Category Archives: Technology

Browser Update 2011

With just a few days left in 2011, I’ve taken a moment to have a look at the web statistics for this site, with a view to having a look at how the ongoing browser wars are travelling. In March, I had a look at how things had been over the previous six months, and […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

Victorian Coalition Government Still Supporting NBN

Despite the fervent opposition to the National Broadband Network (NBN) from the Federal Coalition, in recent weeks the Victorian Coalition Government has repeatedly voiced support for the project. At a recent announcement of an $85m plan to promote ICT within Victoria, Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips stated that the plan sought to “advocate the expedient […]

Nice Start Google – But Not Enough

Many people will remember the “storm in a teacup” that was the inadvertent possible collection by Google of data from wireless networks, when performing photographic and geo-spatial data collection for their Street View product early last year. Even our good friend Senator Stephen Conroy got in on the act, labelling it the “single biggest privacy […]

NBN: Myths Debunked

This video from Macquarie University has been around since August – but with recent announcements from the Federal Opposition regarding policy towards the National Broadband Network (NBN), and their ill-conceived, badly under engineered and ultimately more expensive Fibre to the Node (FTTN) plan, I thought it pertinent to spread this one out more widely. As […]

Opposition “NBN” Plan To Cost More?

Opposition communications spokesperson Malcolm Turnbull has long argued that the government’s National Broadband Network (NBN) plan is far too expensive, with $26b to come from the public purse to build it. Information today that his alternative plan has been priced at approximately $17b fronts up some interesting questions. Although this number is $9b “less” than […]