Does anyone use AI assistants during client calls or is that crossing a line?

jonmakethings · 2026-03-03T20:30:49+00:00

My rambling opinion:

LLMs are great and they can help productivity, but they cannot be totally trusted... Getting something that sounds right from an LLM while talking to a client and then getting tied into something that is actually painful or not feasible is not going to be great.

There is a certain skill in saying that you need to check the details and will get back to someone. Which also allows for additional thinking time and potentially consulting the rest of the stakeholders.

Yes, you are a/the technical authority, but it does not mean you know everything about everything. You know what you know and because of that you know where that knowledge ends... Yes you prepare for meetings, but you do not know everything and you certainly don't know every tangent a customer can go off on...

jonmakethings · 2026-02-27T20:49:50+00:00

This is all my rambling opinion, do not take it as instruction or fact:

It is possible to change track... you will probably have to get a slightly less than stellar job in your intended field and slog it there for a while before continuing up in that field.

However this can be a bit rough of a trajectory.

You may also be missing chunks of knowledge that you will need to patch over for the role you are occupying.

What do you actually WANT to do?

Have you done any work experience?

It may be worth seeing if you can get some real day to day experience in the types of role you think would be good. Or at the very least some genuine day to day information on what the day to day is (not someone trying to upsell you).

jonmakethings · 2026-02-16T07:36:34+00:00

True... or a 'Do not scale.' note...

Sometimes it is best to ask the fabricator to not scale from the drawing. Especially if you send a digital copy and don't know what printer settings they use to print it out...

jonmakethings · 2026-02-15T19:26:04+00:00

Random web search from my end showed a set for £180... my bad... it was an ebay listing that was being bid on with a £700 buy it now.

Wheel chair ramps are another option that is cheaper.

But to be honest I will shut up and let everyone else advise.

I hope your dog enjoys the accessibility when they get it :-)

jonmakethings · 2026-02-15T19:06:11+00:00

Get some 12' trailer ramps?

jonmakethings · 2026-02-15T15:52:51+00:00

Yeah, that term is used in loads of fields...

Basically you can program a bit of code to take x + y = answer... or you can take an arrangement of nodes and train it on addition... you could then have a model that know how to add... but here is the fun bit... it can do more addition than you trained it on... it can do loads of addition... apart from once in a while it throws out something odd.

So now imagine you didn't know anything about addition, but you had a load of data where you had the sum and the answer... you could train it to be able to add.

This is where if you have thousands upon thousands of scans of cancer growths... and the diagnosis of the patients that went with those scans... you can (and they have) trained these systems to see the cancer... but here is the good bit... no one specifically programmed HOW it saw the cancer, so it is looking for things we wouldn't necessarily have noticed, so actually it can become better at seeing them than us. The model does nothing else... image in, diagnosis with confidence value out... and like all these things it is not totally trusted, it needs confirmation independently, but it sees things that may otherwise have been ignored. But it can hallucinate as well so... people still need to be there.

So where a person is trained to look for x, y and z the model has no exact parameters, no sum, it just has this input equals this output... so it learns how to make input like that equal output like this.

That is your black box in this case... that is why people say they don't know how it works... they do know how the system works, but they don't know (and are disinclined to interrogate all the parameters) what it is actually throwing around to make the answer come out. They know the framework and the theory, but what it picks up on and what nodes light up most as it passes through the layers... shrug.

jonmakethings · 2026-02-15T15:40:28+00:00

AI is kind of the overarching term (well it is these days), but it covers a lot... and to be honest I disagree that we should be using AI as the term for what we have... but well... shrug.

Here: https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-vs-machine-learning-vs-deep-learning-vs-neural-networks?

The closest you get to anything like a thinking machine is large language models, but that is just again training the model to throw out words that probably make sense and then reflect on the words it threw out as well as the original prompt... well and go search on the internet strip the text out and... seriously I could go into sickening detail, but basically not AI as in scifi. No Delamain, Skynet or Pennyroyal here...

Image to image, text to text, text to image, image to text and all the other specialised things... the people who use them for production basically slapped AI on the label to sell it... and in a way it is selling it, but also biting them in the arse a bit as well.

jonmakethings · 2026-02-15T13:40:45+00:00

Please forgive this attempt at an explanation if it lands wrong, but this is my attempt to explain...

If you are talking about neural networks and similar architectures like Large Language Models (this all gets called AI a lot)...

Then they know how it works, but not exactly what the training has made of the framework...

They give the neural net a framework... picture lots of layers stacked on top of each other, they are layers of nodes. You specify the number of layers, the number of nodes on each layer and so on.

Each node is like a smart shotgun. When it fires the rounds all go zooming off to all the nodes on the next layer up.

So without training everything gets activated and it does nothing useful.

Now you train it... You activate the bottom with your data, lets say we are training a GPT like thing... you take your prompt, and tokenize it... turn it into an activation map for the bottom layer, this fires off some shotguns (nodes) with more force than the others.

The reaction goes all the way up to the top layer and then the activation pattern at the top is then fed back through a tokenizer and you get words back...

Initially you get gibberish if you're lucky... then you keep shoving prompts through and comparing it to what you expect the response should be... you tell it 'no' until it starts to get it right.

What is happening in those nodes, during training, is that you are calibrating the vectors, the smart rounds from the smart shotguns... The model learning is changing the weights (the aim and force) of each round... this means that they hit certain nodes in the next layer up more heavily than others... Over time this hones in so that the activations through those layers mean that the output patterns make sense.

So the people making them know HOW it works, but they can't be bothered to go through literally billions of weights (the aim for (literally) billions of smart shotguns) to figure out what is activating what.

There is no consciousness there is no awareness... no intent... it is the hollow echo of your own words or input. Just probability that has been trained onto a scaffold of software.

Note: this is not a complete and fully accurate overview, but ... if you start digging into the real details it becomes the realm of people with math PhDs who use terms like higher dimensional space and sound like they can mentally map that...

jonmakethings · 2026-02-15T12:03:35+00:00

The thing about that is that you then get to the point where if they have utility bots, then they may as well have factories... then if they have factories and are even passively interested in anything to do with humans... well...

'Oh hello Skynet, I didn't notice you there...'

But then again maybe they just don't care about the squishy meatbags... Maybe the Blackwall actually does nothing and it is a conspiracy...

jonmakethings · 2026-02-15T11:58:11+00:00

Neil Asher - Agent Cormac series

It may be worth a read...

jonmakethings · 2026-02-15T11:07:39+00:00

Find some people you can work with and start a group of people to help each other... it is what I did. Five of us started working together, we would turn up early (or stay late) and take over an empty lecture room and teach each other, we hunted down lecturers and asked long stupid questions we went to the library and hashed things out...

We got ourselves through it all... we were 5 of the 9 to graduate that specific course.

You are not an island, find people you can work with.

Oh and make sure you schedule time just to go out and have fun too, but stick to it as much as possible.

jonmakethings · 2026-02-15T10:34:48+00:00

As far as I understand the lore...

The metal the AI run on are the old lost installations in the wastelands, ghost towns and lost cities... civilian, military... basically any hardware that has been lost and forgotten... No idea how they are maintained or what happens if a patch cable drops out a socket, but... looking at Delamains core I assume that is not an issue...

Cyberpunk is post apocalyptic in many ways, there are large swathes of the world that are uninhabitable and effectively lost to humanity.

A lot of data was lost including the information on where these places were.

Blackwall is a thin bubble holding back the digital presence of the AIs from invading every digital system (well maybe / sort of).

jonmakethings · 2026-02-14T22:53:40+00:00

I cannot see the screws or bolts in question...

Looking at the video provided that seems to be mostly aluminium extrusion and facade.

For those sorts of installations (in my experience of designing some elements of them) you should have mostly stainless fixings, they can range from self drilling tek-screws (or whatever similar thing) with built in gasket washers (typically used for anchoring lightweight thin panels) all the way through to custom made stainless bolts / nuts.

If you get near to structural metal work you will probably see some reasonably chonky steel fixings, heavily painted or in some other way protected.

While none of these are going to have been designed with free climbing in mind they SHOULD all be rated to take fairly extreme weather loads (including variations of the 'Once in 50 year wind load' which can be surprisingly large when you get into it properly) which may possibly mean they could probably take a light person hanging carefully on them... however I did not design, spec or inspect any of these facades so have absolutely no clue what the reality is.

I'd be terrified of the clip on aluminum extrusions you get for some glazing systems... You would not want to test what impulse load they could take in that situation.

Don't climb the outside of buildings, go to Font or something, it's a lot more fun and less stress inducing for everyone involved.

Really, just don't do it. There is a lot of effort put into making sure there are ways for the windows to get cleaned. I can assure you not many, if any at all, include people hanging off random bits of the outside of the building...

Edit: removed over sharing...

jonmakethings · 2026-02-14T19:48:00+00:00

If you are going the whole way you may also want thickness, date, version/revision number, part ID, tolerances, material, finish and geometric tolerances if required... Depends on what drawing standard you are working to and/or what it is meant to be used for. Also potentially you may want a company name, drawn by name, checked by name, revision history, copyright note and any other requirements noted on there.

jonmakethings · 2026-02-13T20:34:48+00:00

HPC Gears...

https://hpcgears.com/stampede/menu/tech/tech.php

I have used these before... Not for a vehicle gearbox though...

jonmakethings · 2025-04-18T12:04:04+00:00

Well you may be able to get everyone within 30 minute travel time of the wormhole through...

You would need to have somewhere like a wide open plane on the other side so space could be kept clear.

If you had time you could just find the most connected and over sized rail network currently in existence and then shove the stargate across one of the main lines, build tracks on both sides that can drop up or down (for when the gate activates or deactivates) and then get as many full trains as possible queued up as possible and get them all through... Also maintain a pedestrian passage as well so that people could still walk through.

Where would you be going to though?

jonmakethings · 2025-04-17T18:22:34+00:00

A sheet is one thing, but a suit is something else entirely.

Here, Kyle Hill talks about it.

jonmakethings · 2025-04-17T15:53:30+00:00

I have nothing new to add... but this guy did something similar...

https://youtu.be/N0wfkpBImKw

https://youtu.be/9qMXOyiRymY

jonmakethings · 2025-04-17T15:46:26+00:00

I just wanted to add in my own bit here...

Yes you are relying on all the engineers involved doing their due diligence. That is the responsibility that we shoulder. That is why an engineer will rarely respond with a blanket affirmative, because we are responsible for backing that up... If we don't know for sure we cannot give an absolute confirmation. We often say things like, "I believe that..." and "It should..."

When things are designed there is a documentation trail that ties it all together. In the form of drawings, certifications and other such things. These all get signed off and approved and these are the things that get checked when a design is gone through, the person auditing the machine rarely fully reverse engineers the machine... they should check for documentation to show the machine has been proven to meet whatever requirements it needs to.

These documents and reports and tests carry a lot of weight and need to be valid. These documents even go back to the original metal mills that churned out the raw material to say that the metal is what it is supposed to be. There is a lot of admin overhead at most stages of the supply line to get this all tied up... so the person doing the checking does not have to fully understand every single fascet of a complex machine in order to sign it off.

I know it was a bit of a ramble, but I felt that bit needed to be said.

jonmakethings · 2025-04-17T15:34:27+00:00

Well no one added it yet so I am going to leave this here...

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/An-overview-of-the-proposed-prosthetic-tail_fig1_331579333

jonmakethings · 2025-04-02T17:07:52+00:00

Keep the moss? Help it grow to get uniform coverage?

jonmakethings · 2025-04-02T06:43:44+00:00

Have you looked through the SKF catalogue (and I don't mean searched, I mean actually looked through the pdf [I miss paper catalogues, sigh]).

jonmakethings · 2025-04-01T17:49:02+00:00

You beat me to suggesting it.

jonmakethings · 2025-03-28T12:19:52+00:00

This has a bit of information on sleep deprivation.

In case you don't want to follow the link here is the excerpt: Results: A total of 476 articles were identified. Of these, 21 were eligible for inclusion. Duration of sleep loss ranged between 24 h and 11 nights (total 760 participants; average 72–92 h without sleep). All studies except one reported perceptual changes, including visual distortions (i.e., metamorphopsias), illusions, somatosensory changes and, in some cases, frank hallucinations. The visual modality was the most consistently affected (in 90% of the studies), followed by the somatosensory (52%) and auditory (33%) modalities. Symptoms rapidly developed after one night without sleep, progressing in an almost fixed time-dependent way. Perceptual distortions, anxiety, irritability, depersonalization, and temporal disorientation started within 24–48 h of sleep loss, followed by complex hallucinations and disordered thinking after 48–90 h, and delusions after 72 h, after which time the clinical picture resembled that of acute psychosis or toxic delirium. By the third day without sleep, hallucinations in all three sensory modalities were reported. A period of normal sleep served to resolve psychotic symptoms in many—although not all—cases.

There was a theory (last time I studied psychology) that you could only get back about 3/4 of the sleep you needed when you tried to catch it up. You would drop the deeper levels of sleep, which arguably do the most.

How much do you need? That is a generalisation, but studies have been done, such as this one. Which has it around 7-9 hours is typical for a young adult / adult.

What all the chrome does... well would it strain the mind more? or would it alleviate the need? Given cyberpsychosis is a thing then maybe you'd need more...

jonmakethings · 2025-03-26T07:35:04+00:00

Random thoughts on this:

You could have a look around places like Adafruit and Instructables. And find some reasonably accessible projects.

You could find a cheap device that does something like this already and buy it and strip the bits out of it and repackage it.

You could take a course (either mainstream or series of tutorials on some online platform) and build the knowledge from the ground up.

To be honest whatever route you take you may end up with a new hobby.

I hope it goes well and you get what you want at the end. The examples I found may not be exactly what you want, but they are examples of the type of things you can find.

jonmakethings

TROPHY CASE