Comment Re:Telstra's back door (Score 1) 300
I'll let Simon say if for me:
www.simonhackett.com/submissions/inconvenient-truth-fttn-hackett.pdf
Also it's worth noting that FTTH will force Telstra to split up to compete with it.
Comment Re:Telstra's back door (Score 5, Informative) 300
eh?
It's 51% taxpayer funded, 49% private investment then wholly sold off after 5years of running (Like Telstra, for a fucking huge profit).
Huge bonus' to this plan.. (stolen from the good Simon Hackett shining knight of Aussie ISP's)
Best path: FTTH (not FTTN) (Fibre To The Home/Node)
Retain ADSL2+
Abandon flawed FTTN approach
same (high) speeds for everyone
Retain copper access regime
New infrastructure in parallel
Retain competitive tension
Retain innovation
Retain competitive pricing
No overbuild protection needed
No legal battles needed
more innovation, more choice
long term consumer benefit
Comment Very interesting different "Voices" (Score 1) 379
So if you load the player using a MAC you get one voice... if you load it using anything else you get a completely different voice.
This is a rather interesting thing to do... I mean, what happens if the MAC users like the other voice?
Why would they do such a thing unless the MAC voice was "better" is some way?
Comment Google Cache copy (Score 1) 476
Comment since when does a charge in one U.S. State... (Score 1) 498
Have such a direct effect on the laws across the world?
I very much doubt that him being convicted would have any effect my me being charged with the same thing here in Australia.
Someone needs to tell those yanks that U.S. != World
Comment Dies the Fire (Score 1) 145
ha! am reading this book atm... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_the_Fire
Made me think for a moment
Comment This is early days for Social Networking (Score 1) 474
and I don't trust it yet.
I love gmail but I can see that it is possibly the most insidious Social Networking tool ever created. So I still don't use my real details on it.
Comment We did it here in Australia (Score 1) 409
When our (now 11 month old) Son was born it was an easy decision.
Over here it costs around AU$3k to store it for personal use until he is 21 years old.
Then if he still wants to keep it he has to pay extra.
It was even easier for us because the current Government was giving out a AU$4.5k Baby bonus (a once of cash lump sum). We used it for that... it seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and I suspect it still was.
Something else you should know, there are public blood banks that will store it much cheaper. The down side of this is that you have no guarantee of getting _your_ blood back. It's public so that anyone who is in need can use it.
We went private.
Comment If you have to ask then it's a bad idea... (Score 1) 409
Don't swap to FOSS backed tech just because it's free.
AD is actually a pretty sweet piece of tech, and many FOSS apps work just fine with it.
_Always_ pick the best, AD is the best then for the situation pick the best OS to go with it etc
Comment I've done it in Aus (Score 1) 232
I have donated my brain in Australia
http://www.braindonors.org/
I'm not gonna be needing it after the Aus Gov filter my internet... so why keep it ?
Submission + - Whirlpool sued for criticism (smh.com.au)
ssinct writes: Popular Australian broadband news and discussion site, Whirlpool, is being sued by 2Clix, for AUD$150,000 over "injurious falsehood", in relation to critical forum threads posted regarding deficiencies in the company's accounting software. The EFF, and local legal experts are up in arms over 2clix's move.
Submission + - Scientist Discovers a Way to Burn Salt Water
ClayTapes writes: "Yahoo reports on the front page that a Pennsylvania cancer researcher happened upon a
way to burn salt water. From the
article
"John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn.""
Submission + - Getting out of IT, where to start?
cavtroop writes: I've been doing IT for almost 12 years now, with the typical progression: pc support, server support, network support, etc. I used to love my job, and look forward to coming into work, learning something new, and surmounting challenging obstacles. After years of doing this and that in IT, I'm now an IT Generalist, and finding a job is getting tougher and tougher — most hiring managers are looking for subject matter experts. My lack of a degree (I joined the military, and went straight to work after that) is also beginning to hinder me greatly.
I've been giving some thought to getting out of IT lately. I find I no longer enjoy my work — most of the work I do provides little challenge, and I honestly don't remember the last time I learned something new and interesting. With the recent news of IBM possibly laying of 100k people plus (and the years long trend towards out-sourcing), the prospects of ever getting a meaningful IT job again are looking dim.
I think its time to hit the eject button on my IT career. But where to begin? I tried searching for a career counselor, but most of the hits were shady fly by night places, or people that just want to sell you a book.
Has anyone out there in /. land had a similar experience? What can I expect, and where can I start? Any tips, etc would be beneficial.
I've been giving some thought to getting out of IT lately. I find I no longer enjoy my work — most of the work I do provides little challenge, and I honestly don't remember the last time I learned something new and interesting. With the recent news of IBM possibly laying of 100k people plus (and the years long trend towards out-sourcing), the prospects of ever getting a meaningful IT job again are looking dim.
I think its time to hit the eject button on my IT career. But where to begin? I tried searching for a career counselor, but most of the hits were shady fly by night places, or people that just want to sell you a book.
Has anyone out there in
Submission + - The battle to dig moon dirt heats up
coondoggie writes: "Digging moon dirt is hot. How hot? This weekend NASA will give one research team $250,000 for a robotic lunar front-end loader — with benefits. Teams from Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Livermore, Calif., Berkeley, Calif., Fulks Run, Va., Rolla, Mo., Berkley, Mich., Milwaukee, and Vancouver, British Columbia, have registered to participate in the The Regolith Excavation Challenge to excavate as much moon dirt or lunar regolith as possible in 30 minutes.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1483 9"
Submission + - Killer's alleged step-mom writes to Gabe of PA
Shambhu writes: In this Penny Arcade post (scroll down) Gabe displays an email received from someone claiming to be the step-mother of one of the teenage killers of a homeless man that got so much press recently. The letter was in response to Gabe's earlier rant about the media blaming video games for violent crime which included a link to this CNN article.
It doesn't make for very pleasant reading, and while I don't know how or when the authenticity will be confirmed, the letter confirms what most people expected: that these kids were not 'normal' in most senses of the term.
