Randomly Rusted

I often mention Oz's voting system on BlueSky. Compulsory turn-up-at-a-polling-place and the fiercely independent Australian Electoral Comission that is central to how it works. Maybe others wondering about their own systems should think about change. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

@davidgerard.co.uk I just got email from ServiceNSW offering AI training! Want the links? Rather you investigate than me!

@davidgerard.co.uk a paper saying LLM hiring bots prefer resumes they wrote over human and other LLM. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... Methodology a tad sus as it concentrates on "executive summary" (never heard of that in a resume) and does rather handwave "quality" controls.

Every time I see someone saying "WILL" in my mentions I know that Will Frank did a pun. Every single time.

@davidgerard.co.uk another HBR for you. Talking about "workslop": low quality AI product at work forcing recipient to do extra to cope. "Employees who have encountered workslop estimate that an average of 15.4% of the content they receive at work qualifies." hbr.org/2025/09/ai-g...

@davidgerard.co.uk another one: Merge IT and HR cos AI does the HR stuff. Luckily the people they actually talked to said "that's not how it works". Bit one did say the IT guy should be in charge cos HR can't learn AI but IT can do HR. Cos AI does legal stuff so well... hbr.org/2025/09/shou...

@davidgerard.co.uk one for your collection aparnacd.substack.com/p/most-work-... Where LLMs replace middle management, translating the CEO's requirements to the peons. Presumably they also do the management bit so tell the peons how well they are doing. What, as they say, could possibly....

@davidgerard.co.uk Comm bank finds that AI doesn't allow you to cut jobs www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08... Union says calls that needed humans spiked, Comm Bank says "should have been more thorough in our assessment" Which seems to be an admission the thing didn't work.

@davidgerard.co.uk I don't think I've seen you cover this one yet? hbr.org/2025/08/rese... where women and senior devs didn't use it for fear of being judged incompetent for using it?

@railmaps.com.au do you know the dates of the new XPT trains? Tried to book a sleeper to Melb on various dates in Aug/Sep/Oct and nothing offered. Started this test in Feb. So either people are camping on the site to book or the new ones are coming in a couple of months?

Given a Certain Person was elected to the office of President by all the people who didn't vote, many admire Oz's "compulsory voting". It wouldn't work without the fiercely independent Electoral Commission. Who do all they can to be impartial www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Buying a house in #australia is hard. Is one reason the current mortage situation? www.nber.org/papers/w33446 suggests that low downpayment long term fixed interest mortgages were one driver of the baby boom. Probably useful only in a lower interest environment.

I keep seeing people saying Trump can't enter Australia because he's a convicted felon. Alas ain't true. The character test says "you have a substantial criminal record" which he does not. Dunno the GOP counts as a criminal organisation yet either. immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-support...

madamspeaker.org.au is a collection of speeches by Australian women from before Federation to now. Hard hitting and unknown because who reports on what women say? (note - I don't have a screen reader but the home page doesn't look reader friendly)

Cash transfers to low income are usually said to be good. This study says no, but the amount was $20/month. The study doesn't say it was done in the 3rd world so I presume the USA. So is $20 a month in any way a useful amount in the USA? papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Of course!

@davidgerard.co.uk another one for your list hechingerreport.org/kids-chatgpt... Kids who used ChagGPT did badly, kids who used a "tutor" version that didn't just give answers also did badly. Mainly cos "the step-by-step approach for how to solve a problem was wrong 42 percent of the time."

Here's another one for your list @davidgerard.co.uk - Chatbot regurgitates live court case for sexual harassment training in the place the case is about. CoPilot this time. www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08...

lovely article from the ABC about a dancer with Down's Syndrome. She definitely doesn't let it stop her www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05... What struck me though was the picture or her with an award she won live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/4f1aeda92510... you never see pics of dancers like that.

www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03... "I don't know any authors who [have] actually stolen a manuscript while a body was still warm." I have questions....

It is Friday. I drink alcohol on Fridays. This leads to sadness and wondering about Where I Went Wrong as I am not a happy drunk. I keep doing it which does make me wonder about habits. I dunno you can stop a habitual thing, you need to replace it with something. But what is the habit giving me?

don't like the Japanese while walking outside. Figured as much because I don't like music or podcasts doing that either. I prefer to be in the outside not hiding from it. Not sure if that would be the same if I was walking in a city rather than a park but probably.

More experimentation. Can't do the Japanese on the bicycle because it is a different sort of attention compared to passive listening such as podcasts I prefer the Japanese to podcasts on the treadmill I suppose to use more brain that is otherwise looking for work. Again a sort of stimming?

Doing Japanese lessons while walking on a treadmill. Is this stimming or does everyone find that works better?