Category Archives: Australia

Australia

I’m going to be an Aussie! (Updated)

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Catching up on my backlog – a few weeks ago I received a letter saying:

13th December 2007

Dear Mr Samuel

On behalf of the Government and the people of Australia, I am delighted to advise that your application for Australian citizenship has been approved.

Yay! I’m going to be an Aussie (( well, OK, to be precise, a dual-national UK/Aussie ))!

Back in the middle of the year I decided that after having lived in Australia for almost 5 years it was about time to do the right thing and apply to be a citizen of my new home. I was hoping to get to vote in the 2007 general election, but changes in the process and travelling overseas meant that the interview that should have happened in September didn’t occur until the 7th December. So they moved pretty quickly from that to the approval! 🙂

I am still a PR (permanent resident) until I do the “Pledge of commitment” which will be some time in the next 6 months or so, but once that happens my PR visa will cease and I’ll need to get an Aussie passport to go with my UK one.

Update: Turns out that “in the next 6 months or so” is actually going to be this coming Australia Day, January 26th!

The Australian Election 2007 – Lest We Forget

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In 2004 the ever wonderful Clarke and Dawes did a very special (and still topical) MasterMind on John Howard and his governments history ((Those outside Australia may need to look up what a “non-core promise” is.)) and why they got re-elected.

Now they’re back for the 2007 election, with a quick quiz on “The achievements of the Howard Government” (links to a transcript and video streams of the broadcast) which is well worth watching!

Emerging Linux Filesystems talk – LUV October meeting – 2nd October 2007

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Recently LinuxWorld commissioned me to write an article on Emerging Linux Filesystems (the formatting is a bit different from the original I sent, but the slideshow of graphs now works) and have kindly given me permission to present a talk based on my work at the October Linux Users of Victoria (LUV) meeting.

So if you can make it you can hear about my experiences with ChunkFS, btrfs, NILFS, ext4, Reiser4 and ZFS/FUSE, as well as with ZFS under OpenSolaris (in this case Nexenta).

I’d also like to thank Dragan at Xenon Systems for the loan of a shiny, Linux friendly, test system!

A sign of what’s to come ?

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Given the state of the drought in Australia, perhaps this is what we have to look forward to if things getting worse here water wise..

The water supply to residents of the Turkish capital Ankara has been reduced to two days on, two days off because of a severe drought. The water level in reservoirs supplying the city has dropped to less than 5% of capacity, as the country suffers one of its driest years on record.

Wanted: Linux Systems Administrator

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The Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC) is looking for a Linux systems administrator to join our systems team working on grid computing.

  • Help build a grid across Australia!
  • Relaxed work environment.
  • Melbourne CBD fringe, easy access to trains and tram.
  • Salary around $55-60K+ (package contingent on experience)
  • Fixed term contract – 12 months.
  • Closing Date: 2nd August 2007

Reporting to the ICI Operations Manager, you will be working primarily in a Linux systems administrator role with Grid toolkits such as Globus and VDT. You will be involved in a National Project to provide Grid Based Computing available across Australia. The ability to work with and support our end users (typically scientific researchers and software developers) is very important in this role. Some national and international travel will be involved.

So if you think that it sounds interesting then please and go read the job advert on the VPAC website, or at least tell a friend! 🙂

Shame on you Kevin Andrews (Updated)

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So Kevin Andrews reckons that Dr Haneef leaving a country that has treated him as shabbily as Australia is “suspicious” does he ? It couldn’t have anything to do with Dr Haneef trying to go and see his newborn baby that he was on his way to visit when he was arrested on bogus evidence; that must be just a smokescreen, Mr Andrews ?

Now he claims he has some “secret evidence” that he can’t tell us about, though he’d like to. I suppose this is the same sort of evidence that said there was WMD in Iraq and Children Overboard then..

Quit now Kevin, get the pain over with. This time you and your party have failed to create yet another scare story in the run up to an election and the voters can see right through you.

Updated: This ABC news report makes some more interesting points.

On Saturday, Mr Andrews said Mohamed Haneef had no choice but to return to India. “I have indicated that the Commonwealth has no objection to Dr Haneef leaving, indeed the effect of the visa cancellation is that he should remove himself, he should depart Australia in any event,” he said. But yesterday, the fact Dr Haneef did leave the country so swiftly was being cast by the Minister almost as a sign of guilt.

It also points out that his statement that Dr. Haneef’s baby was born a month ago was also wrong, his daughter was born just 6 days before his arrest.

Incompetence or dissembling ? You decide.

Australian Internet Censorship pilot to go ahead

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So it appears the Federal governments attempts to censor the internet at ISPs is not dead after all..

Coonan said one privately funded trial had been cancelled, but the planned pilot managed by the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) will go ahead as planned. The tender for companies wishing to take part closed last week and three bids were received, according to the government.

What they are going to be testing out is..

Under the ACMA scheme, ISP-level filtering products will be tested on blocking “inappropriate and illegal content”, whether such products would clog ISPs’ networks and if such products have improved since the government last examined their capabilities in 2005-2006.