In Australia we are in the early stages of a federal election. The interesting thing about this election is that it was preceded first by a “palace coup” in which the deputy Prime Minister essentially ousted the existing and elected PM. This took place, it appears, as the result of the party apparatchiks determining that [...]
As regular visitors to this blog would know, we have a keen interest in how networking tools and technologies are being used to aid communication. One of the principal tools that we have watched and undertaken extensive research in is how P2P is used in conjunction with content of all kinds. The positioning of the [...]
Tomorrow is the end of the world. For Foxtel at least. Well, as far as having me as their number one unpaid critic. You would think that with all the coverage I was giving them, they would have given me a “comped” account. But no, they ignored me – mostly. Apart from when they took [...]
Everyone seems to have an opinion about the content industry – and the music industry in particular. And the area that causes the most heat is that of downloads. That is important, but it is like smoke that impedes your vision so that you can't see where the fire is. The big issue, which Tom [...]
One day you will be a world leader, the President, The Prime Minister, a senior Politician or Ambassador for your nation, the Pope, Chief of Police, or Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Whaddya mean? “Yeah right!” Well someone who is fifteen will get the important jobs of tommorrow. So yeah, Im talking to [...]
Governments have for sometime been attempting to legislate against content on the Net. Here's an article I wrote in May, 1993 for a magazine called Chips 'N Bits. It would appear that little has changed in the intervening 16 years.COMPUTER PORNOGRAPHY A little Peek at XXX The Reverend Fred Nile is famous for his stance [...]
Wouldn’t it be interesting if the current push for a global world government actually went to the country with the most votes. As an economist, I am enamoured of the concept of a united world central government overseeing that all people of the world are treated with respect, equally, fairly and without favour. [...]
I commute by road when I am not catching the train. That is typically at least a one hour journey if I go to the UoW campus or a two hour journey if I go to Sydney. I listen to a lot of podcasts during those trips. One that I regularly find quite brilliant is [...]
Copyright was not always a criminal offense. It apparently became so in Australia as a result of concern arising from copyright infringers possibly not having the means to settle a civil copyright dispute. In 1998, Ian MacDonald, Solicitor, on behalf of the Copyright Council for Australia in an article for the Institute of Criminology, [...]
The amount of ink that the Financial Times is devoting to the US economic woes should be enough to make not only Ben Bernanke stay awake at night, but everyone else on the planet too, who doesn't want to be part of the meltdown. This article by Martin Wolf argues what may well happen, and [...]