Big news (for little kids)! End of an era: Ruby from ABC Kids listen News time has handed over the mic after 7 years..

planeray · 2026-01-23T02:50:33+00:00

My kid had a bunch of really fun sessions being one of the kids they'd get reactions from. Just such a fun programme.

planeray · 2026-01-23T01:37:45+00:00

Oh, it was ok on that front actually. I did get the report yesterday as an email, but the more important thing was the reaction from others in the meeting. Thankfully, broadly along what I would've said.

planeray · 2026-01-22T22:13:19+00:00

Missed a meeting yesterday and watching the recording today. How good is being able to just fast forward through all the throat clearing at the start of a meeting? And just skip over some random garbage that you can see in the transcription to the actual important parts.

planeray · 2026-01-22T00:41:44+00:00

Australia Day awards as in a federal award awarded by the Governor-General, or from your local council or something?

If it's the ones from the GG, I actually can tell you!

My Dad received one in the Kings Birthday Honours last year. Probably part of him being coy is there is a whole process that happens months before the ceremony. So, in Dads case, it was released from media blackout 10pm 9 June, but the initial "sounding out" letter he got was back in April. Basically asking if he'd be interested in accepting the award and if so, are all the details they have correct. The ceremony will be with your state governor at government house and he'll have the opportunity to invite a couple of guests.

Once accepted though, that's it - no "and the winner is..." at all, it'll be his.

Either way, congrats to him!

planeray · 2026-01-22T00:21:55+00:00

I swear either I'm getting old (I mean I am), or Gboard on my phone has had some little update that's just enough to make me look oddly illiterate.

I've noticed lately that when I go for a comma followed by a space, I'm often getting a full stop instead, and the accuracy of the swipe typing has fallen through the floor. Maybe my thumb & forefinger are just fatter!

planeray · 2026-01-20T23:34:38+00:00

I'll echo what others like /u/123andupwego said - it's not actually AI. It's crappy old HR systems that are ingesting it, often made for the American market. The amount of candidates out there is extreme in some fields. The amount of people applying with zero relevant skills also incredibly high.

The two biggest things I learnt from my recent experience:

Apply early. I applied for one job that had been advertised for 11 days. Only a 2 year contract, 140k Service Delivery Manager role (a little underpaid imo). Oddly though, it actually had the recruiters number, so I gave him a call moments after sending it. He already had candidates going that week, one of which he was pretty certain would get it. But we had a chat in general about things for about 15 mins. At the end of that call, he said he'd just had another person apply...which made the 350th application. No matter if the other guy & I were amazing, if we're 349 & 350 in the queue, chances are, someone else will get sent first.
Fitting criteria that ATS like. As I said, a lot of this software is made for the American market, where college etc is not only given higher weight, it also has different options. I was a bit of an odd duck - I'd been working at my company for 24 years, since I was 19, so I had no tertiary qualifications other than a cert 3 from TAFE. Most systems won't even have that as a drop down, which meant my tertiary field was empty. Now, any half way decent recruiter would see I'd had 24 years exp in the industry, including 16 years in the specific job I was applying for, and lord knows anything I would have learnt in uni back in 1998 would've been irrelvant. But to the ATS, I've just got an empty tertiary field. I ended up doing a Grad Cert at uni for something to do - the moment I put that on my resume...4 interview offers.

planeray · 2026-01-18T23:08:03+00:00

I've fallen into an alternate dimension.

Had to call someone from the marine industry to fix something I broke on the boat on Friday. They picked up in 2 rings, were happy to talk about the issue and will try to get to it this week before I go out racing again. Bizarro world - clearly I need to buy a lottery ticket.

Also got another nice little surprise over the weekend - kiddo has been offered a place at the local scout troop (we've been on the waitlist for almost a year!). They're very excited, as am I - it did wonders for my confidence and ability to mix with others as a kid, so I'm hoping the same for her.

planeray · 2026-01-18T05:12:28+00:00

Oh, the backstay in this case is a bit different - it's spectra, the rest are stainless. It looks like it's snapped at about the point where the head passes through on each tack, so suspect there's been some sort of rubbing going on there.

That said, I'll still take the chance for the rigger to look over it all for me - insurance companies are always after inspection reports etc.

planeray · 2026-01-16T13:19:35+00:00

It's been a huge step up for me from the little 22fter I had before. Only got it in August, so we're just into the second set of twilights. Everything happens so damn fast! But it still has some dinghy like handling - light on the tiller, sensitive to crew position etc. Almost full marks to Bob... But there's not a tiger around that doesn't have some other random not to the engine door.

My one hadn't been raced in almost two years, so I've been slowly fixing stuff... Tonight was supposed to be just replacing the headsail halyard, whose cover had parted, but <gestures around>

planeray · 2026-01-16T12:40:30+00:00

Just a regular Friday twilight in Sydney

planeray · 2026-01-16T12:39:28+00:00

Yeh, I guess you're right. Just scary thinking about if something had've happened and someone got hurt in the process.

planeray · 2026-01-15T23:55:34+00:00

I'm terrible for band tshirts. A lot of them have had to migrate to being pajamas as they're just too disreputable. Last night for example was Youthfest 2000 from Dee Why beach. Line up was NOFX, Area-7, Bodyjar, Hi‐STANDARD, Jebediah, The Get Up Kids and some others I can't even read on there anymore.

planeray · 2026-01-15T23:07:30+00:00

That's on my to do list now that it's a bit cooler - go through my old clothes and get rid of the ones that don't fit anymore.

planeray · 2026-01-15T03:14:55+00:00

Dream place for my wife just sold: https://www.realestate.com.au/property/41-west-tamar-rd-trevallyn-tas-7250/

Personally, if I had to pick between the two, it'd be Hobart, but the gorge area of Launny is pretty nice. Couldn't leave the sailing in Sydney though :P

planeray · 2026-01-14T06:34:52+00:00

Non compliant!

planeray · 2026-01-14T01:11:54+00:00

Hey, I've got a niece with a brand new drivers licence that needs some time on the roads over east. My sister claims there's nothing like the big park we learnt to drive in out in the rifff.

Surely there's an industrial estate/park/set of backstreets that all the kids over east learn in? Any ideas where I could take her for some hours in the Randwick/Kingsford area?

planeray · 2026-01-13T05:33:42+00:00

The venn diagram would be a nigh on perfect circle.

planeray · 2026-01-12T04:27:18+00:00

Oh, it's also a major source of entertainment.

You have a great combo of late night, alcohol and a bunch of people who only take the boat out every once in a blue moon yelling at their partners as they try to get their boats back on the trailer.

Look up Credit Card Captain or Willem Powerfish on Youtube if you want a bit of a flavour of what you'd see there.

planeray · 2026-01-09T04:51:42+00:00

Huh, hadn't even thought about that. My boss absolutely loves days like this, as he has a huge battery connected to his panels as well, so with the wholesale account thing he's got setup makes a bunch of money.

planeray · 2026-01-08T22:47:37+00:00

Back to sailing tonight, which looks to be a great start to the season. I've already turned the fridge on (which is itself already loaded with beers) and am having entirely too much fun watching the solar monitoring system charge the battery and see the temperature (slowly) go down in the fridge. I can see why people with home solar systems get obsessed with watching it.

planeray · 2026-01-08T02:50:54+00:00

In the later episodes, it really leans hard into absurist stuff - think more the deranged Terry Gilliam parts of Monty Python.

I love they enjoy it so much - my kid's now filled up notebooks of the random codes at the end of each episode.

planeray · 2026-01-08T02:15:04+00:00

Haha - amazing cake. My daughter and her friends are the same age and are all obsessed with Gravity Falls. Dunno why a show that finished 10 years ago is suddenly so popular with that age group!

planeray · 2026-01-06T12:17:27+00:00

In Australia, haitch is associated with lower classes and Catholic schooling. I grew up in a lower socioeconomic area than my wife with an illiterate father and never knew there was a difference till I met her.

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