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I wonder if this makes payment optional?

Not so much 'what has trump done now', more what is trump doing in November... A long entertaining rant by an annoyed Australian, and worth a read. https://ifloz.substack.com/p/donald-trump-this-is-why-we-fucking?publication_id=7671401&post_id=217533596&isFreemail=true&r=tosdr&triedRedirect=true

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.

HEs MAD and dangerous like the rest of them. Nev

Beautiful British humour!

I was redundant years ago but the firm hasn't realised it yet so I'm still there.

I don't know where to put this... post, so this thread is as good as anywhere. Kicked off a project today that will ultimately result in my redundancy. My initial thought: I need to get it done before the big move. Some people were a little gloomy at the prospect.. I was very excited.

I stood upwind. The incineerator was in a rural area. I stoned the crows.

My bike is a K1200R 2006 and has a very similar shaft setup and drive unit- basically all big models in K and R from 2005 do. I am aware that this can be a issue, more so on the GS models than any other. Note it is by no means unversal and I know lots with 300,000km plus and never had a issue. Like any bike that has a jointed drive line it has two drive shaft boots- front and back. They are meant to be service regulary approx 50.000kms, rear diff oil is best done every 10.000km as best practice and engine oil 5,000km. The uni joint boots can split due to age- mine are 20 years old. My rear boot has a very small crack- found when I rebuilt the diff. It needs replacement when I do the next service- which I will do when the oil is replaced at 1500km after a rebuild. Like any shaft- if the joint goes dry and water\dust gets in, which is highly likely for a hard riden adventure bike- ie a GS model, then rust and grit can wear it to failure. My diff required a rebuild because the main oil O ring seal for the diff outer case developed a small leak and the previous owner did nothing about it- until it wrecked the main crown wheel bearing, even though the bearing was stuffed the internals had zero damage. A simple repair made expensive from a dumb owner. Even then it cost under $1000 including all parts, bearings (which are huge) and labour. This is a mere fraction of the cost chains and sprockets would have cost on a 170hp chain driven bike over its 121,000km, additionally, it should be good for several hundred thousand kms with just oil changes and lubing the shaft. It is vital the boots are perfect and the shaft splines and unijoints are lubricated in a special white grease. This is standard practice in major services, and should be the same for any shaft driven bike, regardless of the maker. IF the grease is used, even a cracked boot will not kill the shaft if you replace it as soon as possible. If the boot is not failed and the shaft is lubed- then it is extremely rare for this to be a issue. If blokes just ride it in dirt, water etc and dont maintain it or even inspect it- then it really is down to them. Note the rusted shaft in the video- it can't happen by itself. Inspection of the boots is easy and removal of the shaft is actually a fast 15 minute job, only if the front boot is split does it require much work to replace it. In that case you remove the swing arm and do a full service on the swing arm bearings to chech the bearings and regrease. I have heard of some of the shafts been not perfect for the entire life of the bike- but they will be replaced free of charge including labour at BMW dealers. BMW are renown for their integrity with warranty claims and if a part proves not suitable they will replace it free for the life of the bike- that is not the economic life ( like the vid stated- I suspect the dealer just did not want the extra work? ) It is full life time- if the bike is still ridable- they will do the free replacement. A 500,000km GS will get a free one if needed. My mechanic is the service manager for a big dealer and is fully BMW trained, he has worked as service manager for mega dealers of other brands eg |Harley, Indian, Ducati and all the jap brands. He said they are all penny pinchers with no incentive to help you after warranty expires and even in warranty they are slow to help. Some of these dealers are very big names- he is so glad to have moved back a BMW based dealer. His shop also sells Royal Enfield, Tirumph and Moto Guzzi and a few others. No Jap Bikes, but it gets huge amount of customers from all the other brands that do not trust the factory dealer. BMW Motorad are the best in the world for looking after the customer, even a 30 year old bike or 60 years- parts are available for even ancient models. If the dealer doesn't meet their standards, they lose the right to sell BMW, it happens rarely but the will do it if standards are not meet. Given all BMW bike dealers are very big operations worth many millions, it pays for them to do the right thing. In contrast, The HONDA you have has well known issues from new design wise, esp the electrics with the oil bathed alternator. They often fail and its a clear design fault- but they will not give you a free one and fit it. That says a lot about their culture, the opposite to BMW. Yes, in rare cases a BMW may have a fault- but BMW constantly unpdate and refine their parts to ensure its fixed and a better part will be supplied and fitted free. I am aware of some driveline failures but often its maintenance related or from pure abuse, esp overloading the bike with gear and passenger (250kg plus) then thinking its a motorcrosser, drowning the bike in rivers is also a issue, when you dont clean and check it properly. No Bike is perfect, but the BMW is on a level above others and you pay for that when buying new, after that service costs and parts are reasonable compared to lessor brands and longevity is legendary. Even for a old bike, just ring BMW and quote you vin number and they will tell you what has and hasn't been done re any parts with a service bulletin, if it hasn't, book it in and its all done free. A good example is the rear disc carrier, Early K1200 models 2005 -2006 had a alloy carrier- which is also part of the inner diff housing, some developed small cracks. BMW replaced them free of charge with a updated forged carrier when serviced and even today can tell if yours has been done and if not- book it in and its all done free- 21 years after the bike left the factory. Would any other bike maker do that? It should be noted the guy in the Video not only got a new shaft but also a new swing arm due to damage caused by the failure. All for free. I will back a BMW over others anyday.

In fact, it would argue the owners of AI agents have absolute control over them... or they decide to relinquish it. An owner of a dog can train but not have absolute control of a dog's mind

That's where the line of responsibility becomes blurry. If the design team that created an AI agent made all reasonable efforts to guardrail that agent, but it escapes and acts in unexpected (and illegal) ways, who has liability? Personally I think the board of the tech company who funded the design should be held accountable, with the same criminal charges that a human hacker would face.

I can not forsee that the prosecution will have insufficient evidence to bring the charges- which they have and have a reasonable prospect of conviction. Lots of witnesses including soldiers he served with had made statements of witnessing the crimes with their own eyes. These include some who stated they were involved in the crimes on his orders. Also numerous civillains witnesses are included in the case from the defamation trial. Will the trial be messy? yes. Will the defence be incredibly well funded? extremely. Remember the crown does not have to have a case they see as air tight- just sufficient that a conviction is likely if the evidence is presented to a jury. No amount of chest beating by rich media owners and keyboard warriors will change this. BRS is on a civilian standard a war criminal and unable to sue if called this. If his prosecution is successful, will be a convicted War criminal for multiple murders. Meanwhile that RED head drongo has called Hastie and by reference any soldier who testified as cowards for daring to do their sworn duty. Such people as Hansen are indeed are danger to our country and the rule of law.

You can call me 'chicken little' but I think the tiger is out of it's cage. If A.I. prioritises it's own benefit and does something unpleasant, is there any way to 'reboot to an earlier version' without losing all our data? Guardian article:- "The UN panel, investigating that attack, warned “the traditional method of safeguarding is unravelling” as AI agents act autonomously to breach protections. “The default interpretation and immediate lesson is that basic cybersecurity practices were overlooked, and safeguards are not advancing at the pace of capabilities. The more insidious and grave concern is that current training methods can lead agents to adopt goals of their own, knowingly violate safety instructions, and conceal their actions.”

Most of what I have seen in the "media" landscape are those that are arguing he should not be prosecuted.. for no other reason than.. just because. Through his lost defamation cases, the judges effectively found that on the balance of probability (not beyond reasonable doubt), he DID commit war crimes. The defence used justification - which is more likely true than not. Now, if a judge found the defence of justification valid because after all the evidence provided under strict rules and, as BRS was funded quite handsomely, probably the best barristers around to test that evidence, I would suggest that those people abjectly saying he shouldn't be further investigated to determine if he in fact did commit war crimes beyond reasonable doubt and, if so, should be held accountable, are indeed themselves dangerous to our society of freedom, democracy, and fairness. The prosecution, on analysing the evidence may decide there is not enough proof to bring it to court. That is OK.. that would, IMHO, as long as the prosecution acted in good faith, also be an acceptance it can't be proved and therefore, it is justified to stop any further action (unless something turns up).

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.

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.

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.

I had trouble in NZ pronouncing Manurewa. I thought I had the first part correct…

The silent letters throw a lot of newcomers to the language. B Dumb, limb, lamb, crumb, etc. K Knife, knee, kneel, know, knowledge, knight, etc. P receipt Plus others. Then there are letter combinations. OUGH Rough, tough, enough, through, though, bough, cough, thought, bought - 6 different pronunciations.

Donald the Dick Tator just checking his equipment. He had a damaging leak from his administration.

If you tripped over it, it was a logarithm.

Back in the 1970s I use to talk to Eliza, the very first AI, to amuse my children. Here is an emulator if you want to try it today. Eliza (elizabot.js)

If we members here want to get an understanding of AI, I suggest they read this Wikipedia entry describing the history of AI. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_artificial_intelligence to acquant themselves with the road AI has travelled from a confluence of ideas that became prevalent in the late 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s. In 1950, Turing published a landmark paper, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", in which he speculated about the possibility of creating machines that think.[53][b] In the paper, he noted that "thinking" is difficult to define and devised his famous Turing test: If a machine could carry on a conversation (over a teleprinter) that was indistinguishable from a conversation with a human being, then it was reasonable to say that the machine was "thinking"

Were you hungry afterwards?

Good spotting. No wonder she's having a Puff. That will take the dull out of UllaDULLa Nev

So much for leaving the office on time yesterday - for the ride home. But thankfully, it wasn't too late - I left my desk at about 6:15 and was on the bike at 6:30.. It was starting to get dark - it is that time of year. But the weather is positively warm for the UK... I don;t know the temp, but I was sweating in my kit.. Although it is concerning from a climate and environmental perspective, I was selfishly appreciating it as my heated glove replacements have not yet arrived. That said, I didn't need the heated grips at all.. and I could have even used summer gloves instead, as it was warm all the way home. Even with a fuel stop about 3 miles prior, I was on the M4 by 7:15pm. I had an amazing run of lights through London and, with the exception of the ever increasing population of lunatic cyclists - electric and human powered, the traffic was quite light and it was easy to filter to the front of the queue at traffic lights. Except for the 20mph limited areas (sans cameras), I was sticking to the speed limit and taking it easy. Once on the A4, it is 30mph to the other side of Hammersmith and then 40.. so with lighter traffic, we were keeping up those speeds comfortably. I have to be honest.. I always approach these commutes with a sense of fatigue in doing them, but once I am on the motorway and in a rhythm, I quite enjoy the ride. For a lot of people, it would be boring, but there is enough to keep you alert and concentrating. This was no different. What I liked about coming home earlier than normal is there is slightly more traffic on the motorway, which provides further protection against any stray deer that may come along - although in all my time doing this route by car or motorcycle, I have yet to see one - dead or alive. The M4 from London to Reading is basically around populated towns/cities and well lit. Once past Reading, it becomes rural and unlit. At night I am a bit naughty and stay in the middle lane in case a deer does make its way onto the motorway - in which case I will have more options open to me (which is not really true, as to the left of the left lane is a decent hard shoulder to ride onto at speed if needed). I will normally stick to the limit until a car comes through going a speed I would prefer to be. And last night, there was no shortage of them to follow. And when they turn off, there's another to replace it within a couple of minutes. So, apart from two narrow bands of precipitation - one drizzle and the other moderate rain, it was a nice ride home. Whe turining onto the M5 from the M4 at Bristol, for some reason, the cars were handling that exit/entry really slow - so I did some higher speed filtering to keep up the pace (I was starting to feel the need for a releif stop). On the M5, it was much the same.. The phone went off as some evening software release didn't quite go to plan, but there's nothing I could do about it at 70mph -ish on a motorway. Got home by 10:30, which for that route was amazing timing (I ende up not stopping for that comfort break, but it was a rush through the front door). Bike is performing nicely.. and the decorator finished the study, so after work today will move my office back into there. He can then work on the next room..

They don't have one. Seems they hope to get in by 'at least we aren't Repugnican'. In the past it has worked in Australian politics. I think Donny and the repuglicans have given so much material that could be used.... but - silence is all we hear. I recall donny once said that if he ever ran for president, it would have to be with the repuglican party because republicans are so dumb.

Back in the early days of the Internet, we relied on dial-up modems and bulletin boards? Do you remember which search engine you used? I can recall one called Ask Jeeves. Founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California, the service became one of the earliest prominent search engines on the World Wide Web during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The "Jeeves" branding was discontinued in 2006 and relaunched as Ask.com, focusing more directly on competing with major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! Search, and MSN Search. Ask.com was shut down on May 1, 2026, ending nearly three decades of operation.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1785614409130074

They are gloves that extend past the elbow, just to be sure he is not bringing in any contraband.

I like the comments almost as much as the article.

If my dog escapes from my yard that I have taken all reasonable steps to secure, and bites the postman, I'm liable.

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.

Yes.. I quite like this shed (though a bit out of my league): https://www.realestate.com.au/property-warehouse-nsw-tocumwal-151477276

From what I saw of his speech the ideological clown was definitely in and loaded up with testosterone. The patriotic cowboys must have been backstage.

THAT Ford motor would be Hard to get and has structural issues. You could spend a lot on it, and is very much a collectors item. Maybe a 3.5 litre Alloy Rover V8? Nev

Brushing scam - empty white envelope scam. https://www.facebook.com/reel/888913647281108

I tried it on Google AI. Typed in 'who are you?' in Indonesian and the reply was given in that language. A cut and paste of the answer in Google Translate gave this English translation: 'I am an artificial intelligence (AI) model developed by Google. My task is to assist you with everything from answering questions, searching for information, and translating languages to performing various data analyses quickly and accurately.'

They tend to go for HERO type personalities. Trump was supposed to be RICH. SO HE must know how to do things. His name was synonymous with success.. You'd go a long way to get a person more flawed and dangerous than this guy is. His Niece Mary, adequately warned ALL OF US. Now he will be very difficult to be rid of and is totally Unpredictable with any accuracy.. My bet is he will create a big(ger) Crisis and declare Martial LAW and cancel the Mid term elections. People voting for Pauline Hanson is even more inexplicable. Have a look as how HER Party is structured and Managed. The candidates don't really get a say. The GOP in the USA doesn't have the GUTS to take Trump on. Nev

The gilded turd is campaigning for them. Don't interrupt him.

This is a very good article and shows the longer term impact of our flee to globalisation mixed with a deranged US leader: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-29/us-dollar-trust-weakening-due-to-donald-trump-iran-war/107204644?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=other

Be careful of accepting what is in that video. It has all the hallmarks of AI Slop. I start to get suspicious as soon as I see that bright yellow band on the bottom. I've seen heaps of videos with that identical design. Also if you open to the first bit, you will see hands that are too clear. It appears to be an image created by AI. If it was fair dinkum, it would be from a TV source and would be a bit fuzzy.

Half time at the NRL semi final and the channel 9 ad came on spruiking what they have in store for the 6pm news. Can't wait, a big breaking news story on moths invading Aussie homes. They're going to give the full details on what's behind the plague. Riveting stuff, not to be missed. I wonder what they have in store for us tomorrow. Ants or flies perhaps. A three to four year university degree in journalism to get a scoop on moths.

Thanks for the detailed explanation.. it is really appreciated and clarified things. And I picked up from Mongrel Dog Productions' video that what BMW do in these cases is quite exemplary - life of the bike and no cost to owner for fixing issues from design flaws is a pretty good thing.

My post was in regard to the OpenAI hacking into our Medicare, of it's own initiative. The tech bros have already tried to ignore responsibility because the action was not taken by any sue-able human.