Technology

We were having a chat about technology in The Punch office yesterday. Ant was shocked (shocked!) when I mentioned using computers at primary school. As he recalled, when he was in high school, it had only had a couple of computers in a lab, that you were very rarely allowed to touch. There was at least one in every classroom when I was at school and labs jam-packed with them. And by Year 8 or 9 most had mobile phones.

I don’t think I can remember my report cards ever not being typed, whereas the rest of the team could all recall the challenge over having to decipher the teacher’s handwriting. Tory M remembered trying to save up several grand to buy her first computer – when today you can walk into JB Hi-Fi and pick up a laptop for around $800. One day soon all school kids will be typing up their end-of-school exams. Some already do. Times have sure changed.

Considering you, our excellent regulars, are of all ages, we were wondering: how have you adapted to the technological changes of the past thirty years? What changes have you seen? What have you had trouble getting used to? Is it exciting? Terrifying? Astonishing? Confusing? What don’t you know how to do? I only found out about Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V a couple of years ago.

Thought this was a bit of a talker for Thursday. What do you think? And hey, what else is on your mind?

FOR a year now, I’ve had a little quote pinned above my desk. “Tell me,” it says, “what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” On a particularly joyless day, I scribbled a response: “Make lunch boxes.”

But even doctored with my smarty-pants cynicism, that scrap of paper winks at my soul. Some days, I try for ‘wild’ by blasting The Buzzcocks through my office after dropping the kids at school. Other times, I aim for ‘precious’, tinkering with words in the hope they’ll flow from me to you as naturally as breath (they don’t).

Now, I’m not one for malcontent. Live well, love well, don’t leave a mess and “yes, please” to another piece of cake is generally my motto. But, recently I’ve felt disconnected, which is absurd because last year I received 13,506 emails, sent 432 tweets and became Facebook ‘friends’ with someone I kissed in 1989.

Continue reading "Reconnecting by getting totally disconnected" »

A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you?

Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ?

While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump.

Continue reading "Friday dilemma: Using your smartphone at dinner" »

Who on earth wants to yell at their television?

Voice activated smart TVs have been a staple of the emerging technologies I’ve seen at CES in Las Vegas this year and I must say – I just don’t get it.

So far I haven’t seen a voice activated smart TV that works as well as it’s supposed to, but even if I had - if I never have to talk to my television, I’ll be better for it.

Continue reading "One remote to rule them all" »

Terrible news. The word on the e-street is that Apple’s super-secretive tech-heads aren’t just slaving away on a new flat screen iDiotBox. They’re also attempting to kill off a wonderfully slapstick glitch in the company’s existing devices.

‘Autocorrect’ is an iPhone function designed to correct spelling mistakes and complete par-finished words. Often, however, it demonstrates a delightfully human tendency to stuff up.

Over the past year, it has become infamous for transforming innocuous missives about holiday plans and office schedules into surreal ejaculations about Pussy Hats (instead of Pizza Huts), stroking offs (instead of stroganoffs), backyard transsexuals (instead of trampolines) and earthquake titty scales (instead of the usual Richter models).

Continue reading "The joy of autosex, I mean autolicks, I mean autocorrect" »

Could this be the year we finally get a dream-recording device?

There are many inventions I’m hanging out for this year – from automatic cheese graters, to a device that allows Kyle Sandilands to break free from his rage-limiting mortal form and roam the skies as a scowling dragon, hurling damsels with ‘90s haircuts into volcanoes.

But a gizmo that could record and playback dreams would be at the top of my list.

Continue reading "I dream of telling everyone about your kooky dreams" »

I recently attended a VIP media launch for an Aussie singer. This in itself is news as I have two children under the age of two, so going out is rare. But the real surprise was how much the dancefloor had changed.

It wasn’t smaller or lit like Saturday Night Fever (although that would have been cool). It just wasn’t heaving.

Normally the music would be blamed for a subdued crowd. But I think the real problem was a new one. You see, it’s particularly hard to dance while watching an artist through your iPhone, while tweeting, Instagramming, uploading snaps to Facebook or writing a blog post.

Continue reading "We’ve got our heads buried in an exciting new world" »

Ah, the holidays. How good is it to relax on the couch to watch the cricket and – hang on, my phone’s beeping.

Gee, I’d better respond to some of those work emails.

And there are notifications on Twitter. Someone’s tagged a photo on Facebook. Looks like there’s a job offer via LinkedIn. And I should check out who’s on Google+ while I’m at it.

Seriously, do we ever turn off anymore?

Continue reading "We all need to tune in, turn off and chill out" »

When you tune in to a Test Match and see the New Zealand skipper cop a Kookaburra in the testicles in super slow-motion from seven angles, you realise the technology of televised cricket has gone nuts.

In 1977 Daddles the Duck skulked across our screens for the first time, accompanying the brooding batsman on his long walk back to the pavilion. Willow under his wing, tear dripping from his eye, the animated quack was one of the first computer graphics to complement the on-field action, and was part of Kerry Packer’s push to package cricket for TV.

Three decades on, a glut of high-tech gadgetry and a smorgasbord of stats provide the DNA of every delivery. Atari-like graphics have been superseded by a sophisticated suite of digital devices which make NASA look like a bunch of kids farting about with a junior science kit.

Continue reading "Slo-mo testicle hits show cricket has gone nuts" »

It’s time to get over the hovercar. It’s not happening. You’re not getting one.

And for that matter, you’re not going to be flying to Mars or the moon or through the rings of Saturn in a spaceship. Not in your lifetime.

The biggest let-down of the 21st century is that humanity has proved pretty poor at inventing the flying technologies that we imagined would be jetting us to Mars or well, Coles, by now. But it’s time we got over that. Because our levitating-vehicle-filled imaginations of the future are holding us back from embracing the future that is already here. And it’s a future that’s far more remarkable than you would think. For instance: say hello to the Matrix.

Continue reading "Our hi-tech future is here! And it’s remarkably ordinary" »

Ali Baba had it good. In medieval Persia, one password was enough.

Imagine Ali nowadays, having to modify the magic words once a month. From OPEN SESAME to oPen1sEsame%. Hieroglyphics are back in fashion.

I recently tried to log into my online bank account (or was it Centrelink, health insurance, superannuation, the ATO, email, Twitter, Facebook or any of the dozens of “services” for which I now need a password?) and received the following gibberish masquerading as a message:

Continue reading "Forgotten your password? Click here." »

People often say that kids these days are “digital savvy”. Those people are wrong.

Kids today are definitely “digital” – some Gen Zers (see above) are even confused why printed magazines don’t interact with them like iPads – but that doesn’t mean they’re “savvy”.

They might know how to use technology. But just like drugs, alcohol, sex and relationships, that doesn’t mean kids know how to use it in a way that’s safe and appropriate.

Continue reading "Kids are digital, but that doesn’t mean they’re savvy" »

On May 25, 1961 United States President John F Kennedy proposed to the Congress that the nation set a goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely by the end of the decade.

Kennedy’s comments not only fired the gun in the space race but they also began a productivity revolution. The US would invest heavily in mathematicians and scientists, research and development that would drive innovation and change the nature of business and lifestyles forever.

In the last 50 years technology has been the game changer when it comes to productivity. The introduction of the personal computer and internet to business has revolutionised communications and interaction between businesses particularly in the global context. 

Continue reading "What the Space Race can teach us about productivity" »

Your workplace, circa 2000. Employee: “I’ve got an idea for an entertainment device that can hold an entire music collection. It is beautifully designed, fits in your shirt pocket and can retail for under $500. What do you think?”

Chief: “We appreciate your input Steve, but it doesn’t quite synergise with our six-month strategic outcomes moving forward”. What would have happened if, ten years ago, someone came up with the idea for the iPod in your workplace?

Would it have got up? Would it even have got past the initial pitch? And if it did get considered for development, would the original, brilliantly simple concept have ended up as the final product, or would something like this have happened …

Continue reading "There’s a fine line between genius and prickdom" »

I’m going to say it – gay people have it easy.

The homosexual community may not have many rights when it comes to matters of the heart but in terms of negotiating bedroom bureaucracy things are so much more… uncomplicated. At least in the social networking space. 

The other day I joined Blendr, the “straight” version of gay hook-up app Grindr, in the hopes it would make a good story.

I wanted to see if the new incarnation of the reportedly invaluable GPS/social networking Grindr app - used to arrange trysts with nearby users - would work for us straighty-180s.

Continue reading "There’s more fun to be had if you face your desires" »

Over the past year, millions of film buffs have spent countless hours squinting at blurry, distant shots of stars in assorted rubber outfits with the hope of being the first to declare a film they won’t see for several months a failure.

They sort through plot leaks, casting news, online debates over feline ears and heated discussions about how Russell Crowe’s jelly belly will affect his performance as Superman’s dad. Movies today are assembled in online forums by clever pseudonyms and ironic avatars long before the sets are even built.

The magic has always been in the finished product. When publicists and opportunistic assistants hurl unpolished stills across cyberspace, they permanently damage the illusion.

Continue reading "The world’s a racecar, but life is better when we take it slow" »

There were six of us and we were around 10 years old. We had come together for Alice’s birthday and pretty much left to our own devices. 

It was Alice’s idea to go to their attic. Attics were something the Secret Seven might explore - they did not exist in the houses I frequented. So Alice had already scored points with this plan. Little did I know the experiential gold that awaited.

Safely up the ladder, we clustered around her to see the reason for our ascent. There, in several old filing boxes, was at least a decade’s worth of Playboy, carefully stored away by Alice’s taciturn father.

Continue reading "The internet makes Playboy look like a Penguin Classic" »

Steve Jobs has died at the age 56. The technology mogul who founded the Apple Company with childhood friend Steve Wozniak in 1976 has faced considerable health problems over the past few years, including a battle with pancreatic cancer in 2004 and a liver transplant in 2009.

His colleagues at Apple have posted a warm message of farewell to their founder, paying tribute to his creative genius: “The world has lost an amazing human being,” they said.

Jobs has been a hot topic here at The Punch in recent weeks. Simon Sharwood claimed he made the world a happier place. Yesterday Dan argued against the seemingly addictive Jobs business model.

Continue reading "A heartfelt goodbye to the Apple of our eye" »

Right now, millions of monkeys are tapping away at typewriters in cyberspace in an effort to prove that an infinite number of monkeys hitting random keys for an infinite amount of time will inevitably reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare.

By contrast, five or six chimps, three hours and a bottle of mandarin-flavoured vodka will get you the entire works of Stephanie Meyer.

To put the Shakespeare theorem to the test, US programmer Jesse Anderson replicated the experiment with a computer program and says his virtual apes have so far stumbled their way through more than 99 per cent of the Bard’s works.

Continue reading "The serious art of monkey business" »

Mothers and girlfriends worldwide have long yelled at errant sons and partners for being overly fixated on a video game. 

This week, however, a group of gamers and scientists demonstrated that proficiency in World of Warcraft may be worth more than the geek cred it achieves.

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology has published an advance online copy of a paper that explains how enjoyment of and technical skills in playing video games can be harnessed to achieve remarkable outcomes in scientific research.

Continue reading "How World of Warcraft could save your life" »

The right to digital access, should be a right we expect like a right to equality, or accessibility.

Recent debate about the price households will pay for their broadband as the National Broadband Network (NBN) is rolled out, has raised issues such as affordability.

As that debate continues, it is important to also focus on the need for digital inclusion to improve quality of life, and on extending opportunities - particularly in employment.

Continue reading "The digital divide is a denial of human rights" »

“As the number of available outlets for political news grows, so does the tendency of citizens to self-select which news to consume and which to ignore.” So says Georgetown University’s Rebecca Chalif, in her 2011 study Political Media Fragmentation: Echo Chambers in Cable News.

This statement seems obvious and fairly innocuous on the surface. Thirty years ago, people were vastly more confined in how they consumed their news - it was perhaps three TV channels and one or two newspapers.

According to the Australian Market and Social Research Society, the media has become far more fragmented over the last 15 years. Free-to-air TV has gone from five to 17 channels with over 120 subscription channels available, and we have over 600 newspapers and 1,500 magazines available to us.

Continue reading "Do you ever really listen to the other side of the story?" »

Right now, somewhere in the world, some clever person is furiously scribbling away. Their eyes are probably darting around for thieving glances as they hurriedly sketch a crude blueprint of the invention that will grant them an early retirement. They’re a visionary, an intellectual titan - a solver of citrus-related problems.

To that person, I say simply: Stop it, you monster. Seriously, friend, just put the biro down and stop ruining things for the rest of us. Every time some show-off designs an easy-wind chapstick or a plastic thing that shapes pancakes into Paul Giamatti characters, they make it harder for the rest of us to effortlessly strike it rich.

There are precious few things left to invent and whenever one of you yahoos decides to cross one off the list, my friends and I have less chance of being able to rent out entire hotels and run enormous waterslides down all 35 flights of stairs.

Continue reading "The night I got drunk and tried to invent something" »

Steve Jobs has quit as Apple CEO. This is sad news for everybody who fell in love with gadgets that were simple to use, and enormously fun to play with.

The secret of Steve Jobs’ success is making customers deeply happy. Steve Jobs changed the world with a manic insistence that his customers must be so happy with his products that they want to buy them again and again.

You’d think every entrepreneur on the globe would do likewise, but no-one cares about customers like Jobs. And that’s why he has changed the world.

Continue reading "How Steve Jobs made the world a happier place" »

With smartphones finding their way into nearly every pocket in the developed world, it’s easy to forget that film was once a precious commodity in many households.

Mine was no exception, as evidenced by the sheer number of botched photos that remain framed and prominently displayed in my parents’ home.

Today, just about every dad walks around with an enormous DSLR surgically grafted to his right forearm, casually snapping Tumblr-worthy masterpieces at junior footy matches. Even the icy scowl of a hormone-ravaged adolescent can shine with indie majesty given the right light and a lucky shot.

Continue reading "Family happy snaps were better in the old days" »

Remember those rabid Beta-tape aficionados of the late 70s and early 80s?

You know, the ones who swore they had found the one true technology and held firm to their allegiance as the video library shelves became chock-a-block full of VHS tapes and the beta tapes were relegated to a dark, dingy corner out the back before disappearing altogether.

“Beta’s better!” they would cry in frustration. And technically, it could be argued they were right. Problem was, consumers voted VHS with their wallets. And Beta, despite its small band of loyalists, died as a mainstream technology.

Continue reading "The NBN is as useful as those newfangled Beta tapes" »

Julia Gillard is hoping a breakthrough broadband announcement made on the eve of her first anniversary as Prime Minister will herald a much needed reconnection with voters.

With opinion polls showing support for her Government at the lowest level of any in decades, and her own approval tanking, the timing of the NBN announcement was a handy, if clearly deliberate distraction.

But if anything, it was probably undersold, given its weight.

Continue reading "Will the NBN help Gillard connect with voters?" »

For a smart guy, Steve Wozniak — the man who, with Steve Jobs, co-founded Apple — has some pretty dumb ideas. Speaking at a business meeting on the Gold Coast recently, Wozniak claimed that machines are becoming more intelligent than humans.

Wozniak was reported to have said ‘We’re already creating the superior beings, I think we lost the battle to the machines long ago. We’re going to become the pets, the dogs of the house.”

In Wozniak’s eyes, humans are going to become mere spectators to the doings of machines. ‘Every time we create new technology we’re creating stuff to do the work we used to do and we’re making ourselves less meaningful, less relevant’, he said.

Continue reading "Tough luck geeks, we’re still smarter than silicon" »

It is a sunny Saturday in Sydney and an immaculately-attired family of five are standing as one to photograph their lunches in a posh seafood restaurant.

Mother is inspired by a spray of fluorescent caviar over curled cucumber slices. Father is attempting to frame the table’s human subjects as well as its plates (quite a feat when everyone is hovering and squinting behind their smartphones).

Daughters one, two and three, meanwhile, are less impressed with the beauty of the haute cuisine than with the digital tricks permitted by their phones’ extensive collection of photo manipulation software. They are amused (understandably) at their ability to digitally decapitate their parents and replace their heads with spanner crabs.

Continue reading "Zen and the art of managing technology" »

In ten years’ time, when Jason Jr is pointing at a 3D LED Beyblade Generator and screeching like the ungrateful little brat he is, I won’t be able to use the “back in my day” line.

True, growing up, I didn’t have an iPhone 4, a Nintendo 3DS, or a hideously expensive tablet computer – none of which, of course, I needed – but I did have a fine assortment of Lego, a Han Solo figurine and Duck Hunt. My childhood, like that of many my age, was relatively easy.

My parents were always big on the “we made our own toys” thing. They would often tell my brother and I how their toy boxes contained such treasures as: “an empty can and a stick”, “a piece of rope with teeth marks in it” and “five rusty nails”. In between making hula hoops out of tyres and shouting “get your own damn nails” at other kids, my folks were busy playing Cowboys and Indians, selling fresh lemonade and generally having a great ol’ time.

Continue reading "What I’ll tell my future kids" »

We were due to start shooting at 8:00am. Legendary actor Bill Hunter, Billy to his mates, looked at me with one eye open, the other squinting and with a wry smile made it clear he wouldn’t be moving until I relaxed, sat with him and had a beer or two. He hadn’t said a word. His was a face that told a story.

Four other well known Aussie actors were there too. We were shooting a self-funded pilot for a TV series (that was rejected by the networks). For once I didn’t babble. I watched and listened and learned. I can’t say I knew Bill Hunter, but I was pleased to my core as we sat back and opened a second beer before shooting, that I shared a few golden moments with a man who knew how to tell a story.

Bill Hunter had a knack of picking the right Aussie films to be in. He knew what a good story was. So many Australian feature films are a flop nowadays because we lack the ability to tell a good story on-screen. For all the modern gadgets, the hand-held video cameras, the hard-drives; the instant play-back generation simply doesn’t know how to tell a story on-screen anymore.

Continue reading "Airheads with gadgets have hijacked real storytelling" »

Yesterday’s announcement that the NBN finally made it to the mainland was good news for the many Australians who have deplorable access to broadband services. But why did it take so long?

Simple: Australia’s communications policy-makers are bounded by a centrally-controlled, single-solution approach that has been around since the time of the telegraph. This model leaves no room for innovation, encourages contractors to artificially inflate prices, and stalls whenever a skeleton can be found in the closet of the head honcho of NBN Co.

When the Canadian Samuel McGowan brought the telegraph to Victoria in 1853, his plan to become a telegraph entrepreneur was thwarted by the Victorian government’s decision to rollout the telegraph network as a public monopoly.

Continue reading "The NBN’s the culmination of 150 years of cock ups" »

Once upon a time when you engaged in sex, whether within a relationship or casually, the most you had to worry about was who had a condom nearby. Or about remembering to take the pill every day. Now we have to worry about being filmed. So other people can watch us.

Having sex with someone involves a certain amount of trust. It can be argued that you can’t expect trust (or fidelity) with a one night stand or casual sex. But you can and should expect respect. Whatever happened to that?

I think it left the building around the same time iPhones turned up and started to run the show.

Continue reading "Sex, lies and cleverly concealed videotape" »

Are you reading this piece using wi-fi? You wouldn’t be if Australian scientists had not invented technology that wirelessly connects computers, TV sets and phones across the planet.

Australian science has led to the development of Relenza – the first drug successful in treating the flu -  meaning that fewer Australians suffer or die from it every year. In a typical Australian winter, around 1,500 deaths are attributed to the influenza virus.

Australian science has given us climate-ready crops. Crops that will make sure families can continue to place basic food items on the table despite changing weather patterns. Crops that give us wheat to export when other nations fall short, and that keep our balance-of-trade figures looking vaguely respectable.

Continue reading "Science; it’s not just lab coats and specimen jars" »

Every time my train goes under Central Station, my phone calls cut out. There is - despite what people who have real problems will tell you - nothing more infuriating. It’s 2011. Obama has promised a Mars mission and I can’t even get reception in a tunnel.

These aren’t the only techno gripes I have on this mediocre day of April. How come I have an app on my phone that tells me which M. Night Shyamalan movie sucks the most, but I don’t have one that brushes my teeth for me? Why am I still losing car keys, tying my own shoelaces and having to move my eyeballs to focus on a different point in space?

Why are we wasting money on things like better healthcare and infrastructure, when we could be inventing a gizmo that detects and automatically scratches itches? How is it that in this wondrous age of techno-wizardry, my mouth cannot yet produce milk to go with my cereal? C’mon!

Continue reading "The iPad 2 - it won’t feed the hungry or cure the sick" »

Welcome to Tuesday and International Women’s Day at The Punch

Philips revealed the world’s first CD on this day in 1979. Did anyone buy a CD in that year or remember the first one they owned?

Share that or anything else that’s on your mind, here.

As entertaining as the game was, the best action in yesterday’s Super Bowl was off the field.

In the second quarter, Motorola ran a one minute ad which parodied Ridley Scott’s bold, apocalyptic 1984 Apple ad.

In Scott’s ad, Apple seemed to be implying that the world of personal computing, circa the actual year 1984, was dominated by a Big Brother-like power (IBM, anyone?) more reminiscent of Orwell’s fictional 1984.

Continue reading "Motorola taunts Apple: “Who’s Big Brother now?”" »

It’s no secret that I am a fan of Facebook.

It should be no surprise that I like it. I am a 30-something, stay-at-home mother, and I work from home part-time, freelance.

And it is a lonely life. Activities with babies last one or two hours, then it’s you and the baby or toddler, toys with bells and blocks.

Continue reading "Don’t let today’s technology control you" »

I’m writing this with voice recognition software. If that sounds scintillating and newfangled, you’ve obviously never used what should more accurately be described as voice mutilating software.

I’ll go into more detail in a minute, but, in the meantime, here are just three of the versions of the first sentence of this column offered by my voice murdering software:

1. To running splits recognition software. 

2. But wearing this voice which uses raft snares. 

3. List softly, Felicity, poignantly stealthily and a half.

Continue reading "Meet my voice mutilating software" »

The world’s top space agency had a recent, desperate attempt to tap into popular culture - by having a crack at bad Hollywood science.

You really can’t fault NASA for trying. Last year it was told it must drop its dreams of replacing its dead Shuttle fleet and give up on its attempt to recapture the post Cold War frenzy of the world’s first Moon landing.

After all, this is the agency that brought the world its first reusable space craft and created the world’s second “permanent” space orbiter, SkyLab - a feat which continued to bring joy to earth-bound enthusiasts as its fiery debris rained down across our land and oceans.

Continue reading "NASA makes a failed landing on junk science" »

Have you noticed that these days it’s not just people who sell ‘handmade’ soap at markets complaining that our culture has become too high-tech, too overloaded with meaningless information, too much about instant gratification?

Particularly at Christmas when everyone complains about empty consumerism it seems we’ve all bought into the notion that life was so much simpler and people so much nicer before the advent of the mass media. No road rage, no mass shootings in high schools, families sitting politely around the dinner table discussing literature.

I reckon it’s time we test this belief empirically, by comparing the past and the present on a few issues.

Continue reading "Back to the future: it’s a myth that life used to be sweeter" »

Julia Gillard and Stephen Conroy have just released the full business plan for the National Broadband Network, saying taxpayers would get a 7 per cent return on their $27.5 billion investment, and it would take nine years for the network to reach 10 million Australian households.

The business plan foreshadowed wholesale prices of $24 per month for the basic 12 Mbps, and $38 for 100 Mbps. But neither Gillard, nor Conroy, would speculated on what a fair retail cost for consumers would be.

The Prime Minister would only say that with greater competition would come lower prices for householders. What would you be prepared to pay for the standard or ultra-fast fiber packages set to be rolled out over the next decade?

I love progress. I’ve got an IPad and a desktop computer. I shop online. I work from home.

I even do my own software updates, partly from necessity and partly because I’m feeling empowered enough to do it.

The debate about the NBN has left me cold. I find myself asking: do I need faster internet speed?

Continue reading "But seriously, where will the NBN cables go?" »

When it comes to questions of population, ignorance often prevails. The business lobby in Australia, often through its many and varied “independent” centres and institutes, leads the way.

Through its complex web of public relations activities, it pushes its population growth propaganda, specialising in denial.

Here are some facts:

Continue reading "Population growth is a choice" »

Technology is changing the way we communicate with each other – and not for the better. Gone are the days when “catching up” with friends required that you be in the same room, or even the same city.

Nowadays many of our closest relationships are mediated by machines, and it’s taking a toll on what was once considered civilised society. We are forgetting how to speak to one another face-to-face. We are switched-on, but we’re getting more and more disconnected from our true selves.

There is one product more than any other that has led to this worrying state of affairs.

Continue reading "Society has gone to the dogs because of technology" »

Sometimes it’s tough being a celebrity journalist. Not only do you have to constantly travel to Prague and party with Ben Affleck but you also have to do radio interviews.

Earlier this week I was chatting to a Queensland radio station at about 7.30am when all of a sudden my mobile phone just cut out. Just immediately ceased to function, as if Philip Nitschke had caught it in a bad mood.

I must admit I found this lack of reception strange, given that I was standing in a street in the middle of Sydney—as opposed to, say, Hitler’s bunker.

Continue reading "My iPhone is great - except at making calls" »

In another study from the University of Obvious Research Findings, research out today finds people are increasingly working away from the office.

And it’s perhaps it’s even more predictable given that the survey was commissioned by Telstra. Surprise! Telecommunications technology is all the rage says a study - from a telecommunications technology company.

Although once you get past saying “well, duh” and grab your pinch of salt, some details in the findings might just twitch your eyebrow. It says a quarter of Australian workers are spending five hours working outside of the workplace each week, and 15 per cent are doing it 10 hours a week. These are pretty significant numbers and signal a real shift in the nature of Australian work. The question is whether a society of always-on workers is a Good Thing.

Continue reading "Is it time to put the brakes on remote working?" »

Facebook is an easy target. With its size and history of privacy gaffes, criticising it is like taking aim at the proverbial barn door.

The same could be said for the online world in general. When we are faced with a social problem, from cyber-bullying to privacy breaches, it’s much easier to blame technology or the company that provides us with it than to take responsibility ourselves.

We can truthfully say that the internet has changed us, but once we start talking about how and why we need to factor ourselves in as well.

Continue reading "Blaming technology when society goes wrong is lazy" »

If you looked at the value of the Aussie dollar as a sign of our economy strength, things have never been better: since the currency was floated in 1983, it’s never reached such a high value. Here we found ourselves 27 years later practically rolling in money, with a dollar nearing parity with a value in the high 90’s.

Let’s ignore the negative for a moment, shall we? The good side of the value in our dollar obviously lies in how much our prices are going to drop – at least, that’s the way it’s supposed to go if we believe what we’re told. Sadly it seems the opposite is mostly the case.

As luck would have it though, the modern age has found a way around that, as it’s now much cheaper and easier than ever for you to go on the internet and purchase anything you’d like at cheaper prices overseas, thereby bypassing the expensive Australian retailers.

Continue reading "Where to cash in on the strong Aussie dollar" »

AS a twenty-something, I have a real mind to send Steve Jobs a nasty email for ruining my retirement.

I was looking forward to marvelling at some new whiz-bang contraption in my twilight years, while telling some young punk how, in my day, iPads didn’t support Flash. Thanks to Jobs and his high-waisted jeans, however, it will be a lot less starry-eyed wonder and whole lot more humbug.

When I’m 84 and daytime telly’s been cancelled because the last of the Andrew O’Keefe clones has died in a bizarre Ready, Steady Cook accident, I’ll be bored stiff.

Continue reading "I want an iPhone 5 and I want it right now" »

It’s time to put an end to all this partisan negativity. At a time when people are looking to our leaders for vision, it is great to see a political party step up with a long-term vision for the nation.

I am referring of course to the Coalition’s decision to destroy the National Broadband Network and all who promote it and instead uphold Australian values by promoting a more leisurely pace of download.

While the public may be firmly behind the NBN as detailed in today’s Essential Report, I wonder how many have really thought through the implications of faster efficient broadband on their already busy and cluttered lives.

Continue reading "10 reasons why the Liberals are right about the interweb" »

It’s a very first-world picture of human misery: a packed airport terminal filled with thousands of delayed travellers.

There are frazzled parents at the limits of their patience, looking after bored kids giddy at being on their school holidays but frustrated at having nothing to do. Passengers milling around, trying to nap on a hard floor, anxious that the next announcement on the public address system will be the one that cancels their flight.

And all because of a computer problem.

Continue reading "Virgin blip gives a glimpse of total digital chaos" »

In 2007/2008, the creative industries contributed $31.1 billion in industry gross product to the Australian economy, which is equivalent to 2.8% of GDP, and employed 316,600 workers.

The creative industries achieved an average annual growth rate of 5.8% over the last 11 years to 2007/2008, well above the annual growth rate for the broader economy of 3.6% over the same period. The Software Development and Interactive Content segment is responsible for much of this growth, accounting for 43.8% of earnings and 38.3% of jobs in 2007/2008.

The games industry in particular is a fast-growth industry in which Australian opportunities are shaped by large international enterprises. This growth is dependent on sustaining a pool of highly skilled workers. Technical creative and business skills have been in high demand over the last decade. However, a serious shortage of skilled employees is a major factor contributing to the almost $2 billion trade deficit in Australia’s digital content industry.

Continue reading "We’re not the clever country if we’re not a creative country" »

The debate about whether Tony Abbott should or should not have been able to answer questions about peak internet speeds probably divides Australians into two classes: the digerati and the rest.

Most Australians are hooked up to the web now, and the unconnected are a dwindling band of Luddites, plus those who believe they’re too old to learn computers, or too poor to pay for access.

But among those who do have internet access, there’s a wide spectrum of different experiences.

Continue reading "Stop the world, I want to get off" »

If you are reading this then my job is half done; you’ve started reading this article.

Maybe the headline piqued your interest; perhaps the accompanying image caught your eye; or maybe you are just procrastinating at work. Either way, it’s an honour and a privilege to have your attention for this fleeting moment.

You see, your attention is becoming an increasingly valuable thing. At any moment of the day there are a multitude of entities vying for your interest; some will be trying to sell you a product or service, others will be trying to educate or inform you and some provide little more than a distraction.

Continue reading "May I have your attention please!" »

I like technology.  I like the fact that technology allows me to be an actor for a living.  You see, without technology like television, I wouldn’t be where I am today. 

Yet there is something sinister about the way technology is changing our lives. 

I sometimes think that each new marvellous technological invention gives us yet another reason to spend less time with each other.

Continue reading "The joy of unplugging from our tech-stressed lifestyles" »

The image below is map of Australia but it’s not just any map, it is taken from a social media website called ijustmadelove.com. Yes, it’s a map logging the location, time and date of where people have had sex.

It also allows them to detail what type of sex they had, whether it was inside, outdoors or on a boat and to rate it using a 5 star system.

It is, in many ways, a sign of the increasing trend within society to reveal more and more private information and explains why in 2008 Webster’s dictionary had to create a new word – “overshare”.

Continue reading "You just did what? The rise of the oversharers" »

In an old episode of MASH, the doctors are talking about missing television, in particular missing watching Milton Berle at night with their wives. Charles, arch conservative who likes old wine and even older music, says television is a passing phase.

Winchester wasn’t the only one who poo-poohed the arrival of a new medium of entertainment, nor was he the last.

Well, its de ja vu all over again. There’s a new gadget on the market, the doubters and sceptics are doing their thing and technological evangelists are doing theirs.

Continue reading "I hope I didn’t buy a $1000 calculator with WiFi" »

What is it about our love affair with Google that we let them take wholesale liberties with our privacy, and sit back and watch what might be one of the largest data breaches in history go by without so much as a whimper?

After some prodding, Google recently admitted to European Privacy Commissioners that they had “mistakenly” collected the contents of communications between some computer users, as part of their “Street View” activities.  Mistakenly.  All around the world. For four years.

It goes something like this: specially equipped “Street View” vehicles criss-cross entire nations, taking photographs of our houses and streets, geo-tagging the location with both a GPS and also by “sniffing” for WI FI connections in the area.  That way, when a person uses a Google product to locate themselves (like Google Maps), and there are WI FI networks detected nearby, Google can triangulate the device and give you an approximate location.  Pretty cool, and nothing really too scary about that, even though there were privacy concerns raised at the time.  We trusted Google.

Continue reading "Google, the pot and the kettle" »

I’ve got two words for those working themselves into supernovas of incandescent cyber rage over Conroy’s internet filtering scheme: The Matrix.

Or how about: The Terminator. Or, to be more scientifically respectable: the Singularity. Let’s all unhook ourselves from our computers, iPhones and PlayStations for a few moments and consider the possibility that the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is not a reactionary Papist set on turning this free-speech-loving nation into – take your pick from the blogosphere pundits – Torquemada’s Spain, Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia or Hu Jintao’s China.

Is it possible that in the not too distant future, the man voted 2009’s Internet Villain of the Year will come to be venerated as a John Connor-esque hero, a 21st century neo-Luddite resistance fighter, a man who tugged on the handbrake a little while the rest of humanity was intent on driving itself off a cliff?

Continue reading "Conroy’s filter has nothing on the next technology scare" »

After reading up on Jesus and Mohammed on the Wikipedia app on my iPhone 3GS, I was struck by how old and irrelevant our prophets are. 

Jesus was the leader of a small ministry prone to speak in parables. Mohammed was a merchant who sometimes dwelled in a cave. It’s time for a modern prophet we can relate to.

Likely contenders are Lionel Messi for displaying artistry on a football field, Adam Scott for dating Anna Ivanovic, Jack Bauer for thwarting terrorism, Tina Fey for her role in 30 Rock or the genius who created The Wire.

Continue reading "My road to iDamascus with Steve Jobs as a prophet" »

I always thought that one of the greatest gifts you can give your children is the love of reading.

It leads to a lifetime of learning and broadens the mind, as it opens up a new world of discovery and fantasy.

I longed to sit down with my son, Harrison, enjoy a book and special time together. But it rarely happened.

Continue reading "My first iPhone: why technology is good for kids" »

My Nana had this funny habit when she travelled that we used to tease her about - she’d sometimes spend more time in the gift shop searching for the perfect post card than actually looking at the sights.

She wasn’t just searching for an experience, she wanted a perfect way to remember it. But at least she actually had the experience. The other night I watched a whole load of people, who’d spent a whole load of money for an experience, let it completely pass them by while they went in search of a low-resolution, tinny-sounding memory.

It was at the Spandau Ballet concert in Sydney, where laid out in front of me was a sea of well-dressed professionals so busy videoing on their Blackberries and iPhones they forgot to have any fun.

Continue reading "So busy recording life they’re at risk of missing it" »

Wardrobe crisis is my term of choice. But I’ve also heard it been appropriately described as “meltdown” “fashion disaster” and “wardrobe malfunction”. But regardless of what you call it, agonising over what to wear is one of life’s inevitably stressful experiences.

So thank god for the brain behind the genius of the Fashion iPhone App- a mobile, go-anywhere personal stylist that can confirm, deny or suggest alternatives to what you’ve chosen to wear that day. 

Here’s an explanation care of the Wall Street Journal, or read the whole article online:

Continue reading "Punch list: 12 more apps they should make" »

On 7 April 2009 Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan, Lindsay Tanner and Stephen Conroy surprised Australians by scrapping Labor’s National Broadband Network (NBN) election policy and announcing an ambitious rejigged ‘national’ broadband plan at ten times the cost.

But 12 months to the day and the $43 billion surprise is still just that, all surprise and no substance to its delivery. Australians are yet to get one extra megabit of speed, or send a single packet of data down the Minister’s pipe dream network.

Labor first stumbled by ignoring the Prime Minister’s own advice on policy evaluation that; “Policy design and policy evaluation should be driven by analysis of all the available options… We’re interested in facts.”

Continue reading "Happy birthday to the NBN, shame it’s a fizzer" »

On 10 March 1876, Alexander Bell called Thomas Watson.  By today’s standards, unremarkable.  But in 1876, he had made the world’s first telephone call.

Some 130 years later, today’s World Telephone Day celebrates that call, in an environment very different from Alexander Bell’s. Telephones of various types, shapes, colours and sizes are enmeshed in our everyday lives. 

Today’s phones are personal and business necessities.  They can be fashion accessories.  They’re more compact, more mobile, and we rely upon them more than ever before.

Continue reading "A step backwards for the phone on its birthday" »

The one advantage that paper-based magazines have had on their electronic counterparts is usability and look. The ability to turn the page and take in the beauty of a well-designed magazine is something that most web sites can’t match.

Portability is the other area where magazines have had the edge. Carrying them around is lot easier than a standard computer.

As such, many have scoffed at Rupert Murdoch’s aim to get people to pay for digital content. After all, lots of online content is currently free and there’s been nowhere near enough ‘value-add’ to warrant people paying for content. However, the launch of Apple’s iPad tablet could well be the game changer that proves Murdoch right. With their new ultra-portable tablet, Apple can change the publishing industry to the same degree that they’ve changed the music sector.

Continue reading "Why the iPad could be the saviour of paid content" »

A friend remarked this morning that being told you can’t use Internet Explorer, as governments around the world are advising, is like being ordered to get to work without using roads.

This would be inconvenient but sufferable as we could all probably do with a good walk. But tortuously, in this situation even starting such a walk involves making a phone call to your IT helpdesk.

With respect to my IT administrator friends I’ll bet many people would rather take their chances with the criminals.

Continue reading "Hello IT helpdesk? I have a problem called the internet" »

I read today that those wacky zany kids at Channel Seven are rolling out something called “Pump TV”. I thought they’d gone all naughty and were setting up a new digital porn channel, but it turns out they’re wacking in TV screens into petrol pumps.

Well that’s a great leap for mankind. You need to get a bit of Mel and Kochie action while you’re filling up at the servo. Actually Beauty and The Geek will look a whole lot better while you’re topping up the brake fluid.

How’s it going to work? Are they abridged, five-minute episodes of everything – or the time it takes to do your business and screw the cap back on? Or will we be faced with oceans of Shell V90 flooding out over the concrete Zoolander style, as motorists are totally engrossed with the latest love tryst between Dr. Rachel, Alf and Hugo on Home and Away?

Continue reading "Pump it louder: the stupid rise of the servo television" »

“She doesn’t do radio interviews… she says it’s a dead medium”.

A recent conversation with a publicist about an American starlet nearly knocked me for six. According to the publicist the said starlet wasn’t going to waste her time on radio, because she simply didn’t believe anyone would be listening.

While it came as a surprise to me, it wasn’t the first time I’d heard it – particularly from an American.  In the US, radio has really struggled in the wake of internet broadcasting. As listeners switch off in droves, programmers have been forced to look for new ways to reach out to their audience.

Continue reading "Radio kills the radio stars" »

Don’t you just hate it when you’ve bought a new toy and before you’ve even got it out of the box you’re friends are saying you’ve wasted your money?

I know someone who has the new Kindle, which was released in Australia last week.

If he is the same sort of technoholic as I am, he would have been crestfallen when before he’d even unpacked it one of our acquaintances said: “Have you seen the Nook? Bet you’ll regret the Kindle.”

Continue reading "Yes, books are great but we said that about CDs" »

Next Thursday, Microsoft releases Windows 7, the latest update to its flagship product.

So far, the world is finding it pretty easy to ignore, other than its widely-parodied suggestion that you welcome the new product with a party.

You suspect Microsoft almost wants it this way, given the colossal flop that was Windows Vista.

Continue reading "Windows 7: It’s Vista without the dodgy bits" »

Once upon a time, in a 20th century age of ‘things’, people used to make sense of who they were by what they owned – land, house, car etc.

Today, in the age of communication, people are defined by who they know and what they share.

The phenomenal success of Web 2.0 vehicles such as Facebook and now Twitter (which I was told by a reliable source this week has seen 6,500 per cent growth in users in the last financial year), has demonstrated an astonishing need for people to connect and interact as the basis of their identity and wellbeing.

Continue reading "When names hurt as much as sticks and stones" »

A few years ago, I worked in a co-working space called Silicon Beach House - it was our play on Silicon Valley - and everyone there was either a developer, a web designer, or running a web start-up. It was a little harem of geeks. And then there was me.

My original MySpace page (yes!) is evidence that I really had no idea what I was doing back then. I still use it in presentations to show people what NOT to do on the web. I am also yet to live down the day I replaced the batteries on my mouse with rechargeable ones and had everyone in the office spend a good 20 minutes giving me tech support, before I sheepishly made the discovery.

It may have happened two years ago, but when I asked my Twitter followers the other day if they had any idea why my second screen wasn’t working, someone still suggested I check the batteries.

Continue reading "How to get along with geeks: A seven-point guide" »

I am a social media whore. That’s the point of it all right? There’s a lot you can know about me from what music I listen to, what concerts I’ve been to and yes, even occasionally what I just ate.

There’s even a 12 second video somewhere of me dancing in a tutu to What a Feeling by Irene Cara.  All of which I chose to share across a number of social networks I belong to that include Blip.fm, Twitter and 12seconds.tv and I’m comfortable with that.

And then there’s Facebook.

Continue reading "Six million Australians are selling their lives to Facebook" »

An American company has announced that it will now make available in Australia kits that will let parents test their children for drug use.

The drug testing kits use samples of hair to test what drugs and how often kids could be using them.

The company, Confirm Biosciences, has circulated a statement claiming that the new kits will put “control back in parents’’ hands

Continue reading "Should parents be testing kids for drugs in the home?" »

Like most people the only mail I enjoy getting are personal letters, invitations and birthday cards. Like most people I also hate getting bills.

They’re inefficient, a waste of paper, postage and labour. I also hate lining up to pay them, and don’t hang out for “personal interaction” with the lady at the Post Office.

I also never remember to find a post box and when I have something to send by mail usually find it in the bottom of my hand bag ten days after it was due.

Continue reading "Bring on the death of paper billing and paying in person" »

“Real transformative change never begins in Washington.” (Pause for quacks.)

You’ll need to turn up the volume but the quacking is audible early in the video.

Got a story about a mortifying mobile moment? Share it in the comments.

So the other night a friend and I were trying to suss out some directions using Google.  My aim was to get from my home, in Erskineville, in Sydney, to Orange, NSW.

So I typed in From: Erskineville. To: Orange.

Seems Google thought I meant directions to Orange, California.

Continue reading "Google, you are amazing" »

Are we becoming so jaded by Photographic forgeries that we now question every image?

“Amazing picture is the real deal-no porkies”  this was the headline on the page 5 picture story in last Tuesday’s Sydney Daily Telegraph.

The news content in this story about a giant feral pig shot some years back in Western Australia was that it was indeed a genuine picture and not forged. It had been written off as an internet hoax and even the WA ‘s own Department of Environment and Conservation had dismissed it as a forgery.

How have we reached this point where it is now news when a picture is in fact genuine and does it matter?

Continue reading "Stop the presses: this photograph is real" »

Alongside PowerPoint slide design, I think I have a fetish for iPhone applications. Last week I was doing my usual browse through iTunes looking at some of the latest apps when I excitedly discovered one recently released by Tic Tac. I vaguely recalled reading an article about it and how they were apparently one of the leading brands in the digital space.

So I quickly downloaded it, synced it and opened it. And it was shit. So much so that I actually wanted to punch somebody. For those who haven’t seen it, which apparently isn’t many of you because it was downloaded a whole 3000 times in the first week, it’s perhaps the most useless app of all time.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a useless iPhone app. Or even a gimmicky one. Perhaps my favourite app of all time falls into both those categories; iPint (see above video). Released by beer brand Carling, the app appears as a glass full of beer that as you tilt slowly it empties, as though you are drinking it. Yes it’s gimmicky and yes it’s useless. But it’s awesome.

Continue reading "It’s not just a mint - it’s a really bad campaign" »

Please, don’t regard me warmly. I’m not that nice. And why are you offering your best wishes? It’s not my birthday.  I enjoy ‘cheers’, but it makes me feel like a drink, even in the morning (and that can’t be good).

How you sign off your emails shows more about your personality than you realise.

‘Warm regarders’ tend to be touchy-feely types who used to watch Oprah (but are now ‘turning’ for Ellen), do scrapbooking and believe in reiki.

If aged over 40, she’s an eccentric middle-aged lady, draped in purple, muttering quietly to herself.

Continue reading "Email sign-offs: Cheers, best, farewell, get a mullet up ya" »