Before I get started, I’ll preface this entry with the fact that I own a 2008 Toyota Prius (second generation) which is not affected by the current recall of the third generation Prius. It seems to me that the media has sensationalised what is effectively a nuance in the way a Toyota hybrid vehicle brakes. …
Feb 10 2010
Google Chrome Bug Bounty – Cheap or Considerate?
I came across a news article today on ZDNet Australia about Google starting a reward scheme for people who find and report bugs in its Chrome browser. There are some questions and answers about what constitutes an eligible bug at the Chromium blog but in a nutshell, the base reward starts at US$500 (similar to …
Feb 09 2010
On Sale – Super Mario Bros Wii for AU$1.6m
In news following on the feels of the legal case between AFACT and iiNet (covered in an earlier blog entry), James Burt of Brisbane has found himself owning the most expensive copy of Super Mario Bros Wii in the world after being fined over one million dollars for illegally distributing the game online about a …
Feb 08 2010
Optical Media – Next Stop, Obsolescence
Today was a bit of a slow news day (in my opinion anyway) apart from ongoing analysis over the AFACT vs iiNet case and something over the weekend about the Australian Democrats attempting to become relevant again with a call for copyright legislation on the Internet. So I thought I’d dig up something not in …
Feb 07 2010
Piracy Code of Practice – Practical or Pathetic?
Earlier this week, I touched on the court case between AFACT and iiNet and the precedent it sets for copyright law in Australia (subject to the appeals process which is yet to be formally invoked). Several days after the verdict, Senator Stephen Conroy (Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) has made a public …
Feb 06 2010
Declination in Teenage Blog and Twitter Usage
Over the last few days, I’ve come across a number of articles reporting that teens are now blogging and tweeting less than young adults. Now, being a person who does a little bit of statistical analysis for a crust I found it somewhat annoying that the majority of articles seemed to regurgitate numbers without so …
Feb 05 2010
Australian Video Game Classifications – Out of Touch
In an earlier blog post (An Attack on Online Anonymity), I mentioned that the highest tolerated classification for video game publication in Australia is MA15+. This is as a direct result of South Australian Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson being the sole opposing censorship minister at state and territory level. In a development covered today by News, …
Feb 04 2010
Aye Aye – A Win for Common Sense for Copyright Law
Another saga that has been closely watched by the technology community for the last fourteen months has been the case between AFACT (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft) and iiNet (a national ISP based in Perth). In a nutshell, AFACT (comprising of the big six members of the MPAA in the US plus Village Roadshow, Seven …
Feb 03 2010
Console Trek – The Next Generation
I’ve been a bit of a gamer for a while and when I say a while, I mean from about 1985 from the age of four. I started with a “Dick Smith Wizzard” which was a rebadged VTech CreatiVision which was a second generation video game console. The games were very simple to say the …
Feb 03 2010
Political Backflip with a Twist
In my previous blog post I reviewed the dismal legislation passed in South Australian parliament. It seems today that Attorney General Michael Atkinson copped some flack when attempting to defend the new law on Adelaide radio station 5AA. As a result, Atkinson has indicated that he will motion to repeal the law after the election. …
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