MinimalStateTerabyte Delight or Terror Byte?
I have a new post at TEX, looking at the market buzz around terabyte broadband plans. The short version of my argument: whilst there are some users who consistently use a terabyte or more, this is a lot more data than most currently need. Anyway, the post got picked up by the media, being covered [...]
Attribution & Retribution in the age of Aurora and Stuxnet
This post is inspired by my attendance at the Sydney session of the McAfee Focus 2010 Security Seminar and recent discussions around the Stuxnet malware. At McAfee’s Focus 2010 Security Seminar, one of the more interesting sessions was an analysis of Operation Arurora presented by McAfee’s head of Threat Research, Dmitri Alperovitch. Outside of IT [...]
Corporate Blogging at Telstra Exchange
One of the great things about writing your own blog is the freedom. You get to choose the style, the format and the frequency of posting. You get to set the rules of the blog, and so long as your employer is supportive of private blogging, there’s scope for discussing pretty much any topic – [...]
Will GetUp!’s satire GetIt! in trouble?
With an election likely to be called in the next few months, advocacy group GetUp! has launched a campaign encouraging people to ensure they are enrolled to vote. A key element of this campaign is a YouTube clip portraying the electoral battle as if it were the latest Hollywood action movie. The clip is cleverly [...]
The State of the Population
Thanks Julie Gillard. Really. Some time ago, I was going to post on the ‘Population Crisis’ as it had been reported at the time (months ago) and why I though, generally speaking, it was rubbish. I held off, as accurate statistics were tricky to get hold of, and I’m generally pretty easy to distract. I [...]
Hetero sex scandal?
One day, public figures being gay and/or enjoying sex won’t be newsworthy. Unfortunately for David Campbell, that day is yet to dawn. As Channel Seven demonstrated earlier this year, for some journalists and the audience they serve, that combination is still seen as scandalous. When the David Campbell story broke, LE pointed out the mixed [...]
Will telcos have Apple on their faces?
Last Friday, Apple was forced to acknowledge an embarrassing flaw in the iPhone operating system, a flaw present since the release of the original iPhone. As embarrassing as this is for Apple, some mobile network operators may also find this latest development leaves them with … Apple on their faces.
Losing the filter without losing face
This week the Australian Labor Party installed Julia Gillard as its new leader, making her the first female Prime Minister of Australia. This change in leadership provides the government with an opportunity to change its approach to certain policy issues without losing (quite so much) face. The new PM has wasted no time in seizing [...]
NBN not mandatory for ‘smart grids’
One of the claimed benefits of the national broadband network (NBN) is that it will act as an enabler for ‘smart grids’. ’Smart grids’ have been described as electricity distribution networks that: “use sensors, meters, digital controls and analytic tools to automate, monitor and control the two-way flow of energy across operations—from power plant to [...]
NBN Study: Were the right questions asked?
Earlier this month, the Australian government released the implementation study for the National Broadband Network. The scope of the study was to: “advise Government on how best to implement its stated policy objectives, not to evaluate those objectives, given that the policies have already been agreed by Government. This report therefore focuses on translating high-level policy [...]