Now that we know that the Mayans got it wrong and there’s probably not going to be an apocalypse before next year, we can start looking at 2013 and beyond. [ + ]

The idea of a 20-hour work week sounds perfect. But will the road to this utopian dream bring us to nirvana or some darker place? [ + ]

The technology industry is growing rapidly - in third place just behind dairy and tourism for GDP - and there are products and services bearing Made in New Zealand being used all over the world. However, as technological innovation gets more advanced, so too does the competitive landscape. [ + ]

While unified communications has been around for a while, how can it work in multivendor environments where cloud services are still new? How do we move from bare metal systems to cloud and what does that mean for the user experience? [ + ]

Every one of the 10 major mobile browsers fails to meet security guidelines recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for browser safety, according to a study from the George Institute of Technology in America. [ + ]

In the news this week: a failed US/Canadian bid to limit ITU regulation of the internet, fugitive John McAfee’s continuing woes and underwhelming sales figures for Microsoft’s Surface. [ + ]

Nucleus Reseach says that BYOD will be in decline next year. We're not so sure. [ + ]

Do our enterprise content management systems and our business use work together or get in each other’s way? Great benefits can be derived by integrating content capture and distribution coherently rather than relying on brute force to make ECM deliver the best possible customer service. [ + ]

The stats say that employees burn a couple of hours a day on non-work websites like Facebook and Reddit. But there are technological and political issues you need to consider before implementing a web filtering solution. [ + ]

Andrew Collins looks at the big stories in IT from the last seven days, including Melbourne IT’s latest strategy to turn around its recent tradings slump, a vulnerability in some Samsung and Dell-branded printers that could allow attackers access to your network and the launch of an inquiry into the recent destruction of Telstra’s Warrnambool telephone exchange. [ + ]

There are many Windows 8 naysayers out there. But have they got it wrong? [ + ]

Andrew Collins looks at the more interesting tales from IT in the last week, including Communication Minister Stephen Conroy’s influence over ACMA, more allegations of anticompetitive practices at Google and Internode’s foray into PSTN-style phone services over the NBN. [ + ]

Large enterprises will avoid a general deployment of Windows 8 on desktops and laptops, but many will look to the OS for tablet computing, according to a new report from Gartner. [ + ]

Old models for capacity planning no longer apply in a world with elastic cloud services. The Click Frenzy online sale quickly degenerated into a massive PR fail when its server crashed within minutes of the ‘event’ launching. [ + ]

Andrew Collins takes a gander at the more interesting tales from IT in the last seven days, including the launch of Australian-based Amazon Web Services and the increasing use of social media as a propaganda tool for warring factions. [ + ]