Government nuclear agency says nuclear power is good – film at 11..
Category Archives: Australia
Back in Oz
Phew, got back last night from our 3 week whirlwind tour of the world – well, OK, Singapore and the UK. 🙂
More later when I have a brain, I think it’s somewhere over the Himalaya at the moment..
Business to get access to Aussie ID Card Data ?
Just in on the ABC news:
Federal Human Services Minister Joe Hockey has signalled that private sector companies like banks and supermarkets may be given access to information stored on the Government’s “smart card”.
Joe Hockey says:
So a blanket policy saying that the private sector can have no access to the card, or a blanket policy saying that only certain government agencies can have access, or a blanket policy saying that individuals can or cannot change the information, I think is crazy at this particular point of time
No, Mr. Hockey, I think you’re crazy for considering letting private companies get access to this data!
Linux Users Victoria (Melbourne) May Meeting – ComputerBank and SELinux in FC5
May 2006 General Meeting – LUV News, Linux News, Computer Bank, SE Linux in Fedora Core 5.
Tuesday 2nd May 2006, 7pm at The Buzzard Lecture Theatre. Evan Burge Building. Trinity College Main Campus. Parkville. Melways Map: 2B C5.
There’s an unofficial pre-meeting curry at the Classic Curry Company on Elizabeth Street around 6:15pm.. yum!
Australian Government to Introduce De-Facto ID Cards
From the ABC:
Federal Cabinet has approved the introduction of a smart card for all people who use Government health and welfare services.
The card will include a photograph and personal details, and will be used to access Medicare rebates and family benefits. […]
Announcing the decision, Prime Minister John Howard says the Government has decided not to continue with a proposal for a national identity card for all Australians.
So if you want to be able to claim your Medicare for going to see the doctor, you will have to have one of these cards…
Leon Brooks is back!
Well well, less than 2 months ago I wrote:
Leon, I hope you make a speedy and thorough recovery. Get well soon.
Well, check this out, here’s Leon’s first blog post since the accident! Leon – you are amazing!
My brain is now essentially OK — modulo some bits of Short Term Memory killled by the total loser’s antics — and the body is steadily rebuilding, so I do have a viable future as this develops.
The most disturbing part of it is that the subtext of his post implies that the “accident” was anything but – he writes:
I truly have ZERO appreciation for a selfish waste of space and oxygen who hurts people for the hell of it, including that it had already hurt several others before applying it’s stupid malice to me.
Sometimes I despair for humanity, but then people like Leon come along and give me some hope. Leon – it is so good to see you back in the virtual world again – keep fighting!
Bank Charges : Money for Old Rope
Via Alec Muffett – some Australian banks are now charging up to $2 for:
- incorrect PIN numbers
- the wrong account type is accidentally chosen
- the customer aborts the transaction before completion
Unfortunately the ACA press release doesn’t name and shame the banks involved and you need to pay to get a copy of the full report. Not impressed!
Report: Failing to Curb Greenhouse Gasses May Hurt Australias Economy
Here’s an interesting news item from the ABC about a report commissioned by 6 big companies (not known to be Eco-warriors or Greenies) including BP Australia and the Australian Conservation Foundation and carried out by CSIRO and Allen Consulting Group which claims that delaying action on climate change would harm the Australian economy when compared with having to take action later.
The ACF’s press release on the report is here and the actual report is linked from here.
Interesting points from the press release:
- A 60 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is possible while maintaining strong economic growth, with real GDP averaging 2.1 per cent p.a. through to 2050 if early action is taken;
- In comparison to early action, delaying action to 2022 would result in lower real GDP growth by an average of 0.2 per cent p.a. through to 2050, and concentrate any disruptive shocks over a shorter period;
- An additional 3.5 million jobs will still be created in the economy under the early action scenario over the period 2013-2050; equating to 250,000 more jobs than under the delayed action scenario.
National Archives of Australia Transitioning to OASIS OpenDocument Format
This has been foreshadowed for a while now, but there’s movement on the National Archives of Australia transitioning to the OASIS standard document format OpenDocument (used by OpenOffice.org amongst others).
It’s not clear whether this will merge with or replace their existing open source XML archive file format Xena and how it will interact with the way that documents are currently imported into the repository.
OK – after reading through some of their docs it appears that Xena uses OpenOffice.org to do some of the conversions between file formats, so my guess is that they’re considering saving their documents with OOo inside a Xena container (presumably in addition to the binary blob that contains the original document format).
Apple Advertising to Satellites ?
[April Fool! – Yes, I am part of the global conspiracy.. 🙂]
Here’s an interesting coincidence, was talking to a person I know interstate who told me that a friend at Apple had let the cat out of the bag by mentioning that they were planning a big PR stunt for their 30th anniversary in conjunction with Google, but shut up as soon as he’d realised he’d said too much.
Then I find that my good friend Rich has stumbled across what’s got to be the same thing – a massive iPod advert visible from space!
Now that’s a cool stunt…
[Update: MIT’s Advertising Lab have picked up on this as well]