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My article for the August 2026 edition of The Local is now out. This month is on English and Australian Copper Company smelter at Broadmeadow.

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Algorithmic Idiocy

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Google AI Overview continues to alarm me with its idiotic ‘answers’. Recently while searching on a topic relating to local history, the AI overview at the top of the page returned an answer containing a sentence I knew to be false. Curiously the primary source listed for the answer was a page on my website, even though I clearly deny consent for my content to be used by AI.

I checked my page to see how on earth Google could have come up with the false sentence. It was because a reader of my blog had added a comment asking a question about something tangential to the main topic of the page. With zero understanding and no analysis Google had simply combined my words and the commenter’s words as though we were talking about the same thing.

AI is not intelligent. It is an annoyingly idiotic algorithmic text smoosher.

Repurposing the SamKnows Whitebox

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For the past decade the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ran the Measuring Broadband Australia program, where community volunteers (myself included) operated a supplied “SamKnows whitebox” appliance to measure and report on ISP broadband performance. The program came to an end on 30 June 2026 and an e-mail from the organisers recommended disposing of the whitebox via an e-waste facility.

However it is possible to re-flash the firmware on this device with the OpenWrt open source software to turn the box into a fully functional router with dual band Wi-Fi and four ethernet ports. More out of curiosity than need, I managed to update my SamKnows whitebox to OpenWrt version 25.12.2.

The instructions on how to do this are located on the OpenWrt site. I won’t fully repeat the instructions here, but just add a few observations from my experience with the upgrade.

  • Firstly, although some earlier versions of the whitebox could be upgraded by using button presses to put the device into a special debug mode, the version of the device I had (SK-WB8) required a little hardware tinkering, opening the case and connecting to the serial port from a computer via a USB to serial connector.
  • The USB to serial connector I used (sitting on top of the device in the photo above) was a CH340G module I had previously bought on eBay for less than $10.
  • I used the wires from a small length of ethernet cable to solder to the Tx, Rx, and Gnd connection on the device’s PCB, and then connected to the USB/serial adapter via a breadboard. There is no need to connect Vcc.
  • I initially made the thoughtless mistake of connecting Tx to Tx and Rx to Rx – whereas of course Tx on the device should go to Rx on the adapter and vice versa.
  • On my Windows 11 I used Device Manager to find which COM port the adapter was assigned to and then set the baud rate/stop bit/flow control settings.
  • I used PuTTY to connect to the serial port after setting the baud rate/stop bit/flow control values to match the COM port. I had some trouble getting PuTTY to consistently open a connection to the serial port – sometimes it would just report an error that the connection was not configured. Removing and reinserting the adapter sometimes fixed the problem. I never got to the bottom of why this was happening, but fortunately once a connection was established it worked fine.
  • To get the OpenWrt firmware onto the SamKnows device I configured my PC with IP configuration as per the Hacking the SamKnows Whitebox page and connected an ethernet cable from my PC to a LAN port on the device. I then installed Tftpd64 on my computer, and placed the Factory image bin file into the Tftpd64 base directory. I used the Windows command line FTP program to confirm that I could connect to the TFTP server and see the firmware file in the base folder.
  • I powered up the SamKnows device multiple times, powering it off when it got to the “bootcount” message about 3 seconds into the boot-up sequence.
  • Eventually this caused a pause sufficiently long for me to press the “2” key to initiate a firmware update via TFTP. This provided an opportunity for me to enter the three parameters required for the TFTP transfer. As I had configured my PC with IP configuration as per the Hacking the SamKnows Whitebox page the values I used were:
    • Device IP = 192.168.1.1
    • Server IP – 192.168.1.2
    • Filename = openwrt-25.12.2-ramips-mt7621-samknows_whitebox-v8-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
Entering the three values required for reflashing via TFTP. Note that in this screenshot I haven’t finished typing in the firmware filename.
  • The re-flashing took a few minutes and then the device re-booted, now running OpenWrt.
  • Using a web browser on my PC I was able to load http://192.168.1.1 to access the OpenWrt interface, login as ‘root’ (default no password) and start exploring and configuring.
  • By default the WiFi interface is disabled, but after enabling and configuring I was able to connect to the OpenWrt device over WiFi instead of wired ethernet.

Muting the LG MS2336DB Microwave

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I posted some years ago about how to silence the annoying tones on my LG MS2596OW microwave. Recently a family member acquired an LG microwave model MS2336DB with equally irritating noises. As before, LG provide no instructions on how to silence the tones, but fortunately as before there is a secret key combination to achieve this.

Touch and hold the “Stop / Cancel” and the “Inverter / Cook” buttons simultaneously for 3 seconds – the display will then show “Off” to indicate that sound is disabled. Repeat the process and the display will show “On” to indicate that sound is enabled. Note that I found the timing of pressing the buttons was quite sensitive – I had to touch both buttons at pretty much the exact same time for this to work.

Artificial Illegality

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How intelligent is AI? Answer: Not at all. Despite the copyright page on this website explicitly denying consent for my content to be used as input or output of generative AI, my work and my words are now appearing in Google AI Overview responses.

Oh wait, maybe the “I” in AI doesn’t stand for “Intelligence” – maybe it stands for “Ignorance”, “Inconsideration”, or “Immorality”? More probably it stands for “Illegality”, as Google’s unauthorised use of my content is a clear breach of Australian copyright law.

AI responses may include excrement

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In the latest episode of the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 podcast, Emily M Bender makes the insightful observation that one aspect of the hype associated with AI chat systems is the promotion of a …

… worldview that a system that has no accountability for what’s being said is a good source of information.

Emily M Bender, Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 63.

These AI systems are increasingly in our face, but with no guarantee of quality, and absolutely no accountability for when it’s wrong. I note that Google’s AI overview now comes with a public confession of ineptitude and disavowal of accountability.

This is akin to a restaurant putting a sign on their door …

Our servings may include excrement.

No one would be excited about eating at that restaurant, yet somehow we’re supposed to be excited about consuming AI.

Basketball stadium objections

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Newcastle Basketball Association have submitted an amended development application for a stadium to be built on Wallarah and Blackley Ovals. The amendment is supposed to address objections raised in the previous public submissions period, but it is still the same pig, just with a different shade of lipstick.

Here’s a copy of my new submission to the Hunter Indoor Sports Centre exhibition.

I object to the basketball stadium being erected on Wallarah and Blackley ovals.  The proponent’s response to submissions and their amendments does nothing to mitigate the three objections I raised in my previous submission.

1. Loss of green space.  The amended proposal moves the building footprint 19.5 metres to provide a grassed swale. Seriously?! The community loses two whole sporting ovals and get a patch of unusable lawn on a busy road in return! With the Broadmeadow Place Strategy planning to house an additional 40,000 residents, this area will need more sporting fields and open space, not less. It is extremely short-term thinking to remove actively used green space. We need to be making decisions today that are mindful of the impact on future generations.

2. Significant negative impacts on traffic and parking. The amended proposal moves a driveway by 3m. Seriously?! That is a delusional response to the objections of parking and traffic chaos that will occur when multiple sporting events coincide in the Turton Road precinct.

3. Unfairness. Building the stadium in this location is unfair to the current users of the sporting fields.  While the state government makes millions of dollars selling the current stadium site to property developers and basketball association gets a new stadium, mums and dads and kids lose their local sporting fields and have to drive miles to use alternative facilities. If the State Government is to evict Newcastle Basketball from their current location, they should do the honourable thing and provide an alternative location that does not deprive innocent third parties of their amenities.