Monthly Archives: July 2010

If Politicians Are Serious About Climate Change

We are nearly a week into the 2010 Federal Election campaign, and as expected, the various climate change policies of the major parties are being announced and/or promoted and/or due to be announced. We will hear each of them spout about how their plans for the environment – particular in the realm of climate change, [...]

@David_Speers – Hello and Congratulations!

David – congratulations to yourself and to Sky News Australia for landing the role of moderator and convener of the upcoming first leaders debate for the 2010 Australian Federal Election. Top Notch. On behalf of the many thousands of law-abiding internet users who believe in democracy in this country, please raise the issue of Federal [...]

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 [...]