Breakfast with the (new media) stars
it’s not every day you get to see me or anyone else who contributes to Delimiter in real life — normally we’re sequestered in our offices frantically typing away at our computers :) But on the morning of Thursday November 25th (yes, the morning of our Christmas Party), you’ll get that chance.
Uber has paid out $600,000 in taxi fines in Victoria
To my mind, this action by Uber is something akin to corporate heroism. Its customers want to use its services, and so it is continuing to provide services that customers want, despite the fact that the Victorian Government is essentially trying to shut it down at the moment.
NBN Co has “major credibility issues”: Budde
NBN Co has "major credibility issues", according to telecommunications analyst Paul Budde, following the unexpected downgrade of its rollout schedule yesterday.
Qantas’ Amazon website cloud move will save it $30m
Over the past several years it has become a very common story to see major organisations shifting IT infrastructure, particularly their public-facing websites, into cloud computing facilities. Major banks have done it. Government departments have done it. And now, as has been outlined in a slew of articles over the past week, has Qantas -- well, at least it's in the throes of the migration.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Note 10.1, Gear coming to Australia “soon”
Samsung has announced several products at IFA overnight which will be of deep interest to Australian consumers, including the third edition of its popular Galaxy Note smartphones, a new 10" Android tablet, and its long-expected smartwatch, the Galaxy Gear. The good news is that all of the new Samsung hotness will be coming to Australia "soon".
Turnbull’s NBN media war blows back
This morning, long-time telco commentator David Braue skewers Turnbull for this ongoing war on the media, in the erudite fashion which Braue readers have become accustomed to.
Delimiter files FoI requests for Reinecke, NBN Co reports
It's a historic day for Delimiter today. Tonight we filed our first Freedom of Information requests to the Federal Government.
Deakin Uni first in Australia to get Cisco’s new SDN gear
I'm attending Cisco Live in Melbourne this week, and I have to say that while there is a lot of marketing hype out there about software-defined networking and the kinds of complex network/app/processing integration that Cisco is hyping up, there is also a lot of real-world activity building out there with respect to this new paradigm.
Does Sydney have 10,000 unsecured Wi-Fi networks?
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.
Screwed: Australian PS4, Xbox One lack basic functionality
Are you one of those Australians who lined up at midnight to buy some of the first next-generation video game consoles to go on sale? Have you spent some time exploring your new PlayStation 4 or Xbox One? Then you would be aware that when it comes to Australian support for their new consoles, both Sony and Microsoft appear to have screwed Australians pretty badly.
The marvellously destructive power of the Internet:A rant by Mark Newton
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).
NSA intercepts US routers, implants spyware
Remember how the US Government made such as a huge song and dance about the claimed security implications to buying networking equipment from Chinese vendor Huawei? Well, it turns out that this was squarely a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Vic Police to get computer hacking power
Those with a close interest in electronic surveillance may recall that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was given new powers last year that would allow the agency to hack into computers remotely for investigation purposes -- and even break into the computers of completely innocent Australians on the way. Well, now they're not the only ones.
ANZ Bank says no business case for core banking IT overhaul
Right now, there is a 'halo' effect that surrounds CommBank's core banking overhaul project that gives strong credence to the business case for its first mover advantage in the core banking IT race. I'm not sure that ANZ really understands just how powerful this overall effect can be. If it did, I would suspect it would be quite worried indeed.
‘Digital dividend’ spectrum battle will be over quickly: analysts
Australia’s long-awaited ‘digital dividend’ auction kicks off today, but may be a relative non-event with the reserve set relatively high and Telstra expected to dominate proceedings as it rushes to snap up as much spectrum for its 4G LTE services as possible.
Businesslink cancelled Office 365 rollout
Microsoft has been on a bit of a tear recently in Australia with its cloud-based Office 365 platform, signing up major customers such as the Queensland Government, Qantas, V8 Supercars and rental chain Mr Rental. And it’s not hard to see why, with the platform’s hybrid cloud/traditional deployment model giving customers substantial options. However, as iTNews reported last week, it hasn’t been all plain sailing for Redmond in this arena.
Apple ready to talk Australian prices
blog Remember when Labor MP Ed Husic went on that epic rant in Federal Parliament several months ago about what he saw as the...
Federal Govt cloud computing use is exploding
The Federal Government's adoption of cloud computing technologies has been quite a slow one. However, according to an article published this week by ZDNet, the situation may be drastically changing.
“Maddening, dispiriting, radically unbalanced”: A full legal analysis of the TPP leaks
In Australian intellectual property circles, there are few names which are more respected than that of Kimberlee Weatherall. That’s why we were personally thrilled to learn that Weatherall has recently published a mammoth blow by blow analysis of the enforcement provisions contained in the recently leaked draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership IP chapter.
Gartner predicted failure of NSW GCIO role
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.
IBM Australia to cut 1,000 staff, reports ABC
I’d like to see a little more transparency from IBM with respect to this issue. Of course IBM is entitled to shift around staff and re-balance its headcount. But when we’re talking about redundancies as high as 1,000 workers, large companies such as IBM have a responsibility to their customers, to their staff and to their shareholders to let a little more information out of the kimono. 1,000 staff is not 100. And it would be ethical of IBM to let us know a little more about what’s going on here.
Is Android ready for the enterprise?
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.
Telstra cuts 1,100 ops jobs
Is Telstra ever not cutting jobs in one division or another? The company seems to go through a purge every few six months or so, at least in my decade-long tenure as a technology journalist. The latest cuts were announced this week.
Bankwest in massive Windows 8 rollout
Large Windows 8 rollouts have been thin on the ground in Australia since Microsoft released its newest operating system last year, but there have been a handful exposed -- and more are apparently coming. This morning iTNews adds Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Bankwest to the list.
Could Telstra buy Telecom NZ?
Speculation has started floating around Australia's blogosphere from senior sources that the nation's number one telco could find it opportunistic to be positioning itself for a buyout of New Zealand's incumbent telco Telecom New Zealand.
More R18+ games approved for Australia
It was only a little over a week ago that the Classification Board approved the first R18+ video game to be launched in Australia in the form of Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, following new legislation supporting R18+ games taking effect on 1 January. And now we have word that that wasn’t an anomaly, with the news that the Classification Board has approved two more games as R18+ in Australia.
Lotus position: ABS a “happy Notes camper”
We couldn't help but laugh when we read this excellent interview with Australian Bureau of Statistics chief information officer Patrick Hadley, describing the agency's ongoing commitment to IBM's Lotus Notes/Domino platform as part of its recently released and wide-ranging ICT strategy.
iPad trial: Does anyone know who this is?
Looks like there's at least one major Australian organisation that is trialling iPads with a view to a much wider rollout.
Big fish, bigger fish: iiNet, M2 considered merger
Australia’s market recently dodged a potential merger that would have created an NBN-era telecommunications behemoth by combining M2 Telecommunications and iiNet.
“Nightmare scenario”: Vodafone reveals extensive Govt wiretapping
If you thought you had a solid grip on just how extensive Government surveillance of our electronic communications systems was, think again. The revelations just keep coming. Late last week mobile telco Vodafone revealed an extensive bucket list of surveillance measures which are used by governments in dozens of countries it operates in — including Australia — to retrieve information about its customers.
Mirvac dumps BlackBerry for iPhone; and a few thoughts about the model
The nation's number two telco Optus and its subsidiary Alphawest has revealed that they recently helped shopping centre giant Mirvac ditch its fleet of BlackBerry mobile phones for an Apple iPhone replacement.
Shocker: Scott Ludlam is a reader
The Murdoch-owned Herald Sun newspaper has uncovered a shocking fact about Greens Communications spokesperson Scott Ludlam: He's a reader.
Slow day today
Just as an FYI, today (Friday) will be a very slow posting day for Delimiter (maybe one or two articles). It's been a huge and very busy period over the past few months, so we're taking it easy today to step back and get some perspective on things. We'll be back at full steam next week! Thanks for reading :)
Specsavers deploys Google Apps, loves cloud
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.
QBE shifts 100 IT roles to India
Insurance giant QBE continues restructuring operations in its IT department by offshoring 100 roles, according to the Finance Sector Union.
“Like Sol Trujillo”: Conroy blasts Vodafone CEO
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has taken an axe to complaints by Vodafone Australia's chief executive Bill Morrow about the national telecommunications regulatory regime, comparing Morrow to outspoken former Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo.
Google’s Sydney HQ gets hacked … kind of
The security staff at Google Australia’s flashy new headquarters in the Sydney CBD most likely spend most of their time worrying about physical breaches of the building’s security, making sure that the company’s local network routers and PCs aren’t broken into by Internet nasties and trying to keep nutbag journalists from conducting satirical exercises outside their front door. But do they spend much time worrying about the in-building network controlling functions such as air conditioning? Probably not. However, if this article by Wired is any indication, perhaps they should be.
Class action lawsuit starts against Vodafone
Just when you thought Vodafone’s problems couldn’t get any worse … they just did. Remember that potential class action lawsuit which local firm Piper Alderman had been promoting back in December 2010 in the wake of Vodafone’s ‘Vodafail’ problems? Well, it’s back, it’s on, and some 23,000 people have joined the action.
Does Telstra have a million 4G devices or not?
Does Telstra have a million 4G devices on its Next G network or not? It depends who you ask, apparently.
Brisbane City Council plans IT offshoring
All the cool kids are conducting IT outsourcing initiatives this year. Boral’s doing it, Woolworths is doing it; it’s basically par for the course if you’re a major corporation or government department. But that hasn’t stopped one of the Brisbane City Council’s main unions from jumping up and down over Brisbane City Council’s plans to shift up to 50 IT roles offshore.
Is FTTN vectoring just a pipe dream?
If you believe Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a technology known as 'vectoring' has the potential to dramatically enhance the speed of a fibre to the node network such as the Coalition is planning to construct under its rival NBN policy. However, significant doubts have recently been raised as to the extent to which vectoring can be implemented in Australia -- and at what cost.
Kogan issues updated mobile usage policy
Telecommunications comparison WhistleOut has dug up the news that Kogan has issued a new acceptable usage policy for its so-called "Unlimited" plans.
ASIO blueprints hacked, claims Four Corners
To the extent that you still trust Four Corners' reporting on the IT security scene, the program last night made a somewhat audacious claim: That international interests had successfully stolen the blueprints for the new Canberra headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
Why did Visy buck Telstra for Google Apps?
Fascinating news arrives from the Australian today that packaging company Visy has ditched its existing Microsoft email platform and migrated to Google Apps.
Telstra offshores 34 Tasmanian jobs
Your writer can't imagine that it's easy working at Telstra. Although Australia's biggest telco has an extensive workforce with many career opportunities, it also conducts regularly redundancy rounds as part of its ongoing drive to become more efficient and cut costs.
BoQ cuts down outsourcing list to four
Those of you who follow the big end of the IT services market in Australia will recall that November last year Bank of Queensland revealed plans to finally chop up its extremely long-running comprehensive IT outsourcing deal with HP, with the effort being led by the bank's chief information officer Julie Bale (pictured). Well, things have been moving along at a rapid clip and the bank has reportedly now cut down its list of prospective partners to four.
Fire & Rescue dumps GroupWise for hosted Exchange
Fire and Rescue NSW finally ditches Novell GroupWise for a hosted version of Microsoft Exchange.
Qantas dumps BlackBerrys for iPhones
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.
A challenge for Telstra: Show us your best
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.
ISP market needs more mergers, says Budde
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.
This is how Google changes country MDs
Other companies' Australian managing directors exit gracefully, in a carefully stage-managed process which sees a replacement privately sourced almost before the incumbent leaves. But not Google. Google just dumps a new job ad on its country page as the local MD leaves the country.
BoQ, AMP open up major IT outsourcing deals
Wow. It's been a huge week or so in Australia's financial services IT scene, with revelations that two massive, long-running IT outsourcing deals which have been in place for a decade or more may be finally opened up to rivals.
4G faster than the NBN? I don’t think so
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.
Australia’s IT industry just isn’t sexy enough
Those of you who've been following Delimiter over the past several days might have noticed that I've gotten a little bit on my high horse over the issue of industry subsidies. I was a little shocked by the massive national ruckus created by the request by fruit processor SPC Ardmona for millions of dollars worth of government assistance for its plant in Shepparton, Victoria, when larger issues in the nation's technology sector are almost completely ignored. Today I've published a further view on the issue on the ABC's The Drum site, arguing that it's because the IT industry just isn't sexy enough.
ATO still struggling with WinXP upgrade
Remember how in October 2011 the Australian Taxation Office revealed that it would finally ditch Microsoft’s legacy Windows XP operating system and adopt Windows 7? Yeah, not so much.
WA Govt still has terrible IT security
Those of you who have been reading Delimiter for some time will know that for much of the past half-decade, Western Australia's Auditor-General has been warning that the State Government's IT security is pretty abysmal.
Senate Estimates: Some things never change
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.
Turnbull has “saved” the NBN, says Kohler
It's hard to recall, given Tony Abbott's enthusiastic support for the Coalition's 'NBN lite' policy released this week, but there was a time when the Opposition Leader and others in the Coalition had pledged to "demolish", "dismantle" and any other 'd' word you can think of, Labor's National Broadband Network policy. Until Malcolm Turnbull took control.
Telstra suffers another data breach
It hasn’t been a good few years for the nation’s biggest telco Telstra when it comes to data breaches. It almost seems like every three to four months, there’s a new chunk of Telstra’s customer data leaked onto the public Internet, and the company has to make yet another apology to those affected, as well as kicking off another ‘review’ of its systems.
Did Conroy’s AFP filter wrongly block 1,200 sites?
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, it appears that the limited ISP-based filter which several of Australia’s major ISPs (Telstra, Optus and Vodafone so far) have implemented with the assistance of the Australian Federal Police may have suffered a massive false positive event in early April and wrongly blocked some 1,200 websites, including community group the Melbourne Free University.
Microsoft’s war on Google Apps gets nasty
Microsoft Australia produces case study scorching towards Google Apps and Gmail.
Google starts demoing Glass in Australia
Google has shipped a couple of Glass units to Australia and has started demonstrating them with local media.
Now You Should Listen to This, Because This Concerns You
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...
HP brings SAP’s hosted HANA on-shore
SAP and HP announced this morning that they would be provided HANA as a service, and (for once), Australia is the first location globally to be able to access it.
Google and JB Hi-Fi cut Australian price of Nexus 5X, 6P by $100
Google's Nexus 5 is now available with a $100 discount in the Australian market, with both the company itself and retailers such as JB Hi-Fi applying the discount.
IBM’s Watson is reportedly expanding into Woodside’s desktops
For most of the time that IBM's Watson artificial intelligence (for want of a better word) system has been around, I suspect many technology journalists such as myself have viewed the platform as something of a toy -- a pet project which Big Blue can use to demonstrate its deep technology research credentials and wow live quiz shows on television. But if this article by iTnews is any indication, Watson is moving past that into something rather more functional.
Defence knocks HP out of datacentre deal
The Department of Defence's Centralised Processing contract has been out to market for a year, with IBM, HP and Lockheed Martin the players in contention. However, this week Defence knocked HP out of the running.
Adobe CEO hits Australia amid price crisis
Adobe global president and chief executive Shantanu Narayen visits Sydney in the midst of a high-profile crisis regarding the company's Australian pricing.
Samsung ATIV S for Australia in Feb?
Australian Windows Phone enthusiast site Windows Phone Down Under says it's likely Australia will see Samsung's Windows Phone 8-based ATIV S in February.
Advancing up the geek ladder …
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.
Turnbull continues to attract IT industry bile
Not since Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was strongly pushing the Internet filter project several years ago have I seen this level of frustration with a politician regarding a technology policy.
The many gestures of David Thodey
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.
Woodside connects 200k IoT sensors to Amazon
There are some fascinating case studies coming out of Amazon Web Service's Summit in Sydney this week. One of the ones that we found the most interesting was a story regarding resources giant Woodside, which has conducted one of the largest Internet of Things projects we've seen yet in Australia.
I’m leaving Delimiter
Today I have some rather sudden and important news for you all. I am leaving Delimiter.
iPhone 5 may hit Australia before Christmas
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.
Past history: When the Nationals backed the NBN
Think all elements of the Coalition have always been irrevocably opposed to Labor's ambitious National Broadband Network project? Think again. Back in April 2009 when it was first announced by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the good Senator Barnaby Joyce issued a media release supporting the idea.
A solid overview of Australian startup funding
Mark Greig, the commercial director of Pollenizer Global (and chairman of Pollenizer’s Investment Council) has published an extremely common sense blog post outlining some the basic things you need to know about investing in Australian IT startups.
Shocker: Qld Health payroll tender was rushed
From Computerworld this week comes the incredible, unbelievable, amazing news that the tendering process for Queensland Health’s colossally botched payroll systems upgrade may have been just a teensy bit rushed, and that the Government may not have allocated sufficient funding for the project.
Delimiter’s journey is coming to a natural end
Today I write to let the Delimiter community know two things: Firstly, Delimiter will cease publishing new articles on Friday 5th July. And secondly, I have a new job.
Optus “increases focus” by sacking 290 staff
Over the past decade your writer has been a technology journalist, we've seen quite a few weasel-worded media releases, and this morning's emission from SingTel subsidiary Optus is a good example of the genre. Sacking some 290 staff? Why not apply a little of the old doublespeak treatment and label the initiative as "increasing focus"?
NSW Govt consults on ICT policy
The New South Wales Government, which has already been making waves in the IT industry for its comprehensive and forward-thinking ICT policy, has kicked off consultation on the next iteration of the strategy.
802.11ac to wire up your garage datacentre? Why not?
Fascinating blog post this week from MacTalk founder and all-round geek Anthony Agius, who chronicles his attempts to use two 802.11ac routers to link his new garage-based server farm to his house network.
Woolworths dumps BlackBerrys for iPhones
This morning The Australian newspaper reported (we recommend you click here for the full article) that BlackBerry is completely out and iPhone in at the retailer.
Lenovo’s IBM server + Motorola buys will raise new security questions
Remember when the Financial Review reported in August that devices manufactured by Chinese vendor Lenovo (including its extremely popular ThinkPad line) had been banned from use in the “secret” and “top secret” networks of the intelligence and defence services of Australia, the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, because of similar espionage concerns as have been leveled at Chinese networking vendor Huawei? Well, Australian government agencies just got a whole new kettle of fish to worry about, with two key acquisitions by Lenovo which have taken place over the past week or so.
Qld Govt IT contractors face layoff massacre
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.
Apparently people still buy SPARC servers
According to a media release issued by Oracle Australia this morning, apparently SPARC servers are still in vogue. Who knew?
Productivity Commission chief is ex-DBCDE head
It escaped our attention at the time, but the more astute among you may have noted in November last year that Peter Harris, the head of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, was appointed to chair the Government’s Productivity Commission.
RIM bites off more Colvin than it can chew
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.
What a dream home NBN setup looks like
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.
A quick note regarding today’s stories
Just a quick note to let you all know that Delimiter will be on hiatus today. The plan is that story posting will resume as per normal from tomorrow (Tuesday).
WikiLeaks Party implodes, candidates quit
WikiLeaks Senate candidate Leslie Cannold quits the party, alleging impropriety in its internal processes.
HP Slate 7 to land in Australia shortly
If there's one thing we like more than hot new gadgets entering the Australian marketplace, it's inexpensive hot new gadgets, and this appears to be precisely what global tech giant HP is about to deliver with the Australian launch of its Slate 7 Android tablet.
Spare a thought for Telstra tech Pete Milward …
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".
This is what the NBN debate has come to
If you had any shred of belief that Australia's debate over the National Broadband Network had further depths to sink to, let that belief be laid aside. Today, News Ltd published an article attacking the amount of money which NBN Co spends on ... coffee. That's right; coffee.
Server timestamps: Abbott was right after all
The Department of Parliamentary Services appears to have cleared Abbott of any wrongdoing in fudging James Ashby-related media release timestamps, admitting that its systems haven't been up to spec.
Great example of how politics can destroy necessary IT projects
To my mind, this situation reflects the perfect example of politics interfering with sensible IT project delivery.
LG Optimus L9 hits Australia
This week LG added another model to its Australian line-up in the form of the Optimus L9.
Cloud vendors need to communicate better: CIO
Over at his blog Cloud81, Altium chief information officer Alan Perkins is ruminating -- as is often his wont -- on cloud computing.
Turnbull would win if leader, says Windsor
According to Independent Tony Windsor, if Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull were to contest the upcoming September Federal Election as Leader of the Opposition, the Coalition would be a shoe-in for victory.
An iPad lover’s new Surface romance
Australian Microsoft professional Loryan Strant goes into detail about how he's switching from the Apple iPad to the Microsoft Surface.
Is Australia’s “cybersecurity” really that bad?
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.
The theory of infinite Simon Hacketts
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
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.
Santos reveals Win8 tablet rollout
From the sidelines of Microsoft's TechEd conference on the Gold Coast this week, Computerworld reports that oil and gas giant Santos has confirmed plans to deploy Windows 8 tablets throughout its business.
BPOS holdouts have “head in the sand”, says MVP
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.
NBN: Where’s the love, Eric Schmidt?
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...
When mainstream media covers cloud startups
Hilarious video above of a segment broadcast recently on Channel 10 news about Australian cloud computing startup OrionVM.
Delimiter is giving away a Nexus 5!
As you may know, we're big fans of Google's Nexus line-up in general here at Delimiter towers. Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10 ... we love pretty much anything Nexus. Because of this, and because we're still seeking to boost our newsletter subscriber numbers, today we're kicking off a new competition to give away one of Google's new Nexus 5 smartphones.
Solar Movie is the content industry’s first site blocking target
As revealed by the Sydney Morning Herald and a number of other media this morning, the content industry's first target will be Solar Movie.
NSW Cancer Council ditches desktop PCs, phones forever
'Mobility' has been one of the hottest buzzwords in Australian IT departments for some time now. Smartphones, tablets, laptops -- and allowing users to access their corporate data wherever they feel is the most appropriate place and time and in the most appropriate format -- these are all the hallmarks of the new evolving mobility landscape inside major and minor organisations. However, few have taken it to the extremes that the NSW Cancer Council has.
Digging into the Creative Cloud cost picture
Local Melbourne blogger Dawnstar Australis has found that Australians may end paying substantially more over the long-term to use Creative Clowd than traditional boxed copies of Adobe software.
Samsung offshores Aussie mobile support
As Korean giant Samsung has grown its presence in the mobile phone space to rival and even exceed that of industry leader Apple, it has also had to grow its support network. This is to be expected. But what many readers may not have realised is that much of the company’s support for its devices in Australia was actually supported from Australia, with a call centre based in Wollongong. Unfortunately for those concerned, according to Ausdroid, those jobs are now to be offshored.
Turnbull outlines Govt ICT vision
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has published an extensive article arguing that the Federal Government needed to do a better job of connecting with Australians via digital channels and that public sector IT projects needn't cost the huge amounts that some have in the past.
$145m project collapse: AFP fails to upgrade 18-year-old case management system
As regular readers of Delimiter will know, Australia's police forces have not precisely covered themselves in glory when it comes to upgrading their ageing IT systems.
Optus loses networks chief Ottendorfer
Optus revealed last week that it's losing its highly regarded networks chief Günther Ottendorfer, who's been the driving force between the rapid rollout of its 4G network. To put it mildly, this is a huge loss for Optus
Even major banks still use archaic Excel spreadsheets for complex tasks
I hope this Suncorp example can serve as a stimulus for other organisations to shift off Excel for these kinds of complex tasks as well.
Enterprise will hold back on Windows 8
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.
There is a cold war going on between Govt CMS platforms
The new kids on the block may do well to remember that the DTO has only been around for a very short period of time, and could easily be deleted again by a hostile Federal Cabinet during tough budget times. The folks who set up GovCMS paved the way for an agency like the DTO to do great things.
“Awash in cost over-runs and red ink”: Kiwis sledge Australia’s NBN
When it comes to broadband, it's safe to say that New Zealand is beating Australia hands down.
Westpac dumps desk phones for Samsung Android mobiles
The era of troublesome desk phones tied to physical locations is gradually coming to an end in many workplaces, with mobile phones becoming increasingly popular as organisations' main method of voice telecommunications. But some groups are more advanced than others when it comes to adoption of the trend. One of those is Westpac.
HP forces MicroServer fan page offline?
Some of you may be aware that local IT professional Joel Dickins has for some time been running a rather useful Facebook page dedicated to the HP MicroServer, an excellent HP line which are used by many geeks in their households for varied duties from media serving to NAS functionality and so on. The only problem? HP has had the page taken offline.
It’s not just Freelancer: Aussie tech IPOs are back in general
Freelancer chief executive Matt Barrie shocked a few in Australia’s tech sector with his mid-September rejection of a $400 million offer from a Japanese HR and recruitment giant to buy his company. The executive’s decision to list his company on the Australian Stock Exchange instead was similarly controversial. However, as I write in Delimiter 2.0 today (subscriber content), Freelancer’s not alone. There’s half a dozen other technology industry companies seeking to list on the ASX late this year or early next.
iiNet launches Budii Lite modem
I know that mentioning consumer-grade modems such as the Budii Lite on Delimiter can be fraught with danger -- many readers, including myself, prefer options such as FRITZ!Box, D-Link or Linksys. However, I wanted to flag this as something that readers may especially find useful to recommend to friends and family. I get constantly asked by personal connections for broadband recommendations.
“Truth”: Kogan wins ispONE fight
If you were watching Ruslan Kogan’s Twitter feed closely this afternoon, you would have seen the Kogan chief claim victory in his company’s contentious court battle against mobile wholesaler ispONE.
Blizzard changes its tune … was it Telstra, or Optus?
Jeez, Blizzard, way to win everyone back. First you give Australia a spurious reason why you can't set up a dedicated local hub in Australia for World of Warcraft and StarCraft II players, claiming that the nation's "number one ISP" can't correctly route the fat traffic your legions of loyal fans are able to dish out.
Privacy commissioners issue please-explain about Google Glass
It’s been hailed as the vanguard of wearable computing, derided as a plaything of perverts and stalkers, and in a Seattle bar even though it’s not broadly available in the wild and is still untold months from release. No doubt about Google Glass is already brewing a firestorm of controversy – and its possibilities for public snooping have proved worrying enough to Australia’s privacy watchdog that he has requested a meeting with Google to discuss its implications.
Watch/Check out the photos: Twitter Australia’s new HQ
This morning Twitter Australia opened its new Australian headquarters in Sydney. The facility was opened by NSW Premier Mike Baird, and according to Twitter, has "a distinctly Australian flair", which includes meeting rooms named after Australian beaches, a "muted green and golden colour scheme", a "local beach design" and an open plan. Presumably they also have a fantastic expresso machine.
NBN revamps CVC pricing scheme
As you may have seen last week, the NBN company announced that it would conduct a trial of revamped pricing on its CVC product -- the structure through which the NBN company actually charges retail ISPs for downloads over its network, rather than customer connections.
iPad minis replace Windows Mobile at Arnott’s
From iTNews earlier this month comes a rather interesting story about how food giant Campbell Arnott’s has deployed a fleet of several hundred iPad mini tablets to replace legacy Windows Mobile devices being used by its field staff.
Telstra’s Sensis sacks 648 staff
It seems like we’re always hearing about redundancies at Telstra’s directories and digital division Sensis. Last week it was half the division’s staff, this week the number has firmed at 648, according to an official Telstra media release issued this morning. Apparently the restructure is aimed at “digital growth”. Right.
NBN contractors: No problem with rollout speed
A lengthy article published by the ABC last week (we recommend you click here for the full article) appears to blow claims of slow rollout speeds out of the water, with NBN Co’s contractors telling Aunty that getting the deployment done on time would be no problem.
White House clears Huawei of spy claims
Well, well. Seems as though there just still isn't any evidence that Chinese networking giant Huawei is involved in espionage for the Chinese Government or military, and now some rather large players are finally coming out in public to say so.
In which a Microsoft fan ends his Apple iPhone experiment
I always enjoy Strant's posts. He's primarily a Microsoft-focused technologist, but he has an open mind. And that can sometimes be a rarity in our idealistic industry.
A Christmas ode to Sol Trujillo and the National Broadband Network
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.
Introducing Australia’s (eventual) game classification system
Those of you with a long memory will recall that Australia’s video game classification systems hasn’t precisely always been without controversy. Well, in what looks like a good move on the surface, Australia appears set to join a new international system for video game classification.
Two Sydney universities get hacked
It hasn't been a good few weeks for university IT security in Australia, with the Universities of Western Sydney and New South Wales both being broken into.
Parliament trials Windows 8 tablets
ZDNet publishes an interview with Federal Parliament chief information officer Eija Seittenranta, detailing the fact that the Parliament is conducting a trial of Windows 8 tablets.
Announcing the winner of Delimiter’s iPad mini draw!
I'm pleased to announce that the winner is Nicholas, an account manager from WA. The iPad mini 4 (Nicholas picked the gold colour) has been dispatched and should arrive shortly. Congrats!
Does Vodafone need a new flagship handset?
Does Vodafone need a new flagship exclusive handset to stack up against the offerings of Telstra and Optus?
Govt “determined” to stick “head deep in the sand” on tech policy, says Atlassian...
Much has been written about the general lack of understanding which Australia's political sector has when it comes to setting good technology policy. But few have put it as bluntly as Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes did last week in an interview with Business Insider.
NAB bets the farm on Oracle
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.
NBN debate full of falsehoods, say academics
It should come as no surprise to regular Delimiter readers that our National Broadband Network debate has been poisoned by a constant series of inaccurate and misleading statements. It’s the done thing, after all — politicians are doing it, newspapers are doing it, television stations are doing it — why wouldn’t everyone want to get in on the bandwagon?
Defence dumps IBM from datacentre deal
Those of you who keep an eye on the extremely large IT purchasing habits of the Department of Defence will recall that the Department has had a long-running tendering initiative going for what it calls “Centralised Processing” services. The contract has been out to market for some time, with IBM, HP and Lockheed Martin previously being the players in contention. In September that list shrunk down to two, with Defence knocking HP out of the running at that point, and last week the list shrunk again, with Big Blue losing out and Lockheed Martin winning preferred tendered status.
Buyer beware: No Aussie 4G support for HTC, Samsung ‘Nexus’ units
Unfortunately neither the HTC One nor Samsung Galaxy S4 models with stock Android appear to support Australia's 4G networks just yet; consequently, we can't recommend that Australians buy them when they launch.
Optus launches TD-LTE 4G trial in Canberra
The nation's number two telco Optus has made a series of major announcements this morning regarding its 4G network, which now extends through five capital cities as well major regional centres such as the Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay.
Govt ICT apprenticeships open
Spoiling for a career in IT in the public sector? You're in luck. The Federal Government has just opened its ICT apprenticeship and cadetship program again.
Merry Christmas from Malcolm Turnbull
Following on from yesterday’s Christmas card from the good Senator Stephen Conroy, we’ve now received a similar message of Yuletide cheer from his opposite, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Quelle surprise! Cisco supports a HFC cable NBN
Call me cynical, call me a jaded old journalist who’s seen too much in his short life, call me suspicious, but I have to say I wasn’t precisely surprised to see the news that US-based networking equipment giant Cisco Systems is spruiking the benefits of a National Broadband Network project based on HFC cable technology. After all, Cisco does have a sizable business selling HFC cable equipment, especially in the US, the global home of HFC cable.
Will Samsung try to block iPhone 5 sales in Australia?
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.
Wyatt Roy’s innovation policy hack day will be Saturday week in Sydney
Remember how Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy publicly discussed the possibility of holding an innovation policy ‘hackathon’ to generate new policy ideas to help develop Australia’s economy into an innovation powerhouse? Well it’s already organised, and it’ll be Saturday week in Sydney, with tech accelerator BlueChilli doing much of the organising.
So is G.Fast a thing or not?
Those who were closely observing Malcolm Turnbull’s debate with Business Spectator public Alan Kohler yesterday will have noted Turnbull’s reference to an emerging standard known as G.Fast. Turnbull made the somewhat controversial claim, according to ZDNet that G.Fast could eventually spur 1Gbps speeds over FTTN networks. But is G.Fast a reality, or another broadband pipe dream?
Govt finally introduces data breach laws
Those of you who work in the IT security field might want to pay attention to this. If your organisation suffers a major data breach, you're now going to be required to tell affected stakeholders about it.
Apple Maps losing Victorians in forest
We haven’t found Apple’s new mapping application in iOS 6 to be that much of a headache — in fact, it does offer some noticeable improvements in some areas over the previous Google Maps tool — but then we weren’t trying to use the platform to navigate by road to the Victorian town of Mildura. According to the Victorian Police, quite a few people have made that mistake — and ended up in the middle of nowhere.
Nexus 7 draw: The winner revealed
You may remember that in October Delimiter kicked off a reader giveaway. Today, we’re happy to announce the winner! A new Nexus 7 is currently on its way to Pella, a web publisher based in Sydney.
Dream or nightmare? IT dept from scratch
It's not often that you see a whole new IT department and associated systems set up from scratch, but that's kind of what appears to be happening at ice cream giant Peters, which was recently bought by a private equity firm and is currently separating its systems from global food manufacturer and ex-parent Nestle.
Hitting the pause button on Delimiter 2.0
Delimiter 2.0's model is proven, and it's a viable slice of the Delimiter business which is expanding. In an age where media outlets have struggled with revenue models, it represents a little bright spot, and I may come back to it one day, at the right time. However, as with all businesses, I have to face facts and invest my time where the greatest return on investment is to be found. Right now, and in the short to medium-term, that's definitely Delimiter 1.0.
Brisbane City Council loses CIO Brant
Brisbane City Council chief information officer Nicholas Brant is to leave the organisation, right as Brisbane, the largest council organisation in Australia is in the middle of several major technology initiatives, including offshoring a substantial number of IT roles, shifting some work into the cloud and spending $353 million on a comprehensive, SAP-based businesses administration system.
An insider’s look at Aussie app development
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.
AFACT exposed: Insider investigator tells his story
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.
IT security as a service explodes in Australia
A very interesting article on Techworld last week highlights the fact that IT security as a service is currently exploding in Australia, with smarter, sleeker, cloud-based alternatives to the old models coming to the fold.
Brickworks details ERP integration project
In a case study published by Microsoft this week, Brickworks details how it has integrated various accounts payable and invoicing systems together using a combination of SharePoint, software from smart processing company Kofax and Microsoft partner Efficiency Leaders.
Pia Waugh takes control of data.gov.au
Long-time IT industry openness advocate Pia Waugh takes control of Government 2.0 initiatives in the Federal Government.
ATO wants cloud HR platform
We're starting to see this kind of SaaS/cloud computing deployment in the Federal Government. It's a slow process, but each kind of 'safe' deployment such as this one -- with data and processes which could be considered non-mission-critical -- increases the comfort level of mega-agency chief information officers and secretaries regarding cloud computing. We're getting there.
SAP generates 120 new Melbourne jobs
Looks like German software giant SAP isn’t doing too poorly in Australia. According to a media release issued by Victorian Technology Minister Gordon Rich-Phillips last week, the vendor is all set to create 120 new jobs in Victoria.
Gary Gray promises to release Reinecke report
blog We've been fairly harsh (sorry!) on the Australian Government Information Management Office in the past, although we're quite fond of first assistant secretary...
Simon Hackett should “cash out”, sell Internode, says iiNet CEO Malone
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.
Surprise! Govt botched NDIS IT systems
A government department botching the delivery of a new IT platform? Shocking, I know. This has never, ever happened before. Unbelievable. Today's public sector IT blunder comes from the pages of Intermedium, which tells us that the National Disability Insurance Scheme developed by the previous Government has been hamstrung by the poor quality of the IT systems put together to support it.
Turnbull wants whole Cabinet to use Slack
We knew that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a technophile, but I suspect many of us didn't quite appreciate how focused on technology the Member for Wentworth truly is.
G-Cloud, or G-String?
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.
How to get around Australian geo-blocking
Frustrated that you can't watch Netflix because you've got an Australian IP address? Can't log into Hulu? It's a common problem, and one that many Australians find frustrating. However, due to the magic goodness of the Internet, there are ways around these kinds of headaches.
Nexus 7 draw: The winner revealed
Announcing the winner of Delimiter's Nexus 7 random draw.
Following Atlassian, BigCommerce will also list in the US
There is currently a great deal of debate and controversy out there surrounding the decision by Australian software giant Atlassian to go public through listing its shares on a US-based stock exchange rather than in Australia. Some successful Australian entrepreneurs, such as Freelancer chief executive Matt Barrie, have been trying to persuade Atlassian to list locally for years, in a move that they believe will help change the focus of Australia's financial markets towards the tech sector.
Now Qld Govt has to pay IBM’s costs in failed litigation
Things are not going well for the Queensland Government in its lawsuit against IBM over the incredibly botched payroll systems upgrade project at Queensland Health.
Tesla Model S may come to Australia shortly
Queue the hype train, because Gizmodo reported this morning that US electric car firm Tesla has shipped one of its popular Model S units over to Canberra for testing.
Gillard watches Game of Thrones legally
This day had to come. Ladies and gentlemen, the science fiction and fantasy worlds so beloved by IT geeks the world around have now gone mainstream. The Guardian's Australian edition reports this morning that Prime Minister Julia Gillard is a huge fan of Game of Thrones, the popular TV adaptation of George R. R. Martin's excellent A Song of Ice and Fire epic series. And what's even more interesting is that the Prime Minister is watching Game of Thrones completely legally.
No Amazon Fire Phone for Australia yet
You might have noticed that global online retailer Amazon launched a new phone overnight in the US. With a new feature called ‘Dynamic Perspective’ (which delivers 3D depth to some apps), a customised version of Android and solid integration with Amazon’s world-beating content ecosystem, this model is getting some plaudits from technology reviews. However, for Australians the phone itself may not be as interesting as Amazon may want it to be. That’s because there are no signs it’s coming to Australia yet.
Telstra has 2.1 million 4G customers
This morning the telco’s deputy chief financial officer Mark Hall casually told Macquarie Bank’s Equities Conference that Telstra already has 2.1 million customers on its 4G network.
You can’t actually buy Windows 8 in Australia [Update: Well, kind of]
Windows 8 has launched in Australia. But you can't actually buy fully boxed copies of it locally. No, really.
It’s official: Alphawest is now just Optus
Now, according to an Optus media release issued yesterday, there is no difference. Alphawest is Optus. Optus is Alphawest. It's a giant "synergy", or "integration of some kind".
NBN Co’s G.Fast FTTB trial hits close to 1Gbps over copper
While your writer was whiling away his time in the Senate Environment and Communications Committee last night listening to NBN company chief executive Bill Morrow field a variety of questions from Senator Stephen Conroy, the NBN company’s media relations team was busy briefing other journalists on the company’s initial trial of the G.Fast standard which allows much higher speeds than previously thought possible to be delivered through extending Fibre to the Node closer to customers’ premises.
Turnbull hits Armidale for NBN tour
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.
Quickflix lets users buy TV shows, including Game of Thrones
One of the disadvantages of an online IPTV service such as Quickflix is that up until now, you haven't been able to buy distinct television shows through the service to own permanently; users have only been able to get access to the shows they want if they're paying a monthly subscription. However, all this is set to change, according to a media release issued by Quickflix today.
Qld loses IT renewal chief after just nine months
The Queensland Government appears to have suffered a substantial blow to its attempts to reform its technology infrastructure, with the news reported late last week that the executive in charge of that renewal program, Glenn Walker, had resigned for a position in the private sector.
Buzzword bingo
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.
Banks dump accounts of Bitcoin firms
Australia's growing cadre of Bitcoin trading companies have discovered that the mere nature of their business has been enough to get them blacklisted by Australia's major banks.
New six monthly and concession Membership options, plus PayPal
Along with our yearly $129 option, we now also offer a $75 six monthly option. In addition, I have also added a 20 percent discount coupon for full-time students or pensioners, which can be applied to either plan. I've also added PayPal as a payment option, alongside our existing secure credit card payments platform, Stripe.
Critics flood Roxon with copies of Orwell’s ‘1984’
Half a dozen of Roxon’s fiercest critics have started mailing the Labor Senator copies of George Orwell’s iconic book 1984.
ATO may investigate Apple, Google
Remember that year when search giant Google made revenues from its Australian operations estimated at north of $1 billion, but paid corporate taxes of just $74,000? Or the year that Apple made $6.1 billion in revenue but paid just $36 million in corporate tax? Yeah, good times, good times. Well, the good times may well be over for these technology giants, with the ABC reporting that the Australian Taxation Office has (finally) set up a dedicated task force to tackle the situation.
Delivery drones: Approach with caution
As many people will be aware, yesterday an Australian startup named Flirtey announced that it in March next year, it would launch a commercial drone package delivery service, using "fully automated drones" to deliver packages in inner Sydney through short flights. But can this claim be believed?
Amazon wins more Aussie financial services work
Cloud computing giant Amazon Web Services has been relatively quiet about the numbers of Australian customers signing up to use its elastic infrastructure since it launched a dedicated datacentre in Australia in mid-November last year. At the moment the situation is unclear: Are Australian customers signing up to use the facility in droves, are they ignoring it, or are things somewhere in between?
Leave Gerry Harvey alone, says Kogan
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.
SA Govt forgets to pay phone bill
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.
AGIMO releases Big Data discussion paper
When it comes to enterprise IT buzzwords, ‘Big Data’ is right up there at the moment, alongside cloud computing, BYOD and social networking. That’s why we’re sure a few of you will be interested to know that the Australian Government Information Management Office late last week released what it termed a Big Data strategy issues paper.
Office 365 juggernaut hits ANU
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.
Gasp … Qld will fuel electric vehicle charging stations with solar
It seems like it was only yesterday that a rebel Queensland resident was committing the heinous sin of charging his Tesla Model S electric vehicle (EV) using a windfarm up north. Well, today’s news is even more shocking — the Queensland Government itself has announced it plans to start deploying new EV fast-charging stations around the state, powered by solar energy. That’s right. Blasphemous. How dare they!
New Nexus 7 may hit Australia in Sept
We don’t have any inside information to share, but according to Ausdroid, the new Nexus 7 may hit Australia as early as September. Niiiice.
CommBank ads to pimp core banking overhaul
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.
2,000 Qld IT staff to be outsourced, says union
Some 2,000 Queensland Government IT staff are set to be outsourced in the wake of the state's disastrous ICT Audit, according to one of the Government's main unions.
Oops
The Australian newspaper is forced to correct a report regarding the National Broadband Network and a college in South Australia.
Is this Mike Quigley’s car?
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.
MyRepublic full of “bullshit”, says CommsDay publisher
Your writer has been pretty supportive of the controversial comments made by MyRepublic chief executive Malcolm Rodrigues about the Coalition's version of the National Broadband Network. However, not everyone shares the same views. One very well-argued piece of detailed analysis comes from the founder of Communications Day, Grahame Lynch.
Turnbull’s credit card details exposed in Stratfor hack
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?
You heard it here first
Delimiter editor Renai LeMay has "jumped the shark", according to Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull
Sony Xperia Z tablet hits Australia
Sony’s last clutch of Android tablets, as with the offerings from virtually every other manufacturer, failed to make much of a dent on the Apple-dominated tablet market. However, Google’s recently had a series of hits with its Nexus line-up, and Samsung has also recently stepped up to the plate with its ‘Note’ series of tablets. Can Sony be the third party to succeed in breaking through in the hyper-competitive Android tablet market?
Assange: UK threatens to storm Ecuador embassy
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.
Qld Heath payroll: Senior bureaucrats sacked
The fallout from the payroll systems disaster at Queensland Health is continuing, as hard as that may be to believe. This morning Queensland Premier Campbell Newman took the unusual step of sacking a number of senior state government bureaucrats who had been involved in the debacle.
Blizzard finally starts adding Australian servers
Those of you who've been long-term fans of the excellent video games produced by Blizzard Entertainment (StarCraft, World of Warcraft, Diablo) will recall that Australians have been fighting for many years to get the company to set up local servers to service the multi-player aspects of its games. Well, Blizzard has finally cracked, and Diablo III is the first cab off the rank to get the local seal of approval.
Telstra wants to buy Leighton assets
According to the Financial Review, Telstra's going after some of the telco-related assets which Leighton Holdings recently put on the block.
Use a Surface Pro as your desktop? It’s possible
Local Microsoft Office 365 MVP Loryan Strant has been successfully conducting an experiment in using his new Microsoft Surface Pro tablet as his full-time desktop, complete with multiple monitors.
NBN Board: Turnbull not taking his own advice
If you've been following the ongoing speculation around who, precisely, new Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is planning to appoint to his refreshed NBN Co board, you will be aware that the Member for Wentworth has been beating a constant drum about NBN Co's board needing more talent with direct experience rolling out telecommunications networks. The only problem is, Turnbull doesn't appear to be taking his own advice.
Australia’s 4G mobile services more reliable than 3G: J.D. Power
Emerging 4G networks are proving to be more reliable and deliver a better wireless experience than established 3G networks, a J.D. Power and Associates study has found. The 2013 Australia Wireless Network Quality Study measured problems per 100 (PP100) based on ten common problems that impact overall network performance, including dropped calls, calls not connected, audio issues, failed or lost voicemails, and more.
Further views on AGIMO’s open source policy
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.
Leaked numbers show NBN fibre rollout lagging
I've been quite optimistic about the speed at which NBN Co is rolling out its brownfields fibre infrastructure, but that optimism has been challenged today by what appears to be the inadvertent release of new statistics regarding the company's rollout progress.
TPG’s Teoh opens the FetchTV door for iiNet once again
Remember how one of the first actions which TPG took upon acquiring its broadband rival iiNet was to dump the FetchTV Internet television product which iiNet and its subsidiary brand Internode had been such an evangelist for back in the early days? Well, that move, it turns out, may have been something more akin to a negotiating tactic.
Carbon Tax: How will it hit servers?
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.
Screwing the pooch: How IBM’s Qld Health disaster will change IT project governance
The remarkable thing about the Commission of Inquiry report is that it stays lays out IBM's culpability in a way which previous audits conducted by the Queensland Auditor-General and consulting firm KPMG did not.
US doesn’t want Assange, says ambassador
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.
Reality check: Tasmanian overhead FTTP trials have already been done
As the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union argues today in an extremely valid point, there's no real need for more overhead FTTP trials in Tasmania -- those have already been done. I'd like to hear an answer from the Minister as to why we need more trials of overhead FTTP infrastructure in the Apple isle, when so much work along these lines has already been done.
Australia trains more fitness than IT professionals
From the thought-provoking blog of REA Group chief information officer Nigel Dalton and his consulting colleague James Pierce comes the news that Australia is currently training many more fitness instructors than IT professionals.
Turnbull stacks NBN Review with Telstra cronies
You can find my thoughts on Justin Milne and other recent NBN appointments under the new Coalition Federal Government in a piece published on Delimiter 2.0 this morning that I titled 'Stacking the deck: NBN Review filled with Turnbull cronies'.
A fascinating startup brain dump from Phil Morle
If you're interested in Australia's IT startup ecosystem, you could do a lot worse than read this fascinating braindump by Morle posted amid the dying embers of 2012.
Stephen Conroy plays Candy Crush on his iPad during Question Time
It is Conroy's habit to play Candy Crush on his iPad instead of doing, you know ... actual work.
Coalition faces internal e-safety dissent
Remember how the new Coalition Federal Government issued a detailed discussion paper in mid-January canvassing various options through which it can deal with the issue of children’s safety on the Internet, including the potential establishment of a children’s e-safety commissioner? Of course you do. Well, now Malcolm Turnbull’s Parliamentary Secretary Paul Fletcher, who is spearheading the policy, is facing opposition from a new front: Coalition MPs.
Liberal Democrats oppose data retention
Into the e-surveillance miasma comes David Leyonhjelm, the new Senator-Elect for the Liberal Democrats, who will take his chair in just six short weeks. In a piece for the Financial Review newspaper late last week, Leyonhjelm makes it very clear where his party will stand on this issue: In opposition to data retention and similar initiatives which erode Australians’ privacy.
Nokia’s supersized Lumia 625 hits Oz; But does it even matter?
We can’t help but wonder at this point whether anyone will truly care, given the existing proliferation of Nokia Lumia models in Australia, but seeing as it’s our job to do so, we thought we’d inform you all of the availability of a new model in the Lumia line down under. Nokia tells us this morning that the company’s Lumia 625 is shortly to land on Australian shores.
Turnbull loses Rupert Murdoch’s favour over ‘unaffordable’ $56 billion NBN
Leaving the Member for Wentworth off Murdoch’s list at this point, taken together with the NewsCorp mogul’s sledge at the NBN, may be a signal indicating where Murdoch’s views on the subject of leadership lie.
ispONE implodes, cancels Telstra contracts
Well, it looks like those rumours that mobile wholesale player ispONE (which supplies services to both ALDIMobile and Kogan Mobile) was going bankrupt were true. The company's Federal Court action against Telstra to stop the telco from cancelling its service to ispONE appears to have been railroaded by ispONE's sudden move to go into administration.
Turnbull slams ‘pro-NBN zealot journalists’
Specialist technology journalists are fanning a pro-NBN zealotry among tech-savvy citizens, according to Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Oh, dear.
Sources claim Oracle has completely dumped its Australian support centre
Delimiter has been contacted by several sources who have stated that The Register's report is accurate, and that Oracle has indeed completely offshored its Australian support centre in the past month.
Google protecting pirates, says film giant
Film and entertainment giant Village Roadshow is decidedly unhappy with Google Australia for taking what the search giant believes is a realistic approach to dealing with Internet piracy. Go figure.
iTunes Radio to hit Australia early 2014
According to Bloomberg, iTunes Radio is to launch in Australia in early 2014.
Vocus/M2 consider FTTB rollout to compete with NBN Co, TPG
You may recall that several weeks ago, mid-tier telcos M2 and Vocus announced they would merge into a large company with a market capitalisation in excess of $3 billion, in a move that will further cement M2’s place as Australia’s fourth-largest broadband player and further consolidate the already minimalist Australian telecommunications industry. But what was not widely reported at the time was that the merged pair of telcos are also considering pursuing a Fibre to the Basement rollout to compete with the NBN company and TPG, which are already deploying this kind of infrastructure.
FTTP NBN no big loss, claims Gizmodo
According to Gizmodo, the loss of Labor's fibre to the premises National Broadband Network policy is no cause for Australian technologists to "mourn".
City of Sydney deploys Windows 7
A Microsoft case study published last month tells us that the City of Sydney, which has some 1,800 total staff, recently upgraded to Windows 7 from the long-lived Windows XP.
NBN originally just a “media stunt”, says IPA
Just how well-developed was the NBN policy, five or so years ago when it was first put together by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and then-PM Kevin Rudd? According to free market thinktank the Institute for Public Affairs, not very well-developed at all.
Classification Board allows State of Decay through
According to Gizmodo, quoting the Classification Board, drug references have been removed from the Australian version of openworld zombie survival game State of Decay, allowing it to be classified under the new R18+ rating.
Farce: WA Health can’t manage to find a CIO after six years
Every major organisation in Australia needs a senior executive to hold its top technology role. The minute you abandon that concept, is the minute you invite the kind of IT disasters and cost blow-outs that are already rife within Australia's state-based public sector.
The undiscovered country: When a Microsoft fan goes Apple
Microsoft Office 365 MVP Loryan Strant reveals he's taking a walk on the wild side with Mac OS X and iOS.
Absolutely phabulous: When is big, too big?
Just when is a smartphone too big? Manufacturers have been pushing the boundaries for some time as they dance with higher resolutions and larger screens, but the latest offerings from Huawei and Samsung may have clinched the deal as both companies produce 'phablets' – smartphones with screens in the six-inch range.
Turnbull’s first 100 days have been a disaster
I think it's safe to say at this point that Turnbull has not gotten his first 100 days in power right; in fact, he's gotten them disastrously wrong, making little or even backwards progress on a range of fronts. It will be interesting to see if he can rectify his political and functioning mistakes in the next 100 days.
Govt considers abolishing capital gains tax on startups
If you've ever started your own business (hint: it isn't easy, but it's worth it), you're probably familiar with the fact that you suddenly have to pay a great deal more tax than you previously had to. Australian companies are taxed on their profits, they usually have to collect GST, and that's just the start. Well, now a backbench Coalition MP who has previously been involved with the national technology sector has put forth a proposal which appears to be gaining strength in Government ranks: Remove the annoying capital gains tax when applied to investors in early stage startups.
Photo gallery of the Sydney Googleplex
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.
The first pictures of our new Communications Minister gloriously holding a fibre cable have...
All glory to the Fibre to the Node cabinet.
Bookshops are dead, says Nick Sherry
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.
Oh dear: Takedown fail … Ebbeck style
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.
Fujitsu wins huge passport CRM deal
Japanese IT services giant Fujitsu revealed last last week tha it had won what it described as a "multi-million dollar deal" to revamp the customer relationship management system administering Australia's passport infrastructure.
Qld’s Grant joins analyst firm IBRS
This week it emerged that Peter Grant, the two-time former Queensland Whole of Government CIO (pictured), has joined well-regarded analyst firm Intelligent Business Research Services (IBRS). We’ve long had a high regard for IBRS, and so it’s fantastic to see such an experienced executive join its ranks.
Startmate startups featured on TechCrunch
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.
Brisbane’s toilet jokes better than its fibre
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.
AFP blocks FoI access to social media info
Some five months ago, Pirate Party Australia founder Rodney Serkowski made what many would consider to be a fairly standard Freedom of Information request with the Australian Federal Police, relating to data collected through social media channels. The request has been denied in its entirety.
LNP sacks 80 from CITEC
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.
Telstra pumps $18m into US startup Kony
Telstra has been talking up its investment arm for a while now, and it's good to see the company start to make some strategic investments. It's just a pity that it's not focusing more on Australia.
Defence has 200 Australian ‘datacentres’
A new revelation by the Department of Defence this week, as it gets ready to changeover its massive centralised processing contract, shows that some departments just have more legacy than others.
Those Chinese mining hackers are back
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.
This is what happens with vertically integrated monopolies
If you were under any illusions about Telstra's nature as a vertically integrated telecommunications monopoly being wholly intact in Australia, just case your eye over what's happening with the ongoing attempts by Foxtel to launch its own broadband service in Australia.
Woolworths dumping Windows for Chrome OS
Huge news coming from Computerworld today with respect to retail chain Woolworths, which is reportedly set to switch 85 percent of its PCs across to Google's Chrome OS operating system, shifting off Windows in the process.
Coalition concerned Turnbull too close to NBN
Coalition MPs apparently concerned Turnbull is too close to Labor's National Broadband Network policy.
Payroll disaster: Queensland sues IBM
The Queensland Government has been threatening to sue technology giant IBM over the Queensland Health payroll systems debacle for years, and who could blame it? Well, the only problem is that the former Labor Government actually already settled with IBM over the issue due several years ago to the need to get the system up and running. Despite this, the LNP administration in Queensland confirmed overnight that it had taken IBM to court.
Coalition policy claims NBN to cost $90bn
This morning the Daily Telegraph reported that an analysis contained in the Coalition's rival policy purported to show that the real cost of Labor's NBN project would be up to $90 billion.
New NSW Govt may reject NBN opt-out
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....
The Australian’s still on Conroy’s back
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy won't have been too happy this morning when he picked up his copy of The Australian newspaper -- if he still reads it, that is, after his public attacks on the masthead last month.
Google’s new Aussie MD: Zero tech/media experience
This morning search advertising and technology giant Google appointed a new managing director for its Australia and New Zealand division. While Maile Carnegie is a very seasoned executive with a few decades at consumer goods company Proctor & Gamble (P&G), we'd have to question her fitness to provide vision for Google's local operations ... given that the executive appears to have zero experience in either the technology or media industries, which is kind of where Google specialises.
Kogan buckles to Apple Galaxy Tab threat
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.
Vodafone’s iPhone 5 speeds are awful
We've known for a while that the iPhone 5 would be dramatically slower on Vodafone's network, as it doesn't support 4G speeds like Telstra and Optus do in some areas. And now we know just how slower it will be.
Australia’s IT startups need more capital
According to Phil Morle, the co-founder of startup incubator and consultancy Pollenizer, the situation still isn’t where it needs to be in terms of IT startup funding in Australia.
US ambassador slams Australia’s “cloud protectionism”
US Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich has slammed Australia's "cloud protectionism" in wanting datacentres located on-shore.
Quigley + Beaufret must be guilty … right? Right?
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.
“Click Frenzy” was a marketing/PR hypno-orgy right from the start
Confused about what the hell this whole "Click Frenzy" online retail phenomenon thing that we've all been reading about over the past several weeks was all about? Join the club: I'm a paid-up member. Maybe I didn't get the original press release. Thankfully, local IT geek and Delimiter reader Dawnstar (not his real name) has posted several epic rants and deconstructions of legendary proportions on his blog to explain it to y'all, complete with SPAM Act illegality, journalist/public relations/marketing love-ins and a health dose of sarcasm.
NSW cloud policy inadequate, says consultant
Marten Hauville, a technical business consultant at local firm buildpartner, has examined the NSW Government's new cloud computing policy in detail, and found it extremely lacking.
ShoreTel iDevice dock: Is this actually useful?
We couldn't help but goggle when we received a media release yesterday from enterprise telephony vendor Shoretel pushing what the company dubs "the first enterprise-grade docking station for Apple iPad and iPhone".
Westpac follows CBA with cardless ATM access
Remember how in the middle of last week, the Commonwealth Bank announced a raft of measures to reform mobile access to its infrastructure, including cardless access to ATM machines? Well, it appears the competition was watching. Barely had CommBank gotten its announcement out of the door when Westpac followed.
Shoes of Prey outs itself as a Google Apps fan
We thought we’d point readers to this blog post on the blog of Google Australia by Mike Knapp, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Sydney-based ecommerce startup Shoes of Prey, which has achieved notoriety over the past few years for its innovative site, which allows women to design and order their own shoes, getting around the normal retail grind. In the blog, Knapp outs Shoes of Prey (which has around 40 staff) as a long-time Google Apps user.
The plot thickens in CBA/ServiceMesh IT bribery scandal
There have been a series of new revelations in the Commonwealth Bank's IT bribery scandal over the past several days.
Telstra wants its foreign ownership rules reviewed
In the wake of the news that the Federal Government will try to weaken some areas of Qantas' foreign ownership rules in an effort to provide the airline with a level playing field with Virgin, Telstra chief executive David Thodey has called for the same debate to be held with respect to Telstra.
$94 billion NBN? It’s a nice, unproven, soundbite
One particular aspect of the Coalition's NBN pitch cannot go unchallenged: The constantly repeated claim that Labor's current NBN policy will cost $94 billion -- $60 billion more than Labor is claiming.
Shock: iPhone 5 queue “pretentious, superficial”
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.
Pre-launch web startup Canva raises $3m
Australian web startup Canva this morning revealed it had picked up a $3 million seed round from a number of early stage investors and venture capitalists in Australia and Silicon Valley.
Pollenizer celebrates five years with a book
Startup consultancy and incubator Pollenizer celebrates five years with a new book about the lifecycle of startups, Startup Focus.
NBN debate heats up at IEEE conference
I don't want to get too deep into commenting on the merits of the various arguments coming from each side, but I wanted to make readers aware of a somewhat extraordinary debate which has been happening at, and on the sidelines of, the IEEE's International Conference on Communications, being held in Sydney last week.
Sensis to chop 50 percent of staff?
Telstra's online and directories business Sensis hasn't been a great place to work for a while now. Executive departures and job cuts have proven to be pretty much the norm at the once-great home of the White and Yellow Pages empire over the past several years. But according to The Australian, we may not have known quite how bad things were.
Twitter buys Aussie startup We Are Hunted
Australian startup We Are Hunted, which was formed out of Wotnews as a side project and survived its death, has just annoucned that it has been bought by social networking site Twitter.
NBN/Telstra deal could be six months late
It’s extremely hard to see this as a surprise, given the fact that NBN Co’s previous delay with Telstra was extensively delayed, and given that as late as mid-January the pair had not even begun talking, but the Financial Review reported today that NBN Co’s negotiations with the nation’s largest telco Telstra over access to its copper and HFC cable networks could run up to six months late. Yup.
Turnbull reportedly hires Henry Ergas for NBN cost/benefit analysis
If you were seeking to hire independent experts to conduct a cost/benefit analysis on an important piece of national infrastructure, you would probably seek to hire, well, experts who were independent, right? Experts who hadn't previously formed a fixed view on what would be the best way to deploy that infrastructure? Wrong, at least if you're Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Telstra adds 900Mhz 4G band, trials LTE-A
Right now, Telstra's greatest issue with its mobile infrastructure as a whole might just be keeping ahead of customer demand for it. With this in mind, this morning the telco revealed it would add a second spectrum band, 900Mhz, to its existing 1800Mhz 4G infrastructure, as well as undertake a variety of other initiatives to keep its mobile network on track.
Fascinating case study about open source cloud
Most of the cloud computing stories we hear about involve major vendors. You know the ones we're talking about: VMware, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Amazon and so on. These are household names. But what you may not realise is that there are other options out there for building cloud computing stacks. And some of them are not based on proprietary technologies and vendor lock-in at all.
“Burning ambition”: Brisbane launches digital economy strategy
It seems virtually everyone's getting on the whole "digital economy" bandwagon these days. The latest cab off the rank is Brisbane, which has appointed a chief digital officer and this week launched its new 'digita strategy'. Nice.
Metronode launches NSW Govt datacentre
Those of you who’ve been paying attention to the developing situation with respect to IT inside the NSW Government will be aware that the state is currently attempting to consolidate its far-flung IT infrastructure down to just two datacentres, operated by Leighton subsidiary Metronode. This morning, Metronode tells us in a media release, one of those facilities launched to great pomp and ceremony.
Do Optus iPhones “constantly drop out”?
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.
Uber’s ride-sharing: Just the tip of the iceberg for Australia’s emerging ‘sharing economy’
Uber's new 'ride-sharing' service has caused an uproar in Australia's tightly controlled taxi industry. However, the truth is that this innovative offering is just the tip of the iceberg for a whole raft of 'person to person' services shortly to launch in Australia, collectively known as the emerging 'sharing economy'.
“Rational debate” needed around surveillance
In the wake of the news yesterday that the Coalition and Labor are supporting a raft of new electronic surveillance measures, the Pirate Party of Australia has called for a rational debate to be held over the issue, in the context of widespread opposition to increased surveillance by the Australian public.
Cloud, Windows 8 may sneak into Canberra through Tourism Australia
At least one Federal Government agency, Tourism Australia, may be on the verge of taking the cloud computing plunge on multiple fronts.
Symantec dumps Aussie support staff
According to iTNews, security vendor Symantec has dumped what little Australian technical support presence it had, offshoring the jobs overseas.
New Govt cloud computing strategy: Foggy, or healthy cumulus?
One could be forgiven for thinking that the word “cloud computing” is in vogue in Australian Governments at the moment.
Where’s our Arrested Development? Choice Australia asks Netflix
At this point, most Australians who watch Arrested Development have probably resigned themselves to (ahem) obtaining the new season through Channel BitTorrent. But there is one organisation still maintaining the rage: Consumer advocacy group Choice, which has written to Netflix demanding to know what the hell is going on.
Lockheed Martin spin-off to create new IT services firm with giant Defence, ATO contracts
From The Wall St Journal earlier this month comes confirmation that military equipment specialist Lockheed Martin still expects to sell or spin off the IT services business which the company has long had tacked on to its manufacturing operations.
Four months later, Govt cloud, IT audit stall
The new Coalition Government appears to have made little progress so far on enacting core elements of its centralised IT policy.
Assange forms Wikileaks party for Senate bid
It's been in the works for a while, but Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has finally come right out and confirmed that he's definitely forming an Australian Wikileaks political party with the intention of backing his bid to run for the Senate in 2013.
Surprise! PlayStation Now delayed for Australia
From the Department of No Surprises comes the news that Sony’s cloud-based PlayStation Now service — which allows users of its gaming consoles to play games online without having to download the content — will not initially be available to Australians when it launches in the middle of this year.
NBN Co inks $300m Arianespace satellite deal
This morning NBN Co inked a $300 million contract with French aerospace giant Arianespace to launch its two satellites into space in 2015. Now that's progress.
The plot thickens: Going deeper into NBN Co’s spat with Turnbull
For those who've been watching the developing situation between Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the board of NBN Co, particularly its chair, Siobhan McKenna (pictured above), there are two new pieces of content this morning which you may be interested in.