Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
More than a year into Australia’s COVID-19 pandemic response, Prime Minister Scott Morrison finally produces a plan that includes vaccinating people — with no targets and no deadlines.
Continue reading “The 9pm Four-Phase Year Two Custard Duck”
Friday’s news that Donald Trump’s Twitter account had been deactivated for 11 minutes swept the world. No wonder it caught the attention of Peter Goers at ABC Adelaide.
Here’s the resulting 14-minute radio spot. It begins with a chat with Rebecca Fraser from the Career Development Association of Australia, and I’m after that.
I shamelessly steal some material from an article at The Clever, 15 Times Fired Employees Got Revenge On Their Company, which I think I forgot to credit. Sorry.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.4MB)
This audio is ©2017 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“As many as half a million accountants, supermarket cashiers, secretaries, typists and bank tellers in what are largely white-collar jobs are threatened by automation, Department of Industry modelling shows,” said a report in the Australian Financial Review today.
It’s true. In the first industrial revolution, the physical movement of atoms went from being done by animals, including humans, to being done by machines. In the second industrial revolution, the same thing has been happening for the movement and manipulation of information.
I spoke about some of these things just now with Jamie Burnett on ABC 720 Perth.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.3MB)
If you want some further reading, try The onrushing wave at The Economist.
The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last Tuesday 10 September, there was a story in the Sydney Morning Herald — though not the website, as far as we could see — that talked about the kind of helpdesk automation robots that are replacing first-level support staff for the simple things.
This caught the attention of the folks at ABC 702 Sydney, and I ended up having this 7-minute conversation with Linda Mottram. Enjoy.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.6MB)
The audio is of course ©2013 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, archived here because it’s not archived anywhere else.
…were right about job-hopping. In the big chair:
Major companies no longer value long service by their workers… The poll of 32 national and international firms found that when defining a high-performing worker, 69 per cent rated “length of service” as least important or not even applicable…
“If you turn the clock back 10 or 15 years, length of service would have been seen as a significant attribute of high performance,” Mr Tipper [Jeremy Tipper, business development director of recruitment firm Alexander Mann Solutions] told AAP on Tuesday.
“The reason for that is they had a great deal of knowledge… about the organisation and a good understanding of what’s happening in the marketplace.
“Today, because information is so much more freely available because of technology, that ‘information is power’ probably doesn’t exist to the same extent.”
Mr Tipper said the new breed of workers was less “risk averse” — they were more prepared to change jobs and they were more aware of the value and portability of their skills.
Hat-tip to the Snarky Platypus. He even wrote the headline. He also has his own blog, but is too goddam lazy to post there. We must convince him to fix this.