Monthly Archives: November 2011

NBN: Myths Debunked

This video from Macquarie University has been around since August – but with recent announcements from the Federal Opposition regarding policy towards the National Broadband Network (NBN), and their ill-conceived, badly under engineered and ultimately more expensive Fibre to the Node (FTTN) plan, I thought it pertinent to spread this one out more widely. As […]

Media Tripe and How Not To Use Facebook

I often get frustrated with how technology problems are portrayed in the mainstream media. Invariably, a nameless staff writer gets tapped to write a quick story about a tiny snippet that has appeared on a wire service somewhere, generally without any real knowledge or understanding of what they are trying to write about. This example […]

A Subtle Site Refresh

I have just rolled out a subtle refresh to the appearance of this site. Regular visitors will know that it is largely based on the old theme, with a few nips and tucks to give it a spruce up. This update was also in response to the users of some mobile devices – (particularly early […]

Trolley Return Fail

Spotted this last night while doing a spot of shopping at the local Safeway. Do you think perhaps it is time for them to empty the trolley return? There are three trolley returns in this car park, and they were all in the same condition. Overflowing into the aisles. Fail!

Opposition “NBN” Plan To Cost More?

Opposition communications spokesperson Malcolm Turnbull has long argued that the government’s National Broadband Network (NBN) plan is far too expensive, with $26b to come from the public purse to build it. Information today that his alternative plan has been priced at approximately $17b fronts up some interesting questions. Although this number is $9b “less” than […]

iOS5 Over The Air Updating

Well, we’ve had Apple release the first delta update to iOS5, so we can now see “over the air” updating for the first time – and I was impressed. Only 44.2mb, downloaded, verified, and installed in 13 minutes on an iPhone 4 – (not a 4S) – and all is well. Certainly beats plugging it […]

NBN: Some Massaging Ahead

Over the last week, NBN Co have been running the latest round of industry forums across the country, as the build of the National Broadband Network (NBN) prepares to ramp up to full scale over the next two years. Yesterday, the road show hit Melbourne, and continuing on from the last major forum in February, […]

What The Simplest Things Can Take Away

In recent weeks, we have seen a number of fatal accidents in various forms of motor sport. Given the high safety standards employed in the sport these days, fortunately, such situations are few and far between. Indeed, where fatalities were common in the early years of the sport, they are most uncommon in the modern […]

Kyle Busch: Dumb Racing

I don’t watch a lot of NASCAR – the difference in time zones between Australia’s east coast and the US usually lands the races on our TVs at around 4am. As I don’t watch a huge amount, I don’t know a huge amount about NASCAR. However, one thing I have noticed is that in recent […]

Qantas: One Year in Singapore

Today marks the one year anniversary of the almost disaster that was the second leg of QF32 from Singapore to Sydney, on November 4th 2010. In the midst of the current debacle of last weekend’s 48 hour grounding of the airline as part of ongoing industrial action, it is worth remembering that one part of […]