Monthly Archives: July 2014

The Internet Has Not Changed – But Malcolm Has!

Oh, how the mighty will flip-flop when the political need arises – right? The government has released a discussion paper through Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and Attorney-General George Brandis, with a view towards having internet service providers police the illegal downloading of content. “The Abbott government has moved to crack down on illegal downloading, saying […]

Sunday Nerding: Computer For Apollo

Back into space this week, with a discussion of the development by MIT of the navigational computer for the Apollo spacecraft that took man to the moon in the 1960’s.

Sunday Nerding: The Phone Phreakers

The exact definition of what is or is not a hacker is constantly evolving, and it is perhaps true that an exact definition will never be found. Today, a look at phone phreaking, one of the early most forms of what could really be called ‘hacking’, through the exploits of John Draper, Steve Wozniak and […]

Sunday Nerding: Commodore 64

Back to my computing roots this week, with the Commodore 64. This computer came into my family in September of 1984, and I was hooked from day one – and ultimately, it became the foundation of my career in computing. Some of my first breakout computing moments happened on this machine. Like being told off […]

Turnbull Dismally Fails First NBN Test

It has been a pretty common refrain from Malcolm Turnbull that the management of the National Broadband Network project by the previous government was “pathetic” – both before and after the previous election in September 2013. Count how many times he uses that exact word in this transcript. Morever, how about this quote? “This is […]

The Doodle, Carrie Bickmore, And Her Pectorals

There was much laughing today when Carrie Bickmore was seen to be both holding and displaying a doodle on national television. Though perhaps a silly practical joke played on her by the crew, I got more of a laugh out of this placement of the story this afternoon on The Age website, immediately above another […]

Sunday Nerding: The Computers Of NASA

Two of my favourite topics this week: computing, and space. This video from NASA describing their use of computing to plan, carry out and manage the space program of the 1960’s. Although not dated, this video appears to have been prepared in the 1970’s, as it would seem the moon landings have already taken place, […]