willedoo

That sounds like a good way to do it. I'm only just starting to get bills again. With my low power useage and all the post covid state and federal subsidies that we were recieving, I was in credit for a long time. I don't think I paid a bill for a couple of years or more, so just getting used to it again.

My next step is to download the smart meter app so I can check the figures. As far as I know, it can only be accessed on the phone and not on a desktop or laptop. Some apps like X, formerly Twitter, have to be donloaded directly to the phone but once done you can access your X account on a desktop. I don't think the meter app works like that.

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.

This is not really a gripe, just some observations for want of a better thread to post in. In some ways things are advancing and in other ways we're going backwards. I've noticed for a while now a lot of companies and organisations are becoming increasingly disfunctional. A lot are getting a fortress mentality where it's becoming increasingly difficult for customers and others to contact them. Too many working groups, team leaders, teams, team meetings, overseas outsourced support and the list goes on. It gives me the impression that a lot of people making the decisions these days wouldn't know if their arse was on fire. They think if you have enough blah, blah, blah, and keep kicking the ball around in circles, everything will work out. It's in government and regulation as well, or should I say over regulation. A good example I heard on the ABC radio today was that some operators of coffee outlets in Victoria are required to have up to thirty four different licences to pour and sell coffee. Another example of a disfunctional system is our banana quarantine system here in S.E. Queensland. I haven't grown any since the 1990's but am thinking of putting a few in again. The last time I grew them, the government took it very seriously. Non commercial household growers were only allowed to grow Lady Fingers and the suckers had to be sourced from a grower approved by the Department of Primary Industries. Transportation of banana material was restricted to certain zones (still is) and a strict planting window was in place with about a two month period that they were allowed to be planted. I got quite a shock last year when I made some enquiries into planting, as I wanted to do the right thing regarding disease control. Here's a comparison of how it was planting bananas in the 1990's compared to now. Back then I went to the local DPI research station for advice. They gave me a contact list of approved growers, and that was it. All I had to do was ring a nearby approved grower, buy the suckers and plant them. All legal and biosecurity compliant. Fast forward to now. Some time ago the DPI research stations stopped dealing with the public. Now they have no public phone numbers or any other way to contact them, and the stations are blocked to public access so you can't go and see them. Wanting to do the right thing, I rang the department headquarters in Brisbane and they didn't have a clue what to do. I then asked them if they had a list of approved growers and they said they weren't allowed to give out that information and suggested I contact the banana growers association. I rang them several times over a few days and nobody would answer the phone. They had a very loud recorded tune playing for waiting; it was the lyrics banana-nana, banana-nana excised from that kid's song and looped endlessly at irritatingly high volume. It was as if they were purposely trying to get you to hang up and go away. Nobody is going to sit there and listen to that for an indeterminate period of time. I think my record in all the calls was about 20 minutes of banana-nana, banana-nana and that was it for me. It's odd because the quarantine signs are still everywhere, and the relevant authorities' websites still bang on about how strict they are with banana biosecurity but government and the growers association are total fu*kwits about it. The problem with that is that people wanting to plant bananas are now just buying them illegally on FB Marketplace from backyarders. It's not legal to sell if you're not an approved grower and not legal to buy from non approved growers. The government and the growers association are talking the talk and not walking the walk. It's gone from a very efficient system to one that's completely disfunctional.

The bit about QR codes is interesting. I've never used a QR code and most likely never will.

I've got one in mind for the rat bike. I was going to build one but I'll try fixing this one first and if that doesn't work out, back to plan A and do a build. On the other hand, it would be nice to find a little Ford V8-60. That would have a nice thump to it and fit in a bike type frame a lot better than the full size side banger V8.

Here's the old Howard L motor I mentioned in the above post. Like all Howard stuff, it's super heavy; very heavy cast steel crankcase, steel barrel and head.

This old motor is one of many non-running engines cluttering up the shed and workshop space. An old BSA 120cc that used to power the grandfather's lawn mower; I might get it running again one day if I live long enough. It needs a good cleanup and a new set of rings, but it's low down on the priority list of engine renovations. The red motor in the background in front of the blue tarp is a B&S that I need to get going to power an old Forrest Gump style ride-on that I'm renovating. It's probably a priority along with an 80" flatty that might be a contender for the rat bike, and an old Lister diesel that I want to connect to an alternator. Other low priority non-runners hanging about the shed are a couple of modern Honda pump motors and an L series Howard 292cc single cylinder side valve. The Howard motor was on a Kelpie garden tractor that is now a total wreck. Funnily enough, it was in perfect condition when it was given to me many years ago. The Howard Kelpies were common around here once, used mainly as break pushers when they used to burn cane.

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.'

I was reminded of the differences in pronunciations on Sunday when I had to drive over to Nanango and back. The trip takes you through a town called Goomeri and I remembered a Kiwi bloke I knew years ago who pronounced it as 'Goomer-rye', whereas we pronounce it as 'G'mary'. He was having as much trouble pronouncing our Aboriginal place names as we have pronouncing NZ Maori place names. I was in NZ in 1977 and went to visit some people in Christchurch in a street by the name of Mahoe Street. I was pronouncing it 'Ma-ho' whereas the correct local pronunciation was 'Ma-hoy-ee'.

It's interesting watching how trends come and go with language. I listen to a lot of local ABC radio, and for the last year or two, most people being interviewed begin their answer with "That's a really great question". It can get a bit irritating when some people start every answer with that statement, a bit like a cracked record. Another one that's taken hold lately when being interviewed is to start the answer in the affirmative with the words "One hundred percent!" or "Yes, one hundred percent!". One that I've never understood and find a bit irritating is the way 'innovative' has been pronounced in the last few years by politicians, media people and those being interviewed by the media. If you say the word innovate, you would pronounce it as that and not innovit, so why do they pronounce innovative as innovitive. Maybe it started with people talking fast which would change the sound of the word a bit.

It looks like the younger generations have latched on to the term 'old school' in a big way. It's cropping up everywhere on FB Marketplace lately. If it's 20 years old, it's old school, if it's a piece of junk it's old school. I've even seen people advertising some worn out tyres as old school. Not talking vintage tyres, just ones that were taken off a vehicle 15 or 20 years ago. These trends spread quickly. Sellers and potential sellers see others using the term and figure they can get a premium price if some sucker thinks it's 'old school'.

Half time at the NRL semi final and the channel 9 ad came on spruiking what they have in store for the 6pm news. Can't wait, a big breaking news story on moths invading Aussie homes. They're going to give the full details on what's behind the plague. Riveting stuff, not to be missed. I wonder what they have in store for us tomorrow. Ants or flies perhaps. A three to four year university degree in journalism to get a scoop on moths.

There was a case here just the other day where the judge dismissed the trial of a bloke on a murder charge. It was a road rage related incident that happened some years back and the accused was charged several years after the incident. The prosecutors submitted to the court that they had no evidence. I couldn't imagine they would have laid charges with absolutely no evidence in the first place. My best guess is that what evidence they had eventually turned out to be unreliable or unusable in some way and they didn't have enough to proceed.

Back in the day, I always wanted to build a Norvin. It all started when I stumbled on a photograph of one parked at the Phillip Island bike races. It was a Black Shadow motor in a Norton featherbed frame and was finished off in cafe racer style. I got as far as acquiring a slimline featherbed frame, but I think I knew at the time I was unlikely to ever come across an affordable Black Shadow motor, and that's about as far as the project got. A Vincent V-twin would look good in just about any frame.

This is a beautiful looking bike - a '48 Chief with a Vincent motor. They look like they were made for each other.

Glad it went not too bad Peter. Yes, I remember those leg pressure things when I was in ICU after my artery operation in 2022. I had a million tubes and wires hanging out of me everywhere, could hardly move. The things they do to you. Some of that hospital food can be a bit ordinary. Here it gets trucked up frozen and the hospital caterers just heat it up. Most of the processed and packaged stuff is from China, even the weetbix is made in China. The contractors go for the cheapest possible outlay.

On the subject of sidecars, this contraption I'm building won't be registered, but in Queensland it's relatively easy to fit a sidecar to a registered bike. I don't know whether other states have an inspection/approval process for fitting a sidecar, but here if you have dual seat rego (we have dual and single seat registration options), you can just put one on without having to get it inspected or approved. The only requirements if you happen to get pulled over is that it must have a mechanical park brake if manufactured after a certain date, and must have four attachment points and obvious stuff like lighting. Bolt-on clamp attachment kits are ok but if brackets are welded to the bike frame, it must be engineer certified. So as long as you have dual seat rego and use bolt-on clamp style attachments, you can build your own sidecar, bolt it on and ride away.

It won't be a trike, conventional two wheeler with a sidecar is the plan. I seem to remember seeing one of those engines on marketplace near here recently. I don't know much about them apart from them being a small aluminium block motor.

Spot on Pete, that's what it is.

Found an old mph Smiths speedo in rat bike condition which might be a contender. It's fairly big; about an inch bigger dimeter than a W or U series Harley speedo. I've got 5 gallon split taks so it will depend on the final fitment of those tanks whether or not the speedo will fit between the filler caps in a tank console.

I could be wrong, but the way I see it, most of the job losses will be office workers. I'd think they'd be more concerned about AI putting them out of a job than blue collar workers would.

In a perfect world, SME's would fund staff pay increases with an increase in productivity. That is, productivity increases earning the business more profit to be able to fund higher wages. A lot of the times unions and some governments expect the business owners to wear the cost of higher wages without an increase in productivity. When that happens it's a total loss for the business. The use of AI tools to increase productivity could earn businesses more money so that any future wage increases are fully funded intsead of a drain on the bottom line. It could be a win/win.

Pete, that makes you half Queenslander; you might even qualify for a passport. Let me know if you need a reference.

Anthropic is planning to build Australia's biggest data centre near Dalby in Queensland. It will lease land at the proposed Western Downs digital park that a Singaporean company is planning to build. The park will be a four stage project, with Anthropic's section around 725 hectares of land, currently used as a feedlot. It's yet to go through the local council approval process.