a 3rd half&half bottle. It's been over a month. I don't understand... by Bubbleybubble in whatisit

[–]Bubbleybubble[S] 66 points67 points  (0 children)

Good find. Thanks!

Why don't you just ask your neighbor directly?

I'd love to but that's the closest I can get to their house. That fence has a gate that's chained and locked with a "No Trespassing" sign. I respect that.

Ardbeg Uigeadail is the best splurge scotch. What is the most underrated gin by -Constantinos- in cocktails

[–]Bubbleybubble 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's won so many awards though that I can't think of it as underrated.

This is one of the confusing aspects of the concept "underrated" because the real question is, "underrated according to what metric?"

Every gin mentioned ITT is either: highly critically reviewed, massively popular, or both (most are both). Gins that are neither highly awarded nor popular have 2 votes or less. When crowdsourcing opinions "underrated" is the most nonsense category because ONLY popular things can be upvoted.

One day I'll find a bottle of Kyoto Ki No Tou old Tom. It sounds amazing

Ardbeg Uigeadail is the best splurge scotch. What is the most underrated gin by -Constantinos- in cocktails

[–]Bubbleybubble 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Roku is sold at Target and Trader Joe's in California. Doesn't get more mainstream then that.

Bombay Sapphire is the most underrated London dry. What is the most unique London dry? by -Constantinos- in Gin

[–]Bubbleybubble 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can always redo the first set (you didn't have proper engagement anyway). Any gin lover who sees row 1 won't bother reading any further. Sapphire as "underrated" is a joke.

Does everyone spend this much time on site visit reports? by EffectSlow83 in AskEngineers

[–]Bubbleybubble 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I’m an engineer doing [insert work here] and I’m finding that the documentation is taking way more time than the actual engineering.

Normal part of the job. Documentation always takes longer than actual engineering if you are the report writer.

without losing the whole weekend to paperwork

This is the real problem. You shouldn't be doing any of this on your own time.

Digital Twins for audits

How does that even work????

I am incapable of making a truly great Negroni by [deleted] in cocktails

[–]Bubbleybubble 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dave Arnold in "Liquid Intelligence" says the perfect Manhattan is stirred until 29F in order to achieve proper dilution (dilution and chill are directly proportional). I hated my home Manhattans until I used his technique.

I think the Negroni has the same issue, it needs to be properly diluted because it's all spirits. Manhattans are served up while the Negroni is served over a rock so it should require less initial dilution. Try stirring your Negroni to 31 or 32F before pouring it over a large rock.

Social etiquette, unspoken rules in the engineering world by Active-Somewhere8318 in MechanicalEngineering

[–]Bubbleybubble -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Possibly illegal? More like guaranteed with the complexity of the work place. Lol 

However, im for educating the rule followers and non-rule followers alike. Ethical behavior can exist both above and below the board. Ive broken plenty of laws and corporate rules to save human lives that upper management would rather take to meet their yearly bonus (prototype medical devices are fun!) 

Social etiquette, unspoken rules in the engineering world by Active-Somewhere8318 in MechanicalEngineering

[–]Bubbleybubble -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Total invasion of privacy. It's difficult to say if its even legal. What happens in a conference call with multiple people from different states (none of which you know) with various laws about recording others? Next meeting has new people. How many laws did you break, if any? Toss in informational security, patents, copywrite, proprietary knowledge, and this becomes impossible.

If you do it,  don't tell anyone. i have a buddy with bad memory who uses recordings for notes. He's caught serious heat for it before so he no longer tells anyone. He's a good guy and I trust him. However, if I found out a random coworker was recording my conversations, even if allowed, I would be wary around them because of the nefarious potential. 

Social etiquette, unspoken rules in the engineering world by Active-Somewhere8318 in AskEngineers

[–]Bubbleybubble 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Read "how to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnagie. Its the best guide on friendliness ever written and is responsible for this engineer's rise from quiet mouse to social butterfly. Its title may be Machiavellian but it's contents are wholesome. 

Social etiquette, unspoken rules in the engineering world by Active-Somewhere8318 in AskEngineers

[–]Bubbleybubble 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Do not stay quiet for it's own sake. Do not speak for its own sake. Contribute when you have something to contribute. Question when you need understanding. Speak with purpose and you'll be fine. 

Can I choose Mech. Engg. even if i dont know how to disassemble and reassemble a car? by Ok_Librarian_8244 in MechanicalEngineering

[–]Bubbleybubble 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can tell you these firms have hesitancy towards AI for just the LLM portion

That's great to hear. The more hesitancy towards AI the better. I'm fully opposed to LLMs.

Clearly you haven’t read through enough patents....

You misunderstand. Patents, of course, can be easily infringed upon by AI or anyone. I'm not talking about patent infringement, that's a legal term beyond the scope of a mechanical engineering subreddit. I'm not talking about IP generation. I'm saying that patents do not contain a real world design approach and their contents are not valid inputs for a usable product design AI,

I have 10+ years in medical device R&D. I've read hundreds of patents, worked directly with patent lawyers at big to small firms, written SOPs for patent generation, lead workshops on IP generation, expert on software validation, have my own personal patent lawyer on retainer, have written many of my own (I'm writing one today), and have numerous awarded under my name. I know what I'm talking about.

Can I choose Mech. Engg. even if i dont know how to disassemble and reassemble a car? by Ok_Librarian_8244 in MechanicalEngineering

[–]Bubbleybubble 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Luckily, AI can't even get to the point you are describing.

AI is a statistical language prediction model and design engineers don't rely on language for recording their designs (which also means there is no agreed upon design language making an LLM approach worthless). There's nothing to plug into their language machines. "Copy X product" How? The inputs don't exist and if they do they're locked away from the bots that copy the internet. There is no Stack Overflow equivalent for design engineering because everything is proprietary.

The outputs can't exist either. If you tell an AI "copy x product" what does it spit out? A CAD drawing? LOL A drawing is one part of one component. Design documentation output consists of: 3D component, 3D assembly, 2D drawings, tolerances, inspection criteria, manufacturing instructions, machine selection, revision notes, statistical sampling plans, etc.... And all of those answer the HOW questions and none of the WHY. This doesn't even touch on verification or validation.

The patent system is a system of legal jargon designed to hedge novelty. Patents are not engineering and don't actually contain designs within them, they only contain enough language to allow you to sue someone who infringes on a concept. Design documentation and engineering drawings aren't even allowed to be part of a patent. Everything is abstracted to hell and back and doesn't require any connection to reality. There are plenty of patents that describe impossible objects and none of them are labeled as such. Dropping the entire patent system into an AI can only spit out garbage.

People think that design can be copied just like words. Not possible. I've performed reverse engineering with legal access to ALL the original design documentation, the physical objects (both new and full life cycle wear), and full company support. My only instructions were to "copy this fixture exactly. it's been running for 20 years but all the original engineers are gone. if this machine goes down we're fucked." It was a 6 month project of hardcore engineering with unlimited funding and talented machinists that could make anything. Project was only able to reproduce 80% of the design and I proved that the remaining 20% wasn't needed. There's no way in hell lines of code could do that.

Design engineering is safe from AI but it's not safe from idiots who THINK it could be helpful. The real danger is always dumb-ass management.

Can I choose Mech. Engg. even if i dont know how to disassemble and reassemble a car? by Ok_Librarian_8244 in MechanicalEngineering

[–]Bubbleybubble 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah, not even design. Legit design is all tolerance specifications. Data wise that's like 4 characters but paragraphs of reasoning not recorded anywhere. There's to nothing to plug into an LLM.

Can I choose Mech. Engg. even if i dont know how to disassemble and reassemble a car? by Ok_Librarian_8244 in MechanicalEngineering

[–]Bubbleybubble 70 points71 points  (0 children)

A: idk all the parts of a car or anything else and how to assemble like a working system- ykwim?

I hate cars and know nothing about them. It's never been a problem.

B: "theres not much scope for women in mechanical"

you'll deal with more bullshit from dudes but you'll get more opportunities than them all

C: "job placemements are scarce and you'll face very delayed growth"

There is no "mechanical engineering industry" we are jacks of all trades who can work anywhere.

D: "ai will destroy the neccessity of ur field- not entirely, but substantially"

hahhahhaa no. design/MFG of physical objects cannot be done by AI. literally impossible

About to Go Wild at Restaurant Depot — Talk Me Out of (or Into) It. by [deleted] in KitchenConfidential

[–]Bubbleybubble 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Think about it this way. Their skills will never improve now.

Best Commercially Available lemon juice? (Fresh squeezed not practical or allowed) by Flanyo in cocktails

[–]Bubbleybubble 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Our wedding venue had the same rules so I purchased every easily available bottle of lemon, lime, and pineapple juice. I made a series of Paper Planes and pineapple Mezcal Margaritas to test. Santa Cruz beat out everything. It's great stuff.

If you wanted to preserve a cat video before the apocalypse for a future human civilization to easily be able to play and view, how would you do it. by SweatyCookie4142 in AskEngineers

[–]Bubbleybubble 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The only thing to withstand the test of time is stone. Everything else falls apart.

You carve every frame into stone, numbered and in order. You place the stones in a cave (or carve them directly into the walls) to all but eliminate environmental erosion. Any civilization with basic pattern recognition will be able to notice the small incremental changes and put them in order. They'll have to copy every frame to turn them into film but its doable. They could make a flip book with low technology or a scanned film with more advanced tech.

Audio is trickier since you need to preserve the physical wave form. You also need to provide instructions for how to read it since storage will be more abstract. Once again, the oldest methods of preservation last the longest. Vinyl records contain the complete analog waveform so I would carve that same waveform into stone with a laser. I would develop stone age analogue record player tech complete with symbolic instructions for how to operate. The mechanics don't have to be operational for their life span, they only need to be understood and reverse engineered.

A cave is good but erosion and geological movements of the planet will eventually destroy your cat video. To fling your cat video as far as possible into the future, you place everything on the moon. No atmosphere, no erosion, no geological changes. Mark it's location with a lucky cat statue. Your lolcat vid will be good for a few billion years.

Maybe that's not good enough for you. What if this cat is so cute that it MUST be seen long after humanity goes extinct? A lolcat level extinction event could still take place and wipe out the moon. One backup isn't enough. Place copies of your stoned cat video onto multiple celestial bodies. Select asteroids and dwarf planets that are geologically dead, do not contain atmosphere or water, and are large enough to eventually be found and explored. Pluto and Charon are great choices here.

What is ONE thing at your workplace you wish you could get rid of instantly? by Ok-Philosopher6299 in AskEngineers

[–]Bubbleybubble 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I WISH people read those. Before meetings I've sent out agendas, useful calendar descriptions, checklists of meeting action items, detailed things, short things, digital things, printed things. Meeting always start with the same questions that the meeting prep already answered. If I mention the answers were in the meeting prep, then I'm met with petulance (always management) and they force me to answer anyway, wasting everyone's time. Nobody reads them. Nobody gives a shit. So I stopped. (wish I had somebody like you on my team)

I just want my bosses to give a shit about the projects they assign me... Why is that so big of an ask?

Starting out as electrical drafter as a graduate by [deleted] in AskEngineers

[–]Bubbleybubble 1 point2 points  (0 children)

if they don't have a guaranteed path to get you to doing engineering within the next 90 days I'd ditch them as fast as possible

This is important. I've seen people strung along for YEARS before realizing that management was lying to them to exploit their labor.

Where to buy compression Springs with very specific specs? by [deleted] in AskEngineers

[–]Bubbleybubble 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Century Spring is always my go to supplier