* Posts by andro

126 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Mar 2010

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Euro Parliament kills ACTA treaty before court can look at it

andro
Flame

Next we need to block the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. Its more of the same, and just as secret but its not being pushed in Europe, so it is not as much be in the public eye. If it is being proposed in your country (or even if it isnt) see here:

http://tppwatch.org/what-is-tppa/

countries:

Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, USA , Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore (source: http://www.dfat.gov.au/fta/tpp/ )

Australia goes cold on ACTA

andro

ppau

The pirate party AU has been submitting information to point out exactly the problems with ACTA to comittees involved. It is good to see that we are now giving it a proper evaluation (even though this should have been done years ago, when it was first introduced).

Unfortunately, we also have the TPPA which is too similar for comfort, and most people dont even know about it.

Telstra’s filter supplier also blocks for Qatar, Yemen, UAE

andro

There would be sites that contained data in the url but did not use standard authentication methods and thus the information was sent off shore to the usa. Once its in the usa, australias privacy laws no longer apply (and have already been breached, as customers were not made aware) and the us patriot act does apply, meaning that it can be used against australians. While this is not likely to affect regular users browsing the net on the phone it sets a very bad precedant and should not be taken lightly.

Solar power can head out of the clouds says CSIRO

andro
Thumb Up

good article

Its good to see an article with serious discussion about solar, and raising issues from a reputable scientific body. Its fantastic that solar has gotten past the point of "should we have it at all" in australia and reached "how to make it work better". This is whats needed from here.

Software functionality not subject to copyright: EU court

andro

It is a big problem right now, though some things seem to be moving in the right direction. Europe is catching on fast. If there is a pirate party in your part of the world, vote for them next time you have a chance!

MPAA boss: 'SOPA isn’t dead yet'

andro
Pirate

worse than that

it is vitally important to make it clear to your politicians that privacy needs to be protected. those voting for the bill are doing it for money from the lobbyists who are the corporations who want to control the net, and the future. if you can be held indefinatly without trial, and all your communications can be monitored without a propper warrent, then you do not live in the land of the free.

TSA bars security guru from perv scanner testimony

andro

false security theatre

I recently flew between Singapore and Thailand, and was handed metal knives and forks to eat with on the plane. I gather this is normal for that region, and I dont see millions of terrorists hijacking planes or people being stabbed because of it. Just people eating their dinner.

It is such a load of rubbish we are forced to deal with in countries where so much money changes hands between mates in the name of this security theatre.

CSIRO: warming up to five degrees by 2070

andro

Re: File under rationalisation...

No, you are confuising El Nino and La Nina. They are opposites. It is expected to be colder and wetter now, but this is not an inconvinent truth. I This is the weather osscillations they are talking about. The CSIRO is a well respected govertment scientific organsisation, which is not privately funded. If they say its true, they will be correct. Read the 3rd paragraph of the article again.

Aussies learn to love downloading

andro

Why do people always think that browser view = on a laptop or at a computer desk? I myself have a latop plugged permanently in to my tv, and wireless keyboard and mouse with the rest of my remote controlls, so do my parents so do many of my friends. Most the people I know who use iview do watch it in the lounge, on the TV and through a decent stereo. While you can have, you still dont need set top boxes, or anything more complicated than a desktop pc and wireless controls. The sooner more people realise this, the better! I'd have signed up for fetchtv by now if I could view it in a web browser alongside iview. The required set top box is a deal breaker, though. Iveiw has it right!

Australia to make health research open access

andro

This is refreshing news! I hope the license is well thought out, but this will do a lot of people a lot of good.

Czechs, Slovaks stall on ACTA

andro

Who in Australia do we contact in protest about this? It is a Federal thing I guess.. which department? I want to be more vocal about this sort of stuff. 'They' have their head in the sand!

Samsung outs 'retina display' ARM chippery

andro

sgs3?

Why is everyone thinking 'windows tablets' and microsofts OS? To me, this has samsung galaxy s3 phone written all over it. So far all the leaked specs seem dubious at best, but i think 2ghz quad core would be quite likely and at the right time. And if so, I think samsung would keep it in house for a while to keep their competitors a technological step behind.

Nude lady recreates Star Wars tauntaun scene in dead horse

andro

not suprised

Title should read "aspiring model finds way to be noticed"

http://www.exploretalent.com/jashalottin

Well.. I wouldnt do it, but I dont see that theres a problem. Horse was scheduled be euthenised, dispatched humanely.... so what... ive seen worse advertising material, and now ive seen something novel and different today.

Google indoor Streetview images go live

andro
Meh

high up and high res

My area in Australia has recently been updated. The resolution is far higher than the first time around, and the cameras can see over fences that I cant see over when I walk down the road. I am 6" tall.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?ll=-34.898462,138.57841&spn=0.028405,0.066047&sll=-31.952854,115.857339&sspn=0.117541,0.264187&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=15&layer=c&cbll=-34.898504,138.578504&panoid=s3eHExAfewhlDLZmJVfalQ&cbp=12,192.3,,0,8.71

A random house.. So now whos the evil one? Me for posting a random this link? or google for making it public for anyone who looks? Or nobody - should we not expect fences this high to keep the view off the internet?

Maybe some or most people dont care, but we should be very careful about our privacy being eroded.

Google will keep pushing the limits until they are stopped. But they are eroding our expectation of privacy and then keep moving the line.

AFL boss: NBN could let us bypass broadcasters

andro
Thumb Up

Great!

Its good to see people more publicaly starting to look at what will become possible with the NBN, instead of just thinking it'll be more of more of what we have now.

For Australian small biz, NBN retail prices look fabulous

andro
Go

great thing, and will get cheaper

I wouldnt worry about the opening day prices for something that doesnt even exist yet, (other than in a couple of test areas). Like all technology prices will come down. You can be an early adopter if you wish and sign up on day 1, or wait 6 months and see where things are at then. Any provider is going to include a healthy margin to begin with, while the network is all new and they are establishing their own teams and procedures to manage it. Once its all go, then they can streamline their operations and drop their prices to keep up with the competitors who are doing the same.

I remember how many people said "I dont need ADSL, dialup is fine", but ive not seen any of them want to go back now! Can you imagine how cool it will be when can stream high bitrate content straight to our TVs with flawless quality? Most internet streams are a joke compared to bluray quality now. Bring it on!

Australia launches digital blueprint

andro
Happy

plenty of tech is Aus

I partly agree, partly disagree. Things change, but the IT, telecomunications and engineering sectors are huge, and there are a lot of skilled professionals working with and around technology.

True our manufacturing is gone, and that is because we wont work for penuts and consumers everywhere are not prepared to pay more for what they see as the same product (wether it is the same product is up for debate, but thats how the majority look at it when they reach for their wallet).

We are not behind, and the NBN should keep us up there. Im sitting here in Australia, reading the reg, writing software and waiting for the NBN to hook up me and Im definitely not alone and not leaving the country.

Australia cuts solar subsidies, and not before time

andro
Unhappy

its killed it for me

It looks like im too late. I was interested in getting some panels on my roof before the rebates reduced and I was looking at about $2000 -> $2500au to get an import/export meter from my power provider so I could feed in to the grid when the sky was light and I was under works airconditioners, ready to drive my own airconditioners at night when the sky is dark. This was pretty good and I should have done it. But having been busy I did not get the papwork sorted out in time. I just called up a local solar shop to try again thinking the rebate ended next month. But Im told the rebate for a 1500kw system has reduced from 3x to 1x last thursday, and so now my $2000ish system will cost me $6000. For a system that will supply around 1/4 of my power needs, that has blown the payback time well out, and it no longer looks viable. Heres hoping the panel prices come down a lot in the next 12 months or something.

Microsoft bricking lesson bodes badly for Elop's Brave New Nokia

andro
Unhappy

a very special relationship

the Nokia-Microsoft deal does amount to a "special relationship".

Elop IMHO has huge conflict of interest. Check the "Top 10 Other Holders: MSFT" here:

http://www.dailyfinance.com/company/microsoft-corporation/msft/nas/institutional-ownership

Ownership Breakdown: MSFT

as of 2/24/11

1. Gates III (William H)

2. Ballmer (Steven A)

3. Marquardt (David F)

4. Daiwa Securities Group Inc

5. Bach (Robert J)

6. Turner (Brian Kevin)

7. Hastings (Reed)

8. Elop (Stephen A) <-----

You cant tell me that hes not throwing all of nokias investment in linux in the bin and going microsoft because its the best thing for the company, when he personally stands to make a small fortune on his microsoft shares.

My last mate who still has a nokia is about to go samsung galaxy s. The linux platform on the n900 was really good and on time. How can this happen?

Australians safe from Mortal Kombat

andro
FAIL

R18 games classification

This is exactly why we need an R18+ classification for computer games. If we do get a local toned down version many will import the game, and we'll get MA15+ and R18+ versions of the same game locally, with teens everywhere ending up with the R18 version and parents not even realising when they check the Australian rating.

Sony tweets 'secret' key at heart of PS3 jailbreak case

andro
Linux

agreed

Yes, I agree 100% with your comments. I am a linux head, I did not own a ps3. Now they are unlocked I have purchased one, with intent to make it my lounge room computer/media center. I have recently installed debian linux on it, and, well, it needs some work yet, but I'll enjoy helping improve it to the point where I can boot the ps3 normally for official bluray disks, or boot linux and use it for everything I currently use my dated laptop for.

I bet, infact know, lots of people are buying ps3s now they can do a lot more with them. Being cracked will sell more units of ps3, push the numbers sony use to woo developers, and pirates will pirate and consumers will still legitimately consume. Game publishers will make just as much money from the ps3 now, as they do from the xbox 360.

Oz net filter jams up with smut, may be pulled out altogether

andro

good article

Congrats on the well written article. Its a very accurate description of how I see it, living here in the middle of it. To our politicians: Please do fix up our censorhip system by introducing an R18+ games rating and loosening regulation on as much as possible, and bring on the NBN! My ancient copper line is rusting!

2010: The year open source went invisible

andro
Linux

agreed

I agree. I am sitting here at my paid day job of 8 years, running fedora on my workstation, and developing commercial software that runs on centos. We sell and support our software, the income pays our employees including myself, and when we do find a bug in the open source software we build ours on top of we report, fix and contribute back to the project for the benefit of everyone.

Labor raids IT piggybank to grease election promises

andro

yes, labor (and liberal) have no idea about IT :(

Yes, they will. After Telstra didnt put in an original tender and other Australian companies who could do it did. Then, instead of accepting the best tender, they went back to telstra, somehow thinking they are the only ones who can do it (totally false), and then telstra submit the tender with no justification for the over $40 billion (obviosly thinking 'well if they accept this is worth it to us!). So at the end of the day with over $40 billion being thrown around willy nilly, this original point is almost insignificant.

Such a pitty neither major party is any good with IT :( We'd all better vote for the smaller partys and pick the one which sounds the best, who advertise they will preference the way you prefer.

and dont get me started on the intent to censor the net, which has been pushed back until after the election (convenient). It sucks big time that both partys will likely do the same thing, and despite being a democracy there is nothing I can do about it!

'Severe' OpenSSL vuln busts public key crypto

andro

well...

they are manipulating the power to cause the processor to incorrectly process a calculation. That makes it a hardware attack, and openssl can and are making their code more resistant to certain processing errors, but if you have a controlled environment and can affect the processors operation directly with enough time/effort/money/skill you'll get it eventually.

However the type of attack isnt new, isnt openssl specific, and is the complete opposite of 'severe'.

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