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Using Social Networks Strategically

By Chris Gilbey

I had a coffee with Laurel Papworth yesterday to catch up on life in general, but also to tap her brain with regard to a project that I am putting together. The project is in regard to a possible infringement action on behalf of a songwriter that I signed back in 1979. The first song [...]

Baby Boomers Taking over the Net in Oz.

By Tom Koltai

Prologue: (purloined from http://www.fourthturning.com/html/boom_generation.html)   The Boom Generation (Prophet, born 1943-1960) basked as children in Dr. Spock permissiveness, suburban conformism, Sputnik-era schooling, Beaver Cleaver friendliness, and Father Knows Best family order.  From the Summer of Love to the Days of Rage, they came of age rebelling against the worldly blueprints of their parents.  As their [...]

LACIE – The Rolls Royce of External Hard Drives…… (I don’t think so!)

By Tom Koltai

Eighteen Months ago, I bought a 1 Terrabyte Lacie Big Ethernet Drive from a reseller on eBay for $530.00 (advertised with a three year warranty).   I purchased the Lacie because a friend of mine who was in the video production game told me, “You can’t go past the Lacie drives, they’re indestructible.”   On [...]

Slow Revolutions are better than overnight Coups.

By Tom Koltai

In 1993, I wrote a paper entitled, How Ubiquitous Free Communication will Alter the Status Quo.   I noted that because of electronic chat rooms [Prodigy, AOL and Compuserve] as more women became enamoured of the connectivity options available to them via a ubiquitous global network, that the divorce rate would rise dramatically.   I [...]

Shotgun Justice

By Tom Koltai

Another Koltai Rant of a personal nature.   It would appear to me that the Supreme Court in New South Wales is more interested in clearing it’s docket than ensuring that justice is served.   This might be because yesterday, I lost my case (filed in March 2007) against Tricom Equities. Or it might be [...]

Movies, TV and The End Of The Year…

By Chris Gilbey

On Boxing Day I went to the movies…. Bad idea – so crowded it wasn't even worth queuing up to get a ticket. So went home… The day after, went to the movies again. This time left with enough time that I could get tickets and then stand in line waiting for the show to [...]

Growing Horizons.

By Tom Koltai

(Something a little different to amaze and amuse.)   We are familiar with the term the tyranny of distance. Although these days, it applies mainly to the long walk from the deplaning area to the customs and immigration counters and the queues awaiting.   In 1874, Jules Verne wrote a play, Eighty Days Around the [...]

The Future of Australian Television – Taxation, Licensing, Advertising or Criminalization?

By Tom Koltai

Given the attention of Governments to file sharing, it would appear that the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) was obviously caused by you sharing a copy of Lily Allens “Fuck you very much”.   We have Ministers flying all over the world to discuss how to criminalize 15 year old kids who can’t yet vote. These [...]

Are iPods the real File Sharing Causational Culprit?

By Tom Koltai

The Music Industry continuously claims that it has been harmed by file sharing. Yet it has also, failed to provide empirical evidence of the actual damage.   Whilst we disagree with their modus operandi in criminalizing their consumers, we do find that there would appear to be a difference in the reality of music sales [...]

How to Save the Economy (Via TV) and Stop all this silly ACTA stuff.

By Tom Koltai

When I was four years old, my family constructed a house. I asked my father how the builders knew what went where. And he told me about the plans and showed me the blueprints. I was enthralled, here was a method to build something. Draw up a master plan, order the lumber, roofing iron, and [...]