Author Archives: Michael Wyres

New Site Coming Shortly

Over the Christmas / New Year break (2017/2018), I will be re-launching Musings of a Geek at the new URL https://michaelwyres.com.au/. The site you are looking at now is a relocated archive of the existing site. Check back in the new year to see if I’m back up and running! Some life changes have meant […]

Apple/FBI Shenanigans Probably Just Theatre

With the news that the FBI has allegedly managed to ‘crack’ the iPhone allegedly used by the perpetrators of the San Bernardino shootings without the assistance of Apple, I can’t help but wonder what has really been going on. iPhone Used By San Bernardino Shooter Cracked By FBI Did they really need Apple’s help getting […]

MH17 Final Report Released

The Dutch Safety board has released its final report into the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in July of 2014. Here is the summary video of their findings: Investigations into aircraft accidents are not only important with respect to providing closure for all affected people, they also provide an opportunity to use the collected […]

National Nine News – Indian Edition?

While on a brief break from work, I’ve been re-acquainted with just how bad daytime television can be. Just now I was flicking channels, and caught literally the last few seconds of Punjabi News on SBS2. Have a listen: Music sound familiar? Should do – take a listen to the Nine Network Australia’s ident from […]

Turnbull Still Failing Miserably On NBN

A year ago, I wrote an article criticising the lack of progress on the revised NBN plan, introduced by Malcolm Turnbull after the change in government in 2013. I labelled it a “dismal” performance – and that’s exactly what it was. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam questioned progress at a Senate hearing on July 11, 2014, […]

Sunday Nerding: Stories That Stopped The World

Nerding has been away for a few weeks, but returns today with an ITV special on how television news handles breaking news stories. Being presented by ITV, this documentary has a British flavour, but as a news nerd, I find this fascinating. These are the “where were you when?” moments in life – and I […]

Turnbull Sells Out – When Is The Exorcism?

Time for a quick waltz down memory lane. Who else remembers the nonsensical plan by former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, for the mandatory filtering of all internet connections in Australia, to attempt to block all material online which had been classified “Refused Classification” (RC)? The campaign against it was long and hard, and eventually Conroy […]

Sunday Nerding: New York City Subway

With recent news that Melbourne is to receive a new underground rail line – (the Melbourne Metro) – to start moving the city towards having a true metro-style train system, I thought it might be interesting to look at what kind of work it takes to build something like that under a living city. This […]

Getting Melbourne Moving – Properly

The recent cancellation of the controversial EastWest Link by the Victorian state government, combined with the reinstatement of the previous Melbourne Metro rail project – (cancelled by the previous state government) – and today’s announcement that the so-called “Western Distributor” project is moving to the next stage, has created heated debate across the community about […]

Remember When The Turnbull Staffer Said This?

The sacking of SBS reporter Scott McIntyre after a series of controversial tweets with respect to ANZAC Day has certainly stirred up a whirlpool of reaction, and fired up the free-speech debate in Australia. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull got involved, making sure that McIntyre’s tweets were seen by his boss, SBS managing director Michael Ebeid. […]