Category Archives: Technology

Abbott Proven Wrong On NBN Again

In his federal budget reply speech on 10 May 2012, opposition leader Tony Abbott made a pretty bold statement on how the National Broadband Network (NBN) would hurt household budgets: “Why spend fifty billion dollars on a National Broadband Network, just so customers can subsequently spend, almost three times their current monthly fee for speeds […]

No Evidence Of NBN Threat To Music Sales

The major Fairfax Media mastheads this morning published a ridiculous article – (I know, right?) – asserting that the National Broadband Network (NBN) would provide a greater threat to the music industry with respect to pirate downloads. NBN Threat To Music Sales “But the report also contained a grim warning for Australia: if our current […]

Disparity: The Coalition Proposal For Our Digital Future

With the apparent admission from Malcolm Turnbull last Thursday evening on Lateline, that many Australians may have to wait years to receive the alternative broadband plan that the opposition proposes in place of the NBN, and that many may receive no upgrade at all, the fears of many telecommunications professionals may indeed become reality should […]

Coalition Broadband Plan To Timeout On 30 Percent Of Australians?

In appearance on ABC TV’s Lateline program last night, shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull appeared to suggest that under his alternative national broadband plan, 30 percent of Australians may not actually receive any kind of broadband upgrade as part of his plan. Turnbull Confirms: ‘HFC Areas’ Last To Get FTTN, If At All “Shadow Communications […]

The National Coffee Bean Network?

Hot on the heels of a fiery Senate Estimates hearing into the NBN the other night, in which the opposition attacked NBN Co on their usage of coffee machines – (yes, really) – came this follow up report into the matter. Stupid right? How many workplaces offer coffee to their employees? Every single one I’ve […]

Google Fiber Lighting The Way For Our NBN

Even though I generally truly hate the term “superfast broadband” – (the corny piece of nomenclature insisted upon by our politicians, and which ranks up there with “cyber-this” and “cyber-that”) – the pending arrival of the National Broadband Network (NBN) and its “superfast” speeds in many areas of Australia will mean many things to many […]

Debunking The NBN Radiation Myth

There is often much-ado created when new communications towers – particularly for mobile internet and telephony – are proposed for erection, and the usual NIMBY-like behaviour starts. The two most common complaints are “it looks bad and ruins our views” and “the radiation will kill us”. The visual amenity of communications tower is a valid […]

Facebook Now Lets Anyone Message You At No Cost

Facebook has once again changed its privacy settings, allowing anyone to message you, where previously you could limit who could message you. It was a great mechanism that stopped randoms from sending you messages. I was greeted with the following “information” on my account this afternoon. For some time, Facebook has been toying with the […]

Why Is The CSIRO Analysing Millions Of Tweets?

It seems that “AC” and “DC” over at the CSIRO didn’t get together and discuss the very similar tweets they sent out today. Here’s the first: And here’s the second: How does one analysis come up with 12.5 million tweets about the bushfires in a week, yet another finds only 55,000 out of 6.6 million […]

Turnbull Must Now Accept NBN Has Not Completely Failed

Hey there Malcolm Turnbull – do you remember this interview on Sky News Australia from February 2012? You should, as it is on your own website. It makes interesting reading: “MALCOLM TURNBULL: But you know, the big challenge here — the extraordinary thing that we have seen today, is we know the NBN has passed […]