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OneTrack hasn’t been around since June despite being a frequent contributor. I don’t suppose anyone knows what happened to him and whether he’s OK?

17th century English explorers thought it looked like a pine cone but tasted like a fruit. Apple was a common name for fruit of various kinds at the time so it became pineapple.

If a pineapple is not an apple, and doesn't grow on pine trees, why is it called a pineapple?

Bloody typical. Beautiful morning.. forecast was a small chance of rain.. go and buy weedkiller and the moment I step out of the garden centre, it rains... reasonably heavily as well.

That sounds like a good way to do it. I'm only just starting to get bills again. With my low power useage and all the post covid state and federal subsidies that we were recieving, I was in credit for a long time. I don't think I paid a bill for a couple of years or more, so just getting used to it again.

I can't see the meter readings on my laptop on the AGL Account login, but I can see how the bill is progressing every time I log in, as well as the current balance. By checking every pension day, and paying in a small amount to cover current usage, I end up with a paper bill of $0.00, no large amount to scare the hell out of me.

My next step is to download the smart meter app so I can check the figures. As far as I know, it can only be accessed on the phone and not on a desktop or laptop. Some apps like X, formerly Twitter, have to be donloaded directly to the phone but once done you can access your X account on a desktop. I don't think the meter app works like that.

Happens at the football too I believe. I reckon you are Pulling our legs. Pissing in someone's pocket is Considered to Be Flattering them. Nev

So far, I am averaging a couple of dollars a day in feedin to the grid. And virtually nil consumption. Might not sound much, but that should add up to at least $700 credit a year. I await in anticipation to see if the new smart meter agrees with the solar inverter logs.

Two guys at the bar. One says: "you won't believe me, but I can bite my right eye. One beer if you loose the bet? " They shake hands or whatever you do in that part of the world to seal a bet and then our guy takes out his right (glass) eye and bites in it. One beer later our guy says "you won't believe me,I but I can bite in my left eye as well." They confirm the bet. Our guy takes out his dentures and bites in his left eye. One beer later our guy says "you won't believe me , but I can piss in your right trouser pocket and you don't get wet". Well, the bet is confirmed, our guy takes out his noodle and pisses in the right pocket of his betting partners trousers. "Fuck, my trousers are all wet!" (giggling) "Sorry, sometimes I lose a bet...."

There have been and will be more After shocks. It's not that unusual in that area. (Korumburra). Nev

I had the smart meter installed yesterday, so hopefully all the problems with idiot meter readers and estimated bills have gone for good. It went quite well to my surprise. Considering the disfunctional way power companies operate these days I thought it would be another sh*tfight trying to extract any common sense from them, but luckily the technician was just a normal tradie subcontractor who subbied for the company contracted to supply smart meters for the power retailer. He also happened to live just down the road from me and they'd given him my phone number, so he was able to ring me from the gate. Being just a normal tradie, he was quite happy to throw his gear in my car and let me drive him the 400 metres up to the meter box and back. He had a big front wheel drive van and wanted to give it a go driving that up. I tried my best to talk him out of it, but fortunately he came to a wheel spinning halt in the first fifteen metres so didn't do any damage to his vehicle, and it was easy enough for him to reverse back down to the gate. I'm glad I was there as I had three analog meters and one has never had an outlet to use power so has read 00000 kWh for thirty years or more. The technician wrote the numbers down as 99,999 kWh which would have given me a $3,000 bill for power never used. It took a fair bit to convince him he was wrong but he eventually came round. Attached photo shows the meter. Apart from no more meter reader access problems and issues with power retailers who can't read analog meters correctly, one thing I really like about the smart meter is that it gives one combined power useage figure for all three phases. That unused meter that reads zero has been a headache for years. If you submit a self meter read, the software spits the dummy if you enter the same figure as last time. In that case you have to photograph the meters and email them to people who can't read a meter and always stuff it up. I've even had an inspector from the main power supplier show up to check that I wasn't stealing power, as the zero readings were flagged as suspicious.

There was an earthquake in Victoria this morning, at 2 am, near Leongatha. It was felt by hundreds in Melbourne, although I was in bed and didn't feel it. My daughter came to my room to check if I had. One woman on Facebook said the shaking lasted long enough for her to wake her husband and ask "Did you feel that?" He got quite excited for a second.

REAL plasterers would be rare. It's usually something like sheet Gyprock where you just Plaster the Nails, Joins and Cornices. Nev

The bloke who built Lycomings did Build cars and REO was Continental. Car engines for Cars and aircraft engines for Aeroplanes. Power to weight ratio, Efficiency and reliability is foremost in Aircraft. Racing car engines don't have to be built to last Long . IN the early days some aero engines featured Prominently in land speed record cars like NAPIER and some aero engines ended up in Tanks. RADIALS and Liquid Cooled . A version a the RR Merlin was used in Centurion tanks. Nev

A properly built bridge is better than one you Pray is OK. Science is NOT Just another belief. Politicians who have NO background in Science Constantly make fools of themselves, and make poor Policy

Whatever you may think of Musk, Space-X is doing some amazing work. They had three rocket launches on one day this week, one taking four astronauts to the space station, another deploying 30 Starlink satellites and the third launching a military satellite, all while recovering their boosters for re-use. One booster has been re-used 37 times.

Yes Nev. But science has little to do with Religiosity. Most religions find factual science a existential threat.

Let this come back alive?

I've been watching a video of a renovation being done to a house somewhere in England. I think it is in the London area. However, they had the same problem of the plaster not adhering to the walls. My thought is that since the temperatures have been unusually high over the English summer, the plasterers had no experience of mixing plaster in such conditions. They maybe mixed it as usual for temperatures and humidity of a normal English summer and the plaster dried out before forming a strong bond.

I was going to say Lycoming, but thought it would be too much of a "dad joke".

I love this vid: I just saw this today. I have never met the fella, but a long time ago, I was on the end of a little critique of his for some networking code I developed for Linux. I took it in my stride and sorted out the "shortcomings" in my code, which was adopted into I think it was release 0.94 of the kernel. In all honestly, he is a little narcissistic, but in a good way.

The fact it is still on the market means it is overpriced. I follow a few Aussie real estate and commercial real estate sites, and this popped up on those about a month ago. One I am looking at a few "doors down" has been on for a long while@ https://www.realestate.com.au/property-residential+land-nsw-tocumwal-203580220 Any of these properties on for more than a few weeks is overpriced. There is also a new subdivision on the airfield: https://www.realestate.com.au/property-residential+land-nsw-tocumwal-204059628 Geelong is a lovely place. I bought my laptop in Geelong in my last trip and the centre of the city has really been freshened up. I am not sure Octave would want me close to him 😉 And, although Ford has gone, the old factory looks fantastic and has a hotbed of tech startups. Tocumwal gets hot - I have spent many a summer for long times gliding there with my terry-towel hat on. But the heat is, by Melbourne standards, dry and very bearable.. As a young bloke, I much preferred the cold, but as I get older, I enjoy the heat much more. But one of the drawbacks is of course, it is a bloody long way from the coast.

Rotax? 😁