willedoo

The other issue I wonder about with Google AI is the revenue effect it will have on website operators. Most websites are funded by click per view payments from the advertising (sponsers) on their website. Google AI is harvesting information from their sites to use as a response to Google search questions. But if people don't go past the top of the page where the AI answer is, all those websites are missing out on site traffic which equals income. I wonder if Google pays them a royalty for using their information.

That's a new one, two bills. The only issues I've had with Origin is not entirely due to them as they are only the retailers. Energex is the provider who owns the power and lines and it was all good and simple when their staff drove around and did the meter reading. Then they farmed it out to a contracting company and their people don't like to drive off the bitumen. That means they won't come on the place and most bills are estimates. The estimates used to be based on your past useage but now are based on average household useage. I don't use much power, so I'll get an estimated bill based on the useage of a large family household. That means I have to do a self meter read so Origin can reissue a corrected bill and this happens every three months. I've got 3 phase power (three meters) but only two have ever been wired in. The third meter permanently reads a string of zeros, and when you input your numbers into their websites self read option, the software won't accept the one with the zeros because it's the same as the previous reading. Even though I've explained all this to them, after swapping emails, they get me to take a photo of the inactive meter and send it to them. After that I get an email thanking me and letting me know it's been raised with their working group team and they will keep me posted. And so it goes on and on like this every bill. Previously, it all worked seamlessly for decades until common sense vacated the corporate sector.

It's always the price they pay for being in the hot seat. When things aren't good, they're the ones caught in the headlights.

For your information Nev, the Redbridge group poll showed a better result for One Nation and a worse result for Labor than the Newspoll. So who's Redbridge's Director of Strategy and Analytics? It's Kos Samaras, former Victorian Labor strategist. Murdoch and Sky, crikey Nev, wake up to yourself. You're so blinkered you're becoming delusional.

Nev, look up the other polls that are having the same results. Find out who are the directors and researchers, analysts. Learn something insted of ranting crap.

Nev, your'e an F'n idiot. Don't accuse me of that shit and you owe me an apology dude. I'm quoting profesional polls, ones that Labor use as well as everyone else. They are run by people, some of them former Labor professionals. They are qualified people. I'm not quoting Sky or Murdoch you clown.

I'm trying not to fall into the habit with Google of just reading the top section only which is the AI response to the question. The reason being it can be quite misleading. Like Wikiedia, it's not gospel and is all about the source reference. I Googled a question yesterday and the two answers AI came up with were just posts harvested from a Facebook group. What AI was saying was just what some bloke on a FB group said about the subject. It might well have been true, but not a reliable reference source in my opinion. Wikipedia can have the same issues. Sometimes the reference, if the reader bothers to check it, can be just a newspaper article and a journalists opinion only and not established fact.

The latest Newspoll is a shocker for the Coalition, down two points to 18%. Two points is probably within the margin of error, but the overall figure for them must be scary being below 20% primary support. Labor is down to 30%, their worst since the Gillard days. The Greens must feel comfortable. They don't have big support but the support they have barely moves. They're quite immune from all the recent political upheaval.

Yes, there's two different groups of voters there. There's the conservative side that have and will always have a basic philosophical difference to the left. Then there's the swinging voters who are now swinging away from the government. For them being former Labor voters, it must be policy or a perception the country is heading in the wrong direction that's changed their voting intention. I'd have to re-read some of the recent polls, but on the question of whether the country is heading in the right direction, I think it's around two out of three think it's not.

One thing about Australia is that we have a political system that should work with more emphasis on representation and policy. It's designed that way, but in reality has become very presidential. Often the popularity of the leader and his/her immediate cohort can influence the voting public a lot. Look at all the leadership coups we've seen over recent years. A party won't change policy that much but they think if they bump off the leader their poll figures will bounce back. In a perfect world, the leader shouldn't matter that much, it's the policy that counts. My tip is Albo will get rolled by next year if they can't turn the slide around. They've stuck with him only because he's won two elections, or in reality, the other side threw them away. Morrison and Dutton, say no more. But if it starts to look like Albo can't win a third they'll push him out in a heartbeat.

Not everyone sees it or perceives it as you do Marty. There will always be two ways to look at it. That's why we have two sides of politics and governments change.

Also Marty, if you think about it, if enough people thought we had competent government making decisions in the best interest of the people, Labor's opinion polling figures wouldn't be at an historic low and still on a downward direction.

Problem is Marty, the polls are showing us that an increasing amount of people think we've already got that.

And there's the rub for the government. Increasingly less and less people think they are providing wise governance. What's behind the swing to One Nation is that a lot of people are increasingly feeling like the government and opposition have failed badly and they've had enough and want a circuit breaker. It's like a mild form of anarchy; tear down the house and start again type of mood.

Don't worry ome, you're not the first person on this forum to say ON has no policies without going on to their website to read them. A lot of assumptions get thrown about on this forum, it's just the nature of it and we all do it at times.

I don't think I'd like to make a prediction on what will happen in almost two years time. People lost a lot of faith in opinion polls when they got it completely wrong in the Shorten lost election. The party faithful at party election HQ were popping the champagne before the polls were closed, and an hour later they looked shell shocked. The thing is, that election was all about the two major parties and now something else entirely is happening. I don't live in a political monoculture as far as friends and people in general that I know. I've got close friends that vote Green and close friends who are paid up One Nation party members, so from one end of the spectrum to the other. But for the last few months it seems like everywhere I go I'm hearing stuff that looks good for One Nation and bad for Labor. The only prediction that I'd be game to make is that the coalition will preference One Nation, which is not good for Labor. In the past, the coalition has preferenced away from One Nation to try to extinct them as conservative competition. It's too late to do that now and if they did they'd just lose more base and wouldn't have enough support in the centre to survive.

It's no news to anyone that One Nation has led the last three major voting intention polls taken. But I wonder how many people who have expressed a dislike of our preferential system and support for a first past the post system are starting to have a rethink now that One Nation is polling at number one on primary vote intention. There's arguments for and against both systems. The way I see it, with a first past the post system you could end up with a government elected on a fairly small percentage if we had a few strong parties instead of the traditional two major party dominance. That might be our immediate future, ie: an end to the two party status quo. The preferential system can have a lot more unpredictable outcomes, that's for sure. I was reading some of the views of Dr. Shaun Ratcliff, principal of Accent Research regarding preferences. He was saying based on current polling, what happened in Farrer could replicate around the country at the next election. Here's a quote from him: "In seat after seat, the Coalition is predicted to fall to third place in seats it has traditionally held, either on primary votes or it is pushed to third by Labor on Greens preferences, with Labor then losing to One Nation – usually on Coalition preferences”. That would mean One Nation defeating Labor candidates with the unintentional help of the Greens. This is my interpretation of that if I'm correct - in a four cornered contest between Liberal, Labor, One Nation and Greens, the Greens get knocked out first and Labor gets most of their preferences, pushing the Liberals to third place. It's then a contest between Labor and One Nation, and if One Nation polls well on the primaries, they pick up the Liberal preferences to top Labor. I think either way, it would be Labor with Green preferences against either One nation with Liberal preferences or Liberal with One Nation preferences. Dr. Ratcliff said the effect can magnify a small change in primary vote into a large difference in outcome. He said: “A Coalition primary vote that was just a few points higher would win considerably more seats,”. Round about now, Albo might be checking his wardrobe to see if he's still got those brown cord pants. He'd certainly be hoping for a big turnaround in the next six months or time will be running out to do it. I think the government knows that momentum will be their enemy if they don't stop it, and stop it soon.

My dad was a Chev man in his day. His first vehicle was a Chev Maple Leaf truck he bought when he came back from the war. As well as doing farm work with it, he drove it to all the local dances and used it for personal transport. Then he got married and bought a Chev sedan which lasted until he changed to an FC, then a FB, then the rust prone HD, and his last Holden was a HT. He had an FJ ute on the farm as well. I had a few in my day. First car was an FE, others were EK, EJ, EH, HD, HQ, HJ and the current Rodeo which is as much Isuzu as Holden. The only one I miss is my dad's Canadian Chev truck. He traded it and an old Dodge truck we had on a AA-160 International. He still had the AA-160 when he passed at 89.

Bit of a coincidence we're discussing brakes. I've just got back from picking the ute up from the mechanics. New rotors and pads on the front, front wheel bearings serviced, new clutch master cylinder and a flush and fluid change for clutch and brakes. I brought the old rotors and pads home, they look a bit scary. One of the pads was down to about 1 mm. The rotors were well below legal.

Good old youtube. It looks like you hit that round piece (which has a leather cap) with a hammer. It doesn't drive the nail home but it starts it.

I didn't know they had nail guns at the turn of last century. This U.S. example was patented in 1892 and 1908. It doesn't look like much fun to use. I'm assuming the user pulls that spring loaded plunger up and then lets it go. Or do they hit it with a hammer?

The thing that concerns me about old cars on the open road is that lack of a collapsible steering column. It's like driving around with a crowbar aimed at your chest.

It's interesting seeing what comes up on marketplace around the district. All the desirable stuff gets snapped up fairly qiuckly. In that category is old Holdens, Falcons, Chevs and Fords. F trucks always sell quick for high prices. They are the sort of vehicles most people in the market for classics want. On the other side of the coin are old cars that are going for bargain prices but the sellers have trouble moving them. In that category I'd put things like Wolseleys. I can see someone like the Two Ronnies wanting one, but that's about it. As far as the rough stuff goes, anything American is highly desirable for the ratrod market, but the old pommie stuff is stuck in a narrow, less flexible niche.

1918 sounds a long time ago. A mate of mine had a father who served in the 5th.Light Horse Regiment in WW1 and served at Gallipoli in 1915. I couldn't work the mathematics of that out until he told me his dad was fifteen when he joined up and had put his age up. Then he didn't marry until a bit later in life so was about 50 when the mate was born.