zonkerdonker

For your funnel, it seems mainly the problem area is a volumetric calculation, not CAD. A simple funnel would take 1 sketch and 1 revolve. I guess it'd come down to if you'd prefer to type all your variables in a text prompt vs in the CAD dialogue box.

Otherwise, I think mainly the point where we disagree is that it is easier to specify mechanical designs in natural language vs the typical inputs in CAD.

Let's try the spiral pattern example. Which direction is the spacing increasing in distance? Radially? Hole to hole along the spiral pattern? How many instances establish the radiating arms of the spiral? Which direction is the spiral going? Is this a planar pattern? What is the radial pitch of the spiral? How many extra details would I need to type out into my prompt in order to achieve the precise results desired, and how many re-tries?

Vs: Fill out this box of variables. https://i.imgur.com/juDH435.png

Comment · 4 months ago

I was curious how the ban was going for Australia, seems like not that great.

>The eSafety commissioner's latest compliance update reported that 70 per cent of the 898 parents surveyed said their kids still had active social media accounts. [1]

The banned social media companies obviously have massive incentives to make this rollout as messy and un-successful appearing as possible, and seems like they've done a great job at that.

I know there are many reasons to balk at a ban like this, but at least they are trying something. Social media is designed to be only 1 thing: addictive. All other features only exist to serve that purpose in the end.

Governments have always stepped in to regulate dangerous vices that humanity's monkey brain can't resist (to the detriment of society): alcohol, smoking, gambling, drugs, etc. This might be a rocky start, but at least it is a start

[1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-14/why-teens-say-social-...

Comment · 4 months ago

https://www.mcmaster.com/6325K113/

Download model, done.

Not attempting to be sassy, sorry, but maybe I can explain my point a bit better. If you are making something complex enough to warrant you yourself designing it (something unique, custom, new), then CAD on its own is the best tool (right now!). I have models with thousands of parametric features linked to hundreds of other parts in an assembly. I would need to write a novel to achieve those same features with an LLM.

If what you want to make is simple enough that an LLM would be able to nearly one-shot it, then that model either: 1. Already exists somewhere (like the gear above) or 2. Is simple enough that a couple hours of training videos will give you all the skills you need to make it yourself

Comment · 4 months ago

The first image on the actual paper really tells the whole story. CAD for mechanical design, by necessity, requires pretty immense specificity. It is more onerous to type out "now raise the height of the torus relative to the base 4mm" than to click on "extrude" and type 4 or drag a handle.

Injecting a natural language layer into the workflow is just not optimal. CAD itself is not a difficult tool to learn and use effectively. There are essentially no layers of abstraction that an LLM can assist in cutting through, and no obfuscated rules or languages to learn.

I think of it this way. If there was someone sitting at my computer, and I had to do all of my CAD design by explaining what I wanted them to do verbally, I'd rip out my hair.

LLMs are doing for programmers what virtual CAD did to the drafter 35+ years ago, optimizing the effort expanded to create the thing already in your brain

Comment · 5 months ago

Median life expectancy is affected by a much larger number of variables, and is also susceptible to just as much (if not more) number fudging and statisitical nudging. Maybe the country also has a large subset of obese alcoholics for example. If someone lives to be over 100, that in and of itself is a pretty valuable data point

Comment · 5 months ago

Based on the mechanism of flow attachment in the transition zone it seems like the overall airfoil profile would likely have to change to take full advantage of the reduced friction. I think its much more likely to see this technique played with somewhere like Formula 1, if it hasnt been already.

Comment · 5 months ago

Big cities aren't typically in such an ideal planar geological setup as that. I'm having a hard time imagining how something like that would work in the Bay area, NYC, Seattle, Miami etc

Comment · 6 months ago

>not immediately clear on what grounds China was seeking the annulment of a deal involving a Singapore-based company and how, if at all, a completed acquisition transaction would be unwound.

Interesting. I wonder what sorts of threats China could make to back up this demand, or if this is more of a warning for future acquisitions in the space.

Comment · 6 months ago

There is plenty of evidence that sauna does in fact help with detox, specifically phthalates. It's not magic or some intrinsic property of sauna though, just sweat. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3504417/

Comment · 7 months ago

And a tragic story at that:

>Coleman died homeless and destitute in 2006. It was unlikely he was aware of the impact he had made on music. Neither he [band leader Spencer] nor Coleman received royalties for the break.