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Like all powerful things, A.I. runs the risk of being used for powerful good and powerful evil equally. And it has been developed primarily to make money for it's owners. Which is a good reason for caution.

Today is the big day. I have been to the Cochlear Support Centre and received the external sound processor, which is now turned on. It sounds completely different to what I expected, although I knew it sounded different to what I have been hearing. For example, the ticking of a digital clock sounds like someone tapping a metal pipe with a small spanner. I now have a couple of months for my brain to learn to deal with sound frequencies it hasn't received in years, and for the device to be calibrated to my hearing.

I wonder if this makes payment optional?

When I left school, I joined the Commercial Bank of Australia Limited (CBAL) in 1961. I worked for them till 1986 when they merged with the Bank of NSW to form Westpac. I continued working for Westpac until 1991, when banks started rationalising staff and introducing computers in branches. Obviously they did not require two lots of staff, as duplicated branches and departments were merged, so many staff were retrenched. I had been working in a suburban processing centre which was closed, and I was let go. But I still had 2 Westpac credit cards. The other night, after 11 pm., I got a text from Westpac questioning a debit to one of the cards from Optus Prepaid of about $50. I have no business with Optus Prepaid, and certainly had not used my credit card recently. I replied to the text that I did not recognise the transaction. Next morning I got a phone call from Westpac, to clarify details. The transaction was stopped, the card was cancelled, and a replacement card was isssued. Both my cards normally have zero balances or small credit balances no more than $10. I generally use them at parking stations where debit cards are not accepted, and the occasional online purchase. I have not cancelled them as I would never get another card, and it's handy to have recourse to some credit in case of emergency. I have been retired for 16 years and my superannuation has been fully drawn and spent.

I know you aren't really after a trike, but this might stimulate your imagination. Especially the front wheel setup.

I find it very helpful. Particularly with solving IT problems at home.

The headlines have mostly been about experimental AI models that have taken advantage of flawed rules and laboratory environments to do things they weren’t supposed to, and how that can be prevented. Industry self-regulation is a very weak mechanism when the developers are not competing to use AI for the greatest public good but to make the most money in the shortest time. AI can be used for good and it would be helpful to see more examples but I think it’s reasonable that the focus at the moment should be on where the biggest risks and potential for harm are.

I have sent OneTrack an email and am awaiting a reply.

He has disappeared for weeks and months a couple of times in the past, so I hope no cause for alarm.

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.

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.

Saw one proposed data centre that would use as much electricity as 1 million homes. At some point the madness has to stop.

Bristol Hercules sleeve valve. don't know if he has finished it.

https://www.rotecaerosport.com/motorcycles

It's not about just helping Ukraine, it's also about helping preserve the international rule of law and the principal that it's wrong to take someone else's country by force. I'm not sure if the peanut would understand that concept.

That's usually the case.

Here's one for you. Wind tunnel tested, hand formed alloy body, straight 8 mid engine two seater. A pic of it before and after it's most recent resto. Not what I'd use for a run to the supermarket. https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/up-from-the-ashes-a-1940s-one-off-streamliner-is-reborn-again/

A bit like keeping a car roadworthy. It depends on how you use AI. I've been more able to get the truth through it than any other sources. it Provides references and answers ANY questions or Questioning. Nev

This is the building I worked in when I first started work in 1960, and again, working for a different company, when I retired in 2010. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DrJavigSH/

Sounds like my trip to the loo this morning.

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...."

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"

Their Power hungry-ness has many (thinking) people concerned. Nev

Have you noticed that in many cases, the electricity to power these massive data centres is generated by diesel powered generators? There's an irony in that which is hard to describe.

In a swimming pool, the P is silent.

Now you are talking. How about another Australian motor - three cylinder radial - 200hp/litre. Presently 2 litre. When fitted to VW / Porsch they claim it doesn't sit closer to ground than the old flat 4. And the note!! https://www.enginebuildermag.com/2021/06/eotw-radial-motions-three-cylinder-compact-radial-engine/

Love the nav light on the 'wing'- which is a formed part of the rocker cover.

I think his last activities on both this forum and RecFlying was June 30th., so over three months now.

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

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.

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.

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.'

Some conversations with Some humans involves little thinking.. . Knowledge is not the same as thinking. A conversation in abstractions might be a good test. Also discourse on Philosophy Art and Logic would be interesting. Intelligence is the ability to process and apply Inputs. Memory may be Photographic. Big advantage. Nev

Gary "Angry" Anderson, lead singer of Rose Tattoo, has passed away, not recovering from a cardiac arrest he suffered a month ago.