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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • Yeah, I’m always a little skeptical about the ‘feel it’ claims. But computers don’t have to adapt to progressive wear; I’m sure you could configure the ABS/traction control to indicate that in dry conditions consistently slipping below say 0.3g (number pulled out of ass) of applied traction implies an excessively worn tire.

    Once you get below a certain level of performance, all the braking/steering assumptions involved in self driving start breaking down too.


  • Airliner engines are getting to ludicrous reliability numbers (the latest generation appears to be closing in on 10M hours between inflight shutdowns) largely through predictive maintenance performed far in advance. We’re well past ‘most pilots never see an engine failure’ and approaching ‘most airlines don’t see an engine failure’.

    And there are few locations more abusive to sensors than the hot section of a turbine engine.


  • And yet people can feel the difference between a worn tire and a new tire. Accelerometers and the torque feedback on the motor drives (both of which are already widespread in cars out of necessity for other equipment) can feel when the tires are on the edge of losing traction.

    One of the changes in automation over the last decade or two is a move away from having many specific ‘sensor for monitoring X’, towards interpreting a smaller number of better sensors in novel ways to provide the same data.





  • Also:

    Thin stamped construction is cheap, but can still be fitted with sleeving on the live (active and neutral) pins like UK & europlug, but not US plugs. This prevents objects or fingers getting to live pins on a partially inserted plug.

    Industry has agreed that leads exit either straight out, or down-and-right, so there is no conflict for horizontal or vertical sockets. Sockets are universally installed earth-down.

    Reasonably compact.



  • Mostly take each day as it comes. Scheduling is the boss’s problem.

    Occasional interactions with tenants/customers/groundskeepers (“We’re here to do X, the property manager should have informed you”), and suppliers (chainsaw shop, fuel) but for the most part it was “here’s a pile of job sheets; one for each job; reasonably detailed explanation on each”. Some customers do want to walk you through what they want, and some neighbours are insane, but generally the interaction is quite purposeful rather than endless smalltalk. I’m more on the ADHD side of things than Au, though.

    I found it was generally a good mix of novel and routine, and you could both be a perfectionist (it usually has to look good) and say “it’s nature; it’ll never be perfect”.

    It’s hard work but if you’ve got a chainsaw, everything looks like it can be cut smaller if necessary. We have a very mild climate (other than wind, which there’s a lot of). Being paid to build muscle is nice and you definitely feel the difference after a few weeks/months. You’re outside in the sun/overcast/mild rain amongst greenery (even if you’re chopping it up), which is supposed to be good for mental health.

    Random unexpected paid days off due to poor weather but not tree-uprooting weather is nice.

    That said, there’s downsides:

    You are going to be working in a team of minimum two, probably 3 ish. If you don’t agree on processes, safety etc., things don’t last.

    Bigger contractors with multiple trucks will have more, but we only had one and that meant sick leave and annual leave was a bit of a mess because you really can’t do much alone, but you can’t usually fit more than 3 in a truck.

    Health and safety at small companies is a mess. I never got more than a few small cuts but especially as you get older, screwing up ankles and shoulders starts becoming an issue. Tree work is bad for high-impact low-probability risks and small businesses are terrible at managing those.