MinimalStateTechnology & Telco
T&J Towing Diggs a hole
“To sue, or not to sue: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous online reviews, Or to take suit against a sea of social media, And by opposing end them?” – HeathG with apologies to Shakespeare It seems that some business still don’t appreciate [...]
Can Google shareholders gain from the China confrontation?
It’s hard to see exit from the Chinese market as maximizing Google’s profits. China is, after all, very large (though Chinese growth in searching is slow). It may be that Google is being, at least in part, high-minded. After all, it’s motto is “Don’t be evil” & it is reported that Sergey Brin’s aversion to [...]
iiNet takes Netspace: The benefits of scale
Having recently reached 460k broadband subscribers, TPG appeared to have snatched third place in the fixed broadband market. But any glory was short lived, with iiNet reclaiming its number three position by announcing the acquisition of Melbourne based Netspace. In exchange for $40m, iiNet has added ~70k broadband subscribers , bringing it to 520k broadband services in [...]
What next for former BigPond boss?
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Paying women to play games
IGN ran a story today on a site called GameCrush.com. GameCrush reportedly decribes itself as “the first social site for adult gamers” and judging by the IGN article it’s trying to position itself as something of a cross between a gamers Facebook and a dating site. The SMH article has a nice summary of their [...]
Party of No: pouring Republican sand in the gears
Can seeking to prevent the elected government from governing be an electoral winner? The US Republican party is taking that bet, having decided to not merely vote no on almost everything, but to slow or prevent executive appointments, and most recently, to reduce Federal agencies capacity to undertake hearings:
Palm needs more than Pixies to save it
How the mighty have fallen. Once a pioneering leader in handheld computing, the smartphone market has not been kind to Palm Inc. Palm’s latest quarterly loss means the company is heading for its third year of losses in a row. As ZDNet’s editor in Chief Larry Dignan points out, Palm now finds itself in a [...]
Emulation: Do not merely replicate known objects
Brad Delong (linking to Marco.Org) pointed me toward Soulver, a rather nice calculator ap for the iPhone (the Mac version is much more expensive). Most calculator aps replicate the real world object, which is handy as most of us know how to operate physical calculators, but that that should not constrain the developer. Soulver does [...]
Minimising the harm from online hate
Whilst ignoring racist behaviour online won’t automatically make it go away, those trying to quash it through legal threats should recognise their actions may actually make matters worse. The SMH today reports that: “The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has threatened legal action against a widely read but controversial US-based website over an article that [...]
Time for TIO Complaint Rankings
I’d like to make a complaint. It’s about the way the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsmen (TIO) reports its complaint statistics. Around October each year, the TIO publishes it’s annual report that almost invariably reports a rise in complaints. For instance in the latest reporting year (2009) we’re informed “the highest increase in complaints was among mobile [...]