Jerry_Atrick

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..

And let's not forget, his last electoral win was the majority of people who turned out to vote... Not just the electoral colleges - but also the popular vote. I can't be arsed looking at what the voter turnout was, but if it was low, there were enough pricks who didn't care enough about it. (Remove from the USA population those who turned out to vote against him from the prick population of the USA). And for the context of being pricks, I include some good friends of mine in the USA who thought for some reason it was a good idea at the time.

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

I didn't know about the railway museum but there is an aviation museum now.

Indeed.. I learned to glide at the Geelong Gliding club at Baccus Marsh, and then shifted to Tocumwal after that. After I got my PPL, it was heaven when I could.. A RVAC PA28 from Moorabbin (and then Coldsteam) to Tocumwal... weekend of gliding and back home. Bliss - except when I checked my bank account of course. I worked at Coles Myer at the "Tooronga Zoo" (Coles Myer head office in Tooronga, Melbourne - near Camberwell). They had a "bistro" and one of the servers there and I used to chat a bit as her husband used to drive to Tocumwal on a Saturday morning, glide all day, and return I think that night. She was ship scared he would die in a glider accident and I used to assure her it is possible, but after a day of gliding, I would be more worried about his drive home. Sadly, and it was a long time ago - around 1995 - as I recall a powered aircraft pilot failed to give way and the prop sheared off the fuselage boom of the glider and he died. Although technically the powered pilot's fault, it is entirely possible that the pilot with the big facial panel and cowl to look over did not see the glider , although they tend to come in higher. When I did see here, I felt utterly horrible and sorry. Strangely, I never met him. That is a discussion for the other forum, though.

One of the many flaws in my character is that the long term partners I have managed to attract have all had phobias of flying and.. moths.. 2 of the three still live on the East Coast of Australia. Those moths are doomed.

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.

Nope

Just when you think it couldn't get any uglier, you lot are going to have to endure me in the country again in the not too distant future. Leave here late on the 30th October and arrive in Melb early on 1st November for two weeks. This time though, I will be officially working while in Melb.. And I am going to head up to Sydney to meet our Aussie colleagues.. Have booked the obligatory night in Tocumwal as well. Hope to catch up with my ab initio flight instructor again. As well as have rather yummy dimmies from - of all places - the bakery! Probably shouldn't as we are going through money like it is going out of fashion, but will try and sneak a flight from Tocumwal this time.

Back to the CBF. It is running like a dream at the moment. The electrical system seems to be working well, but given the corrosion with the connectors, that they found, I think it may be prudent to one weekend spend time going through all the wiring and connectors to make sure it is OK. But that will be on the back burner (pardon the pun) for now. Thankfully, the weather is still very mild - especially for this time of year. The El Nino is expected to cause a pretty shippy winter, and I can foresee many weeks of working from home, which will help the hip pocket, but not make life terribly easy. This week's commute was interesting, and I think I managed to pick myself up a speeding ticket. The ride in was, well, in first world terms, well, not terrible, I guess. In relative terms, it was a bit of a pain. I caught almost every red light through town towards the motorway. I wasn't able to fill up before I left, but decided I would take the price hit and fill up at a motorway services when I stop for a comfort break. I usually stop at Leigh Delamare, which is about 1/2 way there. But, alas, not to be. There was a big traffic jam on the entry road as a truck had broken down. No worries - have enough to get to Membury - I would say about 40 miles east. Stopped at the servo there, and no unleaded at all - high octane or normal. So, next intended was Reading.. about about 40 miles or so. There is Chievely, but it is off the motorway and a pain to get to and return to the motorway from. As it was, I had enough fuel to comfortably get to reading, had utilised almost every micron of bladder capacity. Though, I decided to fill the bike up and raced to the loo before going back and paying. (Look up the place names in google maps if you are in the least bit interested ;-)) The traffic on London was manic - quite a lot heaver than it normally is. Very close to Parliament, the traffic thinned, and unfortunately, I wasn't quite concentrating in a 20mph zone for which most motorbikes are not built, and I noticed a couple of flashes coming from the fixed speed camera.. I looked down and was doing a whole 24mph... without a car, bike, bicycle, scooter, pedestrian or even a fox or cat around me on a ruddy wide road. If the police operated the cameras, then they would probably just think it was minor and look at the next photo. But the camera system is run by civil (public) servants, who know His Maj's Revenue and Collection could use a bit more these days than in the past. As it is a minor infraction and I haven't been caught for quite some time (12 years??). they will offer me a speed awareness course, which will cost be the same as a fine, but you don;t have to inform your insurance in this case and mine is up for renewal. Having said that, I have yet to receive the tax, er bill, er fine in the post. Got to the parking area easy enough from there.. but when riding back to the pub in Richmond for lodgings, there was no parking. One of the great things about Richmond council is they are motorcycle friendly. As long as we park on metered parking space boundaries perpendicular to the kerb, we don't have to pay.. As long as we park in residential permit areas perpendicular to the kerb, no problems. No charges either way. Do you think either were available within the normal radius of the pub? FFS! I finally found somewhere about 10 mins walk from the pub.. which with a heavy backpack and in full kit, is a slog (at my age, anyway). That was Wednesday. Thursday, the traffic in was heavy, but when it thinned out around Parliament, I made sure I went through the camera zone under 20mph. The ride home was excellent. The traffic out of London was lighter than normal, and there were no road closures or works I had to slow down for. The ride is c. 3.5 hours each what. I dort of groan at the start - especially the ride in as it was 3:14am this week.. But once I get going, I find it relaxing and because I concentrate on the ride, cleansing of the soul.

Correction:

I wouldn't call a CBF1000 a fashion piece and about the only tech it has is ABS. Honda bikes have a good reputation for longevity - buying an old used bike is a bit of a gamble and depends on its history no matter which manufacturer made it. But what reminded my of this post was this vid; I can't recall the nike you have, but if it is one of those in the vid, hope it is helpful:

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

There was a quote from some business man (ahh the powers of AI: Jeremiah Colman.. founder of Colman's mustard that says (and I will quote AI): "I did not make my fortune from the mustard that people ate, but from the mustard they left on the side of their plates.". AI apparently found it on Redditt.

I think another interesting question is if you or I hack into Medicare, we will be prosecuted... yet there is no news of anyone at Open AI being investigated.. So much for Albo's UN speech

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).

Still haven't had a lot of time to watch the clips, but it was interesting today in an AI round table at work, the first question was will we be all dead by 2030.. and a lot of the discussion focused an AI agent collaboration, which is what happened in the Hugging Face issue. However, something I thought up is a threat I have not seen yet. At the moment, we are saying that when AI puts everyone out of work, a living wage will have to be paid and those that are concentrating the wealth will eventually have to pay their fair share of tax.. they will be the only ones who make revenue. But does that necessarily transpire? If AI can synthesise human behaviour, what is stopping AI to synthesise the economy - i.e. consumers, etc. and excluding humans entirely? AI agents will be able to operate the information economy and generate demand, etc. If they are paid according to their achievements, experience, and qualifications, then what is stopping them acting like humans and in varying degrees participating in an economy that works for them, generating revenue, income, taxes, etc. This will require what one of the vids refers to recursive learning, which is I think a little further ahead than that vid alluded to. But once that nut is cracked... ouch... I didn't raise it in the round table as for some reason the discussion of impact in employment was more optimistic than I think and it is at this moment a far fetched scenario.. but not impossible.. I am sure someone has thought of it before. but i have missed it.

In all honesty, because I took time out to watch the Hawthorn/Brisbane game, I am unlikely to get a chance to look at it until next weekend. But once I have seen it, I will opine - and that opinion may be I need to do more of my own research!

This week, I decided to stay in London two nights instead of one for my commute as I hadn't ridden in for a while and wanted to ease myself back into the commute: This is my autumn/winter route as the shorter route is all A roads except for the last 50 or so ks and I don't like the idea of a much larger chance of bumping into wildlife. So, on Monday night at around 7:30pm I took off on that route and headed for a motoway services Travelodge in Heston, which is on the M4 a little close to London than Heathrow. It is probably closer to the vertical red line on the left than the red mark on the right, but somewhere between the two. I got there at around 10:30 from memory, but I was taking it easy. Up at 5 and on the bike at 5:30, was in the office by about 6-ish. London has 20mph limits everywhere except the A4 (which is a continuation of the M4) - at least until Earls Court (used to be the Antipodean capital of London), where everything turns 20. It is probably the most exceeded speed limit in the world, except where the speed cameras are. Even the buses usually do around 30 - at least at that time of the morning. On the Wednesday evening, I intended to leave the office at 5pm sharp, but as usual, something came up, and I didn't get out of it until about 9:00. I had to stop for fuel, so left it as late os possible as the bike only has about a 170 mile range for "normal" motorway riding. Filled it up with as much as it would take, and I was off. The traffic out of London, which pre-covid at that time of day would still be solid, was flowing nicely. I was on the A4 and M4 in very good time. Then it was the long slog to Bristol. But, I had to stop at a services just east of Swindon as the old bladder ain't what it used to be. Feeling a bit peckish, I had a chocolate bar as all the fast food outlets had closed, and the WH Smith food looked decidedly unappetising to me. Back on the bike, and a car overtook me at a great rate of knots, so I decided to follow it.. we were averaging 90 (except at speed cameras around Bristol). I figured he will light up any deer (although it was really too late in the night for them to be a problem) and he will brake if there are police on the side of the motorway. As it happened, he turned left at Bristol to join the M5 and head south. Excellent. In the M4 and M5 immediately around Bristol, there are speed cameras, so it was slower, but once outside them, the driver of the car sped up, so I followed. He turned off at Bridgwater which meant I only had one junction to go to Taunton where I turned off. I slowed down as the motorway side barriers, which generally seem to keep deer off the motorways are patchy at best.. although I am yet to see a dead animal on the side of a motorway like you see on A roads which don't have the barriers... I nipped in behing a car doing slightly less than 70mph, turned off at Taunton, and arrived at home at midnight on the dot. It was a great ride. I have to do a camera setup one day.

I read Albo is promoting a nuclear non proliferation type agreement for AI development between USA and China at the UN.. Hmm not long after it was suggested here. Is Albo getting his policy ideas from these great fora? 🙂 The above is really interesting and tech bros wouldn't be the first and won't be the last to buy favourable regulatory treatment. It isn't right or fair, but that is life. Interestingly, from a legal perspective, at least in Aus and UK, the calling by the owners/controllers of AI for moderation or slowing of AI due to its potential dangers can be seen as admission of holding something dangerous and could well backfire. And if it escapes and causes harm by those who own it or have control over it (and saying it has got that dangerous or evolved so they lost control is no defence), they accordingly to the principles laid down in the case of Rylands v Fletcher, which is taught in High School legal studies, they will be strictly liable for it. Of course that case dealt with dangerous substances escaping from the land, but it has been successfully applied to other cases of dangerous items causing damage. This should be no different.. And given most US states are common law based (Louisianna being the Exception as a French colony) and, like Australia, often rely on older English cases for legal principle and law, they should actually keep shtum. The word processor defence is a furphy. We don't ask a word processor a question and it provides an answer without any further input from us; we simply see what we type. However, AI companies now footnote most of their initial responses with a caution that AI responses may be wrong. They may well do better to protect themselves by making sure that those disclaimers are much more prominent.

Glad its over with. Hope the recovery goes well. Hospitals should allow a BYO Food option, or maybe a deliveroo service.

Well, that is my Saturday deflated. Good win to the Lions against the Hawks in the prelim today. In all honesty, the better team won, as when they put the jets on in the third quartert, the Lions were unstoppable. They would have had less legs than the Hawks as the Hawks had a week off. Still, for the Hawks, so close, yet soooooooo far...