Google Glass will ‘end privacy’, claims Cory Bernardi
Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi has unleashed on Google’s augmented reality Glass project, which has been getting some press in the US as it comes closer to becoming a commercial project.
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.
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.
Qld Health’s IT woes just keep coming
An interesting article published here by the Courier-Mail just before Christmas lays out yet another IT-related headache being suffered at the moment by Queensland's favourite technological minefield, Queensland Health.
Bronny Copter is here to save us from Bishop’s Choppergate
Tired of reading article after article about how Speaker of the House of Representatives Bronwyn Bishop should resign? Bored at work on a Thursday afternoon and need some diversion while the boss isn’t looking at your screen? Bronny Copter — an online game in the style of Flappy Bird from Melbourne developer Ricky Sullivan — is here to save you.
Less talk, more action: Entrepreneur tells ‘Labor for Innovation’
Not everyone in Australia's startup sector believes Labor has yet demonstrated it can walk the talk when it comes to the digital economy: Can these feel-good events actually translate into solid policy?
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.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop jets in to Australia
You may have noticed from the flurry of articles from the mainstream media this morning that Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop is in Australia at the moment checking on the progress of the Finnish smartphone manufacturer Down Under.
An iPhone app will not fix Australia’s e-health woes
Hilarious news comes from the Federal Government’s flagship e-health conference in Melbourne this week, where Health Minister has revealed that part of Labor’s $466.7 million national e-health project will be spent on … an iPhone app for doctors.
Super funds botch major technology project
Sometimes it appears as though Australia's Federal and State Governments are the only ones botching major IT projects. And that makes sense, given the frequency of IT project failure in the public sector, and the public nature of the audit reports which examine them. But the private sector also has its failures, as the Financial Review chronicles this week with respect to a number of major superannuation funds.
Telstra may sue Voda over 4G speed claims
Telstra threatens legal action against Vodafone over the claimed speeds of its 4G network.
Why Ziggy Switkowski shouldn’t be appointed to run NBN Co
Over the past several days there’s been a plethora of articles speculating that Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is about to appoint former Telstra and Optus chief executive Ziggy Switkowski to run NBN Co as the company’s executive chairman. However, as I write on Delimiter 2.0 this morning, this would be a terrible idea and an incredible hypocritical move for Turnbull.
Another great Aussie IT company to go overseas? CSC makes offer for UXC
I personally feel it would be a real shame to see UXC snapped up by CSC. UXC is a strong Australian business, with its Red Rock, Oxygen, Connect, Telsyte and other brands being very well-known in Australia. Of course, CSC would be likely to keep most of its staff intact. But the Australian IT services market would feel a lot less ... Australian without UXC existing on its own.
Google Nexus tablet hits Oz in July: Gizmodo
Gizmodo Australia this afternoon reported that Google will launch its own 7" Android tablet, dubbed the Nexus 7 and running version 5.0 of Android (Jelly Bean) in Australia this July, with prices ranging from US$199 to US$249.
Four months later, data retention funding model still incomplete
It turns out that four months after the legislation passed, the Government still hasn't quite worked out the funding model for its data retention package.
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.
FTTN cabinets “hideous”, say designers
Not everyone is particularly enthused by the idea of placing tens of thousands of broadband cabinets around Australia to realise the Coalition's fibre to the node National Broadband Network vision. And one of those not happy with the idea is UNSW building academic Alec Tzannes.
A complete picture of NAB’s IT transformation
You may have noticed that National Australia Bank enterprise transformation EGM Adam Bennett gave a speech at a CEDA lunch in Sydney this week. The executive's comments have caused a flurry of articles in the media. A brief overview, for your Friday afternoon reading pleasure, can be found here.
Brandis’ anti-piracy proposals hit Cabinet already
Remember how Federal Attorney-General George Brandis a while back publicly floated several ideas about how the Federal Government could tackle the thorny issue of Internet piracy? Remember how most people kind of assumed there would be some kind of consultation process where industry and hell, you know, ordinary Australians, could put forward views on the issue? Ah, those were the days. News arrived from the Sydney Morning Herald this morning that Brandis has already developed several proposals and is taking them to the Abbott Cabinet.
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.
Sorry, ATO: The Senate hearts Bitcoin as a currency
Those of you who follow the crypto-currency scene in Australia may remember that the Australian Taxation Office hasn't always treated the most popular type of crypto-currency, Bitcoin, the way that those involved in its trade would prefer. However, the long-running crypto-currency inquiry by the Senate Standing Committee on Economics may be about to disagree with the ATO.
Outsourcer Salmat dumps Microsoft Office for Google Apps, Chromebooks
Last month Macquarie University generated quite a lot of headlines when it confirmed it would ditch Google’s Gmail platform and migrate instead to Microsoft’s Office 365 ecosystem. Well, now the shoe is on the other foot, with CRN reporting that Australian marketing outsourcer Salmat is in the midst (with the assistance of Accenture-owned Cloud Sherpas) of removing Microsoft Office from its operations and deploying Google Apps with Chromebooks instead.
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.
Rasmussen: I’m joining Facebook and Google wasn’t “patient” on Wave
Fascinating interview here by the Sydney Morning Herald with outgoing Googler Lars Rasmussen on why he’s joining Facebook and his thoughts on the failed Google Wave project, which he was a core part of.
Will NBN Co sign its Telstra deal this week?
Multiple outlets are reporting that the National Broadband Network Company is extremely close to concluding its long and convoluted negotiations with Telstra.
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
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.
Victoria Police gives up trying to replace 25-year-old IT system
I strongly urge the Victorian Government to address this issue as a matter of urgency. It will require not only a substantial funding increase for this area to Victoria Police, but also a number of senior appointments and strong Ministerial support to get this project moving and delivered.
NBN staff nickname for HFC upgrade is “Operation Clusterfuck”, says Conroy
According to Labor Senator Stephen Conroy, even the NBN company's own staff have their doubts about the upgrade project.
Victorian agency reports schoolboy to police for informing it of IT security hole
Public Transport Victoria has reportedly reported a 16-year-old Melbourne schoolboy to Victoria Police for merely informing it of substantial security holes in its IT infrastructure.
NZ Govt pushes hard into cloud
New Zealand's national Government announced a whole of government contract this morning for what it terms 'Office Productivity as a Service' services. This includes email and calendaring services, as well as file-sharing, mobility, instant messaging and collaboration services. The contract complements two existing contracts -- Desktop as a Service and Enterprise Content Management as a Service.
Govt updates on ICT strategy progress
This morning AGIMO’s Andrew McGalliard, from the agency’s governance and policy branch, published an update on the Government’s progress on delivering on the strategy, and contrary to my initial expectations, it appears as though there are in fact quite a few initiatives getting under way.
Getting beyond the cloud hype: A great interview with DFAT’s CIO
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade CIO Tuan Dao talks about his belief for cloud computing technologies, while also noting that he doesn't buy into the hype around the new paradigm.
New $50m fund to target Aussie IT startups
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: Now is a fantastic time to be involved in an Australian IT startup. It used to be that it was tough to find finding for great new ideas in the Australian technology sector, but the plethora of sizable investment deals over the past several years proven that the local funding environment has changed substantially.
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.
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.
CommBank CIO is major cloud fan
It hasn't been until this week that the full extent of CommBank CIO Michael Harte's enthusiasm for the cloud computing medium has been made clear.
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!
Infrastructure Dept signs ASG for ICT services again
If you were working in Federal Government ICT circles back in 2008, you may recall that the then-Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government signed a $30 million deal (PDF) with local IT services group ASP for a comprehensive range of services ranging from desktop support to servers, laptops, printers and more. Well, news arrived this week that the Department is so happy with ASG — after seven years — that it has re-signed the contract.
When Gerry Harvey and Ruslan Kogan agree
It seems like a case of hell freezing over this week, with an amazing synchonicity of views can be heard this week between two traditional opponents.
Why the Telstra/NBN deal should be scrapped
blog Over at his blog, seasoned technology executive and all-round nice guy Sean Kaye has some interesting thoughts on a wide range of matters...
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.
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.
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.
Delimiter is giving away another Apple Watch!
Just a quick post to let you know that Delimiter is about to hold a new reader giveaway. Our previous Apple Watch giveaway was quite popular, so it feels like the right thing to do to do another :)
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.
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.
Macquarie Telecom suffers major outage
Last month was a good one for local enterprise telco and hosting company Macquarie Telecom. The company hosted Julia Gillard for a ritzy launch of its new datacentre, drank champagne and toasted its success. But the past two days haven't been quite as rosy for the firm.
Reality check: Murdoch doesn’t want to kill the NBN
Over the past day or so, quite a few readers have made me aware of this controversial article published by long-time Paul Sheehan at The Age. In it, Sheehan makes the somewhat controversial claim that the constant string of negative articles which we’ve come to expect from News Corporation newspapers such as The Australian and the Daily Telegraph have had the aim of destroying the NBN to shore up the future of News Corp stablemate Foxtel. My response was published on Delimiter 2.0 yesterday.
#NatSecInquiry: Tracking Australians in real time
The ongoing National Security Inquiry has dislodged quite a few stones from the bottom of the paranoia well. One aspect that took my interest in particular is the relationship between data retention and mobile or cellular telephone data.
NBN Co business plan: First information
We've just received a press release from NBN Co with the first tranche of information about the company's business plan to roll out the National Broadband Network. We're planning to post the full news following a press conference to be held this morning by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Prime Minister Julia Gillard, but in the meantime you can download NBN Co's press release here (PDF).
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.
Police unions want $100m national case management IT system
Police unions nationally have called for a mega-IT system to allow them to collaborate more effectively.
The pathetic state of Australian in-flight internet
Want to use the internet on your flight on an Australian airline? That’s nice — but it’s also not yet possible, appears to be the conclusion to an extensive article on the subject published over at brand spanking new online publication Australian Business Traveller.
Aussie cloud not a utility yet: Defence CIO
In this feature article published in the Financial Review’s MIS Magazine, Defence chief information officer Greg Farr makes it clear he believes the Australian cloud is “a long way away” from looking anything like its US counterpart:
I’m no FTTN “zealot”, says Malcolm Turnbull
This morning's Financial Review (where else?) has published a spanking new lengthy profile of Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Among other things, the Liberal MP addresses his reputation amongst 'NBN backers', who, he believes, are treating him a little unfairly.
Labor deputy Plibersek backs data retention
Wondering how the MP widely considered likely to become the eventual next leader of the Australian Labor Party views the controversial data retention and surveillance issue? Wonder no more. Deputy Leader of the Opposition and former Health, Human Services and Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek is all for it.
Adobe bucks IT price hike inquiry
US software giant Adobe is fast emerging as one of the toughest nuts to crack when it comes to the IT price hike inquiry currently being carried out by the Federal Parliament.
Foxtel nicks William Shatner from MyRepublic for broadband ads
Those of you who followed the controversial comments recently made by Singaporean telco MyRepublic about Australia’s National Broadband Network may recall that the company’s advertisements when it entered the New Zealand market featured actor William Shatner — best known for his iconic roles on Star Trek and Boston Legal. Well, your writer suspects Shatner may not be available for MyRepublic’s planned Australian launch — because he has already signed up with Foxtel for its own broadband campaign.
IBM Australia jobs going across the Tasman? Great, says New Zealand
We can’t help but be amused by this article in New Zealand’s premiere business newspaper, the National Business Review. In it, veteran technology reporter Chris Keall lampoons an email received by subscribers of the Australian Financial Review, in which the paper’s editor in chief Michael Stutchbury laments IBM Australia’s decision to send jobs offshore, including to New Zealand.
Galaxy Note 8.0 lands in April, from $459
Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet set to land in Australia in April.
Coca-Cola Amatil takes SAP project to Asia
For those wondering where Coca Cola Amatil is at with its comprehensive SAP-based internal enterprise IT applications overhaul project, wonder no more.
Assange registers Wikileaks party; targets Victorian Senate seat
Crusading Internet activist Julian Assange has delivered on his promises to run for Australian political office in the upcoming Federal Election in September, reportedly registering the WikiLeaks Party in Australia yesterday and flagging his intention to become a Senator representing Victoria.
“Stupid, quasi-religious”: Turnbull slams fibre fans
Those who believe the fibre to the node mode for Australia's National Broadband Network is a second-rate option compared to fibre to the home are just "stupid", and pursuing a "quasi-religious" approach to the technology, according to Malcolm Turnbull.
Virgin wants in on Australian IPTV scene
It seems that no matter where you look, someone is trying to fix the Australian Internet television market. Attorney-General George Brandis, as his Labor predecessor Mark Dreyfus did before him, is trying to block Internet piracy. Quickflix and FetchTV are still trying to create viable competitors to Foxtel's pay TV operation. And Foxtel itself is obviously trying to make as much hay as possible while its sun still shines. Into this fraught situation comes Richard Branson's Virgin Group.
NBN not transparent enough, says Oakeshott
Not content with repeatedly dragging NBN Co executives on a regular basis before parliamentary committees and poring over the many reports and documents the company has released, independent MP Rob Oakeshott has reportedly demanded NBN Co provide yet more information about its operations in an effort to be more transparent.
Huawei’s quad-core D1 Android hits Australia
A quad-core smartphone with a 4.5" screen and close to stock Android, for $499 outright? Sounds like a bargain, and that's precisely what Chinese manufacturer Huawei has a reputation for delivering. The Ascend D1 quad will hit JB Hi-Fi this week, and if it's anything near as solid as the P1, we think quite a few people will be interested. Stay tuned for our review sometime soon.
Kogan denies “bait & switch” mobile scam
Sometimes we amuse ourselves with thinking about what would make the perfect story on a mainstream media site like News.com.au. Well, this story published on News.com.au this morning involving Kogan Mobile really takes the cake.
24 hour GPS tracking: Insurers’ eye on Aussies’ cars
On Reckoner, Anthony Agius catalogues how insurer QBE has recently launched a product in Australia that directly tracks everything you do with you car, and the rather obvious privacy challenges that are already evident.
Can we believe the Galaxy Nexus rumour mill?
Will Samsung's hyped Galaxy Nexus smartphone launch through Optus in late December? It's doubtful.
Google ploughs $1m into Australian tech education
Good news from the Googleplex this morning. Google Australia has decided to take some of the hard-earned money that it's been piping through Singapore to avoid paying tax in Australia and decided to plough it back into directly funding the development of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) skills in Australia.
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.
Ludlam can actually DJ like a mad ****
Those of you who've been hanging around the tracks for a while may remember a famous piece of newspaper graffiti which was published a while back regarding Prime Minister John Howard and his musical abilities. Well, it's taken us a while, but we've now been able to find a Federal Politician who can actually DJ quite well. Or so it appears from these glamour pics of Greens Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam, who spent some time DJ'ing at a rave held to fundraise for his WA Senate campaign this month.
Govt’s new e-health platform already hacked
That shiny new e-health platform which the Federal Government sent live this week? The one you're supposed to put all of your most personal medical information in, for sharing only between your cadre of closed-lipped medical professionals? Yup. It was hacked during its development.
Qld Govt hacked Brisbane’s traffic systems
You would hope, you would really hope, that a major city such as Brisbane, which is about to host the G20 group of twenty global finance ministers and central bank governors, would be in the practice of ensuring that the traffic management systems which govern the operation of systems such as stoplights would be secure from attack. But not so.
How NBN spite has damaged the Turnbull brand: Get a free Delimiter 2.0 article
It’s been several months now since we launched Delimiter 2.0 with a subscription model. Since it’s been a while, we thought it might be a good time to give those who have yet to subscribe a taste of what they’re missing. This morning we disabled the paywall on one specific article, entitled: Conduct unbecoming: How NBN spite has damaged the Turnbull brand.
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.
Coalition party room erupts with data retention dissent
Well, well. Looks like Coalition MPs in general are not as disinterested in the Federal Government's controversial data retention and surveillance proposal as has been previously believed.
Vic Govt to sack CenITex board
The Victorian Government is set to remove the board of troubled state IT shared services agency CenITex, according to a report published by Melbourne newspaper The Age late last week.
John Howard: The NBN sux but Twitter’s OK
Well, well well. Turns out the old dog knows some new tricks. Not only did former Australian Prime Minister John Howard participate in a live blog with The Australian newspaper today, he took the time out to slam Labor’s National Broadband Network project and comment on what he thinks about Twitter.
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.
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.
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.
US ambassador slams Australia’s “cloud protectionism”
US Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich has slammed Australia's "cloud protectionism" in wanting datacentres located on-shore.
Coalition, Labor support new surveillance laws
The Daily Telegraph reported this morning that the Coalition would shortly introduce a raft of new surveillance laws based on almost all of the recommendations handed down last year in a report by the the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security on potential reforms to Australia's National Security Legislation.
Fujitsu/SAP project goes off the rails in NT
An IT project go off the rails in Australia? One involving a government department? Off the rails in terms of its project implementation timeframe and its budget? And most of the problem stemmed from its poor project management and governance structures? Who would have thought that this could possibly happen in a million years?
NAB CIO gets promotion amongst reshuffle
The National Australia Bank appears to have conducted a minor reshuffle of its executive leadership team, including what appears to be a promotion for NAB chief information officer Adam Bennett.
Google Nexus 4 launching soon in Australia
Discouraged by Ausdroid’s reports (here, here and here) that Google’s new flagship Nexus 4 handset (manufactured by LG) isn’t going to launch through Australia’s mobile carriers? Worry no more. According to Gizmodo (we recommend you click here for the full article), the hyped Android 4.2 handset is set to launch locally through retailers anyway.
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....
Rejected: No Surface Pro for Australia, yet
Just a quick note that Microsoft has left Australia off the list of countries which will receive the Surface Pro tablet when it launches in February.
Worst CIO job in Australia?
Spare a thought for Eija Seittenranta, who was appointed Department of Parliamentary Services chief information officer in January this year. Not only did Seittenranta find the department’s IT operations to be an absolute shambles when she arrived, but the poor IT executive has to contend with feisty parliamentarians such as Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, who took Seittenranta to task in this extraordinary Senate Estimates hearing (we recommend you watch the video) about the fact that the US National Security Agency may have a back door into the Microsoft software used at Parliament House.
Team Conroy clocks off … Dalek and all
At least we now know where Conroy has drawn his 'take no prisoners' approach from. "EXTERMINATE!" might just be the right attitude to take into Australian politics these days.
Regulator forces ANZ off Salesforce.com
Just when you thought Australia’s banks and the banking ecosystem in general were making some headway in their acceptance of cloud computing technologies, international regulators throw a spanner in the works. iTNews reports todaythat the Monetary Authority of Singapore has forced the hand of ANZ Bank when it comes to cloud computing.
NBN Co defends business plans
NBN Co head of Product Development and Sales Jim Hassell has sent us this post in response to our analysis of NBN business broadband plans last week.
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.
Govt CTO Sheridan on open source, cloud
Federal Government chief technology officer John Sheridan gives his views on cloud computing and open source use in the Federal Government, in a wide-ranging speech to Forrester's Summit for chief information officers in Sydney.
Why is Transport for NSW signing a 10-year, 1bn deal with IBM?
IBM might have been banned from signing new contracts with the Queensland Government over the Queensland Health payroll systems disaster, but that apparently hasn’t stopped other Australian jurisdictions from dealing with the vendor. The Financial Review reports this morning that Transport for NSW (which was formed from the merger of the NSW RTA, maritime, transport construction authority and Country Rail groups) is poised to jump into bed with Big Blue in a big way.
iPhone 5 may rain on Australia’s Android parade
Pretend for a moment that you're a handset manufacturer like HTC, Samsung, Motorola, LG or Sony Ericsson. After months of negotiating with local carriers like Telstra, Optus and Vodafone and working with head office in the US or Asia to get stock for Australia, you finally launch your high-end Android smartphone in Australia. Then just a month or so later, Apple unexpectedly releases the iPhone 5.
AFP monitoring phone data of MPs
When Greens Communications spokesperson Scott Ludlam said in January 2012 that he suspected law enforcement agencies of bugging his mobile phone, we criticised the Senator for making the claim without providing evidence of the claimed nefarious activity. But according to the ABC, the Australian Federal Police admitted in a Senate Estimates session this week that it had monitored various MPs’ communications.
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?
Malcolm Turnbull and the great Google conspiracy
To what extent were Turnbull’s comments yesterday about Google stimulated by the meeting he had at the search giant’s Sydney headquarters in early August?
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.
Merry Christmas to all readers!
This is just a quick message to all readers to let you know that Delimiter is now officially on holidays, and to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Another view of Greg Adcock’s appointment
If you were reading Delimiter and Delimiter 2.0 yesterday, you may have seen that we took a fairly strong view on the departure of NBN Co chief operating officer Ralph Steffens and the appointment of Telstra’s NBN lead executive Greg Adcock in his place. However, in the interest of balance, and with particular reference to our new formal Code of Ethics published last night, we believe it’s worth alerting readers to another side of this story.
NBN a “horrible hoax”, says Turnbull
The claim by Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull that Labor’s National Broadband Network project will take 20 years and up to $100 billion has been pretty comprehensively debunked at this point, NBN Co’s latest rollout speed downgrades notwithstanding. However, the Earl of Wentworth continues to trot it out during his visits to small community meetings.
Attention Telstra: Shut up and take my money
Hey everyone, just a quick update on my plans to dump my iPhone 4 for a HTC One XL today.
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 3 range hits Australia
Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung this morning launched its latest range of Android tablets at a breakfast event in Sydney. There are three models in the new Galaxy Tab 3 line, in three different sizes: 7″, 8″ and 10.1″, which will be selling for pretty great prices — $249, $349 and $399 respectively.
No Android ABC iView? “Outrageous”, says Huawei
Chinese device manufacturer Huawei severely criticises the ABC for not developing an Android version of its popular iView iOS app.
Interesting thoughts on IT outsourcing in the cloud era
It's now been several years since cloud computing became mainstream in Australia. Small businesses are using it. Major corporations such as Australia's largest banks and insurers are using it. And even the public sector has started using it.
With this breadth of adoption has also come a deepening of our understanding of how large organisations should use cloud computing.
Telstra sold 500,000+ iPhone 5’s last year
Every time I think I know just how dominant Apple's iPhone unit is in Australia's mobile phone ecosystem, I am forced to confront new information showing that I had underestimated the situation.
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.
Debunking Abbott’s “server timestamp” claims
Unless you live in an area of Australia where it's impossible to get television or radio reception (an idea which has seemed attractive to your writer at times, in the current media environment), it would have been hard to escape the news that a Federal Court judge has thrown out the sexual harassment case against former Federal House of Representatives Speaker Peter Slipper. But it's one particular comment by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that has Australia's IT industry perking up its ears this morning.
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.
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.
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.
Homeless Sydney dev “will code for latte”
I don't know whether to feel slightly dubious about her story or merely sorry for Adelle Hartley, a Sydney C#/SQL developer who says she is homeless and has featured in an extensive article published by ninemsn this week.
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.
The National Broadband Network matrix
After being very amused by the IT Matrix last Friday, the Delimiter thinktank swung into action this morning to create a new, more localised version. We present: The National Broadband Network Matrix (click for the full-sized version).
Unhappy dragon: Westpac IBM outsourcing spreads to St George
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that up to 200 jobs at Westpac subsidiary St George may be outsourced to IBM.
An Australia Day NBN joke
The following telecommunications-related joke was sent to us by a friend. It's unknown who wrote it, but we think Malcolm Turnbull, in particular, might find it amusing :)
NBN Co’s wireless rollout also behind
Bad news upon bad news is continuing to pile on for the Federal Government's National Broadband Network project. Hot upon the heels of the asbestos scandal which continues to plague Telstra as it remediates its pits and pipes for the NBN infrastructure, the Financial Review has reported this morning that the wireless component of the NBN rollout is also significantly behind.
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.
“Pure noise”: The backlash against Slack begins
Recently I've begun to detect a wave of dissent against Slack. The platform opened up a great deal of communication and collaboration options for corporations ... but at the same time, it has also created yet another distraction into our modern workplace. It may end up creating as many problems as it solves.
Facebook wants to hide its Australian earnings
It has become more or less the norm for global technology companies to minimise their Australian tax liability in a way that much of the local population finds at least mildly objectionable. Well, perhaps the most arrogant of the bunch (surprise, surprise) has turned out to be social networking giant Facebook, which has filed a form arguing it doesn’t need to disclose its Australian earnings at all.
Lockheed Martin is ASG’s mystery bidder
blog After a few months of speculation, it has emerged that the mystery bidder attempting to buy Perth-headquartered IT services firm ASG is Lockheed...
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.
NT Govt buys a new IBM mainframe
Due to the incredible rise of the x86 chipset over the past several decades, it's easy to forget that at the beating heart of many organisations, those ancient dreadnoughts which the IT industry knows as the common or garden mainframes are still found, continuing to promulgate their ever-lasting mission of stability, cost efficiency and power.
Govt spying through undersea cables
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, new revelations coming out of US whistleblower Edwards Snowden have revealed that the Australian Signals Directorate habitually taps undersea fibre-optic cables from Australia.
ispONE sold … without Kogan Mobile
Those who’ve been following the Kogan Mobile saga will be interested to know that the wholesale company at the heart of all the controversy, ispONE, has been sold. However, Kogan has still not been able to negotiate arrangements for its affected customers.
Rip-off: Telstra wants $20 a month to share data between devices
Telstra attempts customer rip-off with data sharing plans which will cost at least an extra $480 over a two-year mobile phone plan.
Just say the f*cking word already
For God's sake. Australia's mobile telcos are such a bunch of namby-pamby's that it's not funny. If you want customers to register their interest for when you launch the goddamn iPhone 5, just say so. Stop pussy-footing around Apple and just say the fucking words "new iPhone" already. Everyone knows what you're trying to do here.
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.
Telstra hints at Galaxy Nexus launch
Telstra hasn’t yet confirmed reports that it’s planning to launch Samsung’s highly anticipated Galaxy Nexus smartphone, but if this post on its CrowdSupport forum by one of its executives, Gerd Schenkel, is any indication, the telco is certainly eyeing the handset off.
CenITex turfs almost all contractors
Those of you with a long-term interest in Victorian Government IT shared services provider CenITex will remember that the agency was several years ago known far and wide for the high rates it was paying its extensive contractor workforce. No more: Most of those contractors are now gone.
Australian datacentre? You’re dreaming, says Microsoft
It looks like those hoping Microsoft will build an Australian datacentre to host Windows Azure applications or Office 365 services might be hoping in vain.
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.
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.
Uber is blocking Qld Govt inspectors from using its service … because it can
According to the Brisbane Times, Uber is fighting back against regulation by ... blocking the Queensland Government's inspectors from booking its services and thus being able to fine its drivers.
Senate contempt order: Could Conroy face gaol?
Frankly, I agree 100 percent with David. Labor is onto a winner with its National Broadband Network policy. There's a critical mass here. All it needs to do is eat a bit of humble pie and release one or two documents that the public, after all, has already paid for. Why is this too much to ask? It's a flaming democracy, after all.
Was 7:30’s TCS takedown fair?
Was 7:30's attack on the 457 Visa practices of Indian IT services giant TCS last night fair? Or did it lack context?
More mainframe workloads moved to Oracle
Over the past several years we’ve begun to see a bit of a trend in Australia of major organisations shifting server workloads away from traditional mainframes and onto Oracle platforms, especially its integrated Exadata and Exalogic systems. The key driver of continued mainframe use has always been the legacy platform’s efficiency, stability and (to a certain extent) flexibility (such as in its virtualisation ability), but it’s also had numerous disadvantages, which we need not go into here. As time has gone on, it appears the performance levels inherent in Oracle’s systems are starting to lure CIOs away from the mainframe environment where appropriate. We saw this in Westpac in January 2013, and now, according to iTNews, we’re starting to see it also at another major financial institution — ASIC.
When should you replace a server?
Over at AUTechHeads, our good friend and systems administrator Alan Lee muses about the choices faced by IT admins when a warranty expires on a server.
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.
Tech MPs Ed Husic + Wyatt Roy are engaged in a bipartisan beard conspiracy
In their day jobs, Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Digital Innovation and Startups Ed Husic are supposed to be at each's necks, as they cover the same innovation portfolio from opposing sides of politics. But in practice the pair -- two of the most tech-focused MPs in Federal Parliament -- appear to be sometimes thinking along the same lines.
Primus deletes filter posts … but we’ve got the screenshots
National broadband provider Primus has deleted comments made on Whirlpool over the past several days to the effect that it had no current plans to follow through on its commitment last year to voluntarily implement a filter to block its customers accessing child pornography. Thankfully, we’ve got screenshots.
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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.
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.
Oh dear: Foxtel bitchslaps “delusional” Optus
Well, we knew Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan's fighting words about the Foxtel/Austar merger wouldn't go down well in some quarters, but we didn't quite expect this epic spray from Foxtel chief Kim Williams.
Optus gets first dibs on 4G HTC One SV
The newest handset on the block from HTC is the One SV, which is a 4G model exclusive to Optus and its subsidiary Virgin Mobile at this point and with some pretty strong specifications -- although it's not absolutely top of the line.
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.
Treasury dumps BlackBerry for iPhone 5, iPad
The Federal Department of the Treasury has told ZDNet that it's ditching its fleet of BlackBerrys for Apple iPhone and iPad devices.
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.
Internet nasties lock out Aussies’ Apple devices
Own an Apple device, use the vendor's iCloud online synching service but haven't been able to get access to one or more of your devices this week? Congratulations: You've fallen prey to what are probably a bunch of Internet script kiddies attempting to ransom your data for a hefty fee. ZDNet has a solid local story on the phenomenon, which so far (weirdly) appears localised to Australia.
Now Qld Health bungles e-health program
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise, given the ongoing disaster that is Queensland Health's payroll systems overhaul, but news has emerged that the department is also suffering problems with its electronic health program, with the first two tranches of the initiative being at least two years late.
Telstra to offshore another 1,000, says AFR
Thought Telstra was finished with its wide-ranging outsourcing and offshoring initiatives? Not by half, if a report in the Financial Review newspaper this morning is to be believed.
China concerned by Huawei NBN ban, says Bob Carr
Foreign Minister Bob Carr hit up the ABC's flagship current affairs program 7:30 last night and was quizzed by host Chris Uhlmann on, among other things, the attitude of Chinese officials to the Federal Government's move to block Chinese networking gear supplier Huawei from participating in National Broadband Network contracts.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v pricing: We’ve got it
Just an extremely brief post to note that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1v tablet will be available for pre-sale exclusively to Vodafone customers from April 20 for delivery in the week commencing 1 May. Or at least that's what a Vodafone press release tells us.
Emperor Turnbull has no clothes
In a new scathing commentary published this afternoon, ZDNet columnist David Braue rips the recent performance of Malcolm Turnbull as a flailing Shadow Communications Minister to shreds and leaves the mangled corpse behind in the dust.
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.
Qld Govt fires bureaucrats over OneSchool IT nightmare
When major IT projects go wrong in government departments, often nobody loses their job. Public servants have significant tenure in their positions, and they're very difficult to fire -- even if it can be comprehensively demonstrated that millions of dollars have been wasted. However, in the unfolding case of the OneSchool IT systems glitch in Queensland, it appears the Queensland Government is taking the matter seriously enough that heads are rolling.
Westpac delays shift off Lotus Notes
Remember in May 2011, when we broke the news that Westpac confirmed it would finally shift off IBM’s troubled Lotus Notes/Domino platform, in favour of an organisation wide shift to a hosted version of Microsoft Outlook/Exchange? Well, it appears that shift isn’t going too well.
Aussie IT startup A-Team creates new VC fund
A who’s who of the Australian technology startup founder scene (you know these guys, it’s much of the same crew behind initiatives such as Startmate — the Atlassian founders, Niki Scevak and so on) has reportedly banded together to kickstart a new Australian venture capital fund dubbed ‘Blackbird Ventures’.
NBN Co’s constant network launches: Breaching the Caretaker Conventions?
Over the past week, the National Broadband Network Company has held no less than five launch events to mark the switch-on of its fibre network infrastructure in Queensland and Western Sydney, locations which will be critical to the Australian Labor Party if it is to retain power in the upcoming Federal Election. All of the events have been dominated by the attendance of Labor politicians, and have been broadly interpreted by the media as being election campaign events. NBN Co claims the events are just business as usual, but even if that's true, Labor is still using them to gain a massive election boost.
NBN on Media Watch tonight
Just a brief note to let everyone know that media coverage of the National Broadband Network is expected to be featured on Media Watch tonight, with a focus on the recent articles of ABC Technology + Games Editor Nick Ross and the controversy last week surrounding them. I would encourage all readers who have a view of this issue to contact Media Watch directly and make their opinion or analysis of the situation known.
NBN Co cranking up rollout to eleven – but can it rock ‘n’ roll?
A week after the Coalition debuted its anxiously-awaited alternative NBN policy, Labor seems to be cranking the project up to eleven as it works to reverse months of problems and improve the appeal of its NBN policy to voters. Telecommunications industry figures, however, aren’t convinced NBN Co can deliver on its promises, according to a report on technology site iTnews.com.au.
No matter who wins the election, here’s why Telstra should build the NBN
The issue of how the National Broadband Network should be rolled out is an extremely fraught and highly debated one. But one thing has become very clear over the past several years: The rollout has not progressed as fast as Labor said it would; in fact, far from it. One reason for this may be that the organisation with the most expertise in rolling out telco networks hasn’t participated in the construction effort, unlike in virtually every other country in the world. If we want this rollout to happen, it is definitely time to turn back to Telstra to get this thing done.
Ministerial request: Conroy wants Section 313 transparency options
According to Computerworld, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has asked his department what can be done to provide more transparency around the government use of Section 313 notices under the Telecommunications Act (you know, the ones which financial regulator ASIC recently used to unilaterally block a cluster of websites).
Vic Govt mulls choose your own device policy
When it comes to working in government departments and agencies, you know the drill when it comes to personal IT infrastructure. Public servants are typically issued with an ageing desktop PC bought about five years ago and running Windows XP (or sometimes, God forbid, Windows Vista), a BlackBerry for their mobile phone, and they'll have to argue with their IT support team to get permission to install something as basic as Mozilla Firefox. We've all been there at one time or another. However, if an article published by Intermedium last week is to be believed, the Victorian Government is seeking to shake this paradigm up.
Watch out Exchange, Google;Zimbra’s coming up from behind
The Google Apps vs Exchange war is still raging in Australia ... but could Zimbra come in unexpected and sideswipe them both?
AFR camps out for days to get photo of secretive TPG billionaire David Teoh
Always wondered what secretive TPG billionaire David Teoh looks like? Never been able to check out a photo of the executive? You're not alone. However, that changed this morning after the Financial Review published a photo of Teoh that a freelancer photographer had taken after camping out outside his house for days.
Cisco is quite obsessed with Apple Macs at Cisco Live
Walking around Cisco Live in Melbourne over the past several days, it is quite hard to escape the fact that Cisco appears a little more ... obsessed with Apple iMacs and MacBooks than one would expect.
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.
Coalition concerned Turnbull too close to NBN
Coalition MPs apparently concerned Turnbull is too close to Labor's National Broadband Network policy.
Shock: Queensland Health to get IT review
From the department of why the hell haven't they already done this comes the news that that bastion of IT systems stability and competence Queensland Health (yup, the very same, you'd be surprised how often it pops up in Delimiter stories) will undertake a review into its IT procurement practices and IT governance arrangements.
Rejected: No iTunes Radio for Australia
If you were following the many announcements made by iconic technology giant Apple at its Worldwide Developers Conference in the US overnight, you would have likely been well-pleased by the news that Cupertino is finally launching an Internet streaming music service (ad-supported) to compete with the likes of Spotify, Rdio and the like. But what you may not realise is that iTunes Radio won’t immediately be available in Australia.
Your problem: Rich-Phillips hands CenITex to Mailes
Those of you who’ve been around for a while will know that we’re not the greatest fans at Delimiter of Victorian IT shared services agency CenITex. From unethical procurement practices to a basic inability to deliver some of the services it promised, the agency has a penchant for getting itself in hot water with the media, politicians and even the internal Victorian Government agencies it’s seeking to serve. Which is why the State Government sacked its board and is now hot in the process of outsourcing its core functions. The next step, according to a media release issued by the Victorian Government this morning, is to start refreshing the agency’s board.
SA Police want face recognition CCTV everywhere
I'd just like to be able to pop down to the shops quickly now and then for a packet of chips without some police system automatically scanning my face for matches with some massive crime database. Is that too much to ask?
WA public transport agency downed by hack attempt
It appears that IT staff at Western Australia's Public Transport Authority had a rather different kind of weekend: One in which they descended into the hell of trying to clean out hackers from their IT systems.
Huston calls for active FTTP NBN
There are actually few Australians who your writer considers to be actual, verifiable experts on the current class of broadband technologies being debated as part of the National Broadband Network discussion. However, Geoff Huston is one of them.
NAB deploys Chatter … and Yammer?
From Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference in the US this week comes the news that the National Australia Bank has deployed the company's internal social networking tool Chatter ... as well as having an existing rollout of Yammer.
Woods Bagot deploys SharePoint 2013 early
It’s only just been formally released for official use, but Australian architectural design firm Woods Bagot has been using early versions of Microsoft’s SharePoint 2013 software since early this year, a new case study published by Microsoft recently has revealed.
Kim Dotcom wants Mega servers in Australia
Kim Dotcom flags plans to host some servers for his new Mega venture in Australia.
TPG’s PIPE Networks anti-competitive? Who would have thought?
If you didn’t laugh, you’d have to cry. Your writer has watched with great amusement over the past week as Megaport chief executive Bevan Slattery has been bitterly complaining about the fact that TPG Telecom has blocked certain types of third-party access to PIPE Networks’ datacentres. You can find Slattery’s problems outlined here on the blog of Megaport, which aims to build an interconnection fabric between various carriers and cloud computing providers.
HTC Windows phones hit Telstra, Optus
We've more or less known about these launches for a while, but today HTC finally confirmed the details of its Windows Phone 8 launches in Australia. There's two new models on offer here, both looking especially spiffy.
Alert: Slow week ahead + site upgrade
Just a quick notice to let you all know about some scheduling for this week with respect to Delimiter. This week we're going to be taking a 'slow week', which means we'll post 2-3 limited stories a day, a bit less than the normal 5-6. Delimiter 2.0 will likely have one major story published. This is primarily to give your humble editor a bit of a break after a very busy period, while still keeping an eye on the important stories ;)
Ministers’ cloud approval lasted just a year
Remember how twelve months ago, the Federal Government released a new cloud computing security and privacy directive which required departments and agencies to explicitly acquire the approval of the Attorney-General and the relevant portfolio minister before government data containing private information could be stored in offshore facilities? Remember how the policy was strongly criticised by Microsoft, Government CIOs and Delimiter? Well, it looks like the policy is about to be reversed.
Australian IT should play to mining, farming strengths, says Fletcher
I don't want to comment too strongly on the substance of the speech at this point, but I wanted to make readers aware that Malcolm Turnbull's Parliamentary Secretary Paul Fletcher has delivered a major speech on the Coalition's vision for the Digital Economy.
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.
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.
Michelle Rowland vs “Minister for dial-up” Turnbull: The Grudge Match continues
It's all well and good that cool head Jason Clare has been appointed Shadow Minister for Communications, but we think the real story is the appointment of Member for Greenway Michelle Rowland as his assistant Minister. Rowland has had a habit over the past several years of taking down Malcolm Turnbull in the portfolio, or, as the MP has liked to describe Turnbull, "the Shadow Minister for dial-up".
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.
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?
AARNet peers with Amazon Web Services
Work for one of Australia's universities and use Amazon Web Services? Your life just got a little better. Today AARNet, the telecommunications network serving Australia's university sector, announced it would peer with AWS for fun and profit.
You heard it here first
Delimiter editor Renai LeMay has "jumped the shark", according to Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull
Samsung Galaxy S4 hits Australia, but will it match the S3’s success?
If there was any question whether Samsung has become a superstar of the smartphone market, it was put to rest with last night’s Sydney Opera House launch of its flagship Galaxy S4 phone – in which the mobile giant pulled out all the stops to show the world the device that it hopes will consolidate its market lead over rival Apple’s iPhone 5.
Which router is best for the NBN?
PCRange chief executive Raaj Menon (also known as the first man in South Australia to get the NBN) has been busy putting his fledgling fibre connection to good use.
VCs want Govt help getting super funds into the water
Should the Federal Government consider underwriting the management fees of venture capital firms to attract large-scale institutional investors like the superannuation funds?
Why would Anonymous hack Mosman Council?
From this week's WTF files comes a curious case which has reputedly seen that lovable bunch of Internet rogues Anonymous hack into the web site of Mosman Municipal Council.
SA Govt follows WA, Qld away from ICT shared services
One would hope that the Federal Government will be closely examining the experiences that states such as South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia have had with shared services, before it commits to its own shared services approach. Because to rush in haphazardly would be dangerous indeed.
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.
CSIRO cuts jobs in rich Wi-Fi division
In what we'd have to say was one of the more curious funding decisions of the year, it appears as though Australia's peak research agency the CSIRO has decided that the division which made it the most money over the past few years -- the one which sued many major global technology vendors over its patented wireless innovations -- has too much fat and should be trimmed down to keep costs low.
Google Fiber shows what the NBN is capable of
The argument that the construction of the NBN will engender great things for Australia has just been bolstered by closer examination of what's happening in the areas in the US where Google has already laid its own fibre to the premise network.
Cisco hikes Australian prices by 13 percent
It's not easy being a buyer of technology products and services in Australia at the moment. The continually sliding value of the Australian dollar means that vendor after vendor is hiking the Australian prices of their products. Australians are increasingly paying more Australian dollars for precisely the same product.
Linton mystified by NBN business case “drivel”
Come on, we know you’ve been waiting with bated breath since yesterday to find out what Exetel chief executive John Linton thinks of the NBN Co business case released yesterday. No major NBN announcement would be complete without Linton’s point of view. And Linton doesn’t disappoint.
Massive ERP overhaul for NSW Transport
To my mind, this is the perfect project to be set up for failure. It has all the 'danger' flags: A major consolidation of business systems, a huge budget, projected savings and so on. We've seen precisely this kind of project go haywire in multiple states over the past half-decade.
50 awesome Australian female programmers
Over at Pollenizer, long-time startup industry figure Bronwen Clune has published a list of Australia's top 50 female programmers.
Judge overturns Galaxy Tab sale ban
Multiple media outlets are reporting this afternoon that the Federal Court of Australia has overturned Apple;s preliminary injunction against the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet in Australia.
Copper good for 100 years, says Thodey
According to Telstra chief executive David Thodey, Telstra's copper network could last 100 years more.
Apple Australia’s tiny tax bill “staggering”: Husic
Apple made more than a billion dollars more revenue from Australia over the year to the end of September 2012, but it paid (according to its financial statements) about $54 million less tax.
TPG repeats: We won’t implement voluntary filter
Well, we already knew that national broadband provider TPG wasn’t too keen on the idea of voluntarily filtering its customers’ Internet, courtesy of comments made by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy in late May this year. But now the company has come out in a bit more of a concrete way against the voluntary filter.
NSW, SA lose Health CIOs
From Intermedium this morning comes news that health departments in both South Australia and New South Wales are looking for new chief information officers, with their long-time incumbents departing and making way for new public servants in their roles.
“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.
Woolworths deploys iPads to all store managers
It's raining iPads at retail giant Woolworths, according to an article this morning by The Australian newspaper, which details the company's plans to deploy the Apple tablets to some 890 store managers nationwide.
Apple Watch saves Aussie tech journo’s life
For those of you who’ve been relatively dubious about the supposed health benefits of wearing an Apple Watch, I recommend you check out this story posted by long-time Australian technology journo Garry Barker earlier this month.
Australia won’t get the HTC One X+
Interested in HTC’s One X+ smartphone? Prepare to be disappointed. Ausdroid has dug up this post on HTC Australia’s Facebook page, where the Taiwanese company makes it clear Australia’s not getting the handset.
Bedevilled by politicians: Tasmania’s 12-year FTTP failure
You may not realise it unless you’re a Taswegian, but Labor’s National Broadband Network policy is not the first time residents of the state have been promised a Fibre to the Premises rollout by politicians. Nor is it the second time. In fact, the current NBN promises with regard to Tasmania are the end result of at least 12 years of political pledges made to residents in businesses in the state that they would get better broadband.
Does Yammer still have momentum in Australia?
I’m not sure where corporate social networking is at the moment in Australia, but I think it’s fair to say, at a minimum, that Yammer appears to have lost a little of its momentum in the area. Perhaps the first rollout we’ve seen in a while comes in news from iTNews today with regard to Adelaide City Council.
IBM Australia to reportedly slash 500 staff
The new year has not started well for Australian technologists in terms of the jobs situation. Qantas is cutting IT workers, Sensis is cutting workers, Telstra is cutting workers, the Victorian Government is looking into offshoring, and now, according to The Australian newspaper, IBM Australia has embarked on another major redundancy round.
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.
Telstra hires Turnbull’s sacked, foulmouthed MTM policy mastermind
Those of you who've been around the traps for a while may recall the name of Stephen Ellis, a former advisor to Malcolm Turnbull
Judge sides with IBM in Qld Health payroll lawsuit
This week it appears as though Queensland's actions have blown up in its face again with respect to its botched payroll systems upgrade at Queensland Health.
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.
Greenfields lobbyist sees nine-figure windfall in Coalition NBN
blog The Coalition’s NBN policy launch may have been variously greeted with both strong derision and cautious support in varying measures, but with Labor’s...
Tapestry.net picks up $400k investment
Not every Web 2.0 startup is for sexy young things who are devoted to sharing every instant of their “social universe” online. Some startups aim at different categories. A good example is Tapestry.net, which just picked up a cool $400k in investment from government group Commercialisation Australia.
Chromebooks finally land in Australia
Google announced on its Australian blog this morning that 2013 is the year. Finally, Chromebooks are in Australia. The only problem is … will anyone actually want to buy them? We’re not really sure.
Actually, Australia trains more IT than fitness staff
Remember last week when REA Group chief information officer Nigel Dalton published a somewhat disturbing article on his site noting that Australia currently trains more fitness instructors than IT professionals? As it turns out, Dalton may have been wrong.
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.
Telstra ready for NBN asbestos work again
It seems like Telstra went from a situation where asbestos contamination was randomly occurring around Australia at NBN worksites, to a situation two months later where Telstra appears to believe that everything is under control. But does this really represent the situation on the ground, or is it all just Telstra PR guff?
Salesforce.com is making in-roads into Australia’s banking sector again
Cloud computing vendors such as Salesforce.com have had a bit of a difficult relationship with Australia's banking and financial services sector. This week from the company's Dreamforce conference in the US comes news that Salesforce.com is yet again making some headway.
Telstra 4G trials hit 300Mbps
Just how fast can 4G mobile broadband go? Very fast, according to Telstra, which has been conducting trials of LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation technology.
Microsoft’s war on Google Apps gets nasty
Microsoft Australia produces case study scorching towards Google Apps and Gmail.
IT price hike inquiry will approach record labels
How seriously can we take Apple Australia managing director Anthony King's claim that Apple doesn't have anything to do with setting digital content prices in Australia through the company's iTunes store? I guess we're about to find out.
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.
Telstra reportedly turfs CTO Nandlall
I'm not sure what has precisely happened here, but it appears that there is more than one side to this story. While there may have been some irregularities with regard to Nandlall personally, it also appears that Telstra is scrapping the CTO role from its executive line-up. This isn't a surprise, given that the role has always been a bit nebulous. I'd encourage readers to keep an open mind as to what is going on here.
NSW Health unleashes mammoth email consolidation
If you follow technology news relating to Australian governments, you can't help but laugh sometimes; because if you didn't, you'd cry at the irony of it all.
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.
NAB moves website into Amazon cloud
In an article in The Australian newspaper this morning, it was revealed that NAB had switched its entire public-facing website into Amazon’s cloud (excluding, of course, sensitive areas such as Internet banking).
Apple Australia wages not insanely great
Given the size, volume of sales and complexity of Apple’s retail footprint, as well as the extreme level of revenue Apple makes in Australia in general, you would have to say that most people would probably expect Apple Store employees to be making a little more. As it stands, the lowest-level employees will barely be making more than minimum wage. And that’s just not insanely great.
Chromebooks for Port Macquarie school
It’s only been a few weeks since Google’s Chromebooks landed in Australia, but at least one organisation has already started deploying them. According to Computerworld, St Columba Anglican School in Port Macquarie, NSW, is fully into Chrome OS.
Telstra breaks down its NBN decision
The now infamous fifth slide from Telstra chief executive David Thodey's presentation to media and analysts this morning about the telco's $11 billion deal with the Government and NBN Co. Seems like Telstra's thinking on this one was pretty complex ;)
Ingogo picks up another $3.4m funding
What this investment, as well as the planned ASX listing and its past healthy fundraising efforts, shows is that ingogo is pulling in substantial revenues.
Which department banned Yammer?
blog Our favourite local e-government specialist Craig Thomler has a fascinating post over on his blog about a Federal Government department which has recently...
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.
Huge Chrome OS success for Fire + Rescue NSW
Those among you with longish memories will recall the slight hullaballoo which emergency services agency Fire and Rescue NSW caused in November 2012 when it revealed it had dumped plans to deploy new traditional PCs throughout its operations in New South Wales, opting instead for a widespread deployment of 400 units of Google's Chromebox cloud-based desktop platform. Well, according to to the group's IT director Richard Host, the rollout has been a huge success.
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.
Author John Birmingham quits eBook DRM
Australian author John Birmingham dumps eBook DRM.
EMC/NetApp trench blogfare turns nasty
NetApp's Australian chief Peter O'Connor appeared a trifle defensive in late November when he told the AustralianIT he wanted to set the record straight following "rumours" being spread by unnamed rivals about a possible NetApp role in the Virgin Blue storage disaster that landed thousands of customers in a temporary no-fly zone.
US cable giant Cox to deploy 1Gbps
The list of US telcos and cities which are expressing a strong desire to deploy gigabit broadband speeds just keeps on growing. First it was Google, which is currently looking to take its Fiber offering to a further 34 US cities. Only a few weeks ago it was AT&T, which is also looking to deploy gigabit fibre, in its case to some 100 cities. And of course, the City of Los Angeles also has a gigabit project it is seeking partners for. The latest news comes from the Tech Times, which reports that US cable giant Cox Communications is now getting on the gigabit bus.
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.
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.
NBN Strategic Review shows FTTP still very viable
If you believe NBN Co executive chairman Ziggy Switkowski and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the NBN Strategic Review released last week is all about re-using HFC cable, implementing Fibre to the Node and minimising the use of Fibre to the Premises. However, a close reading of the document shows that it also finds that Labor’s original FTTP vision can still be delivered very affordably and in a timely manner.
Palantir exposed: Crikey reveals surveillance giant’s Aussie operations
According to a wide-ranging expose on Palantir Technologies published by Crikey, it has become clear that the firm is rapidly growing its operations down under.
ABC staffer goes for Bitcoin gold
We know the ABC is a public broadcaster and isn’t likely to be offering the highest salaries in the world, but this is ridiculous.
Will a Coalition Govt pump IT outsourcing?
Those of you will long memories will recall that it was the Howard administration which first kicked the Federal Government into gear back in 1997 in terms of the now-common practice of outsourcing key IT services to the private sector. And now there are fears an Abbott administration could push down that road strongly again.
BlackBerry CEO to hit Australia in March
Yesterday it was revealed BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins would bring his smile to Australia on Monday 18 March to launch the new BlackBerrys and share the happiness. Praise be.
Delimiter Membership Election Special: Almost sold out
I just wanted to post a quick update to let you know that the 15 percent off Delimiter Membership Election Special which we launched on Monday is progressing pretty quickly towards being sold out: Better get in quick if you want to take advantage of the discount!
CSIRO + NICTA merger still not nailed down
We can't imagine the staff morale at Australia's peak IT research group NICTA is fantastic at this point. The Federal Government cut all funding to the organisation in the 2014 Budget, the CSIRO merger plan to save the group has been in negotiations for six months, and even now the situation in terms of hundreds of redundancies continues to be unclear.
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.
Lockheed Martin close to completing Defence private cloud build
iTWire revealed late last week that Defence contractor Lockheed Martin is just now putting the finishing touches on private cloud infrastructure for the department, using hardware from storage giant NetApp.
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.
Abbott, Turnbull: No NBN talks with Murdoch
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull both deny they've held discussions with News Corp chief executive Rupert Murdoch over the National Broadband Network.
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.
New Qld Govt CIO a chance for ‘industry unity’
There is the chance for a fresh start in Queensland at the moment. And if the various CIOs, politicians and industry players can get behind that, perhaps the state can avoid having virtually every major whole of government technology project, and many others, savaged by its auditor-general in a few years' time when the next round of audits comes up.
Xbox One goes off with a bang … but will the PS4 launch eclipse...
Which console launch are you most excited about, and why? Am I right that the PlayStation 4 has most of the momentum at this point? Or is underdog Microsoft making a comeback with the Xbox One?
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.
Dual-mode LG G2 heading to Optus
Optus reveals it will be bringing a dual-mode FDD-LTE/TD-LTE version of LG's new G2 announced this week to Australia.
A deep investigation into Telstra’s copper
Over at the ABC, technology + games editor Nick Ross (he of the 11,000 word articles on the subject and of the Media Watch coverage) has continued his deep investigation into the dynamics of the National Broadband Network under the Coalition, with a pair of articles published this week into the question of whether Telstra’s copper network can actually be used for fibre to the node, as the Coalition is planning to use it.
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.
WikiLeaks blockade based on Australia’s misinfo
VISA and Mastercard appear to still be relying on outdated comments by Australia's Federal Government to block the ability of Wikileaks to take donations.
NBN Co considers third satellite
NBN Co is reportedly considering launching a third satellite in an effort to provide better broadband access to the small percentage of Australians in remote areas.
Australia has fastest 4G speeds in world
Impressed by the 4G speeds offered by your provider, whether it's Telstra, Optus or Vodafone? You should be. According to a new study of 4G/LTE mobile speeds around the world, Australia has the fastest average speeds in the world.
New IT system causes chaos at Cairns Hospital
There is absolutely no doubt that electronic health records system implementations have an extremely chequered history in Australia. Now a new catastrophe along these lines has appeared in Far North Queensland.
Turnbull’s DTO may take over governance of the Govt’s pathetic myGov site
Those of you who run your own business and thus have had the unfortunate experience of being forced to interact with the Government's myGov website will be aware that the site is, to put it rather bluntly, something of a piece of crap.
JB Hi-Fi chief backhands Kogan over Apple
Today JB Hi-Fi chief Terry Smart casually backhanded fiery consumer electronics entrepreneur Ruslan Kogan, telling SmartCompany Kogan’s claim that Apple gear made up 30 percent of the retail giant’s sales was incorrect.
BACK OFF, Quigley tells Turnbull, media: The NBN hasn’t been hacked
NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley has conducted a fiery interview with ABC Radio where he takes an axe to some of the more flagrant articles published this week after the arrest of an alleged intruder into the systems of planned NBN customer Platform Networks.
Fifield’s website goes down on first day as Comms Minister
Spare a thought for Senator Mitch Fifield. Just as the new Communications Minister was being sworn in at Government House in Canberra this morning, his web developer was apparently knocking his website offline for maintenance.
Why do Australians pay more for Office 365?
A great analysis piece was published on local cloud computing media outlet BoxFreeIT last month on why Australians pay more for Microsoft's Office 365 software as a service suite.
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.
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.
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!
Legacy health software lands SA Govt in court
In which the South Australian Government comes up with complex legal arguments as to why it should be able to continue to use a 1980's software package.
Not absolutely everything is the NBN’s fault
Despite what you may read in the media, not everything that goes wrong in early stage NBN rollout zones has anything to do with NBN Co. Take the problems outlined in this article published today by Computerworld, for example.
Qld Education Dept buys 14k Win8 tablets
If you were the chief information officer of a major education department and wanted to deploy a mass tablet rollout to thousands of students, would you pick Apple’s dominant iPad platform, which owns the majority of the tablet market? Or perhaps you’d go with the fastest-growing competitor and pick Android? That’s probably what we’d do. However, Queensland’s Department of Education has ignored both these options and gone for a Windows 8 model from Acer.
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.
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.
Screw cloud: Coogans upgrades mainframe instead
To paraphrase Francis Urquhart, you might very well think that no Australian organisation would be spending much money these days upgrading their old mainframes or deploying new ones. Isn't everything about cloud computing these days, after all? Well, true, it is, but that hasn't stopped some Australian groups from hanging onto their old mainframe infrastructure and even pushing it further.
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.
Perpetual dumps CIO after Fujitsu outsourcing
It appears that the outsourcing arrangement between Perpetual and Fujitsu has gone well — so well, it appears, that Perpetual no longer believes it needs its chief information officer, Jenny Levy.
Australia’s biggest ever global float: Atlassian worth US$5.8bn
Great news from the US, where Australian software firm Atlassian has at long last started selling its shares on the NASDAQ, under the ticker TEAM. The Guardian reports that the share price of the company has already soared on its first day. The share sale apparently represents Australia's biggest ever share float on the international market.
WA Govt puts one foot in the cloud
We're gradually seeing government departments and agencies around Australia deploy bits and pieces from the huge kit-bag collectively known as cloud computing. It's been a slow journey, but it's getting there. News of new steps in the Western Australian Government comes this week from iTNews, which reports on several small cloud-based projects which have recently taken place.
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.
NSW Govt to appoint yet another whole of government CIO
I'll be the first to admit if -- and I'll be happy about it -- I am proven wrong. But all the evidence from the past shows that this appointment will ultimately amount to little.
Attanasio takes NSW RMS CIO role
Former Customs CIO Joe Attanasio takes up the equivalent role at NSW Roads and Maritime Services.
‘Severe impact’: Rival FTTB plans worry NBN Co
If the Coalition had stuck with Labor's largely Fibre to the Premises NBN policy, of course, all this wouldn't be an issue. Talk about unintended consequences. Setting regulatory frameworks can often be like this; you need to think through several steps ahead, especially when it comes to a long-term project such as building a national broadband network.
Leap year outages: Nostalgia for Y2K?
Call us nostalgic, but today's news that the Health Industry Claims and Payments Service (HICAPS) system owned by the National Australia bank was taken down by faulty programming associated with today's leap year date takes us back to the good old days of Year 2000 bugs.
Assange’s mum confirms he will run for Senate
Julian Assange's mum has confirmed he will run for the Australian Senate in this year's Federal Election, claiming that he will be "awesome".
How much more does Australia pay for Apple gear?
MacTalk founder Anthony Agius has produced the mother of all Apple pricing comparison spreadsheets in an effort to quantify just what the Australian markup is on Apple products.
BlackBerry Q10 hits Australia July 1
BlackBerry reveals that its hardware keyboard smartphone model, the Q10, will land in Australia from 1 July. But will anyone care?
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.