Infrastructure Dept signs ASG for ICT services again
If you were working in Federal Government ICT circles back in 2008, you may recall that the then-Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government signed a $30 million deal (PDF) with local IT services group ASP for a comprehensive range of services ranging from desktop support to servers, laptops, printers and more. Well, news arrived this week that the Department is so happy with ASG — after seven years — that it has re-signed the contract.
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.
Congrats to retiring UWS CIO Mick Houlahan
blog Great piece over at CIO, where journalist James Hutchinson chronicles the story of one of the old warhorses of Australia's chief information officer...
“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.
Taxi app goCatch picks up $3m investment; Uber offers ‘free’ week in Sydney
Uber this week announced a somewhat-free week in Sydney, allowing users up to $60 worth of credit on its service. Meanwhile the service which is emerging as its main local competitor, goCatch, just pulled in a cool $3 million in venture capital.
The AFR turns on Turnbull’s MTM over $800m Optus HFC issue
Could the mainstream media tide be turning against Turnbull when it comes to the NBN? Andrew Bolt has already expressed his reservations. It will be interesting to see if the AFR continues in this line of criticism of the Prime Minister over his handling of Australia’s largest ever infrastructure project.
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.
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.
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
Why did Visy buck Telstra for Google Apps?
Fascinating news arrives from the Australian today that packaging company Visy has ditched its existing Microsoft email platform and migrated to Google Apps.
Delimiter needs you: Help convince Conroy to open up about tech policy
In which I request the help of Delimiter's readership in convincing former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy to speak to me about technology policy.
A quick update on Delimiter’s changing use of social media
When I first started publishing Delimiter back in January 2010, the Internet was quite a bit simpler. Fast forward more than five years and things are obviously drastically different. The Internet is a much more active, dynamic, fluidly updated place, and Delimiter has changed with the times.
Delimiter is slowing down for Christmas
Thanks for a great 2012, here's looking forward to a great holiday season, and let's make 2013 even bigger!
HP brings SAP’s hosted HANA on-shore
SAP and HP announced this morning that they would be provided HANA as a service, and (for once), Australia is the first location globally to be able to access it.
After a decade, ATO finally launches Mac e-tax
Long-time Australian users of Apple's flagship Macintosh line will be rapt with the news that the Australian Taxation Office has finally launched a version of its e-tax electronic tax return lodgement software which works on Mac OS X.
Aussie Google store hobbled for Nexus 7 launch
We shouldn't have to find out weeks after the Google Nexus 7 is unveiled through investigative work by bloggers that Google's latest tablet will be hobbled in Australia. Google should be more up-front about this kind of stuff.
Legacy health software lands SA Govt in court
In which the South Australian Government comes up with complex legal arguments as to why it should be able to continue to use a 1980's software package.
NSW Health unleashes mammoth email consolidation
If you follow technology news relating to Australian governments, you can't help but laugh sometimes; because if you didn't, you'd cry at the irony of it all.
Wollongong club group ditches email
Matt O’Hara, a club owner in Wollongong, has largely gotten rid of email for good, and is reportedly happier for it.
Turnbull to restore some NICTA/Data61 funding a year after it was chopped
According to Financial Review correspondent Phillip Coorey — currently travelling with now Prime Minister Turnbull on an extensive overseas trip stopping off at Germany — Turnbull is set to reinstate at least some of the funding chopped from NICTA.
$5 per day flat rate: Vodafone revamps global roaming options
Ever been hit with a massive global roaming bill? Vodafone's got your back. The telco this morning announced that it would be implementing a flat $5 per day fee for customers using their mobiles in popular international destinations such as the UK, US and New Zealand.
Westpac follows CBA with cardless ATM access
Remember how in the middle of last week, the Commonwealth Bank announced a raft of measures to reform mobile access to its infrastructure, including cardless access to ATM machines? Well, it appears the competition was watching. Barely had CommBank gotten its announcement out of the door when Westpac followed.
FoI activists mock Conroy’s big red button
Some of the more high-profile members of Australia’s Internet community are currently waging something of a war against Stephen Conroy's big red cybersafety button through filing Freedom of Information requests about it, presumably to demonstrate the Government’s ineptitude in implementing the project.
Thank you for the platitudes, Sir Berners-Lee
Why doesn't Australia have enough confidence in ourselves without these father figures looking on? I just don't know.
Does the MTM CBN model place “wholesale-only” at risk?
Australian telecommunications analyst Paul Budde has penned an extensive blog post discussing the need for the Coalition's Broadband Network (CBN) to remain on a 'wholesale-only' basis, despite the fact that the network's architecture is set to radically change due to the 'Multi-Technology Mix' model proposed by NBN Co.
Govt seeks private/public big data proposals
Interested in working with the Federal Government's massive datasets? Got a knack for making meaningful information out of huge piles of numbers and letters? I've got some good news for you. The Australian Government Information Management Office is looking for proposals for joint projects between the public and private sector that will leverage big data technologies.
This is how Google changes country MDs
Other companies' Australian managing directors exit gracefully, in a carefully stage-managed process which sees a replacement privately sourced almost before the incumbent leaves. But not Google. Google just dumps a new job ad on its country page as the local MD leaves the country.
Delimiter’s journey is coming to a natural end
Today I write to let the Delimiter community know two things: Firstly, Delimiter will cease publishing new articles on Friday 5th July. And secondly, I have a new job.
Bankwest in massive Windows 8 rollout
Large Windows 8 rollouts have been thin on the ground in Australia since Microsoft released its newest operating system last year, but there have been a handful exposed -- and more are apparently coming. This morning iTNews adds Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Bankwest to the list.
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.
Solar Movie is the content industry’s first site blocking target
As revealed by the Sydney Morning Herald and a number of other media this morning, the content industry's first target will be Solar Movie.
NBN chair seeks Quigley replacement?
Indications continue to firm up that NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley is not long for the position, despite the pivotal role he has played in getting the NBN -- Australia's largest-ever infrastructure project -- off the ground.
ATO still struggling with WinXP upgrade
Remember how in October 2011 the Australian Taxation Office revealed that it would finally ditch Microsoft’s legacy Windows XP operating system and adopt Windows 7? Yeah, not so much.
Facebook, iPhone mafia games, cloud computing: Enemies of the state?
There is absolutely no reason why, in 2010, Australia's police should be looking at Facebook, iPhone mafia games and even cloud computing as if these things are new, strange or hard to understand.
Gen-i Australia may completely shut down
You couldn’t exactly say that the Australian division of IT services company Gen-i was in rude health, with the company revealing in mid-March that it would sack most of its staff and stop competing for most local contracts, as it shifted focus to only serving Trans-Tasman contracts as per the instructions of its parent Telecom New Zealand. However, according to CRN, things may be even more dire
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 ;)
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.
Assistant Minister Roy pitches innovation policy ‘hackathon’
If you follow Australia's technology startup scene at all, you are probably aware of the 'Startup Weekend' or 'hackathon' events that are regularly held across the country. It's a lot of fun and a great way to get involved in the tech startup community. So much fun, apparently, that the newly minted Assistant Minister for Innovation, Wyatt Roy, wants to bring the concept to the public policy debate over innovation.
IBM Australia to cut 1,000 staff, reports ABC
I’d like to see a little more transparency from IBM with respect to this issue. Of course IBM is entitled to shift around staff and re-balance its headcount. But when we’re talking about redundancies as high as 1,000 workers, large companies such as IBM have a responsibility to their customers, to their staff and to their shareholders to let a little more information out of the kimono. 1,000 staff is not 100. And it would be ethical of IBM to let us know a little more about what’s going on here.
Rod Vawdrey is the only non-Japanese Fujitsu exec
We knew Japanese technology giant Fujitsu was dominated by ... well, Japanese, but we didn't quite know how dominated. Well, now we do.
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.
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'.
‘Gross abuse of power’: IPA columnist condemns ASIC filtering
It seems that the move by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to unilaterally decide to start blocking websites it deems to have illegal material has outraged basically everyone with any interest in the Internet in Australia. Perhaps one of the most outraged is Chris Berg, a research fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs, a long-time advocate for free speech, and, dare we say it, a thorn in the side of powerful government authorities exceeding their mandate.
Aussie cloud not a utility yet: Defence CIO
In this feature article published in the Financial Review’s MIS Magazine, Defence chief information officer Greg Farr makes it clear he believes the Australian cloud is “a long way away” from looking anything like its US counterpart:
Breakfast with the (new media) stars
it’s not every day you get to see me or anyone else who contributes to Delimiter in real life — normally we’re sequestered in our offices frantically typing away at our computers :) But on the morning of Thursday November 25th (yes, the morning of our Christmas Party), you’ll get that chance.
Does Yammer still have momentum in Australia?
I’m not sure where corporate social networking is at the moment in Australia, but I think it’s fair to say, at a minimum, that Yammer appears to have lost a little of its momentum in the area. Perhaps the first rollout we’ve seen in a while comes in news from iTNews today with regard to Adelaide City Council.
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.
[ad] Today’s Delimiter webinar has been postponed
As you may recall, Delimiter was planning to hold a webinar this morning on transitioning to Office 365. This is just a quick email to let you know that, due to events beyond our control, the webinar has been postponed for a couple of weeks. It's unfortunate -- I was looking forward to it, and we have some great content.
Apple Australia’s tiny tax bill “staggering”: Husic
Apple made more than a billion dollars more revenue from Australia over the year to the end of September 2012, but it paid (according to its financial statements) about $54 million less tax.
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.
Startmate startups incorporated in … Delaware?
Every so often you come across something in Australia’s technology sector which infuriates you because of its counter-intuitiveness. Today’s item is the news broken by Mahesh Sharma at ZDNet.com.au that local technology incubator Startmate has successfully advised its latest batch of companies to become incorporated in the state of Delaware in the US instead of in Australia.
Tax heat intensifies on Apple Australia
Given that Australia's Parliament is currently in the process of introducing laws that would force more taxation transparency on companies like Apple, and that governments in the US, UK and Australia are all now angrily demanding answers from companies such as Apple and Google on this issue, I suspect that we'll see some resolution of the tax situation with respect to these giant technology multinationals soon.
Assange’s mum confirms he will run for Senate
Julian Assange's mum has confirmed he will run for the Australian Senate in this year's Federal Election, claiming that he will be "awesome".
New Govt cloud computing strategy: Foggy, or healthy cumulus?
One could be forgiven for thinking that the word “cloud computing” is in vogue in Australian Governments at the moment.
Apple’s Australian tax is mainly on iTunes
Extensive analysis on the day of Apple's appearance before the IT price hike inquiry finds that the company's Australian markups are mainly on digital products sold through its iTunes store.
CIO gives top seven tips for cloud adoption
Excellent blog post here from Altium chief information officer Alan Perkins, who gives his top seven tips for the most important things to consider when moving enterprise IT services into the cloud.
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.
MacTalk founder’s Love Letter to the Mac
As you might have noticed, Apple is currently celebrating the 30th anniversary of the birth of the Macintosh. Anthony Agius, the founder of Australian Apple forum MacTalk and long-time Mac lover, has posted what he bills as "a love letter for the Mac" on his blog.
ABC tech reporter founds micro-transactions startup
Some of you may remember the name of Nick Ross, the editor of the ABC’s Technology & Games site who wrote several in-depth articles criticising the Coalition’s rival National Broadband Network project. Well, what you probably didn’t know is that Ross has also been spending a great deal of time and effort on a side project. Known as ‘Nanotransactions’, the project is micro-transaction technology which Ross hopes will “save high-quality journalism”.
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.
Bulletproof poaches Rackspace MD
Australian hosting company Bulletproof poaches the local country manager of international hosting giant Rackspace.
An insider’s look at Aussie app development
Australian iOS and Android app development house Shifty Jelly has published an extensive and heart-felt blog post detailing what it's really like to be an app developer in the cold, hard smartphone/tablet world.
Qld Health payroll gets another $384 million
Those of you who thought that the Queensland Health payroll debacle had gone away, think again. The LNP State Government landed its annual budget this week, and included in it is a massive dollop of change for the ailing project, which continues to bedevil the department and the State Government at large, as well as the politicians and partners involved.
Following CenITex: NSW may outsource ServiceFirst functions
The NSW Government has finally confirmed it is looking to follow Victoria with CenITex and may outsource key chunks of the IT shared services work being done by ServiceFirst and Businesslink.
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.
Australia has fastest 4G speeds in world
Impressed by the 4G speeds offered by your provider, whether it's Telstra, Optus or Vodafone? You should be. According to a new study of 4G/LTE mobile speeds around the world, Australia has the fastest average speeds in the world.
New 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.
“Nightmare scenario”: Vodafone reveals extensive Govt wiretapping
If you thought you had a solid grip on just how extensive Government surveillance of our electronic communications systems was, think again. The revelations just keep coming. Late last week mobile telco Vodafone revealed an extensive bucket list of surveillance measures which are used by governments in dozens of countries it operates in — including Australia — to retrieve information about its customers.
99designs co-founder directly siphoning Aussie IT talent to Silicon Valley
Heard the term "Australian brain-drain"? You're probably not going to see a more blatant attempt at it than this.
Jim Hassell quits NBN Co
One of the most visible NBN Co executives over the past several years has been the company's Head of Product Development and Industry Relations, Jim Hassell. And now, just two and a half years after he joined the company, he's leaving.
Qld towns build their own goddamn NBN
They weren't getting much joy from the Federal Government's National Broadband Network and were only slated to receive satellite services under the plan, so half a dozen Queensland towns have reportedly decided to build their own fibre backhaul network connecting the region to the main NBN infrastructure.
Rumours swirl around ANZ Indian IT sale
According to the Hindu Business Line, one of the country’s main business papers, top-tier Australian bank ANZ may be looking to sell its Bangalore operations to Indian IT outsourcer Wipro, which has long had a relationship with ANZ.
Introducing Australia’s (eventual) game classification system
Those of you with a long memory will recall that Australia’s video game classification systems hasn’t precisely always been without controversy. Well, in what looks like a good move on the surface, Australia appears set to join a new international system for video game classification.
Kogan buckles to Apple Galaxy Tab threat
The Sydney Morning Herald reports today that Kogan has been caught up in the ongoing lawsuit between Apple and Samsung over the Korean electronics giant's supposed iPad look-alike, the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
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.
Julie Bishop wants to store Australian passports in “the cloud”
With Malcolm Turnbull's ascension to the Prime Ministership, sometimes your writer feels as though the whole Federal Government has gone technology-mad. It's a good feeling -- so much is being discussed at high levels that the technology sector has been trying to get on the table for years -- but things are also getting deeply, deeply weird.
Ten’s The Project whacks Turnbull with ABC article
The young presenters of Ten's The Project pointedly question Malcolm Turnbull about the Coalition's NBN plans, using information sourced directly from Nick Ross' controversial ABC article on the subject to do so.
Low Orbit Ion Cannon, my ass
From the Sydney Morning Herald comes news of a new weapon which the angry hordes (including one Sydneysider) are deploying to make war on the infidel websites of PayPal, Visa and Mastercard for dumping support for rogue internet agent WikiLeaks.
Shoes of Prey outs itself as a Google Apps fan
We thought we’d point readers to this blog post on the blog of Google Australia by Mike Knapp, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Sydney-based ecommerce startup Shoes of Prey, which has achieved notoriety over the past few years for its innovative site, which allows women to design and order their own shoes, getting around the normal retail grind. In the blog, Knapp outs Shoes of Prey (which has around 40 staff) as a long-time Google Apps user.
Retail POS startup Kounta kicks off investment
We're seeing a great deal of investment in Australian technology startups at the moment. After years in the wilderness after the dot com crash, the local funding scene appears to be running hot. The latest cab off the rank is point of sale startup Kounta, which last week announced it had kicked off its first venture round, with Reckon founder greg Wilkinson kicking in an unspecified amount and joining Kounta's board.
NBN Co’s constant network launches: Breaching the Caretaker Conventions?
Over the past week, the National Broadband Network Company has held no less than five launch events to mark the switch-on of its fibre network infrastructure in Queensland and Western Sydney, locations which will be critical to the Australian Labor Party if it is to retain power in the upcoming Federal Election. All of the events have been dominated by the attendance of Labor politicians, and have been broadly interpreted by the media as being election campaign events. NBN Co claims the events are just business as usual, but even if that's true, Labor is still using them to gain a massive election boost.
PM Gillard meets global Huawei chair
Julia Gillard meets with Huawei's global chair during a visit to China.
Another great Aussie IT company to go overseas? CSC makes offer for UXC
I personally feel it would be a real shame to see UXC snapped up by CSC. UXC is a strong Australian business, with its Red Rock, Oxygen, Connect, Telsyte and other brands being very well-known in Australia. Of course, CSC would be likely to keep most of its staff intact. But the Australian IT services market would feel a lot less ... Australian without UXC existing on its own.
NBN? Bah, we’ve got mobile phones, says Andrews
We couldn’t help but be perplexed by this blog post on The Punch by Liberal MP and Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services Kevin Andrews, which appears to imply that Australia doesn’t need the National Broadband Network, because of the strong adoption of mobile phones.
Turnbull should welcome Quigley review: Budde
We were a little bit surprised when Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbul abjectly rejected a move by NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley last week to back an independent industry investigation into the merits of various high-speed broadband technologies. And, it appears we're not the only ones to think that way.
Vodafone achieves 67Mbps in 4G tests
We want to just briefly highlight the fact that ailing mobile telco Vodafone has finally kicked off trials of its new 4G network and is achieving top-range speeds of up to 67Mbps and upload speeds of up to 30Mbps.
Amazon UPS design at fault in Sydney outage
As you may have noticed, Amazon Web Services is not precisely having a fantastic week in Australia. And now we know why and how.
Which department banned Yammer?
blog Our favourite local e-government specialist Craig Thomler has a fascinating post over on his blog about a Federal Government department which has recently...
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.
Startmate startups featured on TechCrunch
Let’s have a round of applause for the first round of Australian technology startups to be launched through the Y Combinator-style incubator Startmate created in 2010 by a number of former and current entrepreneurs and funding types.
Rejected: No Surface Pro for Australia, yet
Just a quick note that Microsoft has left Australia off the list of countries which will receive the Surface Pro tablet when it launches in February.
Three Australian corporate tablet case studies … and will the Surface boost adoption?
CRN has come to the rescue and has published a series of three case studies on the topic of tablet deployments from a number of different organisations.
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.
TPG repeats: We won’t implement voluntary filter
Well, we already knew that national broadband provider TPG wasn’t too keen on the idea of voluntarily filtering its customers’ Internet, courtesy of comments made by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy in late May this year. But now the company has come out in a bit more of a concrete way against the voluntary filter.
IBM and Queensland squabble in court over Health payroll disaster
Remember that massive, billion-dollar payroll IT systems disaster at Queensland Health? Remember how the prime contractor IBM disavowed all responsibility for it? And how the Queensland Government subsequently sued the company and banned IBM from any further work with its departments and agencies? Yeah, good times.
AGIMO releases Big Data discussion paper
When it comes to enterprise IT buzzwords, ‘Big Data’ is right up there at the moment, alongside cloud computing, BYOD and social networking. That’s why we’re sure a few of you will be interested to know that the Australian Government Information Management Office late last week released what it termed a Big Data strategy issues paper.
Defence brings massive IT services deal back to the market
The tender was put on ice some two years ago, as it was undertaking several other major IT purchasing efforts at the same time. However, iTnews reported today that the contract had been brought back.
Slow day ahead! Your mileage may vary
Apologies, but you're not going to see a lot of stories from Delimiter today. I'll be spending the rest of the day thinking and planning, with a view to making Delimiter better in future. In fact, there's been a fair bit of this going on this week in general.
iiNet threatens to ditch NBN altogether
In one of the more outlandish statements we've seen regarding the at-times fraught relationship between NBN Co and its bevy of retail ISPs (RSPs), the nation's number three fixed line telco iiNet has publicly threatened to walk away from its relationship with NBN Co, in a move which would mean NBN services would no longer be available through the telco.
Federal Govt cloud computing use is exploding
The Federal Government's adoption of cloud computing technologies has been quite a slow one. However, according to an article published this week by ZDNet, the situation may be drastically changing.
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.
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.
Five months later, Defence seeks new CTO
It’s clear that things move very slowly within the Federal Government. But taking five months to post an advertisement seeking a replacement for an executive who has publicly announced their departure seems like a little long. As first reported by iTNews, the Department of Defence has finally advertised the position of chief technology officer.
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?
iPad mini giveaway: The winner revealed
You may remember that in March Delimiter kicked off a reader giveaway. To enter to get a chance to win an Apple iPad mini tablet, you had to sign up to our new weekly newsletter before the beginning of May. Today, we’re happy to announce the winner! An iPad mini is currently on its way to Alan Heydon, a project manager in Western Australia. Congrats Alan! Enjoy your new iPad mini :)
Author John Birmingham quits eBook DRM
Australian author John Birmingham dumps eBook DRM.
BlackBerry CEO to hit Australia in March
Yesterday it was revealed BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins would bring his smile to Australia on Monday 18 March to launch the new BlackBerrys and share the happiness. Praise be.
HP Slate 7 to land in Australia shortly
If there's one thing we like more than hot new gadgets entering the Australian marketplace, it's inexpensive hot new gadgets, and this appears to be precisely what global tech giant HP is about to deliver with the Australian launch of its Slate 7 Android tablet.
Australia Post wants to be a major telco …
Industry newsletter Communications Day this morning revealed that Australia Post was planning a major push into telecommunications services, with Optus regulatory chief Maha Krishnapillai (who recently quit the company) joining to spearhead the effort.
50 awesome Australian female programmers
Over at Pollenizer, long-time startup industry figure Bronwen Clune has published a list of Australia's top 50 female programmers.
ABC hack protests anti-Islam interview
The ABC has confirmed that one of its websites has been hacked following the airing earlier this month of an interview held by Lateline with anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders.
Trinity setting the iPad pace in education
While we’re on the iPad — and don’t worry, there’s plenty of doubters out there; Jeff Waugh, we’re looking at you — we thought y’all might be interested in what Trinity College at Melbourne University is up to.
Atmail picks up $2m from Starfish
Anyone who still thinks there aren't sufficient funding options in Australia for startups had better take another look at that belief, because over the past year we've seen an absolute heap of decently sized early funding rounds for fast-growing local IT companies. Now there's one more to be added to the list -- email and collaboration company Atmail, which has picked up $2 million from Starfish Ventures.
Govt delays IT startup funding decisions
According to From Little Things, the Gillard Government is currently sitting on its hands with respect to decisions about supporting Australia's IT startup sector and hasn't responded to its own review in the area.
HP starts cutting Aussie staff; Caspari ascends
Well, that didn't take long. Just a couple of weeks after global technology giant HP revealed it would be cutting some 27,000 employees globally, the company's local cuts have started to surface.
Introducing a new Friday profile: Delimiter’s Friday CIO
When I think about the people that I personally most admire in Australia's technology sector, my thoughts usually go first to those working in chief information officer, IT director and IT manager positions. It's for these reasons that I'm planning to start a new regular profile for Delimiter.
NSW Police illegally hacks Facebook page
In a court case last week, it emerged that the NSW Police Force has had a ... less than legal relationship with the Facebook account of an individual who had been making fun of police officers online by posting extremely poorly doctored images of police Photoshopped with other images.
Merry Christmas from Malcolm Turnbull
Following on from yesterday’s Christmas card from the good Senator Stephen Conroy, we’ve now received a similar message of Yuletide cheer from his opposite, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Um … what? No open tender for Qld’s cloud email
Queensland IT Minister Ian Walker has been vocal about wanting to adopt a whole of government email platform based on cloud computing, rather than the internally-deployed approach that failed Queensland last time around. The only problem is, according to iTNews, now that the state has decided to progress with a cloud-based email platform, it's not doing so via open tender.
An Australia Day NBN joke
The following telecommunications-related joke was sent to us by a friend. It's unknown who wrote it, but we think Malcolm Turnbull, in particular, might find it amusing :)
Defence knocks HP out of datacentre deal
The Department of Defence's Centralised Processing contract has been out to market for a year, with IBM, HP and Lockheed Martin the players in contention. However, this week Defence knocked HP out of the running.
Ludlam a hot bachelor with “magnificent” hair
If you've been following the technology portfolio in politics for a while now, you'll know that we're pretty much spoilt for choice when it comes to the physical attractiveness of our representatives. Certain women of your writer's acquaintance have been heard to refer to Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull as "the Silver Fox", for instance, while Senator Kate Lundy has always been a favourite amongst the gentlemen. But now there's a new entrant onto the scene: Greens Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam.
The first pictures of our new Communications Minister gloriously holding a fibre cable have...
All glory to the Fibre to the Node cabinet.
Internet nasties lock out Aussies’ Apple devices
Own an Apple device, use the vendor's iCloud online synching service but haven't been able to get access to one or more of your devices this week? Congratulations: You've fallen prey to what are probably a bunch of Internet script kiddies attempting to ransom your data for a hefty fee. ZDNet has a solid local story on the phenomenon, which so far (weirdly) appears localised to Australia.
WA public transport agency downed by hack attempt
It appears that IT staff at Western Australia's Public Transport Authority had a rather different kind of weekend: One in which they descended into the hell of trying to clean out hackers from their IT systems.
Bill Clinton wants $50bn US NBN
Seems like it's not only Australian politicians who can get the NBN bug. We're a bit late to this party, but we thought it would be worth getting on the record that in late December, former US President and all-round good guy Bill Clinton jumped on the NBN train wholesale courtesy of a keynote speech at Dell's annual confab in Austin, Texas.
When good copper cable goes bad
Since we published our "worst of the worst" photo gallery of Telstra's copper telecommunications network several weeks ago, we've been receiving a constant drip stream of complaints and extra examples of poor quality areas of the network.
Leighton confirms telco business sale
You may recall that diversified contract and industrial group Leighton Holdings has been looking to sell its NextGen, Metronode and Infoplex telecommunications and technology businesses for some time. At one stage interested bidders apparently included Telstra, but as it turns out, a somewhat different organisation has bought them.
Govt ICT apprenticeships open
Spoiling for a career in IT in the public sector? You're in luck. The Federal Government has just opened its ICT apprenticeship and cadetship program again.
Windows XP virus takes down Royal Melbourne Hospital
You would think, you would really think, that pretty much every organisation Australia-wide would have gotten the picture by now that Windows XP is an outdated platform and needs to be replaced. But sadly this is not the case. From Victoria comes the news that the Royal Melbourne Hospital has had its operations knocked offline by a Windows XP virus.
NBN: Can’t we all just get along?
So far the National Broadband Network debate over the past several years since Malcolm Turnbull became Shadow Communications Minister has been broadly polite, with both sides rationally examining and critiquing each other’s policies in a calm manner, while engaging in a friendly rivalry about who has the best polic. Oh, wait, I’m wrong. It’s actually become a a bile-filled cesspit of misleading statements, public slander, irrelevancy and flat-out lies. How could I forget?
Does Australia need a cloud computing visionary?
On the blog of local cloud computing startup Ninefold, the company's managing director Peter James raises an interesting question -- does Australia need a cloud computing visionary to really push the nation's cloud computing journey forward?
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.
Defence finally allows staff iPhones, iPads
iOS is generally considered a very secure and modern mobile platform — certainly more secure than Android and a heap more modern and functional than BlackBerry’s various offerings. Yet it has taken five years for the Department of Defence to allow its staff to procure iOS devices.
An iPhone app will not fix Australia’s e-health woes
Hilarious news comes from the Federal Government’s flagship e-health conference in Melbourne this week, where Health Minister has revealed that part of Labor’s $466.7 million national e-health project will be spent on … an iPhone app for doctors.
Super funds botch major technology project
Sometimes it appears as though Australia's Federal and State Governments are the only ones botching major IT projects. And that makes sense, given the frequency of IT project failure in the public sector, and the public nature of the audit reports which examine them. But the private sector also has its failures, as the Financial Review chronicles this week with respect to a number of major superannuation funds.
Microsoft cuts Surface RT price by $170
File this in the category of predictable price cuts for poorly performing products. Microsoft, it was revealed overnight, has cut the price of its Surface RT tablet, which runs a cut-down version of Windows 8.
Huawei: Did the Coalition just play us all?
Is it really believable that Tony Abbott's formerly highly disciplined front bench spontaneously started debating the Huawei issue through the media, despite the fact that the Prime Minister has notoriously drawn all the strings of the media close to his chest? Or is there something more at work here -- a coordinated effort, designed to meet multiple, complex aims simultaneously?
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.
Govt CTO explains new role; with Lego
We're pleased that John Sheridan has published the complete text of a lengthy speech he recently gave explaining his new role as Australian Government chief technology officer. Plus, he does so using a stack of cool lego pictures and a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica. Really, what else could you want?
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.
Qld’s new IT Minister has zero IT experience
Following the resignation of Ros Bates last week, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has appointed Ian Walker to replace Bates as the state’s Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts. Did we mention that Walker appears to have no experience dealing with information technology, given his extensive background as a 35-year veteran of law firm Norton Rose?
Australian Bitcoin mining probably not worth it
You may recall that MacTalk founder and all-round geek Anthony Agius has been conducting something of an experiment to determine whether an Australian Bitcoin miner could make enough money to justify the practice. Well, the results are in: And the answer is: “Most likely not”.
Telstra’s Sensis sacks 648 staff
It seems like we’re always hearing about redundancies at Telstra’s directories and digital division Sensis. Last week it was half the division’s staff, this week the number has firmed at 648, according to an official Telstra media release issued this morning. Apparently the restructure is aimed at “digital growth”. Right.
ABC staffer goes for Bitcoin gold
We know the ABC is a public broadcaster and isn’t likely to be offering the highest salaries in the world, but this is ridiculous.
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.
#NatSecInquiry: Tracking Australians in real time
The ongoing National Security Inquiry has dislodged quite a few stones from the bottom of the paranoia well. One aspect that took my interest in particular is the relationship between data retention and mobile or cellular telephone data.
NBN a “horrible hoax”, says Turnbull
The claim by Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull that Labor’s National Broadband Network project will take 20 years and up to $100 billion has been pretty comprehensively debunked at this point, NBN Co’s latest rollout speed downgrades notwithstanding. However, the Earl of Wentworth continues to trot it out during his visits to small community meetings.
The theory of infinite Simon Hacketts
Over on Whirlpool, forum poster Garthy advances an interesting theory about why the iiNet buyout of Internode took place, applying mathematical rigour to the situation to come up with the terrifying (or maybe glorious, depending on which way you look at it) prospect that the event may have the practical effect of creating an infinite number of Simon Hacketts.
Police raid alleged Bitcoin founder’s home in Sydney: ATO investigation
This afternoon, The Guardian reported that police had raided the home of alleged Bitcoin creator Craig Steven Wright's home in Sydney on the basis of an investigation by the Australian Taxation Office.
When should you replace a server?
Over at AUTechHeads, our good friend and systems administrator Alan Lee muses about the choices faced by IT admins when a warranty expires on a server.
IT glitch takes down CityLink tunnels
Bad news this morning for Melbourne commuters, with a mysterious glitch at CityLink taking down the Burnley and Domain tunnels. Traffic apparently slowed to a crawl, to howls of protest.
4G faster than the NBN? I don’t think so
Today's dose of National Broadband Network-related FUD comes from the West Australian newspaper, which has done some testing of Telstra's 4G mobile broadband network in Perth and come to the conclusion that "Wireless 4G leaves NBN in its wake". Riiiiight.
The ATO raided alleged Bitcoin ‘billionaire’ over a paltry few million dollars
To your writer's mind, the amount of money the ATO is chasing from Wright severely diminishes the case that Wright is Nakamoto. If this is indeed true, there would be no need for the cryptologist to get involved in a legal case with the ATO over a handful of millions.
Amazon’s Australian datacentre gets closer
That Australian datacentre which Amazon was planning to build? It's been a while since we heard a good rumour on that one, but The Register delivers this week, with news that the US cloud computing and online retail giant's local plans are still on.
??
??
Australia’s copper broadband infrastructure: The reality
What I want to do with this article is encourage people to send any similar shots you have of awful sections of Australia's copper telecommunications infrastructure in so we can publish a huge collection. Broken cables, cables poking out, patch panels with wires everywhere, street-side cabinets open to the elements, we want them all.
NAB deploys Chatter … and Yammer?
From Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference in the US this week comes the news that the National Australia Bank has deployed the company's internal social networking tool Chatter ... as well as having an existing rollout of Yammer.
The National Broadband Network matrix
After being very amused by the IT Matrix last Friday, the Delimiter thinktank swung into action this morning to create a new, more localised version. We present: The National Broadband Network Matrix (click for the full-sized version).
#firstworldproblems
Life is tough when you're a gazillionaire Australian ISP mega-mogul ;)
Why the NBN probably won’t kill Foxtel
The theory that the National Broadband Network is a threat to Foxtel's pay TV business doesn't really hold water.
IBM’s Watson is reportedly expanding into Woodside’s desktops
For most of the time that IBM's Watson artificial intelligence (for want of a better word) system has been around, I suspect many technology journalists such as myself have viewed the platform as something of a toy -- a pet project which Big Blue can use to demonstrate its deep technology research credentials and wow live quiz shows on television. But if this article by iTnews is any indication, Watson is moving past that into something rather more functional.
Businesslink cancelled Office 365 rollout
Microsoft has been on a bit of a tear recently in Australia with its cloud-based Office 365 platform, signing up major customers such as the Queensland Government, Qantas, V8 Supercars and rental chain Mr Rental. And it’s not hard to see why, with the platform’s hybrid cloud/traditional deployment model giving customers substantial options. However, as iTNews reported last week, it hasn’t been all plain sailing for Redmond in this arena.
Could Turnbull truly become the “Earl” of Wentworth?
Seasoned Delimiter readers will know that your writer is fond of gently teasing Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull over his aristocratic bearing, by use of several honorifics. At times we have dubbed the Liberal MP 'the Duke of Double Bay', 'the Viscount of Vaucluse' and so on. But by far the most common title we have awarded to Turnbull has been one that made it onto the floors of Parliament this week.
New $50m fund to target Aussie IT startups
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: Now is a fantastic time to be involved in an Australian IT startup. It used to be that it was tough to find finding for great new ideas in the Australian technology sector, but the plethora of sizable investment deals over the past several years proven that the local funding environment has changed substantially.
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.
HP issues waffle statement on job cuts claim
Help us decipher HP's waffle.
Google Nexus tablet hits Oz in July: Gizmodo
Gizmodo Australia this afternoon reported that Google will launch its own 7" Android tablet, dubbed the Nexus 7 and running version 5.0 of Android (Jelly Bean) in Australia this July, with prices ranging from US$199 to US$249.
Turnbull “virtually invented the Internet in Australia”, claims Tony Abbott
Oh dear. Sometimes you just have to laugh — because if you didn’t laugh then you would cry. Tony Abbott is talking about Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull massively as the man who “virtually invented the Internet in Australia." Riiight.
Govt updates on ICT strategy progress
This morning AGIMO’s Andrew McGalliard, from the agency’s governance and policy branch, published an update on the Government’s progress on delivering on the strategy, and contrary to my initial expectations, it appears as though there are in fact quite a few initiatives getting under way.
Huawei chief executive lands in Australia
Buried in an article by the Financial Review this morning is the news that the global chief executive of networking equipment giant Huawei has arrived in Australia.
BPOS holdouts have “head in the sand”, says MVP
Office 365 MVP Loryan Strant has some pretty harsh words today for those Australian customers who have proven unwilling to migrate off Microsoft's defunct Business Productivity Online Suite platform (which is being essentially shut down) and onto Office 365.
“The greatest information-sharing tool in history”: Ludlam’s epic Internet ode to Aaron Swartz
The untimely death of US-based Internet entrepreneur and activist Aaron Swartz passed most in the Federal Parliament by without a murmur, but the deep-thinking Ludlam, ever the advocate of the power of the Internet for good (clearly, he’ll never be Attorney-General), paid attention, and gave this landmark speech in the Senate late in the evening on 6 February. We commend it to you in its entirely.
Deakin Uni first in Australia to get Cisco’s new SDN gear
I'm attending Cisco Live in Melbourne this week, and I have to say that while there is a lot of marketing hype out there about software-defined networking and the kinds of complex network/app/processing integration that Cisco is hyping up, there is also a lot of real-world activity building out there with respect to this new paradigm.
Turnbull dumps BlackBerry for iPhone
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has achieved notoriety for constantly using his iPad -- including in parliament. But, according to tweets from the honourable Member for Wentworth yesterday, up until very recently he's been using a BlackBerry -- like most of the public service. Now that's all set to change.
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.
NAB moves website into Amazon cloud
In an article in The Australian newspaper this morning, it was revealed that NAB had switched its entire public-facing website into Amazon’s cloud (excluding, of course, sensitive areas such as Internet banking).
Oops … Tesla enthusiast charges car on Qld windfarm
Headline says it all, really. The future is here.
Iranian refugee goes from a ‘boat’ to working for Google Australia
Michael Ascharsobi arrived by boat in Australia as an asylum seeker. Now he works for Google and teaches at the University of Technology, Sydney. Not a bad effort -- not bad indeed.
NSW Govt releases IT anti-corruption guide
Most IT professionals of any seniority are pretty much familiar by now with the sometimes shady tactics used by technology vendors during the procurement process, but just how open is the public discussion around that issue, and what can be done to tighten things up? The answers for many people, until now, have been pretty much “not that open” and “keep a close eye on them”. In an attempt to shine some sunlight on the situation and inject some rigour back into the process, the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has this week published a whitepaper on the issue.
Oracle CEO jets into Australia to reassure customers on support offshoring, flag huge sales...
Fresh off the back of claims that Oracle has just dumped its entire Australian support operation, news has arrived from the Financial Review this week that global Oracle co-chief executive Mark Hurd has landed in Australia.
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.
Trojan takes down entire WA Parliament IT, phone system
Bad news for the Western Australian Parliament, which, it appears, didn't have the most hardened IT security systems on earth. The ABC is reporting today that a "trojan virus" has knocked the Parliament's IT and telephone systems offline.
The University of Adelaide hearts Oracle
We never picked software vendor Oracle as a particularly *cuddly* sort of company, but according to a statement we received yesterday from the company, it's been getting all cosy and comfy with the University of Adelaide.
Help us fact-check iTNews’ NBN figures
Help us fact-check iTNews' claims that NBN Co is fudging its rollout figures in an attempt to make its progress look better on paper.
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.
AFACT exposed: Insider investigator tells his story
If you've always wondered what life is like at the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, wonder no more. A former investigator for Australia's self-appointed online piracy watchdog has spilled the beans on his activities working for the organisation.
Spirit deploys 200Mbps FTTB to Southbank
It’s only a very limited rollout so far, but Melbourne residents might be interested to know that local telco Spirit Telecom has deployed what appears to be a Fibre to the Basement broadband rollout in the Triptych apartment facility in the Southbank area. It appears that Spirit has been able to achieve speeds of up to 200Mbps by using Fibre to the Basement and then deploying its own in-building network to extend broadband to each apartment — skipping the existing in-building copper infrastructure.
Adobe dumps Creative Suite: ‘Cloud’ subscription only for next version
Overnight in the US, Adobe revealed it would exclusively focus on its subscription offerings in future. That's right: If you want to buy Photoshop or other applications in Creative Suite in future, you won't be able to -- you'll only be able to lease them.
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?
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.
Pollenizer celebrates five years with a book
Startup consultancy and incubator Pollenizer celebrates five years with a new book about the lifecycle of startups, Startup Focus.
Fascinating case study about open source cloud
Most of the cloud computing stories we hear about involve major vendors. You know the ones we're talking about: VMware, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Amazon and so on. These are household names. But what you may not realise is that there are other options out there for building cloud computing stacks. And some of them are not based on proprietary technologies and vendor lock-in at all.
How much more does Australia pay for Apple gear?
MacTalk founder Anthony Agius has produced the mother of all Apple pricing comparison spreadsheets in an effort to quantify just what the Australian markup is on Apple products.
Which router is best for the NBN?
PCRange chief executive Raaj Menon (also known as the first man in South Australia to get the NBN) has been busy putting his fledgling fibre connection to good use.
“Truth”: Kogan wins ispONE fight
If you were watching Ruslan Kogan’s Twitter feed closely this afternoon, you would have seen the Kogan chief claim victory in his company’s contentious court battle against mobile wholesaler ispONE.
Victoria Police gives up trying to replace 25-year-old IT system
I strongly urge the Victorian Government to address this issue as a matter of urgency. It will require not only a substantial funding increase for this area to Victoria Police, but also a number of senior appointments and strong Ministerial support to get this project moving and delivered.
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.
Foxtel launches streaming iPad app
Pay TV giant Foxtel this morning launched its live streaming service Foxtel Go on the iPad. For existing Foxtel subscribers, the offering allows them to watch Foxtel channels live on their iPad.
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?
Syntheo hands NT work back to NBN Co
So that we can all enter wholesale into yet another orgy of doubt and self-flagellation about the current status of the NBN project, here's Syntheo's (very brief) statement this morning that it's handing back work in the Northern Territory to NBN Co.
Spare a thought for Telstra tech Pete Milward …
Spare a thought for Telstra tech Pete Milward ... who had to deal with this when he came into work in Queensland this morning. Maybe a new phrase should be coined this week: "Thodey's Heroes".
Getting beyond the cloud hype: A great interview with DFAT’s CIO
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade CIO Tuan Dao talks about his belief for cloud computing technologies, while also noting that he doesn't buy into the hype around the new paradigm.
Woolworths deploys iPads to all store managers
It's raining iPads at retail giant Woolworths, according to an article this morning by The Australian newspaper, which details the company's plans to deploy the Apple tablets to some 890 store managers nationwide.
Copper good for 100 years, says Thodey
According to Telstra chief executive David Thodey, Telstra's copper network could last 100 years more.
“Victoria will decide”: Conroy on ‘Senator’ Julian Assange
In this brief video filmed at a doorstop press conference last week, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy -- a Senator for Victoria -- gives his reaction to the news that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has made an application to register the Wikileaks Party in Australia and will seek election in September as a Senator for Victoria.
Customs foregoes standalone CIO role in IT shakeup
The status of the title of Chief Information Officer continues to wax and wane as Australia’s Customs and Border Protection Service eliminates the role’s standing as a separate concern during a shakeup of its IT operations that began earlier this month and is expected to be complete by 1 July.
Telstra releases ‘Top Hat’ project details
We've received the following statement from Telstra regarding its 'Top-Hat' project.
Attanasio takes NSW RMS CIO role
Former Customs CIO Joe Attanasio takes up the equivalent role at NSW Roads and Maritime Services.
Two Sydney universities get hacked
It hasn't been a good few weeks for university IT security in Australia, with the Universities of Western Sydney and New South Wales both being broken into.
The new NBN fibre/ADSL digital divide
In amongst all the noise from the politicians over the National Broadband Network rollout in Tasmania was buried a very interesting comment from a business owner in Smithton who’s had NBN fibre for six months already.
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.
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.
Telstra adds 900Mhz 4G band, trials LTE-A
Right now, Telstra's greatest issue with its mobile infrastructure as a whole might just be keeping ahead of customer demand for it. With this in mind, this morning the telco revealed it would add a second spectrum band, 900Mhz, to its existing 1800Mhz 4G infrastructure, as well as undertake a variety of other initiatives to keep its mobile network on track.
Assange to get asylum in Ecuador
Australian citizen and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will shortly be granted asylum in Ecuador, according to the UK's Guardian newspaper.
Don’t worry, Paul Graham, Australians aren’t all stupid
Over on Hacker News, the official new century media organ of double plus fine seed funding giant Y Combinator, founder Paul Graham muses about a little nation we like to call ‘Oz’.
Dick Smith’s amazing iTunes specials
Incredible value -- zero dollars off. Spotted in Randwick. A $50 iTunes voucher for $50 -- who would have thought?!
Data Retention requests almost tripled in 2015
Well, we knew Australia's law enforcement and government agencies were keen on accessing Australians' metadata, but until this week we didn't know quite how keen they were.
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.
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.
For the tragedy of the NBN, Turnbull must go
The NBN stands out strongly amidst a slew of other issues in this Federal Election. Because in ten years, in twenty years -- in fifty years -- most of those other issues will have ceased to matter. But the problems with the NBN will remain. The only way to deal with these problems is to cut them off at the source: And vote against Malcolm Turnbull.
NBN proof is in the pudding, not in the promises
Watching last night's Lateline debate about the National Broadband Network, I have to say, I was really impressed with both sides. However, what concerns me at the moment is not what's being promised, but what may end up being delivered.
Why would Anonymous hack Mosman Council?
From this week's WTF files comes a curious case which has reputedly seen that lovable bunch of Internet rogues Anonymous hack into the web site of Mosman Municipal Council.
Chinese spy concerns: Key Australian defence agencies ban Lenovo
According to the Financial Review, PCs made by Lenovo have been banned from the “secret” and ‘‘top secret” networks of the intelligence and defence services of Australia, the US, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand, due to similar spying concerns as have been published about Chinese networking vendor Huawei.
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.
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 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.
“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.
SAP confirms Australian datacentre
The rumours that German software giant SAP would follow rival Oracle and cloud giants Amazon and Rackspace and start providing software as a service-based services from an Australian datacentre have been flowing around Australia’s technology sector for quite a while now. They surfaced in the pages of the Financial Review in May this year, and gained strength as SAP’s SuccessFactors launched an Australian datacentre that same month. And now they’re reality, according to iTNews.
Qld Heath payroll: Senior bureaucrats sacked
The fallout from the payroll systems disaster at Queensland Health is continuing, as hard as that may be to believe. This morning Queensland Premier Campbell Newman took the unusual step of sacking a number of senior state government bureaucrats who had been involved in the debacle.
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.
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.
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.
Victorian agency reports schoolboy to police for informing it of IT security hole
Public Transport Victoria has reportedly reported a 16-year-old Melbourne schoolboy to Victoria Police for merely informing it of substantial security holes in its IT infrastructure.
Rumours of Aussie Netflix launch
Despite a successful launch in other major first-world nations such as the UK, as well as throughout Latin America, US IPTV giant Netflix has constantly signalled over the past few years its lack of interest in launching its service in Australia. However, all that may be about to change.
IBM Australia jobs going across the Tasman? Great, says New Zealand
We can’t help but be amused by this article in New Zealand’s premiere business newspaper, the National Business Review. In it, veteran technology reporter Chris Keall lampoons an email received by subscribers of the Australian Financial Review, in which the paper’s editor in chief Michael Stutchbury laments IBM Australia’s decision to send jobs offshore, including to New Zealand.
AngelCube: Melbourne’s mysterious new tech startup incubator
Know anything about it? Nope. Neither do we. We're investigating, for now :) Get in touch, angels, if you're out there.
$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?
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.
NBN debate full of falsehoods, say academics
It should come as no surprise to regular Delimiter readers that our National Broadband Network debate has been poisoned by a constant series of inaccurate and misleading statements. It’s the done thing, after all — politicians are doing it, newspapers are doing it, television stations are doing it — why wouldn’t everyone want to get in on the bandwagon?
Proof that the ATO is evil
Following on from our post last week revealing evidence that the National Broadband Network Company is, in fact, evil, fresh details have come to light about the Australian Taxation Office’s allegiance to the dark side.
CommBank CIO reveals troubled youth
He’s probably Australia’s highest-profile chief information officer; a high flier who is currently leading a billion dollar core banking transformation project the envy of the entire financial services sector. But CommBank CIO Michael Harte wasn’t always a good boy, according to a fascinating profile of the executive by iTWire’s Beverley Head.
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.
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.
4G Galaxy S III a “huge battery sucker”
blog Is the 4G Galaxy S III handset a "huge battery sucker"? Yes, according to Gizmodo. We can’t say we’re surprised by this, given the fact that a similar handset, the HTC One XL, also sucks battery pretty rapidly. But it is slightly disappointing if true.
LNP sacks 80 from CITEC
Not satisfied with terminating some 384 technology contractors already this year and running the axe over the IT department at the state's education department, Queensland's new LNP Government led by Premier Campbell Newman has now turned its attention to IT shared services unit CITEC.
Screwing the pooch: How IBM’s Qld Health disaster will change IT project governance
The remarkable thing about the Commission of Inquiry report is that it stays lays out IBM's culpability in a way which previous audits conducted by the Queensland Auditor-General and consulting firm KPMG did not.
Simon Hackett: From Internode MD, to NBN Co blogger
Given the ferocity of the debate which Simon Hackett kicked off against NBN Co's pricing model a month or so ago, we were somewhat amused last week to see this exchange between the Internode chief (who is a highly prolific writer) and NBN Co's official Twitter account, staffed by internal PR guru Scott Rhodie.
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 ;)
Sony Xperia Z tablet hits Australia
Sony’s last clutch of Android tablets, as with the offerings from virtually every other manufacturer, failed to make much of a dent on the Apple-dominated tablet market. However, Google’s recently had a series of hits with its Nexus line-up, and Samsung has also recently stepped up to the plate with its ‘Note’ series of tablets. Can Sony be the third party to succeed in breaking through in the hyper-competitive Android tablet market?
Was 7:30’s TCS takedown fair?
Was 7:30's attack on the 457 Visa practices of Indian IT services giant TCS last night fair? Or did it lack context?
Rackspace promises Aussie datacentre
Will Rackspace roll out Australian datacentre infrastructure in the next year or so? The company says yes, but we'll believe it when we see it.
Surprise! PlayStation Now delayed for Australia
From the Department of No Surprises comes the news that Sony’s cloud-based PlayStation Now service — which allows users of its gaming consoles to play games online without having to download the content — will not initially be available to Australians when it launches in the middle of this year.
Sources claim Oracle has completely dumped its Australian support centre
Delimiter has been contacted by several sources who have stated that The Register's report is accurate, and that Oracle has indeed completely offshored its Australian support centre in the past month.
McKinnon’s ghost still haunts Clive Whincup
There was a lovely moment during the CEDA lunch with Westpac chief information officer Clive Whincup at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney yesterday that I suspect perfectly illustrates the current dynamics within Westpac's technology leadership team.
Tasmanians have copper cut off before NBN connected
You would think ... you would really think, that there would be no possible way that NBN Co, Telstra and retail ISPs like Eftel could so badly coordinate the changeover process from Telstra's copper network to NBN Co's fibre network that any resident could be left without telecommunications access. You would think.
Where’s our Arrested Development? Choice Australia asks Netflix
At this point, most Australians who watch Arrested Development have probably resigned themselves to (ahem) obtaining the new season through Channel BitTorrent. But there is one organisation still maintaining the rage: Consumer advocacy group Choice, which has written to Netflix demanding to know what the hell is going on.
iHype: Welcome to the iPhone 5 hypno-orgy
Apparently, the iPhone 5 is already a success, before it even launches.
AngelCube opens 2014 startup intake
I just wanted to post a quick note to let readers know that AngelCube, the Melbourne-based startup accelerator, has opened the doors for applications for its 2014 intake. If you don't know about AngelCube but you are interested in starting your own IT startup, you had better familiarise yourself quickly, because you only have a few days to file your entry.
Microsoft’s war on Google Apps gets nasty
Microsoft Australia produces case study scorching towards Google Apps and Gmail.
Watch Delimiter’s article on Turnbull read out in Parliament
As you may remember, when Malcolm Turnbull seized the Prime Ministership from Tony Abbott two weeks ago, I took the chance to publish an examination of the Member for Wentworth’s history leading the Communications Portfolio over the past five years for the Coalition. What you may not have known is that it was also mentioned on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Unisys wins DIAC again in open tender
Those of you with long memories will recall that the Federal Department of Immigration and Citizenship has contracted IT services giant Unisys to provide desktop support services to the department since 2007. Unisys this morning announced that it had won an open tender to retain the work through to at last mid-2018, at a value of $104.1 million.
Huawei confirms Ascend P6 for 15 July
We've been getting gradually more impressed with the smartphones launched in Australia by Chinese vendor Huawei over the past several years, although they haven't quite measured up to the best that top of the line vendors like Apple, Samsung and HTC have been able to deliver. The newest cab off Huawei's rank is the Ascend P6.
VMware’s licensing response: Is it enough?
Those of us who run VMware environments might remember the user furore (including from Australian customers) which the virtualisation giant created a few weeks back when it made a number of changes to its licensing structure. Well, kudos to the company — it listened.
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.
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.
Fire & Rescue dumps GroupWise for hosted Exchange
Fire and Rescue NSW finally ditches Novell GroupWise for a hosted version of Microsoft Exchange.
Turnbull slams ‘pro-NBN zealot journalists’
Specialist technology journalists are fanning a pro-NBN zealotry among tech-savvy citizens, according to Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Oh, dear.
LG Optimus L9 hits Australia
This week LG added another model to its Australian line-up in the form of the Optimus L9.
Conroy and Husic fight over NBN rollout
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and fellow Labor parliamentarian Ed Husic appear to have gotten into what the Daily Telegraph is describing as "an expletive-laden" "behind the scenes slanging match" in the Labor party room over NBN Co's rollout schedule.
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.
Turnbull and Clare: Best of mates
If you attended the Australian American Leadership Dialogue in Melbourne over the weekend, you might have caught a most unusual sight: Australia's noble Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and his Shadow, Jason Clare, breaking bread together in a most congenial display of bipartisanship.
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.
Dream or nightmare? IT dept from scratch
It's not often that you see a whole new IT department and associated systems set up from scratch, but that's kind of what appears to be happening at ice cream giant Peters, which was recently bought by a private equity firm and is currently separating its systems from global food manufacturer and ex-parent Nestle.
Happy Budde faces a hostile NBN crowd
Paul Budde's support for the National Broadband Network project is well known, with most in the industry considering the analyst's open bias to be a matter of public record.
Telstra/NBN FTTB trial hits 90Mbps
Wondering how NBN Co’s Fibre to the Basement trials in the Melbourne suburbs of Carlton, Parkville and Brunswick are going? Well, we already know that they’re likely to garner some pretty high speeds. Similar commercial deployments in Sydney have delivered speeds of up to 100Mbps, after all, and NBN Co’s own testing in laboratory conditions in late 2013 showed similar results. The first actual speed tests have been disclosed by Telstra at the CommsDay Summit in Sydney this morning.
FTTP NBN no big loss, claims Gizmodo
According to Gizmodo, the loss of Labor's fibre to the premises National Broadband Network policy is no cause for Australian technologists to "mourn".
IT in the budget? Move along, not much to see
Curious about what technology-related iniatives came out last night's Federal Budget? So were we, given that the release of the budget had been being hyped for weeks (months?) by much of the mainstream media as part of its continual fixation on the fraught battle between the various sides of politics. However, unlike previous years, this yaer there wasn't much in the 2013 Federal Budget to interest technologists.
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.
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.
Telstra 4G trials hit 300Mbps
Just how fast can 4G mobile broadband go? Very fast, according to Telstra, which has been conducting trials of LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation technology.
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.
Defence finally starts certifying Android
Those of you with long memories will recall that the Department of Defence’s Defence Signals Directorate division, which is tasked with certifying technology for use in the Australian Government, has long had an aversion to Android. Windows- and BlackBerry-based mobile devices have long found favour with the DSD, and in April 2012 the agency even added (shock!) Apple’s iOS operating system, but for years Android has sat on the outer, leaving those public servants and politicians interested in the Android operating system out in the cold. Well, late yesterday news arrived that Samsung, at least, may be on the verge of getting access to the inner circle.
Budde praises Coalition NBN plan
Fans of the Coalition’s rival broadband policy can be hard to find in Australia’s technology sector, with most preferring the Labor Federal Government’s more expansive National Broadband Network policy. However, according to telecommunications analyst Paul Budde, the Coalition’s plan may be better than many people think.
Cloud vendors need to communicate better: CIO
Over at his blog Cloud81, Altium chief information officer Alan Perkins is ruminating -- as is often his wont -- on cloud computing.
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.
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.
BoQ, AMP open up major IT outsourcing deals
Wow. It's been a huge week or so in Australia's financial services IT scene, with revelations that two massive, long-running IT outsourcing deals which have been in place for a decade or more may be finally opened up to rivals.
Qantas can’t afford to replace 26-year-old IT system
So, it turns out the Queensland and New South Wales Governments are not the only major Australian organisations running short of much-needed cash when it comes to critical IT upgrades. According to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, national carrier Qantas also can’t afford to keep its IT up to spec.
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.
Class action lawsuit starts against Vodafone
Just when you thought Vodafone’s problems couldn’t get any worse … they just did. Remember that potential class action lawsuit which local firm Piper Alderman had been promoting back in December 2010 in the wake of Vodafone’s ‘Vodafail’ problems? Well, it’s back, it’s on, and some 23,000 people have joined the action.
Valve may re-issue Left 4 Dead 2 as R18+
Thanks to the new laws allowing R18+ video games to be sold in Australia, Valve is strongly investigating re-releasing its Left 4 Dead 2 game locally in its original gory form.
Telstra suffers another data breach
It hasn’t been a good few years for the nation’s biggest telco Telstra when it comes to data breaches. It almost seems like every three to four months, there’s a new chunk of Telstra’s customer data leaked onto the public Internet, and the company has to make yet another apology to those affected, as well as kicking off another ‘review’ of its systems.
3G ASUS 7″ Fonepad lands Down Under
ASUS announces that its 3G, 7" Fonepad has landed in Australia, at prices starting from $329.
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.
Alleged LulzSec hacker charged with trivial offence
Remember how the Australian Federal Police’s high-tech crime unit held a high-profile national press conference in late April to announce that they had charged a 24-year-old Australian man with hacking offences? Well, it was revealed today that the AFP has basically charged the man with … almost nothing.
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.
Video: Quigley hits the 7:30 Report
We encourage you to check out this excellent interview 7:30 (previously the 7:30 Report) conducted with NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley, in the wake of the company’s problems negotiations with contractors to roll out fibre around the nation and the questions raised about any role Quigley and NBN Co CFO Jean-Pascal Beaufret may have had in Alcatel-Lucent’s bribery allegations.
WA Govt can’t fund school IT upgrades
In news from The Department of Disturbing Facts, iTNews revealed late last week that Western Australia's Department of Education has run out of money halfway through the deployment of new fundamental IT infrastructure to the state's schools.