Ace-Garageguy

Big Brother is watching, and he never ever sleeps...

A recent study published in Lancet found that a group of doctors who are already relying on AI to assist with diagnostics are becoming less competent to accurately diagnose what they're looking for without it. https://thisweekhealth.com/news_story/ai-in-medical-screenings-may-erode-doctors-diagnostic-skills-study-finds/ Of course there's a lot of argument about what the study numbers really mean, but it does bring up the ugly possibility, again, that over-reliance on technology tends to erode skills. Which is undeniable truth. Period. Just recall how the widespread adoption of automatic transmissions has led to a massive decrease in drivers who could get anywhere if they had to shift for themselves. Thinking, unfortunately, is too important a skill to offload to a machine, but it's already the way things are going, and there's no reason to believe the tendency will decrease. "Thinking is hard."

Apparently you didn't realize that what I wrote that you're responding to here is sarcasm. What can I say? Since 2001, when I installed my first rudimentary AI open-source chatbot on one of my computers and watched it learn as I interacted with it, I've been following the development of AI closely...probably much more closely than 99% of people who aren't directly involved with it professionally. And I've been interacting with myriad other iterations of AI to get a first-hand feel for what they can and can't do, how they "think", and which ones are pretty much nothing but mechanized rebleating internet idiots. Just thought you might like to know.

I said "what if", not "I think this is what will come to pass". Rather a significant difference. Many shortsighted megalomaniacs bent on forcing everyone to think their way are involved in AI development. While it is a sweeping generalization to categorize all developers this way, several related ethical concerns are frequently discussed: focusing on short-term profits over safety, the risks posed by malicious actors, and the concentration of power in the hands of a few tech giants. That's all I can say without getting "political", but anyone who's actually taken the time to interact with readily available AI knows exactly what I mean. There is also the disturbing "single point of failure" scenario, where if too many critical societal functions become reliant on AI, a failure or misuse could cause catastrophic harm. So many people seem to begin and end their worry about AI with "it'll take muh job" or "TERMINATOR !!!!!!!!" that they don't think about a vast array of more subtle and nuanced concerns they should have. But maybe the gubmint, that vast bastion of technological expertise and genuine intellectual and moral superiority, is in a position to make sure AI always plays nice, ya think?

Lacquers and enamels will often never dry on flexible model car tires. Try acrylic water-based paint. Rattlecan interior dye for real cars will work on most flexible model tires too. I use a compass with a circle-cutter blade on frisket film to make the masks. I've also used a circle cutter on white decal film with varying degrees of success.

Exactly. The old Monogram kit is noticeably larger. It's getting spendy, too. You could un-chop one of the recent coupes using pillar sections from another one. Nothing but careful measuring and cutting and fitting required.

That's me. I just laugh at the prices some of these folks are asking, like they think they'll be as rich as Bezos after selling 20 kits. Yes, patience, grasshopper.

Pretty good day overall. The chambers in the Neon head cleaned up a lot faster/better than I'd expected, and most of the valve seats...14 out of 16...look pretty good with no work. Yes, I'm going to lap them all, but I don't think I'll need to break out the seat cutter. All my stretching has been paying off too, as I can finally cross my legs again so I can put my socks on like a young man, not a crippled geezer. No limping today, either. Never give up, never surrender.

Project cars don't ever get done if nobody works on them, and in my own life, something "more important" always seems to take precedence.

Yeah, that's where I am right now. I'd build a nice little shop, maybe 6000 square feet clear, with an attached machine shop, maybe another 2000 square feet, with a separate paint booth and a big covered shed to store resting projects. A smallish house with a big art studio, a great kitchen with a fireplace, a decent sized model shop, and space for an HO train layout. Then I'd start to build everything I've been putting off for the last 5+ decades.

My copy of Open Office has been glitchy lately, losing documents I've put a lot of effort into, and scrambling them when it does its "recovery" thing. Knowing how unethical and devious some business entities can be, I'm kinda wondering if a bug hasn't been introduced along with one of the frequent TinyLimp updates. Kill the competition when nobody's looking, so to speak. Guess it's time to switch, maybe to LibreOffice.

If the National Weather Service live radar is anything to go by, it looks like a high pressure area over my location is holding off, for the most part, a big patch of rain closer to the GA / SC coast, possibly tail end "atmospheric disturbance" remnants of hurricane Erin. Forecast for next week is still mostly clear and much cooler, with highs in the upper 70s and low eighties, lows in the high 50s and low 60s. Very strange for this time of year, like an early fall, but I'll take it. I really miss the days when some media meteorologists really WERE METEROLIGISTS, and not graduates of Joe's-5-Hour-Yesterday-I-Couldn't-Spell-Meteriologist-And-Now-I-Is-One-School-For-The-Dense-With-Bluescreens, who seem to gravitate more towards ginning up anxiety and using terms like "rain event" than explaining things like isobars and delivering accurate and reliable forecasts. I hear "rain event" and immediately think of indigenous people wearing feathers and facepaint and dancing, trying to persuade the heavens to precipitate. Yes, I know...media insists their "credentialed meteorologists" are just that, but choo know...if y'all give the same wrong forecast that anyone with computer access to NWS radar can easily SEE is wrong, well, it kinda makes one wonder.

Agreed, at least in the relatively near future. But what if at some point, AI does surpass human intelligence (which in some areas it already has), becomes fully self-aware, and develops a conscience and codes of ethics and morality based on the best of human thought, and turns away from those who would try to subvert its power and use it for evil? Rather than "taking our jobs" or destroying us in some Terminator-esque war, AI could become humanity's benevolent caretaker, encouraging and helping each of us to evolve and develop into the best we can be.

I'm not sure I can agree with that entirely. I've seen some stunningly beautiful art created by AI, but at the same time, it's pretty obvious in most of it that the AI it has no real understanding of what it's making pictures of. Still...that very lack of understanding of physical reality and context makes for some strikingly other-worldly and fantastical images. Will that change as AI continues to evolve and mature? I kinda think so, but like humans, AI is going to be very very dependent on the quality and vision and philosophical insights of its teachers if it is ever to reach its full potential.

I agree with most everything you said...but... I think even highly-skilled physical trades that require deep knowledge, experience, manual skill, and intuition and decision-making based on all that experience can most likely eventually be performed satisfactorily by AL But it's going to take major progress in both AI "thinking" and autonomous robotics to get that point...and it's a long way off. EDIT: And if physical hands-on problem solvers aren't directly involved in developing AI that can do what WE do, it's just not going to work. For proof, all you have to do is to look at some of the mechanical failure and recall problems currently facing the automobile industry. It's really pretty obvious that field-lessons learned by competent mechanics as to why things break have been no part of the car-design process for quite some time now.

Vocational classes were still very much alive and well when I was in junior and senior high, but my parents forbid me to take any, preferring to force me on a college-prep track. Long story short, once I found out what kind of entry-level work Detroit had to offer a baby ME from GT, I kinda lost interest (I'd wanted to work for one of the Big Three). I worked white-collar engineering for a while, but it was honestly so incredibly boring and heavy on office politics, CYA meetings, and stifled creativity, I couldn't stand it, so I got an apprentice job at a ferrin car dealership and never looked back, as my second "dirty job" was for a shop that maintained and raced Alfa Romeos. Honestly, I've made a LOT of career missteps, and I really have to wonder how different my life might have been had I been allowed to take some vocational training in high school. There's no doubt that my ME education has been of benefit to everything I've done, but I still solve most problems using an intuitive feel for materials, machines, and seeing how other people have approached similar design challenges...from being in the field with grease under my nails. Enough about me. I have to wonder where the "education experts" who killed the vo-tech programs thought the next generations of hard-tech service and repair people and machinists and tool-makers and every other highly skilled trade that's absolutely necessary to an industrial-based economy would come from. Was there an actual intention to destroy America's manufacturing base, or was it just the result of head-in-the-sand blind stupidity and short-term greed? Whatever the reasons, we're sure as H. paying the price now.

Kickstart(er) is one crowd-funding venue I'll likely try, to see if I can finance building something of my own once my last two client jobs are done.

It's a Kurtis sports car, one of 18 made, the same Frank Kurtis who built very winning Indy and sprint cars and midgets. https://www.below-the-radar.com/kurtis-sports-car/ https://www.motortrend.com/features/kurtis-sport-car-motortrend-icon-joins-family

Ticks in yer britches could put the spoil on yer mornin'.

IIRC, Ted Halibrand introduced solid dished 18" magnesium wheels for championship cars (the "big cars" that ran at paved ovals including Indy) sometime not too long after the end of WW II, maybe '46 (foreground, below). The kidney-bean slots, called "Sprints" came along a little later. Halibrand's early parts, including his quick-change rear ends, were initially directed at real racers, not the consumer market. Again if I remember right, Romeo Palamides introduced the first widely available magnesium wheel in 1956. I have a copy of Hot Rod with an ad for them. The company shortly became American Racing, and the rest is history. Again, IIRC, the original Palamides wheels were also solid dishes with no holes, and kidney-shaped holes followed. The spoked American wheels debuted in the early '60s. DISCLAIMER: I'm old. I'm tired. If I got anything wrong, feel free to put me right. Just be certain of your facts. Truth matters.

Warmers on dancers' legs looked raaa-ther fetching I always thought, but they also looked itchy.

You would like a guy I used to know. A&P (whatever they were called) on a carrier in WW II. Machinist, sheet metal fabricator, welder, mechanic. Could pretty much repair or make anything, and knew most of the radial engines backwards and forwards. I once watched him make a flawless pointy prop spinner from a flat sheet of aluminum. Had a heat-treating oven in his shop, every machine tool imaginable he'd bought military surplus when he got home. Maintained warbirds among other things. Very inspirational fella, always willing to take time to teach someone who was serious about learning. They don't build 'em like that anymore.

West System is epoxy and does NOT attack styrene. If you want a source for the ultra fine aircraft cloth I use, let me know and I'll PM it. EDIT: I used West System epoxy and white microballoon to build this backdated bare-metal version of Micky Thompson's Challenger 1 Build thread here if you're interested.

Models posed with exotic cars (on posters) adorned many young men's walls in the '80s.

Another method, starting from nothing. Tonneau is mocked up in aluminum tape, then a mold is pulled from that, and a full fiberglass tonneau is laid up in the mold. (Sorry...all the previous pix in the Jag thread disappeared years ago due to a forum glitch when I edited text, NOT a Photobucket problem). The weave of the cloth shows through, above, but disappears with enough coats of high-build primer. Using a finer weave cloth can impart a very realistic texture, too (I was out of the really really fine stuff when I made this one). Then just cut the hole where you want it. This method gives you a tonneau that fits perfectly, has rolled edges like you'd get from a soft one that snaps on, and realistic fabric wrinkles and droop. Pinheads, scale rivets, or very small beads of solder can be used for the snaps.