Author Archives: Michael Wyres

A Personal Statement

A few people have asked me of late, why I haven’t been writing as much this year, so I thought it might be time to take a moment to say a few things to clear the air. So far, 2014 hasn’t been the greatest in my life. By no means has it been an ‘annus […]

Sunday Nerding: London Crossrail

Like many nerds, I find trains and railways fascinating. I also love a great engineering story. Today I present the first part of a documentary series into London’s new Crossrail project, the first new addition to their underground system in over 30 years.

Sunday Nerding: The Telstar Satellite

Back to one of my favourite topics – space technology – and a documentary on the development and launch of the Telstar series of satellites.

Reducing Government Red Tape…Or Not…

Having recently moved – and changing electorates in the process – I’m going through the usual rigmarole of changing my registered address for just about everything. A pain in the butt, but a necessary evil. Fortunately, given many government agencies share data, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) automatically finds out about your move – (in […]

Poor Taste In Aftermath Of Death Of Robin Williams

The following is provided with no other comment than to say whichever advertiser came up with the following campaign – (I’m looking at you “Coles or IGA”) – in the midst of the death of Robin Williams – (and if you excuse my French) – this is fucking shit: Click the image for a larger […]

John Oliver On The US Payday Loan Industry

I just caught this week’s episode of Last Week with John Oliver, and I’m finding his new show is getting better and better each week. Take a look at his analysis of the US Payday Loans industry. I’m sure it is not quite as almost criminal in Australia, but the business models are largely the […]

Sunday Nerding: The Browser Wars

In the early days of the World Wide Web – (as distinct from the internet itself) – there was a war. A war between two sides – Netscape and Microsoft – over who would control how people used the web. One of those sides won the war, but severely damaged itself in the process. That’s […]

Sunday Nerding: Impossible Mission

Chances are, if you had a Commodore 64 in the 1980’s, you had the game “Impossible Mission”. I personally spent hours playing this game For its time, Impossible Mission was remarkably well thought out, combining aspects of the platform, and adventure game genres, as well as getting players to have a good hard think at […]

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.