Category Archives: Technology

Why the NBN Should Win the Election

As we move into the final week of the federal election campaign, broadband network policy has been a real hot potato over the last few days. The Coalition plan has been roundly attacked by many – despite being significantly cheaper than the government plan. The Government plan has been touted as “risky” and “a white […]

Abbott Not the Only “Non Tech Head”

Seems that it is not only Tony Abbott who does not understand the broadband policy of his own party, after claiming to not be a “tech head” when quizzed on the particulars of the policy, but also the party in general don’t seem to get it either. Fast Broadband to Go to Colac, Lorne, Apollo […]

The Great Filtering Bluff

There has been great change in the dynamics of the internet filtering debate in recent weeks, particularly with the Coalition promise to block any such legislation in the Senate, in line with the stated policies of both the Greens, and independent senator Nick Xenophon. Given the sheer weight of numbers a combined Coalition/Greens/Xenophon vote in […]

Twitter Advertising Model Appears

Seems that the much-anticipated – (yeah, well) – advertising model for Twitter is finally showing its face to the world. The model calls for the ability for advertisers to pay for their tweets to be inserted into your Twitter stream, and for promoted topics to appear in the list of “trending topics”. I was sceptical […]

Coalition Broadband Numbers Dodgy

There is a glaring and gaping hole in the Coalition plan announced yesterday to replace the National Broadband Network (NBN). Despite being a vastly inferior solution, it simply does not add up with their own statements made during the announcement. Certainly, I’m not talking about whether their costings of almost $7b are “right” or “wrong” […]

ACL: Out of Touch?

Without wishing to suggest either way as to whether the ACL as a organisation has a positive or negative effect on the current federal election campaign, I do have to wonder about some of their actions, or inactions, as the case may be. I just took this snapshot from the front page of their website, […]

No Place for Short Sightedness Over NBN

There has been much press over the weekend over former federal opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull’s opposition to the forthcoming National Broadband Network (NBN), a network which has already commenced rollout in Tasmania (via a pilot site), and is preparing for the rollout of pilot sites in a number of mainland locations. Turnbull has labelled the […]

ACL Certainly Loves Censorship

With an apparent but cautious victory for common sense in the mandatory internet filtering debate, which will likely see the death of this ludicrous proposal, it is interesting that both the Australian Labor Party themselves, and the Australian Christian Lobby – the main proponents of this legislation outside of the government – still believe that […]

Filtering Not Mandatory – Sometimes

As we all know, Senator Stephen Conroy, through the auspices of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) wishes to mandatorily filter the internet for “bad stuff”, removing a person’s right to choose whether they can access certain “bad stuff” or not. It certainly removes the responsibility for the protection of children from such material […]

Social Engineering in Politics

Social engineering has been used since long before the internet, to garner interest in various topics. Come the connected age of the internet, and the speed at which information can be disseminated, we’ve seen social engineering take on a life of its own – whether used for good or for bad. A good example is […]