Turnbull’s NBN hiring spree is pure election fodder
Like the fictional Frank Underwood’s ‘America Works’ program, the massive nbn hiring spree unveiled by Malcolm Turnbull in the wee hours of this morning is pure election fodder — a beguiling program designed to demonstrate to the electorate that the reigning Government is instantly responsible for thousands of new jobs.
eBooks in Australia – What went wrong?
This article is by Darryl Adams, a government worker and internet tragic. A former IT worker, he still pines for the days of IBM...
Small business missing the mobile, social, cloud revolution
Most companies that live and breathe the online revolution are not tech startups, but smart smaller firms that use online tools to run their core business better: to cut costs, reach customers and suppliers, innovate and get more control. Many others, however, are falling behind, according to a new Grattan Institute discussion paper.
Voda Win: Australia’s mobile problem child emerges from its deep depression
The easiest way to view the departure of Vodafone Australia's turnaround specialist Bill Morrow to take the reins of NBN Co is as the final nail in the extremely troubled mobile telco's fortunes. But the truth is that Morrow is leaving the company just as it's getting to its knees again. Finally, after three years in the wilderness, Vodafone is showing signs that it may be competitive in Australia's mobile landscape again -- and heading towards a sustainable footing.
How will the new Coalition Govt impact Govt 2.0 and open data efforts?
When state governments in Australia have changed ruling parties there’s often been a temporary hiatus in Government 2.0 and open data activity, if not a series of backsteps – however in almost every case the trend towards greater digitalisation, engagement and openness has resumes.
Gary McLaren’s last email to the NBN troops
Yesterday the National Broadband Network Company revealed it had made its long-time and respected chief technology officer Gary McLaren and several other senior executives redundant. This email was sent by McLaren to staff at NBN Co.
Reality check: The Coalition’s fibre on demand plan is a pipe dream
Those broadband speed freaks holding out hope that the Coalition's pledge to provide 'fibre on demand' services will save them from life in the slow lane in a fibre to the node future need to take a cold shower and wake up to reality. 'Fibre on demand' is nothing but an fluffy ephemeral dream which has no chance of becoming reality in the short- to medium-term under the Coalition's National Broadband Network vision.
Oh dear: Conroy’s failure to launch
Today was finally the big day. After carefully making all the right arrangements, crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i', and most importantly, getting permission from Chairman Rudd, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was finally ready to reveal to the world his big project.
Linux on Australia’s desktops: Are the stars aligning again?
The phrase "Linux desktop" has been anathema to Australian organisations for almost a decade, after a brief flurry of interest in the platform back in 2004. But a massive successful deployment at France's national police force and the growing popularity of Software as a Service applications could put Tux back on the corporate radar.
With Bradley Manning convicted, what now for Julian Assange?
Bradley Manning’s conviction for espionage marks the closing stages in the US Army private’s personal battle. Yet for Julian Assange, founder of whistleblower website WikiLeaks and Australian Senate candidate, Manning is but a casualty in a much grander mission.
Google – and everyone else – wins by High Court decision
The High Court has ruled that Google did not engage in misleading and deceptive conduct when it published a number of advertisements created by its AdWords program. Does this mean that the advertisements themselves were not misleading and deceptive? No! Everyone agrees that they were. Rather, the decision clarifies the law for publishers, including those using the internet.
Are online + eBook retailers killing small bookshops?
Are eBooks and cheap online imports killing small Australian bookshops?
Obamacare web fiasco won’t be the last big IT fail
The uncomfortable reality is that no one really knows how to design or manage large, complex IT projects.
What Apple’s incredible quarter means for Australia
$46 billion in revenue. 64 percent quarter on quarter growth. 37 million iPhones shipped. Apple just stunned the world with some incredible financial growth over the last three months of 2011. But what do these results mean for Australia?
Are police drones just toys for the boys?
Military tactics and hardware can make policing more appealing to recruits and generate impressive media spectacles, but they do not prevent or solve crime. The underlying causes of social disorder go unaddressed while public funds are spent instead on expensive but ineffective and potentially dangerous toys.
Dotcom turns twenty-five
Whether it's an effort to block Google access in China, an effort toward mandatory internet censorship in Australia, or otherwise, these efforts are truly futile.
Hospital attack shows the risk of still running Windows XP
A virus attack on the computer system of one of Melbourne’s largest hospital networks is cause for concern because it affected machines running Microsoft’s Windows XP, an operating system no longer supported by the software giant.
Correction: Cutting the NBN won’t save money
Yesterday Opposition Leader Tony Abbott stated in a high-profile speech at the National Press Club in Canberra that cutting Labor's National Broadband Network project would free up Federal Government money to be spent in other areas such as transport. It was a nice political soundbite. However, unfortunately, this statement was factually incorrect.
Oh dear: Optus didn’t learn from Telstra’s mistake
If there’s one thing that Delimiter finds amusing, it’s when history repeats itself. As it so often does in Australia’s fickle telecommunications industry.
Big “Legacy” ERP being ripped apart and is almost dead, says Gartner
Enterprise IT analyst firm Gartner has warned that large, monolithic and heavily customised in-house enterprise resource planning systems will be relegated to the status of "legacy ERP" over the next several years, as smaller, nimbler and often cloud computing-based alternatives eat the lunch of this old mainstay of the IT application portfolio.
Oh dear: Serkowski’s fighting words
Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey might have come out swinging against the Federal Government's internet filtering plans last week, but not everybody was impressed. Pirate Party Australia secretary Rodney Serkowski apparently thought Hockey's enlightened stance hadn't had the full force of conversion.
Twitter, newspapers + new media: Some observations
The winners online will not be those with the best technology, but with the best technological imagination. Very little that has happened online in the last ten years would have been predicted ten years before, so be bold and dream big dreams. They are more likely to be realised than you think.
How the NBN could boost Australia’s GDP by 2 percent
This article is by Leith Campbell, Honorary Fellow, Melbourne School of Engineering and Sascha Suessspeck, Economist and Ph.D. Electronic and Electrical Engineering student, both...
Why the Apple iPad will change the face of healthcare
In the healthcare setting, and no doubt numerous other settings also, those added inches make a significant difference.
Voice from the outer world: Five questions Simon Hackett should be asking NBN Co
That moment which many Australian technologists fervently hoped for but never expected to see has come to pass: Simon Hackett has been appointed to the board of the National Broadband Network Company. But what questions should the Internode founder be asking NBN Co's executive management team? Here's five ideas to start with.
Sayonara Steve: Today I ditch the iPhone
This afternoon I will march down to Telstra's store in Sydney's central business district and replace my much-loved Apple iPhone 4 with a HTC One XL. I'm leaving the cosy embrace of the Apple mobile empire and entering into a new relationship with Android. And here's why.
Peter Dutton MP are you for or against the filter?
Peter, seriously if you cared what I thought you would notice I am not overly interested in a stock standard response letter. I get that from my bank and let me tell you I don’t like them much.
Apple Pay no sure thing in mobile payments race
Evidence both the incumbents and disruptors face challenges in non-traditional payments.
Bevan and Baxter: Two more for the NBN board
Last week we proposed Internode founder Simon Hackett as a prime candidate to sit on NBN Co’s newly refreshed board under Tony Abbott’s new Coalition Government. Today we add two new prospective names to the list: PIPE Networks’ influential founders Bevan Slattery and Steve Baxter.
Joe Hockey and Kate Lundy: A new Democrats
It is interesting that Hockey falls for one of the Conroy confusions. Refused Classification is not the same as illegal. It seems that Joe, in defence of liberty, thinks that it should be his job as a parent to decide what otherwise refused classification material his kids see.
When does technology fade into the background?
Sometimes it’s time to let things go and stop treating them as unusual just because they involve a certain type of technology.
Reality check: Turnbull’s not “trashing” the NBN
The level of hysteria over the past 24 hours over Malcolm Turnbull's entirely predictable decision to refresh NBN Co's board has been laughably absurd, and starkly demonstrates the lack of understanding the media has about the National Broadband Network in general. Take a chill pill, people: The Coalition is not "trashing" the NBN or "setting it up to fail". The sky is not falling.
Reality check: ISPs do not understand content
Australian ISPs, regulators and the Government need to take a step back and stop fooling themselves that future telecommunications competition will rest on ISPs' ability to provide bundled video content services to users. The reality is that ISPs aren't good at this task and customers don't want them to do it.
Australia’s got ICT talent: So how do we make the most of it?
AUSTRALIA 2025: How will science address the challenges of the future? In collaboration with Australia’s chief scientist Ian Chubb, the Conversation is asking how each science discipline will contribute to Australia now and in the future. Written by luminaries and accompanied by two expert commentaries to ensure a broader perspective, these articles run fortnightly and focus on each of the major scientific areas. This instalment takes a look at ICT’s role.
Governments undermining encryption will do more harm than good
Western governments, notably the UK and the US, are pushing the software industry to open “backdoors” into our encrypted communications.
Conroy’s temporary filter all Australia needs
Research has consistently demonstrated that Australians don't want their internet to be censored. But if the Government feels it must, let it learn a lesson from last week's experience and change its policy towards one that is voluntary and only tackles a very limited field of content. That's something we can all agree on.
Labor will abandon its FTTP NBN policy
There is absolutely no doubt that the Australian Labor Party will abandon its Fibre to the Premises National Broadband Network plan and adopt the Coalition’s alternative Multi-Technology Model as official policy before the next Federal Election.
Who owns footy rights? Optus web copyright victory explained
Yesterday’s Federal Court ruling that Optus customers are able to view sporting matches minutes after they are streamed live without breaching copyright is a landmark decision that alters our understanding of copyright law, and has significant implications for the AFL’s broadcasting rights deal.
Will Telstra give iiNet one 4G ring to rule Optus?
Like a cluster of ancient elves residing deep within the sheltered enclaves of evergreen forest glades, the worthy folk of SingTel subsidiary Optus have long focused their gaze to the far north, where the dark lords of mighty Telstra have ruled Australia's telecommunications sector from their fiery thrones.
Rod Tucker’s right: Turnbull’s MTM model will leave Australia behind
University of Melbourne academic Rod Tucker attracted strident criticism this week for his claim that Malcolm Turnbull’s Multi-Technology Mix approach to the National Broadband Network will result in Australia remaining an “Internet backwater”. However, the unfortunate reality is that Tucker’s comments are all too accurate.
Is there any future for Telstra at all?
I couldn't help but get the impression that these negotiations, whichever way they come out, give every sign of being Telstra's "last hurrah" as a relevancy in Australian communications.
Myer fail displays appalling IT, business incompetency
The week-long outage of Myer's website starkly displays the fact that the company and its outsourcing partner IBM had failed to properly develop and test their infrastructure or put in place the most basic disaster recovery and business continuity plan, as well as highlighting the incredible immaturity of online retailing in Australia.
Govt to upgrade filter to new SOPA version
The Federal Government today confirmed plans to upgrade its controversial mandatory Internet filtering scheme with the new Stop Online Piracy Act module released in the United States this week, with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy confirming the new functionality would be ready ahead of the next Federal Election.
Remember, Telstra isn’t that expensive any more
Here at Delimiter, we’ve created this handy motivational poster to help Optus mobile customers through the bad times.
Tasmania’s NBN tangle is a shocking mess
The ongoing stoush over how the Coalition's Broadband Network should be deployed in Tasmania shows Australia's broadband tangle at its worst: Construction contractors who don't deliver, overly optimistic promises and estimates, and politicians playing petty power games with a highly important national infrastructure project. No matter which way you look at it, it's a shocking mess.
NBN: Misleading parliament should be a crime
The Federal Government should follow Queensland and enact a law which makes it illegal for politicians to knowingly mislead Parliament with false information. This would immediately have a dramatic and positive impact on the quality of the debate around the National Broadband Network.
Technological change should spur privacy law update
Last month’s data breach at Medvet – the South Australian state government enterprise that dominates the workplace drug and alcohol testing industry – suggests your expectations of information privacy are misplaced.
Stop the pirates? Behind Brandis’ copyright crusade
The lack of hard, unbiased research driving this debate on piracy, as well as the privileged access to the Attorney General that entertainment industry lobbyists seem to have, does not bode well for robust, evidence-based policy being adopted in the near future.
Australian CS5 pricing: Adobe responds
Delimiter invited Adobe to respond in a letter to the editor on the issue of the disparity in pricing between the US and Australia regarding its new Creative Suite 5.
One step forward, two steps back: Govt cloud policy displays classic ignorance
The Federal Government has taken many positive steps forward in the past year with respect to freeing up its departments and agencies to adopt the new class of cloud computing technologies. But the release of an overly bureaucratic policy this month on offshore data storage has the potential to set that progress back substantially, relying as it does on several outdated concepts of risk management in IT projects.
Oh dear: One for the ladies …
Now it's time for Delimiter's female audience to enjoy themselves ... courtesy of a promotion of some kind by Virgin Mobile in Martin Place yesterday, involving the telco's "big cap" plan and chocolate enticements to break up with your current mobile provider. "In less than 24 hours you could be out of an unhappy relationship, and into a brand new phomance with someone who really cares," says Virgin head of customer narketing Dan Woodall. We bet.
Battle royalty: Is this the end of online radio streaming?
Online streaming of radio broadcasts may be a thing of the past after the Full Federal Court yesterday handed down a ruling that will result in radio stations paying higher royalties to the recording industry.
Oh dear: Alan Jones, Chika, Steve Waugh and VMWare?
The trustees list of the of the Sydney Cricket & Sports Ground Trust reads like a roll call of Sydney blue blood royalty.
Australia losing out in global internet marketplaces
The internet is a global marketplace. If you want to truly take advantage of it you need to treat it as such. Attempting to shoe-horn old ways of doing business into it isn’t going to work. It needs to be approached from outside the traditional ways of selling to consumers. The first person to start doing that right is going to win. Big.
The real reason The Hoff is in Sydney
Delimiter can exclusively reveal that the iconic American actor has been in Australia for the past six months, on a secretive mission to aid Australia's technology sector in its quest to finally overtake Silicon Valley and become the premiere global market for technology companies.
The Australian IT sector needs a stronger voice
The call for a technology policy think tank is opportune and probably long overdue. The Australian IT industry is a massive industry, a huge success story for Australia, and well deserving of its own voice.
Once more into the data breach: the LivingSocial hack and you
News of the LivingSocial breach coincides with debate within the privacy and information technology communities about Commonwealth proposals for data-breach legislation.
“Incredible” NBN debate stuck in “yesterday’s logic”, says Budde
Respected telecommunications analyst Paul Budde has called for a more constructive debate about Australia's future broadband needs, arguing that the current national conversation over the issue of the National Broadband Network is stuck using "yesterday's logic" as it fails to plan for the needs of a future only five to ten years away.
It’s nice to see government agencies share with each other
One of the most frustrating and, I think, silliest things I found when working in Australian government agencies was how almost every department, agency and statutory body developed almost all of its own policies, procedures, software and tools.
Towards a more complex NBN argument
The furious debate which took place over the weekend over National Broadband Network applications highlights the fact that the project raises fundamental questions about what the role of Government should be in our complex and multi-layered society ... and just what needs it should attempt to address.
Surviving the zombie apocalypse: the DayZ experiment
Amid the resurgent popularity of zombies in recent years – think The Walking Dead, I Am Legend, Shaun of the Dead and so on – the 2011 publication of Dan Drezner’s Theories of International Politics and Zombies showed we might be able to learn something useful from the lumbering horde. In short, Drezner poses the question: how would we deal with a zombie outbreak?
Should Victoria pay for injured man’s Wii?
Ridiculing the Wii Fit as a video game in 2010 just makes politicians look silly. My aching muscles and -- by now, no doubt -- millions of people around the world using the device to make their daily health just that little bit better would argue it is much more.
NBN Co business case: A big fat load of nothing
I just wasted twenty minutes of my life poring through one of the most boring and vacuous documents which I have had the privilege to read in my career as a journalist. And I want that time back.
Dear Stephen, your site is broken
Someone -- probably someone in your IT department that is left over from when Helen Coonan was the minister -- has put this bit of code that will remove the word "ISP filtering" from your list of most popular tags.
Unfixable: Time to ditch e-health record scheme
Federal health minister Peter Dutton has commissioned a review of Labor’s troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) project. It’s unclear whether the review committee is to decide whether to scrap the project altogether or to try and fix it. Hopefully it is not the latter because if the past year has taught us anything, it is that this is not a fixable problem. It needs to go.
I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore. Let’s fix...
For far too long, Australia's political sector has gotten technology policy completely wrong. I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore. Let's take Delimiter into the Canberra Press Gallery and literally write the book on tech policy while we're there.
New copyright laws not the answer to illegal downloads
New laws are not the answer. Rather, we need to look at education, technical mechanisms, licensing solutions and responsibility of ISPs and search engines to find a workable balance between the right to own and creative content and the ability of users (and intermediaries) to access and reuse such content.
Why I’m ditching VoIP for the PSTN
This week I called iiNet and cancelled our VoIP service. We’re returning to the Public Switched Telephony Network. All of my calls from now on will be placed over the ageing copper infrastructure which the National Broadband Network will eventually replace. The switch will take down our broadband connection for several days, but at the end of the process it’ll be worth it.
Oh dear: What colour should Tassie’s NBN cables be?
All of Australia's political parties have a bright, vivid colour associated with them -- it's like painting with your hands in pre-school. Labor is red -- representing its roots in the working community and the socialist movement. Liberal is blue, representing its conservative and liberal background. And of course, the Greens are green, representing their focus on the environment.
Why Pirate Party members are not ‘whiny brats’
There appears to be an assumption within the broader intellectual property industries that members of Pirate Parties are just whiny brats who “want everything for free.” They consider us uneducated idiots who have not really given any thought into what we advocate. I find this odd.
Telcos can’t have their femto-cake and eat it too
Telcos cannot have their cake and eat it too. The commercial model guiding how customers will pay for any femtocell service must be fair. And right now, it’s clear that it simply is not.
‘Cloud’ is now mainstream in Australia’s banking sector
It's finally happened. After years of expressing concern about the privacy risks, regulatory challenges and technical inadequacies of the new clutch of technologies broadly known as “cloud computing”, Australia's financial services sector has embraced the new paradigm wholesale. It's about time.
How much did Gillard’s endorsement cost IBM?
This morning IBM achieved what can only be described as a sensational marketing coup: It convinced Australia's Prime Minister to get up on a stage and enthusiastically sing the praises of its corporate brand in front of a national audience.
Correction: NBN prices will not be higher
In several radio interviews this week, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull stated that the National Broadband Network project would cause consumer broadband prices to rise higher than those currently on the market. However, unfortunately this statement was factually incorrect.
It’s official: Labor’s NBN project has failed
The National Broadband Network project has abjectly failed every construction target ever set for it, its rollout has slowed to a deadly slow crawl, and even its founder, former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, has admitted the previous Labor Government drastically underestimated the amount of work involved in delivering it. It's time to admit NBN version 2.0 is dead and that the project desperately needs to be radically reshaped yet again.
Pulling apart the NBN’s untenable pricing model (by Simon Hackett)
The National Broadband Network (NBN) is the subject of promises from the government that consumers will pay comparable prices to current day ADSL2+ and phone service bundles in order to access entry level NBN based services, and that NBN based retail pricing will be nationally uniform. Unfortunately, a number of pressure points in the wholesale pricing model exist which will make these promises (from the government) untenable in practice, unless serious issues with the underlying pricing model are addressed by NBN Co and the ACCC.
Why EA will be great for Firemint
Criticising Firemint for simply doing the necessary in order to release the best work they possibly can is unfair and ultimately gets in the way of what should be the number one aim of anybody in the game development industry, regardless of their business circumstances: creating the most awesome games possible.
Lock down cybersecurity or face another Heartbleed – or worse
The recently released Commission of Audit report recommends that the Australian government needs to become “digital by default”. The continued shift to digital service delivery is intended to reduce costs, improve quality of service and provide greater transparency. But it will also open up new vulnerabilities to cyber attacks that could be used to access secure and confidential data, compromise the integrity of trusted authorities and disrupt critical services.
Picking apart the Coalition’s NBN misinformation
Whether or not any of us is a supporter of the NBN, I think we as the Australian people would be much better served by some fair and reasonable debate based on facts, rather than the spewing out of inaccurate, and misinformed spin! Where do they get such dumb ideas?
Getting away with blue murder: How the NBN distraction is covering Telstra’s crimes
Under the cover of the NBN's madness and media hype, there's another high-wire act under way: The nation's other telco monopolist, Telstra, is successfully concentrating its market power; and that's not good news for anyone.
Huawei’s NBN blockout raises fundamental questions
As I have argued for several years now – and Alexander Downer himself has stated in recent weeks – the argument that Huawei is some sort of quasi-intelligence gathering arm of the Beijing government is so ludicrous that it should scarcely be tolerated in serious company.
Why AGIMO’s open source policy will change nothing
Open source does not fit the framework which proprietary vendors have painstakingly installed in the minds of organisations like AGIMO over the decades. It's taken time, but Microsoft already won that war.
The election is over: Now the FTTP campaign begins
Malcolm Turnbull's arrogant response to a petition calling for the Coalition to support Labor's NBN policy shows the Coalition still hasn't learnt the lesson activists rammed down Labor's throat in the previous Internet filter and data retention debacles: People power can get unpopular policies changed.
Oh dear: Optus’ “theatrical” 3G USB modems
We have always known Optus was a big fan of the higher forms of performance art, with its sponsorship of the Cirque du Soleil and even the penchant of its chief executive Paul O’Sullivan for cracking Telstra jokes on stage. But we didn’t know that even its USB modems were involved in the performance.
Coalition NBN notes: Some truth, mostly fiction
Last week Crikey leaked a confidential document which appeared to contain a large number of speaking tips for Coalition politicians to help them discuss policy areas in public, including with respect to the National Broadband Network. But to what extent is the document accurate when it comes to the NBN? Read on to find out.
Individuals not the priority in the Cyber Security Strategy
The Cyber Security Strategy announced today by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull clearly places a high priority on protecting Australian government systems from foreign powers. But when it comes to protecting citizens' personal information, it appears to be rather a mixed bag.
Why no consumer voices for Turnbull’s ministerial council?
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull's new Ministerial Advisory Council last week features representatives from virtually every major Australian telecommunications company of any note. But the group most important to the future of the Australian telco sector -- consumers -- appear not to have been invited.
Oh dear: ACMA chief’s broadband “nightmare”
Chris Chapman, the chairman of the Australian Communications and Media Authority, yesterday went into a fair amount of detail about his personal household broadband connection.
Google has lost its startup culture … and its mojo
The departure of high-profile and long-serving senior managers Kate Vale and Lars Rasmussen from Google Australia this month represents more than just the typical losses of a couple of mid-level employees to greener pastures.
We must determine how the $15bn NBN cost blow-out occurred
The full resources of the Federal Parliament and other Government accountability mechanisms must be deployed to determine how a cost blowout of between $5 billion and $15 billion was allowed to occur in the National Broadband Network, and how to stop a similar situation from occurring again in future.
When Agile doesn’t work
I am a huge fan of Agile software development and since becoming Elcom's Technical Director I have made it my business to push us to become more Agile at every step. But a few months ago I realised I was pushing a square block into a round hole.
Five reasons the iPad will fail in Australia
There's just not enough information yet to know whether the iPad will succeed or fail yet in Australia. But here's five reasons why it might.
Pro-NBN fanbois have fallen into bad habits
Like mindless junkies scrabbling for their latest fix, the virulent community of pro-NBN extremists in Australia's technology sector will do or say almost anything to prove the Coalition's NBN policy to be completely worthless, despite the fact that it shares most of its fundamental principles with Labor's own superior broadband vision.
Oh dear: Generation Y, meet Stephen Conroy
Oh dear. We're fairly sure this meeting would have been punctuated by long, uncomfortable silences.
A decade of neglect: Why Tasmania deserves a FTTP rollout
Malcolm Turnbull never specifically promised Tasmanians that the all-fibre NBN rollout in the state would be completed as originally planned. But if there is any one state in Australia that deserves to have a universal Fibre to the Premises National Broadband Network, it's the Apple Isle, which has been a perpetual broadband backwater for the past decade and more.
Has Apple’s iPhone jumped the shark?
Apple only has a brief interval of time in which to attract our middle class attention with shiny new toys before we start to feel guilty for not joining the faster, broader and increasingly more innovative and open Android upgrade cycle.
NEHTA — On the road to nowhere?
The NEHTA plan, as it stands will deliver fragile single purpose interconnectivity with little or no interoperability ... As it stands they are on a road to nowhere. We have been down that road and we know where it leads.
Doctor Who? One small step towards innovation
Following the ABC’s announcement that they will be streaming timely content from the new series of Dr Who, I applaud the broadcaster for moving with public demand and technological advancements.
Wow! What a week. Humbled, but still nervous. 15 percent to go: Will we...
We still need about $3,700 to successfully fund the project, and although contributions are still coming in, they have obviously slowed down substantially from the incredible first couple of days of the project. I will need to continue momentum if The Frustrated State is to be funded. And Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing model – if we don’t hit our target, I won’t receive any funding for the project.
ANZ’s purely tactical IT strategy is short-sighted
The purely tactical IT approach which ANZ is following may seem like the right one at the moment. But down the path, the bank may find its ability to shift gears technologically has been shredded to pieces through a process involving a thousand cuts.
Gmail vs Outlook/Exchange: Round Two
Yesterday I dipped my proverbial toe in the water of public opinion about the respective merits of different email platforms, and boy -- did I get burnt. That calm-looking summer pool was actually boiling hot with conviction.
The Kobo eReader: What you need to know
My personal opinion is this is the best project we can expect to see in the market in the short to medium term, and should be successful for Borders Australia.
FactCheck: will regional internet users pay more under the Coalition’s NBN plan?
Both major parties are trying to convince voters that their plan is better than their competitor’s. So, is it true that the Coalition’s broadband plan will cost more for regional households and businesses?
Rip-off: NBN business plans miss the point
The infrastructure being deployed as part of the National Broadband Network isn’t just for consumers; it will also be used extensively by businesses and non-profit organisations. But the business-focused NBN plans released so far don’t deliver on the network’s promise; being little more than more extensive versions of NBN consumer plans.
Firemint – success or sell-out?
But I can’t help feel the way I have always felt when seeing something amazing that Australians have built with their own blood, sweat and tears being snatched up by a massive, impersonal, multinational. Like so many Australian companies before it, Firemint has now missed its chance to become something truly great – it has cashed in its chips and joined the mothership.
NAB’s Bitcoin ban a symptom of the digital currency threat
Virtual currency Bitcoin is not a subject that ever draws neutral reactions. Against those who see the radical possibilities of a frictionless payment system designed for the internet, there is a growing resistance to the currencies that threaten existing business models and the perceived traceability of our current currency systems.
How’s that going to work, then? – Government 2.0 and purdah
Perhaps it's time we stopped considering departmental web sites and social tools an optional bolt-on and put them where they belong – as a part of the critical communication network government agencies rely upon to get their message out and serve their government and public.
Optus and TV Now: Will copyright law catch up to the cloud?
A legal decision which forced Optus to shut down its time shifting service TV Now may eventually lead to reform of existing copyright law to cater for cloud technology.
Optus’ NBN plans: The most intelligent so far
Well, colour me extremely surprised. Optus' National Broadband Network plans released today are among the best so far, and represent a level of innovative thinking about the next-generation infrastructure that has so far been missing from all previous NBN commercial pricing options.
Why Megan Fox should star in the NBN ads
Why the NBN is for porn and Megan Fox should star in the NBN commercials.
Senate circus shows politics has no place in NBN
As Stephen Conroy interrogated the incoming NBN Co chief Ziggy Switkowski in last week’s Senate hearing into the network’s rollout, it became increasingly clear that politics is getting in the way of good policy.
Why the drop in illegal movie downloads in Australia?
This article is by Marc C-Scott, Lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria University. It originally appeared on The Conversation.
analysis There has been a decline in...
Anti-piracy scheme throws users to the legal wolves
The anti-piracy scheme proposed by the ISP industry this afternoon as a response to online copyright infringement through platforms like BitTorrent opens the door for content owners to start taking hundreds of thousands of Australians to court for minor offences such as downloading a handful of films or TV episodes.
A shake-up in Australia’s busy TV industry as Quickflix calls in the administrators
If Quickflix does fold or get absorbed by another local service, how many local services will survive? We may also see global VoD services taking over the local services.
Opinion: The Roy/BlueChilli policy hack is a great concept, but poorly executed
I hope that the guys at Blue Chilli can pull together something valuable, with outcomes that encourage further policy hacks and a more inclusive approach that reflects the broader community- however I don't expect it.
O’Sullivan and Dews: Leaders in exile
In scale and tone, Paul O'Sullivan's reluctance to enter the limelight of the Australian telecommunications industry is currently only matched by one man: VHA chief executive Nigel Dews.
Is Google+ building a cathedral or a bazaar?
The more you control the way the information is presented and, more importantly, the links between that information (i.e. people’s identifiers), the easier that information is to collect. The last thing Google wants is the messy, anarchic environment of the Bazaar, where people can be anonymous, have multiple identities, interact with anyone they please, and remain unobserved.
Optus’ stagnation begs leadership change
After seven years of leading Optus and many more in senior leadership positions at the telco before his ascension, O'Sullivan obviously still relishes his role and has a passion for the telecommunications industry. But he no longer has the energy to stay on the bleeding edge which the sector habitually operates on.
At least two web browsers for every Australian desktop: It should be mandatory
In mid-2008, a government staffer at an employee town hall meeting being held by the US State Department got up to ask Secretary of State Hilary Clinton what appeared to be a rather unusual question for the venue. "Can you please let the staff use an alternative web browser called Firefox?" asked public affairs officer Jim Finkle.
On folly, freedom and filters
Hannah has been using the Internet since she was four ... When Hannah uses the Internet, she uses a connection at home that is completely unfiltered, neither by the router we use nor by activating the fairly comprehensive parental controls that come as a standard part of modern operating systems. She has administrator access to the machine she uses and she also knows and understands how to access and manage the home network.
Tech startups: Now is your chance to shape policy
Earlier this month the Rudd Labor Government issued a discussion paper on the taxation of employee share schemes. This is the best opportunity for as long as Senator Kate Lundy can remember to contribute to a formal process about how we provide the right practical and effective incentives for start-ups in Australia.
Give Turnbull a break, he’s a funny bastard
This intelligent, responsive, charismatic, technologically savvy and ambitious politician is currently barking up the wrong tree with respect to the NBN and feeding the public a lot of crap about speeds -- even if his financial arguments are sound. But the last thing I want to say about Turnbull, is, let's give the poor man a break.
Opinion: Internode must slash its horrible NBN pricing
The release of iiNet's highly affordable National Broadband Network pricing this morning makes it as crystal clear as the view from Simon Hackett's glider that fellow ISP Internode must drastically slash its own prices or be left out of the NBN race altogether.
Turnbull: Praising the mistakes of Alstons past
Malcolm Turnbull's knee-jerk rejection last week of proposed changes to local telco infrastructure planning laws starkly demonstrates how far the Coalition is right now from understanding the fundamental and underlying changes required to implement its own new telecommunications policy.
Weighing the environmental costs: Buy an eReader, or a shelf of books?
Bookshelves towering floor to ceiling filled with weighty tomes, or one book-sized device holding hundreds of “books” in electronic form: which one of these options for the voracious reader creates the least damaging environmental footprint?
It’ll always be Quigley’s NBN
Mike Quigley last week exited the role of NBN Co chief executive the way he held it: With a relentless, implacable dignity. But the executive will leave more behind him than just a memory; like Steve Jobs with Apple, Quigley's legacy will be the company and project that grew from infancy around him. Australia's greatest ever infrastructure rollout will forever bear his mark; and NBN Co's culture will forever be coloured with his impeccable personal integrity.
NBN Co must consider more aerial fibre deployments
NBN Co's Strategic Review process gives the company an unmissable opportunity to re-evaluate the early decision to deploy its FTTP network primarily through Telstra's underground ducts. The company and its new Coalition masters must now seriously consider deploying more fibre aerially on power poles in an effort to speed up its rollout substantially.
In secret piracy talks, iiNet risks losing its integrity
By participating in a series of highly secret, closed door negotiations with the Government and the content industry over the future of Internet piracy in Australia, national broadband provider iiNet risks losing its integrity and the trust of its customers that it will represent their best interests on the issue.
How important will NBN contention ratios be?
Will cheaper ISPs provide a degraded level of service on the NBN compared to 'premium' ISPs, through the use of poorer contention ratios? We'll look at both sides of the issue in this follow-up article on the future of retail ISP competition under the NBN.
Telstra should build the NBN, under the Coalition or under Labor
A growing body of evidence is mounting that NBN Co should seriously consider contracting the nation's incumbent telco Telstra to build large sections of the National Broadband Network infrastructure.
How high-speed wireless compares to cable in boosting our internet speeds
What’s needed is bipartisan commitment to accelerating NBN deployment along with modernising the infrastructure in the core network that will have to support increased access to broadband.
The NBN must have a cost/benefit analysis
The Gillard Government must urgently undertake a thorough cost-benefit analysis of the network. Its stubborn failure to do so can only lead us to conclude that it does not want to know what that analysis will reveal.
Australians still overwhelmingly support the NBN
Research from the University of Melbourne shows that Australians still overwhelmingly support Labor's National Broadband Network project, despite the fact that the same research shows newspapers have been overwhelmingly negative about the project.
Oh dear: Mario gets jiggy with it
When Nintendo invited us to a harbour cruise to celebrate the launch of its flagship new game Super Mario Galaxy 2, we knew it was going to be big. After all, the Japanese gaming giant pulled out all the stops and organised Ministry of Sound's DJ Goodwill to "mash a mix of Mario tunes".
Loyal to a fault: Switkowski is deeply Turnbull’s man
Ziggy Switkowski's first substantial public appearance since being appointed NBN Co chief executive has starkly demonstrated just how different he is from his predecessor, Mike Quigley, and just how strictly he will adhere to the guidelines which his patron, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, has set for him.
Oh dear: How Lotus can win Qantas back
Delimiter is prepared to bet that the Lotus Notes camp wasn't happy to learn in February that Qantas had decided to switch sides and was now playing for the Exchange team. But not everyone took the decision lying down.
Our NBN debate: Where everyone is partly wrong
Like a blade out of the dark, this week ex-ACCC chief Graeme Samuel came from nowhere to drive a stake into the heart of the Coalition’s rival NBN policy, arguing that the FTTN technology it’s based on is “obsolete”. And just as viciously, Malcolm Turnbull fired back. But who is objectively on the side of truth in this storm in a teacup? As is so often in our flawed NBN debate, the answer is: ‘Nobody’.
Burned by their own hubris: Every party to the Kogan Mobile fiasco brought their...
There are no victims in this complete debacle: Like the fated heroes of the Greek tragedies, every party involved in the Kogan Mobile catastrophe brought their own injury on themselves.
Australia Post, Telstra and the ‘dying business’ dilemma
Who would run a former government-owned monopoly these days? In the last week, Australia Post’s Ahmed Fahour announced 900 administration jobs were to go from its Melbourne operations, while last week Telstra’s David Thodey recounted discussions from his recent trip to the US, where he was told his “business model is dead”.
The great NBN sell-off has already begun
NBN Co, we hardly knew ye. Make no mistake: Tony Abbott's new Coalition Government does not want to own a national broadband monopoly. The process of selling NBN Co to the private sector has already begun, and will be accelerated over the next several years.
Clueless Telstra iPhone buyers get what they deserve
Take some responsibility, people. It's only common sense to know what you're buying and what you're signing. It's not Telstra's fault that you're an idiot. So shut the frack up. OK?
Reality check: Internode is not ‘price gouging’
Those who are currently having a big fat whinge about Internode's new broadband plans need to harden up and realise that the ISP isn't trying to gouge users for profits; in fact, it's one of the only truly honest and transparent companies in Australia's telecommunications sector.
What makes a great Australian iPhone app?
On Thursday this week, Delimiter will publish its first eBook. Entitled The best Australian iPhone apps (under $5), this 40 page effort will list and review over 30 of the best iPhone apps focused on Australia, as well as featuring a introduction by well-known Australian iPhone developer Graham Dawson – creator of the popular Oz Weather app, among others.
Wi-Fi patent has driven CSIRO money mad
The CSIRO should give up its pointless chase of global technology giants and telcos, and let sleeping laptops lie.
Why Modern Warfare 3 needs Australians
A good name would be something ocker like "Dazza", because that’s pretty Australian, or even better, "Budgie", which kinda says he likes to take the piss.
Foxtel’s bundle of pain could come sooner than it thinks
This whole business model is now under challenge; for newspapers, TV channels and for pay TV. The share prices of media companies are in decline, and in the US in sharp decline.
Dick Smith’s not the hero product we need
Dick Smith and Harvey Norman are fabulous examples of retail marketplaces where you can buy anything. But increasingly, people don't want to buy anything. More often than not, they only want to buy the best thing. And that's the one thing which mass market retailers never quite seem to want to sell you.
Datacentre strategy a big downer
When I read the summary of the government's datacentre strategy for the next 15 years, the first thing I wondered was how it could have taken the government months to come up with this document.
DRM is clouding Australia’s eBook market
I started to look at eBook retailers. And cried. Big Fat Girly Tears. DRM. Lots of DRM. Lots of formats with DRM.
Revised Delimiter Statement of Principles
Hi everyone,
welcome back! Delimiter starts publishing again today, and from today I'm also commencing work on my technology policy book, The Frustrated State. It...
Oh dear: Telstra comes to the mountain
It's safe to say that Australia's largest telco Telstra hasn't exactly had the *best* of relationships with the fiery denizens that reside in the deep and swirling waters known as Whirlpool. And who can blame it?
Five ways NZ is smarter than Australia on broadband
In Australia, poking fun at our New Zealand cousins has become more than just a hobby over the years; these days it enjoys the status of a national sport. However, when it becomes to broadband, the situation has been turned on its head: New Zealand is doing everything right that we are doing wrong. Here's five ways the Kiwis are smarter than us in this critical area.
Delimiter (draft) Statement of Principles
As regular Delimiter readers will know, I have made mistakes in the past. Not all of the articles I have written have been on...
Google Books wins ‘fair use’ but Australian copyright lags
Australia wants to foster innovation in a digital economy, but our copyright laws discourage businesses from investing in new technologies and make it harder for individuals to access the knowledge upon which innovation is based. Yesterday’s US decision in the Google Books case shows why US copyright law is much more supportive of innovation than ours.
The RBA state-sponsored hack attack (or phishing for a story)
You’ll have seen the fallout this week regarding a so-called “spearphishing” attack on the Reserve Bank of Australia in 2011. As with most media reports on cyber-attacks, this one appears to have been overhyped. So what really happened?
What now after the Dallas Buyers Club pirate claim is rejected as ‘surreal’?
Time and again, Australians have shown they are willing to pay for reasonably priced and accessible content. Copyright owners who try to extort money from downloaders are going about this the wrong way.
Paying a high price for embarrassing the government
This article is by Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne. It originally appeared on The Conversation....
Evil descends on the NBN? Erm, not quite
Another day, another hacking exploit makes headlines.
Oh dear: Is there some form of CS5 event coming up?
Judging from its Twitter account, it looks like someone at Adobe Australia and New Zealand has been told to drum up support for the company’s upcoming launch of its Creative Suite 5 products (Photoshop, InDesign and so on).
Oh dear: Conroy’s like a boss
It looks like some enterprising souls on YouTube have taken The Lonely Island’s already hilarious satirical video “Like a Boss” and applied it to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy. We’re sure many people have already seen this video, as it aired on January 23rd this year. We recommend you watch both videos, the original first, to get the full effect.
Basic Govt IT needs a fundamental rethink
Government systems could be redesigned from the ground-up to make it easy to reorganise, merge and demerge departments, so that a person's email system can be rapidly and easily moved from one agency to another, or the HR information of two departments can be consolidated in a merger at low cost.
Good news, flyers: ‘Flight mode’ is safe during take-off and landing
Earlier this year, the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) put together a panel of aviation experts to look at whether personal electronic devices (PEDs) could be used on planes without compromising safety. The results are in: the committee is recommending that electronic devices – such as tablets, e-readers and other PEDs – be allowed during all phases of flight (including take-off and landing).
Vale Stephen Conroy: Australia’s greatest ever Communications Minister
For all his flaws and missteps, Stephen Conroy has been an incredible reformer and revolutionary force for change in Australia's technology sector over most of the past decade. He will ultimately be remembered as Australia's greatest ever Communications Minister; a visionary who almost single-handedly drove the creation of the National Broadband Network.
Wake up and smell the democracy, Stilgherrian
I couldn’t help but laugh when I read Stilgherrian’s rant on ABC Unleashed yesterday about how Australia’s “digital elites” may understand technology but somehow don’t get how the apparently unbelievably complicated world of Federal politics works.
New World Order: IBM’s Qld Health disaster places project governance focus back on vendors
The disastrous, billion-dollar failure of Queensland Health's project to replace its payroll systems delivers a stark warning to technology giants such as IBM that they must start to take a much stronger role in governing government IT projects.
The Senate NBN Committee should interview MyRepublic
The interjection by Singapore’s MyRepublic into Australia’s broadband debate this morning may have been inflammatory and used mildly offensive adult language. But there are some fundamentally good points being made by the upstart telco. The next step should be for the Senate’s NBN Committee to interview its chief executive in person.
WA shared services disaster a warning to others
The decision by the West Australian (WA) government to abandon its shared corporate services is a salutary reminder of the governance realities of the Westminster system of government. Portfolio and agency autonomy is the dominant force whatever the desires of central agencies and the grand plans cooked up for them by consultants. Just because benefits appear compelling in a spreadsheet does not mean that they can be realised in practice.
Have iiNet’s acquisitions helped or harmed competition?
Has iiNet's ongoing series of acquisitions harmed or helped the development of market competition in Australia's telecommunications sector? It's a difficult and complex question -- and one which we will attempt to answer in this in-depth analysis of the situation.
Let’s face it, Gerry Harvey has a point
But in the meantime, let’s not simply tell Gerry Harvey to STFU because he has a dud website and is a rich old fatcat billionaire having a whinge in public. He didn’t get to where he is by being ignorant — unlike most of the people buying his products.
Laptops for schools should have been iPads
Let's not kid ourselves that this was the right choice. Had the politicians waited several years and spent its money on tablets instead, Australia's education system would have been the envy of the entire world.
Australia’s biggest ‘China threat’ is not Huawei, but itself
What we should really learn from the Huawei ban is that the biggest threat to Australia’s future development is not Chinese firms such as Huawei, but Australia’s own poverty in high-tech capability, and in understanding China.
Apple iTax: Made in Ireland, designed in the US
Apple, famous for its innovative products, is equally creative in its tax structure. From 2009 to 2012, it successfully sheltered US$44 billion from being taxed anywhere in the world, including sales generated in Australia.
Why is Microsoft dropping support for Windows 8.1?
In a move certain to raise the ire of users of Microsoft’s Windows operating system the software giant has announced that next month it will cease support for Windows 8.1. But that operating system is barely eight months old and already an upgraded version of the Windows 8 system that failed to impress many users since its release in 2012.
Lack of NBN detail now outrageous
The Rudd Government's 'trust me' approach to spending on its $43 billion National Broadband Network is starting to appear genuinely ridiculous.
Dark day for the ACCC as it abandons competition
The Government and the NBN Co have decided to use our taxes to buy out Optus' competition just as they have done with Telstra’s HFC. A black day indeed for the ACCC and competition in Australia.
The end is nigh for Windows XP: Are you ready?
Almost 13 years after its release in October 2001 to a world still in shock after the 9/11 terror attacks, the sun is finally setting on Microsoft’s Windows XP. The operating system has been the software in many home and work PCs but for die-hard users who continue to use XP, danger that way lies.
iiNet’s BoB Lite: Insecure by design
While testing iiNet's new Bob Lite integrated ADSL router yesterday, I became aware that it ships with an extremely insecure default Wi-Fi setup.
The NBN Company is boring … and deliberately so
Let's not pretend the NBN Co is not tuning its own message for public consumption, or that its deliberately boring exterior shell represents reality.
Telstra’s David Thodey is on top of the world
Everything about Thodey's approach screams that he is enjoying his position in life to the absolute maximum. That he loves running Australia's great warhorse of a telco and wouldn't give it up for anything. That he really believes in his mission to take back the hearts and minds of Australians and stop them using the word "Telstra" as a swearword.
Why touchscreens matter for laptops (Or, review of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch)
Over the past several years I've had the somewhat unique experience of reviewing almost exactly the same laptop three times. What the process has taught me is that the new wave of touchscreens making their way into laptops aren't just a fad; they're part of a subtle revolution in the way we interact with out portable devices.
The final leaked TPP text is all that we feared
Today's release by Wikileaks of what is believed to be the current and essentially final version of the intellectual property (IP) chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) confirms our worst fears about the agreement, and dashes the few hopes that we held out that its most onerous provisions wouldn't survive to the end of the negotiations.
Budget 2014: No country for new games
Cutting off the Games Fund demonstrates that the Liberal government has no interest in supporting an existing vibrant and maturing creative industry. Attacking the younger and lower classes of the nation by gutting a wide range of social services demonstrates that the Liberal government has no interest in the creative and cultural future of the nation.
Conroy’s filter: To be or not to be?
Two and a half years ago, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced a significant delay to Labor's controversial mandatory Internet filter project, pending a review into the Refused Classification category of content which the filter was to block.The results of that review were published yesterday and contain very little guidance for the Minister. What will Conroy do now?
Did AGIMO censor Reinecke’s Gershon review?
When a Government entity blacks out a portion of a public document, it always sparks intense speculation as to what has been censored and why. Is the hidden information dangerous for Australia's enemies to know? Commercial in confidence? Or simply slightly embarassing?
Get it right, Twitter: Conroy’s not the ACTA minister
To what extent should Senator Conroy should be aware of the ACTA negotiations? Only partially.
In defence of an honourable man
It is completely legitimate to debate the merits of the NBN; like many others, I myself have been a long-term critic of the project, particularly its economic model. But it is not legitimate to link an innocent man with bribery and corruption simply to serve those ends.
Did Apple shaft Aussie telcos on the iPad?
I was shocked by the revelation yesterday that neither Telstra or Optus would be directly selling the iPad from their retail stores (we don’t know about VHA yet). As I wrote the news stories about the telcos, just one thought was crossing my mind: Are they completely insane? Don’t they want to make money? What the hell is going on here?
The truth about NBN Co’s satellite needs
Does the National Broadband Network Company really need to launch two expensive new satellites to provide remote Australia with broadband? Setting the politics aside, from a technical perspective, it appears the answer is a clear: "Yes".
Will nice guy Thodey finish last?
Telstra chief executive David Thodey charmed the pants off press and analysts at the telco's half-yearly financial results briefing last week.
Um, HP? You might want to kill the TouchPad ads
Um, HP? You might want to stop advertising the TouchPad, seeing as your exclusive Australian partner Harvey Norman has now run out of stock following the $98 fire sale and you’re not planning to make any more. I know it’s short notice, but surely something can be done about this series of ads plastered around the country?
A review of Australian political iPhone apps
It appears that neither of Australia’s two major sides of politics – Labor and the Coaltiion -- has so far developed an iPhone app to help keep their supporters up to date on their activities. Even the Greens – known as a progressive party in touch with the younger generation – don’t have an iPhone app that we could find.
NBN: Is $109 the magic triple play price?
Most of Australia's major fixed-line telcos have standardised their pricing on mid-range bundled broadband, telephone and IPTV plans around the $109 mark.
Budget a harsh wake-up call for the tech sector
Listening to the shrieks and squeals of tech sector commentators over the past few weeks, you’d be forgiven for thinking Joe Hockey’s first budget contained nothing for the industry. A more measured inspection of the budget entrails and you will find the Coalition has delivered a lot. A lot of pain, and a lot of lessons.
I tried to buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab … but failed
The scene: Deep in the dungeon of a Federal Government agency. Our protagonist, a mild mannered government worker by day, intrepid reporter at night, sees the Delimiter article on Vodafone releasing the Samsung Galaxy Tab on this date! Hallelujah!
Anti-piracy lobby still suffering from self-delusion
Most Australians understand that the only solution to the nation's record Internet piracy rates is for the film and TV industry to follow the music, book and gaming sectors and make their content available online in a timely, affordable and convenient manner. But that's a truth rights holders and their lobbyists seem unwilling to accept.
Oh dear: Conroy claims “nude DSL” is taking off
Biting wit proved the flavour of the night at a Senate Estimates Committee hearing in Canberra tonight as Communications Minister Stephen Conroy faced off against the acid tongue of Liberal Senator Mary Jo Fisher and and that of others, in an caustic five-hour marathon question and answer session in which Conroy referred to the popular new phenomenon of "nude DSL".
‘War’ on tax avoidance overlooks some obvious legal fixes
This article is by Antony Ting, Associate Professor, University of Sydney. It originally appeared on The Conversation.
opinion/analysis The war on tax avoidance by multinational...
Watching the detectives: the case for restricting access to your social media data
Let’s hasten slowly in considering calls to free the state from administrative inconveniences such as warrants and rules of evidence.
Connecting to Australia’s first digital technology curriculum
Australia finally has its first digital technology curriculum which is mandatory for all Australian children from Foundation, the name replacing kindergarten, to Year 8.
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.
Analysis: Liberal MP Fletcher cherrypicks NBN facts
Liberal MP and former Optus executive Paul Fletcher's highly critical article about the new corporate plan released last week by the National Broadband Network Company contained a number of generally factually accurate but contextually misleading statements about the project, analysis has shown.
Scrimp now, pay later: CSIRO cuts could stifle long-term research
The moment we tie short-term political, economic or social goals to science is the moment we ensure we’ll slow down finding those momentous future breakthroughs that science has brought us. It is a paradox, but one that the government needs to understand before cutting big budgets out of long-term fundamental research programs at the CSIRO.
Anti-NBN junkies need to go to rehab
Like the junkie who can't quite quit their harmful habit, the haters of the NBN project just refuse to give up the object of their fervent hatred, fumbling around in the dark continuously for their next fix; the next flawed argument that might just prove once and for all that the project is a dud.
Freelancer’s IPO and the new tech millionaires
Freelancer, the online freelance and labour market site has issued its prospectus ahead of a listing on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).
Do Australia’s video game developers have a future?
While there are obviously plenty of opportunities to develop a sustainable video game industry in Australia, the key appears to be an ongoing dialogue between industry and policy advisors at a state level, and an association such as the GDAA.
iPad telco plans will sting Australians
Steve Jobs may have created a new category of electronic device. But he’s also created a new category of wireless broadband plan to go with it.
Malcolm Turnbull and the great Huawei farce
It doesn’t matter at all whether Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull was or was not briefed about the Federal Government’s security concerns about Huawei. What matters is whether those concerns are actually objectively grounded in hard evidence. Because all indications so far support the argument that they are not.
Spectacularly shortsighted: Debating 2012 NBN take-up rates
Reality check: The National Broadband Network is a project which will continue to serve Australia's telecommunications needs for at least the next fifty years. Debating take-up rates in the first year of its existence is nothing short of incredibly short-sighted and trivial.
Having your Exchange cake and Gmail too
For the past several years, many Australian chief information officers and IT managers have been hard-locked into choosing between just two options when it comes to evaluating the future of their email systems.
The only winner from the IT price hike inquiry is Ed Husic
The price hike inquiry has already benefited one individual very strongly: Ed Husic, the passionate first term MP who may very well be leading Labor's broadband portfolio following the Federal Election.
Relax: Conroy’s filter can be safely ignored
The government does not care, in the least, whether you reconfigure your system to bypass the filter, or teach a hundred people to each teach a hundred others to do it.
How do Labor and the Coalition differ on NBN policy?
The NBN has been a key issue in the past two elections, so will Labor’s new policy be a vote winner? The policy to move back to FTTP provides a clear differentiation from the Coalition’s FTTN-centric strategy.
McAfee is calm, collected … and doomed
The bug that McAfee suffered last week has the potential to very seriously undermine its business prospects in Australia in the medium term.
Vic Govt ICT strategy analysis: CenITex split, cloud adoption on the cards
The potential break-up of troubled IT shared services agency CenITex and the opening of the door to government adoption of the new cloud computing paradigm are two of the most important themes written between the lines of the Victorian Government's major new ICT strategy released yesterday.
How far should Australia go for Julian Assange?
Australians are constantly finding themselves in trouble overseas and turning to their government for assistance. But there is a limit to what Australia is legally required to do.
Snowden report calls out Australia’s inadequate privacy law
The revelations of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have altered the way we think about accountability, transparency and the rule of law with regard to both the activities of security agencies and the value of privacy, according to a detailed report released this week. But this change in thinking has not led to practical reform, according to the report.
It’s the internet, stupid: WikiLeaks and the modern state
Many have speculated that the internet, fully realised, would bring forward an era of global citizenship and the permanent fracturing of the nation-state. Whether this is folly or fact will only be understood in hindsight, but for now, we'll have to be content with watching the world's governments grappling with more immediate questions of what they have tried to hide, and what they now have to fear.
Offended by ‘fraudband’? Maybe you shouldn’t have said it first
There’s been a bit of hoohah about the use of the hashtag #fraudband recently by [Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull[ & his cronies, decrying every use as ‘poor form’ & the like. Yet when you look deeper into the use of the term ‘fraudband’, the reality is that the Liberal & National Party were using it LONG before anyone supporting the NBN was.
Broken dreams: The NBN’s bubble has burst
With its rollout schedule significantly delayed yet again, its contractual and political relationships on the rocks and its transparency thrown out the window, it's apparent that NBN Co is not delivering the National Broadband Network the nation was promised. So what's the future of this great Australian dream?
Software is officially a rip-off in Australia, So what can you do?
It’s official: Australia isn’t the “lucky country” in the IT sector. Consumers, government and industry down under are charged typically 50% more for software and hardware compared to their American counterparts. Why is this the case and, more importantly, what can affected customers do about it?
Watching Media Watch’s iPad coverage
In its criticism of the media coverage of the launch of Apple's new iPad in Australia this week, the ABC's normally stellar Media Watch program went too far, alleging journalistic impropriety where there was none, and unfairly targeting media outlets for legitimately covering an important news story which the public was interested in.
Telstra’s 3G network is dying in CBDs
Popularity has its downside. Reports from around Australia over the past week have made it very clear that Telstra's flagship Next G network is often struggling to function at all in the CBDs of capital cities such as Sydney and Melbourne during peak load times, leaving customers in the lurch without any access to wireless broadband.
‘Justice’ isn’t a ‘right’ in NSW …
We have another issue, involving 'incorrect' billing that we will be pursuing over the next week or so and doubtless Telstra will display the same attitude and tactics as they have done in the issue just concluded. We are also pursuing a similar issue against the TIO, an organisation that displays identical attitudes and tactics as Telstra does.
The NBN will not kill your “way of life”
Some ideas are so bad that they deserve to be ignored and cast back into the wilderness from whence they came. The ideas that the National Broadband Network will somehow destroy someone's way of life is one of them.
Why wasn’t Maxine McKew Labor’s Old Spice guy?
It was clear from the result that the people where not buying the messages either major party was selling. Social media as a network is the cheapest network to utilise, and by failing to tap into the social media users’ goodwill, both parties made themselves look inept and outsiders.
First impressions of the new Realestate.com.au
Certainly they could have done more, and I am not a fan of everything that they have changed but with the number one site in the space you have to be mindful of the "If it ain't broke don’t fix it" rule.
Corporate highs: The US P-TECH model for schools in Australia?
Prime Minister Tony Abbott visited a P-TECH (Pathways in Technology Early Career High) school in New York last week, hinting it’s a model of education we should consider implementing in Australia. The school, partly funded by IBM and training students to suit the company’s needs, is different to anything we have in Australia. While the P-TECH model would be feasible here, the model risks confusing economic needs with educational ones.
Freeplay reminds us videogames matter: The ‘culture’ debate is over
Videogames are already here, are already culturally and politically active, and have been for quite some time. We no longer need to debate if they deserve a spot at the cultural dinner table. We just need to recognise they are already there.
Spotify: Saviour of the music industry?
It says an awful lot about the music industry that the key IT companies have dominated legal sales mechanisms in providing affordable digital systems and a decent market share. Spotify will continue to be an interesting experiment in an industry that is still not relaxed and comfortable about the new century.
How seriously should we take Ruslan Kogan?
As we said before, Ruslan Kogan is a talented, visionary and successful entrepreneur who deserves our attention. But the events of the past few weeks have demonstrated we simply cannot take the maverick businessman at his word -- because he has done little over the past week to back up some very large and very public claims with hard evidence.
Memo to Minister Turnbull: NBN dissent is “democracy”
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull needs to stop engaging in attacks on those who support a Fibre to the Premises model for the NBN and commit to an open and transparent review process for the network, according to telecommunications blogger and IT technician James Archer.
The datacentres that ate NSW
Cloud computing: Surely it is time for some fresh thinking in NSW government procurement – as taxpayers, don’t we deserve it?
How can Australia build a great technology sector?
If we can get a consensus about a solution as strong as the one that existed yesterday in reaction to my initial piece on Atlassian's situation, that might be a starting point to take Australia forward and help it to become a real technology powerhouse.
Hoist by his own petard: How Labor can take on Turnbull
To a Federal Labor Party exhausted from several bitter years of internal struggle and a vicious election campaign, it must seem like slipping into Opposition might be a good chance for a hard-earned rest. But the truth is that the long fight to keep one of its key policies intact has just begun. Here’s some ideas for how Labor can take on Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull on the National Broadband Network issue — and win.
Asbestos: Let’s just fix it
Despite its bluff and bluster about the dangers of asbestos, the Coalition is proposing to just leave it in the ground – for someone else to fix another day. Their plans to kill the current NBN look more irresponsible as time goes by, and we deserve so much better than that. This is a chance to fix it, and to fix it now.
Dirty dealings: Suddenly, corruption is an issue in Australia’s technology sector
It's something which nobody wants to talk about, but which everybody knows is going on. A number of very high profile cases have starkly demonstrated over the past several years that dishonest and unethical behaviour in some cases extending as far as corrupt practice is on the rise in Australia’s technology sector.
Reality check: NBN Syntheo delays not significant
If you believe what you read over the past week, you'd think that construction delays on the part of contractor Syntheo have significantly derailed the progress of the National Broadband Network. However, as is often the case with the NBN, the truth couldn't be more different. The fact is that network remains squarely on track to meet its June 2013 rollouts targets.
Australia desperately needs a good technology policy think tank
The past decade or so of failed technology policy in Australia sharply demonstrates the need for an independent think tank that would focus on developing viable, sustainable and popular technology policy and feeding it into the political process.
Govt’s treatment of Huawei is inconsistent
While it is impossible for outsiders such as Ovum to assess the merits of national security issues because there is too much we don’t know, it is clear that there has been a lack of consistency and transparency in the way that Huawei has been treated.
Dated Treasury advice does not invalidate the NBN
If there is one thing we can absolutely rely on with respect to the debate about the National Broadband Network, it is that every week, some minor interest group, technically illiterate Coalition politician or blow-in journalist will find some new and completely spurious reason why the project shouldn't go ahead.
Tiny niche ISPs join the NBN market
When you think about competition on the National Broadband Network, you normally think about major telcos like Telstra, Optus and iiNet battling it out to win Australia's broadband spend. But the truth is that a large number of very small ISPs have already joined the NBN market and are also competing.
Please accept my apologies: I was wrong about Malcolm Turnbull
I am here today to formally apologise. I was wrong to have faith in Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition on this issue. You were all right. Turnbull does indeed appear to be attempting to "demolish" the NBN.
It’s too soon for Windows 8
Many organisations upgrading to Windows 7 probably clandestinely expect their new desktop operating system to last as long as the last one -- a decade or so.
Oh dear: How many Aussie CIOs did NOT buy an iPad?
When Delimiter started snooping around this week to work out which Australian chief information officers had bought an Apple iPad, we expected to find quite a few that had. What we didn't expect to find is that almost every chief information officer that we checked out had picked up one of the hyped Apple tablets.
ISP: Secret anti-BitTorrent piracy talks failing
It’s perhaps understandable that the rightsholders and ISPs don’t want their personal arguments heard in public. But by not allowing the people whose habits they hope to change get involved, it leads away from greater cooperation and understanding and towards suspicion and isolation. Piracy reductions definitely won’t be found at the end of that road.
FttX chaos: NBN Co won’t be able to price everything the same
If the Coalition orders NBN Co to pursue a heterogenuous National Broadband Network rollout which features different rollout styles from Fibre to the Premises, to the Node and to the Basement, the company will face a fundamentally new challenge: How to fairly set wholesale prices on technologies which are fundamentally different?
“Destructive forces” unravelling NBN, says Budde
"Destructive forces" at work in a "highly polarised political environment" are starting to "unravel" Labor's National Broadband Network project, veteran analyst Paul Budde said yesterday, with the new Coalition Government having boxed itself into a corner on the issue and end users set to suffer from a nightmarish situation akin to a "Pandora's Box" of problems.
Oh dear: NBN, ABC and … 4chan?
After our recent article on a pamphlet drop by NBN Tasmania, some readers have suggested the fledgling Taswegian company might have gone a bit far with its logo.
Optus proves: Coalition wrong on NBN pricing
The release of Optus' National Broadband Network plans yesterday represents the final nail in the coffin for the Coalition's patently untrue claim that the rollout of the NBN will cause broadband prices around Australia to rise above current ADSL levels.
The NBN should be opt-out — not opt-in
There are already plenty of good reasons why all Australians should have to actively opt-out from having their houses connected to the NBN, rather than having to opt-in.
Improving technology’s grades in Australian education
In Australian society, so much of the ongoing narrative about the current generation of students in our schools is focused around the different way that they understand and use technology; and so much of that narrative is focused around fear. But it doesn't need to be, and there's more than one side to the story.
A voice in mainstream media on NBN
Senior Victorian IT professional George Fong encourages fellow technologists to get involved in commenting on the National Broadband Network, after the success of a segment he was involved with on 3AW last week.
Please Father Steve, unlock Telstra iPhone video calling
There was one thing that stood out from the iPhone 4 launch like a rotten blood orange smouldering at the bottom of the fruit bin full of of shiny golden delicious chunks of goodness.
Electronic voting may be risky, but what about vote counting?
The right technologies, deployed in the right way, can assist with speeding up vote counts without putting the integrity of our voting system at risk. The place for that technology is not as a replacement for the paper ballot.
iiNet and Netspace? Hell, it’s about time
Having known the principals at both the ISPs -- iiNet chief Michael Malone and Netspace MD Stuart Marburg -- for some time, I would be surprised if the pair hadn't flirted occasionally with the idea of a merger on and off for the past decade.
‘Digital play’ is here to stay … but don’t let go of real Lego...
Ensuring access to both physical and digital methods of building block construction where children can move freely from one to another is crucial for their development in the early years.
Goddamnit, just make Malcolm Turnbull Comms Minister already
For all the sweet love of Jesus that everyone knows you hold in your godfearing soul, Mr Abbott, forgive Malcolm Turnbull just enough to make him Communications Minister.
How Australia got online 25 years ago
It is a quarter-century since Australia first connected to the internet, but this technological breakthrough had a long gestation. What is now a global phenomenon was once the property of an exclusive community.
The NBN, service providers and you … what could go wrong?
The NBN will provide Australians with a raft of exciting new opportunities. For services providers, it will provide a much-needed chance to improve their customer relations and procedures. And who wouldn’t welcome that?
Would you vote for a party which supports filtering?
Australia's technology press is banding together on a common survey question regarding the Federal Government's mandatory internet filtering policy. We're asking just one simple question: Would you vote for a political party which supports the internet filter?
NBN Senate Committee politicised from start
The Senate's move to force senior executives from the National Broadband Network Company to appear before its new NBN committee starkly demonstrates the extreme degree of politicisation which the NBN project as a whole is subject to.
Who’s open sourcing in Australian government?
Unfortunately though in Australia we don't seem to have any comprehensive list of which governments and councils are creating and releasing open source materials. So e-government expert Craig Thomler has created a spreadsheet, which he'll add to over time, of open sourcing going on across the Australian public sector.
Scoping the NBN cost crater
NBN Co’s Mike Quigley has confirmed what most rational analysts have long taken for granted by telling a Senate committee yesterday that it would probably take decades for the new National Broadband Network to generate a satisfactory return on the capital invested by the Federal Government.
Publishers need to stop hogging the eBook pudding
More than anything else, Australians get frustrated when – due to our geographical isolation compared to major population centres in the US and Europe – we get something late, or not at all, or it is overpriced.
Telstra’s ticking clock
NBN Co is trying to negotiate a deal based on a conviction that Telstra's copper network has already been massively devalued, while Telstra is trying to negotiate an outcome that salvages some of that value.
Forget ‘cloud-first’: Australia’s public sector is following the globe into ‘cloud-only’
Burned by a decade's worth of failures of major on-premises IT projects, 2013 was the year that Australia's State Governments almost universally declared they would take a "cloud-first" approach to IT procurement. But there are already signs that the next stage of this process is underway, and that "cloud-first" may inevitably become "cloud-only".
Buying Pipe … a good decision?
I read a couple of speculation pieces in the Australian financial press over the last two days as to whether the required 75 percent of Pipe shareholders would approve the $6.30 per share offer made by TPG to buy the company.
Welcome to NBN 17. It’s safer here.
For some people, mathematics and a crowbar are more than enough.
Delimiter’s curious response to UK Superfast report
Delimiter has published a curious response to a UK House of Lords report on broadband policy released this week. Strange days indeed. Perhaps Delimiter read a different report to everyone else.
Oh dear: Telstra’s cyber-safety quadrants
We think Australia's telcos might be taking cyber-safety a little too seriously, if this video by Telstra is any indication.
Oh dear: Masterchef contestants at Telstra with giant Apple tree
Looks like contestants from Ten's Masterchef show are already at Telstra's flagship T-Life store in Sydney's CBD preparing for the launch of the iPhone 4 at midnight tonight.
The company you keep: Section 313 notices and IPv4 collateral damage
Internet Protocol researcher Geoff Huston analyses the Federal Government's usage of Section 313 notices to block certain websites, with reference to the ongoing issue of how IPv4 addresses are being used on the Internet.
Coldplay: No paradise in Australia for Huawei
Placing barriers to entry in the government space for the building of a network when Huawei operates extensively in the corporate sphere here in Australia seems more than a little political. It mirrors the overtly partisan nature of the debate in the United States, which is mired in assertion rather than evidence and procedures for determining investment occluded rather than transparent. A Coldplay indeed.
‘Cloud first’ a circuit-breaker, says Ovum
Taking a “cloud-first” policy has the potential to act as game changer to allow departments and agencies to break out of their current restrictive ICT procurement practices, technology analyst firm Ovum said this week, as discussion continues to swirl about how Australian governments are handling the new cloud computing paradigm.
Reality check: Telstra 4G not aimed at the NBN
Those claiming that Telstra's 4G mobile broadband rollout is a shot across the bow of the fibre National Broadband Network need to take a chill pill and look a bit harder at what the company is really aiming to achieve with the project: Freed up capacity on its existing mobile infrastructure to deal with existing demand.
Cheaper hardware, software and digital downloads? Here’s how.
Australians are paying about twice as much as they should for a range of tech products including computers, software and digital downloads. It’s time for the government to act to bring this shameful situation to an end, to stop foreign multinationals from ripping us off. But until then, people should take steps to lower the cost of buying tech products. How? Read on.
Oh dear: eBooks are for pr0n
Not all eBooks sold through Borders' new store are of a high-brow nature.
NBN petition and the backlash: When does democracy speak?
Malcolm Turnbull may believe that democracy has spoken; but now is the time for democracy to shout back.
Electoral silence on digital rights from both politicians and journalists
We’ve had #stopthenotes, #suppositories, and #sexappeal to keep us amused, but since the election campaign period began there has been very limited reporting in the mainstream media (MSM) of the electoral relevance of the digital rights issues faced by Australian citizens.
Power plays: Vendors court Thodey
If you watched closely, you could see a thousand naked power plays being performed yesterday during Telstra chief executive David Thodey's speech to the Trans-Tasman Business Circle.
NBN competition will rest almost solely on price
Retail competition on the National Broadband Network will rest almost solely on price, in my opinion, as the importance of other differentiating factors between telcos like Telstra, Optus, TPG and iiNet will diminish almost to zero. And here's why.
Verizon Wireless vs Telstra: The great mobile rip-off continues
Does the recent announcement by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) of a new code of practice to prevent bill shock for “long-suffering telco customers”, and improve product marketing practices, bring Australia up to par with its international cousins? In a word: no.
Opening Pandora’s box: secret treaty threatens human rights
The Australian Parliament should reject ACTA because of its impact on human rights – particularly taking into account health care, access to medicines, and development.
Using SurveyMonkey? Be careful … if you’re an Australian Govt organisation
I've had an interesting and robust conversation online in the last day regarding how Australian councils and governments are using overseas services like SurveyMonkey to collect information from citizens and residents.
Tasmania’s dirty bunyip not the last
There's more dodgy laws in the swamp where Tasmania's ridiculous electoral online comment legislation came from.
The Kindle Fire will storm Australia in 2012
Prediction: When Amazon's Kindle Fire launches in Australia next year, it will very quickly become the second most popular tablet locally behind Apple's dominant iPad, easily eclipsing rival offerings from the likes of Samsung, Motorola, Research in Motion and more.
Advancing a competition agenda
Regulatory assessments have not acknowledged that Telstra’s dominance in fixed telephony has significant impacts on the mobile industry, according to Vodafone chief executive Bill Morrow, who argues in this opinionated article that in a converging world, this siloed approach is no longer tenable.
Introducing ‘The Cuba Replacement’: The Federal Govt’s newest major ICT project
The Federal Government has lived through half a dozen major ICT projects over the past decade. Customs had its Cargo Management Re-engineering overhaul, Immigration had Systems for People, Tax had the Change Program, and Defence is still wrangling with its desktop virtualisation and PMKeys undertakings. Now we can add one more to the list: The Department of Human Services' ambitious project to revamp the Child Support Agency's key ERP system, previously known as 'Cuba'.
Linux to dominate Australia through T-Box and Android
In only a couple of years, millions of Australians will directly be using the open source Linux operating system in their everyday personal and professional lives.
A change in Australia’s web rules would open up the .au space
If you want to register an Australian web address, your options may be about to change due to a review of domain name policy that is currently underway.
Oh dear: Mark Newton’s epic government rant
Mark Newton's submission to the Cyber-Safety Committee is one of the most epic rants we have ever had the pleasure to read.
A political price for Telstra
It’s now more than four months since Telstra and the NBN team formalised their terms of engagement and kicked off negotiations. Since then, they have got nowhere. Both sides say the talks have been constructive and that much has been achieved, but they are miles apart on price.
Election rant 1: Who’s greediest?
As many pigs have discovered over time – heading straight for the feeding trough without keeping a watchful eye out for the farmer's axe can lead one to feeling that they're high on the hog when they're actually a pig in a poke.
Intelligence apologists fast running out of excuses
Politicians from Australia's major parties need to stop issuing ludicrous blanket pardons for the intelligence community's ongoing misdemeanours and start applying a basic modicum of transparency and accountability to this important national security function.
Without civil liberties, government is just a criminal racket
Even if we choose to believe Senator Stephen Conroy's claim that this is only about protecting us from inadvertent access to child abuse material, once the system is in place, could a government resist the temptation not to extent the scope just a little bit? And a little bit more?
How to keep more girls in IT at schools if we’re to close the...
The world is increasingly embracing digital technology, and so too are our schools. But many girls are still missing out on developing IT and programming skills.
Salesforce needs a more anti-social approach
As it continues its mega-push into what it has described as "social enterprise" technologies, Salesforce.com risks losing its focus on its core CRM products, particularly as its software as a service model has failed to prove itself in several key markets in Australia.
Turnbull’s right: ‘Under construction’ NBN stats are worthless
Malcolm Turnbull is absolutely correct in his claim that NBN Co’s focus on nebulous statistics regarding the number of premises where it has commenced or completed construction are “complete nonsense”. The company should stop using this figure as a measure of its progress, and focus only on areas where it has actually finished building the NBN.
‘Cloud protectionism’? How about ‘consumer choice’?
The reality is, a huge proportion of Australians do not know they are using the cloud when they use services such as social networking, and do not know that much of their personal data is being stored overseas as a result. When they find out, they are not happy about it.
NBN irony as Turnbull takes the high ground
Last week Malcolm Turnbull gave what is generally acknowledged to be a landmark and admirable speech calling for truth, leadership and responsibility to boost the quality of debate in Australia's rapidly deteriorating political sphere. Now if only the Liberal MP would practice a little of the same when it comes to the National Broadband Network.