12 months on, Victoria Police still has no CIO

0
12 months on from the departure of its then-chief information officer Michael Vanderheide to lead Victorian IT shared services agency CenITex, Victoria Police still has not appointed a permanent CIO to lead its extremely troubled IT operations.

Coalition NBN policy: Costed or not costed?

47
Call us sticklers for the truth, but it does seem rather like Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been jumping back and forth recently over the issue of whether the Coalition's rival National Broadband Network policy has been costed.

Shock: iPhone 5 queue “pretentious, superficial”

39
Shock news has arrived this morning courtesy of The Register, which reports that the experience of queueing overnight (or even for several nights running) to buy an iPhone 5 may not be the glorious experience which Apple fans have believed it to be.

Critics flood Roxon with copies of Orwell’s ‘1984’

52
Half a dozen of Roxon’s fiercest critics have started mailing the Labor Senator copies of George Orwell’s iconic book 1984.

NAB deploys Chatter … and Yammer?

11
From Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference in the US this week comes the news that the National Australia Bank has deployed the company's internal social networking tool Chatter ... as well as having an existing rollout of Yammer.

IT management: Stepping away from the tools

6
Fascinating rumination here from Sydney-based Doug Rathbone, a long-time IT professional and current technical director at advertising agency BMF.

LNP sacks 80 from CITEC

11
Not satisfied with terminating some 384 technology contractors already this year and running the axe over the IT department at the state's education department, Queensland's new LNP Government led by Premier Campbell Newman has now turned its attention to IT shared services unit CITEC.

iHype: Welcome to the iPhone 5 hypno-orgy

34
Apparently, the iPhone 5 is already a success, before it even launches.

Readershop will import new Kindles

8
Remember how that big old nasty Amazon decided not to launch its new Kindle tablet and e-reader models in Australia, apart from the lowest-end model. Well, don’t worry Australia, local ereader retailer Readershop‘s got your back, and will be importing the new models.

Coalition party room erupts with data retention dissent

17
Well, well. Looks like Coalition MPs in general are not as disinterested in the Federal Government's controversial data retention and surveillance proposal as has been previously believed.

Specsavers deploys Google Apps, loves cloud

2
Optometry chain Specsavers has deployed Google Apps to its Australian staff and hopes to continue moving almost everything else into the fluffy happy land of cloud computing, the company's Asia-Pacific IT director Simon Baxter has told iTNews on the sidelines of the CIO Strategy Summit the week before last.

Coca-Cola Amatil takes SAP project to Asia

1
For those wondering where Coca Cola Amatil is at with its comprehensive SAP-based internal enterprise IT applications overhaul project, wonder no more.

Jetstar pushes into IT outsourcing, BYOD

1
There's been a flurry of IT-related news issued by low-cost Qantas brand Jetstar this morning.

Domino’s migrates into Telstra cloud

3
Pizza chain Domino's has revealed that it has shifted its IT infrastructure out of an in-house datacentre (some where also with a third-party) and onto Telstra's Infrastructure as a Service platform.

Apple win doesn’t apply to Australia: Samsung

22
Wondering if Apple's billion-dollar patents victory in the US against Korean consumer electronics rival Samsung will have any impact on the Australian market? Well, it was always unlikely, given the differing legal jurisdictions. But now we have an official answer from Samsung itself.

Mac Uni CIO on Apple, Android tablets and IT life

5
Local Apple forum MacTalk has just published an extensive podcast interview with Macquarie University chief information officer Marc Bailey, which we commend to your attention.

I’m no FTTN “zealot”, says Malcolm Turnbull

54
This morning's Financial Review (where else?) has published a spanking new lengthy profile of Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Among other things, the Liberal MP addresses his reputation amongst 'NBN backers', who, he believes, are treating him a little unfairly.

BPOS holdouts have “head in the sand”, says MVP

4
Office 365 MVP Loryan Strant has some pretty harsh words today for those Australian customers who have proven unwilling to migrate off Microsoft's defunct Business Productivity Online Suite platform (which is being essentially shut down) and onto Office 365.

Office 365 switch may hit BPOS die-hards

6
Are you a customer of Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite who hasn't yet confirmed your intention to upgrade to the new Office 365 paradigm? Well, reality check: You don't have much time to make the change before BPOS is switched off.

Woolworths deploys iPads to all store managers

1
It's raining iPads at retail giant Woolworths, according to an article this morning by The Australian newspaper, which details the company's plans to deploy the Apple tablets to some 890 store managers nationwide.

Turnbull slams ‘pro-NBN zealot journalists’

92
Specialist technology journalists are fanning a pro-NBN zealotry among tech-savvy citizens, according to Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Oh, dear.

Huawei chief executive lands in Australia

4
Buried in an article by the Financial Review this morning is the news that the global chief executive of networking equipment giant Huawei has arrived in Australia.

Assange: UK threatens to storm Ecuador embassy

36
The UK Government has reportedly threatened to send law enforcement resources into Ecuador's embassy in London to retrieve Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, as the stakes and tension regarding the Australian citizen's legal situation in the country continue to rise day by day.

National IT outage “minimal”, claims CommBank

1
Yesterday at a financial results briefing session, the Commonwealth Bank opened up for the first time regarding the nationwide outage which took down around 9,000 of its desktop PCs, hundreds of servers and even its CommSee customer management system.

Assange to get asylum in Ecuador

34
Australian citizen and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will shortly be granted asylum in Ecuador, according to the UK's Guardian newspaper.

Roxon has paused data retention plans, says SMH

13
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the current AG Nicola Roxon may have come to see the light on the unpopularity of her department's current wide-reaching surveillance package currently before the Federal Parliament's Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.

What a dream home NBN setup looks like

59
If you’ve been following the blog of MacTalk and One More Thing founder Anthony Agius recently, like I have, you’ll know that he’s building the mother of all geek houses, from scratch. NBN connectivity, solar panels, home automation, the best construction materials; Agius’ new house is going to have it all.

NBN not transparent enough, says Oakeshott

23
Not content with repeatedly dragging NBN Co executives on a regular basis before parliamentary committees and poring over the many reports and documents the company has released, independent MP Rob Oakeshott has reportedly demanded NBN Co provide yet more information about its operations in an effort to be more transparent.

Office 365 juggernaut hits ANU

3
Qantas, Mr Rental, Fortescue, Coles, Curtin University, a slew of local non-profits and more: The list of Australian organisations to announce that they're deploying Microsoft's Office 365 software as a service productivity suite is growing day by day. And now, according to iTNews, the Australian National University has added itself to that list.

NBN budget doesn’t include interest, says Turnbull

86
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has publicly claimed that there's an error in the National Broadband Network budgeting, due to Labor not counting the cost of interest on debt or equity required to fund the NBN.

Aussie IT startup A-Team creates new VC fund

0
A who’s who of the Australian technology startup founder scene (you know these guys, it’s much of the same crew behind initiatives such as Startmate — the Atlassian founders, Niki Scevak and so on) has reportedly banded together to kickstart a new Australian venture capital fund dubbed ‘Blackbird Ventures’.

Carbon Tax: How will it hit servers?

23
How much impact will the Federal Government's so-called Carbon Tax have on server hosting costs? According to Aidan Tudehope, the managing director of Macquarie Telecom's hosting division, quite a lot.

Qld wrestles with WinXP upgrade

30
Work in the Queensland Government and stuck on a dated desktop PC running Windows XP? Bad news.

Enterprise will hold back on Windows 8

28
I recently came across a fantastic series of posts which pretty much sums up what I think about Microsoft's incoming new operating system Windows 8.

Has Anonymous hacked an Aussie ISP?

24
A number of technology media outlets yesterday reported they had spoken to a member of the Anonymous collective of Internet activists, who stated that they had broken into a major Australian ISP and were preparing to release a vast package of internal data to prove that the Federal Government's surveillance and data retention plans weren't secure.

Adobe bucks IT price hike inquiry

24
US software giant Adobe is fast emerging as one of the toughest nuts to crack when it comes to the IT price hike inquiry currently being carried out by the Federal Parliament.

Transformer Pad Infinity lands Aug 7

8
The ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity looks set to hit Australian from August 7 this year.

Ex-staffer threatened ISP director with axe

20
If you thought you were having a bad day, spare a thought for the company director of an un-named South Australian ISP, who was recently threatened with an axe by an angry individual who had also allegedly hacked into its servers.

IT price hike inquiry: Apple gets private hearing

14
Apple, as per usual Cupertino style, doesn’t want the public involved, and has pressured Federal MPs into a private, closed door hearing on the matter of IT price hikes.

Qantas dumps BlackBerrys for iPhones

4
National carrier Qantas has reportedly confirmed plans to ditch some 1,300 corporate BlackBerrys and replace them with iPhones, as the ongoing corporate shift away from Research in Motion's BlackBerry ecosystem gains pace.

“Failure and incompetence”: Mark Newton on surveillance reforms

3
At Delimiter we love a good rant, especially if it’s about the tragically flawed understanding which our Federal Government and attendant politicans appear to have about technology. And this one, by network engineer Mark Newton (he’s got form in this area) is a cracker.

The ATO’s decade-long Mac denial

26
The reluctance of the Australian Taxation Office to provide a working version of its e-tax lodgement software for the Apple Macintosh has been a long-time bug-bear with Mac users around Australia for a long time. But some of them may not realise just how long angry parliamentarians and others have been harassing the agency about the issue.

Qld Govt IT contractors face layoff massacre

3
Over at the blog of Queensland-based ICT analyst house Longhaus, the firm’s managing director Peter Carr has published some ruminations about the tough future facing many of the state’s ICT contractors as the new LNP State Government puts technology squarely in the layoff firing line.

Aussie CIOs back Surface tablet

14
When it comes to tablets in the enterprise, Apple's iPad is currently the market leader. But, according to some early indications, Microsoft may be in with a winner with its new Surface tablet.

NSW Health unleashes mammoth email consolidation

7
If you follow technology news relating to Australian governments, you can't help but laugh sometimes; because if you didn't, you'd cry at the irony of it all.

Aussie Google store hobbled for Nexus 7 launch

22
We shouldn't have to find out weeks after the Google Nexus 7 is unveiled through investigative work by bloggers that Google's latest tablet will be hobbled in Australia. Google should be more up-front about this kind of stuff.

Govt’s new e-health platform already hacked

9
That shiny new e-health platform which the Federal Government sent live this week? The one you're supposed to put all of your most personal medical information in, for sharing only between your cadre of closed-lipped medical professionals? Yup. It was hacked during its development.

Microsoft Yammer buy great news, says cloud CIO

2
Will Microsoft’s $1.2 billion purchase of corporate social networking firm Yammer be a positive event for the future of enterprise IT? Yes, according to Alan Perkins, one of Australia’s leading IT executives when it comes to understanding cloud computing.

Homeless Sydney dev “will code for latte”

17
I don't know whether to feel slightly dubious about her story or merely sorry for Adelle Hartley, a Sydney C#/SQL developer who says she is homeless and has featured in an extensive article published by ninemsn this week.

Google Nexus tablet hits Oz in July: Gizmodo

1
Gizmodo Australia this afternoon reported that Google will launch its own 7" Android tablet, dubbed the Nexus 7 and running version 5.0 of Android (Jelly Bean) in Australia this July, with prices ranging from US$199 to US$249.

Slow Friday as we switch web hosts

27
Turbulence expected as Delimiter changes web hosts.

Attention Telstra: Shut up and take my money

73
Hey everyone, just a quick update on my plans to dump my iPhone 4 for a HTC One XL today.

Announcing the winner: Delimiter’s iPad giveaway

6
We award an iPad to a lucky Delimiter reader.

eBay Australia hands seller details to Govt

15
Online auction house eBay has reportedly handed over the details of thousands of its Australian sellers, as part of an initiative by the Federal Government's Human Services Department (which houses welfare agency Centrelink) to target those it suspects of cheating the welfare system.

Partial text RSS feeds

36
Just a very quick message that I have been forced into changing Delimiter's RSS feeds into partial text feeds, as opposed to the full text RSS feeds which you are used to.

Optus to release Galaxy Tab 2 10.1?

0
According to Ausdroid, which usually has the inside scoop on these things, Optus is shortly planning to launch version 2 of Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet (the 10.1" model).

Amazon’s Australian datacentre gets closer

6
That Australian datacentre which Amazon was planning to build? It's been a while since we heard a good rumour on that one, but The Register delivers this week, with news that the US cloud computing and online retail giant's local plans are still on.

NT Govt buys a new IBM mainframe

8
Due to the incredible rise of the x86 chipset over the past several decades, it's easy to forget that at the beating heart of many organisations, those ancient dreadnoughts which the IT industry knows as the common or garden mainframes are still found, continuing to promulgate their ever-lasting mission of stability, cost efficiency and power.

Apple agrees $2.25m iPad 4G fine

17
From the Department of Technology-related Parking Fines comes the news that Apple has agreed to pay $2.25 million in penalties to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for falsely marketing its new iPad tablet as being capable of 4G mobile broadband speeds in Australia.

HP starts cutting Aussie staff; Caspari ascends

3
Well, that didn't take long. Just a couple of weeks after global technology giant HP revealed it would be cutting some 27,000 employees globally, the company's local cuts have started to surface.

iPad too tough to support, says Dell Australia

28
Fighting words this morning from Joe Kremer, the managing director of Dell Australia, who has had a bit of a spray against Apple's flagship iPad tablet, alleging that it's not fit for use in large organisations and that the battle to conquer the tablet market isn't over yet.

CSIRO still running Windows 98, NT

19
In an otherwise unrelated article on the organisation's adoption of Internet Protocol version 6, an article published by ZDNet.com.au yesterday revealed that Australia's peak scientific research agency was still running some copies of Windows 98 and NT4.

US doesn’t want Assange, says ambassador

7
Remember those high-handed statements and protests which erupted last week in Australia about the possibility of Australian citizen Julian Assange being extradited from Sweden to the US? Well, it turns out the US actually has no interest in extraditing the Wikileaks founder.

When good copper cable goes bad

62
Since we published our "worst of the worst" photo gallery of Telstra's copper telecommunications network several weeks ago, we've been receiving a constant drip stream of complaints and extra examples of poor quality areas of the network.

McKinnon’s ghost still haunts Clive Whincup

0
There was a lovely moment during the CEDA lunch with Westpac chief information officer Clive Whincup at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney yesterday that I suspect perfectly illustrates the current dynamics within Westpac's technology leadership team.

“Bragging rights?” Telstra has 1,000 4G base stations

26
Telstra has hit the 1,000 base station mark for installations of its 4G mobile network around Australia, and Optus and Vodafone are nowhere near catching up.

Author John Birmingham quits eBook DRM

3
Australian author John Birmingham dumps eBook DRM.

“Can do” Queensland starts cutting IT staff

2
Queensland's new LNP Premier Campbell Newman has started wielding the axe in the state's public service, according to a report by the Courier Mail newspaper published yesterday -- and information technology staff are some of the first in line.

The marvellously destructive power of the Internet:A rant by Mark Newton

7
You might have noticed that at Delimiter we love an epic rant, and as we've previously written, former Internode network engineer Mark Newton has form in this area. Whether it be on the issue of the Internet filter, the National Broadband Network or other topics, Newton is wonderfully unafraid to tell it like it is, and that's one reason we love him (in a platonic sense, of course).

China concerned by Huawei NBN ban, says Bob Carr

7
Foreign Minister Bob Carr hit up the ABC's flagship current affairs program 7:30 last night and was quizzed by host Chris Uhlmann on, among other things, the attitude of Chinese officials to the Federal Government's move to block Chinese networking gear supplier Huawei from participating in National Broadband Network contracts.

Will Telstra skip Nokia’s Lumia 900?

9
Australian Windows Phone blog WPDownUnder has stated that it is its "firm opinion" that Telstra will not sell Nokia's flagship Lumia 900 handset slated to launch in Australia tonight, with the handset reported to be an exclusive to the nation's number two telco Optus.

Two good Australian CIO interviews

0
There have been a couple of good interviews with Australian chief information officers done by various media outlets over the past couple of days -- good enough that we thought them worth highlighting to readers on Delimiter.

Blizzard honours GAME’s Diablo III pre-orders

10
Pre-ordered hit Diablo III from dying Australian video game retailer GAME? Frustrated that you won’t be able to play this year’s biggest game when it launches at 5PM today, as GAME has been blocked from selling Diablo III? Worry no more. Blizzard’s got your back.

SAP considers Aussie datacentre

0
The Financial Review has reported that German software giant SAP is likely to build an Australian datacentre to provide services to Australian organisations, should new privacy legislation pass that could affect vendors' ability to sell cloud computing services locally from global facilities.

How much more do servers cost in Australia?

5
How much more do the hardware servers used by small businesses and large organisations cost in Australia? Quite a lot more than in the US, according to a report by small business technology media outlet BIT, in yet another case of the Australian technology tax striking fear into Australian wallets.

Optus a “disgusting” company, says AFL chief

15
AFL chief Andrew Demetriou has reportedly blown his stack over Optus' appeal in the ongoing legal drama over the telco's TV Now Internet TV recording system, labelling the company "a disgusting organisation" which was undermining the rights of sports companies.

Technology and planned obsolescence

0
Very insightful blog post here by Longhaus managing director Peter Carr, who has made a sophisticated argument regarding planned obsolescence with respect to implementing technology in organisations.

Why do Australians pay more for Office 365?

12
A great analysis piece was published on local cloud computing media outlet BoxFreeIT last month on why Australians pay more for Microsoft's Office 365 software as a service suite.

Rackspace promises Aussie datacentre

5
Will Rackspace roll out Australian datacentre infrastructure in the next year or so? The company says yes, but we'll believe it when we see it.

4G faster than the NBN? I don’t think so

154
Today's dose of National Broadband Network-related FUD comes from the West Australian newspaper, which has done some testing of Telstra's 4G mobile broadband network in Perth and come to the conclusion that "Wireless 4G leaves NBN in its wake". Riiiiight.

Local Govt groups abandon Yammer trials

40
According to a yarn by The Register this week, at least two Australian trials of corporate social networking tool Yammer in Australia have been recently abandoned.

A challenge for Telstra: Show us your best

45
Yesterday a lot of people complained that our photo gallery of the "worst of the worst" of Telstra's copper network didn't fairly represent the strength and quality of the network as a whole. So today, we're challenging Telstra to show us its best.

Vic Govt to sack CenITex board

11
The Victorian Government is set to remove the board of troubled state IT shared services agency CenITex, according to a report published by Melbourne newspaper The Age late last week.

Unhappy dragon: Westpac IBM outsourcing spreads to St George

3
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that up to 200 jobs at Westpac subsidiary St George may be outsourced to IBM.

Defence worthy of a High Court victory? “Yes, Minister”

29
Given iiNet's conclusive victory in its High Court defence against AFACT this morning, it seems an appropriate time to remind readers of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's opinion of the case, aired in March 2009.

Australia’s copper broadband infrastructure: The reality

107
What I want to do with this article is encourage people to send any similar shots you have of awful sections of Australia's copper telecommunications infrastructure in so we can publish a huge collection. Broken cables, cables poking out, patch panels with wires everywhere, street-side cabinets open to the elements, we want them all.

Fixed-line broadband competition in Australia

6
It gets more depressing every day ...

Westpac delays shift off Lotus Notes

19
Remember in May 2011, when we broke the news that Westpac confirmed it would finally shift off IBM’s troubled Lotus Notes/Domino platform, in favour of an organisation wide shift to a hosted version of Microsoft Outlook/Exchange? Well, it appears that shift isn’t going too well.

Hudson reveals major virtual desktop rollout

0
If there is one enterprise IT trend which is taking off in Australia in a strong way right now, it's the move towards virtualisation on the desktop. Finally, enterprises are doing away with the ageing dedicated desktop PC rollout paradigm and replacing it with something which has the potential to be much more flexible and manageable.

Oops

12
The Australian newspaper is forced to correct a report regarding the National Broadband Network and a college in South Australia.

Buzzword bingo

14
This afternoon I received the following media release from NEC Australia. However, unfortunately I have no idea what it means. Can anyone tell me? The problem appears to be the sheer number of buzzwords inserted into the one press release -- I can't tell the content from the buzzwords.

Startmate startups incorporated in … Delaware?

27
Every so often you come across something in Australia’s technology sector which infuriates you because of its counter-intuitiveness. Today’s item is the news broken by Mahesh Sharma at ZDNet.com.au that local technology incubator Startmate has successfully advised its latest batch of companies to become incorporated in the state of Delaware in the US instead of in Australia.

SA Govt forgets to pay phone bill

4
Think the Queensland and Western Australian State Governments have got problems with their technology shared services divisions? Well, they have. But at least they (we assume) pay their telephone bills on time. That isn’t precisely the case in South Australia, where the state’s Finance Minister yesterday revealed it couldn’t even get that right.

Dimension Data provides further cloud details

1
You may remember that last week we were fairly hard on IT services outfit Dimension Data for issuing what we saw as a media release heavy on hype (mentioning cloud computing 71 times) but light on technical detail. Well, to the company's credit, it has now come through with the goods, responding to all of our questions on its cloud computing offering in full.

Leap year outages: Nostalgia for Y2K?

10
Call us nostalgic, but today's news that the Health Industry Claims and Payments Service (HICAPS) system owned by the National Australia bank was taken down by faulty programming associated with today's leap year date takes us back to the good old days of Year 2000 bugs.

Caption this picture: Best friends

31
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull published this photo on Twitter this morning of himself and the good Senator Conroy, Communications Minister, having a polite cup of tea.

Stephen Conroy trawls Whirlpool threads

24
Think your fevered rantings on Australia's technology forum of forums, Whirlpool, are private and just among mates? Think again. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has admitted he is addicted to trawling threads on the site for the latest posts about his pet project, the National Broadband Network.

Turnbull “gets” the NBN, claims Oakeshott

6
Independent MP Rob Oakeshott has stated that he would be more willing to deal with a Coalition Government led by Malcolm Turnbull than Tony Abbott, due, among other reasons, to the fact that Turnbull "gets" the need for the National Broadband Network project to go ahead.

New Qld Govt CIO a chance for ‘industry unity’

2
There is the chance for a fresh start in Queensland at the moment. And if the various CIOs, politicians and industry players can get behind that, perhaps the state can avoid having virtually every major whole of government technology project, and many others, savaged by its auditor-general in a few years' time when the next round of audits comes up.

Sydneysiders quit Google to fix … Gmail

5
What is hilarious and very telling about Google's current corporate culture is that three entrepreneurs felt it necessary to resign from their (no doubt high-paying) jobs in the supposedly innovative GooglePlex in order to push the envelope forward on email, an area which Google itself revolutionised almost a decade ago with Gmail.

NBN pricing revisited: The ARPU argument

215
Grahame Lynch is a respected telecommunications commentator and a professional colleague of mine with whom I have shared many an ale. But, like other commentators on the issue of NBN pricing, he hasn't provided enough evidence to make his case that broadband prices will rise under the NBN.

Westpac still running IE6

14
iTNews has published an excellent article today detailing how almost all of Westpac's staff are still running Internet Explorer 6, and, presumably, Windows XP).

NBN detracts from productivity, claims Hockey

85
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has made some ... interesting claims about Labor's flagship National Broadband Network project.

HP issues waffle statement on job cuts claim

10
Help us decipher HP's waffle.

Qld Health’s IT woes just keep coming

4
An interesting article published here by the Courier-Mail just before Christmas lays out yet another IT-related headache being suffered at the moment by Queensland's favourite technological minefield, Queensland Health.

Turnbull’s credit card details exposed in Stratfor hack

3
By now many of you know that a number of Australian organisations have had their credit card numbers compromised by a major hack of the US security intelligence firm Stratfor, with Australian victims including ANZ Bank, BHP, HSBC, Westpac, Woodside and so on. But did you know that Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull's security has also been compromised?

The theory of infinite Simon Hacketts

7
Over on Whirlpool, forum poster Garthy advances an interesting theory about why the iiNet buyout of Internode took place, applying mathematical rigour to the situation to come up with the terrifying (or maybe glorious, depending on which way you look at it) prospect that the event may have the practical effect of creating an infinite number of Simon Hacketts.

EA’s Syndicate reboot game banned in Australia

19
Video games giant EA has confirmed news broken by Kotaku yesterday (further reports at Ausgamers, Kotaku and Gamespot) that its reboot of the classic Syndicate game being planned for next year has been refused classification in Australia and won’t go on sale.

Westpac loses McKinnon deputy Sarv Girn

0
The fallout from the reshuffle at Westpac continued today, with the Financial Review breaking the news that senior IT executive Sarv Girn would quit the bank in search of a chief information officer role elsewhere.

Good guy Gates on the NBN

14
Good guy Gates on the National Broadband Network.

Bill Gates backs away from NBN debate

13
Bill Gates admits he doesn't know enough to comment on the National Broadband Network.

Deep thoughts from Senator Ludlam on Julian Assange

12
The personal blog of Greens Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam continues to be excellent value. Last week the Western Australian Senator took some time out to pen more than 1,300 thoughtful words on the potential future of maverick WikiLeaks activist Julian Assange, whose fate is very much in the hands of several global legal systems.

Atlassian installs Valve-esque portals in offices

6
Not content with already being one of the best places to work in Australia, local software developer Atlassian has taken its coolness factor one step further by installing videoconferencing gear set up to look like actual portals (you know, from the popular video game ‘Portal’) in several of its offices so that staff in different locations can talk to each other virtually.

Telstra hints at Galaxy Nexus launch

9
Telstra hasn’t yet confirmed reports that it’s planning to launch Samsung’s highly anticipated Galaxy Nexus smartphone, but if this post on its CrowdSupport forum by one of its executives, Gerd Schenkel, is any indication, the telco is certainly eyeing the handset off.

NodePony versus T-Pony: Fight!

20
What emerged this week was that NodePony apparently has a rival. Yes. Let us tremble with fear and loathing at the birth of what can only be a dark side rival ... the T-Pony.

Can we believe the Galaxy Nexus rumour mill?

5
Will Samsung's hyped Galaxy Nexus smartphone launch through Optus in late December? It's doubtful.

Novell to boost “best product” SuSe in Australia

21
If you're after a good belly laugh, I recommend you check out CIO Magazine's interview here with the Australian sales director for Novell's SuSe Linux distribution.

The National Broadband Network matrix

22
After being very amused by the IT Matrix last Friday, the Delimiter thinktank swung into action this morning to create a new, more localised version. We present: The National Broadband Network Matrix (click for the full-sized version).

Aussie telcos not using Carrier IQ

13
Worried about that nasty Carrier IQ keylogging/tracking software which is causing such a ruckus in the US? You probably shouldn't be.

Galaxy Tab banned for another week

4
We just got the following statement from Samsung, indicating that the ban on the company's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet will remain for another week, while the High Court decides if it wants to hear Apple's case on the matter.

iiProblem?

23
iiProblem?

Defence may have Thales thin clients by 2015

4
It looks like there has finally been some action with regard to the Department of Defence's long-running plans to pilot thin client desktops to replace its duplicated desktop PC infrastructure problem. iTNews reports that Thales has been chosen for a brief pilot of the technology.

Judge overturns Galaxy Tab sale ban

22
Multiple media outlets are reporting this afternoon that the Federal Court of Australia has overturned Apple;s preliminary injunction against the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet in Australia.

Bugger off, content industry tells ISPs on piracy plan

14
Well, that was short-lived. The anti-piracy plan mooted by many of Australia's ISPs last week has already been reportedly knocked back by several major organisations representing the content industries.

Simon Hackett should “cash out”, sell Internode, says iiNet CEO Malone

41
Fascinating interview on Business Spectator today with iiNet chief executive Michael Malone, who argues that Internode founder Simon Hackett should sell the ISP -- and preferably to iiNet.

Australia Post wants to be a major telco …

5
Industry newsletter Communications Day this morning revealed that Australia Post was planning a major push into telecommunications services, with Optus regulatory chief Maha Krishnapillai (who recently quit the company) joining to spearhead the effort.

An insider’s look at Aussie app development

8
Australian iOS and Android app development house Shifty Jelly has published an extensive and heart-felt blog post detailing what it's really like to be an app developer in the cold, hard smartphone/tablet world.

Australia’s IT shared services paradigm is dead

3
It appears that shared services are having a hard time. Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria have all had their fair share of issues with shared services, and this is happening quite consistently in other parts of the world.

CIO gives top seven tips for cloud adoption

0
Excellent blog post here from Altium chief information officer Alan Perkins, who gives his top seven tips for the most important things to consider when moving enterprise IT services into the cloud.

ISP market needs more mergers, says Budde

4
One interesting view on iiNet's likely acquisition of TransACT has come today from maverick (we normally describe him as 'rogue) analyst Paul Budde, who says that not only does the sale make sense, but more such buyouts should take place.

Does Australia need a cloud computing visionary?

7
On the blog of local cloud computing startup Ninefold, the company's managing director Peter James raises an interesting question -- does Australia need a cloud computing visionary to really push the nation's cloud computing journey forward?

Conroy and Husic fight over NBN rollout

4
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and fellow Labor parliamentarian Ed Husic appear to have gotten into what the Daily Telegraph is describing as "an expletive-laden" "behind the scenes slanging match" in the Labor party room over NBN Co's rollout schedule.

Shocker? Conroy’s not a reader, but Lundy is

7
This morning we had a fair old go at the Herald Sun for attacking Greens Senator Scott Ludlam for his extensive government-funded reading habits. But what about the other side of the coin? What do other parlimentarians active in ICT-related portfolios claim as reading expenses?

Shocker: Scott Ludlam is a reader

31
The Murdoch-owned Herald Sun newspaper has uncovered a shocking fact about Greens Communications spokesperson Scott Ludlam: He's a reader.

When mainstream media covers cloud startups

38
Hilarious video above of a segment broadcast recently on Channel 10 news about Australian cloud computing startup OrionVM.

#firstworldproblems

8
Life is tough when you're a gazillionaire Australian ISP mega-mogul ;)

RIM bites off more Colvin than it can chew

0
Spare a thought for poor Research in Motion, which received the big slapdown from ABC Radio presenter Mark Colvin last week afterm it appeared, its advertising agency mistakenly used Colvin's Twitter picture in one of its video promotions.

Of Apple, Microsoft, and Australian music stores

10
Some six years after Apple launched its online music store in Australia, a store which sold billions of songs, Microsoft is following suit, using a subscription model which Steve Jobs rejected almost a decade ago, and which had publicly failed several times. And Microsoft is still not quite sure whether the 'per song' pricing model works.

Further Liberal hypocrisy on the NBN

36
It seems Liberal MPs all around Australia just can't stop demanding that the National Broadband Network be rolled out in their area.

Meanwhile, at Linux.conf.au …

10
This year, Linux.conf.au is really getting stuck into the important things. We refer you to a 1,120 word blog post by the organisation on the details of how they're ordering t-shirts for attendees.

Telstra releases ‘Top Hat’ project details

11
We've received the following statement from Telstra regarding its 'Top-Hat' project.

Proof that the ATO is evil

8
Following on from our post last week revealing evidence that the National Broadband Network Company is, in fact, evil, fresh details have come to light about the Australian Taxation Office’s allegiance to the dark side.

Minority report: Internet ruminations with Senator Ludlam

14
Allow me to direct readers to the blog of Greens Communications Spokesperson and Senator Scott Ludlam, which has recently re-awoken into vivid life after a period of long dormancy. Yesterday the erudite Senator published a long rumination on all matters NBN, media and the Internet in general.

AFACT exposed: Insider investigator tells his story

21
If you've always wondered what life is like at the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, wonder no more. A former investigator for Australia's self-appointed online piracy watchdog has spilled the beans on his activities working for the organisation.

Just say the f*cking word already

15
For God's sake. Australia's mobile telcos are such a bunch of namby-pamby's that it's not funny. If you want customers to register their interest for when you launch the goddamn iPhone 5, just say so. Stop pussy-footing around Apple and just say the fucking words "new iPhone" already. Everyone knows what you're trying to do here.

Turnbull confronts Google over NBN support

17
It was only several weeks ago that Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull claimed search giant Google and others were in “a conspiracy against the taxpayer” because they were supporting the NBN, because it would benefit their business and they wouldn’t have to pay for it to be built themselves. And now he’s done it again.

Aussie cloud not a utility yet: Defence CIO

1
In this feature article published in the Financial Review’s MIS Magazine, Defence chief information officer Greg Farr makes it clear he believes the Australian cloud is “a long way away” from looking anything like its US counterpart:

Kogan buckles to Apple Galaxy Tab threat

6
The Sydney Morning Herald reports today that Kogan has been caught up in the ongoing lawsuit between Apple and Samsung over the Korean electronics giant's supposed iPad look-alike, the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Will Samsung try to block iPhone 5 sales in Australia?

3
If you read between the lines of a number of articles about Samsung's ongoing legal action against Apple on the patent front, it starts to appear increasingly possible that the company will try to block sales of Apple's iPhone 5 when the device launches in Australia -- expected to be before the end of this year.

CommBank’s MacBook Airs run Windows XP

19
The CommonWealth Bank of Australia is currently deploying thousands of MacBooks (Airs and Pros) to staff at its flagship new headquarters in Sydney's Darling Park complex ... but with Windows XP configured to boot by default.

iPhone 5 may hit Australia before Christmas

1
The big news from the US overnight is that Apple is planning a launch event on October 4 to unveil the next version of its popular iPhone handset, which is popularly being dubbed the iPhone 5. And if the rumours are true, history suggests that an Australian launch of the iPhone 5 will follow shortly before Christmas.

Symantec smoking own cybercrime hype

3
It looks as if Symantec commissioned a report by a company called Strategy One which claimed to show the global cybercrime trade caused losses as large as the value of the global trade in illicit drugs. Shocker.

Granularity enters APRA’s cloud computing stance

3
As I wrote a few weeks back, the debate around cloud computing in Australia is becoming more granular and tactical -- as organisations gradually shift to a more mature understanding of this new class of technologies. In some ways, this is not a revolution; but an evolution; not a black and white scenario, but one of shades of gray. It's good to see some recognition from APRA of this fact.

CommBank CIO reveals troubled youth

3
He’s probably Australia’s highest-profile chief information officer; a high flier who is currently leading a billion dollar core banking transformation project the envy of the entire financial services sector. But CommBank CIO Michael Harte wasn’t always a good boy, according to a fascinating profile of the executive by iTWire’s Beverley Head.

Now You Should Listen to This, Because This Concerns You

16
In the movies, it's common for a new prisoner to wait until lunch, then find the biggest, baddest dude in the room and beat...

Coalition victory could trigger Internode fibre rollout

98
Internode chief Simon Hackett has revealed to the Financial Review newspaper that he expects the Coalition to win the next Federal election and cancel the National Broadband Network; an event which could result in Internode becoming a public company and rolling out its own fibre.

Malcolm Turnbull and the great Google conspiracy

95
To what extent were Turnbull’s comments yesterday about Google stimulated by the meeting he had at the search giant’s Sydney headquarters in early August?

HTC’s Android better than iOS, says Choice

18
We've said before that HTC's Sense UI is just beautiful ... it's hard to put one of the Korean manufacturer's new Android-based smartphones down once you pick it up and see the subtle motions taking place across its screen. But is the combination of Google's Android operating system with HTC Sense enough to outclass Apple's iOS?

Why did Visy buck Telstra for Google Apps?

14
Fascinating news arrives from the Australian today that packaging company Visy has ditched its existing Microsoft email platform and migrated to Google Apps.

Australian datacentre? You’re dreaming, says Microsoft

12
It looks like those hoping Microsoft will build an Australian datacentre to host Windows Azure applications or Office 365 services might be hoping in vain.

The many gestures of David Thodey

2
We had some amusing responses last time, but these further photos just mystify us. What precisely is David Thodey holding here between his clawed fingers? An imaginary ball of yarn? Has he been playing too much Nintendo Wii? It seems like something he's practiced to get it right. Anyway, let us know what you think he's doing in the comments.

Is $80,000 the new IT starting salary?

15
Technology salaries have always been pretty decent if you’ve got the right qualifications (think Oracle, Cisco, high-end Microsoft etc), but have they really hit the heights of $80,000 a year being standard for a graduate?

VMware’s licensing response: Is it enough?

0
Those of us who run VMware environments might remember the user furore (including from Australian customers) which the virtualisation giant created a few weeks back when it made a number of changes to its licensing structure. Well, kudos to the company — it listened.

Which router is best for the NBN?

17
PCRange chief executive Raaj Menon (also known as the first man in South Australia to get the NBN) has been busy putting his fledgling fibre connection to good use.

Australia isn’t feeling the love from Big Content

2
Sabiene Heindl might be about to leave her role as the general manager of Music Industry Piracy Investigations and spokesperson for the Australian Content Industry Groupfor a high-flying career at the National Broadband Network Company, but the anti-piracy campaigner just can't stop enthusing about content protection.

The definition of irony …

11
The definition of irony is when you work for Telstra BigPond and rock up on Internode MD Simon Hackett's doorstep trying to sell him a broadband connection.

Just 41 mainland NBN customers so far

33
Despite the fact that the National Broadband Network was officially switched on in test sites in the NSW city of Armidale in mid-May, the Australian today reports adoption in the area has so far been relatively slow.

BACK OFF, Quigley tells Turnbull, media: The NBN hasn’t been hacked

22
NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley has conducted a fiery interview with ABC Radio where he takes an axe to some of the more flagrant articles published this week after the arrest of an alleged intruder into the systems of planned NBN customer Platform Networks.

How much more does Australia pay for Apple gear?

0
MacTalk founder Anthony Agius has produced the mother of all Apple pricing comparison spreadsheets in an effort to quantify just what the Australian markup is on Apple products.

St George is dumping GroupWise too

15
We didn’t realise it when we broke the news that Westpac would be finally dumping IBM’s troubled Lotus Notes platform for a Microsoft solution, but it’s not just Lotus that’s getting the turf.

Does Sydney have 10,000 unsecured Wi-Fi networks?

5
Hilarious article over at the Sydney Morning Herald, which has been war-driving around Sydney and testing out the city’s Wi-Fi networks for security. According to the newspaper, unsecured Wi-Fi is rife.

Horror story: Is this a typical TPG experience?

20
Over at ARN, tech journalist Spandas Lui appears to have had a nightmare experience with TPG, with the national broadband provider reportedly having a great deal of trouble with … switching an ADSL broadband connection on and then, six months later, moving it to another address.

Turnbull hits Armidale for NBN tour

135
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been getting down and dirty with the locals in rural NSW town Armidale, which contains is an early stage rollout zone for the National Broadband Network.

Welcome to VMware. It’s your monopolist speaking.

1
It's no secret that not everyone is a huge fan of VMware's new licensing structure, and now the backlash is beginning to hit Australia.

What’s the best Motorola Xoom deal?

0
Over at our sister site Delimiter Marketplace, we’ve posted an article examining the options for buying a Motorola Xoom. There are quite a few choices — you can sign up to a deal with Telstra or Optus, buy a Wi-Fi version of the tablet through JB Hi-Fi, or even buy the tablet from an independent online retailer like Mobicity or eBay.

Apple ready to talk Australian prices

7
blog Remember when Labor MP Ed Husic went on that epic rant in Federal Parliament several months ago about what he saw as the...

Does Vodafone need a new flagship handset?

9
Does Vodafone need a new flagship exclusive handset to stack up against the offerings of Telstra and Optus?

October iPhone 4S looking very likely

0
It is looking increasingly likely that Apple will launch the next version of its flagship iPhone smartphone line in Australia around October or November this year.

Leave Gerry Harvey alone, says Kogan

7
Well, well, well. How the rebellious have fallen. First you slam them, then you achieve a cautious peace, then you start backing them to the hilt.

The University of Adelaide hearts Oracle

0
We never picked software vendor Oracle as a particularly *cuddly* sort of company, but according to a statement we received yesterday from the company, it's been getting all cosy and comfy with the University of Adelaide.

TPG repeats: We won’t implement voluntary filter

13
Well, we already knew that national broadband provider TPG wasn’t too keen on the idea of voluntarily filtering its customers’ Internet, courtesy of comments made by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy in late May this year. But now the company has come out in a bit more of a concrete way against the voluntary filter.

Porn is key for the NBN, says developer

17
Hilarious comments over at Computerworld from Jennifer Wilson, a director at content and applications developer The Project Factory. According to Wilson, while it’s nice to talk about e-health and education outcomes from the Federal Government’s flagship National Broadband Network project, ultimately it’s all about the porn.

Global sites still slow, says NBN early adopter

42
Menon's point is a good one -- Australia's international internet links still aren't the greatest, and much will depend on the quality of your ISP's links, as well as the general load of internet traffic on the day to particular sites, their database configuration, how many network hops there are between your PC and their server, and so on.

Why would Anonymous hack Mosman Council?

6
From this week's WTF files comes a curious case which has reputedly seen that lovable bunch of Internet rogues Anonymous hack into the web site of Mosman Municipal Council.

Troubling allegations swirl L.A. Noire

9
When blockbuster cross-platform video game L.A. Noire was released last month, many Australians got a wee bit patriotic and teary as we realised the game was substantially put together by Australian development house Team Bondi, as the nation's biggest ever and most successful video game project. However, since that time, a series of troubling allegations have emerged.

Fix Apple in the enterprise, goddamnit: MQ CIO rants

16
Chief information officers are a gentle, politely spoken bunch by nature; intelligent, well-educated, diplomatic. That’s why when one of them really lets loose at a vendor you have to stand back a little bit — or get burnt by the fireworks taking place.

20 December 2011: Telstra’s NBN D-Day

0
In the first of a series of insightful and useful articles examining Telstra’s $11 billion deal with NBN Co and the Federal Government last week, local VoIP developer and telco commentator Michael Wyres points out that all of the conditions contained in the massive deal must be satisfied by one special day: 20 December this year.

Primus deletes filter posts … but we’ve got the screenshots

6
National broadband provider Primus has deleted comments made on Whirlpool over the past several days to the effect that it had no current plans to follow through on its commitment last year to voluntarily implement a filter to block its customers accessing child pornography. Thankfully, we’ve got screenshots.

Internode chief’s bitter NBN pill

4
So it appears that not everyone in Australia’s telecommunications sector was as thrilled by the news last Thursday that Telstra and Optus had signed huge deals with the National Broadband Network Company to migrate their customers onto its fibre infrastructure.

Telstra Desires get Gingerbread … sans HTC Sense

7
We're not sure if this is good news for Telstra customers who own one of the original HTC Desire handsets or not. It appears everyone concerned has finally tired of trying to get HTC's custom Sense interface to work with the latest version 2.3 (Gingerbread) of Google's Android platform when running on the HTC Desire. The solution? Just cut it out.

Will Telstra’s LTE hit price parity with the NBN?

70
The controversial clause in Telstra's National Broadband Network agreement prohibiting the telco from promoting its wireless solutions as a direct alternative to the NBN's fibre continues to draw interest, despite protestations from Telstra chief executive David Thodey that the clause would only have a minor impact on his company's operations.

Handy motivational poster for Telstra execs

3
Sometimes you’re between a rock and a hard place. You can either do what the Government says, or don’t do it. That’s the choice Telstra faces every day. It’s a hard world, when you work for Telstra.

Harvey Norman’s $350 HDMI cable #techtax

22
It can be an expensive task kitting out your home entertainment system. You’ve got to buy a media centre, flatscreen TV, a speaker system, a $350 HDMI cable from Harvey Norman to connect things together. Wait, what?

Planking? Gen-i CEO’s got it covered

3
When Delimiter issued a call on Twitter about a month back for pics of any IT industry personalities engaged in the social art of “planking”, we thought we’d get a few willing takers. But we never imagined we’d see pictures of the chief executive of one of Australia and New Zealand’s largest IT services companies, Gen-i, engaged in the practice. Hats off to Chris Quin — looks like he’s got a fairly taut six pack going on there. Nice work!

ABC staffer goes for Bitcoin gold

7
We know the ABC is a public broadcaster and isn’t likely to be offering the highest salaries in the world, but this is ridiculous.

Telstra breaks down its NBN decision

4
The now infamous fifth slide from Telstra chief executive David Thodey's presentation to media and analysts this morning about the telco's $11 billion deal with the Government and NBN Co. Seems like Telstra's thinking on this one was pretty complex ;)

Is this Mike Quigley’s car?

3
This little gem was spotted by Twitterer Wade Roberts, cruising around Castle Hill, Sydney. We’re not sure at this point whether it belongs to NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley (actually, we’re pretty sure it doesn’t, but one can dream!), although after all, Castle Hill isn’t that far from Quigley’s place in Mosman.

Handy infographic of Telstra’s NBN deal

15
Confused about what Telstra's $11 billion deal with NBN Co means? You're not alone. It's a complex agreement which took the best part of several years to develop. Happily, NBN Co has provided us with this handy infographic to clear it all up. We hope it all makes sense now.

Telstra deal: Has NBN reached “point of no return”?

11
With NBN Co's $11 billion deal with Telstra expected to be signed tomorrow, and much talk of a similar deal with Optus also about to be announced, is Labor's ambitious NBN policy about to reach the point of no return -- the point at which it will be impossible for the Coalition to stop the NBN juggernaut if they take office?

iPhone 5 may rain on Australia’s Android parade

19
Pretend for a moment that you're a handset manufacturer like HTC, Samsung, Motorola, LG or Sony Ericsson. After months of negotiating with local carriers like Telstra, Optus and Vodafone and working with head office in the US or Asia to get stock for Australia, you finally launch your high-end Android smartphone in Australia. Then just a month or so later, Apple unexpectedly releases the iPhone 5.

Will Dropbox’s security hole boost Aussie rivals?

5
In terms of security disasters, this is a big one. For four hours yesterday, you could use any (yes, that means any) password to log in to any Dropbox account.

CommBank CIO praises “rich” Mac interface

25
The favoured tool of chief information officers everywhere has long been their study ThinkPads, but it looks like Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief information officer Michael Harte might be a bit of an Apple fan.

NSW Govt blocks another transport app

23
The Sydney Morning Herald reports, and his own website backs up, that local developer Ben Hosken’s bus timetabling app has been put on ice after the NSW Government withdrew the data it had made available … after his app proved a little too popular.

An epic rant about Apple patents

8
Another day always brings another Apple rumour, but not every day do you get as epic a rant in reaction as we saw last week from MacTalk founder Anthony Agius.

Senate Estimates: Some things never change

4
The Coalition hasn’t exactly been covering itself in glory in the recent Senate Estimates hearings into the National Broadband Network, with many labelling its constant line of attack on NBN Co Mike Quigley’s past history at Alcatel-Lucent little more than a farce.

Is the Coalition’s Quigley obsession a ‘McCarthyist witch hunt’?

70
It’s time to let this issue lie … before the Coalition MPs and senators involved disgrace their own names any further, and Australia’s parliament starts earning itself an international reputation that it will become increasingly ashamed of.

NBN: Will Optus shut down its HFC network?

25
The Financial Review reports this morning that Optus is very close to finalising a deal with NBN Co worth between $500 million and $1 billion to shut down its HFC cable network and transfer customers from that network and its ADSL network onto the NBN.

Bookshops are dead, says Nick Sherry

18
It’s hard to see how anyone who owns either an Amazon Kindle or an iPad right now can see any future at all for bricks and mortar bookshops, given the power and speed of instant global distribution.

Dear NBN Co, please hire this kid, stat

13
We couldn’t help but be amused by this media release issued today by the North Queensland Small Business Development Centre in Townsville, spruiking the work of one Ayden Ward, who appears to be what we like to describe (in technical terms) as an uber-nerd.

Will NBN Co sign its Telstra deal this week?

7
Multiple outlets are reporting that the National Broadband Network Company is extremely close to concluding its long and convoluted negotiations with Telstra.

PayPal chief hits Australia, wants POS payments

9
It appears as if PayPal global president Scott Thompson (pictured) has landed in Australia briefly. We’re not sure why he’s here, at this point, but he did stop in for a brief interview with Business Spectator supremo Alan Kohler as a guest on Kohler’s Inside Business slot on the ABC.

NBN? Bah, we’ve got mobile phones, says Andrews

168
We couldn’t help but be perplexed by this blog post on The Punch by Liberal MP and Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services Kevin Andrews, which appears to imply that Australia doesn’t need the National Broadband Network, because of the strong adoption of mobile phones.

Apple’s iCloud: Another offshore regulatory headache?

7
We can't help but wonder whether Apple has just created a fistful of headaches for large Australian organisations with its broader iCloud service, which allows users to synch office documents, calendar, mail and contacts online.

Telstra 3G performance dropping, claims mag

24
Now we've got some further evidence that despite the constant #badoptus claims, Australia's number two telco might be catching up when it comes to 3G mobile broadband -- although not, perhaps, through anything Optus has done.

Oh dear: Foxtel bitchslaps “delusional” Optus

17
Well, we knew Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan's fighting words about the Foxtel/Austar merger wouldn't go down well in some quarters, but we didn't quite expect this epic spray from Foxtel chief Kim Williams.

Simon Hackett: From Internode MD, to NBN Co blogger

4
Given the ferocity of the debate which Simon Hackett kicked off against NBN Co's pricing model a month or so ago, we were somewhat amused last week to see this exchange between the Internode chief (who is a highly prolific writer) and NBN Co's official Twitter account, staffed by internal PR guru Scott Rhodie.

Those Chinese mining hackers are back

1
Those of you with long memories will recall that some 12 months ago, Four Corners aired a controversial report claiming that several of Australia’s largest mining companies were under attack by Chinese hackers, with a view to siphoning off sensitive corporate information. This morning, that claim resurfaced again.

How will ‘lightRadio’ change NBN economics?

17
Fascinating post over at Technology Spectator, where commentator and telco consultant Andrew Harris discusses a new invention coming out of Alcatel-Lucent; an invention, he surmises, which would be a good fit for Telstra.

Google’s Wallet won’t open for Australia

5
Well, we can’t say we’re surprised, but yet again search giant Google has decided to launch a new service exclusively in the US, leaving Australia out in the cold. This time it’s the company’s mobile payments solution, which is based on the Near Field Communications chips that all the cool smartphones are getting these days (well, apart from Samsung’s Galaxy S II, apparently).

The new NBN fibre/ADSL digital divide

12
In amongst all the noise from the politicians over the National Broadband Network rollout in Tasmania was buried a very interesting comment from a business owner in Smithton who’s had NBN fibre for six months already.

I’m bored, AusCERT: Kick it up a notch

6
Consider us vastly amused by the storm in a tea cup currently embroiling the AusCERT security conference in Queensland this week, which -- while it is the nation's premier security confab -- has lacked a decent scandal for years. Thank God -- it's about time!

A bit of tough love for Google

13
Sorry Alan -- we love Google products and we want to use them on the National Broadband Network, so we've got to give you a bit of tough love here ;)

Advancing up the geek ladder …

2
The story of how iiNet tech Dean Bailey is gradually moving up the IT career path will be familiar to many of us. After starting with the ISP in its call centre three and a half years ago, Bailey writes on the company’s blog, he’s recently been promoted to associate programmer.

When Gerry Harvey and Ruslan Kogan agree

33
It seems like a case of hell freezing over this week, with an amazing synchonicity of views can be heard this week between two traditional opponents.

AngelCube: Melbourne’s mysterious new tech startup incubator

1
Know anything about it? Nope. Neither do we. We're investigating, for now :) Get in touch, angels, if you're out there.

Video: Quigley hits the 7:30 Report

10
We encourage you to check out this excellent interview 7:30 (previously the 7:30 Report) conducted with NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley, in the wake of the company’s problems negotiations with contractors to roll out fibre around the nation and the questions raised about any role Quigley and NBN Co CFO Jean-Pascal Beaufret may have had in Alcatel-Lucent’s bribery allegations.

Need a 3G SIM? MacGyver it from your power meter

11
From Tasmania today comes a tale of woe and piracy … apparently the electricity meters in the state have SIM cards embedded in them for Telstra’s Next G network, and they can be used for ill. Who knew?

CenITex “on track”, says Blades

0
The former chief executive of Victorian IT shared services agency CenITex, Peter Blades, has described the agency as being "on track" to achieving its vision of being the preferred supplier of IT infrastructure services across the State Government.

Oh dear: Takedown fail … Ebbeck style

4
We have to admit to being a closet fan of the Twitter account of SAP Australia MD Tim Ebbeck ... sure, he can act a little unhinged at times, with his regular political ramblings, random inspirational quote posting and somewhat incendiary replies to other public figures who may not always know who he is. But it's all entertaining.

Quigley + Beaufret must be guilty … right? Right?

27
In the latest issue of what we are speedily coming to refer to as the “NBN, OMG, WTF, BBQ” files, Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham has revealed that NBN Co chief Mike Quigley and CFO Jean-Pascal Beaufret didn’t mention during their hiring process that their former employer Alcatel-Lucent was being investigated by the US securities regulator … for stuff they had nothing to do with.

Do Optus iPhones “constantly drop out”?

26
The Daily Telegraph has launched what appears to be an all-out attack on SingTel subsidiary Optus, claiming the telco's mobile coverage is the pits.

Wireless not the NBN killer after all?

152
Let's say it again kids: Fixed and wireless broadband are complementary; one is not a replacement for the other.

Optus CEO’s VHA grudge match

4
Oh dear. It looks as if Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan took VHA chief Nigel Dews' 2009 claim that the merged Hutchison/Vodafone entity could become number two in mobiles a little seriously.

Holy Galaxy Tab price cut, Batman!

4
Samsung’s 7″ Galaxy Tab: From $999 three months ago, to $299 today.

NAB bets the farm on Oracle

5
We knew the National Australia Bank was keen on software from US technology giant Oracle, but until now we didn’t know just how keen.

Cloud vendors need to communicate better: CIO

0
Over at his blog Cloud81, Altium chief information officer Alan Perkins is ruminating -- as is often his wont -- on cloud computing.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v pricing: We’ve got it

2
Just an extremely brief post to note that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1v tablet will be available for pre-sale exclusively to Vodafone customers from April 20 for delivery in the week commencing 1 May. Or at least that's what a Vodafone press release tells us.

When should you replace a server?

19
Over at AUTechHeads, our good friend and systems administrator Alan Lee muses about the choices faced by IT admins when a warranty expires on a server.

Rod Vawdrey is the only non-Japanese Fujitsu exec

0
We knew Japanese technology giant Fujitsu was dominated by ... well, Japanese, but we didn't quite know how dominated. Well, now we do.

Reality check: Femtocells are not an Optus scam

50
Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Ultimately, Optus' femtocell launch is a positive step forward for Australia's telecommunications industry and its customers.

Your NBN argument is invalid

50
Your argument to the effect that I don't need it personally, therefore the entire NBN policy is a waste of space is therefore invalid. Next!

Atlassian debuts new game: ‘Angry Nerds’

2
Best technology sector April Fools' Day joke so far today goes to Atlassian, which claims to be debuting a new mobile game dubbed 'Angry...

Gillard’s nauseating endorsement: Take 2

6
We couldn’t help but almost throw up in our mouth tonight as we watched the love-in in this video occur between Google, MYOB, Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Communications Stephen Conroy in this orgy of self-interest and naked marketing guff.

Why the Telstra/NBN deal should be scrapped

32
blog Over at his blog, seasoned technology executive and all-round nice guy Sean Kaye has some interesting thoughts on a wide range of matters...

Harvey Norman to open online store

16
Well, well, well. Looks like Harvey Norman founder Gerry Harvey has admitted that it’s time to come down off his high horse and admit that the internet has some legs when it comes to retailing.

Startmate startups featured on TechCrunch

3
Let’s have a round of applause for the first round of Australian technology startups to be launched through the Y Combinator-style incubator Startmate created in 2010 by a number of former and current entrepreneurs and funding types.

How can CIOs contribute to revenue growth?

2
With most industries being rapidly affected by technological change, many companies are starting to realise that bringing their chief information officer in to their strategy meetings can have a big impact.

The NBN’s 24 hours: The good, the bad & the ugly

41
blog Wow. It has been a simply massive 24 hours in NBN-land (which, in our imagination, is best described as a climate-controlled datacentre room...

New NSW Govt may reject NBN opt-out

34
blog We were kind of stunned when the new Coalition Government in Victoria rejected the 'opt-out' approach to rolling out the National Broadband Network....

iPad 2 queue starts at Sydney Apple store

25
Cheers to our friends at LogMeIn for this photo of a gentleman who has just claimed the title of first position in the line to buy an Apple iPad 2 when the device goes on sale on Friday night at 5pm. This photo was taken outside the Sydney CBD Apple store this afternoon.

Putting NBN words in Cisco’s mouth

95
Alright, admit it. Who’s been feeding News Ltd commentator Andrew Bolt stats published by global networking giant Cisco (PDF)? Fess up. We know it was one of you anti-NBN guys.

NBN: Where’s the love, Eric Schmidt?

2
blog When it comes to the National Broadband Network, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt's cup runneth over. Who could forget those heady days at...

Congrats to retiring UWS CIO Mick Houlahan

0
blog Great piece over at CIO, where journalist James Hutchinson chronicles the story of one of the old warhorses of Australia's chief information officer...

We’re “a laughing stock” on R18+ games, says Minister

9
Just when you thought it was safe to assume that politicians didn’t really understand the debate around the need for an R18+ classification for video games, one pops his head up to disabuse us of the notion. Today’s Labor hero is Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor.

How did you get into IT to start with?

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One of our favourite Australian IT user groups, AUTechHeads, has a nice post this morning from a gentleman named 'GiantGuineaPig' exploring the reasons why he got into the IT industry to start with, and asking others to share their stories.

NBN: What does ‘retail service provider’ actually mean?

15
From the joint parliamentary committee into the National Broadband Network today (and associated submissions released over the past week) comes news that energy utilities want to be able to buy services directly from NBN Co.

Will Australia censor Apple’s App Store?

21
Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor has gotten all hot under the collar about Apple’s App Store and wants to make sure none of the naughty bits get to the wee little children, for fear they may be tainted by them.

Our Father Quigley, who art in NBN Co

1
The number of biblical references to NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley are getting out of hand. First we had an industry insider proclaim they were “a believer” at Quigley’s landmark speech during the election cycle, then we had a stab at a prayer in his honour a few months back, and now this.

The end of ‘3’ is nigh

8
I couldn't help but recall comments by Vodafone Hutchison Australia chief executive Nigel Dews last week as I walked past the shell of the '3' store in the Sydney suburb of Randwick.

JB Hi-Fi chief backhands Kogan over Apple

6
Today JB Hi-Fi chief Terry Smart casually backhanded fiery consumer electronics entrepreneur Ruslan Kogan, telling SmartCompany Kogan’s claim that Apple gear made up 30 percent of the retail giant’s sales was incorrect.

Brisbane’s toilet jokes better than its fibre

9
What has proven more entertaining than Newman’s pontifications on the matter has been the slew of toilet humour generated by the media and others in Australia’s technology sector in the wake of the decision to dump i3.

Australia’s second dot com boom is here

21
Evidence is mounting from a variety of fronts that Australia has just entered its second dot com boom.

CommVault vs Tivoli at 20 paces

0
Over at SearchStorage.com.au, a small skirmish in the ongoing war between IBM’s Tivoli Storage Manager and CommVault was yesterday chronicled.

Andrew Stevens: The challenges ahead

0
For the chief executives of HP and IBM Australia, hiding in the bat cave should not be an option.

Turnbull dumps BlackBerry for iPhone

15
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has achieved notoriety for constantly using his iPad -- including in parliament. But, according to tweets from the honourable Member for Wentworth yesterday, up until very recently he's been using a BlackBerry -- like most of the public service. Now that's all set to change.

Virus attack: DR fails NSW ambulances?

14
What we’re really wondering here is why the Ambulance Service of NSW didn’t switch over straight away to its disaster recovery facility — you know, the one it built several years ago, presumably to cope precisely with this sort of of problem?

Is Android ready for the enterprise?

14
The question of whether a predominantly consumer-oriented technology is “ready for the enterprise” is one that Gartner analysts, chief information officers and, really, anybody who works in IT departments, loves to debate endlessly.

Photo gallery of the Sydney Googleplex

5
Our favourite thing about the Sydney Googleplex is that in one of the open meeting rooms they have next to reception, there is a table and chair set attached upside down to the ceiling. Literally upside down. In addition, all the lamps in the room, and the general decor, gives the impression that you are, impossibly, sitting on the roof. Trippy.

iPhone 4: Are Telstra & Optus price gouging?

7
A long-held rule of the global capitalist system has been that any given commodity will gradually go down in price over time, due to wider availability and improved manufacturing processes which drive scale. But now, according to MacTalk, Australia’s beloved top two telcos, Telstra and Optus, have decided that — despite the presumed imminent launch of Apple’s next mobile Jesus, the price of the iPhone 4 should instead go up.

PayPal: A new bank or a Web 1.0 dinosaur?

9
If Australia's major banks -- or, indeed, anyone in the world -- can come up with an alternative to PayPal's dubious internet payments monopoly, I say bring it on.

Turnbull confirms: Libs would halt the NBN

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NBN Co's business case tells us that by 2013 the NBN infrastructure will have been rolled out to some 1.7 million premises, with most of those receiving fibre directly to their door. It seems preposterous that the Coalition would simply halt the project at that point -- leaving millions of Australians with fibre, but most of the nation without. Well, now we know that's precisely what would happen.

Further views on AGIMO’s open source policy

0
The publication of the Australian Government Information Management Office's new open source policy for the Federal Government published yesterday certainly stirred quite a lot of debate, and the comments keep on rolling on on the issue.

Watch out Exchange, Google;Zimbra’s coming up from behind

10
The Google Apps vs Exchange war is still raging in Australia ... but could Zimbra come in unexpected and sideswipe them both?

An Australia Day NBN joke

3
The following telecommunications-related joke was sent to us by a friend. It's unknown who wrote it, but we think Malcolm Turnbull, in particular, might find it amusing :)

A guide to Australia for visiting tech celebrities

8
Over the past several years we've witnessed a new phenomenon in terms of international technology celebrities visiting Australia. When the CEOs of global tech giants or other IT notables arrive down under, they must follow a certain pattern.

NBN: Lawyer tells Australians to“get off the internet and go outside”

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You sometimes read some crazy things in the Daily Telegraph, but this column from one Mirko Bargaric, who appears to be a Deakin University professor, takes the cake.

G-Cloud, or G-String?

3
We can’t say we’re surprised by the news that Canberra’s public sector chief information officers are discussing sharing computing capacity with each other, in what many are starting to call a government cloud or “G-Cloud” cloud computing-type situation. After all, such an idea was mentioned in AGIMO’s recent cloud computing paper.

Spare a thought for Telstra tech Pete Milward …

3
Spare a thought for Telstra tech Pete Milward ... who had to deal with this when he came into work in Queensland this morning. Maybe a new phrase should be coined this week: "Thodey's Heroes".

Is Australia’s “cybersecurity” really that bad?

5
News arrived this week of another national thinktank releasing a report warning Australia of the dangers of not paying attention to the "cybersecurity" situation in the new millennium.

A Christmas ode to Sol Trujillo and the National Broadband Network

0
Former Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo might have had a bushy moustache and — on occasion — been filled with warmth and good humour, but that didn’t ever make the American executive reminiscent of Santa Claus. That is, unless you’re David Braue, who has penned a majestic and seasonally appropriate Christmas NBN poem which has mightily impressed us.

CommBank ads to pimp core banking overhaul

4
Word on the street is CommBank is about to take its much-heralded, $730 million core banking modernisation project on the road, with a series of advertisements planned to go to air late on Boxing Day to inform the public about how the core overhaul will affect them, with buzzwords like "real-time banking" and a winsome lass toting an iPhone 4 to boot.

TPG ads: Has the ACCC gone too far?

11
In this case, it has to be said that it looks like TPG is on solid ground defending the ACCC’s lawsuit.

EMC/NetApp trench blogfare turns nasty

0
NetApp's Australian chief Peter O'Connor appeared a trifle defensive in late November when he told the AustralianIT he wanted to set the record straight following "rumours" being spread by unnamed rivals about a possible NetApp role in the Virgin Blue storage disaster that landed thousands of customers in a temporary no-fly zone.

WA Health hearts Yammer

5
When it comes to internal corporate social networking tool Yammer in Australia's public sector, it looks like you either love it, or you ban it.

Linton mystified by NBN business case “drivel”

7
Come on, we know you’ve been waiting with bated breath since yesterday to find out what Exetel chief executive John Linton thinks of the NBN Co business case released yesterday. No major NBN announcement would be complete without Linton’s point of view. And Linton doesn’t disappoint.

NBN Co business plan: First information

1
We've just received a press release from NBN Co with the first tranche of information about the company's business plan to roll out the National Broadband Network. We're planning to post the full news following a press conference to be held this morning by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Prime Minister Julia Gillard, but in the meantime you can download NBN Co's press release here (PDF).

Gartner predicted failure of NSW GCIO role

0
Oh, dear. Looks like -- as the world's premiere enterprise IT analyst firm usually is -- Gartner was right when it predicted back in 2005 that there was a good probability that the then-brand new NSW whole of government chief information officer role wouldn't work.

SA to break govt public cloud drought

0
This is about as positive a vote of confidence as we’ve heard from a state or federal government CIO in Australia for some years on the cloud issue. Step aside, internal infrastructure chiefs. As Salesforce.com would say, it may be just about time to stop feeding the minotaur.

Hire this guy and Delimiter will donate champagne

5
What can we say, either there's too much donated champagne floating around the Delimiter offices at the moment (more than we could drink, although we've given it a fair go) or we're just in a generous spirit because it's Christmas time.

NAB/IBM outsourcing is going ahead

9
It's the industry's worst-kept secret, but it looks as if the National Australia Bank's IT outsourcing initiative with IBM is finally official and going ahead, with some 425 staff reportedly shifting out of the bank and to IBM.

Is this man Australia’s top geek?

2
Oh, dear. There exists a possibility that Internode chief Simon Hackett could win iiNet’s ‘Top Geek’ competition. He’s got our vote :)

The good, the bad and the corporate information leak

0
Great post on the AuTechHeads user group analysing how the WikiLeaks phenomenon (that is, information leakage in large organisations) should or could be handled by IT managers.

Don’t protect Australia’s mobile telcos, Mr Turnbull

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Let's get real about this: Australia's mobile telcos can take care of themselves.

“Pig ignorant dummies” and A “sour-faced woman”: Linton rounds out the year

7
Every time we take one of our periodic glimpses into the seething mass of pure mind blast that is the blog of Exetel chief John Linton, we find ourselves highly entertained by this precocious but highly talented individual (hey — did you start your own multi-million dollar ISP? Enough said).

SA Attorney-General wants to dumpMA15+ games rating

14
We thought things were going to settle down in South Australia after the state rid itself (or did he resign? It’s such a fine line) of its crazy Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, who had for some years been a nasty thorn in the side of those who were campaigning for an R18+ classification for video games.

Top ten tech sector leaks we’d like to see

2
However, at Delimiter we've got just one problem with Julian Assange's much-publicised extraction of what appears to be an everlasting pot of gold from the clutches of the United States Government: So far, almost none of the cables leaked appear to reference Australia's technology sector.

Optus: The new definition of irony

11
Man up, Optus. You’re acting like a little girl.

It’s IT upgrade time at Australia’s universities

0
Yup, it's that time of year again -- that brief window of opportunity where Australia's universities, many of which are working off three semesters a year now, get a couple of weeks around Christmas to upgrade their IT systems.

The NBN is not about “basic voice services”

66
Fletcher is demeaning his technical background by focusing on such a pointless argument. You don’t debate the cost of placing a call to Dubbo when the Government is talking about technology that can enable high-definition videoconferencing to every home in Australia. It’s that simple.

Low Orbit Ion Cannon, my ass

20
From the Sydney Morning Herald comes news of a new weapon which the angry hordes (including one Sydneysider) are deploying to make war on the infidel websites of PayPal, Visa and Mastercard for dumping support for rogue internet agent WikiLeaks.