The Five Whys

Submitted by kattekrab on Sat, 16/06/2018 - 09:16
The Five Whys - Need to go to the hardware store?

Imagine you work in a hardware store. You notice a customer puzzling over the vast array of electric drills.

She turns to you and says, I need a drill, but I don’t know which one to pick.

You ask “So, why do you want a drill?

“To make a hole.” she replies, somewhat exasperated. “Isn’t that obvious?”

“Sure,” you might say, “But why do you want to drill a hole? It might help us decide which drill you need!”

"Oh, okay," and she goes on to describe the need to thread cable from one room, to another.

Makarrata

Submitted by kattekrab on Thu, 14/06/2018 - 20:19
Professor Megan Davis, and Noel Pearson on stage with the Uluru Statement

The time has come
To say fairs fair...

Dear members of the committee,

Please listen to the Uluru statement from the heart. Please hear those words. Please accept them, please act to adopt them.

Enshrine a voice for Australia’s first nation peoples in the Australian constitution.

Create a commission for Makarrata.

Invest in uncovering and telling the truth of our history.

We will be a stronger, wiser nation when we truly acknowledge the frontier wars and not only a stolen generation but stolen land, and stolen hope.

Leadership, and teamwork.

Submitted by kattekrab on Fri, 13/04/2018 - 04:09
Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany - Women protestors in Tahrir Square, Egypt 2013.

I'm angry and defensive. I don't know why. So I'm trying hard to figure that out right now.

Here's some words.

I'm writing these words for myself to try and figure this out.
I'm hoping these words might help make it clear.
I'm fearful these words will make it worse.

But I don't want to be silent about this.

Content Warning: This post refers to genocide.

I said, let me tell you now

Submitted by kattekrab on Sat, 10/03/2018 - 09:56
Montage of Library Bookshelves

Ever since I heard this month’s #AusGlamBlog theme was “Happiness” I’ve had that Happy song stuck in my head.

“Clap along if you know what happiness is to you”

I’m new to the library world as a professional, but not new to libraries. A sequence of fuzzy memories swirl in my mind when I think of libraries.

First, was my local public library children’s cave filled with books that glittered with colour like jewels.

Site building with Drupal

Submitted by kattekrab on Sat, 17/02/2018 - 14:05
Web site building - image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

What even is "Site Building"?

At DrupalDownunder some years back, the wonderful Erica Bramham named her talk "All node, no code". Nodes were the fundamental building blocks in Drupal, they were like single drops of content. These days though, it's all about entities.

Turning stories into software at LCA2018

Submitted by kattekrab on Sat, 27/01/2018 - 09:57
Donna speaking in front of a large screen showing a survey and colourful graph. Photo Credit: Josh Simmons
I love free software, but sometimes, I feel, that free software does not love me.
 
Why is it so hard to use? Why is it still so buggy? Why do the things I can do simply with other tools, take so much effort? Why is the documentation so inscrutable?  Why have all the config settings been removed from the GUI? Why does this HowTo assume I can find a config file, and edit it with VI? Do I have to learn to use VI before I can stop my window manager getting in the way of the application I’m trying to use?
 
Tis a mystery.