Month: October 2023

Weeknotes #40: back, back, back

Week commencing Monday, 23 October 2023

A model of a green-faced witch, riding on a broomstick, is positioned above the bar.
Broomstick riding

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 6/7. (76%, Good). Morning walks: 1/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 57,976

Life

  • This week, back 4 times: back home (I’m noticing the cold); back dieting (gotta lose those holiday kgs); back gyming (not convinced about the refurbishment) and back at work.
  • Related, back at work after a holiday has advantages when you work form home. It’s not as jarring. My ex-colleague, Duncan, has written about recent headlines encouraging people ‘back to the office’. I agree with everything written.
  • Unexpectedly attended the office halloween party. I didn’t have a costume. Ravi found a green wig for me. Obviously, I didn’t win for best costume. Apparently, the punch was excellent (which I interpreted as ‘strong’) but I didn’t even notice there was a punch bowl.
  • There’s an impressive witch above the bar at The White Swan. On Thursday, we watched from round the side of the pub, as a crew were putting up the Carnaby Street Christmas lights.
  • The answer to the question posed in Weeknotes #33 is that, yes, they do.
  • I got a flu jab but it cost me. No side-effects to report, which is good, as we went for a lovely lunch with family in Woking.
  • Related, Centre Court Shopping Centre in Wimbledon is morphing into Wimbledon Quarter as the boards hiding the redevelopment come down and they open the roof.
  • Sunday, I did some cleaning and it really boosted my mood. And then I cheered up even more by going to see people sing Cher songs.

Media

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #39: Palermo was 32°c

Week commencing Monday, 16 October 2023

A street in Palermo, Italy
Palermo, Italy

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 7/7. (86%, feeling happy). No office days as I am on vacation. Total steps: 108,762

Life

  • Monday, awoke in Palermo: walking tour; beautiful churches. Fountain of Shame. Arancini, pomegranate granita and panelle were all tasty.
  • Holiday Apple Maps: Quattro Canti (passed); Orto Botanico di Palermo (failed, took us to the wrong part of town for the entrance); Famila supermarket (failed on generic search, passed when we worked out the name); Le Catacombe dei Cappuccini (passed); Maxim Theatre (failed when we tried to use Opera House as the look-up); Fud Bocs (passed); Hotel Politeama (passed) but it failed the Fountain of Shame as it needed the official name, Fontana Pretoria, which nobody uses.
  • Saw a snake in the botanical gardens. That wasn’t what was biting and I got off better than the others who suffered more.
  • First train sold out to Cefalù; we went on the later one. Nice lunch near the sea. Squeezed into a bar, with a view, for an over-priced limoncello spritz, which was new to me (the drink not the pricing).
  • Thursday, No Mafia Memorial and, then contrasting, a department store rooftop bar in the shade as it was 32°. Then, up a level for the unshaded fabulous view. Then, down a level, where it was Christmas!
  • Friday, tour of the third biggest theatre in Europe. The view from the royal box is as impressive as you’d expect to give dignitaries. Later the wind got up on the terrace – the weather warning coming true – and we had to remove anything that would blow away. It calmed enough for us to eat there.
  • The temple at Segesta was unfinished, impressive and you could see the bosses on the blocks of the base (used for lifting the stones into place but usually removed when finishing).
  • Erice is up a winding mountainside road. Our driver was great. That they built a town there is impressive.
  • Lunch with our guide and the Chilean couple was great (couscous with fish for me). I was schooled on the linguistic definition of a dialect.
  • The cannoli was enormous (and messy). The salt pans on the way back less impressive.
  • The restaurant we planned to go to was booked on a Friday night. So, our last Italian dinner was delicious but the most expensive.

Media

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #38: race car backwards and machine guns

Week commencing Monday, 9 October 2023

Plane taking off over London Heathrow Terminal 5. There's a sunset in the background.
Dinner with a view of takeoff.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 4/7; Exercise 2/7 and Move 4/7. (48%, I’m embarrassed ). Morning walks: 0/3 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 2/5. Total steps: 46,514

Life

  • Monday to the office. Is it Agency, Advertiser or Brand? Can you have déjà vu for déjà vu?
  • I’ve read a lot of discussion about an apostrophe in a Burger King ad this week. At least there is one, was my thinking. I needed Daring Fireball to explain and tell me Shift-Option-] is what I might need.
  • Tuesday, World Mental Health Day (mental health is a universal human right): a seminar at work reminded us that the little things can make a big difference. The effects of giving off good vibes can’t be underestimated.
  • Also, Tuesday, Keir Starmer announced plans for a publicly owned renewable energy company and new towns. Investing in infrastructure not killing it off seems a better way forward to me.
  • In a call with Mum and Dad, I was asked what does RACE CAR spell backwards? How come I’d never noticed that before?
  • Same call, we learned that, after the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the Tommy gun gained notoriety with the mob. We also discussed violin cases and if it was used by the Italian mafia.
  • ITV: She has been at the heart of This Morning for the past 14 years, and she is adored by our viewers. Holly Willoughby has said she is quitting This Morning.
  • Kind of related, Diamond Geezer’s been to the location of all three Big Brother houses.
  • Saturday, I rode the pods again. Still a fun thing to do if you need to stay near Terminal 5.
  • Sunday, to Palermo. Early start for the plane. On time flight in spite a truck being parked behind the plane. Train into Palermo easy but the station sparse.

Media

  • As recommended in the mental health seminar, and recommended by me, Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability. Feeling connected is why we are here.
  • Roman Kemp’s Dad doesn’t have many friends, at least according to Roman in this Radio Times podcast

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #37: Willkommen! And bienvenue! Welcome!

Week commencing Monday, 3 October 2023

View across Hersey Nature Reserve, Seaview, Isle of Wight
Hersey Nature Reserve, Seaview, Isle of Wight

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 4/7. (62%, similar). Morning walks: 0/3 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 2/5. Total steps: 65,485

Life

  • They fixed my access to the mandatory training platform. Monday afternoon spent understanding fire extinguishers and bribery. And, by Friday, I completed the lot (including the extra one that was added on Thursday).
  • Celeb spotting: AJ Odudu and Will Best, presenters of the new version of Big Brother, hosted an event I attended. I was at the back and couldn’t hear but there was a free bottle of beer.
  • Regardless of how you feel about HS2, it seems bonkers to me that it’s the major policy announcement at a party conference. I asked an AI bot what it thought and it summed up the responses reasonably well.
  • A workshop at work on Thursday, I learnt a lot about some existing technologies; I don’t think that was the point of the day. I had one drink after work before coming home.
  • Early Saturday evening, PY thinks I said yes to the second bottle of wine when everybody else didn’t want one. The service was attentive but not with a smile.
  • Wilkommen to Cabaret: Rob ordered a bottle of champagne; perhaps the default drink for this production. It feels decadent which, I guess, is the vibe. Jake Shears was excellent, but not the most uplifting show.
  • Sunday trip to Ryde. Lunch looking out on the water across to Portsmouth. It’s very tranquil and a lovely way to spend Sunday afternoon.
  • Then, walked to the nature reserve where we sat in the hide watching the wildlife. There was nobody around and we spent half an hour watching the birds on the water.
  • Related: I made tea in my reusable, insulated drinks cup. It was still very hot three hours later.

Media

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the source above no longer works, these should.

AI-sourced views on HS2 Northern leg cancellation

Some of the text on this page was written by 'AI' using gpt-3.5-turbo. I have corrected some US spellings to UK spellings in the response as the prompt for British English seems to have partially ignored

Back at the start of the year, I shared a piece of generative AI that I had created to try to understand how a mainstream tool worked in a specific, more technical context. I think it’s great but, at this stage, it was a generalist.

One of the limitations of the models used is that they have been trained on data to a fixed point in time and many are not able to look-up new data or information against the wider knowledge of the internet. Poe is a collection of AI tools and I noticed a bot had been released that is capable of conducting a web search.

So, with this week’s news that HS2 is to be scrapped I thought I’d try out the this AI to see what it came up with. I am quite impressed with both the output and the referencing but it is limited to a couple of sources. In particular, the references to the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) are to a single 185 word statement. Nonetheless, I thought interesting new capabilities from AI.

The Prompt

Summarise responses to the cancellation of HS2 to Manchester. Use British English.

The AI generated response

The cancellation of the HS2 leg to Manchester has generated various responses. Here is a summary of the key reactions:

Disappointment and Concern

  • Many individuals and organisations have expressed disappointment and concern over the cancellation [1].
  • The Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) described the decision as “extremely disappointing” and a significant blow to the UK construction sector [3].
  • Former Prime Minister David Cameron criticised the cancellation, stating that it was the wrong decision and would make it harder to build consensus for future long-term projects [2].

Impact on Plans and Confidence:

  • The cancellation has raised concerns about the impact on people who had made decisions based on the HS2 plans, such as moving or selling their homes [1].
  • The CPA warned that the decision could undermine confidence and impact future investment in the construction sector [3].

Alternative Funding and Projects:

  • Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to use the £36 billion of savings from scrapping the HS2 line to fund other transport schemes [2].
  • The government’s commitment to completing the HS2 line to Euston and diverting funding to other projects aimed at boosting transport infrastructure in the north has been highlighted [3].

Learn more:

  1. Tell us: will you be affected by the scrapping of the HS2 leg to Manchester? | HS2 | The Guardian
  2. LIVE: HS2 Manchester link cancelled by Rishi Sunak – updates and reaction – Manchester Evening News
  3. CPA Response to Cancellation of the Manchester Leg of HS2 | Construction Plant-hire Association

Follow-up

Interestingly, WordPress (which is used to maintain this site) now includes an AI assistant that can review what has been written on this blog. I generated a review of this page. One of the pieces of feedback was, “Include diverse perspectives by including reactions from a wider range of individuals and organisations”. It amused me that an AI was, effectively, telling another AI to do better.

Weeknotes #36: out the city to a vineyard

Week commencing Monday, 25 September 2023

Denbies Greenfields was crowned ‘Best Sparkling Wine from the United Kingdom' in 2017
Best Sparkling Wine from the United Kingdom, 2017

Quantified Self

This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7. (66%, slipping again). Morning walks: 0/3 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 2/5. Total steps: 58,729

Life

  • Monday, a quiet day. Tuesday, to the office then, in the evening, managed the trains successfully to get to Kingston on Thames on time for the Beverley Knight showcase ahead of Friday’s album launch.
  • Related, Royal Mail sent me two emails to confirm the time the CD would be delivered but it went through the letter box and I didn’t need to be listening out for them.
  • Thursday, a team meeting. A discussion on the use of generative AI in the media. Some interesting use cases. Technology has moved on a little in the few months since I wrote this. Later, a social cricket experience. I hit the ball and am counting that as winning.
  • Friday, to Declan Bennett’s Boy Out The City. We saw the ‘workshop’ at The Turbine Theatre in 2021. It’s been a hit at the an Edinburgh Fringe and remains as wonderful and powerful as I remember. It is enhanced by the staging. The words could almost be songs. In fact, I hope he turns some of them into songs.
  • Saturday, with friends to plan our forthcoming break. Train strike day and packed buses to get to Streatham. The first, just after 5pm, might be expectedly busy but at 1:15am the next morning? Packed.
  • Sunday, lovely return to Denbies. Little train ride to see the vineyard, 360,000 vines and 13 grape varieties, harvesting started but not visible. Then, delicious afternoon tea.

Media

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the source above no longer works, these should.