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 :)
Will Telstra’s LTE hit price parity with the NBN?
The controversial clause in Telstra's National Broadband Network agreement prohibiting the telco from promoting its wireless solutions as a direct alternative to the NBN's fibre continues to draw interest, despite protestations from Telstra chief executive David Thodey that the clause would only have a minor impact on his company's operations.
LG Android smartwatch available online now to Australians; Samsung’s not so much
If you caught Google’s I/O conference overnight, you will be aware that one of the highlights of the show was the fact that several smartwatches running Google’s new Android Wear operating system supposedly went on sale. However, as regular readers will be aware, “on sale” doesn’t always quite mean in Australia what it means in the US, with devices typically launching in Australia at a later date than they do in America.
National IT outage “minimal”, claims CommBank
Yesterday at a financial results briefing session, the Commonwealth Bank opened up for the first time regarding the nationwide outage which took down around 9,000 of its desktop PCs, hundreds of servers and even its CommSee customer management system.
Symantec dumps Aussie support staff
According to iTNews, security vendor Symantec has dumped what little Australian technical support presence it had, offshoring the jobs overseas.
#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.
Qld eHealth agency reportedly stands down CIO after just one month
In mid-December 2015, the Department promoted the fact that it had appointed a new chief executive and chief information officer of eHealth Queensland -- the agency within the Department which is responsible for resolving the state's ongoing eHealth mess. Less than one month later, the executive has reportedly been stood down as part of an internal investigation.
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.
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.
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.
LG Optimus L9 hits Australia
This week LG added another model to its Australian line-up in the form of the Optimus L9.
NSW reforms ICT services contracts
Looks like the New South Wales Government is making good on its promises to reform the way the state purchases technology services, as part of its overall IT strategy. This week we received a media release on the issue from Minister for Finance and Services Greg Pearce.
SA Govt forgets to pay phone bill
Think the Queensland and Western Australian State Governments have got problems with their technology shared services divisions? Well, they have. But at least they (we assume) pay their telephone bills on time. That isn’t precisely the case in South Australia, where the state’s Finance Minister yesterday revealed it couldn’t even get that right.
Telstra builds four new datacentres
Telstra late yesterday revealed plans to expand its cloud computing business through constructing four new datacentres located around the nation to cater for demand. Now if only the telco could announce some new cloud computing customers.
SA e-Health system could cause fatalities
It used to be pretty rare that Australia would see an IT system implemented or maintained so poorly that it had the potential to cause fatalities or serious injury. But not any more. This year we’ve seen three such cases in Victoria alone, linked separately to failing IT systems at Victoria Police (which actually did result in several deaths), a Victorian hospital and, most worryingly, with relation to children’s safety under the care of the Department of Human Services. Well, last week South Australia got its own potentially fatal IT system.
When academics perpetuate NBN ignorance
Professor Zumbo, we humbly submit that it might be wise for you take another look at the fundamental premises contained in your NBN article in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning. We humbly suggest that the degree of academic rigour contained within is sadly ... inferior.
Report: Oracle may be dumping its Australian support centre
Spend a lot of time calling Oracle's Australian support centre for those pesky database support enquiries? Well, if a report late last year and mutterings this week around the traps are any indication, you could shortly be speaking to someone in somewhere like Romania instead.
Apple Maps losing Victorians in forest
We haven’t found Apple’s new mapping application in iOS 6 to be that much of a headache — in fact, it does offer some noticeable improvements in some areas over the previous Google Maps tool — but then we weren’t trying to use the platform to navigate by road to the Victorian town of Mildura. According to the Victorian Police, quite a few people have made that mistake — and ended up in the middle of nowhere.
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.
Crown Casino loses $32m in IT security breach
The ABC reports that a high-roller gambler has scammed Melbourne's Crown Casino of $32 million, with what looks to be the assistance of the casino's own in-house surveillance system.
US designates Assange ‘enemy of state’
Sydney Morning Herald correspondent Philip Dorling has uncovered the fact that the US has designated Wikileaks founder and Australian citizen Julian Assange an official target.
HP’s Caspari quits after just one year
It's been reportedly extremely widely in Australia's technology media over the past 24 hours that HP South Pacific Managing Director David Caspari has resigned his post and will leave the company.
Aussie CIOs back Surface tablet
When it comes to tablets in the enterprise, Apple's iPad is currently the market leader. But, according to some early indications, Microsoft may be in with a winner with its new Surface tablet.
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.
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.
$752m: NSW Education Dept’s SAP-based LMBR system doubles in cost
Those of us who've been around the traps for a while know that it's extremely common for major IT projects to go over budget. 10 percent, 15 percent, 20 percent ... these are all normal amounts for a project's costs to blow out by, and of course delays to projects' delivery schedule are also common. However, what would you think of a project which doubled in cost over its lifetime?
Turnbull’s credit card details exposed in Stratfor hack
By now many of you know that a number of Australian organisations have had their credit card numbers compromised by a major hack of the US security intelligence firm Stratfor, with Australian victims including ANZ Bank, BHP, HSBC, Westpac, Woodside and so on. But did you know that Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull's security has also been compromised?
Global roaming stupidity
Like most people, when I travel overseas I make sure to avoid huge global roaming charges through the use of Wi-Fi networks, cheap local SIM cards, IP telephony and other measures. But apparently some of our nation's most venerable technologists and politicians are not capable of doing the same.
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.
Delimiter is giving away an Apple Watch!
Delimiter is about to hold our first reader giveaway of the New Year! This time the prize will be an Apple Watch!
‘Daring yet awful’: An epic Windows 8 rant
We hate Windows 8 on the desktop just as much as the next man, but we haven’t tested it as extensively as Taswegian and technologist Simon Reidy, who penned this epic rant on Google Plus this week detailing why Microsoft’s new opus is the company’s “most interesting, daring, different, ridiculous, contradictory, frustrating, and awful Windows yet”.
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.
Richard Branson tells Turnbull OneWeb satellites could save Australian broadband
Just when you thought Australia's broadband scene couldn't get any more absurd, along comes something which breaks the mold yet again.
Comcare goes cloud for DR
Cloud computing projects in the Federal Government are a little thin on the water these days, despite the fact that the previous Labor administration tried to push for further adoption in the public sector, and despite the fact that cloud is all the rage in state governments at the moment. That's why we're particularly interested in this little gem posted by Australian Government chief technology officer John Sheridan on his blog today.
“Terminate copper”: France’s €20bn fibre splurge
Last week the French Government revealed that a combined €20 billion investment in fibre broadband technology, representing a combination of public and private funding, would be ploughed in to help bring the nation's ageing telecommunications networks up to spec and "terminate the copper".
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.
Gillard’s nauseating endorsement: Take 2
We couldn’t help but almost throw up in our mouth tonight as we watched the love-in in this video occur between Google, MYOB, Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Communications Stephen Conroy in this orgy of self-interest and naked marketing guff.
Author John Birmingham quits eBook DRM
Australian author John Birmingham dumps eBook DRM.
iPhone 4: Are Telstra & Optus price gouging?
A long-held rule of the global capitalist system has been that any given commodity will gradually go down in price over time, due to wider availability and improved manufacturing processes which drive scale. But now, according to MacTalk, Australia’s beloved top two telcos, Telstra and Optus, have decided that — despite the presumed imminent launch of Apple’s next mobile Jesus, the price of the iPhone 4 should instead go up.
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.
Welcome to VMware. It’s your monopolist speaking.
It's no secret that not everyone is a huge fan of VMware's new licensing structure, and now the backlash is beginning to hit Australia.
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.
Cloud: It’s about opportunities, not obstacles
One of the key messages that is coming out of the cloud computing camp at the moment is the concept that those who are thinking about this new paradigm of IT infrastructure purely through the lens of the old are missing out on the opportunities that it offers. A good piece on the issue comes from Rackspace Asia-Pacific chief technology officer Alan Perkins, formerly an influential chief information officer who had been an early cloud pioneer in Australia.
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.
Dutton kicks off e-health review
New Health Minister Peter Dutton is moving ahead with a review of Labor's troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record Scheme.
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.
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.
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.
Australia’s IT startups need more capital
According to Phil Morle, the co-founder of startup incubator and consultancy Pollenizer, the situation still isn’t where it needs to be in terms of IT startup funding in Australia.
Parliament trials Windows 8 tablets
ZDNet publishes an interview with Federal Parliament chief information officer Eija Seittenranta, detailing the fact that the Parliament is conducting a trial of Windows 8 tablets.
City of Sydney deploys Windows 7
A Microsoft case study published last month tells us that the City of Sydney, which has some 1,800 total staff, recently upgraded to Windows 7 from the long-lived Windows XP.
Women in IT: Govt action only part of the solution
From my point of view, although this is an important policy debate, and I am glad that we are having this debate on Delimiter, I don’t personally want to weigh in too heavily into it. The reason is pretty basic: I am male, not female, and I don’t feel that it’s my place to set policy for women or to preach to women how they should engage with the IT sector.
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.
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.
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?
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.
The first pictures of our new Communications Minister gloriously holding a fibre cable have...
All glory to the Fibre to the Node cabinet.
Turnbull “gets” the NBN, claims Oakeshott
Independent MP Rob Oakeshott has stated that he would be more willing to deal with a Coalition Government led by Malcolm Turnbull than Tony Abbott, due, among other reasons, to the fact that Turnbull "gets" the need for the National Broadband Network project to go ahead.
Federal Govt explicitly explores IT offshoring in landmark move
If you have spent any time working in IT in Australia's public sector, you are probably aware that there is something of a taboo in government departments and agencies using offshored IT services such as are provided from countries such as India, as well as increasingly Malaysia, the Philippines and other countries. However, this may be about to change.
Kindle Fire HD finally lands in Australia
Amazon has gradually been opening up its Kindle range to Australians, culminating in the news overnight that the Kindle Fire HD models are now available.
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.
Game on: NBN Co fires broadband afterburners with 1Gbps services
The election’s just months away and it’s game on at NBN Co, which this morning announced it will add three more speed tiers to its services, now offering a maximum 1Gbps wholesale service at a wholesale access price of $150 per month.
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.
Did Conroy’s AFP filter wrongly block 1,200 sites?
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, it appears that the limited ISP-based filter which several of Australia’s major ISPs (Telstra, Optus and Vodafone so far) have implemented with the assistance of the Australian Federal Police may have suffered a massive false positive event in early April and wrongly blocked some 1,200 websites, including community group the Melbourne Free University.
New six monthly and concession Membership options, plus PayPal
Along with our yearly $129 option, we now also offer a $75 six monthly option. In addition, I have also added a 20 percent discount coupon for full-time students or pensioners, which can be applied to either plan. I've also added PayPal as a payment option, alongside our existing secure credit card payments platform, Stripe.
Privacy commissioners issue please-explain about Google Glass
It’s been hailed as the vanguard of wearable computing, derided as a plaything of perverts and stalkers, and in a Seattle bar even though it’s not broadly available in the wild and is still untold months from release. No doubt about Google Glass is already brewing a firestorm of controversy – and its possibilities for public snooping have proved worrying enough to Australia’s privacy watchdog that he has requested a meeting with Google to discuss its implications.
PM Gillard meets global Huawei chair
Julia Gillard meets with Huawei's global chair during a visit to China.
Digging into the Creative Cloud cost picture
Local Melbourne blogger Dawnstar Australis has found that Australians may end paying substantially more over the long-term to use Creative Clowd than traditional boxed copies of Adobe software.
It’s IT upgrade time at Australia’s universities
Yup, it's that time of year again -- that brief window of opportunity where Australia's universities, many of which are working off three semesters a year now, get a couple of weeks around Christmas to upgrade their IT systems.
Coalition faces internal e-safety dissent
Remember how the new Coalition Federal Government issued a detailed discussion paper in mid-January canvassing various options through which it can deal with the issue of children’s safety on the Internet, including the potential establishment of a children’s e-safety commissioner? Of course you do. Well, now Malcolm Turnbull’s Parliamentary Secretary Paul Fletcher, who is spearheading the policy, is facing opposition from a new front: Coalition MPs.
Slow Friday as we switch web hosts
Turbulence expected as Delimiter changes web hosts.
“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.
Bugger off, content industry tells ISPs on piracy plan
Well, that was short-lived. The anti-piracy plan mooted by many of Australia's ISPs last week has already been reportedly knocked back by several major organisations representing the content industries.
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.
Nokia 1520 lands in Australia
If you are looking to buy a new Nokia, you'd probably be interested to know that the company announced this morning that it would have one more stab at a major local launch, with its new model, the Lumia 1520. The selling point of the 1520 is that it features a 6" full HD 1080p screen, placing it in Galaxy Note range.
Turnbull loses Rupert Murdoch’s favour over ‘unaffordable’ $56 billion NBN
Leaving the Member for Wentworth off Murdoch’s list at this point, taken together with the NewsCorp mogul’s sledge at the NBN, may be a signal indicating where Murdoch’s views on the subject of leadership lie.
25Mbps in flats? Turnbull “dreaming”, says strata association
The issue of how to treat those Australians living in multi-dwelling units such as apartment blocks has always been a thorny one for both Labor and the Coalition.
Atlassian debuts new game: ‘Angry Nerds’
Best technology sector April Fools' Day joke so far today goes to Atlassian, which claims to be debuting a new mobile game dubbed 'Angry...
Nexus 7 draw: The winner revealed
Announcing the winner of Delimiter's Nexus 7 random draw.
New Govt tax taskforce may tackle Google, Apple
Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury has announced a government taskforce to force multinational corporations to be more transparent and accountable about how their finances and details of their taxation.
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.
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.
The plot thickens in CBA/ServiceMesh IT bribery scandal
There have been a series of new revelations in the Commonwealth Bank's IT bribery scandal over the past several days.
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.
Can man survive off Bitcoin mining alone?
Melbourne geek Anthony Agius’ newest venture is attempting to ascertain whether he can make enough money from mining the Bitcoin virtual currency to keep himself in new servers and fast broadband in the style to which he has become accustomed.
What would Turnbull need to do in his first 100 days as Communications Minister?
Turnbull has made a very strident argument over the past several years that Labor needs to drastically rework its National Broadband Network policy. Well, it looks like the Viscount of Vaucluse is about to get his chance to make that argument reality. Will Turnbull fold or fly in his first 100 days in office, if the Coalition takes power next week?
Happy nine month birthday, Classification Review. Time for Conroy’s filter to finally die?
Today is the nine month anniversary of the publication of the Classification Review, which readers may remembers as the key document which would guide the development of Labor's infamous mandatory Internet filter policy.
Australia’s IT industry just isn’t sexy enough
Those of you who've been following Delimiter over the past several days might have noticed that I've gotten a little bit on my high horse over the issue of industry subsidies. I was a little shocked by the massive national ruckus created by the request by fruit processor SPC Ardmona for millions of dollars worth of government assistance for its plant in Shepparton, Victoria, when larger issues in the nation's technology sector are almost completely ignored. Today I've published a further view on the issue on the ABC's The Drum site, arguing that it's because the IT industry just isn't sexy enough.
Corruption raises its ugly head in Australia’s technology sector
The newspaper alleged, and Leighton has substantially verified, the fact that staff from Visionstream were suspected of aiding Silcar staff in stealing Visionstream tender files relating to a $240 million contract to deploy Optus’s 4G network, which the two contractors were competing to bid. I’ll have a separate article on that situation shortly.
What you may not realise is that this not an isolated incident.
Double R18+ fail: State of Decay banned
It's times like these that we have to wonder what the point of Australia enacting an R18+ rating for video games is, when the Classification Board seems intent on banning popular games regardless.
IBM Australia sacking staff again
It seems as if, when it comes to major Australian technology companies such as Telstra, Optus, HP and IBM, there are always 'moves, adds and changes' going on in these giants' workforces.
Brumby wants Huawei to list on the ASX
Former Victorian Premier John Brumby's suggestion that Huawei list in Australia is mere parochialism, in my opinion.
Qld may hold Royal Commission into payroll bungle
It's been one of the biggest IT-related disasters in Australia's history, it's going to take $1.2 billion to fix, and it's even the subject of complex legal discussions between prime contractor IBM and the Queensland Government. Welcome to the world of Queensland Health's colossal payroll systems overhaul bungle. Today's news is that the state's LNP Premier Campbell Newman has canvassed setting up a commission of inquiry (also known as a royal commission) to get to the heart of the matter.
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.
Keane peels ‘Chinese cybersecurity attack’ apart
Crikey columnist Bernard Keane has developed a nasty habit for pouring cold water all over ‘cybersecurity’ experts and government spin-doctors, who have constantly hyped-up perceived IT security dangers and Internet attacks into the kind of “cyberwar scenario that IT security vendors have wet dreams over. We’re sure ASIO, the Defence Signals Directorate and a bunch of other G-Men in black will be over shortly to arrange Keane’s compulsory education campaign.
auDA dumps CEO Chris Disspain after 16 years … but why?
What I can't understand at this point is why the auDA board itself would turf Disspain from the position he has done an admirable job in. Was it a personality conflict? A professional disagreement of opinion? The statement says auDA is looking for "new leadership", but isn't the essence of auDA that it needs to remain stable -- something which Disspain has certainly been able to deliver to the organisation?
Conroy is a massive Dr Who fan
Former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy used his ministerial powers to keep Dr Who on the air, the ABC has revealed.
Hire this guy and Delimiter will donate champagne
What can we say, either there's too much donated champagne floating around the Delimiter offices at the moment (more than we could drink, although we've given it a fair go) or we're just in a generous spirit because it's Christmas time.
Fixed-line broadband competition in Australia
It gets more depressing every day ...
Help crowdsource an NBN implementation study
The Register has posted an entry on local crowdsourcing site Pozible inviting Australians to help it fund a detailed implementation study into the NBN, sourcing quotes for such a study from veteran analyst houses IBRS and Market Clarity.
NSW Trade + Investment pinged SAP on ByDesign roadmap
Those of you who watch such things closely may recall several weeks ago that a sudden decision by German software giant SAP to end active development of its ailing Business ByDesign online software suite left the New South Wales Government’s premier cloud computing business systems pilot stranded without a future roadmap. Well, it appears that the NSW Department of Trade & Investment didn’t take SAP’s move sitting down.
Deep thoughts from Senator Ludlam on Julian Assange
The personal blog of Greens Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam continues to be excellent value. Last week the Western Australian Senator took some time out to pen more than 1,300 thoughtful words on the potential future of maverick WikiLeaks activist Julian Assange, whose fate is very much in the hands of several global legal systems.
Apple agrees $2.25m iPad 4G fine
From the Department of Technology-related Parking Fines comes the news that Apple has agreed to pay $2.25 million in penalties to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for falsely marketing its new iPad tablet as being capable of 4G mobile broadband speeds in Australia.
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.
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.
Yes, the AFR’s Lenovo story is still accurate
Right now, without saying where we have obtained our information, it seems clear that the Financial Review's report on this issue is broadly accurate. In short, although the specifics of the ban are unclear, the newspaper is correct that Lenovo machines are not used in certain areas of Defence.
Qld Govt planning to cut 430 IT staff
The Queensland Government flags plans to cut some 430 ICT staff, as the state's ongoing problems with its ICT service delivery structure continue to bite.
A roundup of Australian Windows 8 trials
Now that Windows 8 has launched in Australia, what do we know about enterprise trial deployments of the technology? Surprisingly, quite a lot. A lot of people might believe that Windows 8 is the new Windows Vista, but when you look around on the actual ground, it appears as though major Australian organisations are at least dabbling with Microsoft's new operating system opus.
Oops … Tesla enthusiast charges car on Qld windfarm
Headline says it all, really. The future is here.
A few tips for Labor’s new Comms Ministers
So you’re a new Labor Shadow Minister in the Communications Portfolio, and you’re considering how best to push Labor’s all-fibre NBN policy and stick it to Liberal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Or perhaps you’re a techno-savvy Labor backbencher who wants to get in on the action. What angle should you be taking to take on the Viscount of Vaucluse?
Now Toll dumps Google Apps rollout, reconsiders SAP plan
Toll has reportedly stopped the rollout of a Google Apps deployment to its staff and is developing a new plan for its proposed SAP-based finance transformation.
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.
Huawei’s new P6 superphone lands in July
Huawei's new superphone, the P6, is slated to launch in Australia before July, the company announced
Pre-launch web startup Canva raises $3m
Australian web startup Canva this morning revealed it had picked up a $3 million seed round from a number of early stage investors and venture capitalists in Australia and Silicon Valley.
NBN questions needed for Q&A
I thought I would do a quick post noting that Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull will be appearing on the ABC's Q&A program tonight. If you have questions that you would like to see the Earl of Wentworth respond to, on any issue, but especially the hot button topic of broadband policy, then I recommend you submit those questions as soon as possible online here.
Does Sydney have 10,000 unsecured Wi-Fi networks?
Hilarious article over at the Sydney Morning Herald, which has been war-driving around Sydney and testing out the city’s Wi-Fi networks for security. According to the newspaper, unsecured Wi-Fi is rife.
Reality check: Femtocells are not an Optus scam
Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Ultimately, Optus' femtocell launch is a positive step forward for Australia's telecommunications industry and its customers.
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...
Mirvac dumps BlackBerry for iPhone; and a few thoughts about the model
The nation's number two telco Optus and its subsidiary Alphawest has revealed that they recently helped shopping centre giant Mirvac ditch its fleet of BlackBerry mobile phones for an Apple iPhone replacement.
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.
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.
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
White House clears Huawei of spy claims
Well, well. Seems as though there just still isn't any evidence that Chinese networking giant Huawei is involved in espionage for the Chinese Government or military, and now some rather large players are finally coming out in public to say so.
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.
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.
Blizzard finally starts adding Australian servers
Those of you who've been long-term fans of the excellent video games produced by Blizzard Entertainment (StarCraft, World of Warcraft, Diablo) will recall that Australians have been fighting for many years to get the company to set up local servers to service the multi-player aspects of its games. Well, Blizzard has finally cracked, and Diablo III is the first cab off the rank to get the local seal of approval.
News Ltd builds classifieds site on Google cloud
It's not often you see Google's App Engine mentioned in Australia in the context of cloud computing. However, at least one decently-sized implementation has surfaced, courtesy of Google Australia's blog this week.
Telstra has 2.1 million 4G customers
This morning the telco’s deputy chief financial officer Mark Hall casually told Macquarie Bank’s Equities Conference that Telstra already has 2.1 million customers on its 4G network.
A detailed report into Australia’s IT startup scene
The From Little Things blog created by Australian startup incubator Pollenizer recently has been turning up some solid content; profiles of Australian startups, interesting tidbits about the local investment and more. And today it’s gone one better, publishing a detailed report into Australia’s IT startup scene and how it compares internationally.
The marvellously destructive power of the Internet:A rant by Mark Newton
You might have noticed that at Delimiter we love an epic rant, and as we've previously written, former Internode network engineer Mark Newton has form in this area. Whether it be on the issue of the Internet filter, the National Broadband Network or other topics, Newton is wonderfully unafraid to tell it like it is, and that's one reason we love him (in a platonic sense, of course).
iPad 2 queue starts at Sydney Apple store
Cheers to our friends at LogMeIn for this photo of a gentleman who has just claimed the title of first position in the line to buy an Apple iPad 2 when the device goes on sale on Friday night at 5pm. This photo was taken outside the Sydney CBD Apple store this afternoon.
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.
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.
Communications Minister grows glorious beard over Christmas
If there was ever any doubt about the manliness of Communications Minister Mitch Fifield, let that doubt be dispelled right now. This morning it was revealed that the Liberal Senator grew what Delimiter can only describe as a glorious beard over Christmas.
A bit of tough love for Google
Sorry Alan -- we love Google products and we want to use them on the National Broadband Network, so we've got to give you a bit of tough love here ;)
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".
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.
Sensis to chop 50 percent of staff?
Telstra's online and directories business Sensis hasn't been a great place to work for a while now. Executive departures and job cuts have proven to be pretty much the norm at the once-great home of the White and Yellow Pages empire over the past several years. But according to The Australian, we may not have known quite how bad things were.
The NBN alone does not guarantee a strong “digital economy”
If you listen to the rhetoric emanating from Australia’s political sector, especially the Australian Labor Party, you’d no doubt believe that the construction of the NBN alone was enough to guarantee that Australia will develop a strong local technology startup culture, similar to that found in Silicon Valley in the US, or in other locations internationally such as Tel Aviv in Israel. However, as one of Australia’s most experienced startup mentors and commentators, Sandy Plunkett, writes, this simply isn’t true.
Aussie software firm Marketplacer grabs $10m
It used to be that the most that early stage Australian software companies could pick up in capital raisings was a few hundred thousand to a couple of million. Complaints about the impossibility of raising a decent amount of venture capital were constant and loud. Wow. How times have changed over the past few years. Today's piece of evidence demonstrates that money is truly flowing in the streets for Australia's growing cadre of technology firms.
Japanese firm makes $400m offer for Freelancer.com
Thought Australian outsourcing marketplace Freelancer.com was going to grow up into a strong, Australia-based company that would conquer the world? Well, it appears that you may be wrong. According to US technology blog TechCrunch, Japanese HR and recruitment giant Recruit Co. has made a $400 million offer to buy Matt Barrie’s bouncing baby boy.
HTC’s Android better than iOS, says Choice
We've said before that HTC's Sense UI is just beautiful ... it's hard to put one of the Korean manufacturer's new Android-based smartphones down once you pick it up and see the subtle motions taking place across its screen. But is the combination of Google's Android operating system with HTC Sense enough to outclass Apple's iOS?
Taxi 2.0 service Uber now in Melbourne
Following the launch of next-generation taxi service Uber in Sydney in late October last year, the US startup has now annoucned that it has launched quietly in Melbourne.
“Click Frenzy” was a marketing/PR hypno-orgy right from the start
Confused about what the hell this whole "Click Frenzy" online retail phenomenon thing that we've all been reading about over the past several weeks was all about? Join the club: I'm a paid-up member. Maybe I didn't get the original press release. Thankfully, local IT geek and Delimiter reader Dawnstar (not his real name) has posted several epic rants and deconstructions of legendary proportions on his blog to explain it to y'all, complete with SPAM Act illegality, journalist/public relations/marketing love-ins and a health dose of sarcasm.
Kim Dotcom may list Mega on ASX
Kim Dotcom expresses an interest in listing his new Mega business on the Australian Stock Exchange.
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.
Kim Dotcom wants Mega servers in Australia
Kim Dotcom flags plans to host some servers for his new Mega venture in Australia.
NBN: Isn’t Siobhan McKenna just doing her job?
One can't help but be amused by the ruckus which the Financial Review newspaper has raised (and which the Opposition is echoing with vitriolic fervour) around the renewed attention which NBN Co's board has reportedly been paying towards the stewardship of the National Broadband Network Company.
Federal Govt releases big data strategy
The Federal Government has this afternoon released the formal version of its whole of government big data strategy, which whole of government chief information officer Glenn Archer and others in the Canberra public sector have been working on for some time.
Royal Melbourne Hospital still has not fixed its Windows XP virus problem
As it turns out, two weeks on, the hospital still has not quite got control of the IT infection
Global hacker crackdown hits Aussies
Picked up a copy of the 'Blackshades' remote administration tool recently? You may be on the FBI's target list. The Wall Street Journal reports in the US over the weekend that US authorities have worked with law enforcement authorities in a range of countries to raid the homes of those who have been using the software.
Apparently people still buy SPARC servers
According to a media release issued by Oracle Australia this morning, apparently SPARC servers are still in vogue. Who knew?
Great debate on the lack of diversity in IT startups
Clune's right: Australia's IT startup scene is predominantly composed of white, middle class males, a physical form which venture capitalists usually identify with. But Liubinskas is also right: Things are more complicated than that in real life, and opportunities do abound for the passionate or determined, regardless of who they are. Perhaps the passion and diversity in this debate do much to illustrate the sector as a whole.
Budget 2014: NICTA will be heavily affected by funding cut
Just a day or so ago, National ICT Australia appeared relatively unfazed by the Coalition Federal Government’s decision to entirely cut its funding within two years, vowing to seek alternative options. But an interview with the group’s chief executive Hugh Durrant-Whyte in the Financial Review newspaper yesterday paints an entirely different picture.
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.
Vodafone’s Morrow new NBN Co CEO: AFR
Wondering who the new National Broadband Network chief executive will be? So are we, and reportedly we're going to find out very shortly.
“Rational debate” needed around surveillance
In the wake of the news yesterday that the Coalition and Labor are supporting a raft of new electronic surveillance measures, the Pirate Party of Australia has called for a rational debate to be held over the issue, in the context of widespread opposition to increased surveillance by the Australian public.
Telstra gets $150m for NBN FTTN trial
Remember how in early June, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull revealed that Telstra was working on a wide-scale trial of the Coalition’s preferred Fibre to the Node network rollout style that would encompass about a thousand nodes? Well, it looks like the pedal is about to hit the metal with the trial, with the Financial Review quoting Turnbull this week as stating that the two telcos had signed a deal which would see the trial go ahead.
Coalition victory could trigger Internode fibre rollout
Internode chief Simon Hackett has revealed to the Financial Review newspaper that he expects the Coalition to win the next Federal election and cancel the National Broadband Network; an event which could result in Internode becoming a public company and rolling out its own fibre.
Tragic accident reported in NBN Kiama build
NBN Co has been advised of a reported fatality at Kiama that occurred just before noon today. The Ambulance Service responded and Police are in attendance.
Why broadband is too important to be left to the private sector
Vox Media in the US has recently published a fascinating interview with Susan Crawford, former Special Assistant to President Obama on Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy. In it, Crawford expresses a view very similar to that taken by the Australian Labor Party — that the development of broadband is too important to be left to the profit-focused private sector.
Of Apple, Microsoft, and Australian music stores
Some six years after Apple launched its online music store in Australia, a store which sold billions of songs, Microsoft is following suit, using a subscription model which Steve Jobs rejected almost a decade ago, and which had publicly failed several times. And Microsoft is still not quite sure whether the 'per song' pricing model works.
Vodafone CEO backs Quigley NBN study
Vodafone chief executive Bill Morrow backs NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley's proposal to have the Communications Alliance carry out a study into Australia's broadband future.
US doesn’t want Assange, says ambassador
Remember those high-handed statements and protests which erupted last week in Australia about the possibility of Australian citizen Julian Assange being extradited from Sweden to the US? Well, it turns out the US actually has no interest in extraditing the Wikileaks founder.
HP issues waffle statement on job cuts claim
Help us decipher HP's waffle.
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.
Ireland subsidises FttX to rural areas
If all you know about Ireland is sourced from St Patrick's Day festivities, then you might be surprised to learn that internationally the country is considered a centre for technology innovation, largely because its Government has continually invested in the industry through favourable taxation laws and investment. In the newest move to come from this island nation, broadband is the focus.
Happy Friday! And see you next week :)
hey everyone, just a quick note to let you know that I'm taking today off from writing on Delimiter.
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.
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.
DTO looking to create Govt cloud marketplace
If you've been following public sector IT for a while, you're probably aware that Australia's Federal Government has not precisely set the world on fire when it comes to its adoption of cloud computing platforms. Most Government CIOs consider the cloud a little risky, both for control reasons, but also because of data sovereignty issues. However, much of that may change, if Malcolm Turnbull's Digital Transformation Office gets its way.
“Maddening, dispiriting, radically unbalanced”: A full legal analysis of the TPP leaks
In Australian intellectual property circles, there are few names which are more respected than that of Kimberlee Weatherall. That’s why we were personally thrilled to learn that Weatherall has recently published a mammoth blow by blow analysis of the enforcement provisions contained in the recently leaked draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership IP chapter.
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.
WikiLeaks Party implodes, candidates quit
WikiLeaks Senate candidate Leslie Cannold quits the party, alleging impropriety in its internal processes.
Optus to shut down Unwired from Feb 28
Optus has starting emailing customers on Vividwireless' Unwired network to let them know they only have a few months before their broadband goes AWOL.
NBN budget doesn’t include interest, says Turnbull
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has publicly claimed that there's an error in the National Broadband Network budgeting, due to Labor not counting the cost of interest on debt or equity required to fund the NBN.
RIP telco luminary Alan Kellock
If you've been in Australia's telecommunications industry for a long time, you may recall the name Alan Kellock. There's not a lot of information about him online, but Peter Kellock, who appears to be his son, published an obituary of Kellock the senior through The Age newspaper recently. I don't want to go too far into Kellock's history, but suffice it to say that he was instrumental in setting up Telecom (now Telstra), as well as the international telephone system that we all enjoy today.
Fire & Rescue dumps GroupWise for hosted Exchange
Fire and Rescue NSW finally ditches Novell GroupWise for a hosted version of Microsoft Exchange.
Reversal: Telstra no longer keen on Windows Live
It seems like only yesterday that Telstra first confirmed it was interested in dumping the email, blogging, photos and online storage platforms used by customers of its BigPond division and migrating customers to Microsoft’s Windows Live platform. However, it hasn't precisely been an easy transition for the two companies.
“Waste of money”: Sydney Grammar School bans laptops in class
According to at least one school, these new-fangled devices are a "waste of money" and should be banned.
How can CIOs contribute to revenue growth?
With most industries being rapidly affected by technological change, many companies are starting to realise that bringing their chief information officer in to their strategy meetings can have a big impact.
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.
Paul Budde dumps Foxtel
Welcome to the IPTV club, Paul Budde. The well-known Australian telecommunications analyst revealed on his blog this morning that his household recently terminated its Foxtel service.
Telstra 3G performance dropping, claims mag
Now we've got some further evidence that despite the constant #badoptus claims, Australia's number two telco might be catching up when it comes to 3G mobile broadband -- although not, perhaps, through anything Optus has done.
Troubles mount at EnergyAustralia as CIO leaves
If you're fond of a good enterprise IT disaster story (hell, Australia seems to have more of them than it can handle these days), you'd be well advised to check out a (paywalled) story published by The AustralianIT this morning about electricity retailer EnergyAustralia.
Need a 3G SIM? MacGyver it from your power meter
From Tasmania today comes a tale of woe and piracy … apparently the electricity meters in the state have SIM cards embedded in them for Telstra’s Next G network, and they can be used for ill. Who knew?
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.
Metronode launches NSW Govt datacentre
Those of you who’ve been paying attention to the developing situation with respect to IT inside the NSW Government will be aware that the state is currently attempting to consolidate its far-flung IT infrastructure down to just two datacentres, operated by Leighton subsidiary Metronode. This morning, Metronode tells us in a media release, one of those facilities launched to great pomp and ceremony.
“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.
Australia’s universities hacked on a regular basis
Not all of the hype around IT security can be believed at the moment — several times when your writer has investigated so-called ‘hacking’ attacks in recent months, we’ve found only low-level script-kiddie-type of behaviour at the bottom of the situation. However, there definitely are some serious break-ins around, as chronicled in this somewhat disturbing article published in late April by citizen journalism site The Citizen.
Mac Uni CIO on Apple, Android tablets and IT life
Local Apple forum MacTalk has just published an extensive podcast interview with Macquarie University chief information officer Marc Bailey, which we commend to your attention.
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.
NBN Co chair quits, says AFR
Last night the Financial Review reported that NBN Co chairman Harrison Young (pictured) was planning to quit as the company's chairman, with current board member Siobhan McKenna to step into his place.
Is the Coalition’s Quigley obsession a ‘McCarthyist witch hunt’?
It’s time to let this issue lie … before the Coalition MPs and senators involved disgrace their own names any further, and Australia’s parliament starts earning itself an international reputation that it will become increasingly ashamed of.
As expected, Mailes to lead Vic Govt IT
As has been widely known inside the Victorian Government for a while now, former South Australian whole of government chief information officer Grantly Mailes has been appointed to a permanent role as Victoria's first chief technology advocate -- a new style of role recommended in the state's new ICT strategy which Mailes coordinated.
Turnbull stacks NBN Review with Telstra cronies
You can find my thoughts on Justin Milne and other recent NBN appointments under the new Coalition Federal Government in a piece published on Delimiter 2.0 this morning that I titled 'Stacking the deck: NBN Review filled with Turnbull cronies'.
Qantas’ Amazon website cloud move will save it $30m
Over the past several years it has become a very common story to see major organisations shifting IT infrastructure, particularly their public-facing websites, into cloud computing facilities. Major banks have done it. Government departments have done it. And now, as has been outlined in a slew of articles over the past week, has Qantas -- well, at least it's in the throes of the migration.
Google CFO woos Gillard with Glasses
What would you do if you were a multinational technology vendor who the Federal Government was currently chasing over “double Dutch sandwich” tax avoidance techniques which could have cost Australia hundreds of millions of dollars? You’d probably dispatch your global chief financial officer with some hot new technology to hold private briefings with Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Pushed for Coalition contingency plan, NBN Co reveals rollout costs
A growing amount of information on the costs of NBN Co’s fibre-to-the-premise (FttP) rollout may have brought some long-wanted clarity to the national broadband network (NBN) debate, but calls by NBN joint parliamentary committee chair Rob Oakeshott for a revised NBN Co corporate plan – to account for potential changes due to the election of a Coalition government and implementation of that party’s alternative NBN – confirm the government is facing increased scrutiny as observers push for further transparency in the pre-election NBN debate.
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.
Turnbull’s NBN mess ‘escaping public scrutiny’
Controversial commentator Van Badham has not been dismayed by having her NBN questions shut down live on Q&A last week by host Tony Jones and has penned a fiery piece slamming Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull's 'Multi-Technology Mix' vision and the poor media coverage of it.
Quigley + Beaufret must be guilty … right? Right?
In the latest issue of what we are speedily coming to refer to as the “NBN, OMG, WTF, BBQ” files, Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham has revealed that NBN Co chief Mike Quigley and CFO Jean-Pascal Beaufret didn’t mention during their hiring process that their former employer Alcatel-Lucent was being investigated by the US securities regulator … for stuff they had nothing to do with.
NSW Education SAP ERP project turning from bad into Queensland Health-style “complete disaster”
Here at Delimiter we've been tracking the NSW Department of Education and Communities' long-running Learning Management and Business Reform project for quite a few years already. And the project just keeps on going from bad to worse, by all appearances.
Kogan puts company up for sale
Depending on what you choose to believe, a report published by the Financial Review this morning suggests that either Ruslan Kogan may have run out of energy and is looking to take a break or is looking to take his business to the next stage with a decent slab of capital injection.
What should the ACCC’s role be in guiding infrastructure spending?
Those of you who have been in the industry for some time may recall that the national competition regulator played a substantial role in the previous Labor Government deciding to restructure the telecommunications sector through implementing an all-fibre model for its National Broadband Network project. This week, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull made a few somewhat controversial comments about the ACCC's historical role in the situation.
Fletcher takes a big fat swing at 4G auction
This morning, it appears, it's Liberal MP and former Optus executive Paul Fletcher's turn to whale on the Government's wireless spectrum auction, which Vodafone has already deserted and which Optus thinks is way too expensive.
Bitcoin miner lists on ASX
If you needed any further indication that we now live in the science fiction future long ago mapped out for us by visionary authors, then look no further. News arrived this week that an Australian digital currency company and Bitcoin mining concern, digitalBTC, has listed on the Australian Stock Exchange through a backdoor listing.
Turnbull wants whole Cabinet to use Slack
We knew that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a technophile, but I suspect many of us didn't quite appreciate how focused on technology the Member for Wentworth truly is.
ISP and content industries ask Govt to place piracy code on ice
Remember that pesky Internet piracy industry code? The one that Attorney-General George Brandis and then-Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull asked the ISP and content industries to develop, on pain of having one developed for them? Well, it appears as though the code has more or less been permanently shelved at this point.
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.
Parliament runs out of money for Win7 rollout
In an exchange in a Senate Estimates hearing yesterday (PDF transcript here), DPS secretary Carol Mills revealed the department didn’t have enough money to complete the rollout to Windows 7 it has been working on.
More criticism of the ACS
Well-known IT industry figure Tony Healy adds to Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie's criticism of the Australian Computer Society.
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.
Readershop will import new Kindles
Remember how that big old nasty Amazon decided not to launch its new Kindle tablet and e-reader models in Australia, apart from the lowest-end model. Well, don’t worry Australia, local ereader retailer Readershop‘s got your back, and will be importing the new models.
Telstra wants to buy Leighton assets
According to the Financial Review, Telstra's going after some of the telco-related assets which Leighton Holdings recently put on the block.
Turnbull continues to attract IT industry bile
Not since Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was strongly pushing the Internet filter project several years ago have I seen this level of frustration with a politician regarding a technology policy.
Is this Mike Quigley’s car?
This little gem was spotted by Twitterer Wade Roberts, cruising around Castle Hill, Sydney. We’re not sure at this point whether it belongs to NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley (actually, we’re pretty sure it doesn’t, but one can dream!), although after all, Castle Hill isn’t that far from Quigley’s place in Mosman.
We’re “a laughing stock” on R18+ games, says Minister
Just when you thought it was safe to assume that politicians didn’t really understand the debate around the need for an R18+ classification for video games, one pops his head up to disabuse us of the notion. Today’s Labor hero is Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor.
Australia’s second dot com boom is here
If you've been paying attention to Australia's technology startup sector recently, you might have noticed that it's absolutely booming. Tens of millions of dollars are being ploughed into new startups, incubators and co-working spaces are popping up all over the place, and successful startups like Freelancer.com are considering massive stock market listings.
Why the NBN needs a safe pair of hands
When I think about the future of the National Broadband Network project, what mainly concerns me is that whoever is in charge of the initiative keeps it moving forward, keeps it on track and delivers better broadband to all Australians within the next decade.
ASG picks up WA IT services work
Nice work if you can get it. Perth-headquartered IT services outfit has revealed several major new tranches of IT services work over the past several weeks that is putting it in good stead with the Western Australian State Government.
Uber’s ride-sharing: Just the tip of the iceberg for Australia’s emerging ‘sharing economy’
Uber's new 'ride-sharing' service has caused an uproar in Australia's tightly controlled taxi industry. However, the truth is that this innovative offering is just the tip of the iceberg for a whole raft of 'person to person' services shortly to launch in Australia, collectively known as the emerging 'sharing economy'.
CSIRO still running Windows 98, NT
In an otherwise unrelated article on the organisation's adoption of Internet Protocol version 6, an article published by ZDNet.com.au yesterday revealed that Australia's peak scientific research agency was still running some copies of Windows 98 and NT4.
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 ;)
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.
Apple win doesn’t apply to Australia: Samsung
Wondering if Apple's billion-dollar patents victory in the US against Korean consumer electronics rival Samsung will have any impact on the Australian market? Well, it was always unlikely, given the differing legal jurisdictions. But now we have an official answer from Samsung itself.
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.
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.
#NatSecInquiry may not land before election
The Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security's report on the package of National Security Inquiry reforms has already been delayed to the extent that it is unlikely that any associated legislation will reach Parliament before the next Federal Election.
Coles is yet another complex cloud case study
We’ve been seeing some very interesting moves from retail giant Coles over the past several years with respect to cloud computing and software as a service adoption. Nothing revolutionary, but solid moves nonetheless.
Core banking overhaul is a false dichotomy
The CBA has been on a high-spending tech roadmap for the past decade — first with the CommSee project, and now with its core overhaul. But then, it needed to — it probably had the most archaic systems of any bank to start with. And why should all of the other banks play follow the leader if there are bigger problems that need to be solved?
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.
CommBank CIO praises “rich” Mac interface
The favoured tool of chief information officers everywhere has long been their study ThinkPads, but it looks like Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief information officer Michael Harte might be a bit of an Apple fan.
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.
ATO suffers minor IT security breach
We’re constantly hearing more and more about how “cyber” security is the next big bad, but concrete examples of how Australian Government infrastructure has been broken into are still thin on the ground. One incident to pop up last week has been what appears to be a relatively minor breach of an Australian Taxation Office portal through the logins of a number of tax agents.
Did Apple shift $9bn of profits out of Australia?
The Financial Review newspaper reports that Apple has shifted some $9 billion in profits out of Australia, avoiding a normal tax situation being applied to them.
12 months on, Victoria Police still has no CIO
12 months on from the departure of its then-chief information officer Michael Vanderheide to lead Victorian IT shared services agency CenITex, Victoria Police still has not appointed a permanent CIO to lead its extremely troubled IT operations.
Minority report: Internet ruminations with Senator Ludlam
Allow me to direct readers to the blog of Greens Communications Spokesperson and Senator Scott Ludlam, which has recently re-awoken into vivid life after a period of long dormancy. Yesterday the erudite Senator published a long rumination on all matters NBN, media and the Internet in general.
Telstra cuts 1,100 ops jobs
Is Telstra ever not cutting jobs in one division or another? The company seems to go through a purge every few six months or so, at least in my decade-long tenure as a technology journalist. The latest cuts were announced this week.
iiNet pulls out of anti-piracy scheme
Remember how a coalition of most of Australia’s major ISPs proposed a scheme about a year ago which would see Australians issued with warning and educational notices if they were caught pirating content online? The one which could have seen users’ details handed over to the copyright lobby with a subpoena? Well, it’s looking increasingly like the scheme is dead in the water.
Defence kicks off mammoth ERP transformation program
Those of you who got too deep, too early into the silly season around Christmas time may have missed the fact that the Department of Defence has taken a strong step forward in the mammoth ERP consolidation program known as "Defence Insight".
NT gives every police officer an iPad
The Northern Territory has reportedly confirmed plans to deploy Apple iPads to all of its frontline officers, in the latest local wide-scale deployment of tablet technology in a police force.
Google publishes book on Aussie innovation
Google Australia has published a new 47 page book. Dubbed 'Australia's Innovation Generation' and part of the search giant's Start with Code campaign, the book chronicles the stories of ten innovative Australian entrepreneurs, including high-fliers such as Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes and entrepreneur-turned-investor Niki Scevak.
Wireless not the NBN killer after all?
Let's say it again kids: Fixed and wireless broadband are complementary; one is not a replacement for the other.
Windows 8 sales disappointing in Australia
It won't come as a surprise to many, given its drastically altered user interface and mixed reviews, but the news is already bad for Microsoft's new flagship operating system Windows 8 in Australia.
Crystal ball gazing? Politics? AFR claims NBN Co will miss 2014 targets
Just how far out ahead is NBN Co able to predict the progress of its network rollout? Quite far, according to the Financial Review newspaper, which this morning published a front page article claiming it had seen internal projections that already stated NBN Co would miss its June 2014 rollout targets.
Huge surprise: FTTN trials already delayed
Well, we knew it was coming. The extensive delays suffered by NBN Co during its rollout under the previous Labor administration are starting to hit the project under the Coalition as well. Last week it was revealed that NBN Co's new deal with Telstra may not be inked until the end of 2014. And later on in the week ZDNet confirmed that NBN Co's trials of the Coalition's preferred Fibre to the Node technology have also been delayed. Surprise!
Good guy Gates on the NBN
Good guy Gates on the National Broadband Network.
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.
Airbnb officially launches in Australia
A quick search of accommodation crowdsourcing website Airbnb reveals that it’s been operating in Australia for a while (or at least taking bookings and accommodation advertisements from Australians), but the US-based startup hasn’t previously had an official presence Down Under. Until now.
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.
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.
Pay protest: NBN contractor rips out new pipes
According to The Australian newspaper, a sub-contractor for NBN construction firm Syntheo has taken a rather unusual step after Syntheo didn't come through with his annointed pay packet.
Apple’s iCloud: Another offshore regulatory headache?
We can't help but wonder whether Apple has just created a fistful of headaches for large Australian organisations with its broader iCloud service, which allows users to synch office documents, calendar, mail and contacts online.
Stephen Conroy trawls Whirlpool threads
Think your fevered rantings on Australia's technology forum of forums, Whirlpool, are private and just among mates? Think again. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has admitted he is addicted to trawling threads on the site for the latest posts about his pet project, the National Broadband Network.
Watch this space
Over the next two days (today and Thursday), Delimiter will be on a publishing hiatus, while we work on a substantial other project behind the scenes, entitled Delimiter 2.0. If really important news breaks, then we will cover it, but for this two day period most of our energies will be going towards a separate project.
Corrosion drastically impacts BT FTTN speed
If BT's rollout in the UK is any indication, fibre to the node may not be the perfect broadband solution it has been hyped up to be.
Office 365 switch may hit BPOS die-hards
Are you a customer of Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite who hasn't yet confirmed your intention to upgrade to the new Office 365 paradigm? Well, reality check: You don't have much time to make the change before BPOS is switched off.
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.
Is $80,000 the new IT starting salary?
Technology salaries have always been pretty decent if you’ve got the right qualifications (think Oracle, Cisco, high-end Microsoft etc), but have they really hit the heights of $80,000 a year being standard for a graduate?
iiProblem?
iiProblem?
Vodafone gets HD voice
Straight from the Vodafone catch-up files comes the news that the telco has finally gotten a service to market which the nation's biggest telco Telstra launched back in June 2011.
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.
Stephen Conroy wishes you Merry Christmas
Yes, the above is a Christmas card sent by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy to Delimiter. It was addressed to "Ms Renai LeMay" (oops), but we choose to believe that it expressed sentiments by the Minister not to me personally, but to the Delimiter community as a whole, as the site's strength is not in one person's voice, but in the many.
Australia flooded with cheap Android tablets again
Interested in buying one of the new flock of incoming smaller Android tablets from the likes of HP, ASUS and Kogan? Or is it all a bit meh?
Brisbane City Council loses CIO Brant
Brisbane City Council chief information officer Nicholas Brant is to leave the organisation, right as Brisbane, the largest council organisation in Australia is in the middle of several major technology initiatives, including offshoring a substantial number of IT roles, shifting some work into the cloud and spending $353 million on a comprehensive, SAP-based businesses administration system.
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.
Slow day at Delimiter
Hi everyone, just a quick note that Delimiter will be having a slow day today (Friday). It's been a very busy period recently and I need to slow down for a day and take stock of our editorial coverage and administration and plan for what's next.
AUSTRAC tracks every AUD-Bitcoin conversion
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) admitted in a Senate Estimates session in Canberra this week that it is literally tracking every conversion between Bitcoins and Australian dollars. Wow. Talk about privacy-invasive.
Westpac dumps desk phones for Samsung Android mobiles
The era of troublesome desk phones tied to physical locations is gradually coming to an end in many workplaces, with mobile phones becoming increasingly popular as organisations' main method of voice telecommunications. But some groups are more advanced than others when it comes to adoption of the trend. One of those is Westpac.
Optus CEO’s VHA grudge match
Oh dear. It looks as if Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan took VHA chief Nigel Dews' 2009 claim that the merged Hutchison/Vodafone entity could become number two in mobiles a little seriously.
You can’t actually buy Windows 8 in Australia [Update: Well, kind of]
Windows 8 has launched in Australia. But you can't actually buy fully boxed copies of it locally. No, really.
FTTP too hard: Informa analyst backs Coalition
Informa senior analyst Tony Brown backs the Coalition's Fibre to the Node vision for the National Broadband Network.
The definition of irony …
The definition of irony is when you work for Telstra BigPond and rock up on Internode MD Simon Hackett's doorstep trying to sell him a broadband connection.
32 years later, CGU replaces insurance IT platform
Think core banking platforms last a long time? Check out the gray hairs and wrinkles on the positively ancient insurance IT system which CGU is still running. This thing is so old it should be code-named 'Methuselah'.
Woolworths dumps BlackBerrys for iPhones
This morning The Australian newspaper reported (we recommend you click here for the full article) that BlackBerry is completely out and iPhone in at the retailer.
Hills dumped $18m ERP/CRM rollout for Salesforce.com
According to a blog post published by Salesforce.com today, one of Ted Pretty’s first moves upon taking up managing director role at iconic Australian brand Hills in 2012 was to halt an expensive traditional business software project and call Salesforce.com instead.
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.
Wanted: Delimiter 2.0 columnists
I am currently seeking regular columnists for Delimiter 2.0. You'll need to be able to write opinion/analysis pieces of a minimum of 1,500 words, on hot topics in Australia's technology scene. You'll need to use references to argue your case and have a broad understanding of the current dynamics of the industry.
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.
NSW Govt blocks another transport app
The Sydney Morning Herald reports, and his own website backs up, that local developer Ben Hosken’s bus timetabling app has been put on ice after the NSW Government withdrew the data it had made available … after his app proved a little too popular.
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.
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.
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.
802.11ac to wire up your garage datacentre? Why not?
Fascinating blog post this week from MacTalk founder and all-round geek Anthony Agius, who chronicles his attempts to use two 802.11ac routers to link his new garage-based server farm to his house network.
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.
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.
Dogecoin co-founder an interesting Sydney chap
If you follow the crypto-currency scene (think Bitcoin and its many imitators), you might have noticed that the co-founder of one of the more outlandish currencies, Dogecoin, is an Australian. Jackson Palmer is a product marketing manager at Adobe, is based in Sydney, and is one of the key figures in the development of the good Doge. And, if you read this excellent online interview with Palmer produced by new Australian tech media outlet Techly, you'll find that he's also a man of many interesting opinions.
Does Australia have “cyber space weapons”?
Oh dear. The ABC’s Chris Uhlmann might be a fantastic political reporter, but there’s no doubt he’s a bit out of his depth when reporting on technology matters, as evidenced by a fascinating conversation he held yesterday on ABC News 24 with Defence Minister Stephen Smith. The topic: How the US and Australia are working together on cyber-security matters.
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.
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.
Delimiter Membership Christmas special: 15% off (limited stock of 30)
I just wanted to publish a quick post to let readers know that we have just launched a brief Christmas discount special on Delimiter site Memberships. Normally they cost $129, but we're taking 15 percent off for a brief window this month, bringing the cost down to $109.65.
Does Telstra have a million 4G devices or not?
Does Telstra have a million 4G devices on its Next G network or not? It depends who you ask, apparently.
Toshiba Chromebooks hit Australia
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has announced its Chromebook laptops are available in Australia. Announced at CES 2014 in Las Vegas earlier this month, the devices ship with a 13.3" display and run Google's Chrome OS operating system. Australian recommended retail price will be $399.
Handy infographic of Telstra’s NBN deal
Confused about what Telstra's $11 billion deal with NBN Co means? You're not alone. It's a complex agreement which took the best part of several years to develop. Happily, NBN Co has provided us with this handy infographic to clear it all up. We hope it all makes sense now.
Gary Gray promises to release Reinecke report
blog We've been fairly harsh (sorry!) on the Australian Government Information Management Office in the past, although we're quite fond of first assistant secretary...
Can we believe the Galaxy Nexus rumour mill?
Will Samsung's hyped Galaxy Nexus smartphone launch through Optus in late December? It's doubtful.
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.
Lotus position: ABS a “happy Notes camper”
We couldn't help but laugh when we read this excellent interview with Australian Bureau of Statistics chief information officer Patrick Hadley, describing the agency's ongoing commitment to IBM's Lotus Notes/Domino platform as part of its recently released and wide-ranging ICT strategy.
It’s on: Husic takes the NBN fight to Turnbull
To those of you who have been spoiling to see a head-on debate between charismatic Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and young gun Labor MP Ed Husic, following the latter's appointment under Kevin Rudd as Parliamentary Secretary for Broadband, you need wait no longer.