It appears that Senator Conroy and the Labor party are are determined to continue with the introduction of internet censorship to Australia – another first for ‘western’ democracies.
You may like to read this blog post from the West Australian and also read Google’s view on the subject.
You may also wish to express your views at Getup: http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet&id=892
As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian government has admitted that it has not defined ANY criteria to judge the success or failure of it’s limited Net Filtering trial.
Following on from the leaking of the site blacklist, the inclusion of legal sites on the list, and the scaling back of the size of the banned list to be used for the trial, this is another demonstration of the lack of forethought and clear goals for this policy.
The news has been roundly condemned by Coalition and Green party members.
Read the full story here
The Federal Government has scrapped the controversial broadband tender process and has decided instead to form a new public/private company to build a national network as an infrastructure project.
Making the announcement today, Mr Rudd described the $43 billion fibre-to-the-home scheme as the single largest infrastructure project in the country’s history and said it would create 25,000 jobs a year during construction, with 37,000 in the busiest year of construction.
“It is the most ambitious, far-reaching, and long-term nation-building infrastructure project ever undertaken by an Australian government,” said Mr. Rudd.
The network will connect 90 per cent of homes to a network with speeds of up to 100 megabits per second, with the remainder connected at 12 megabits a second.
The Government would hold a majority share in the company, which will also be part-owned by the private sector, and will invest $43 billion into the project over eight years.
The Government will then gradually sell off it’s share of the company five years after the project is completed.
Mr Rudd said the company would inject a “new competitive force” into the telecommunications market.
“Today we draw a line under a decade of policy area and neglect,” he said.
“This solves once and for all the core problem created when the previous prime minister privatised Telstra a decade ago without ever resolving the conflict of a private monopoly owning the network infrastructure and dominating the retail market.”
Mr Rudd said the broadband tender process was being scrapped because none of the submitted bids offered value for money to the taxpayer, but said anyone was open to invest in the new company.
Telstra was dropped from the bidding process last December after the Government rejected its proposal.
Researchers have found a huge electronic spying operation that has infiltrated computers and stolen documents from government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama.
In a report provided to the New York Times, a team from the Munk Centre for International Studies in Toronto said at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries had been breached in less than two years by the spy system, which has been dubbed “GhostNet”.
Embassies, foreign ministries, government offices and the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centres in India, Brussels, London and New York were among those infiltrated, said the researchers, who have detected computer espionage in the past.
The researchers came to the conclusion that computers based almost exclusively in China were responsible for the intrusions, although they stopped short of saying the Chinese Government was involved in the system, which they said was still active.
“We’re a bit more careful about it, knowing the nuance of what happens in the subterranean realms,” said Ronald Deibert, a member of the research group – “This could well be the CIA or the Russians. It’s a murky realm that we’re lifting the lid on.”
A spokesman for the Chinese Consulate in New York dismissed the idea China was involved. “These are old stories and they are nonsense,” the spokesman, Wenqi Gao, told the Times. “The Chinese Government is opposed to and strictly forbids any cybercrime.”
The researchers began investigating after a request from the office of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, to examine its computers for signs of malicious software, or malware.
The network they found possessed remarkable “Big Brother-style” capabilities, allowing it, among other things, to turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of infected computers for potential in-room monitoring, the report said.
The system was focused on the governments of South Asian and Southeast Asian nations and the Dalai Lama, while computers at the Indian Embassy in Washington were infiltrated and a NATO computer was also being monitored.
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Program aims to provide access to IT equipment to remote and disadvantaged children throughout the world, and an Australian version has just been launched with a view to spreading the goodness to kids in Australian and Pacific Island communities.
The laptops in question are basic but rugged little beasts, designed specifically for the program, and something like 500,000 have been distributed around the world already. Currently just a few thousand will be avaialble for distribution in Australia but the program will be reviewed after this initial launch phase.
OLPC laptops have a basic 433MHz AMD Geode processor, 256MB of memory and 1GB of flash storage (plus an SD port for adding more). They come wireless ready, and run a version of Fedora with a GUI called Sugar, plus a range of open source Apps.
The machine has no moving parts and it is designed to be robust enough for hot and dusty climates and easily repaired in the field. There are three USB ports, audio jacks, stereo speakers and microphone, a VGA camera, a waterproof membrane keyboard and a clever LCD screen that is perfectly readable in bright sunlight.
This excellent scheme is making the laptops available via a donation scheme. Basically, a donation of $399USD will set aside one laptop for use in a remote community PLUS another laptop will be given to you. You can of course, then also opt to donate ‘your’ laptop so that the program benefits from 2 machines.
All in all, this seems like an excellent way to give kids out in the bush or in other remote communities a helping hand and a bit of access to IT equipment and ideas that they may otherwise not get.
OLPC Australia can be found at: http://olpc-australia.org.au/
TestFreaks have launched an Australian-based version of their popular TestFreaks site.
TestFreaks screenshot
TestFreaks is a useful one-stop shop that aggregates expert & user reviews, forum posts, images and technical material about a huge range of computing and entertainment items.
As well as pulling all of this information together, the site also provides aggregated ’scores’ such as the ’Freak’ score based on a combination of factors such as age of product, age of review, review source etc.
Product categories can be browsed, with various sort and filter options available to help narrow down product searches.
Selecting a product will pull together and present a wide range of information for you, including links to technical manuals and video reviews. Expert & User reviews and product related forum threads can be viewed all from the one place - with the handy option of showing local reviews only if required.
Products can be selected for comparison against each other, and the site also provides price information based on a number of price feeds.
The site also provides a handy ‘community’ type tool where people can submit and answer questions relating to various categoires.
It has to be said that the Aussie version of TestFreaks currently has a fairly small range of categories, but you only have to take a look at the main TestFreaks site to see the huge range they have covered there – so we should expect to see steady growth in the range of products covered in the com.au site.
The site is currently in beta-mode and is undergoing regular improvements as a result of user feedback, but the interface is very friendly, clean and easy to use.
Well worth a bookmark for any gadget and hardware freaks out there (both the com and com.au versions).
TestFreaks
review post by IT Resource
A COMMONWEALTH Bank computer error has left up to 200,000 customers with money ‘missing’ from their accounts, in some cases leaving accounts overdrawn.
A fix is expected overnight.
It appears that customers who had transactions on their accounts between 22nd and 24th November are most likely to be affected, with funds missing from accounts, even though they showed on earlier statements.
Commonwealth bank has stated that any fees incurred as a result of the error will be refunded, and has asked any affected customers left without cash to visit a local branch.
A lawsuit has been filed against Apple claiming that technology used in the iPhone to surf the web infringes on a patent recently filed by a Los Angeles real estate developer (Elliot Gottfurcht) and two partners.
The lawsuit was filed by EMG Technology LLC on Monday in the US District Court in Tyler, Texas. EMG was founded by Mr Gottfurcht and is based in Los Angeles.
The lawsuit alleges that technology the iPhone uses to navigate and display websites specifically designed for small phone screens infringes on a patent obtained in October which was assigned to EMG.
Apple has declined to comment on the lawsuit.
MySQL have announced a new service known as Query Analyser.
The tool will allow administrators and developers to review SQL for possible errors or problems which could harm query performance, an area of functionality which has been noticeable by it’s absence up until now.
Early tests on the system have reportedly seen considerable performance increases among beta testers,. A MySQL spokesman said “”Internally we have seen a 30 per cent improvement. It helps people find problematic code in minutes, and eliminates [that] code during the development process”.
In order to use the new tool, customers will need to have a Gold or higher level subscription to MySQL, although it will come at no extra cost. Hopefully it will just be a matter of time before service availability drips down to the general user population.
Microsoft are releasing more snippets of information about the forthcoming Window 7 edition. Here are a few of the promised highlights that relate to IT professionals:
In Windows 7, system image creation and deployment is enhanced with advances such as Dynamic Driver provisioning, the Deployment Image Service and Management tool, Multicast Multiple Stream Transfer, and improvements to user state migration.
Microsoft offically launches the Small Business Server and Essential Business Server products in Australia today (12th November), so here are some handy details of the two products:
These integrated sever packages aimed specifically at small and medium sized business and provide depoyment, management and security solutions.
Windows Small Business Server 2008
For small businesses running fewer than 75 PCs. Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 runs multiple technologies, which are integrated and configured specifically for small business needs:
Windows Essential Business Server 2008
For mid-sized business. Essential Business Server offers:
You can find out more via the Microsoft Webcast: here
Sorry for the recent lack of activity – I had to go away on some urgent business at short notice and was unable to attend to IT Resource.
I’m back on board now, and normal service will be resumed ASAP. In fact, there should be some exciting times ahead, as we are hoping to make some changes that will greatly improve the ‘community’ side of things here. IT Resource is a great source of information for many people, but we want to build on that and add some Forum sections which will allow for a much greater level of interactivity and allow people to post questions (and answers) more easily.
I will keep you informed of developments on that front, and in the meantime will resume normal posting.
thanks
IT Resource
The inbuilt Firefox download manager is a gem in itself, but recently I came across Down Them All.
Down them all is a Firefox add-on and it is a download manager/accelerator. The website claims up to 400% faster downloads. It’s a bit like download accelerator pro in that it uses up maximum bandwidth when downloading large files.
I used Down Them All to download a few 700mb files, including the Ubuntu operating system from an Optus mirror. The results were excellent: using a 1.5mbps connection, I was averaging about 150kb/sec throughout the download.
I have since used it to download 5gig of data today, and it has saved me plenty of time.
What’s more, it integrates itself, so when you right click and save as, DTA will automatically appear as one of the options. Selecting it will open the download manager.
DTA allows for easy management of your downloads, including: pausing, resuming, limiting, and prioritising your downloads.
DTA can be found via: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201
Guest post by Raja Devanathan of MrFeedback.net
The man accused of plunging the Northern Territory government’s computer network into chaos has been committed to stand trial.
OVer 10,000 thousand public servants were locked out of their computers in May after the NT government’s network was hacked and employee details and passwords deleted. Services affected included Hospitals, Prisons and the Supreme Court.
David Mcintosh has been charged with 13 computer related offences – with a maximum possible jail term of 10 years.
The prosecution alleges that the man was a disgruntled employee of a contract company that conducted IT services for the government computer system. It is alleged he used a colleague’s log-in and password to access the network and cause the widespread disruption.
After a two day committal hearing, Magistrate Sue Oliver today ordered McIntosh stand trial in the Supreme Court.
He has been remanded in custody and the case has been adjourned until December.
A couple of snippets concerning Google’s new Chrome browser:
It seems like Chrome’s new Pop-Up hider still loads the Pop-Up ads, but doesn’t present them to the viewer.
This is somewhat different to how traditional Pop-Up blockers work, in that they actually prevent the ad from loading. Our understanding of that approach is that this means the Advertiser wouldn’t be charged, as their ad is not loading.
The situation with Chrome may well be different, as the ad is being loaded but not shown, which could lead to advertisers still being charged for Pop-Ups that no one will ever see.
For Pop-Up haters that’s fine, but if true and if Chrome grabs a significant portion of the Browser market, then this could well lead to changes in advertising methods.
In a very public spirited gesture, it seems that Google (via YouTube at least) is still advertising Firefox, even after the launch of Chrome.
Whether this is an oversight on Google’s part, or a requirement of their agreement with Mozilla we don’t know. Is Google still the default search engine bundled with Firefox installs, as per their agreement (which was re-negotiated earlier this year)? If so, how much longer will this arrangment last?
Thanks to Raja of MrFeedback.net for the heads up about the Firefox ad in Youtube.
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