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BrandorKP posted:Another thing about the steam stuff, it's where systems thinking and controls theory comes from. You have to have to understand a diagram of the cycle to really run a steam plant with pneumatic controls. The same control valves, how they are used to affect the system that's where controls really gets its start. Later the rocket and aerospace industries really run with controls. How well do steamships using the pneumatic operation actually run? I have only sailed with full electronic automation, which had things like "bridge throttle control" and a literal big button that said "start plant".
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Jan 26, 2017 17:41
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shovelbum posted:How well do steamships using the pneumatic operation actually run? I have only sailed with full electronic automation, which had things like "bridge throttle control" and a literal big button that said "start plant". With engineers who know all the things the automation would otherwise take care of. Basically they're all gone though. I did some of my cadet time on the last steamship built in the US, it had full automation and it was constructed in 83 I think. Outside of some very old RRF stuff I don't think they are around anymore. Even the steam vessels built in the time period before automation (eg a couple of lakers) that are still sailing have had their engine rooms updated with automation. I've talked to older engineers, who sailed on old steam ships and it sounded like a pain in the rear end. Imagine changing burners and turning valves everytime the bridge wanted to change RPMs.
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Jan 26, 2017 20:55
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BrandorKP posted:With engineers who know all the things the automation would otherwise take care of. Basically they're all gone though. I did some of my cadet time on the last steamship built in the US, it had full automation and it was constructed in 83 I think. Outside of some very old RRF stuff I don't think they are around anymore. Even the steam vessels built in the time period before automation (eg a couple of lakers) that are still sailing have had their engine rooms updated with automation. I've talked to older engineers, who sailed on old steam ships and it sounded like a pain in the rear end. Imagine changing burners and turning valves everytime the bridge wanted to change RPMs. Yeah even on the Lakes steam as a whole is dying out, in a few years I bet there's no steam left outside the government ships.
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Jan 26, 2017 21:12
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Uber opens its network to self-driving cars
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Jan 31, 2017 18:36
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Just want to share this little laugh with a now dead thread.
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Feb 5, 2017 06:29
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Tasmantor posted:Just want to share this little laugh with a now dead thread. Pretty good. I especially like how he monitors the store on his phone most of the time and does the Bitcoiner thing of talking up his gross income without mentioning how much he had to outlay for the machines, storefront, and stock. All it'll take is a couple people with crowbars and his business is wrecked even if he's got insurance.
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Feb 5, 2017 08:47
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I like that discount chemist warehouse dropped him after a "slight misunderstanding". I'd love to read more about that.
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Feb 5, 2017 10:55
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I don't understand what's supposed to be funny about that guy. The most important question is whether your business is profitable or not. Whether it will return the investment in 2 years or 5 years is almost inconsequential compared to the first question. That's why he doesn't need to speak about the upfront cost. Besides, he has no furniture or bathroom facilities or gaudy decoration -- it's not like it cost millions to set it up. As for the crowbar problem, we can imagine he has an alarm system. Are there people who will risk that to steal a sack of .99$ soda and $9.99 perfumes? I guess so, but ordinary businesses get burglarized too.
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Feb 5, 2017 11:40
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I don't think "selling bread and milk" will be automatized soon. Part of the reason people buy to people is because we don't trust the people selling us milk and bread. We have the technology to have the refrigerator order more milk when the milk bottle is empty. People don't want to lose control over these things. I imagine that people want to take the food products in their hands before they take the decision to take these products home. Maybe is some instinct and how our brain is wired. Having the refrigerator automatically refill the milk bottle is against some of our instincts. You will not eat or drink something without looking at it at least once. Is a miracle that people trust soda companies like Coca Cola, but I think is because every coca cola taste exactly the same and you have not heard of anybody finding a dead rat inside his cola bottle and dying for that. So these automatic machines that deliver food. They can deliver soda bottles. That works. Milk, no so much (you have to trust the machine to not mix water or served outdated milk). Bread, need to be fresh too, but the way these machines work, the product may wait months before is sell. So anything you buy from one of these machines is usually filled with chemical products to delay corruption. We have the technology to automatise buying and selling food, but I don't think is what people want at the moment. The exception can be made for "standarized food". Usually trash food. So you know what (poo poo) you are buying without looking at it.
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Feb 5, 2017 11:52
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Tei posted:I don't think "selling bread and milk" will be automatized soon. I'm pretty sure that Amazon automated grocery store where you just grab your items and walk away will stock bread and milk.
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Feb 5, 2017 13:51
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People already buy milk from machines:  The only thing stopping further automation is technology and mostly logistics. Your fridge doesn't know that you're out of milk (no rfid tags on poo poo yet) and if it did, there's no way to get itself restocked. It could order it off Amazon of course but unless you let random delivery people into your house unattended, it'd have to wait outside which isn't great. Audi tried to solve that but I don't think their trunk delivery caught on.
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Feb 5, 2017 13:55
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Tei posted:I don't think "selling bread and milk" will be automatized soon. The more pressing issue is that my refrigerator does not know what meals I plan to make in the next week, so it cannot order the proper ingredients. I, on the other hand, know I will use a certain amount of milk, a certain amount of cream, etc., and can buy the proper amount when I'm at the store. I would certainly have no problem with a system that allowed me to order groceries online and have them delivered, but having my fridge just order milk on some kind of schedule sounds absurd.
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Feb 5, 2017 14:47
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:Pretty good. I especially like how he monitors the store on his phone most of the time and does the Bitcoiner thing of talking up his gross income without mentioning how much he had to outlay for the machines, storefront, and stock. All it'll take is a couple people with crowbars and his business is wrecked even if he's got insurance. What makes you think this is the first business that would be hurt by being smashed up by a gang hitting it with crowbars?
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Feb 5, 2017 15:21
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If he was there in person he could stop the gang with his 3D printed pistols and hanzo steel.
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Feb 5, 2017 15:58
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Milk and bread are curious examples. At least where I live the only way I can judge milk is by looking at the expiration date. I also don't get to personally handle bread to see how fresh it is - it's either in a sealed bag which brings you back to the printed dates or it's on a shelf behind the counter in a bakery. Fruits and vegetables I can pick and chose though. I don't imagine shipping crappy produce will be a good long term business model though.
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Feb 5, 2017 16:19
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Tei posted:Having the refrigerator automatically refill the milk bottle is against some of our instincts. You will not eat or drink something without looking at it at least once. Is a miracle that people trust soda companies like Coca Cola, but I think is because every coca cola taste exactly the same and you have not heard of anybody finding a dead rat inside his cola bottle and dying for that. Ordering milk is the easy part. The hard part is getting it from your front porch to your fridge in a timely matter. That's why automated ordering of perishables never really took off. You can order soda online because it's non-perishable - it doesn't care about sitting outside on a hot summer day for six hours. The reason there are soda vending machines and not milk vending machines is simply because the soda companies put a lot of money into marketing and ensuring the wide availability of their products. Milk occasionally shows up in vending machines, but the fact that the milk companies don't make milk vending machines is a major contributing factor to its rarity.
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Feb 5, 2017 17:34
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Main Paineframe posted:Ordering milk is the easy part. The hard part is getting it from your front porch to your fridge in a timely matter. That's why automated ordering of perishables never really took off. You can order soda online because it's non-perishable - it doesn't care about sitting outside on a hot summer day for six hours. I just ordered milk and bread online and a dude came in a refrigerated truck and handed them to me. I live in the cyberpunk dystopia known as "LONDON"
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Feb 5, 2017 18:16
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Malcolm XML posted:I just ordered milk and bread online and a dude came in a refrigerated truck and handed them to me.
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Feb 5, 2017 18:36
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Malcolm XML posted:I just ordered milk and bread online and a dude came in a refrigerated truck and handed them to me. Some of us work for a living, and the logistics of that get complicated fast when you're not just sitting at home playing videogames all day.
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Feb 5, 2017 18:37
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Main Paineframe posted:Some of us work for a living, and the logistics of that get complicated fast when you're not just sitting at home playing videogames all day. My weekly shop is delivered between 9 and 10pm on a Tuesday. Its about as complicated as ordering anything else on line.
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Feb 5, 2017 19:02
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Main Paineframe posted:Some of us work for a living, and the logistics of that get complicated fast when you're not just sitting at home playing videogames all day. Last time that was a problem we invented mailboxes. I'm certain it's now possible to make them larger and insulated.
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Feb 5, 2017 20:13
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Main Paineframe posted:Some of us work for a living, and the logistics of that get complicated fast when you're not just sitting at home playing videogames all day. Uh, almost all grocery delivery services that I know of schedule delivery with an hour window at most, run deliveries until at least 8pm, and deliver on weekends.
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Feb 5, 2017 20:22
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:What makes you think this is the first business that would be hurt by being smashed up by a gang hitting it with crowbars? It's not that someone wouldn't get the idea to do that in literally any other store, it's about the deterrent effect of having people actually present running the store as opposed to a place that looks completely unattended. Not to mention the effect of having the appearance of security cameras also has an effect on how likely people think they are to get caught stealing stuff. Granted, the prices might actually be comparatively low enough that busting in the machines isn't worth it but that doesn't make it not a thing, unless you think Walmart and gas stations just like wasting money on fake security cameras. It's funny because the guy seems the type who will be completely blindsided the first time his foolproof plan to deal with shoplifting fails and have no actual plan in place to deal with it. Ignatius M. Meen fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Feb 5, 2017 |
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Feb 5, 2017 21:03
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:It's not that someone wouldn't get the idea to do that in literally any other store, it's about the deterrent effect of having people actually present running the store as opposed to a place that looks completely unattended. Not to mention the effect of having the appearance of security cameras also has an effect on how likely people think they are to get caught stealing stuff. Granted, the prices might actually be comparatively low enough that busting in the machines isn't worth it but that doesn't make it not a thing, unless you think Walmart and gas stations just like wasting money on fake security cameras. It's funny because the guy seems the type who will be completely blindsided the first time his foolproof plan to deal with shoplifting fails and have no actual plan in place to deal with it. This sounds like you are doubtful of the possibility of the existence of vending machines in general.
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Feb 5, 2017 21:12
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:This sounds like you are doubtful of the possibility of the existence of vending machines in general. No? Vending machines are usually in heavily trafficked public areas where the likelihood of somebody hearing or seeing something is pretty good and where they're not, there's probably just one or two. This is a storefront with dozens of them clumped together, if you can't see how these situations would be appraised differently I don't know what to tell you.
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Feb 5, 2017 21:27
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I assume that nobody produces vending machines that are easy to crowbar open. They aren't really meant to be moved so having all vulnerable parts safeguarded by good inch of steel probably is safe enough. Or maybe the guy is an idiot and his machines are made of tin, who knows. What I find more probably scenario is that someone will walk in and take a giant poo poo right at the doorway. And at that point, the business will die until the owner checks his cameras and sees the turd and drives there to clean it. A dedicated rear end in a top hat can easily keep the place effectively shut down every night. Or someone could run in with a spray can and paint all the machines black. Nobody can see items, nobody will buy anything.
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Feb 5, 2017 21:35
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serious gaylord posted:My weekly shop is delivered between 9 and 10pm on a Tuesday. Its about as complicated as ordering anything else on line. Paradoxish posted:Uh, almost all grocery delivery services that I know of schedule delivery with an hour window at most, run deliveries until at least 8pm, and deliver on weekends. "All grocery delivery services I know of" isn't the same as "all grocery delivery services". Where I live, the only grocery delivery service I've found has two-hour to six-hour windows, depending on availability and time of day, with extra charges for shorter or more convenient windows - and I live in a major US metro area.
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Feb 5, 2017 21:51
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throw to first drat IT posted:I assume that nobody produces vending machines that are easy to crowbar open. They aren't really meant to be moved so having all vulnerable parts safeguarded by good inch of steel probably is safe enough. Or maybe the guy is an idiot and his machines are made of tin, who knows. Most likely, is the place will become a hangout for "those people", and well to do Australians will simply avoid the place.
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Feb 5, 2017 22:04
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:No? Vending machines are usually in heavily trafficked public areas where the likelihood of somebody hearing or seeing something is pretty good and where they're not, there's probably just one or two. This is a storefront with dozens of them clumped together, if you can't see how these situations would be appraised differently I don't know what to tell you. And what happens if someone hears something or sees something? Why is that not going to happen here?
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Feb 5, 2017 23:14
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:It's not that someone wouldn't get the idea to do that in literally any other store, it's about the deterrent effect of having people actually present running the store as opposed to a place that looks completely unattended. Not to mention the effect of having the appearance of security cameras also has an effect on how likely people think they are to get caught stealing stuff. Granted, the prices might actually be comparatively low enough that busting in the machines isn't worth it but that doesn't make it not a thing, unless you think Walmart and gas stations just like wasting money on fake security cameras. It's funny because the guy seems the type who will be completely blindsided the first time his foolproof plan to deal with shoplifting fails and have no actual plan in place to deal with it. LOL.. Why, because he's an Indian who dresses flashy? He's been in business for 40 years but a D&D goon expert knows better from looking at two photos. Yeah I'm sure that if someone vandalizes a machine he'll be completely dumbfounded because that possibility never crossed his mind. throw to first drat IT posted:I assume that nobody produces vending machines that are easy to crowbar open. They aren't really meant to be moved so having all vulnerable parts safeguarded by good inch of steel probably is safe enough. Or maybe the guy is an idiot and his machines are made of tin, who knows. He certainly doesn't produce the machines, and in fact he doesn't even have to own them. If they turn out to be poorly protected, he can get a different model. As for keeping the place shut down, you can do that with most businesses. You can stick glue in ATM slots, throw bricks through store windows, make scenes in restaurants, spray paint over anything. Whatever, what's the point? It's a legitimate business idea, much cheaper and much simpler to execute than for instance opening a bar. It's not entirely risk-free but nothing is. He risks someone taking a dump  but he doesn't risk a hundred other things related to staff, storage, toilets, stealing...
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Feb 5, 2017 23:26
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Does everyone not live in places that have unstaffed laundromats? They have to be at least common enough that the timed locks that make them possible are called "laundromat locks".
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Feb 6, 2017 00:18
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A Buttery Pastry posted:To be fair, London literally is a cyberpunkt dystopia, the capital of an island with more surveillance cameras than people. From their country manors and glittering towers of mammon, their inbred elite hypocritically censor what they masses are allowed to see, while they in their detachment from humanity can find joy only in the most deviant acts of sexual predation, and the degradation of their fellow man. They can buy fresh milk on the internet though. IMO an acceptable trade-off It rained and I didn't want to walk to the corner shop  Main Paineframe posted:"All grocery delivery services I know of" isn't the same as "all grocery delivery services". Where I live, the only grocery delivery service I've found has two-hour to six-hour windows, depending on availability and time of day, with extra charges for shorter or more convenient windows - and I live in a major US metro area. Sorry you live in a shithole
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Feb 6, 2017 01:15
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Malcolm XML posted:IMO an acceptable trade-off The US is composed almost entirely of shitholes and sprawl. Just because something works in a major European city doesn't mean it works everywhere.
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Feb 6, 2017 01:33
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I don't live in a major european city and I can still get the same service. This isn't some future pipe dream, its literally a thing that exists now.
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Feb 6, 2017 01:38
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Main Paineframe posted:The US is composed almost entirely of shitholes and sprawl. Just because something works in a major European city doesn't mean it works everywhere. I live in a suburb in CT, dude. There are literally four grocery stores within five minutes of my house that deliver with a huge range of timing options. This is a solved problem and an insanely common service. The fact that you somehow don't have convenient delivery in your neighborhood is weird, but it doesn't change that.
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Feb 6, 2017 03:13
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Main Paineframe posted:The US is composed almost entirely of shitholes and sprawl. Just because something works in a major European city doesn't mean it works everywhere. Anywhere prime now works is fair game. London is supremely poo poo for deliveries because its surface road transport is terrible. Or have it weekend only Trust me having grown up in us sprawl 1-2 day delivery with time slots is eminently doable
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Feb 6, 2017 10:55
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Wow you'd think after living here since birth I'd have know that Australians are all just itching for a chance to trash/poo poo in a business. There are some weird reactions to stuff ITT.
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Feb 6, 2017 19:39
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Tasmantor posted:Wow you'd think after living here since birth I'd have know that Australians are all just itching for a chance to trash/poo poo in a business. There are some weird reactions to stuff ITT. This is a thread full of nerdy shutins that complain about having to go to the grocery store and would rather have it delivered because going out to buy food would interfere with...something. Don't be too alarmed.
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Feb 6, 2017 19:41
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Star Man posted:This is a thread full of nerdy shutins that complain about having to go to the grocery store and would rather have it delivered because going out to buy food would interfere with...something. Don't be too alarmed. Is going to the friggin grocery store a thing you are going to try and claim as making you cool and strong and manly?
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Feb 6, 2017 20:35
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Star Man posted:This is a thread full of nerdy shutins that complain about having to go to the grocery store and would rather have it delivered because going out to buy food would interfere with...something. Don't be too alarmed. Some of us have better things to do than walking around giant warehouses looking for things deliberately placed to maximize the time you spend there. If you think it's a good use of your time then more power to you but it's not that weird that many prefer to hang with their kids or to study, work, nap etc.
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Feb 6, 2017 23:46
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