Category Archives: Technology

Conroy: Australia’s Ted Stevens?

In the shadow of Stephen Conroy’s latest at least semi-gaffe in which the generous licence fee rebate he granted to Australia’s major commercial television networks in February appears to have not had its intended consequence, I keep thinking about former US Senator for Alaska, Ted Stevens. In particular, I am reminded of his famous series […]

Twitter SSL Certificate Expires!

Looks like someone at Twitter headquarters hasn’t been paying attention to basic infrastructure while they’ve been looking at major infrastructure issues. I keep calendar reminders for whenever SSL certificates I handle are about to expire, to make sure I renew them. How about it Twitter?

(Yet) Another Reason the Internet Filter is Useless

Anyone who has been following the internet filtering debate with an objective eye, will understand how completely pointless it will be to spend $44.5M – (in the first year alone) – of taxpayer money on this politically motivated and farcical plan. Despite an admission by the department that it won’t be illegal to bypass the […]

NBN: More Election Spin!

I read with interest that ALP have today announced that should they win the upcoming federal election, that they will extend the footprint of the National Broadband Network (NBN) to cover 93% of the Australian population, up from the previous promise of 90% coverage. NBN Coverage Increased to 93pc It is interesting that at an […]

@David_Speers – Hello and Congratulations!

David – congratulations to yourself and to Sky News Australia for landing the role of moderator and convener of the upcoming first leaders debate for the 2010 Australian Federal Election. Top Notch. On behalf of the many thousands of law-abiding internet users who believe in democracy in this country, please raise the issue of Federal […]

Our Censorship Future?

When Turkey decided that it was a good idea to censor what it considered “questionable or objectionable material” on the internet, many were outraged – just as many people in Australia are currently outraged over similar plans for Australia. The following AlJazeera story demonstrates just how – and how quickly – their filter became wildly […]

Internet: A Special Case or Not?

One of the main arguments put forward by supporters of the internet filter is that the internet is no different from any other content distribution mechanism in the modern, connected world. They insist their plan is “not censorship”. They insist that the internet is “nothing special”, and that it is a “broadcast mechanism” – much […]

Internet Bushfire Alert

When a bushfire strikes, many different mechanisms swing into place to protect life and property. Brave firefighters rush to the fire front and seek to douse the flames. Others move ahead of the front, performing back-burning to hopefully stop the spread of the fire. People used to be told to leave their homes early, or […]

Internet Censorship Poll

We opponents of the government’s mandatory internet filtering plan are often accused of being “small, but well organised groups of nerds” seeking to make some noise. Yes, we want to make some noise – however, opposition to this filter runs far and wide – well outside of the boundaries of the so-called “nerdesphere”. Dozens of […]

Please, Somebody Think of the Horses?!

Quite rightly, there is a strong movement within animal rights groups for the for the banning of jumps racing. While many people are employed in this industry, the apparent difference between the number of serious injuries suffered by horses in jumps racing – (particularly involving the horse being put down) – as opposed to the […]