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Julia Gillard became Australia’s first female Prime Minister today. Of course, her being a female is irrelevant, and in the fullness of time, we’ll find out if her rise to the leadership will be a good or bad thing.
The thing is, she KNEW she would be become Prime Minister today. Couldn’t she have run some Colgate Whitening over those teeth? Not a good look. First item on the agenda is a possible endorsement deal from Macleans or Colgate!
There were amazing scenes at Canberra Airport this morning, with what might be the final flight of “Milky Bar Kid Airlines” leaving for Brisbane amid rumours of a fuel spill during final preparations for depature.
One passenger is believed to have reported that a male flight attendant made the following announcement as the aircraft taxied away from the terminal:
“Welcome aboard this Milky Bar Kid Airlines flight, number #999 from Canberra to Brisbane. As we make our way to the end of the runway, as we take off, and continue on towards our destination, please ensure that your eyes are always turned to the left side of the aircraft, as the Right Wing now disgusts me!”
In [yet another] major embarrassment for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, the Privacy Commissioner has labelled the inadvertent Google Wi-Fi data collection bungle – (the same bungle that Conroy called “the biggest privacy breach in history”) – as “not so bad”.
| Google Wi-Fi Snooping Not So Bad: Privacy Commissioner |
There are several golden snippets from the above article, credited to the commissioner, Karen Curtis:
What this means for the Australian Federal Police investigation into the “biggest privacy breach in history” remains to be seen. No doubt the senator will try and spin it in some way.
Conroy was concerned that Google was in fact collecting personally identifiable location-based information, in collecting information regarding Wi-Fi networks. As I have discussed previously in this article, in actual fact the government releases more personally identifiable location-based information than he was accusing Google of collecting. Google certainly has not released any of the information it collected in error.
Hilariously, in the middle of the massive barney he started with Google, he also claimed on radio that Google may have even collected internet banking details. Once again, as discussed here, it was shown that he was completely wrong/stupid/inept/all of the above.
How much more of this incompetent bumbling fool must we endure?
The dust has settled a little since the surprise announcement yesterday of the $11Bn deal between the National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co), and Telstra, that will see the NBN rolled out using predominantly passive Telstra infrastructure. Namely, this is Telstra’s network of pits, ducts, and some cabling infrastructure.
The deal will see the gradual decommissioning of two Telstra networks – the ageing copper network, and the Hybrid Fibre-Coaxial (HFC) broadband and pay-tv cable network. The HFC network will get some reprieve while existing contracts with Foxtel are played out, but will also eventually be decommissioned.
What does the deal mean overall? Well, firstly, this is only what is called a “heads of agreement” – basically, an agreement to work towards reaching an agreement within the scope of the details released yesterday. However, the benefits of getting the final deal over the line will be massive.
Should the finer details be worked out – and it would be highly surprising that they wouldn’t – the NBN has suddenly taken a massive step forward, and Australians should be excited at the economic possibilities. Under the leadership of Sol Trujillo, Telstra could not have been further from reaching the kind of agreement reached yesterday. New CEO David Thodey has allowed more vision toward to the future to flavour his thinking – (and that of the Telstra board) – and has effectively created a whole new Telstra.
Whether or not that is a good thing, or whether the final form of the agreement can be reached quickly remains to be seen. I have to think that there is a lot more good to come of this than bad.
Time alone will now tell.
Exactly which part of Stephen Conroy’s anatomy does Kevin Rudd have a hold of in this shot? Some have said yesterday’s Telstra / NBN Co deal has taken Telstra by the short and curlies.
Maybe our Prime Minister has a different set of short and curlies in mind?
One of the biggest issues – particularly in terms of cost – for Australian ISPs at this time, is access to the local copper loop to provide DSL service. DSL services – (whether they be ADSL, ADSL2, SHDSL or any other xDSL based service) – cover the vast majority of all internet connections in Australia.
Given their monopoly over the copper network, Telstra has been able to charge pretty much anything they like on a service-by-service basis for access to the local loop into any premise. The larger ISPs have been getting a reasonable deal – (simply due to volume) – but smaller ISPs have almost no ability to compete on price, as due to their lower volumes, are generally stung with a higher access charge per subscriber.
This has seen many in the industry calling for the “structural separation” of Telstra into separate retail and wholesale arms, and some kind of governance being put in place to ensure a level playing field for all ISPs in terms of the wholesale charges incurred to access the network.
Telstra have, naturally, been steadfast in their resistance to such a plan, which would obviously hurt their bottom line if the level of access charge became effectively out of their control.
Today has seen a landmark compromise with the signing of an effectively $11B deal between Telstra, the Australian Government, and the National Broadband Network (NBN Co). NBN Co is responsible for the design, and construction of Australia’s forthcoming Fibre-to-the-Premise (FttP) wholesale network.
| Telstra Agrees to $11bn Transfer Deal |
In effect, NBN is buying the network assets of Telstra – (pits, ducting, cabling) – in return for $9B cash over time, and another $2B in sweeteners to assist in the migration of all Telstra services currently on the ancient copper network, onto the NBN. Telstra would then have little to do with eventual, actual wholesale fibre network.
In effect, structural separation by another name.
While the $11B deal appears to suit Telstra’s board, something more important, and worth far, far more comes from the deal. The effective abandoning of the copper network means that the millions of xDSL connections in place around the country must transfer to the NBN, as the copper network will gradually disappear.
There have always been questions on whether the NBN would be taken up in significant enough numbers – today’s deal basically ensures that almost everyone will be on the NBN in some form or another, even if it is just for basic telephony.
The NBN has just taken a massive step towards reality, and the much needed structural separation of Telstra has come about.
Finally.
As is my habit in the car, I tend to listen to ABC NewsRadio, as this is often the only chance I get to absorb news media during any given day. Travelling home from work this evening, I stopped to listen to some live senate discussion about film and literature classification. Normally I turn off when parliament is being broadcast – (normally bores me to tears) – but I left it on when I heard the subject of the discussion.
It was in regards to the 1970’s film Salo, which was banned in this country at the time of its first release. In 1993, the then Keating Labor government overturned the ban, before the Howard Liberal government once again banned it in 1998.
| Push to Reinstate Ban on Violent Film |
Recently the Rudd Labor government again overturned the ruling, and has made it available for DVD release only, despite the fact that it is often described to contain “scenes of torture and degradation, sexual violence and nudity”.
Does not our dear friend Senator Stephen Conroy often say that films containing “scenes of torture and degradation, sexual violence and nudity”, are not available on DVD – (or on television, or in cinemas, yada yada yada…yawn)?
Does it seem that Conroy has it all wrong again – with the very government he is a part of allowing such a movie to be released on DVD?
Does the left hand of this government even have any idea what the right hand is doing?
I have never really understood in this age of spellcheckers – (and similar) – in modern computer systems, how obvious spelling mistakes can creep into newspapers – both in online and print versions.
Of late, Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper has been particularly good at missing really obvious stuff, but it is a phenomenon that finds its way into many media outlets. Spelling and grammar is sometimes so bad, you wonder if anyone is proof-reading anything before the “publish” button is clicked.
“Enermies”? I mean, I can understand where the obvious “there”, “their”, and “they’re” errors are not picked up by spellcheckers – (since they are all correct spellings, just grammatically different – though proof-reading should pick it up) – but “enermies”?
Who checks this stuff?
There has been a lot of talk both online and offline since yesterday’s revelation that the Australian government wishes to force ISPs to log internet browsing histories for an extended period of time for all users, without the need for a warrant.
Without jumping to Orwellian conclusions – (lets remember, this is only a proposal at this time) – this concept would have massive implications for society in this country, should it ever come to pass.
Imagine you are a professional wrestler, with an image of power and aggression to satisfy your fans. You are rippling with muscles, and you shine you muscles with baby oil before every bout, and women just love you for your oozing masculinity.
However, secretly in your own home, you enjoy looking at pictures of little pink pussycats, wearing linen bonnets. No harm in that, but knowing that it might harm your public image, you prefer that it not be public knowledge.
So you keep it to yourself, and carry on with your wrestling career.
A year from now, a system administrator at your ISP, having a bad day, is threatened with the sack from his or her job. In an attempt to stave off the inevitable, they illegally take a copy of the ISP browsing history of all customers of the ISP. Including yours. Covering several years of your online activities.
A few days later, the administrator loses their job, but still has a copy of the logs at home. Enraged for losing their job, they collate the logs user-by-user.
They notice your logs, and your frequent visits to “littlepinkpussycatsinlinenbonnets.com” and – (probably correctly) – deduce that you are into that. As revenge on their former employer for losing their job, and against you for beating up their favourite wrestler the week before, they release the log of your activities onto an internet forum.
Your public image is severely compromised. You could seek an apology and compensation, but the “truth” is already out there, and can never be taken back.
Should you have refrained from entertaining yourself online with a subject you are interested in, just because the information might become public someday?
No – your right to privacy has been infringed, because although my example is a bit “out there”, the mere collection of such data opens the possibility for the abuse of that data.
The government may swear that they will have “checks and balances” in place to protect it, however you can never guard against everything. Does a traffic light turning red actually FORCE a driver to stop?
Any person with access/exposure to the data has the potential to abuse it – and you can never guarantee that someone with a grudge to bear won’t use the data for evil purposes.
Sure, they would face consequences, but the deed is done. The information is out.
The government say they would just be following a similar model to that which is in place in the EU. Who says the EU is right about this?
Our government may think it is a good idea to keep this data, and certainly there would be advantages for law enforcement agencies if such data was collected and kept.
But the data would exist. Data that exists can be leaked, stolen, and/or abused.
What “little pink pussycats” do you have in your closet?
Hot on the heels of the wild accustion by Stephen Conroy that Google had committed the “single biggest breach of privacy in history”, and in the spirit of “anything you can do, we can do better”, comes the revelation that the same government that he is a part of, via the Department of the Attorney-General, wishes to push the invasion of privacy far beyond the levels they accuse Google of doing:
| Government Wants ISPs to Record Browsing History |
Yes, that’s right, the government wants to be able to record – (and therefore track) – every single web page that every single person views on an Australian internet connection. This may also extend to email traffic.
They claim that this will be for the support of law enforcement activities – that of course would remain to be seen. At this time, law enforcement agencies need to gain warrants to be able to monitor this information, against someone they suspect of being involved in a criminal act.
Under this proposal, this would go by the wayside – and all users would have their connections tracked/logged regardless.
Will this government use the information to “research” which people are searching the internet for ways to get around their proposed draconian internet filter? Will they use the information to discover more and more material to add to the ACMA blacklist?
This government has the nerve to accuse Google of committing the “biggest single breach of privacy in history”? Spare me. Eleven years ago, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems was right – privacy is history. He famously told people to “get over it.”
Right now, I think the best way to “get over it” is to make so much noise about this latest attack on the Australian community, and let the wider population of this country see what a rogue bunch of scum this government is made up of!