This reminded me of a friend of my dad’s from South Africa - Don (Donald) Devine, who bought into a the Lighthouse Depot years ago and rode the (then) lighthouse fad.

It was amazing seeing this successful large scale businessman turning his attention to a family business and growing that.

RIP to Don, my dad, and as I’ve just discovered, the business…

Can you recommend where to find beginners projects that “do stuff”.

https://hackaday.com/ - cool projects and interesting stuff https://news.sparkfun.com/tags/tutorial - tutorials on embedded software, electronics, etc. https://learn.adafruit.com/ - electronics tutorials

To begin with you can get a cheap robotic kit from Amazon, there are many of them, and put it together. That's probably the easiest and fastest way. From here you can read more about servos and controllers, modify its mechanics and software.

Just like the article, there's a huge amount of hobbyist-accessible projects on youtube, you can click around the recommended videos.

Grab a servo and start playing with it.

My first big startup had the following on the cover of the business plan (it disrupted consulting):

“Some think, Some do, Some both, But few”.

Got that from a lecturer.

You lost me at "disrupted".

I’ll try, but not succeed with a view from Australia..

Companies and governments have been concerned about data and AI sovereignty, and chip (processing) access. The new risks imposed by the USA are increasing this concern / push.

So, it’s hardly surprising that Sama is getting a lot of calls for local instances.

However, if the data etc. moves back to the USA this is exactly the opposite of the control companies and governments are looking for.

So, fair proposal, wrong execution.

Reminds me of something that a Telco exec once said in jest - “A bank can track which hotel you stayed at last night, the Telco knows who you slept with”

I randomly bought a fire truck a few months ago. I was looking for something to convert into a camper van, and found my truck: (A) low mileage, compared to other trucks because of the usage. Ambulances etc. are super high mileage. (B) they have excellent maintenance, so it’s ship shape (C) low comparable purchase cost due to tiny resale market.

I’m loving it. Kids love it. Community loves it. Wife tolerates it. Converted it into a camper and party truck!

You should write a an article/share some pics :)

Wondering how it went overall, how hard parts were to find, how hard maintenance is - do you do it yourself? Do you need special tools?

I may write a post. A lot of the effort was removing weight without killing the aesthetics. It has been an awesome outlet for creativity and fiddling. I have built everything myself, with input from tradies - everyone just loves helping. Maintanance I leave to the mechanics.

So far it has (a) back bench converted into sleeper area (b) slushie machines, foam machine, beer keg pourer, slide out bbq (c) built a roof that you can sleep in. (D) roof lifts with linear actuators to expose dj lights/smoke machine in the centre (e) plumbing / electrics etc so we can use off-grid.

It has heaps of storage space and is super fun and easy to drive!

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

In developing countries (Africa, South Asia, South America) many of the banks were disrupted by mobile payments providers. Granted, it was more that they missed servicing the 80% of their markets that were unserviced but still needed to do things we all take for granted. Some of these are now the default payments systems.

I often tell my people to “stop decking around”, or “don’t be a deckhead”…

Out of interest, who would be in the top X of that list?

> So AI isn't really a tool for creating substance. It's a tool for automating impression management.

I was speaking to a design lecturer the other evening. His fascinating insight was that:

1. The best designers get so much fulfilment out of practicing the craft of design.

2. With the advent of low cost “impression making”, the role has changed to one of “review a lot of mediocre outputs and pick the least crap one”

3. This is robbing people of the pleasure and reward associated with craftsmanship.

I have noted this is applicable so many other crafts, and it’s really sad!

Edited afterthought… Is craftsmanship being replaced by “clickandreviewmanship”?