Articles
NBN asbestos debacle: heads roll, school affected, govt forms register
The NBN asbestos debacle has deepened this week, with more dangerous sites continuing to be identified, talk of legal liability, the formation of an asbestos register and the head of one Telstra subcontractor leaving his company following the asbestos revelations. [ + ]
ASIO blueprints stolen by Chinese hackers - or were they?
Adding even more ambiguity to the ASIO building blueprint hack story that first surfaced last week, Australian national security officials have denied reports that building plans for ASIO’s new headquarters were stolen by Chinese hackers. [ + ]
CloudEthernet Forum defining cloud interoperability
Last week during the Ethernet Innovation Summit at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, the establishment of the CloudEthernet Forum was announced. What is this forum, who’s in it and will it make a difference? [ + ]
Government loosening dependence on Microsoft: common document format for government agencies
The government wants to use an open standard for the common document format to be used by government agencies, loosening the current reliance on formats with Microsoft requirements. All archived documents should be saved in a standard format. [ + ]
The statistics behind 457 visa rort claims
The Australian federal government recently claimed that the IT industry accounts for “most” of the 457 visas granted to allow overseas workers to work in the country, and that IT salaries have dropped as a result. But these claims aren’t necessarily supported by official Department of Immigration statistics. [ + ]
The impact of environmental catastrophes
The plagues of natural disasters do more than devastate infrastructure, communities and local economies. In the age of the connected global economy, natural disasters have the ability to transcend much further than streets, towns and country borders to impact economies all over the world. [ + ]
US has evidence of Apple e-book conspiracy; Privacy commish probes Telstra over data breach
A US judge reckons that the country’s Justice Department has evidence showing that Apple conspired to raise e-book prices; and in local news, the federal privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into Telstra’s recent leak of some customers’ personal data. [ + ]
Telcos rebuke NBN Co for SAU delays; NBN Co buys TransACT fibre network
Australian telcos accuse NBN Co of delaying finalisation of the special access undertaking, while NBN Co drops $9 million on TransACT’s FTTP network. [ + ]
Five-step IT strategic planning guide
Every CIO will, at some point, have to create or update a strategic plan for how technology will meet the needs of the business. This can be a daunting task. [ + ]
Cloud services: smarter ICT for smarter cities
Cloud services adoption will accelerate the creation of smarter cities by overcoming organisational inertia and enabling more rapid propagation of innovation. Cities that remain bogged down with outdated ICT capabilities will fall behind their peers and be overlooked by globally mobile investment, businesses, events and citizens. [ + ]
Govt warns ACCC against interfering in NBN; Insider details Google’s “immoral” tax avoidance schemes
The Department of Broadband has warned the ACCC against interfering in NBN pricing and negotiations, while an ex-Google executive has blown the whistle on the company’s “immoral” tax avoidance. [ + ]
Australian government caught blocking websites on the sly
The federal government has been caught quietly blocking access to websites, leading some to declare that it has attempted to sneak mandatory web filtering in on the sly. [ + ]
Getting real about virtualisation
Virtualisation is the single biggest change to how we manage our systems for the last decade or so. As a result of virtualisation we have slashed the number of physical devices we have to manage, resulting in smaller data centres, lower power consumption, better business continuity and greater flexibility. But what about everything else? And does virtualising everything need a new set of skills? [ + ]
Will the federal Budget matter?
With the expectation, if the polls are to be believed, that we’ll have a new government installed in September, does the federal Budget mean anything to the IT industry? [ + ]
US govt breached human rights in copyright case, Dotcom’s laywers claim
Lawyers of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom last week launched a white paper discussing America’s prosecution of Megaupload, in which they accuse the US of using “dirty tactics” and “due process abuses” in their case against the file sharing company. [ + ]