Tech Stream
Posts Tagged ‘ news’
Social web blocked in China
3 June 2009
China is blocking access to social networking and social media websites ahead of the 20th anniversary of a bloody crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Sites like Twitter, Hotmail and Flickr were blocked on Tuesday and Microsoft also reported that access was blocked to their new Bing search engine.
The story is being covered today by Radio Australia News who report that internet users filled chatrooms with protest after access to Twitter was denied on Tuesday. And Reuters reports that “Access to video-sharing site YouTube, owned by Google, has been blocked in China since March, after overseas Tibetan groups posted graphic footage of China’s crackdown on protests by Tibetans in 2008.”
The Tech Dynasty blog on CNET Asia also covered the blocks yesterday and says that “anyone in China who spends any amount of time online has weathered these blocks before” and so has recommended some good sites to overcome them. There are also unconfirmed reports on Twitter that the #gfw (great firewall of China) has been removed from the ‘trending topics’ section. We’ll have more in the Tech Stream program, on Radio Australia news and on our own Tech Stream twitter feed.
UPDATE 05/06/2009: Connect Asia covered this on Thursday morning, you can hear Steve Holland’s story from this link, and ABC News Online provided excellent coverage of the anniversary.
Tech Stream 015
29 May 2009
Listen and download: MP3
In the Tech Stream this week: Dr James Chon from Swinburne University in Melbourne discussing their research breakthrough in optical disc storage. As reported on ABC News Online, the new technique uses gold nanorods and could potentially allow storage of up to 1.6 terabytes of data on a single DVD disc.
We also meet Professor John Hullet who, along with his colleagues from the University of Western Australia, invented a solution to broadband congestion called “Early Packet Discard” without which the internet as we know it would not function. They are now working on new ways to minimise delay in real-time communications online. You can also read more about their recent award on our Radio Australia program Innovations.
Simon Goodrich from Portable Content joins me for breakfast and we discuss a service called oDesk and trends in digital outsourcing in the region. And finally Bajo rockets in from Good Game on ABC TV to review the new Quake Live browser game. Fragadelic!
Jail verdict for Pirate Bay founders
20 April 2009
As reported on the weekend on ABC News Online:
Four men behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world’s biggest file-sharing sites, say they will appeal against their convictions and have refused to pay any damages for breaking copyright law. A Swedish court sentenced the four Pirate Bay founders to one year in jail for their involvement with the website. Said to have 25 million users, The Pirate Bay indexes and tracks BitTorrent files which allow users to download films, music and computer games from others. The men were ordered to pay $5 million in damages to a number of entertainment companies, including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI, and Columbia Pictures. Throughout the trial, the four men denied the charges saying because they did not actually host any files, they were not doing anything wrong.
Read the full article online and Elizabeth Jackson also reported on the result on ABC Radio’s Saturday AM program as well. For more analysis of the verdict and ramifications I would recommend Nate Anderson’s article on Ars Technica which gives some background; Greg Sandoval on CNET asks whether internet piracy has reached a tipping point; and Wired magazine reports on how file sharing may have saved Hollywood and the music industry. Fascinating and timely reading.
National Broadband Networks
7 April 2009
Australia’s Prime Minister Kevid Rudd this morning announced that the government plans to build a $US30 billion national broadband communications network.
April Fool
1 April 2009
The online April Fool jokes are flowing thick and fast this morning. And since those of us “Down Under” are ahead of the rest of the world, we’re getting them first. But unlike some countries, Australia’s pranks end at noon. So if you are planning one of your own time has almost run out.
Of course the best April Fool pranks are those that could almost be true. For example, Gamespot are reporting that a new Rockband game for Australia is going to be released which features tunes from iconic country star Slim Dusty and pre-school favourites The Wiggles. I somehow doubt it. Another, possibly brand initiated prank, on the Australian IT site features new GPS technology fitted into footballs, enabling sports fans to track the ball online with Google maps. Hmm, I smell a rat.
There’s also a few pranks that involve the proposed internet filtering scheme in Australia. ZDNet report that the controversial plan has been scrapped in favour of a “whitelist” of banned sites voted on by TV viewers. Broadband website Whirlpool have reported that Stephen Conroy, Australia’s communications minister has been sacked and ITWire also have a great story which suggests Australians will have to register and pay a licence fee to access the internet from June this year.
But in more serious news everyone is getting a little nervous about whether the Conficker virus will be an April 1st hoax or not. IT journalist Patrick Gray examines its roots in an interesting opinion piece on ABC News Online today. PM on ABC radio also covered the Conficker virus last night.
Feel free to share any interesting hoaxes you come across today in other parts of the world. ABC News online has few more famous April Fools jokes for your enjoyment too.
Death of the Newspaper
25 March 2009
Triple J Hack has also investigated this week the supposed death of the physical newspaper. Newspapers around the world are declaring bankruptcy and some have switched off their printers altogether. The loss of advertising dollars to the internet seems to be a major cause of the problem. Reporter Antoinette Chiha looks into whether an Australian newspaper could be next. And does this mark the death of quality journalism? You can watch this story online and you can track the death of newspapers in the US via the wonderfully titled newspaperdeathwatch.com.
I buy newspapers on the weekend to read over a slow breakfast, and then get all my updates via online news sites and RSS or twitter feeds during the week. But I would miss physical newspapers if they went away. Where do you get your news from? Why do we usually associate ‘quality journalism’ with newspapers? Do you have a favourite online news outlet or news application for your mobile device or computer?
Australia’s internet filter blacklist leaked
19 March 2009
ABC News Online reports that Wikileaks, an organisation that aims to reveal secret information, today published what it claims to be the ACMA blacklist. The Australian Government is planning to introduce a mandatory internet filter that will block access to a list of dangerous websites. Today’s leak has prompted an internet advocacy group to accuse the Government of making it easy to access child pornography. The full story is on ABC News Online and ZDNet Australia is also covering the story and the response on Twitter.
UPDATE: ABC News Online reports that Senator Stephen Conroy has denied that the official list was leaked.
A Gift of Robots
17 March 2009
Japanese student Tomohiro Aka donated his bipedal robot, nicknamed T-Rex, which won the ROBOCON 2008 Robo-Evolution competition. (ABC News: Damien Larkins)
From ABC News Online:
The Japanese Government has delivered a collection of warrior robots as a birthday present to Canberra’s Questacon Science and Technology Centre – which it co-founded 20 years ago. The robots were built by Japanese university students and were the winners of a national competition. The gift is to mark the 20th anniversary of Questacon which was built in partnership by Australia and Japan.
You can read more and also watch the video of this story, and ABC News also has footage of a “fembot” strutting a supposed Japanese catwalk. Weird.
ABC Mobile
16 March 2009
The ABC (of which Radio Australia is a part) has officially launched its online mobile presence. ABC Mobile is a new website built for use on mobile phones, which had been available in beta form for some months. Only image and text is available at the moment but future versions of the site will allow audio and video streaming.
The ABC also launched new applications for iPhone and Android mobile operating systems. The apps are free but only the Android version is available to users outside Australia. I just downloaded the iPhone application which looks quite nice and you can watch vodcasts with it, including Good Game, which tonight has a special on zombies… zomg! Hopefully down the track it will be available internationally.
The ABC mobile website for your phone is at m.abc.net.au (and yes it does work internationally) and more information is online. You can also have your say and share your thoughts on the service in the forums.
Battery Breakthroughs
16 March 2009
ABC News Online reported late last week that researchers in the US have developed a new lithium ion battery that is smaller and lighter than those used today and can recharge in seconds. This could be especially important for electric cars where, rather than waiting hours for the car battery to recharge, it could take as long as filling the tank with petrol. The full story is online and PM on ABC Radio also covered the breakthrough, which you can listen to as well.
