@perkinsy@aus.social avatar

perkinsy

@perkinsy@aus.social

Writer (technical writing, blogging at stumblingpast.com), digital history, owner of #OfficeKitty (see profile pic). Enjoys gardening in #Melbourne #Australia

Interests:#OzHist #DigitalHumanities #documentation #WriteTheDocs #GardeningAU #Environment and watching a bit of cricket on TV.

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perkinsy, to WFH
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Atlassian have been studying the experience of their employees and that of other companies as they work remotely. They feel they still have things to learn but they have released their study.

In brief, they have found so far:

~ 92% of Atlassians say our distributed work policy allows them to do their best work.
~ Representation of women has doubled in certain geographies
~ 91% say it’s an important reason why they stay at Atlassian

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/distributed-work/distributed-work-report

perkinsy, to australia
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Only in Australia: "Hospital staff plead with bite victims to stop bringing snakes to emergency departments"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-22/bite-victims-warned-stop-bringing-snakes-to-emergency-department/103752506

perkinsy, to random
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Australian states are introducing digital driver's licences but do not adhere to best standards in technical security.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-15/experts-call-for-stronger-security-standards-for-digital-id/103689806

perkinsy, to environment
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How 'worm farmers' help other farmers revitalise their soils and stop using fertilisers and other chemicals.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-21/worm-healthy-benefits-farmers-agriculture/103605736

perkinsy, to Economics
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This article encapsulates a lot of the reasons why I did not change to an economics major at uni even though I had the ability and interest.

In economics 101 we had to memorise a definition of economics that asserted it was a science. It is not. It is the study of human behaviour in the realm of exchanging and developing goods and services.

Using mathematical forecasting models is never going to work well. As soon as the forecasts are announced, people change their economic behaviour and thus the assumptions of behaviour that the model relies on are wrong. Keynes wrote about the important role of the expectations of people and how that has an important impact on economic outcomes.

Ian Verrender writes about other, equally foundational problems with the dislike of economics here:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-01/why-economists-always-get-it-wrong-interest-rates-reserve-bank/102668538

perkinsy, to environment
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Scientists find that spent brewers yeast can be used to deal with e-waste by separating out aluminium, copper and zinc.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-18/beer-yeast-fore-waste/103587324

perkinsy, to literature
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Want to read a book by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander? Have a look at this selection:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-26/aboriginal-writers-melissa-lucashenko-tony-birch-alexis-wright/103383564

perkinsy, to generativeAI
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"Chatbots have many questions to answer about the sustainability of the web. They vacuum up all this data and give nothing back, so what is supposed to happen when you drive all your data sources out of business?"

Stack Overflow lays off 28% of their staff:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/10/after-chatgpt-disruption-stack-overflow-lays-off-28-percent-of-staff/

perkinsy, to random
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A West Australian town rejoices as Mooriel, the fibre glass cow, is found after being stolen and driven to Perth.

Mooriel likes to dress up - the story features a couple of her outfits.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-18/police-track-down-stolen-cow-waroona-wa/102991366

perkinsy, to random
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A couple of members of our household went blueberry picking today and picked 1.5kgs!

perkinsy, to random
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finish the 4th in the tournament. We always want them to win the whole tournament but this is the best achievement by far of any Australian soccer team. The way they have played has brought joy and excitement to all of Australia.

perkinsy, to Iceland
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I admire the skills the Icelanders have developed with dealing with volcanic eruptions! They are building barriers to the lava flows to redirect them, building roads, protecting underground pipes etc.

https://www.ruv.is/english/2024-03-16-volcanic-eruption-on-reykjanes-peninsula-407479

perkinsy, (edited ) to LEGO
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I am Groot

perkinsy, to random
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This afternoon we visited the National Gallery of Victoria and saw some of the triennial that is open and free until 7th April.

We all agreed that one of the highlights was Australia's largest leavings by Burarra women from Arnhem Land. It worked as a meditation while you threaded yourself in and out of the curves of the installation.

Thank you to @timrichards for posting about this exhibition yesterday. It reminded me that I wanted to see it and I made it so!

Warning: This link is to an article that refers to an Aboriginal artist who has passed away:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-13/ngv-triennial-2023-mun-dirra-fish-fence-maningrida-arts-centre/103186786

perkinsy, to melbourne
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A brief story about AC/DC and its iconic video for Long Way to the Top filmed with the band on the back of a truck driving slowly up Swanston St in

I loved this video as a child!

perkinsy, to melbourne
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The fog has been hanging around all day. This photo shows the Yarra River and the CBD taken from the Swanston St bridge. Flinders Street Station is behind the trees.

perkinsy, to melbourne
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This morning I walked through the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens on the way to work.

perkinsy, to australia
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This morning we woke at 5:30am to catch the 6:18 sunrise at the spectacular Lake Tyrell salt lake. It is a vast lake, part of which hosts a sustainable salt mining operation. The authorities have also created a road and viewing platforms to encourage photographers. Below it is dawn on the lake.

perkinsy,
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We have visited previously on a stormy day in winter. The character if the lake was completely different. It had the foreboding and other-wordly look that could be on the cover if a science fiction book.

Below is the 'keyhole' viewing platform. In winter the water laps its edges. The high evaporation rates in the shallow lake in summer means that the edge of the lake recedes at least 500 metres from here.

perkinsy, to melbourne
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I am looking forward to running a meetup in next Thursday for technical writers and anyone involved in IT work. In it I will explore some fun activities that you can run with teams of engineers to help them improve their writing skills.

There's lego and games involved.

There is still space for you to come. We also would like to hear your ideas and experience in running activities to help people improve their writing skills.

Meetup details via Write the Docs Australia: https://meetu.ps/e/MVp4p/qhmHC/i

perkinsy, to books
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We are looking forward to the Clunes Book Town festival this weekend! We love the treasure-hunting that is second-hand book shopping.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/17/clunes-booktown-festival-victoria-2024

perkinsy, to environment
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"The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea rules carbon dioxide is an ocean pollutant"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-22/un-maritime-court-rules-carbon-dioxide-is-a-sea-pollutant/103876578

perkinsy, to random
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Any guesses what this is a photo of?

perkinsy, (edited )
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@luciedigitalni Yes! We visited the Lake Tyrell salt lake over the last couple of days where I took this photo. See https://laketyrrell.com/

perkinsy, to roadtrip
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Today we continued our in the region of north-west Victoria. This is a hot, dry, sandy area. Mallee is an Aboriginal word for water and the common eucalyptus trees that are native to this area are called Mallee gums. They hold water in large bulbous tubers underground - see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallee_(habit)

The Mallee region is largely defined as the region where these type of eucalyptus trees grow in Victoria,

perkinsy,
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Yet just a couple of kilometres down the road, the environment was completely different. Here there are wetlands intermittently fed by the Murray River.

The first photo shows a River Red Gum that grows all along the Murray River. It requires intermittent flooding to survive.

The 2nd photo shows the edge of Lake Mournpall. When we walked along it kookaburras flew through these trees with their distinctive laughing cry.

Slender trunks of many eucalyptus trees with their feet in greyish green water. The bottom of the trunks are grey. There is a darker grey line at the same height of every tree - perhaps indicating the average maximum height the water rises too?

perkinsy, (edited )
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Kangaroos were resting under a River Red Gum further away from us. A mother and her joey moved away from the group and kept a close eye on us. We didn't want to disturb them so turned around and went back to our car.

[Edit: I replaced the photo for a better one I took of the same scene]

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