Monthly Archives: July 2010

Our Censorship Future?

When Turkey decided that it was a good idea to censor what it considered “questionable or objectionable material” on the internet, many were outraged – just as many people in Australia are currently outraged over similar plans for Australia. The following AlJazeera story demonstrates just how – and how quickly – their filter became wildly […]

Internet: A Special Case or Not?

One of the main arguments put forward by supporters of the internet filter is that the internet is no different from any other content distribution mechanism in the modern, connected world. They insist their plan is “not censorship”. They insist that the internet is “nothing special”, and that it is a “broadcast mechanism” – much […]

Internet Bushfire Alert

When a bushfire strikes, many different mechanisms swing into place to protect life and property. Brave firefighters rush to the fire front and seek to douse the flames. Others move ahead of the front, performing back-burning to hopefully stop the spread of the fire. People used to be told to leave their homes early, or […]

A Very Speeeeeshul McAvaney Moment

Just stumbled on this classic McAvaney moment in an old Channel Seven Sportsworld promo from 1991 in my old video collection: The only thing that can be said is “speeeeeeeeeeeeeeshul!”

The Reason Your V/Line Train Runs Late

V/Line will always blame something other than themselves for their trains constantly running late. Well, I think I have found the main reason – they think they are sending trains to one location, when they are actually meant to be going to another location. This ”updated track works notification” was just released, indicating track works […]

Outside Broadcasting 20 Years Ago

Given the value of auctioning off unused broadcast spectrum for mobile communications platforms, administrative bodies in most nations of the world are moving towards digital television and radio services. The more efficient allocation of the RF spectrum that digital broadcasting affords, allows huge swathes of particularly the VHF and UHF bands to be freed up […]

Internet Censorship Poll

We opponents of the government’s mandatory internet filtering plan are often accused of being “small, but well organised groups of nerds” seeking to make some noise. Yes, we want to make some noise – however, opposition to this filter runs far and wide – well outside of the boundaries of the so-called “nerdesphere”. Dozens of […]

Politicians: Think Before You Speak

As a long suffering Geelong V/Line commuter, the progression of the Regional Rail Link project is very welcome. It will improve reliability and the predictability of the timetable, and therefore travel times into and out of Melbourne. Unfortunately, as is often the case with major infrastructure projects, residential properties need to make way for some […]

1991: Brock Returns to Holden

Delving back again into my archive of video, I’ve stumbled across a great piece about the return of Peter Brock to Holden in 1991, after a year with BMW and two with Ford between 1988 and 1990. After losing engineering support with Andy Rouse moving to Toyota in the British series in 1991, Brock needed […]

Please, Somebody Think of the Horses?!

Quite rightly, there is a strong movement within animal rights groups for the for the banning of jumps racing. While many people are employed in this industry, the apparent difference between the number of serious injuries suffered by horses in jumps racing – (particularly involving the horse being put down) – as opposed to the […]