vivweb01blog

  This post was first released in October 2022 as a response to the political 'crises' of the time. Note the more recent updates at the end of the main text - nothing really changes, does it..... As a bit of light relief from the momentous events of recent weeks in politics, I thought I’d take a wry and admittedly somewhat irreverent look at what motivates our politicians….if Radio 4’s ‘News Quiz’ can get away with it each week, despite the BBC’s draconian rules on all things pc, then so can I… In seemingly perpetual 'crisis' situations like this one,   as individuals we only really have two options - either to laugh or cry; I prefer to err on the side of laughter – for now, at least. Recent upsets at the top of the political tree, and the almost obsessive speculation about the outcome of yet another leadership race in the media, prompted me last week to ask myself the question:  “Why on earth would anyone actually want to be PM at a time like this ?” The role is...

Editor's Note: As a frequent local bus user, I was inspired recently to write a brief guide  for my website's travel page  on how to get the best out of our bus and train networks . Herewith a copy for the blog - hope it's useful....Now includes some info on local UK air travel....   Our UK public transport network has come a long way on since the days before the internet became  widely available in the late 1990s..... Working out how to get from A to B without major trauma during those somewhat simpler times relied on having a good sense of direction, a detailed knowledge of bus/train timetables, some decent maps, a knowledge of how to read them, and being reasonably mobile.  Timetable information was usually only available from tourist information offices, bus and train stations, etc., and only in paper form, and was quite often already out of date by the time you got hold of it. There were no digital bus signage boards for guidance, and few bus stops had...

AI development has continued apace since this blog was first published in June 2024, with little sign of a slowdown. Herewith an update for 2025.....   Introduction There has been much discussion, and not a little concern, voiced in the press and on social media recently about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the dangers it might pose for humanity.. How dangerous is it really, and what if anything can, or indeed should, we do about it ? First, let’s try to pin down what we mean by the term ‘AI’. The OED dictionary definition is: “.. the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. ” This rather narrow definition focuses on the use of AI as a tool, to be used to enhance what we as humans already accomplish, rather than considering what a new ‘cohort of intelligent machines’ might do themselves in the future. Apocal...