Category Archives: Thoughts on the World

Review: A House of Dynamite

Posted on 26 October 2025 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
A House of Dynamite

Warning: contains spoilers.

I had been looking forward to Kathryn Bigelow’s new film for Netflix, A House of Dynamite. On the face of it this should be exactly our sort of film. Vantage Point, the 2008 film which shows an attempted assassination of an American President from multiple perspectives is a firm favourite. A House of Dynamite promised to be something not dissimilar in structure, with the twist of portraying the challenges of decision-making in the heat of an active nuclear strike.

The film promised to be story and character-focused and therefore ideally suited to Bigelow’s directorial style and the constraints of TV films with their limited budget for action, special effects and location. Unfortunately what results is a phenomenally boring plodding procedural in which the characters fail to behave in a professional manner as one hopes their real counterparts would do, and everything is left unresolved by a "non-ending".

Unlike Vantage Point which carries on past the shooting and explosion to complete the story, this film just stops, short of the missile’s impact. We never learn what happens next, or why. I understand that the writers and director were trying to focus on the challenges of making crucial decisions under extreme pressure and with limited information, but in reality those decisions would wait on at least confirming that a real bomb has exploded.

The story never proceeds past the first, lone missile. We don’t even know if it actually hits, or actually explodes when it does so. There is some discussion about the urgency of deciding on a retaliatory strategy, but given the uncertainties including who fired the missile and under what political or military orders one can’t help thinking that in reality one would wait until some of that uncertainty had been resolved. It’s shown that the US already has its planes and submarines ready to respond and waiting until more information was in place would not preclude a response if one were required.

There’s no real attempt to resolve the origin or purpose of the strike, which to my mind is critical to the response decision process. We’re told as a plot device that somehow US surveillance missed the actual launch, but surely it should be possible to trace the trajectory back? Can nothing be deduced from the flight path characteristics? Is there any useful signals or human intelligence?

To my mind the options include:

  1. Genuine first strike sanctioned by the regime of Russia, China or North Korea. This seems unlikely as there’s no obvious motive, and the characters don’t discuss any geopolitical context which might explain it. Also surely more than one missile would be launched, and there would surely be a more obvious attempt to disable the US ability to respond. Also destroying a major US city guarantees a massive response in the way a lesser or military target might not. Given the uncertainty about the origin, against whom do you respond? There’s literally no evidence for this option, and hence no justification for the "bomb everybody" response that the military characters are suggesting.
  2. Official but dummy strike to probe US capabilities, readiness and resolve. In this scenario the missile either destructs a few miles short of Chicago or makes a large but harmless splash in Lake Michigan. A lesser response is required, and you still need to work out against whom.
  3. Deliberate launch by terrorists or rogue elements acting independent of main regimes. We are shown the Russian foreign ministry desperately trying to say "it’s not us" and told China is saying something similar, which supports this option. Unlike in Crimson Tide or Hunter Killer there’s no background context such as a Russian insurgency to support this explanation. Again if this is the case it demands a more measured response, and you need to work out against whom.
  4. Accidental launch, due to either a human or technical failure. This is a horrible possibility. Yet again any response has to wait until you understand the outcome of the impact and the missile’s origin.

I don’t know how accurate a portrayal the film is of the process under which the president would make a decision about a response, but you can’t see even President Trump making a snap decision to simultaneously attack all America’s enemies and start WW3 without more information.

Some other plot devices are also not credible. The president is hurried onto Marine One, a large helicopter in perfect condition, but is accompanied only by the army officer with the nuclear football. What happens to the president’s assistants and advisers who were also at the basketball game and might be able to help analyse the situation?

The isolation of the president is enhanced by unrealistic comms issues. We’re shown one of the National Security Advisers joining the central call by video from a phone even as he’s running around Washington and going through security, but the president is restricted to a poor quality audio-only link from The Beast and Marine One. The vast White House machine is unable to patch calls together, so more junior characters have to take key calls and then relay to more senior characters third hand. Really?

A very surprising number of central characters behave in completely unprofessional ways, having breakdowns, focusing on personal considerations rather than their duties, even committing suicide. At one point Rebecca Ferguson’s character, who is in charge of the situation room, sends her deputy out to fetch personal mobile phones from their lockers. You think maybe she’s come up with a cunning solution to the problems with the White House phone system but no, she makes a personal call and he stands catatonic scrolling through pictures of his family. While it is certainly true that not everyone would live up to the expectations of their role, these people are chosen and trained to do so and you would hope more would get on with it.

This film is a complete waste of an opportunity and a strong cast. If I had paid to see it at the cinema I’d be wanting my money back. Fortunately it’s part of my Netflix subscription, which is currently otherwise good value, but it was still a frustrating waste of my time.

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Adjustable Architecture and Minimising Waste

Posted on 25 October 2025 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
Back to Normal
Camera: SONY DSC-RX100M7 | Date: 22-10-2025 15:14 | Resolution: 5322 x 3326 | ISO: 100 | Exp. bias: -0.7 EV | Exp. Time: 1/50s | Aperture: 5.0 | Focal Length: 12.3mm (~33.0mm)

Rescue, Don’t Replace

One of the things which attracted us to our house about 30 years ago was a great feature: what is known as a “Chinese Circle” in the courtyard end wall, which provides a view into, from and through the courtyard from both the house and the garden. We place sculptures so they are viewed through it, we light it at Christmas, it’s very much part of what makes our house.

Unfortunately a few years after we moved in, it became apparent that the original wall had not been built very strongly and was in some danger of collapse. Therefore about 25 years ago we had it rebuilt. We contracted a local builder who agreed a much stronger double-thickness structure, plus what we hoped were adequate, larger foundations.

While the wall itself was impressively strong, we’re on clay and over the years it became clear that with each cycle of wet and then hot weather the foundations were moving slightly. In recent years this accelerated, with the wall moving by several millimetres this summer and getting to the point where there was some risk of collapse. The wall itself was still stable and uncracked, it was just leaning into the garden, as a whole, by about 5°.

The Leaning Wall of Effingham (Show Details)

Knowing the wall was still stable I approached several subsidence specialists. They made it very clear they were not interested in such a small job, claiming that the simplest solution was to knock the wall down and rebuild it. We approached a reputable local builder who said very much the same thing: he was happy to provide a quote for rebuilding, at enormous cost, but when we pressed him for a quote to stabilise it he basically refused, by providing a quote effectively no different to the rebuild option.

Apart from the impact on our finances this just felt wrong and wasteful. Other things aside, a rebuild would require at least £1000 worth of new bricks, with the existing ones being disposed of as rubble. The wall was strong and undamaged apart from leaning. Even if it could not be fully righted, it would be acceptable to just stabilise and support it where it was. Why was no-one prepared to do that?

With another local builder Frances and I came up with the idea of creating two steel buttresses to stabilise the wall in place. We were quite keen on the option, but it became apparent that his steel fabricator was going to charge a fortune to make up the buttresses, and we’d pay a lot of money for an aesthetically questionable part solution.

Just as we were in danger of exhausting the local directories, we were introduced to friend of a friend Tomasz and his team of Polish builders. Initially he wanted to quote for a rebuild, but when pressed he agreed that it should be possible to jack the wall back nearly vertical, and then underpin it. The quote to do so wasn’t much more than half the rebuild option, he was able to start almost immediately, and we almost bit his hand off.

On the anointed day up turned a team of Polish chaps with shovels and a tiny digger, who proceeded to dig two deep trenches either side of the wall. I was a little afraid that it would collapse during this process but with strategically placed props and wooden supports it they managed to keep it all in place.

The first attempt at jacking used two steel props with contact points halfway up the wall. This quickly reduced the lean angle by about half, but we were concerned that the wall might crack at its base if the wall moved and the foundation didn’t. We were prepared to stabilise the wall at the new position, but the Polish guys went back to digging and created a new structure in which two smaller jacks could be used to twist the foundation itself.

The next challenge was finding the right jacks. They had one small hydraulic jack, pretty good, and a bunch of modern car jacks which were clearly not going to work. However I rummaged in the back of my garage and found a bottle jack rescued from an old Ford Transit in the 1970s which turned out to be exactly the right piece of equipment. Twenty minutes of careful jacking on the foundation twisted it with the wall intact, and we had a perfectly straight wall again.

My faith in the strength of the wall was fully vindicated – it didn’t crack or warp at all.

The rest of the process was straightforward albeit physically hard work, progressively digging by hand and pouring extended foundations which were wider and deeper than the old one.

We decided to cap off the new structure by building two brick buttresses on the garden side of the wall. While not strictly required because the wall is still uncracked and now vertical they enhance the look of it and make sure if there is any cracking right at the base of the wall it won’t compromise the solution. Tomasz procured 100 matching bricks, and I was given the task of coming up with a design for their use in the buttresses. My design used 98 of them. We also needed to cap off the top bricks, the dimples of which would otherwise collect water. I came up with the solution of creating porcelain tile caps, and then impressed the guys by getting out my own electric tile cutter, and making the required caps from a single yellow floor tile left over from our 2006 bathroom refit.

Brick Buttresses (Show Details)

Overall the process took an average of two men just over a week. The bill was under 2/3 of the cheapest rebuild quote. The excavated clay had to be removed from site, but otherwise there was zero waste, apart from two spare bricks!

The guys tidied up and disappeared, making good so well you’d never know they’d been there. The next day we watched an episode of “Grand Designs” in which the house was pre-fabricated 200 miles away from the plot, and moved as completed modules which were craned onto waiting foundations. Although the process was relatively painless, it was enormously expensive, and there were a few points where the prefabricated structure had to be hacked about with axes and chisels to accommodate unexpected service positions, which just felt wrong. Essentially the structure didn’t allow adjustment.

Good architecture should be accessible and adjustable. I’ve always believed in this for both the software I have designed in my professional career, and the hardware solutions I have developed for our living space. For example, I make sure that pipes and wires run in accessible spaces, and allow for change. However I’ve usually accepted that this might not be possible with the lower levels of physical architecture, the “Structure” layer of the Frank Duffy / Stewart Brand model.

Now I’m not so sure. We stuck to our guns, and we adjusted a brick wall!

 

With a big dziękuję to Tomasz, Rafal and Artur.

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Posted in Agile & Architecture, Thoughts on the World | Leave a comment

Acceptable Update Strategies

Posted on 20 September 2025 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
Please wait
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Excellent

Example: Microsoft Visual Studio. You finish your work, and when you exit from Visual Studio, it prompts you with “Updates are available, would you like to install them now?”. There are Yes and Cancel (= defer to next time) options.

Good

Examples: Idea IntelliJ, Topaz Photo. While you are working the program checks for updates in the background. If they are available it shows a subtle notification which does not get in the way of your work. When convenient, you click on the notification to start the installation process.

Also Good

Example: Windows Update. A background process detects available upgrades which are silently installed while you work. If they can be completed without interrupting usage, that’s done. If not they are deferred until either you choose to reboot the machine, or it can be done automatically when not in use.

Acceptable, Most of the Time

Example: Microsoft Office 365. A background process detects available upgrades, which are silently installed while you work. Occasionally there’s an annoying notification that Office needs to be closed down for a short period to complete installation, but you have the option to defer.

Wholly Unacceptable

Examples: most meeting and messaging apps. You go into the software just before your meeting. It looks for updates and if they are available starts to install them. There is no option to defer.

Why, just why?

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A Bit of Variety

Posted on 25 March 2025 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
Female detectives

One of the great things about watching a lot of cop shows on television is the endless variety of mechanisms used to set up key characters. Recently we’ve had…

The Island: female detective born on Harris returns there after several years serving with the police in central Scotland.

Shetland reboot: female detective born on Shetland returns there after several years serving with the Met in London.

Return to Paradise: female detective born in a small town in Australia returns there after several years serving with the Met in London.

Get Millie Black: female detective born in Jamaica returns there after several years serving with the Met in London.

The One That Got Away: female detective born in Pembroke returns there after several years serving with the police in Cardiff.

Borderline: female detective born in a small town in Ireland returns there after several years serving with the Gardi in Dublin. OK, she then has to deal with cross-border interactions reminiscent of The Bridge working with a male detective from the PSNI, but still.

Thank god for The Turkish Detective! Some variety at last!

The Turkish Detective: male(!) detective born in Istanbul returns there after several years serving with the Met in London. Oh well…

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(In)Correct Tripod Technique!

Posted on 8 October 2024 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
Who Needs a Drone?

With Apologies to My Photography Tutors

First, I’d like to apologise to all the authors, tutors, mentors and tour leaders who have tried to instil in me “correct” tripod technique. As they say, it’s not you, it’s me.I don’t particularly have a philosophical objection to the three legged beast, and you will catch me using one when the camera has genuinely got to stay in one place for a long time, for example videoing a wedding speech, or taking a time-lapse photo sequence. However I do prefer a more free-wheeling approach, and my discovery that the latest Panasonic Dual Image Stabilisation allows me to hand-hold a wide-angle shot for 2-3s, or an extreme telephoto for 1/5s, has only encouraged me to eschew support when not essential.I do actually own three of the things, but the large and relatively heavy Manfrotto has only been used on one single photo shoot. However, coupled with the laser level it has proven invaluable as a surveying tool for our kitchen refit and preparing for my new workshop. My medium-sized Gitzo is a solid, professional but lightweight device, my default for a “serious” tripod. However I suspect I’d scare the purists by pointing out the pistol-grip Manfrotto head – none of this fancy gear rubbish!

And then there’s the Frankentripod ™. (It’s great to have one search term which gets your website at the top of all the search engines, even if you have to make up a word to do it!) It’s the tripod I carry when I don’t want to carry a tripod, but feel I should, to show willing, or “just in case”. It does the job, most of the time, at very little cost in terms of luggage space or weight. I say “most of the time” because there are limitations – in Cinque Terre, for example, it wasn’t quite tall enough to clear some of the safety fences around the harbour in Manarola, but I found work-arounds.

The Frankentripod also turns out to be the ideal device for my new tripod technique, which I call “why get a drone when you have a tripod?” The technique is simple:

  1. Extend tripod to full length, legs together
  2. Put camera on tripod
  3. Flip screen out so you can see it from below
  4. Put camera on self-timer
  5. Start self-timer
  6. Raise camera above your head, to clear obstacles such as vegetation, tall people etc.
  7. Compose your shot by tilting the tripod as required
  8. Wait for 0s
  9. Bingo!

In the right situation this can be a game changer. For example, our views of Montisi from Castelmuzio were somewhat constrained by the fact that whoever was responsible for trimming the vegetation at the viewpoint was somewhat derelict in their duty. From head height the best wide shot was this, with some rather intrusive branches:

Montisi from Castelmuzio (Show Details)

However, the Frankentripod method got my camera up above the errant foliage, and produced this:

Montisi from Castelmuzio (Show Details)

The method does have some pre-requisites, and a couple of trust issues:

  1. Lightweight camera and tripod. This is not going to work with a Canon 1DS, 600mm lens and Uranium tripod, unless you take my instruction in point 5 very seriously!
  2. A flip-out or flip-down screen bright enough to be viewed from the other end of the tripod
  3. Image stabilisation, very good image stabilisation
  4. Trust that your camera is firmly attached. Otherwise this could become somewhat dangerous and expensive, although a long strap (shorter than yourself, obviously), tied to the tripod head, and a hard hat might provide some mitigation
  5. A steady hand and strong shoulders, otherwise ditto. Pump iron!
  6. A bit of skill to compose and then hold the composition in 10s, or whatever the timer is on your camera.

Or I could just buy a drone, Darling Wife!

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Posted in Italy 2024, Photography, Thoughts on the World, Travel | Leave a comment

Trippin’ AI

Posted on 10 September 2024 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
Trippin' AI
Resolution: 1792 x 1024

Just how wrong can an AI get it?

As part of my effort to profile the power consumption of GenAI, I decided to try and summarise one of my travel blogs using ChatGPT and the other big public models, plus a series of smaller models which can be hosted locally on my Alienware workstation. What’s interesting is just how well, and badly, the different AIs handled the task.

The instruction in every case was the same: “Summarise the blog at https://www.andrewj.com/blog/2024/three-kirks-and-a-kirkufell/”. You might want to read the blog yourselves before reading further: it’s neither long nor complicated, but it defeated most of the contenders.

I tried to avoid writing “WTF”, but I was sorely tempted. Some of these are hallucinating like they’ve just taken LSD…

The Attempts!

ChatGPT

The blog post “Three Kirks and a Kirkufell!” recounts a photography trip around Iceland’s Snæfellsnes Peninsula. The author, despite dealing with a cold and Iceland’s challenging weather, visits and photographs three distinctive churches (“kirks”)—Búðir, Stóra-Hella, and Enni—before capturing the iconic Kirkjufell mountain. The journey includes dramatic landscapes, with highlights like waves crashing and snow-covered scenes. The narrative reflects the difficulties and rewards of winter travel in Iceland.

Score: 10/10. Excellent, couldn’t do better myself.

Gemini (Bard)

This is an article about a photographer’s trip to Iceland. It discusses his experiences photographing three churches and Kirkufell. He had some difficulty finding pharmacies with the medications he needed. He also had some trouble finding Kirkufell because of the weather. He eventually found it and took many photographs.

Score: 6/10. OK, effectively correct apart from the bit about not being able to find Kirkufell, but lacking the nicely condensed detail of the ChatGPT version.

CoPilot Chat

The blog post titled “Three Kirks and a Kirkufell!” by Andrew Johnston describes a travel experience in Iceland. The author recounts a cold, snowy day driving along the north of the Snaefellsnes peninsula. The journey included an attempt to visit Kirkufell, a notable mountain, but the stop was abandoned due to poor visibility from the snow. The post highlights the challenges and beauty of traveling in Iceland during winter.

Score: 4/10. Just adequate. Some factual inaccuracies and poor detail, but at least still rooted in reality.

Wizard V1.2

The article “Three Kirks and a Kirkjufell” is about an adventure trip to Iceland by the author, Andrew J., who visited three churches (Kirks) in Reykjavik. The first church was Hallgrimskirkja, which has a unique architecture that resembles a rocket ship taking off into space. The second one was the Lutheran Church of Holmenkollen, known for its beautiful stained glass windows and traditional Norwegian wood carvings. The third Kirk was the Gamla Stan Church in Stockholm, Sweden, an old church with a rich history dating back to the 13th century.

Andrew J. also visited Kirkjufell, a mountain near Reykjavik that is known for its unique triangular shape and appeared in the popular TV series “Game of Thrones”. He enjoyed hiking around the base of the mountain and admiring its beauty from different angles. The author concludes by sharing his love for exploring new places and experiencing their cultures, architecture, and natural wonders.

Score: 2/10 (feeling generous). Starts OK, but rapidly descends into just making stuff up. How I’m supposed to have teleported to Stockholm while in Reykjavik is not explained.

Llama 3B Instruct

The blog post “Three Kirks and a Kirkufell” by Andrew J. is an entertaining account of his experience hiking in Iceland’s stunning landscapes. Here’s a summary:

Andrew, along with friends Sarah and Mike, embarked on a 7-day adventure to explore three iconic KIRKs (churches) and the famous Kirkjufell mountain in western Iceland. The trio aimed to visit the churches at Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Borgarnes, and Reykjavik. Their journey began with a scenic drive along the Golden Circle route, where they marveled at Þingvellir National Park’s unique geological features. They then visited the picturesque church in Borgarnes, which dates back to 1615. The next day, Andrew and friends explored Snæfellsnes Peninsula, admiring its breathtaking landscapes, including black sand beaches, glaciers, and volcanic mountains. They stopped at a charming church in Arnarstapi village, built in 1869. Their final destination was Kirkjufell mountain, made famous by Game of Thrones as the “Arrowhead Mountain.” The group hiked to the base of the iconic peak, taking in its majestic views and snapping photos. Throughout their adventure, Andrew shares witty anecdotes about his friends’ quirks (or lack thereof), amusing observations on Icelandic culture, and stunning visuals showcasing Iceland’s natural beauty.

Score: 2/10. The start and end are OK and at least the context is correct, but the bit in the middle is complete fantasy.

Llama 3

The title is “Three Kirks and a Kirkufell”, and it’s a book review of “The Fellowship of the Ring” by J.R.R. Tolkien. Here’s a summary:
The author, Andrew J., reviews his re-read of “The Fellowship of the Ring”, the first book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He reflects on how he appreciated certain aspects more this time around, such as the character development and world-building. Andrew praises Tolkien’s writing style, saying it’s both engaging and immersive. He also discusses the themes of the book, including friendship, loyalty, and the struggle between good and evil. The reviewer notes that the pacing is well-balanced, with a mix of action, humor, and quiet moments. Andrew concludes that “The Fellowship of the Ring” remains an excellent fantasy novel even after multiple readings, and he’s excited to continue with the rest of the trilogy.

Score: 0/10. This is a complete mystery, especially given that a slightly different version of Llama at least got the context right. How on earth did they get to “Lord of the Rings”? Ironically I could understand “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” because at least that starts at Snaefells…

Mistral

The blog post, “Three Kirks and a Kirkufell,” by Andrew J., discusses the author’s experience visiting Iceland and exploring various sites related to Star Trek. The three Kirks mentioned in the title refer to Captain James T. Kirk from the popular science fiction series, who has been immortalized in different ways throughout Iceland. These include a statue of him at Keflavik International Airport, another one near the Blue Lagoon, and an actual mountain called Kirkjufell (Kirk’s Mountain). The author also shares his thoughts on the unique landscapes and natural beauty found in Iceland, which inspired the creators of Star Trek to use it as a backdrop for their show.

Score: 0/10. Complete balderdash. This model obviously doesn’t recognise the work “kirk” despite the fact that it’s a regular part of Scottish English, with exactly the same spelling and meaning as in Icelandic. On a positive note at least we’re back in Iceland from Middle Earth…

GPT4All Falcon

The blog post “Three Kirks and a Kirkufell” by Andrew J. is about his experience hiking in Iceland, specifically the three peaks of Kirkjufell, Kirkjuvatn, and Kirkjufell. He describes the challenges he faced, such as navigating through thick fog and snow, and how he overcame them with determination and perseverance. He also shares some tips for other hikers who may want to attempt this hike. Overall, the blog post is a personal account of Andrew J.’s experience in Iceland and his love for hiking.

Score: 1/10. Poor. I don’t mention hiking, and by my count the summary lists two mountains not three. Again no recognition of “kirk”.

Ghost 7B

Summary:

The blog post discusses three different churches: Kirk, Kirke and Kirche. Each church has its own unique characteristics and history. The author explains that the word “church” itself comes from the Old English word “cyrc,” which means “circle.” This is reflected in the shape of many early Christian churches, which were often circular or semi-circular.

Key Points:

o Kirk: A Scottish church type characterized by its low, round roof and lack of windows. It was originally designed to be a place for worshipping God outdoors.

o Kirke: A Norwegian church type that is similar to the Kirk in Scotland. However, it has a slightly taller roof and may have some small windows.

o Kirche: The German word for “church.” It refers to any Christian church, regardless of its size or style.

o Kirkufell: A term used by some Scandinavian countries to refer to the Church of England. It means “the church in the field” and is a reference to the fact that many early churches were built on agricultural land.

Conclusion:

The blog post provides an interesting overview of three different types of churches: Kirk, Kirke and Kirche. Each type has its own unique characteristics and history, and they all play an important role in the religious life of their respective countries.

Score: 0/10. We’re off on a tangent again, nothing to do with the source, and as far as I can see they’ve just completely made up some of the details.

MPT Chat

The article discusses how Andrew Kirk has been inspired by three different individuals in his life – a friend, an uncle and father figure who taught him about business ethics; the Dalai Lama for teaching him mindfulness techniques to deal with stress management at work. He also shares some of these lessons learned from them that have helped shape their own approach towards leadership which is centered around empathy rather than control or manipulation.

Score: -5/10. Nope, I haven’t got a clue how they got this from what I wrote.

Conclusions

The three online models (ChatGPT, Gemini and CoPilot Chat) all worked, although there is a very marked difference in quality and detail of output. The self-hosted models all failed, some more miserably than others…

In a large number of activities, better training and access to better resources both play a part in the success rate, and it appears that GenAI is no exception. Models you can host on your own system (even with a moderately high-spec GPU like my NVidia 3060 with 12GB RAM) are just pale shadows of the “very large language models” such as ChatGPT. They have neither the resources to hold significant knowledge, nor the training across a wide enough knowledge base. That doesn’t preclude effective use on a tightly-focused specialist use case, but their generalist capability is going to be very limited.

Beware, but also be afraid, be very afraid.

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An AI Scares Itself, and Me

Posted on 30 August 2024 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
Dystopian Landscape
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Just how bleak can an AI’s world view become?

One of my clients asked me to write an article on the environmental impact of generative AI. Like a lot of large corporations they are starting to embrace GenAI, but they are also a leader in sustainability, aiming to be one of the first major financial organisations to Net Zero, and so they are rightly worried about the potential adverse effect of large-scale use of GenAI. I’ve already been doing work with them to measure and to better understand the power consumed by GenAI, so the article is an obvious next step.

I’ve already written several articles for their internal Net Zero blog, and to add a bit of interest to each I’ve asked ChatGPT to generate a short essay on the topic, in the style of a well-known author. This appears to be a task at which ChatGPT excels, and I saw no reason not to do the same again.

God, That’s Bleak…

I like the way ChatGPT mimics the very direct writing style of Hunter S Thompson, and I like to think that if he was still with us, Thompson would be working to expose shortcomings on all sides of the climate change debate. The prompt to ChatGPT was therefore a simple one: “Write a short essay about the risks of AI with a focus on the environmental impact, in the style of Hunter S Thompson”. This was the result:

A Savage Journey Into the Heart of Techno-Doom: AI, the Environment, and the Goddamn Reckoning


We live in a time of extraordinary madness, where artificial intelligence (AI) has become the darling of our cursed, frenetic age. It’s a glittering gem, a tool of infinite promise—yet lurking beneath this polished veneer lies the venomous bite of catastrophe. If you think AI is just another shiny toy for the tech elites to fiddle with, you’re in for a rude awakening, my friend. The real story here is not just the dystopian nightmares of machines outsmarting us; it’s the environmental havoc that this digital beast is ready to unleash on an already bleeding planet.

Let’s be blunt—AI is a power-hungry, resource-guzzling monster. It doesn’t just run on hopes and dreams; it feasts on data and electricity, and the price is paid in the blood of the earth. Picture it: vast data centers sprawling like cancer across the globe, consuming as much energy as entire nations. These steel-and-silicon behemoths are the new factories of the digital age, but instead of churning out cars or canned goods, they spit out algorithms and predictions. And just like the smoke-belching mills of the industrial revolution, they’re leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

But who cares, right? So what if AI needs a few gigawatts here and there? We’re advancing, after all! The future is here, and it’s smarter than ever—never mind that the goddamn planet is burning. That’s just collateral damage, a minor inconvenience on the road to progress. This is the kind of twisted logic that’s driving us headlong into the abyss. The tech lords promise us a utopia of endless convenience, while quietly brushing the environmental costs under the rug. But you can’t hide the truth forever.

Let’s get real about the energy. Training AI models, particularly those gargantuan neural networks that gobble up every scrap of data they can find, is like fueling a fleet of private jets with coal. The carbon footprint of these operations is staggering. Every keystroke, every click, every goddamn chatbot response comes at the cost of churning out more CO2. And let’s not forget the hardware—the servers, the cooling systems, the endless upgrades. They all need minerals mined from the earth, ripped from the ground in a frenzy that leaves behind a scarred landscape and poisoned water.

And then there’s the e-waste. This relentless march of technology demands constant upgrades, and when those shiny new devices become obsolete, they’re tossed aside like yesterday’s trash. But this trash doesn’t just disappear. It festers in landfills, leaching toxins into the soil, contaminating water supplies, and creating a slow-motion disaster that will haunt us for generations.

But here’s the kicker: as AI becomes more “efficient,” as it gets better at predicting, automating, and optimizing every facet of human existence, it only exacerbates the problem. The smarter it gets, the more data it needs, the more servers it demands, the more energy it consumes. It’s a feedback loop of doom, an ouroboros of technological advancement eating its own tail, and we’re all along for the ride, whether we like it or not.

So what’s the answer? Do we unplug the machines and head for the hills? Not likely. The AI genie is out of the bottle, and there’s no stuffing it back in. But we need to start facing the reality of this techno-madness before it’s too late. This isn’t just about smarter machines or even smarter humans. It’s about survival. Our planet is at stake, and if we don’t get our heads out of the silicon-scented clouds, we’re going to find ourselves deep in the muck, wondering where it all went wrong.

In the end, AI might just be the ultimate test of human intelligence—a test of whether we can outsmart our own creations before they outstrip our ability to live on this Earth. If we fail, the machines won’t need to destroy us. We’ll do it ourselves.

 

Bleak, or what?

And how do I teach myself to write like that without an AI?

Cheerful, but Profound

I liked it, but unsurprisingly my clients were not that keen, especially as there’s a current internal campaign about the benefits of AI. So I tried again. Let’s not do bleak, let’s do cheerful. As a child of the 1960s I struggle to think of anything more cheerful and unthreatening than Winnie The Pooh, so I went back to ChatGPT with a second prompt: “Same again, please, but in the style of Winnie the Pooh”. Usually the “same again” instruction or similar resurfaces the same concepts, just wrapped in different language, but this time ChatGPT did something quite profound…

A Thoughtful Little Reflection on AI and the World Around Us

One fine day in the Hundred Acre Wood, while sitting on a sunny spot, Pooh Bear began to think—very hard, which is not something he did often, mind you, but this was a special kind of thinking. You see, there was talk in the Wood about something called Artificial Intelligence, or AI, which sounded very important and rather clever. So, Pooh decided he ought to try to understand it, especially since it seemed to be making quite a fuss in the world beyond the trees.

Now, Pooh was a bear of very little brain, as we know, but he had a great deal of heart. And when he thought about this AI, he began to wonder not just about what it could do, but about what it might mean for the world—especially for the bees, the flowers, and all the other important things that made life in the Hundred Acre Wood so delightful.

“AI,” said Pooh to himself, “must be a very busy sort of thing, always thinking and learning. But if it’s thinking and learning all the time, it must need a lot of honey to keep it going!” But of course, AI didn’t eat honey. It ate something else—electricity, and lots of it. And that gave Pooh pause. He remembered how much work it took to make a pot of honey, and he wondered how much work it must take to feed all that electricity to AI.

Pooh scratched his head, thinking of the bees buzzing in the flowers, gathering nectar bit by bit. “If AI needs so much energy,” he thought, “where does it all come from? And what happens to the Wood if we use too much?”

You see, Pooh had heard that the world was getting warmer, a little more each year, and that too much energy-using could be a rather bad thing. The flowers might not bloom as they should, the rivers might run dry, and the trees might stop growing so tall and green. And that would be a very sad thing, indeed. For without the trees, where would Owl perch? Without the flowers, where would the bees find their nectar? And without the rivers, where would Piglet splash on a hot summer day?

It seemed to Pooh that while AI was very clever, it might not always be very wise. For if it wasn’t careful, it could use up too much of the things that the world needed to stay happy and healthy. It was a bit like eating too much honey in one go—not a bad thing in itself, but too much of it might leave you with a tummy ache, or worse, no honey left for tomorrow.

Pooh also thought about all the things that AI needed to be made. It wasn’t just the electricity; it was all the metal and other bits that had to be dug up from the ground, and then made into machines that could think and learn. And when those machines got old, they couldn’t just be tossed aside like a worn-out honey pot. No, they had to be dealt with carefully, or else they might end up in a big heap, making a mess of the beautiful Wood.

So, Pooh decided that while AI might be a very useful and clever thing, it needed to be used with a bit of care, the same way one should be careful not to eat all the honey at once. He thought that maybe, just maybe, if everyone thought a little more about how to use AI wisely, and didn’t let it gobble up too much of the world’s energy and resources, then perhaps the Wood could stay green and lovely for a long, long time.

And with that, Pooh decided it was time for a little smackerel of something—because even a bear of very little brain knows that sometimes, a small break is the best way to keep thinking about big, important things. So off he went, humming a little tune and hoping that the clever people working on AI would remember to take care of the world around them, just as he took care of his honey pots.

 

There are some quite deep messages in here. I particularly like “It was a bit like eating too much honey in one go—not a bad thing in itself, but too much of it might leave you with a tummy ache, or worse, no honey left for tomorrow.”

What’s interesting is the different focus of the two pieces: the dominant message in the “Hunter S Thompson” one is very much “our rush for more technology is destroying us”, whereas in the “Pooh” one it’s “AI is a good thing, but not if we use it too much”, which is much more balanced.

Sadly I haven’t yet persuaded my clients to use either version, but at least I get to share them with you.

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Are British Airways a Bus Company?

Posted on 18 October 2023 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
'Nuff said

Are British Airways an airline or a bus company? You’d hope the answer was evident from the name, but I’m beginning to have my doubts. I’ve just done an analysis of the flights I’ve taken with them from Heathrow since 2018:

Morocco 2018. This was so ridiculous it’s laughable, but with a dark shade because it was really quite a bad health and safety failure. We sat at the gate for the outgoing flight and they called us forward by "group number". Instead of going down the ramp to an aeroplane, we had to go down several flights of steps and outside, where a number of buses were waiting. We were directly randomly to buses with no attempt to keep the boarding groups even roughly together. After a long ride we arrived at the plane in the middle of a field, which had two sets of steps set up. One bus went to the front, another to the back. This resulted in people with seats at the back boarding from the front, while some with seats at the back were boarding from the back. "Punch up" doesn’t quite cover it, the average bar fight in a film is better organised. Fortunately we managed to sort ourselves out, but literally "nil points" to the useless BA organisation, and thank the stars that no-one suddenly needed medical attention or worse.

We had two short-haul BA flights in 2019, to Belfast and Copenhagen. I can’t remember either involving a bus, but maybe I’m blanking it out.

Patagonia 2023. After a 13 hour flight from Argentina the plane landed in a field, and was met by a bus. The ride back to the terminal took so long that I noted on my blog that I wasn’t sure whether we’d actually landed at Heathrow, or Northolt!

Belfast 2023. Our scheduled flight was cancelled, and we got bumped to one next morning. Having waited on the tarmac at Belfast for about an hour we got underway, only to land at Heathrow and sit on the tarmac again. Eventually we docked at a gate, and went up the ramp, to be directed down the stairs and out of the building onto a bus. This then drove us round from the "international" side of T5 to the domestic one, a trip which took about 20 mins, despite the fact you could probably walk it in about the same time.

Las Vegas 2023. After a 10 hour flight we parked in a field, to be discharged onto a bus. The ride to the terminal wasn’t quite so interminable as some of the others, but long enough.

4/6, maybe worse.

A few years ago a comedian, I think it might have been Michael Macintyre, lampooned as peculiarly British the phenomenon of the replacement bus service, as seen through the eyes of a foreign visitor:

"But I have ticket for train?"

"Get on the bus!"

I see that BA are honouring the "British" in their name by simply extending this pattern.

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One of Those Days…

Posted on 15 August 2023 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
Smash the system!

<Rant>

I woke up at 6am this morning looking forward to my day off and my cookery course which was one of my Xmas presents

and I thought I’ll just do my VAT return, then I’ll sort out some photos before breakfast

and I go into my VAT software and it says that my subscription has expired and I have to pay for another year

and I complete the purchase form and go to make a payment, and I have to authorise the card payment with my app

and I unlock my phone, and it gets really confused with different prompts and locks up, and I have to reboot it, which for some reason always takes ages

and when it has rebooted I find that one of the prompts is a message from my credit card company saying they have detected a potentially fraudulent transaction and have blocked my card, so the payment to the VAT software company is declined

and I have to go and get another card and at least this time I can run the VAT software

and I submit my return, then notice that in the confusion I’ve missed an error and I’ve effectively overpaid HMRC about £800

and you know what, once you’ve submitted a return there’s absolutely no way to either correct or resubmit it, the official HMRC instruction is “sort it out manually next time”

and I write myself some notes so that hopefully I’ll get it right next time

and while I’m writing my notes the phone pings again and it’s the cookery school saying the chef has been suddenly taken ill and they will have to postpone the course, for which I’ve taken a day off

and I go into my email and there’s an email from the cookery school saying the chef has been suddenly taken ill and they will have to postpone the course, for which I’ve taken a day off

and I’m replying to the email to confirm I’ve received it and I get a phone call from the cookery school saying the chef has been suddenly taken ill and they will have to postpone the course, for which I’ve taken a day off

and at least we manage to agree a replacement date, but it’s in November

and I’m now no longer in the mood to sort out photos, but I think I’ll just re-rip a track from a CD which didn’t play properly last time I listened to it

and while the re-rip has worked Windows Media Player has decided to rename some of my songs so they have different filenames when I sync up to my phone

and I have to go through all my playlists and fix the problems with missing songs

and it’s now breakfast time

and I just want to sit in a corner with a blanket over my head and moan

and I’m not convinced about this nice day off business.

Bollocks!

</Rant>

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Meet the Guardian!

Posted on 20 June 2023 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
Puff the guardian dragon
Camera: Panasonic DC-G9 | Date: 19-06-2023 20:37 | Resolution: 5184 x 3888 | ISO: 500 | Exp. bias: -66/100 EV | Exp. Time: 1/80s | Aperture: 7.1 | Focal Length: 35.0mm | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 12-35/F2.8II

Meet the new guardian of our gradually-expanding menagerie of the sculpted and carved.

Puff the guardian dragon (Show Details)

For a name we considered Rhaegal and Viserion, Druk and Y Ddraig Goch.

But we’re children of the 1960s. So we’ve settled simply on “Puff”.

Puff the guardian dragon (Show Details)
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UK’s Strongest Man (And Woman!) 2023

Posted on 6 June 2023 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
Action from the UK's Strongest Man 2023
Camera: SONY DSC-RX100M7 | Date: 29-05-2023 13:17 | Resolution: 1553 x 1553 | ISO: 3200 | Exp. bias: -1 EV | Exp. Time: 1/160s | Aperture: 6.3 | Focal Length: 52.6mm (~145.0mm)

Great sport at the UK’s Strongest Man 2023 / UK’s Strongest Woman 2023. However not impressed by the new (on the day, as far as I could work out) ban on “professional cameras” which meant the G9 had to remain locked away, and I had to rely on the tiny Sony RX100 and lot of post-processing in Topaz Photo AI…

Also not impressed by the fact we both seem to have caught a cold at the Nottingham Motorpoint Arena. Outdoor venues are much better for this!

Action from the UK’s Strongest Woman 2023 (Show Details)

Action from the UK’s Strongest Woman 2023 (Show Details)

Action from the UK’s Strongest Man 2023 (Show Details)

Action from the UK’s Strongest Man 2023 (Show Details)

Action from the UK’s Strongest Man 2023 (Show Details)
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Splendidly Dodgy!

Posted on 31 May 2023 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google
Horse Boarding at Burghley Park
Camera: Panasonic DC-G9 | Date: 28-05-2023 16:53 | Resolution: 3258 x 2172 | ISO: 200 | Exp. bias: -33/100 EV | Exp. Time: 1/250s | Aperture: 5.6 | Focal Length: 35.0mm | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 35-100/F2.8

Welcome to a new sport, discovered on a visit to Burghley House and Park this weekend. Horse Boarding.

Horse Boarding at Burghley Park (Show Details)

You have to navigate a tight course of bends and slaloms on a skateboard. At speeds of up to 30 mph. While being towed behind a racehorse!

The wipe-outs are dramatic, but usually quite close to something relatively soft.

Horse Boarding at Burghley Park (Show Details)

Excellent.

I understand a small operation is required, to remove any sense of fear but leave the sense of balance intact…

Horse Boarding at Burghley Park (Show Details)
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