Tech Stream

Tech Stream 038

5 February 2010

Listen and download: MP3

A classic old 14.4k modem from the early ’90s.  Image from Flickr by Richard Masoner.

Very few people know how the internet developed in Australia and that the research-focused network that gave birth to it is still going strong today. We’ll find out more in the Tech Stream this week.  Plus the fallout from the film industry losing their case against a major internet service provider whose customers downloaded pirated movies and television programs. For more details on the program read on or listen now via the MP3 link above.

We start the program with news that the film and television industry has lost its battle against Australian internet service provider iiNet.  The Australian Federal Court found on Thursday that the company was not responsible for the copyright violations of its customers.  Ali Benton’s report first aired on ABC Radio National Breakfast.  And there is more detail on the case in this report on ABC News Online.

Next we speak with Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet, the Australian Academic Research Network, about their book “20 Years Of The Internet In Australia”.  There is more details of it on aarnet.edu.au

We also speak with Dr Gordon Howell, Manager Learning Environments, at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Dr Howell is also a technical adviser for Divine Word University in Papua New Guinea.  Universities in the country are being hooked up to the Eduroam Federation, giving visiting and local researchers and academics better access to the internet. It is a joint venture between AARNet, Open Systems Consultants, QUT and the universities in Papua New Guinea via their PNGARNet.

We also go hands on with Google’s Nexus One mobile phone. Blogger and technology journalist Neerav Bhatt tells us that it’s the best device he’s used running the Android operating system. Neerav also wrote about it on ABC Unleashed in an article “New Gadget Better than Old Gadget“.

And finally Bajo from Good Game on ABC TV reviews the space RPG Mass Effect 2 from Bioware.