Author Archives: Michael Wyres

Why Legislated Internet Filtering is Utterly Pointless

The powers that be, in their infinite wisdom, believe that the way to stop people from viewing and distributing the so-called “worst of the worst” or copyright protected material online is to legislate various forms of filtering mechanisms. In Australia, we have Stephen Conroy’s mandatory internet filtering scheme. In the US, there is the proposed […]

Screw You, Greedy Music Industry

We’ve heard a lot lately about how piracy and music downloads are supposedly killing the music industry. How all those nasty people downloading music for free are “taking the caviar off the 50-foot marble dining tables” of the recording artists, and leaving them to cope with “only 17 bathrooms in their palatial mansions”. Poor snookums. […]

Jason Richards: Always A Winner

The passing of Jason Richards on Thursday evening leaves a huge hole in the hearts of Australian racing fans. Everybody loved Jason. Always happy, always smiling. He might only have won a single race in his V8 Supercar career – (at Winton in 2006) – but we loved him because he was always having a […]

F-Bombgate: Media Cares, Most People Do Not

The media circus arising from the Stephen Conroy F-Bomb continues today. The media seem to care a hell of a lot about it. Problem is, according to a Fairfax online poll, it seems most people do not. Next Meerkat Manor, But first Communications Minister Drops F-bomb As of 2pm AEDST, December 14, 2011 – the […]

That Political F-Bomb

Stephen Conroy dropped the “f-bomb” at the National Press Club (NPC) today. So what? As much as I detest some of the policies Conroy holds dear to his heart – most notably his mandatory internet filtering plan – it is actually interesting that much of the media has gone on the attack because he showed […]

It’s Not It’s!

Another one from my recent work at a major Melbourne hospital network – it’s the engineering department badge I had to wear every day – (with the hospital name removed to protect the guilty): It’s funny how people just don’t know the difference between “it’s” and “its”. You might need to click on the photo […]

Should File Sharing Be Legalised?

The ongoing battle between AFACT and the Australian ISP iiNet through the so-called iiTrial has become a very public face of the file-sharing debate, particularly in Australia. Is file-sharing “good”, or is it “bad”? A very black and white question the answer to which, is generally quite grey. I read with interest an article brought […]

Zap! I Think This Powerboard is Broken!

Amidst some recent project work for a major Melbourne hospital network, I stumbled across this powerboard in the engineering department of one of the hospital campuses. Given I found it in the engineering department, I’m sure it was there due to the “degraded” state it was in – (ie: taken out of service) – but […]

Optus: ICS for Original Galaxy Tab “Soon”

Good news for owners Optus-branded versions of the original Samsung Galaxy Tab – (myself included) – with news that the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) coming to the device “soon”. I commented on Twitter over the weekend that my device had finally updated from Froyo to Gingerbread, but lamented that it wasn’t […]

Epic Dragon Sculpture

I spotted this awesome sculpture in North Laverton on the way to work this morning – (avoiding a heavily congested Princes Freeway) – made out of scrap metal, and used to advertise a scrap metal merchant. If memory serves – (and it often doesn’t) – I do think I have seen these before, but had […]