The Federal Government today announced its “workplace reforms”, which it claims will deliver a simpler and fairer industrial relations system. That may be so. I haven’t studied the detail, and frankly it’s of no great interest to me. I object however, to the massive abuse of public funds to promote Liberal Party policy through the [...]
Breakthrough for open source
Beta News reports that the State of Massachusetts plans to eliminate Microsoft Office as an option for creating new documents. If the policy is implemented all documents will have to be saved in open source XML or Adobe’s universally recognised PDF. This is a potential blow for Microsoft and the company has understandably protested vigorously. [...]
Mount Hotham air crash
There’s a good investigative report in The Age today about the plane crash near Mount Hotham recently. In essence, it confirms the aircraft had no anti-ice equipment and should not have been flying in that weather, which was forecast. Nobody wants to pre-empt the Coroner’s inquiry, but there must be some nervous aviation officials digging [...]
Trafalgar anniversary
I read recently that sensitivity towards France and Spain caused a watering down of celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. In that famous naval conflict the British under Lord Nelson lost 624 men and not a single ship, while Napoleon’s forces lost 7000 men and 18 ships. It was a decisive [...]
Alpine Shire and Greenhouse emissions
A large chunk of the agenda for this month’s Alpine Shire Council meeting is devoted to Greenhouse emissions and climate protection milestones. The agenda confirms that council received funding to employ a Greenhouse Officer. I joked here when the job was advertised that I thought it was a horticultural position. But it’s no joke. Our [...]
