Google has all the traits of a company that we all are all going to hate to love but love to hate. The more they take over big application after big application, we have this natural, and very Australian ‘tall-poppy’, instinct to look at that kind of empire building with skepticism. We worried and were skeptical [...]
Christmas Projects! Simple Indoor Home Improvements Anyone Can Do
Are you a klutz with ten left thumbs? Are you an official weapon of mass destruction whenever you wield a hammer? Are there more than three self-inflicted holes on your person right now? Then you’ve probably made up your mind that you’re no good at home improvement. [...]
Concepts of Network Security
The first thing to understand about network security is that it’s all about preventing unauthorized users from accessing a network. This is different from information security, which protects against things like automated malware such as viruses. The second thing to understand is that securing your network has to take into account that [...]
What is a Torrent?
You might be hearing it batted around on the web here and there, and even in other media like newspaper or TV: “Download the Torrent,” “Seed a Torrent,” “Visit our Torrent-tracker,” and so on. So, just what is this latest tech gizmo and why is everybody talking about it?
Torrents are just a [...]
Is Open Source Just For Do-It-Yourselfers?
We blame Richard Stallman. Stallman, God bless him, is the Godfather of the Free Software movement (and by extension, the God-uncle of the Open Source movement), but he projects this image of the world’s oldest hippie. Add to this that many of the original Free Software founders and contributors (as [...]
How To Give a Charity Gift
What, your recipient wants nothing for themselves, but instead wishes that a donation be made in their name to someone less fortunate? Aw, how sweet! No matter what their proclivities are, this is a commendable move, and it takes an unusually socially conscious person to turn their nose up at [...]
I never thought I’d see the day when a piece of free software got me reaching for my wallet and singing the praises of everyone involved – but here it goes… It’s a quick story over two days… So bear with me.
The story starts with the stark realisation that even after shelling out for the [...]
The first thing to understand about the Digital Age and the home computing revolution was that it was all one big accident.
Actually, it was more like a series of little accidents. With other inventions, like cars or washing machines or bread, we had a good idea of what we wanted and just needed to find [...]
We’ve been inspired by sites like Bash.org and their funny, but very old and stale, IRC quotes. So we’ve decided to bring that concept into the 21st century by starting a collection of memorable tweats from the wild, wild world of Twitter.com. Because, well, somebody had to think of it first. Enjoy these virtual messages [...]
The smartphone set has so far been smugly confident that they’re staying ahead of malware. But desktop and laptop users know what’s coming: there is no such thing as a completely secure computing system, and smartphones are no exception. Already, a few smartphone viruses have been spotted in the wild; they use SMS and Bluetooth [...]
