woodenhead
-
Posts
14,064 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Gallery
Events
Exhibition Layout Details
Store
Posts posted by woodenhead
-
-
5 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:
Although the loos on the cruise ship we went on were vacuum operated, I didn't try seeing what would happen if the flush mechanism was operated whilst I was still sitting on it 😫.
Dave
Might be helpful if your diet has been lacking in fibre and you need some assistance....
-
1
-
10
-
-
The question is, with Bachmann now offering it's 016.5 models, will you be widening the roster on this layout despite them being different parts of the UK, or will you be doing a little slate mine as your next project?
-
Just now, Reorte said:
I'm never happy with approaches that take the "treat everyone like a potential criminal" direction. It's sometimes unavoidable in order to get anything done in practice, but I don't think it makes for a healthy society.
It's not criminalising, I've not mentioned anything about punishing.
This to me feels more like protecting someone from danger that they might not be able to perceive.
-
1 minute ago, Reorte said:
Childhood is a constant battle of pushing boundaries to see what we can get away with. It's how the brain finds out where the boundaries lie, often at a subconscious level.
And childhood doesn't end arbitarily at 17 years old, pushing the boundaries in a fast moving vehicle is not a good way to learn where that brick wall, lamp post or other solid obstacle is.
-
1
-
-
-
5 minutes ago, Reorte said:
The best way to develop instincts about dangerous behaviour is to have a few minor mishaps when young (younger than driving age). Trip up and fall when you're small and it hurts but is unlikely to do any damage, but it still hurts, so you start to develop the instincts to avoid tripping up, and a general sense of self-preservation.
I have very vague memories of being at a preserved railway when I was quite small and I found the locos quite intimidating in one place (publically-accessable shed IIRC), seeing them looming above me from ground level instead of the platform, especially walking in front or behind them. If it had totally put me off trains I wouldn't be here, but I do think it created a bit of healthy nervousness about the idea of being in the wrong place relative to them, and since that happened when I was small and the brain very much developing it's stuck.
So on that analogy, let young children out in traffic to get a few glancing blows from passing cars so they understand cars are dangerous and to be treated carefully?
We all learn what's good and bad when we are young, we get that from our parents, our peers and educators. But the teenage brain is a fast developing vessel that unfortunately thinks doing certain risky activities is a great idea regardless of previous experiences and even more so when it is to impress friends and potential companions.
-
1
-
-
19 minutes ago, kevinlms said:
But the assumption is in such a case that ALL young males will do the same - something clearly not true. Some are downright dangerous, but not all.
You could clearly say in that example the curfew combined with the black box, led to the outcome. Some young people don't have spare cash for a taxi.
Driving safely home was a FAR better option, even if it meant a late arrival. That would be my choice. Not that we have curfews in Oz.
I think the issue is that males are not aware of the perceived risk because they have not developed that part of the brain, so they don't know they are being reckless. Obviously there is a spectrum of those who are sensible and drive carefully right across to those who are extremely reckless and a massive curve between the two where there will be people who unconscious of their lack of awareness. The black box clearly has an impact as it is an external monitor that they are aware of and if it believes you are being reckless will result in you losing the insurance and ability to drive.
Sadly it is not possible for people to discriminate between those who will always be sensible, those who don't give a stuff and those who simply don't know, so all come under the same banner and have to accept the black box. My son recently passed his test and drives his wife's car which used to be ours. As he was mid twenties when he passed, and married he was not asked to install a black box and neither was his wife for her previous car.
It might feel like a form of big brother but I believe there is sound reasoning behind the need to control the driving of cars for males under a certain age. I was one of them once, and I can vouch it's easy to stray under peer pressure or the desire to show off. Luckily I never came to grief and typically after doing something stupid I would not do the same thing again. And thank goodness I never purchased the original Suzuki Swift GTi pocket rocket I test drove or the Peugeot 205 1.9 GTi, I would have been lethal.
These days I am happy to use the speed limiter on all roads, let my car guide me on efficient foot use and get there when I get there.
-
3
-
-
7 minutes ago, 30801 said:
I can think of at least one fatal accident where the teenage driver was rushing to get home before the black box night time curfew started. Unintended consequences.
That curfew is set because they know the most dangerous time for a teenage male driver to be on the road, from what I have read it is a male thing with the brain not maturing as fast as the female brain leading to more risks being taken. I think it is the mid twenties when the male brain catches up.
So in some respect we might think the black box is constraining on the person, but perhaps what it is actually doing is acting as a helping hand or aid to stop the person doing some excessive because their mind may not be up to the challenge yet of calculating the true risk.
In the example given, the driver saw it was better to rush home than leave the car somewhere and use a taxi or some other alternative, it's that risk awareness that is lacking because the brain has not developed to full maturity.
-
1
-
-
Just now, DaveF said:
Changing the subject a bit to speed limits I wonder how many people follow the signs displayed on car screens picked up by the car's built in camera.
Near home mine always displays 20 on one piece of road actually limited to 30 as going round a sharp bend the camera picks up the 20 sign from a side road.
Then on a stretch of road recently changed from 40 to 30 it displays 40 as it picks up a sign on the exit before mine as I drive round a roundabout.
I wonder how many people have been caught speeding as a result of that. I simply don't believe what I see on the in car display most of the time.
David
Such as 5mph on a motorway because it didn't see any signs before the motorway and didn't notice this time the motorway symbol, but sometimes it does.
When we first got the car I wondered if it was using something more sophisticated such as a gps/satnav (but we hadn't paid for it so we couldn't see it), but then I realised it was simply a the forward looking camera reading the signs. Lots of times it does not know the actual speed because it missed the sign that we saw with our mk1 aging eyeballs.
-
3
-
-
1 minute ago, Reorte said:
Ideally you try to deal with as many as possible before the test (preferably by stopping them from starting to form in the first place), but without checks most people will drift over time. Equipment needs calibration from time to time, and it's not a bad analogy for people.
I'm not sure what the backlogs are like now for new drivers trying to get their test, can you imagine how bad it would be if everyone at licence renewal needed a test to renew and who do you prioritise with a risk of people losing a licence because there is no test available even with an allowance period to get the test done.
Sounds like a rather good little money earner for HM Government though.
-
1
-
-
14 minutes ago, admiles said:
There's no requirement to display a P plate after you pass your test. They're purely optional and have no legal standing.
What helps curb the "enthusiasm" of young drivers is an insurance "black box" which many people choose to have to keep insurance costs down to merely "obscene". They detect speeding, harsh acceleration and braking etc and deduct points. Lose too many points and to get your insurance cancelled.
Mrs W's car does all that for free and no black box, we get a report of our driving at the end of every journey in the name of driving efficiently which also goes back to Toyota and is accessible from other devices.
You can imagine over time those black boxes will extend to other age groups especially as the younger ones age and are used to being constantly monitored. It's a slow creeping surveillance, without going down the conspiracy theory blackholes, ANPR detectors all around the country, growing use of average speed zones and more and more motorway cameras monitoring/enforcing the 70 mph limit.
Clearly good at maintaining the law, aids serious incident evidence gathering and lets the police deal with other matters, the genie is out of the bottle.
-
3
-
-
20 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:
People chose to buy SUVs, they aren't forced to. Having had a "medium" SUV, then a "small" one we now have a 5 door hatchback. We will go back to a small SUV, as at 78 years of age, I find them easier to get into and out of.
I'd argue the manufacturers are pushing ever bigger cars, rather like in the US where car sizes are ridiculous and dangerous but the more of them there are the more people need them to feel safe by being in a car of comparable size. Look how Ford for example have dropped Fiesta and Focus models in favour of larger (though not the largest) SUV type vehicles.
The numbers of Range Rovers / Land Rovers and similar large SUV I see on the road and in shopping centre car parks in the middle of a city are ridiculous.
I get the benefits of a small/medium SUV, when the kids were young we had CMAX and Picasso MPV, and as you say they they are easier to get in and out of, sit higher on the road for visibility and are generally a useful mode of transport.
-
2
-
-
Whilst I accept there is a case that future road schemes both local and national will have to take into account the weight of EVs over ICE vehicles, I am of the mind that the current state of local roads cannot be pinned on EVs alone.
There are not enough pure EV vehicles compared to ICE and Hybrids (with less batteries to carry) to be the sole reason for all the pot holes. It's rather like it's easy for those in control of purses to blame the motorists for their car choices when in fact it's simply that road maintenance is taking a back seat to pay for social care and other priorities when funds are tight. And we also should consider the ever increasing numbers of large SUV vehicles that manufacturers like to push now over small lightweight vehicles that are a dying breed in the UK.
-
2
-
-
1 minute ago, Michael Hodgson said:
Don't give me AI.
Yesterday I wanted to hang out the washing if the weather was going to hold.
Alexa told me it would start raining at 12pm.
I've always understood there was no such time, there's 12 noon and 12 midnight, given the meaning of the Latin abbreviations.
And I'm wary of those times having had to fix Cobol programs that had been specified for a clock running from 0101 to 2460 hours.
So I asked Alexa "What is pm?" and it told me that was currently Rishi.
OK, fair enough I suppose, so I rephrased it "When is pm?"
It told me that 8pm started on 12th March 2023 at 4am !!
From the company that brought us till free shopping powered by 10000 Indian remote checkout assistants. 🤣
-
2
-
-
I tried it using the persona of a man of malachite
Review Heljan Class 47 Locomotive
It's kind of the same boxy shape as CC1 and has the same number of wheels, but the shade of green is all wrong and it wasn't designed by Bulleid. So it's not for me and I cannot recommend this model to any of my friends down at the club.
-
1
-
3
-
-
So Boston Dynamics have retired the 'old' Atlas
and now we have a new Atlas
anyone think he looks a little like him
-
9
-
3
-
1
-
-
1 minute ago, Michael Hodgson said:
This could be done if you develop an interface to software like iTrain - which is a better piece of software than any AI system I've yet seen..
We don't play with AI, we play with large language models.
As a developer I am confident there are many ways to skin this particular cat, but I used AI because as you'll probably know it is the answer to every question these days and my days are numbered, even more so since Microsoft announced their latest product that is claimed to removed the developer from the development cycle......
-
Ahh, the fervent enthusiast persona.
Have tried it using a persona of a typical jaded cynical modeller 🤣
But it actually looks like the persona of Heljan's Ben Jones.
-
1
-
-
2 minutes ago, AY Mod said:
It's a lot of fact checking, comparisons and deliberation before getting as far as assembling some words in the right order and sorting out the pics. Last month was a crazy one; years ago who would have thought you'd see nine new tooling lines in a month? It was six the month before that and I'm on number four already for next month.
I am sure I could sell you an AI tool that would help, are you a senior project manager with 20 years experience as that helps apparently with getting the style of the output right.
But I am sure we can find a persona that would suit from somewhere within GPT4
-
1
-
-
30 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:
I suppose with a computer generated random system it could be linked in with the controller so when it chooses a loco, the said loco goes through its start up procedure automatically and is ready to roll when the operator wants to move it.
Except if that loco is behind another loco that hasn't started up as well to move out of the way. Gonna need some AI to sort that one.
And I've seen you cheat at cards 🤣
-
1
-
2
-
-
Nice and bright presently, can feel the warmth of the sun through the window.
Tooth extraction news, residual bleeding has stopped, I've cleaned my teeth much to the joy of Mrs W and after three meal replacement type drinks I am starving for some real food. Also pleased that after a couple of doses of paracetemol through yesterday I don't feel I need them now so we are rocking and a rolling.
I guess I will be in London next week too for a working day trip so I might need to think about booking a red eye.
-
1
-
17
-
-
Saw the oral surgeon today, it was just an extraction, he didn't need to do any packing or stitching.
Was in and out in 15 minutes and didn't feel a thing apart from the obvious pushing/tugging.
Hopefully this is the end of the extractions.
-
7
-
-
- Popular Post
- Popular Post
The broken tooth that my dentist couldn't remove has been removed by the oral surgeon.
Was he efficient - appt 11:45 and I was outside again at midday. Excellent with the needle, careful with the tuggy/pushy bit and best news he said he saw bone between the cavity left by the extraction and my sinus so unlikely to have punctured the membrane. Said if I notice anything odd in a couple of days I can go back to have it looked at and if necessary stitched, but he said 90% of these sorts of extractions don't break the membrane so I should be fine.
Taken a couple of paracetemol ahead of the final bit of the anesthesia wearing off.
So glad this tooth is out, it's been 4 years or more of anxiety trying to keep it in when it really needed to come out. My fault entirely, but the three dodgy teeth are now all out so everything is good.
-
1
-
23
-
1 hour ago, RichardT said:
Lots to debate about this, but I just want to point out that the one thing oil-firing steam locos *isn’t* is inauthentic, both here and in the USA.
RichardT
Yeah, plenty of conversions before nationalisation, wasnt there a big push after WW2?
Apparently it's Vera Lynn that's trialling it first
-
1
-
Early Risers.
in Wheeltappers
Posted
Most companies are fully aware of the dangers of AI LLM using personal or sensitive data for training the models so take steps to obtain locked copies of the LLM that sit within firewalls so the main source LLM cannot train of it. Companies who want to consume AI products want to be sure their data is safe and those selling reputable AI products who know that security of data is paramount and have to invest in locked LLM models that will not be training other LLMs using someone else's data.
In terms of redundancy, the scary bit is that most CEO and senior people think they can dispose of developers as the LLM will be able to do that job instead and make no bones about it, which is great for me listening to senior leaders in my company talking about this in front of me. The talk is all about enriching everyone else's work experience not redundancy, but really it comes down to doing more with less people, they just don't talk about 'automation' in the same language anymore but it's still the same.
Microsoft is now promoting a product that will actually replace the developer, manna from heaven for any CEO, but the question then comes what happens when the LLM/AI develops it's own language to do stuff because it's more efficient and the few developers left cannot fathom how it does stuff - i.e. who fixes it when it breaks.
There are some good uses for LLM/AI, not going to deny it, but to make out it is going to do everything and our lives are going to be so enriched is typical bluster. The one thing I learnt recently and this is from an LLM/AI guru - don't trust the output, you need to check everything, and how do you do that, you have to check that it's references are real because LLM/AI make things up to justify their findings - really it makes stuff up. We are doomed!!!