Author Archives: Michael Wyres

Turnbull’s Low Definition Broadband Crystal Ball

Malcolm Turnbull is at it again, criticising just about anything published by anyone that is in any way supportive of the National Broadband Network (NBN). This is despite ample evidence provided by anyone who challenges his alternative plan, and people actually building the NBN that he is completely missing the point. His plan calls for […]

How To Incompetently Not Find A Water Main

At about eight o’clock yesterday morning, my phone line went dead. Obviously, this brought down my ADSL service with it. This isn’t entirely uncommon – given the age of the copper phone lines in my street – (predominantly installed in the 1950’s when the estate was established) – and the slightly down hill nature of […]

Air Travellers Cop Bad Systems Architecture

After a major systems failure in 2010 of the Navitaire New Skies airline booking and check-in system used by Virgin Australia, another failure yesterday has left thousands of Australian air travellers inconvenienced and angry. This time the problems were not limited to Virgin, with the crash also affecting Jetstar, Tiger, Rex, and other associated airlines. […]

Ding Dong The Wicked (Internet Filter) Witch Is Dead!

In a significant backdown by the Australian Government, the mandatory ISP-level internet filter previously proposed for Australia, has now been officially buried. It will be replaced by the internationally recognised and accepted Interpol Access Blocking “worst of” blacklist service, and enforced on ISPs under Section 313 of the Telecommunications Act, 1997. While the mandatory filter […]

Upload Your Personal ‘Important Documents’?

With the launch yesterday of Australia Post’s new ‘Digital Mailbox’, I took particular interest in how the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy described how it can be used. From the ministerial press release: “Use the Digital Mailbox as a personal digital vault to store important documents.” Given Australia Post’s status as a […]

Hurricane Sandy Duh Moment

People might die? Duh! Of course, people have already died throughout the Caribbean as a result of Hurricane Sandy, so this is a moot point anyway.

Why Is A Quarter Of The NBN Being Constructed Aerially?

Given the kerfuffle that has broken out today between NBN Co and the New South Wales government over access to power pole infrastructure when rolling out aerial portions of the NBN, it is probably a good time to explain why around 25% of the NBN won’t be built underground. According to the current NBN Co […]

Regional Rail Link Beginning To Take Shape

Regular travellers on the Geelong, Ballarat, and Bendigo regional train lines, and the Werribee and Sydenham/Sunbury metropolitan train lines, will most likely have noticed a lot of new tracks being laid between Southern Cross (SCS) and North Melbourne (NME) stations, as part of the Regional Rail Link (RRL) project. While this work between SCS and […]

Special Opening Hours For Coles

Our local Coles supermarket is open seven days a week, between 7am and 10pm. Yesterday was Geelong Cup Day, and for most people who work in Geelong, a public holiday. As such, many businesses close for the day, or have reduced operating hours. A responsible business would of course advertise their adjusted operating hours, so […]

NBN Wireless NTU

Following on from an earlier post where the nature of an NBN fixed wireless antenna was revealed, NBN Co’s blog has revealed the look of the Ericsson wireless NTU, used in the installations. This NTU compliments the fibre version I posted in early 2011, which will be used within the fibre footprint of the network. […]