Slack is the latest trend in workplace communications software, but makes it so great?
Usability Slack is based around the ancient IRC protocol, a system that has been around since just before the birth of the World Wide Web. At it’s peak it was used by millions around the world, but it’s arcane commands made it a bit complex for it to be adopted by all workplaces, especially during the formative years of the ‘net.
Slack is the latest trend in workplace communications software, but despite the cute features is it really all it’s cracked up to be?
Data Soverignty One hidden drawback to using Slack is your data is subject to any subpoenas against Slack Technologies. While this isn’t too bad if you’re just discussing memes in #random or using the /gif feature in #general, if you’re discussing sensitive information which is normally protected they can now target Slack as a service provider.
Things have been pretty busy over the last few months, but I found some time to smash out a nifty new papercraft and keeping with my “sci-fi vehicles” theme I did a papercraft Imperial I-class Star Destroyer from the Star Wars universe.
This model has minor detail, very similar to the StarCraft Battlecruiser.
Cutting and gluing cardstock with extra detail straight onto the large flat section gives the appearance of more depth for very little extra work.
From 2006 to 2008 I spent a of time making paper lucky stars, eventually hitting my goal of filling a small jar with 1000 of them. This turned out to be good practice for the next few years where I eventually folded over 1000 paper cranes after reading the classic tale Sadako And The Thousand Paper Cranes. It took the better part of 6 years and I don’t keep all of them in one place, many decorated spaces at work or were left with thank you notes for waitstaff or friends.
We’ve all done it before, purchased a diary for next year in December and promised ourselves “we’ll stick with it this time” and then three weeks in it’s at the bottom of a drawer already coated in a fine layer of dust. I’ve been guilty of this many times over the years and often tried to convince myself that my memory was good enough not to need a planner. We’re kidding if we believe that about ourselves, human memory is fallible and limited; a perfectly photographic memory only exists in the movies.
After my success with the papercraft Battlecruiser from Starcraft I decided to complete another model based on machinery from a sci-fi franchise. Initially I looked at my library of Warhammer 40k vehicle templates but realised many had major structural issues. Eventually I resolved to build a heavy star of Clan mechs, with the current plan involving a Shadow Cat (medium), Timber Wolf (heavy), Summoner (heavy), Mad Dog (heavy), and Dire Wolf (assault).
I’ve been an avid follow of microfiction author Uel Aramchek (@ThePatanoic) on Twitter for some time, so in time I became a huge convert of North Of Reality where he drops a new piece of interconnected, surreal, and gripping fiction thrice weekly. When he announced his plans for the Patreon-based Cryptofiction, I was instantly enthralled with the idea and have been signed up since the start.
To summarise the project, he creates one work of fiction per month that is produced in a strictly limited supply where each piece is signed, numbered, and hand-mailed to the recipients.
Continuing on from the reveal of the first completed piece in my last post, I kept working on this model in the afternoons and on weekends as a meditative and skill-testing hobby.
In the above pic I have all the completed parts for one wing. The little tubes on the wing sections caused me probably the most grief, just really fiddly and hard to keep formed when using this cardstock (~200gsm).
In more recent times I’ve been getting back into origami, regularly folding cranes and lucky stars; small, meditative pieces that help clear the mind and relax an individual in the stress of the day. However part of me wanted to get back into something a bit more complex that would also require an abundance of patience.
Papercraft.
I use to haunt the /po/ board on 4chan, never posting but just skimming for interesting models and saving them to my computer.
Time to break the silence that has fallen over this blog. Some pretty dark things happened a few months back, stuff that hurt me badly and severely harmed my mental health. I’ve moved in with my Dad again, back in my old haunting grounds in East Perth. It’s been really helpful and freeing and I’ve started to get better now. I’ve lost a heap of weight, started gaining confidence and feel like I’m connecting better with people.