I’m on a long train trip. There was a long safety and services announcement. I can tell who was listening because when the guy slipped in a genuinely funny joke, up and down the carriage a bunch of us started laughing, then another bunch started looking about to figure out what had happened.

Toad woke up. “Drat!” he said. “This house is a mess. I have so much work to do.” Frog looked through the window. “Toad, you are right,” said Frog. “It is a mess.” Toad pulled the covers over his head.

Thinking about the Edward Crabtree AI poisoning, it was executed in about 3 hours. Whoever did it had the technology sorted out already: they knew AI could be manipulated that way and were waiting for their opportunity. The bad guys are actively waiting for the opportunity to manipulate and deceive.

The worst UI fail is that the YouTube automatic progression to the next video happens, even if you are in the middle of typing a comment at the end of the video, and it loses whatever you've typed if you try to go back.

Ever wonder how some billionaires can get away with paying such low tax rates compared to working class Americans? Here’s their secret playbook and what we can do about it.

Rebuilding my reading routines, and thinking a good way to approach note take on books I've read (non-fiction particularly) is make quiz questions as I go. Rather than taking notes, so that at the end I can reflect on the questions.

AI could track how disruptive ads are compared to the shows or music etc that you are watching. If volume levels etc are jarring and out of keeping, you get compensated (maybe with fewer ads), and then advertisers could also make ads that could be picked to fit with a general volume level etc...

One of the great acts of rebellion and most powerful tools of freedom is to delight in and support other people leading their lives differently to you: their expression of freedom can be proof of your own freedom; defence of their freedom is defence of your own freedom.

I visited Brunetti Oro before my grocery shopping and got a lemon meringue as a treat which I carried carefully around the supermarket and the journey home. As I brought it to the table, having carefully protected the pillowy meringue so far, I dropped the box and smeared it all over. Life is cruel.

Caring is an act of resistance in a system that thrives on indifference.

Why aren't AI fans the loudest supporters of UBI or other robust redistribution mechanisms? In a world where large amounts of work can be done without workers, how will buyers in your market get money to spend on your products? Maximal AI, worker-less productivity, is the end of capitalism.

The government could show they weren't duped by implementing the gambling ad ban recommended in the Murphy Report, (recommendation 26). www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...

‪Trump's mobilising of the navy all the way up to an aircraft carrier in the war on drugs reminds me so much of Putin just practicing manoeuvres and regular exercises on the border of Ukraine.

Toad was in bed, taking a nap.

Our nation is broken when living in a tent at a caravan park means you're considered no longer homeless and not eligible for crisis accommodation. Like we count you as employed if you get just 1 hour of casual work.

With the coming crash, we must insist that governments don't bail out the big tech companies without breaking them up. Bailouts must serve the ordinary person as the highest priority.

One of the finest things in GuitarTube is the end of year collabs. But this year seems to be a level up on the awesomeness. youtu.be/mzfHKxuZbGE?...

Too many Australians are skipping specialist appointments because they can’t afford gap fees. That’s unacceptable in a country with a universal healthcare system. www.theaustralian.com.au/health/medic...

Sometimes I feel like I've got good ideas and should comment and join in discussion, particularly work topics but also my hobbies. Then I read the comments and realise that I'm likely to end up covered in the worst muck much more than I'm likely to add anything of value to be heard above the noise.

I've watched a couple of best programming language list videos and what I've learned is people need to learn about cognition and implicit mental processes: (pre-conscious and unconscious processes and biases), post-hoc reasoning ("motivated" reasoning, justification, and arguments as team flags).

Ugh, vibe coding, working with AI generated code, it's like going straight to the hell hole of maintaining a legacy systems without ever getting the satisfaction of understanding what you're working on.

Sometimes I hear it said that people won’t want to work if their basic needs are ensured by the state. More likely people won’t want to work if they see workers struggling to cover basics while laws and scam reward those who have money with more money without work.

I'm being bombed with Jordan Peterson ads: dear algorithm, you trippin'.

A parliamentary inquiry is calling for the demolition of Melbourne's public housing towers to be halted after finding the Vic government refused to provide evidence for its plan The inquiry heard from tower residents, housing groups and gov officials www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

The PM hopes that this will finally land him the endorsement that will never come. chaser.com.au/national/alb...

I've just restrung a guitar and now a tiny 1cm long piece of hard fine wire is lost on my floor. I cannot find it. I will not be able to go barefoot around my desk until my animal brain lets go of the current sense of menace and fear from my floor attacking me and that makes me sad.

I've had, or I'm in, a period of substantial depression, a life long concern going through a bad patch, not at all helped by being recently unemployed. One victim has been music: I struggle to listen, I no longer dance, and today broke my longest stretch in 40+ years without playing.

No one better than an accounting expert to articulate how simple realistic changes to tax systems can be improved to eliminate poverty and serve the population as a whole. UK centric but universal lessons: taxingwealth.uk

Surprising where new heroes come from. An accounting professor in his retirement whose educational YouTube videos are gradually becoming the most passionate and articulate expression of the goal (lofty? minimal?) that a functional democracy should make the population's lives substancially better.

One thing I hate about a sleepless night is anticipating the lack of energy tomorrow.

I barely let myself hope for the kind of hopefulness in this article: that we can see environmental integrity as foundational to social and economic progress and embed that reality in environmental protection and restoration laws.

Australia finally acknowledges environment underpins all else. That’s no small thing | Ken Henry

From property investment intending to profit from rent taking, to private equity Ponzi schemes, to get rich quick scams like crypto and most day trading, the dream of money for nothing is pervasive and distorts our values such that we end up being taught to despise hard work and those who do it.

I wish people would stop drawing the Laffer curve as gentle mound subtly implying there's a lot of imaginable tax levels that would reduce revenue. To the extent it's been studied it's much more like a rounded cliff but with sharp revenue drop off at rates way higher modern tax regimes in the West.

I bought a bag of apples this afternoon. They have no flavour. Nice enough texture, but nothing more. They're a little sweet, decently moist, pleasantly crisp. But not very sweet, no sourness, no aroma. I honestly can't taste them as apple...

When I'm not fretting about being unemployed again and the coming global financial crash, I have a list of Bluesky visual artists that I like to check in on. Mostly character illustration with a tendency toward fun and wholesome–it's my happy place: bsky.app/profile/did:...

I'm inclined to try the train from Melbourne to Sydney rather than flying. It's the difference between half-a-day to fly and a whole-day for the train, (when you include check-in waiting and travel to the airport). And the train ends up about 60-70% cheaper when those extra costs are included.

116 legal and policy experts have now opposed Labor’s new powers for police to recommend cutting payments from people without them even having been convicted of a crime. Cops shouldn’t be anywhere near welfare law and Labor should withdraw this amendment. www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/treat...

You can't call it a justice system, better to call it an injustice system, if children must defend themselves. These systems are hard to navigate for well informed adults, and even lawyers make mistakes that lose cases.

Rare art post from me: solving a pet peeve, figure drawing books that don't show the real differences in skeletons that underpin what we see as male or female traits. This video covers a lot, (for artists I just wish it showed how the shape of pelvis affects the shape and position of the femur).

For a quick update on fake/bot streams of music, AI music uploads, and streaming service profit seeking, check out this shortish video. Yet another area where the current models are failing and perhaps some sort of crash is coming. youtu.be/Lgunrclsg_I?...

We've reached the point where it matters to think about the reality of illegal orders and the obligation to not follow. This video needs to be watched widely: youtu.be/trIwNIDPALw?...

Offshore processing has stained and shamed Australia in so many ways. This obvious vulnerability to abuse of for-profit incarceration is just one. The hounding and punishment of whistleblowers is another profound weakness in our democracy.

With the coming market crash, can we please bail out people and not banks? Banks didn't redistribute through lending, so trying that again would be insane. If the goal is to keep people secure and the economy ticking over then things like Steve Keens jubilee make more sense.

If your business plan depends on theft, it's not a business plan, it's a criminal scam. When this merry-go-round finally stops it's going to be interesting to see where the money finally ends up.

Someone was wrong again on the internet. I laboured over a correcting response and then deleted it without sending it. Because deleting it made the internet a better place than sending it would have.

Bank boss: "We can't compensate vulnerable customers for excessive fees when they were eligible for better. They should know we're screwing them. Compensating them will offend our shareholders." Regulate the hell out of them. Impose withering fines. Take away his right to work in finance.

Rewatching Andor, approaching the end. It’s still harrowing. And well bears repeated watching.

<rant> A periodic reminder that Sprints, Backlogs, Daily Scrums, Scrum Boards, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Points, Velocity, PIs, etc., have NOTHING AT ALL to do with "Agile." Agility comes from working small, delivering frequently for feedback from actual customers, and adapting based on 1/3

Amazon announced 14,000 layoffs. Its CEO made over $40M last year. UPS announced 48,000 layoffs. Its CEO made over $24M last year. Intel announced 20,000 layoffs. Its new CEO's pay package is valued at nearly $69M. This is what I mean when I say the system is rigged.