Jerry_Atrick

02/02, 03/03, etc are the same... I often hear January the first and similar for other dates

Laughing on the assumption it is a photoshop or similar, and just a joke.

Should read doing democracy a favour? Hmmm.. A war about oil? I am getting a sense of dejavu

With the advances in battery technology, especially, I think CATL's advances in sodium battery technology, today's batteries will be so "yesterday" compared to the newer ones coming on stream. I predict the EV market will be a bit like the personal technology market - consistent advances will make not too old technology obsolete and cheap in comparison. Of course, getting the next wave of batteries into existing vehicle platforms isn't just putting a new motherboard into an existing case, so that may slow obsolescence up a bit.. But, I wonder if the battery makers are thinking about backward compatibility with existing vehicle platforms, in terms of physical fit. That may then make it a simple case of adding a battery and changing the motherboard - and possibly a display or two. Exciting times to come and I think for the consumer, used EVs will still be a viable but well priced alternative.

Nothign to be sad about, @nomadpete - these bikes are known for stator issues and I am looking forwad to getting my hands dirty again...

This reminds me of the days when Farcebook was young and people would post pictures and details of a great day they had doing something fancy - and then they would be fired as they took a sickie to do whatever it was they did because their boss found out by... looking at their Facebook page., Though, I have to say, the young muppet seems to be a pretty good rider (Those speeds are mph, not kph)

OK.. back to the Bike... The model/series (both Mk I and Mk II version) are know as "Biffers" over here. I understand this to be slang for unattractive woman. Well, I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, because most people remark how good they look.. Anyway, with the Mini immobilised, the Volvo crapped its pants yesterday - only slightly. It sounds as if the rear brakes are in dire need of replacement - with the grooved discs all but confirming it (booked tomorrow). But, I know there is some drivetrain issues at the rear and hoping it isn't the driveshaft about to fall off. So, I decided yesterday to look harder for the second car (read the EV thread). As the weather was nice, I got geared up, even with this persistent lurgy and headed about 30 miles to a car yard that had a petrol car that fit our bill advertised. It was one of a three-showroom company. Guess what.. they haven't got it yet - they are expecting it within 10 days. However, he did point out to me another example - later model with less miles, but better appointed for only £500 more - which is £500 more than my budget. These dealers rarely move on price because they make their money on finance, of which I am not availing to myself. Google maps told me it was about an hour a way my A roads or I could go back about 15 minutes to the nearest motorway junction, and it will still be an hour away. Unf, I don't have a phone mount on the bike, so I memorised the way as much as possible, and headed off. About 2.5 hours later, I finally found it. Bristol is a big city and has some wonderful spots. But, it is an old city and that patchwork of road infrastructure is nothing short of a labryinth which is impossible to navigate without real time sat nav capability. Every few blocks, I had to find a legal place to stop, pull out the phone, and inevitabley retrace some of my steps. Finally, I found the dealer, but they had a queue a mile long so I visually inspected the car - it looks good... may just buy it. Got on the bike and rode back using as much oif the M5 motorway as possible. But I struggled to feel a smidge of heat on the heated grips on the hands, and they were quite cold all the way. That didn't impress me much, to say the least. The I noticed at below 2,500rpm, the heated grips status light would flash green. What the hell did that mean? Would have to wait to get home and look it up. I had worked out though, that it was cutting off the heat and learned that if it thinks the bike doesn't have the engine on by reading the voltage coming out of the regulator/rectifier. This was backed up with the bike virutally shutting down when I stopped to pick up some groceries. While turning the key lit everything up (it was dark now), pressing the start button was met with a resounding silence. F!. So, did the trick that older European cars needed, switched the ignition right off and right on again, prayed a bit, and it fired up. I rode it the rest of the way home and was thinking oh my, how big will that bill be? From my research so far, it could be the stator, the reg/rectifier, just loose and corroded connections or a combination of all three. The stators are a known issue with that model (2006 - 2010) and an upgraded electroset stator will set me back about £140. However, the stator flywheel was modified to allow more oil to flow through, and they are around £500. Sheep! The weather is pants this week, at a forecast of -3 degrees c when I would normally take off for work. The weather has been dry until today, so there is a possibility of black ice - which means, if I can manage to score a car, I will be driving in, otherwise an expensive train ride in this week unless I delay my London commute by a day in which the weather is forecast to get materially warmer. The plan is to empty our my dilapiidated garage this week, which I have to do to make space for the son's bike anyway. Then, after picking up his bike, I will first inspect the connections and run voltage and ohms tests (I forget what they call ohms tests these days) to try and isolate the issue. I am hoping it is just the connectors, but if not, it will probably mean a new electoset stator (about £150), but apparently second hand reg/rectifiers off Yamahas from about 2009 are the bees knees.. though will find the actual part it is and get new. The battery is a Yuasa installed new about a year ago, so if it is gone, it is likely because of something else causing it. Glad I bought a new multi-meter about 6 months ago.

Yes.. maybe I should have said unintended consueuence rtaher than [over] olptimistally wishful thinking.

Sometimes I do wonder about people's ability to think logically. We have yet to buy a replacement for the written off mini. It is really my partner's car and she flatly refuses to drive a manual. Which is a pain in the UK, because most cars - even luxury ones - that are sold are manual. So, after fruitlessly searching for a replacement for her that was in budget and auto, I took a look at some EV cars - as they are all "autos". Used car sellers here work a bit dfifferently to Aus (at least when I last purchased a used car in Aus, which was admittedly about 20 years ago). If you know what you want, you can buy online unseen from a reputable seller and if you're not entirely happy with it whtin 2 weeks or something like 1000 miles, they will refund you in full and take the car back. In addition, most offer 12 month warranties under similar terms to new car warranties. And of course, if the car they sell you has a balance of a new car warranty, that transfers to you (as long as the previous owner/s have kept to the terms of the warranty) and they will make up the difference if the balance of the new car warranty is less than the 12 months. There is also statutory protections as well that the larger used car dealers adhere to without resistance because they work on a model to stack them high and kiss them good bye. They don't make much on the sale of a car, but on the finance. They don't much like cash buyers, but to ensure they get the volume, they do a lot to preserve their reputation. Some of these are not venturing into making the used EV purchase a virtually risk free proces as they see a big market of better value cars and better demand. So I was looking at autotrader.co.uk for cars with bettter than 250 mile range. I selected a few, of which the MG ZS 72.x KW was one, and checked out the ads. The reputable dealers have RAC or AA battery tests performed. Fore about £9K, I was looking at 2021 - 2023 models of varying mileage, but averaging arount 30k miles (50k kms). So much for 10% degradation per year of the battery - most were showing 98 - 99% of life left in them, and the lowest was about 96%. I did some research and, ironically, apart from the mini, the real world ranges were not far off the claimed range - probably on average 10% less than claimed range. The batter checks also stated claimed range and provided estimated real world ranges at 0 degrees c ambient temperature and 25 degrees C ambient temperatures. At zero degrees, it was about 25% less range than at 25 degrees. OK, for the cars I was looking at, and taking into account the decreased range at motorway speeds, I should still be able to get to London without needing a charge and have some in reserve. Sticking it on a charger overnight would have me right tor the trip home and assuming it would be 0 - 100% charge. cost me about £35 - half that of the Volvo and about 2/3 that of the now dead mini. Not to mention the generally lower servicing costs, less to go wrong and therfore more reliability, etc. it sounds like a no-brainer - especialliy when you consider partner's driving - glorified shopping trolley and occasional run to pick up the daughter - on A roads as she doesn't do motorways/highways. So, even then, her range will normally be longer than the average. So, I decided to broach with her the subject of getting an EV. I was met with a resounding "no" at every turn. But no logical argument to say why not. Just "I want a petrol car..." I was flabbergasted.. Why? Eve3rything she read was about EV fires and lack of infrastructure. Also, when we sell this house, she may end up in a mid-terrace house with no guarantee she can park outside to connect the car to charge. OK.. the infrastrcutre down here is not what it is in London. But there is good infrastructure. First the chances she won'[t have a driveway are pretty low. But even on that assumption, I explained the area she was looking at has a public charging point and there is no petrol station for about 10 miles or so heading towards Exeter. So, it would be easier for her if she was low on fuel to get the battery topped up than petrol in her car. Then she said she would use it only hopefully once evry couple of weeks and the battery woudl discharge.. I could have put any number of stats in front of her to say that it would take anything from 6 months to a year to discharge a 72kw/h battery not in use.. and that she could expect the lead acid battery to discharge enough to make the car unuseable loing before that. Still she wasn't having a bar of it. Oh well, she will have to live with it and the costs. But the research I did made EVs even more compelling to me than they were beforehand. [Edit] I forgot to mention, most of the batteries still have 5 years of warranty left and a lot of the cars still had 2 - 3 years of warranty left, too.. Don't get that with the petrol cars of the same age.

I have to admit, I haven't been following this closely so really can't comment too much. But I did note a headline on The Age's website yesterday that the Aussie Vebeuelan population were cheering Chump on. I haven't read the article so going by the headline, Chump may be doming demoicracy a favour? Optimistically wishful thinking, I know.

Disgusting perverse right wing propaganda shit, fella

Quote snipped. I am well aware of stolen mail scams and how they work. They are by far in the minority compared to standard email scams that are successful. They aren't even the head of the pimple of the back of pure email scams. As I mentioned it is a question of risk, and at the moment, the risk is far greater from email phishing scams alone than stolen email, whether or not they are followed up by targeted phishing. Yes, but they don't send the letters. Their prices will reflect the cost of sending the declining economies of scale., They can do the same as Danish Poste and stop sending letters, and leave the goivernment to send its letters through private contractors or couriers if required. My point ius yes, it is and will become more expensive to send letters. But governments (the senders of the letters) are not known for cost efficiency. Over here, the Royal Mail was privatised years ago. With the declining economies of scale and the introdution of competition, it is expensive. Apartt from 2 years, they have still turned a profit on letter delivery - it is true that parcel delivery (Parcel Force arm of the Royal mail)_ is more profitable. Sort of yes, and sort of no. Yes, people are fre to make a decision to send a letter or not. But the Danish government will only send emails except for specific exemptions (I forgot to put this in my previous post): You may not be happy to accept email because you anre not confident in its security. Too bad. My lazy comment is not aimed at yourself. And it is meant in terms of not always thinking things through when taking the new, more convenient option. Some people are more diligent than others, but how much fraud was before people started taking notice of this risks with eBanking, ecommerce, clicking on email links and the sort. A little forethought - not much - would have identified these riuks and have people take mitigating actions well beforehand rather than play catch up. And I am not saying don't do email.. I never have. It would be a ridiculous proposition for your sone to send a daily letter (well in advance of the time) to tell his employees the priorities of that day. Of course that is the case. In that case the risk is low. I imagine, someone in his company receiving a phishing email to sign onto home banking or they lose their life savings purportedly originating from your son would be treated with the disdain it should be. The examples you give are simply not applicable to what I was referring to.

I agree., which is why I don't buy Chinese (and from other oppressive regimes) where I can.. I can't always buy something not made in China. It is a sad indctment of humanity that we care more about saving a few bucks that how we direct our resources to make a better world (which is subjective - I know). China has obtained dominance on price, justlike Japan and Taiwan befoew. The difference is the former allowed their economies to develop naturally, whereas China oppressively keeps their costs artifically low against the rest of the world. Acknowledging China is the super-manufacturer as a result, my purchase decision tree is something like: If I can source it made from non-oppresive regimes (China is one), buy it from a non-oppressive regime. If I can only source from an oppressive regime (e.g. China), try and buy from a firm from a non-oppresive regime that set up in the oppresive regime and accept that it somewhat endorses something even worse. If I can only buy it from a firm owned and manufactured in an oppressive regime, then so be it. Also, try not top buy from a non-oppressive regime where the is owned by a Chinese or other oppresive regime firm.. And of course, consider if I really need it if I can't source it the first way. It's a personal choice.

I agree with your post of which I quoted an extract. In your case, it is perfectly fine. In other cases, such as my mother who lives in a country town outside of Melbourne, it is very high risk - not the valid emails - but the phishing. I reiterate, these are becoming increasingly sophisticated and even tech savvy people fall for them from time to time. In my mother's case, I have imposed on her a rule to contact me or my brother before clicking any link she thinks is valid. There are millions like her in different demographics. What about those who live independently, but are metnally challenged, etc. There was an article in The Age or the Guardian a few yers ago where an IT journo unwittingly got scammed and he or she admitted she should have known better. I get all of the economics and the decline in mail. However, a govenment isn't about efficiency first - to suggest it is, is a furphy. And let's be frank, neither are large corporations. My point is it is not right to force a method of delivery - allow people to opt in - no probs. But the system is not safe. It has been implemented by the organisations safely in the way you describe, but that does not stop the scammers using to to scam people with far more success than is reported in the media. When the technology is safe enough, then great - force everyone to use it. My term about laziness wasn't people are lazy. But we rush into new convenient methods without thinking through the consequences. Australia is trailblazin as is the UK with what I think are sensibly targeted controls - a balance of protecting the rights of communications through the internet but curtailing the worst of it. It has taken how many years, in the face of those vociferous voices promoiting no internet censorship in th epursuit of free speech. In 2000, I argued in a forum that the internet had morphed into another mass media distribution channel and that, like TV, radio, newspapers, and the like, where moral-based censorship applied that still allowed free speech, the internet should be subject to such controls - with an opt in based on people who could verify their age (I suggested credit card or optical recogniton of official government docs wold suffice). This would allow the ISP to unblock traffic to their client and their client assumes responsibility at that stage. The team promoting non-censorship[ raised the government oppression argument, which I agree with, but also put the responsibility on the parents of parental control, which I totally disagree with. Even today, there is evidence that a massive majority of people do not understand the technology sufficiently to adopt practices to protect children from harmful content, and neither have the knowledge, resources, or time to continually monitor. The UK parliament decided to not require an opt into adult content, however, required the telcos to strengthen the parental controls they could adopt at the ISP level. This omitted one big issue - VPNs - which allow circumvention of these controls. A friend of mine, who works in a similar space to me, was heartbroken when he leaned his sone was addicted to porn - and some not great aspects of it from an early age of around 14, despite deplying ISP based and local parental contol software. Kids are clever with tech and his son used all sorts of circumvention However, if the ISP had have blocked all of this sort of content and blocked VPN TCP/IP packets, his child may have grown up without the affliction. I am far from an expert on cybersecurity. We have dedicated teams and I would be paid a lot more than I am if I were an expert. But we received mandatory training and I try and keep myself well read in the area. I don't, as a habit, store documents on the cloud for a few reasons. Firstly, I think they are generally secure - but only as secure as anything else. Cybercrime is not the dark-hooded chap crackign passwords - it relies in the weakest links - software and human vulnerabilities. Therefore, Cloufd storage, IMHO, is as vulnerable as any other organisation - except they do our quite a bit of money into cybe protection. But recently, both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure werehacked causing outages.. so that speaks for itself. The other thing I don't like about it is that despite assurances, I don't trust these organisations to not snoopp on my stiff, use it to train artifical intelligence models (to their risk with my stuff), and, probably with the exception oif Apple, provide a back door to law enforcement. Not that I have anything to hide per se. I use all local storage except for some photos and I pay Drop Box a small subscription if I want to share files/data. I use NAS disk array for backups, firewalled so that only a certain set of machines machine on my network should be able to access it.

I am not saying that we shouldn't tranistion to email. Most things sich as the sharing of engineering plans, and even tax returns, etc, are fine because even if they are intercepted, big deal. I have never met my accountant and when the books are submitted, they become public record anyway. Maybe ASIC charges a fee, whereas UK Companies House doesn't, but for a small chunk of change I can find out most of what I want to for any company or sole proprietor (and anything in between). My argument is that email is still not secure enough to force people to use it, even when the actions are performed though secure online services for some things - such as official government business and financial transactions. You're quite right. I didn't say snail mail entirely protects. What you didn't mention is that email phishing fraud really, really dwarves stolen letter fraud - so the chances of it are happening are quite low. And while the "success" rate of snail mail fraud is higher, the overall lost to fraud this way is significantly lower as well. Also, I couodn't find any data, but I would imagine that the success rate of letter fraud is dropping two for two main reasons: Firstly, with direct debit/BPAY, secondly,. most people these days that pay a recurring bill probably have the payee details stored anyway, fourthly (not sure about Australia), when paying new payees, you have to enter the account name, whether it is business or personal and the bank BSB and account and if they do not match, you are warned to check the bill. Also, if they decide to say up the bill significantly to increase their return, the utility company or whoever is likely to receive a phone call. And it is a lot of faff for the perpetrator. They have to steal the mail, scan the document, make the change, stuff the envelope making it look not tampered and deliver it again as the stamp has been stamped. In terms of the advice to send the bill to you electronically - it is good advice. Except for two things. Firstly, there is Business Email Compromise, which takes two forms. First, the hacker gets control of the email servers of the business and adulterates the email, as per this poor couple falling victim to: https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/hope-and-tom-paid-250-000-to-secure-their-dream-home-then-nearly-lost-it-all-20251104-p5n7pr.html The other is where a sniffer reads the email and attachment, makes the changes and immediately sends out a revised email, apologising for the mistake of payment details in the original email. If you want your physical bill untampered, yes, get it sent electronically. I agree. But, now you are expecting emails from that company, and there will inevitablly be a phishing email calling people to urgent action because of an imminent account closure or to validate or cancel an unusual transaction. And most people should ignore any links and log into their accounts, but sadly, even savvy people whose circumstances led to a lapse of concentration or the scammers merely put together some situation that coincidentally is very similar to the victims own at the moment, and in a lapse of concentration, they have clicked the link, divulged their credentials and their account has been drained in the blink of an eye. So, you may be stiffed $100 or so for your monthly electricity bill - once - and if you don't use BPAY or you ignore the payee being dfifferent to the banks record. I know of one person who had over £10K drained from their account. They eventually got it back, but ultimately we collectively pay. And my point is, at the moment, to default to receive snail mail for financial transactions, but allow people to opt into pure email. They either recognise and mitigate the risks, or they ignore them, or they choose not to. Despite the risks of mail theft and fraud, the risks around email at this point in time are much higher. And therefore, I would suggest the advice given by Victoria Police Mail Delivery and Security, aboive, is narrowly framed and does not take into account all of the risks. Well. I dunno.. I am normally happy to have their tops disrobed, but untitting sounds gruesome to me.