Posts by Simon Sharwood, Reg APAC Editor 331 publicly visible posts • joined 5 May 2013
Australia's communications minister Malcolm Turnbull stands accused of telling a householder to move to another home if she wants better broadband.
We think it's an unfair accusation to level against Turnbull. Here's my comment piece explaining why.
Is Turnbull right? Is Julia Keady, the aggrieved householder? Am I?
You're one click from your chance to reply.
Hi everyone and thanks for your feedback.
I should have mentioned that PCs in Willowra ran Windows 7 but were downgraded to XP. I don't know why. But they're grunty enough to handle W7.
On Linux vs. W7 I appreciate Linux's many fine qualities, but feel Windows is more appropriate for a few reasons.
* The XP to W7 move will retain a very similar desktop metaphor and I feel that for visitors to the centre minimal disruption is important.
* Yes, Linux desktops are now very fine. But Linux would mean re-learning a lot for locals and I fear that many don't have the literacy to do so.
* Linux is not not supported by Batchelor College and Linux would be alien to staff on the ground in Willowra.
What could you do with 264 Intel Sandy Bridge Cores and 6TB of RAM?
As it happens, you can now try to find out: Perth's supercomputer facility iVEC has just asked for " would like to invite applications from the research community to use its new, large-memory computer system, called Zythos."
We've detailed just what is inside Zythos and the nature of the offer here. So get reading, then get commenting. There are still a few of Vulture South's very limited edition fridge magnets on offer for especially good ideas.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said something interesting in parliament on Monday.
During a long oration in which he invited Prime Minister Tony Abbott to visit Western Australian and face community anger, he listed things that he feels have made local voters mad.
Here's what he said about the NBN:
"As for the premeditated destruction of the NBN and Attorney-General George Brandis's degrading capitulation to the surveillance state when confronted with the unlawful actions of the US NSA—even the internet is turning green, 'for the win'. Geeks and coders, network engineers and gamers would never have voted Green in a million years without the blundering and technically illiterate assistance of your leadership team. For this I can only thank you."
Is Ludlam right? Are you, as an IT pro, more likely to vote for someone other than The Greens? And have you switched because of the NBN?
Get commenting, folks ...
Here's the relevant Hansard if you want to read the whole speech, or you can see it on video here.
Over the last year or so, The Reg's Australian team has followed the development of Australia's first Digital Technologies Curriculum. That curriculum aims to teach computational thinking all the way from kindergarten to year 10.
The curriculum was finally published yesterday, as we report here.
That's the good news.
The bad news is the curriculum is no guarantee of ever being adopted. The federal government is reviewing the national curriculum, because it doesn't like some parts of it. So the document released this week is not signed off and may never be.
But don't despair. The government is also conducting a consultataion process, detailed here and offers a submission form for feedback on the review here.
If you care about computing being taught in schools, can we ask that you read our article and then visit the submission form? Vulture South isn't pushing a particular line here in terms of the tone of any submission. But we do think this is an important topic that deserves scrutiny.
This was always going to happen so here it is.
Let's try not to go over the same old ground here with "but fibre is better and good things might not happen if we don't build the NBN with fibre" arguments.
Having said that, anyone out there on fibre? What's it like? Does it really make a difference once you cram it down consumer-grade WiFi around your house?
The System Administrators Guild of Australia - SAGE-AU - is throwing an IPv6 roadshow across this wide brown land. Registration details here.
The good news: this one is going to every state or territory capital city bar Darwin. The fun kicks off on March 13 in Brisbane and winds up on the 14th in Canberra.
VMware user groups are among the more vigorous such organisations in Australia and their annual conferences attract hundreds of IT pros.
The next round take place next week!
VMUG Melbourne kicks things off on February 4th at the Hilton on the Park. Details at this link.
Sydney is on February 6th, details here.
Vulture South will be at both days. Tap Simon on the shoulder and he may favour you with one of our special antipodean fridge magnets, the ultimate in sticky content!
Thanks for the thoughtful comments, Denarius.
I wasn't trying to suggest that integration causes problems, just to very quickly provide some context for readers around the world.
As I say later on, I've no particular insight into how these communities can thrive. But the presence of some connectivity there certainly looks to have promising potential.
No-one's paying us to do anything regarding BYOD. Sheesh!
BYOD is an idea. It's out there. Vendors are catering to it and telling us hacks it's impossible to hire anyone under 30 without it.
My intent here was to look at it from a different view: would the concept be so viable if people wanted a games console?
There's only one Victoria Yeeros, and thank goodness for that. Bloody expensive there these days. IMHO The Sultan's Table in Enmore destroys it for value and taste.
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with either.
Double disclaimer: We're arguing about kebab shops? I'd better move this to Bootnotes before this gets out of hand.
MR, my decision to mention the 4WD wasn't a "4WDs are inappropriate urban behemoths" thang. Instead, it was included to give readers a chance to understand the size of vehicle that did the damage. It seemed worthy of inclusion to me to give a little extra information to help readers evoke just what happened.
Beer cos I'll happily buy you one.
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