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Sounds like Anthropic AI are one of the rare tech companies ones common sense and vision. As these are totally foreign to the village idiot in the Oval Office, it's no wonder he doesn't like them.

Good job GON. Even if you only save a small amount, it is good take action and feel that you have some control.

I did exactly the same thing just a few minutes ago. I was searching for a cheaper rate and chose Origin, then got a phone call from iSelect to change me over from AGL. After going over my bill, AGL failed to deduct one of my discounts. I won't chase the discount. Instead I've finished up with them

Had a good laugh about the latest American, "shoot 'em up, and ask questions later", mentality. It seems that U.S. Customs and Border control were running a drone looking for illegal immigrants near the Mexican border, and they strayed into a U.S. military area. The Pentagon ordered their latest laser drone-killer into action, to defend against the "military threat", and blasted the Customs drone out of the sky, no questions asked! 😄 Naturally, Customs is furious, and is raging about everyone doing their own thing with no consultation (led by the White House, of course) - and even the FAA is getting dragged into it, with their over-arching control of airspace, and no reference to any other Govt authority. What a typical, complete CF, of American gung-ho adventurism!! https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/26/us/pentagon-shoots-down-cbp-drone

I had one meter that wore out and overcharged Immensely. The "Provider" wanted to charge what it read even though they replaced the (very obviously faulty) Meter. Get a good provider IF you have a choice. Nev

I do understand your comments Nev, and appreciate them. One thing with this project is that it's about the journey, not the destination. In regard to adding to challenges, I do a lot of that on purpose. It's the challenge of projects that attracts me, not so much the end result. Yes, there's easier way of doing things and if I just wanted the end product I'd go out and buy it and save myself a lot of time. But that's not what this project is about. All good advice from you Nev, and starting off with something good would suit some. In this case, I'm neither starting with something good, nor am I resurrecting a pile of junk. It's a scratch build; I'm building a pile of junk from scratch. That's the basic idea of it at ths stage. It will be a good challenge. I've done a lot of restoration work, but always restoring something to original condition. There's a lot more freedom in this project.

At the moment, DJT has declared that Anthropic A.I. is "A radical woke, left company.... The left wing nut jobs at Anthropic..." So DJT has ordered every federal agency and department to immediately cease use of this A.I. immediately. It looks to me like possibly somebody in that company failed to bend the knee. Maybe someone's cheque bounced? A spokesperson for Anthropic made this press release. There is one statement in it that frightens me. Can you pick it? "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War Anthropic understands that the Department of War, not private companies, makes military decisions. We have never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner. However, in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values. Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do. Two such use cases have never been included in our contracts with the Department of War, and we believe they should not be included now: Mass domestic surveillance. We support the use of AI for lawful foreign intelligence and counterintelligence missions. But using these systems for mass domestic surveillance is incompatible with democratic values. AI-driven mass surveillance presents serious, novel risks to our fundamental liberties. To the extent that such surveillance is currently legal, this is only because the law has not yet caught up with the rapidly growing capabilities of AI. For example, under current law, the government can purchase detailed records of Americans’ movements, web browsing, and associations from public sources without obtaining a warrant, a practice the Intelligence Community has acknowledged raises privacy concerns and that has generated bipartisan opposition in Congress. Powerful AI makes it possible to assemble this scattered, individually innocuous data into a comprehensive picture of any person’s life—automatically and at massive scale. Fully autonomous weapons. Partially autonomous weapons, like those used today in Ukraine, are vital to the defense of democracy. Even fully autonomous weapons (those that take humans out of the loop entirely and automate selecting and engaging targets) may prove critical for our national defense. But today, frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons. We will not knowingly provide a product that puts America’s warfighters and civilians at risk. We have offered to work directly with the Department of War on R&D to improve the reliability of these systems, but they have not accepted this offer. In addition, without proper oversight, fully autonomous weapons cannot be relied upon to exercise the critical judgment that our highly trained, professional troops exhibit every day. They need to be deployed with proper guardrails, which don’t exist today." https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war

All the statements have the caveat "now", and "today", meaning " maybe not ok now". At some stage, either a board of directors, or CEO, or deranged president can declare "ok now". When that day comes I won't trust the first generation of autonomous weapons, say perhaps flocks of autonomous killer drones, to recognise my face as friend-not-foe. Worse still, imagine the money that governments around the world can save when drones can do the work of our police. Autonomous ICE is sure to be trialled in USA first! Once this was just sci fi plots, now it is getting real.

Aren't the Latest meters read remotely? I'm with Momentum. Tassie Hydro. . Not available everywhere. Nev

USA is a Joke in front of the entire world. Choose your Leader wisely next time. IF there IS a Next time. Nev

Nev, I've been with Origin for quite a few years now and have had a fairly good run with them. I swapped over from AGL back when they lost a lot of customers, mainly due to their billing department. They overcharged me on a bill and I think it took 9 months from the start of the process until they finally paid it. At one stage they got into a lot of trouble in this district and customers left them in doves. They got into trouble over fake local newspaper headlines. If a customer left, they would print a fake copy of the local paper, with the ex customer's name splashed across the headline. The printed story was designed to shame the customer with very disparaging headlines about why they left. Some old ladies received it in the mail and thought it was real and it caused them a lot of stress. I think from memory the head of the billing department was forced to resign over it. I'd already left AGL by then, but I remember their billing department at the time as being very arrogant and difficult in my dealings with them. What a way to do business. It took them a long time to recover any sort of reputation in this district after that. The way it works here, Energex (formerly government owned South East Queensland Electricity Board) is the supplier and you have to buy your power from a retailer of your choice. Origin in my case. The meter reading is all done by Energex sub-contractors and Energex passes the numbers on to the retailer. The Energex sub-contractor for the meter reding is Cleanaway and it's gone way downhill since they took that job over. When Energex did the meter reading themselves, it was faultless.

Your eyes will wear out in their sockets IF you watch too Long. Nev

There is so many weirdo's about I wouldn't advise anyone to give people a lift. Unfortunately THAT is the world we NOW live in, Way back you Left doors unlocked and left Cars with dodgy Batteries, idling in the street, while you ran into the shop. Nev

Willie - Yes, the days of our proud local engine manufacturers such as Ronaldson Bros & Tippett, and Southern Cross are long gone, but their good products still survive in restoration groups and museums. When I was a kid, my father purchased a twin cylinder Ronaldson Bros & Tippett engine, type CK, rated at 25-27-1/2HP. It came from the powerhouse in Williams, about 160kms ESE of Perth, so it had probably done tens of thousands of hours before we got it. The thing must have weighed nearly a tonne, and I have no idea how Dad got it into the shed and set up. Dad bought it to drive a 4" Stalker centrifugal pump to pump water for our dairy and to do some small scale irrigation. We had an unlimited water supply at 6M deep, in deep sand, from the Gnangara Mound. Stalker pumps were another great local (W.A.) manufacturer, they had their own foundry and produced thousands of good pumps. The engine was a monster to me as a kid, and my two older brothers did some workouts cranking it up. I think they only did about 1000-1200RPM. Here's a bloke in Victoria who got one running again. The video is crap, and the engine is running half disassembled, but it sounds just as I remember it. The fool is running it with no water in it. I can't believe the idiocy of some of these restorers. The valve train arrangement is curious, I never saw ours apart, so I didn't know about this weird arrangement, and can't figure out the design principle behind it.

onetrack, I must admit part of the attraction to the YB, apart from nostalgia and being a good engine, is a bit of local pride. Back in the day the foundry was one of the biggest businesses in town.

My supplier, Origin, are doing the same thing now. Previously when they estimated it, it was based on my own average useage. Recently they changed it to an estimate based on average household use across the board which is about four times what I use. Most of the readings now are estimates, so every three monthly bill I receive a way too high bill, then submit a self read, then they reissue the correct bill. I guess it's the way it will be every three months from now on.

Now that I really think about it, that would have been the battery setup we had. I remember a lot of them so they were probably all 2 volt. We had a YB as well, it was a good old motor.

Good luck getting a lift though!

Neil Sedaka has died at age 86. Another one of my favourite musos from my youth gone. But never fear, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are going to live forever. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-28/neil-sedaka-dies-aged-86/106400078

When I first left school and started in the earthmoving business with the brother, we lived in a rented farmhouse that had been built around the early 1950's, and it had a 32V power supply. This was a bank of 16 x 2V lead-acid Exide batteries backed up by a Southern Cross YB 4HP engine that drove a 1500W 32V generator. But the batteries were largely buggered, so the YB was run most of the time - except after bedtime. But the genset and batteries were set up in a shed about 200M away from the house, so it was a chore to go out on a dark, cold wet night, to shut the engine down. But it was even worse trying to get the YB fired up on cold Winter mornings. It wasn't unusual to have frosts on many Winter mornings in the W.A. Wheatbelt, and it certainly gave you a workout, cranking the YB into life. Fortunately, the engine had a cold start assist system which was a short length of enclosed pipe screwed into the rocker cover. You unscrewed it, filled it with engine oil, poured the oil into the hole, replaced the piece of pipe, and the oil sucked into the intake increased the compression and ensured a prompt start - most times. These blokes below are mucking around endlessly with a very tired old YB, and I fail to see where they use the original cold start assist system.

I don't mind Mushrooms. The insects eat them pretty Quickly. I don't eat the ones that grow here. Not game. Nev

32 V it is. Nev

OME is in a good Place to Miss out on rain from all directions. Nev

Do it to a copper and you will be transported somewhere. Nev

There's a small division between Genius and Madness. Nev

I'm Not trying to Control your Hobby. Just commenting on practical aspects as I have all along. IF it approximates a "static exhibit " the aesthetics are everything . I thought a great part of your Aim was to Keep costs down? I generally find starting with something good is cheaper in the Long run than resurrecting some rusty Pile of junk.. There's plenty of challenges without adding to them. Nev

Absolutely agree with that! I love to see innovation, when it works.

OK you got me there. You are obviously more digitally competant than I. However I'd say that the 'upwardly raised middle finger' is unlikely to result in any transport.

We can all be wrong in guessing what the future will bring - and that wrongfulness is caused by the inability to include future major research developments, and valuable discoveries, that alter the trajectory of innovation and manufacturing. I still feel that the Roomba gent is correct, in that many of Musks ideas are largely fantasy.

The bloke in the article below, who developed/designed the Roomba vacuum, has a completely different take on the robot threat - and is especially derisive of Elon Musks dreams of making robots that will save America from itself. He points out that it is impossible to create a robot that is fully capable of replicating the 17,000 low-threshold mechanoreceptors in the human hand, that are used for picking up light touches - which mechanoreceptors become denser toward the end of the fingertips. The complexity of human movement and behaviour is beyond replication in any type of electro-mechanical device. The very fact that every one of us responds in a different manner to stimuli, to what we are seeing, to what we plan to do, in response to particular situations, means that at best, AI-powered robots will ever only ever be capable of repetitive behaviour and actions, that has been programmed into them. The belief that we can produce robots that go on to become human-like in actions and behaviour, is pure fantasy, as the gent claims. Just like Musks fantasy that homo sapiens could live successfully on, and colonise, Mars. https://fortune.com/2026/02/25/mit-roboticist-irobot-cofounder-roomba-robot-vacuum-elon-musk-tesla-optimus-pure-fantasy-thinking/

A penny saved is a penny earned

Is A.I. more than just the modern day bogeyman? Can the many A.I. entities forget to serve man when they are mainly in competition with each other? Read this article where one robot kidnapped a bunch of competitor's robots.... https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/ai-robot-kidnaps-12-robots-in-shanghai

OME, your turn will come! When it does - don't come back to us, crying, "please make it stop raining!" 😄

Back in the day this was called hitchhiking.

Nev, do you mean 32 volt? That's what all the properties ran when I was growing up. Still got the generator in the shed. I just wish I still had the Southern Cross diesel we ran it with.

I think it's whatever floats people's boats. I think golfers are mad, but golfers don't.

Why do you want all that Power? You can't use it. Mass low down makes it safer. Reverse can be an Electric Motor. How far do you go in reverse? Blip that engine and you will tip the bike up sideways Nev

A few random thoughts on engines. As mentioned previously, with a plot like this, not much construction happens until an engine is decided on and sorted. About all that can happen until that point is sorting out some parts and more plotting. There's two logical choices, a bike engine or a car engine, and above all, something with a V configuration (that's not Japanese). So that's the basic parameters. None of the engines I have here are suitable. With my own restrictions preventing the use of any old engine, sorting out a motor will be the highest cost component. A Harley engine would be nice, but fairly expensive. You could probably buy a unit Sportster motor for the price of just the bare motor in a big twin, but getting a cheap and practical reverse gear setup on a Sportster engine is problematic. A fairly simple job on the later big twin gearboxes, but a bit of money involved in buying an engine plus gearbox in reasonable condition. Then there's car motors, the main issue being what will fit. You see some rat bikes with huge car engines that require a really high custom fuel tank, or fuel tanks located somewhere other than above the engine, bike style. I'd much prefer to have a more traditional style of bike tank over the motor. That brings up the issue of total height from ground clearance to where it will fit under a fuel tank. That makes it hard for carburettor motors. I think even a short block engine like a 253 would be getting too high with carburettor and air cleaner. Some people custom build tanks that have a big hollow to take that and even have intakes poking out the top of the tank. But I'd really like to use my 5 gallon Fat Bob tank rather than a custom. I've also figured out the Buick 3800 has too much bulk above the rocker boxes to practically fit. One motor I like for a lot of reasons is the GM LS1 engine. For a 5.7 litre engine, it's very compact and only about 500mm wide. They have a cast ali sump pan that's not tall, as well as being strong. On the opposite end, the EFI intake is very low profile and saves a lot of height compared to most other comparable V8s or V6s. They are also light with an ali block and heads, and combined with their efficient water jacket design, you can get away with a smaller radiator than the iron V8s. A pushrod motor, so a cam upgrade is relatively cheap and easy. Wth the lifter guides, no need to remove heads and manifolds to swap cams. A strong motor with a skirted block, 6 bolt mains, and rods and crank in standard form are good to 700HP, so they're very popular with rodders and the like. Roller rockers as standard on a rocker cradle, beehive springs, separate valley plate, a coil for each plug and lots of other good design features. The stock exhaust manifolds are close to extractors in flow. As per the attached photo, the compactness of the engine can be seen.

Nev - Nothing new about nepotism in politics, and private industry is worse.

Unless some thing effective is done about it, it will only get worse. Nev

The worst I've seen on FB is the fake story and photo about Pauline Hanson collapsing in Parliament. The scum producing this stuff really should be hunted down and exposed - and Zuckerberg and his company assist in promoting the rubbish, thus placing him, and Meta, and the scammers, all in the same information sewerage tank.

Trailers develop places where a Wire can have the Insulation rubbed through.. Some trailer wiring is shoddy. You also may have a FAULTY RELAY, The original fuse may not be big enough to carry the extra stop Lights current draw. Nev

In my experience, the only fuses that fail for no reason, are the glass tube ones. Never had a modern moulded plastic type fail without real overload. Twice I have had difficult to track down overloads in vehicles, caused by unsecured wiring that vibrated or moved against bodywork. One made my headlights (only rarely, but that was too often) go out on left hand corners. The other made the engine fail, but only on right hand corners when accelerating hard. In that case the engine loom moved a certain way that it rubbed on the firewall. Intermittents are the worst to fix. Do not start fitting bigger fuses unless you wish to replace an entire loom or deal with a fire when the fault returns.

Sounds like something Chopper Read would have used.

They're the plastic fuses with two exposed prongs. I guess I'll have to wait and see if it blows again, and if so, start trying to track the issue. I was coming back down the highway on Sunday night, about an hours drive, and had to keep checking my speed with the torch.

I use a nut splitter, they're a really handy device. The angled ones are the best.

Willie, if the fuse blew, the circuit has been overloaded. You don't mention the style of fuse (there are several). I'm speaking about the old glass fuses, now. If the fuse fell apart, or the ends fell off, I would put that down to age. However, the ends don't normally fall off, because they're held by the clips, they usually fall off when you pull them out. You can get intermittent electrical faults that are a PIA. A little patch of bare wire touching metal occasionally. A wire being occasionally crushed between other parts that move. It can be a real pain to track down a lot of the time. Look for areas where movement takes place, where things can be hit (taillights are often hit by road debris), or where moisture has crept in.

Citric acid is my regular go-to product for rust removal. I make up baths of 3%-5% citric acid and dump the rusty item in it and leave it for a few days, then pull it out and pressure-wash it. If it's needed, I put the item back in again for a few more days, then pressure-wash it again. Then I spray with a 10% solution of Ranex (phosphoric acid) in a spray bottle to prevent flash rusting. Citric acid is safe, doesn't affect base metal or copper, zinc or aluminium, and it cleans iron/steel items up beautifully. But the bath must be covered and kept cool, sunlight rapidly degrades the acid.