michaelwyres.com.au | musings of a geek

Newspaper Fail: Burghers and Frhies

No, the title of this post is not a spelling mistake – well, sort of.

Just snapped this image from the front page of The Age newspaper website:

Burghers? Sub-editing fail.

But do they want frhies with their burgher?

Victorian Government Withheld CenITex Report From Ombudsman

In the final report released by the Victorian Ombudsman into corrupt activities at CenITex, Victoria’s whole-of-government IT services enterprise, it was revealed that the Victorian Assistant Treasurer – (and also the Minister for Technology, and Minister for Aviation), Gordon Rich-Phillips, ignored a request for the provision of a copy of a report prepared by State Services Authority (SSA) on the matter.

Quoting from the executive summary of the report:

“On 13 September 2011, the Hon. Gordon Rich-Phillips MLC, Assistant Treasurer, requested that the State Services Authority (SSA) undertake a review of CenITex and prepare a report for consideration by Cabinet. The terms of reference were to review:”

CenITex’s governance arrangements

CenITex’s processes for providing improved service delivery

CenITex’s financial performance

The current shared services operating model and its viability going forward.

“The final SSA report was provided to the Assistant Treasurer in February 2012 and has not been made public.”

“My officers invited the Assistant Treasurer to provide me with a copy of the SSA report in order to inform my investigation and avoid any potential overlap or duplication between the SSA review and my investigation. However, I did not receive a response to this request.”

What was in the SSA report that Rich-Phillips didn’t want the Ombudsman to see?

It should be remembered that CenITex was established under the previous Labor government in Victoria, and that much of the allegedly corrupt activity was initiated while that government was still in power.

However, the apparent secrecy on a matter of public service corruption is concerning. The allegedly corrupt activities continued after the change of government.

We may never know the full story on this – but watch this space. I’ll be keeping an eye on happenings.

NBN Revenues Provide Interesting Calculations

There were some very interesting revenue figures released as part of NBN Co’s Annual Report 2012 last Friday.

“NBN Co has reported revenues of AU$2 million for the first year of commercial operations for the 13,536 premises connected to the National Broadband Network (NBN), ending June 30, 2012.”

The NBN when completed is designed to cover approximately 12 million premises. If NBN Co can deliver $2 million in revenues over 13,356 premises, lets do some simple maths with the currently factual numbers.

Presuming a 75% uptake of NBN services across the twelve million premise footprint – (ie: nine million premises take up a service) – if 13,356 premises deliver $149.74 each – (to total two million dollars in 2012) – then nine million premises – (at the same rate) – would deliver a revenue flow of $1.34 billion.

Furthermore, it is likely that the annual per-premise revenue will be higher than $149.74, because many – (in actual fact, most) – of those 13,356 premises would not have been connected to the NBN for the entire 12 months covered by the annual report.

Given that the base wholesale NBN pricing is $24.00 per month, theoretically, the minimum annual per-premise revenue should be 12 times that figure, or $288.00 – which is more than double the figure in the annual report.

Nine million premises, at $288.00 per premise gives a revenue flow of $2.52 billion.

Not bad for a “white elephant” that will never pay for itself! It should also be pointed out that NBN Co didn’t start charging ISPs until October 2011.

I also suspect a lot of people will say something like “75% uptake? They’re not even close to that!”.

Sure. That is true – right now.

But as Telstra gradually decommission the copper network within the NBN fibre footprint, people on the existing copper network – (even if it is just for a telephone service only) – will necessarily need to be transferred to the NBN by their service provider to continue that service.

Given also that it is possible to have more than one service per premise, it is technically possible for take up to go beyond 100 percent.

So 75% might actually be a very cautious estimate.

It is making money, and based on these current revenues, a completed NBN should be making a lot of money for a long, long time.

Convicted Killer Chases Horse After It Has Bolted

Ahh, lawyers. Most people have an opinion on them.

Having worked in a couple of different law firms throughout my IT career, I can say hand on heart that almost all of the lawyers I have known are genuinely decent, respectful, professional people.

But there’s been a handful who perpetuate the notion of the stereotypical lawyer.

Most fastidiously research their case load to give themselves the best possible chance of a satisfactory result in the courtroom.

Apparently not these ones.

“”The convicted murderer claims key scenes that relate to the Mersina Halvagis murder case would be a contempt of court if his taxpayer-funded second appeal against the conviction is successful and a retrial is ordered.””

“”The broadcasting of relevant episodes … would constitute a contempt of court,” documents lodged with the Supreme Court claim.”

“”It would be necessary for a Prohibition Order to ensure a fair trial for the accused in relation to this charge.””

The series in question, Killing Time, was actually produced a couple of years ago, and was shown in its entirety on the Foxtel platform between November 2011 and January 2012.

Yet they want they feel the “broadcasting of relevant episodes would constitute a contempt of court.”

Guess what folks? Horse has bolted. It’s already out there. It’s even available on DVD.

Given this case is based in Victoria, lets look at how many people in Melbourne watched the show.

According to the ratings figures only 196,000 people watched the first episode in Melbourne.

More people watched the Big Brother Eviction show.

So, the series has already been shown in full in Victoria on Foxtel, and relatively speaking, nobody in Melbourne watched the show on Channel Seven. It already has been broadcast.

And you can buy it on DVD.

Too late.

Pointless action, or attempt to get publicity?

Probably both.

Down Down, Derp Is Not Down

Waiting in line at the checkout at the local Coles store over the weekend, I found they are selling copies of a Status Quo greatest hits album, complete with the Coles version of “Down Down”.

Really?

They’re celebrating this officially on a Status Quo album?

I fear for the future.

50 Years of Bathurst

This year marks the 50th running of Australia’s Great Race, the Bathurst 1000. Fifty years of heritage, history and emotion.

Channel Seven prepared a most spine tingling introduction for this years telecast.

Awesome.

NBN Fixed Wireless Antenna

With the wireless portion of the NBN progressing, images of these wireless installs are beginning to appear.

Taken from this article about an install in Haddon, Victoria, we can see that the antenna is mounted using the same – (or similar) – universal roof bracket currently in use for the majority of Foxtel satellite installations.

The diamond-shaped antenna itself appears to be a high-gain – (possibly powered) – directional LTE antenna. Nice kit.

The antenna is connected to the same NTU as is used in fibre and satellite NBN connections, as pictured:

Roll on.

Turnbull NBN Costing Backflip?

A month ago, Malcolm Turnbull said that he had a fully costed policy document ready to go with respect to his alternative plan for the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Yet today, he is taking a different tack:

“Mr Turnbull said because the coalition did not have access to the details of the NBN rollout, it was difficult to provide a fully-costed alternative.”

A month ago he had a fully costed plan, now it’s difficult to even make a fully costed plan?

Was he wrong then? Is he wrong now?

Backflip.

UPDATE: Turnbull appeared on ABC’s 730 last night, and continued to espouse the “we can’t cost this until after the election”, despite having a “full costed plan” a month ago:

Zero Day Credibility Hole

In another episode of why writers shouldn’t be writing articles when the don’t know what they are talking about, the Fairfax press have come up with this one this morning about a new vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer:

“Zero-day exploits involve software that takes advantage of a security hole within a site to carry out an attack.”

Umm, what? That’s not a “zero day” exploit. This is a “zero day” exploit:

“A zero-day (or zero-hour or day zero) attack or threat is an attack that exploits a previously unknown vulnerability in a computer application, meaning that the attack occurs on “day zero” of awareness of the vulnerability. This means that the developers have had zero days to address and patch the vulnerability. Zero-day exploits (actual software that uses a security hole to carry out an attack) are used or shared by attackers before the developer of the target software knows about the vulnerability.”

The entire crux of a “zero-day” exploit is that they are exploited before the developers were aware of them. Such exploits also are not contained to “sites”, and can be carried out against any software – not just internet-based services.

Googling “zero day exploit” presents the above Wikipedia article as the first result. It took me 10 seconds to get the exact definition that the writer should have used.

Bravo for highlighting that there’s a problem, but a little fact-checking and basic research would be nice too.

Remembering Nobby

Neil ‘Nobby’ Clarke was never a superstar of Australian Rules football, that’s not what he wanted to be. He just wanted to play football with his mates, and with those mates, he went to the pinnacle of the game. Twice – in 1984 and 1985.

However, on the inside, he struggled with depression, eventually taking his own life in 2003.

Nobby was never my favourite player, but Essendon fans loved him, because he loved the club, and played his heart out for the club.

He may be gone, but he is not forgotten.

With the recent RU OK? Day, dealing with depression – (particularly in helping people around us who we might not know are struggling in their lives) – has been very much in focus.

Check on the family and friends you haven’t heard from in a while.

They may just need you.