wonk v3.0

No Need to Click Here - I’m just claiming my feed at Feedster

PM pays his son to dish up spam. (Sydney Morning Herald)

From the article: “A Sydney-based software company, one of whose directors is the Prime Minister’s son, has been ’spamming’ voters with Liberal Party election material.

Tim Howard’s company, Net Harbour, is taking advantage of a loophole in the Government’s anti-spam laws to open a new front in the election propaganda war, via unsolicited email.“

We must put a stop to those dirty spammers, unless they’re sending out propaganda for the Liberal party, in which case its cool. Yeah, thats a good policy, the public will love that.

Linux 10 times more expensive? Get the facts, watchdog tells Microsoft. (ZDNet Australia)

Back in June I commented on the (at the time) new series of Microsoft ads inviting people to ‘get the facts’. It was pretty clear from the start that the ‘facts’ Microsoft were offering were somewhat one sided. It seems that the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK agrees. From the article:

“A print ad from Microsoft which bore the headline “Weighing the cost of Linux vs.Windows? Let’s review the facts” offered a comparison between a Windows and a Linux machine which, according to Redmond, demonstrated that “Linux was found to be over 10 times more expensive than Windows Server… for Windows-comparable functions of file serving and Web serving. The results showed that IBM z900 mainframe running Linux is much less capable and vastly more expensive than Windows Server 2003 as a platform for server consolidation.”"

I think everyone was already aware of the fact that a mainframe costs more than a desktop PC, but Microsoft seems to think that proves Windows is cheaper than Linux. Go figure.

ADSL grows up. (APC Magazine)

Its a great article, have a read of it. My favorite part is a quote attributed to Liz Jurman from Telstra Wholesale:

Telstra Wholesale’s Liz Jurman denied the telco giant was delaying the approval process, saying it was actively pursuing the deployment of DSL2+ within its own network. She said one problem the telco was facing was a shortage in DSL2+ hardware from network suppliers.

She argued that Telstra had been historically quick to adopt standards once they were ratified, pointing out that when the original DSL standard was finalised in 2001, Telstra began selling those services to the public a week later.

I always have a cynical view of Telstra, but it seems like they’re saying the following:

We are currently rolling out DSL2+ hardware, but there is currently a shortage. We have a track record of having standards ratified once we are ready to commercially launch a product.

If you’re interested in broadband read the article. Kudos to Dan Warne for presenting details which are often overlooked by the media.

Nine cameraman loses accreditation. (The Age)

From the article:

“Australian television network Channel Nine has been forced to hand back the accreditation of one of its cameramen.“

and

“It’s understood a Channel Nine cameraman walked into the velodrome with his equipment, breaching the rules for non-rights holders.

Nine sources said the cameraman had been out in the sun working for hours, was tired and went into the velodrome, sat in a chair and nodded off for about 10 minutes.“

also

“She told Olympic news website AroundTheRings.Com that the IOC had also issued a written warning to the network and another Australian TV broadcaster, Network Ten.

The warning to the Ten Network was believed to be because they breached the rules by broadcasting the women’s rowing eight media conference within 30 minutes of it taking place.“

I’ve been completely unimpressed by all the restrictions placed on the broadcasting of Olympic footage by the IOC and Channel 7. It is fair enough that they can purchase the rights to exclusively show the events live, or delayed but still in full, but it is not reasonable to claim exclusive usage of media conference footage for 30 minutes or to restrict other networks from showing gold medal or other highlights as would happen with any other sporting event. The message this sends out is that the Olympics is no longer about the sport - its now about money.

</rant>

Taiwan warned against declaring independence. (ABC News)

Quoth the Downer: “Any military build-up on the part of China in relation to Taiwan is about providing a disincentive for Taiwan to declare independence, not a prelude to some military expedition over and above concerns about the possibility that Taiwan may proclaim independence and it’s incumbent on countries like Australia to transmit to the Taiwanese leadership the message that any proclamation of independence would be provocative.“

That is one of the longest sentences I’ve seen for a while, even for diplo-speak.

Users assess cost of ADSL blackout. (The Age)

From the article: “Australia’s business community and internet service providers will be counting the cost of last Thursday’s nationwide ADSL blackout for months to come, but they may have little chance to claim damages from the culprit, Telstra.“

ADSL users hit by massive outage. (The Age)

It had been a while since the last big Telstra outage, so we were due for another one. This time around everyone got disconnected in the early hours of the morning, with some people able to reconnect almost immediately, and some people left offline for the whole day. Good job Telstra!

No-frills ISP joins Telstra family. (Australian IT)

Australian IT, the publisher who refreshes their story pages every 7 minutes to sell more ad views, has reported that Telstra has purchased Queensland-based ISP Hypermax. Hypermax only has 6000 users, but Telstra has indicated they may be purchasing other small ISPs in the future. This follows on from Telstra earlier bid to buy Dodo which was unsuccessful.

The article also states: “Applications for Big Pond broadband are running at about 1000 per day. Milne claimed that on the day after Sunday’s launch of the first ad, applications jumped 14 per cent.” If accurate, this would have them growing their customer base at roughly twice the pace of rival Optus.

Optus reaches broadband milestone. (ZDNet Australia)

They say they’re signing up 15,000 new customers every month, which is quite impressive.