isyulli: internet

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Sabtu, 04 Juni 2011

Governments Must Invest in Internet Structures Now

People are jumping on the Internet without realizing that their action is leading to potential disaster. Many countries are leaving Internet investment to the private sector but such companies are only interested in short-term profit. Unless a monopoly exists it is just not worth while investing large amounts in Internet infrastructure.

Communication is at the center of everything we do today. Soon mobile devices will outnumber PCs. In some places Internet speed is slowing down due to overload. To meet future demand Governments will have to get involved in telecommunication infrastructure investment. In some cases this will mean government take-over of information systems.

Advanced technology requires very high speed and wide bandwidth. It takes up to ten years to build adequate optic fiber information networks. Soon poor countries will be measured by the quality of their Internet. Even some currently advanced nations will be left behind if they don't act in the near future.

http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/
http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/
http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia
http://www.technorati.com/blogs/
http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com

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Science

Rabu, 25 Mei 2011

Australian Busiesses Must Move to the Internet

Australian retailers are in a corner with people turning to the Internet to make purchases. With rents near zero for Internet sellers and high rents for retail shops the odds are stacked against local stores.

Travel agents are the ones hit the hardest. It is so easy to buy an airline ticket online. Next are bookshops. They cannot compete with Amazon, though some Australian bookshops are selling online as well. Pharmacists are up against large cut-price online sellers in the US. However, chemists can still rely on the highly subsidized cash cow called the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Some Australian businesses are becoming paranoid. A woman was accused by a bookshop proprietor of making a list of books to buy on the Internet. A sports retailer asks for a deposit before customers try things on.

Things are changing so fast. Major stores in the US are allowing goods purchased online to be returned at city outlets. Australian businesses must make the move to the Internet now, or they will go to the wall.

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Internet

Senin, 23 Mei 2011

Radiation From Mobile Phones Is Dangerous

New evidence shows that mobile phones really are dangerous. Even the average user can suffer from brain damage, lower sperm count and altered DNA. Just 4 hours of continuous use will preempt the brain's capacity to repair itself.

When scientists originally said that pulsed digital signals from cell phones cause DNA breaks they were condemned for making it up. Now proof is very strong. Apparently, the industry has known about situational damage from mobile phone use for years. They have intentionally hidden the truth.

Research on insects shows that DNA fragmentation occurs in ovarian cells. Insects do have ovarian cells. This reduces the insects' capacity to breed. Long term exposure kills cells completely. Other work with rats shows bone damage to fetuses from just six minutes of radiation per day. And rats had memory loss. From this work it can be deduced that children are more at risk.

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Internet

Sabtu, 23 April 2011

Australian Saving Means a Change in the Retail Structure

Why is Australia in such a bad way? The country is exporting at record levels. China is paying up front for these exports. Interest rates are not too high. Remember the Keating days of 14 per cent? We do have a "dual" economy with manufacturing doing it tough due to the high dollar, but Australia never has been a strong exporter of manufactured goods.

Retailers are saying people aren't spending. You would think that people can only spend what they earn and no more. However, due to the multiplier effect, according to economic theory, when a person spends a dollar that one dollars turns over about five times. In other words the money supply, the real paper dollars out there, is actually only about a fifth of the money on the books in an economy. So what happens when a consumer saves? Think about it. The money in circulation "shrinks" by four more dollars. This is what is happening in Australia. We all envied Japan in its good years when they had very high rates of saving per head of population. Now Australians are adopting this way of living.

Australians are doing the right thing and being told by retailers that they are doing the wrong thing. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You either spend now or you don't. The real problem of course is that there are far too many retailers in Australia. Particularly today where many shops sell broad lines of goods. Years ago shops really specialised. Each town had one grocer, one greengrocer, a chemist shop, fish shop selling fresh and fried fish, butcher, Garage and so on. When you are in a shopping centre today you pass several shops selling the same thing while walking.

Australians were in personal debt for decades. Many warned about the lingering debt levels. It is a good thing that people are changing their ways. Unfortunately, the whole retail structure must change as well. This will only occur reluctantly and with great hardship. Many buy businesses and think their future is made. The reality is different. Owning a business is now very tough. Not only do you have local rivals, many Australians buy from oversees on the Internet. Gerry Harvey of Harvey Norman may be calling for GST to be placed on Internet purchases. What he really wants is a ban on buying in this way. Things will change. More businesses will go bankrupt.

Australia's future lies in commodity exports. It always has; it always will. Manufacturing motor vehicles in this country was a mistake. Sell iron ore and coal then buy cheaper imports. This has always been the way to go. The main question for us all now is whether we should abandon food production and import most of it? Australia is a major exporter of wheat. This is a commodity. Perhaps Australia should continue. Growing food generally, however, is an important issue for the future. We cannot keep out cheap, high quality food imports from New Zealand for ever with questionable import barriers. Just why Australians still bother producing poor quality sheep is a mystery. The wool is good. The meat is inedible.

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Economics

Senin, 11 April 2011

Telstra Should Not Have Been Compensated for the NBN Using Fibre Instead of Copper

It seems odd for the Government to compensate Telstra for building the National Broadband Network considering fibre optic cable is a modern version of old copper. If a rival company in the market place builds a new factory with modern equipment established firms are not paid a cent. Besides, the copper was funded by Australian citizens and not by Telstra per se.

Selling Telstra was a stupid idea anyway. People who bought shares should have known that the monopoly would eventually die. Perhaps John Howard saw the writing on the wall and decided to sell it. In recent times Testra has barely made a profit so it could no longer be relied upon as a cash cow.

The Australian Government is paying Telstra $11 billion in compensation. Laws should have been changed to prevent this public liability taking place. Telstra's ownership of the copper should have been changed before the sale. It's control should have been altered to protection of the copper network which was paid for by Australian taxpayers.

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Communication

Rabu, 30 Maret 2011

Internet Companies Are Not Complying With Police

Despite calls by some countries for Internet companies to had over information on citizens' searches and email, the knowledge superhighway is moving in the other direction. Information stored in the cloud are out of reach of national police forces. Gone are the days when just about everything that a suspect has done is available recorded somewhere at sometime. Data is there but it cannot be accessed.

The ordinary person will not have much sympathy for police trying to "background" a suspect. They see authorities as being too intrusive anyway. For years Australian social security sent out "demand" forms for aged pensioners to provide up-to-date information about what they had in the bank. A court found that social security did not have the legal right to demand honest answers. The forms are still being sent out. Legally they are still suspect. Such is the quagmire authorities are in.

Anyway, back to the case in hand. Police are saying even getting data from Google is a problem. Even obtaining information Between Australians in Australia has barriers. In some cases it takes five year to get information via court processes. In that time period technology has moved on and not everything is stored for posterity.

The National police forces' desire for greater access is like smoke over a factory chimney. It will blow away with the breeze. Companies operating across national borders will never comply because their customers don't want them to play the game. The European Cybercrime Convention treaty is a furphy. Internet companies are watching with no intention of complying.

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Internet

Rabu, 16 Maret 2011

Medicare to Adopt Online Payment

It's about time Medicare moved into the modern age! Thankfully it has given people an alternative to queueing for their medical treatment rebate. It is a silly system anyway. X-ray clinics and specialists should be given the subsidy directly in the first place. This would reduce the number of public servants providing an unnecessary service.

Now "customers" will be able to fill in forms online. Payment will then be made directly into their bank accounts.

We are led to believe that Medicare delayed adoption of a direct payment process due to the potential for fraud. This is nonsense. Fraud could occur under the old system. Limiting payments to $250 a day will not stop fraud.

Medicare holds that people will continue to use the queuing method of refunds. Internet banking is increasing in popularity. There is no doubt most will change to the new system in droves.

~~~~~Health~~~~~

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Senin, 28 Februari 2011

Herbalists Should Be Tightly Regulated

Everything in society is controlled to make it safe, right? Wrong! Herbal medicine can be consumed freely without restriction even if it kills you. Try to buy opiates which can be taken for a lifetime without harm and all sorts of restrictions apply. Drug addicts die of illnesses such as aids and hepatitis.

Recent tests were done on an Australian who took Ayervedic medicines. His body had eight times the maximum safe level of lead in it. The mistake he made on a visit to India has ruined his life. Ayervedid herbs are normally contaminated with heavy metals. Whether this part of their "healing" function is not known. Imagine taking lead, arsenic and mercury, daily.

In Australia, Indian and Chinese herbs are monitored for dangerous levels of heavy metals. That's where it ends: the efficacy of the "medication" is not tested. You can buy such herbs on the Internet from countries where product quality is not regulated.

It is surely time for the herbal medicine market in Australia to be tightly regulated. Herbs should be vetted by a qualified physician before the herbalist dispenses them. Only then will sham treatments be stamped out.

~~~~~Health~~~~~

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Jumat, 11 Februari 2011

The NBN Will Be Scrapped When the Coalition Wins Government

Will Australia ever have a National Broadband Network? It seems it will only be partially completed before the Coalition wins the next election and puts a red line through it all. Telstra will remain the controlling body when NBN.com takes over. Not much will change in Australia's communication sector. Those who miss out will be terribly bitter about the mish-mash of a system we are left with. Just why the Coalition hates the NBN is hard to clarify. Why don't they want the nation to move forward with a world-class Internet network?

Telstra is being criticized for being too competitive in price cutting. There is not much profit left for small telcos. Surely, this is the way of the market, but is Telstra trying to "grab" the market before it gains control over a market that will be opened up again with a coalition win?

Telstra will survive a re-adjustment when smaller firms will fail. The Labor Government sees the deal "done" and a majority of the population believes this to be the case. It is certain however, that a new government will bring a stop it all - bloody minded or not. The NBN company will be dissolved. Australian right wing parties are dead against formation of the new national body. After all, they sold off Telstra.

Only one thing will stop this happening: that is Labor, The Greens and Independents could retain control of the upper house. Perhaps the Coalition will not need the upper house in order to scrap it?

~~~~~Politics~~~~~

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Rabu, 02 Februari 2011

Could the Australian Government Turn Off the Internet

Could what has happened in Egypt occur in Australia? That is Turning off the internet. It is as easy as clicking a switch. A government would just contact the main telecommunications company explain the state of emergency and the telco would turn it off. Minor internet providers would follow.

A major problem for a government would be cutting off internet access of journalists. Much of their system is outside of public providers. Turn off that system and you stop government agencies talking to each other.

Cutting off access for major cities would be a waste of time. Television, radio and the print media could not be stopped. In a place like Australia where information transmission is decentralised there is no one person to instruct.

Let's face it - any Australian government that did pull the plug would self-destruct. There is no way the people would ever trust it again. There is also the problem of "leakage" as a few minor Internet providers refuse to submit - some are foreign owned.

Australians are just as smart as other people and many would find "work-arounds", so even if the switch was flicked it would not have much of an effect on communication to the outside. Business would be affected because the Internet is widely used.

~~~~~Internet~~~~~

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Kamis, 27 Januari 2011

Advertisers Pay Up for Click Fraud

Internet advertising click fraud is still widespread. Throwing money around advertising in this way is madness, anyway, A click does not mean a sale.

Of course website owners are going to position "clicks" where they will be clicked on - accidentally or not. Getting in there and clicking away for half an hour won't do much harm either. Automated botnets are being set up as well. They will really get the cash flowing in from "thick-headed" advertisers.

Over a decade ago it was said the end of "brochure in the post" advertising was near with the advent of the Internet. How wrong they were! You can hardly get the car in the gate with all the paperwork strewn along the footpath from overflowing letterboxes. The more things change the more they stay the same. Businesses spend millions on advertising that for the most part is just wasted. They would be better off buying new machinery to decrease the cost of production and make money that way.

~~~~~Business~~~~~

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Selasa, 11 Januari 2011

Tax on Internet Sales is Economically Irrational

Calls by big business in Australia for the Goods and Services Tax to be extended to cover Internet purchases less than a thousand dollars is just sour grapes on their part. Only 3 per cent of all Australian purchases are for Internet sales and many of these are local Australian purchases. The Government has said the cost of collection would be far more than the income gained.

Such a tax would be like re-implementing tariff barriers. It could certainly be interpreted that way. Big business is not calling for new trade barriers is it? It has taken half a century to reduce barriers in the car industry. Even now some obstacles to free trade remain in motor vehicle production.

Australian businesses have to lift their game. Go into a department store and try to find someone to give assistance. You can't find anybody! Staff has been cut to ridiculously low levels.

If you do find a lower price for a product on the Internet from a company overseas there is still the post and packaging cost to add on. When you do your sums you are only a few dollars better off. People shop online mainly for convenience. For example, in the US a Samsung fridge sells for $1,385. In Australia the same refrigerator goes for $2,099. People would not buy it online because of the cost and problems of getting it to Australia. Anyway, the US fridge will not run on 240V electricity supply.

The real issue is Australian business had it too good. Before the Internet, retailers had a closed market. Now trade is becoming global and they don't like it. It is well known that Woolworths and Coles keep their prices high where branches are located in "exclusive" parts of cities. It is about time this practice stopped.

~~~~~Trade Business~~~~~

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Minggu, 24 Oktober 2010

Damage Claims for RSI and Internet Related Radiation Are Falling

Watch that computer. It could be bad for your health. Remember when complaints were rife about WiFi signals damaging your brain? This charge was also aimed at mobile phones. Signals from towers were so small as to be hardly measurable. Radio and television transmissions are stronger. Home WiFi and computers generally are extremely low.

You are more likely to suffer from repetitive strain injury from using a computer than brain damage. Repetitive strain is becoming a major problem in all industries because computer use is so widespread. The upper-limb and neck are the danger areas. Even now though, many "experts" say the "illness" is imagined.

The "artists" can be identified because they try to get time off for aching wrists. Furthermore, it is difficult to prove that the injury was caused at work. People do many odd things away from work. Like factory jobs where the same movements are repeated, data processors are likely to suffer from RSI. In the 1980s half of Telstra telephonists claimed they had RSI. Oddly, today very few suffer from this. Over time, the number of people off sick with this complaint has fallen despite computer use becoming more widespread.

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Kamis, 02 September 2010

Gorilla Internet Support

"Hello. This is Internet support."

http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/

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Senin, 30 Agustus 2010

Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Insults a Consumer

Some public servants do not serve the public. Indeed, they tend to favor companies that they are intended to "police". Considering these people are not elected there should be a way of removing them from their positions for insulting the public.

A case in point is the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman which was set up to deal with complaints from the public about telecommunications companies. When transferring an ADSL service to Telstra recently a problem arose. Telstra calls it Rapid Transfer when changing an Internet service to Telstra, but the system could not be used because the existing Internet provider was contacted by phone and email before the consumer was informed not to do this. Consequently, the consumer would have no Internet connection for up to a week.

I have since discovered that Telstra was lying and could not use Rapid Transfer because the existing provider was not on the list of companies agreeing to the system. Note, there is no intention of informing the public of the problem. Obviously, if consumers knew they would be up to a week without an Internet service they would not change to Telstra.

As if this problem wasn't enough to ruin the consumer's day, Warrick McArthur at the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman's office insulted the consumer. He said, "You are upset because you can't make the world work your way." This insult was quite unexpected. Indeed, it is shocking behavior. Considering Warrick McArthur is employed by the taxpayer to represent them in conflicts with telecommunications companies.

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Sabtu, 14 Agustus 2010

A Win to the Coalition Will Be a Win for Telstra Without the NBN

One thing that could swing voters in favor of Labor is the National Broadband Network. Many who are absolutely fed up with the "miss-spending of the present Government still want faster Internet speed and they are willing to put up with more Labor failings to get it.

The Coalition has not seen the importance of this issue to voters. Its version of fast Internet is a feeble 12Mbps based on old technology led by the market. History has shown overseas that the market will not provide. Governments have had to build broadband networks.

Claims that the IT industry fully supports the Coalition plan instead of the NBN are untrue. The tech-heads who can do without the NBN live in the major city centers where cable is readily available. They are not concerned about the bush which telcos will never reach.

Telstra is now in the mix with the NBN. But if it fails to go ahead, Testra will fight back over time to dominate the communications industry again. It has already cut prices dramatically and is offering 8000kbps to outer city areas. To people who have had to "pay through the nose" for 512 and possibly 1500 this is really fast. A win for the Coalition will see people moving from small telcos back to Telstra in droves as they make the most of a bad thing.

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Rabu, 21 Juli 2010

The Ebook Market Will Quickly Mature - down to song prices $0.99 a book

Electronic publishing will not improve income for authors. There isn't much hope that the Australian Society of Authors will get its way. The ASA wants 35 per cent return for ebooks. With an expectation of $10 for a new novel that is $3.33. That is a much more than traditional paper publishers pay. Trying to manipulate the electronic medium for more profit is not on. Book publishers have been paying only 10 per cent of the sale price for years. Demand is only high now because many old favorites are available for free. Most consumers are prepared to pay only cents for new work. The same thing will happen as happened with music. Some will buy books then distribute them online for free. When Internet book publishing matures consumers will pay only what they pay now to get a song from iTunes - $0.99.

Publishing firms are selling more new books in ebook format than paper, but this is the honeymoon period. As sells mushroom, profit margins and price will crash. Don't forget the danger of pirated copies being sold from China through eBay. What authors see as "fair" is not what distributors see. They would rather pay authors nothing than to sell at a loss.

Mick Jagger has recently admitted to the UK press that he hasn't made much from CD sales of Rolling Stone material over the last ten years. Furthermore, profit from Internet sales of songs is extremely small.

Book distributors no longer hold a monopoly. They cannot charge exorbitant prices as in the past. With Amazon and even Google pressing for more book sources - cheap ones at that - authors may ignore traditional publishers and do deals with them. The price will surely fall then.

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Kamis, 15 Juli 2010

The Internet Is Not Yet the Great Leveller

Access to the Internet prevents it from being a world levelling device. In Australia people will have to wait up to eight years to get broadband. South Africans living in "dangerous" areas will never get an Internet connection because telco companies fear theft of copper wire. India is too poor, so many regions will have to remain on dial up Internet. Those in remote places in Britain are still waiting for a method to be chosen for broadband distribution.

Leading Western countries are the main source of software for all Internet users. Even Twitter and Facebook are based in the US. People also use these sites to interact with those of similar ilk. The world is segmenting into cliques and a broad world view is not materializing. This is despite more information being available for the average person than at any other time in human history.

People are essentially parochial. They identify with the region and country they are in. Though international news is easily accessed, many choose not not to log on. They still get news from local television and radio. Such news sources now have less than 15 per cent of non-local news, particularly in the US. Ninety five per cent of Internet users in the UK go to domestic news sites. Afghanistan is the topic of most international news stories while clashes in Africa are given just cursory comment.

No doubt in time a common world view will develop. This is because urbanization is happening everywhere, so there will eventually be a common background for most people irrespective of place of origin. The readership of blogs is increasing, with most commenting on local and international issues. There is a need for barriers from language barriers to be broken down. News will travel faster when breaking stories are translated on the spot.

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Sabtu, 12 Juni 2010

Australian Government Plans Greater Privacy Intrusion

The Australian Government is planning to order Internet providers to keep records of their clients browsing history. Plans are afoot to examine an Internet user's political leaning, sexual orientation and general interests. This is part of the Government's plan to join the European Convention on Cybercrime.

Critics say everyone will be classed as criminal from the word go, and it takes away personal freedom. Michael Fraser of the Communications Law Centre at the University of Technology has condemned the move. Who you send emails to will become public as government employees responsible for data collection gain access. The temptation to leak such knowledge to the press will be too great.

Australia should make its own path in the world not follow what has happened in Europe. Countries in that region are in an awful political and economic mess. With people allowed to reside in any country they wish, political and financial systems are breaking down and states are trying to pry on people's private lives in response.

It is common knowledge that the Howard government was able to stop continued production of an ABC comedy program by putting pressure on the ABC. If the Government gets private information what more will it do - stop bloggers giving their own opinion?

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Senin, 19 April 2010

Australia's Internet Filter Will Not Work

The Australian Government plans to set up an Internet filter to stop people accessing sites that it deems dangerous or distasteful. Censoring books and films in the past has been a dismal failure. Stephen Fry the Communications minister commissioned the Enex TestLab to find out if such a move would be successful. When the research body reported back it said the Government could try to block access but people would find ways to get around it. Despite this finding the Government is going ahead. It is wasting taxpayers' money for the Government to continue. Unless it also blocks free trade between countries, people will buy IP services from offshore companies (see Vista Computer Solutions).

Let's face it the average person is not interested in the sites that the Government is banning. Only those people with devious or damaging tendencies will want to, and they will set out to maintain their access. There are a few sites that have been selected which, in my opinion, the Government should leave for individuals to decide. Banning the "right to suicide" site is interfering with people's right to choose.

Another issue is - Will the Government use the filter for its own benefit in the future? We cannot see into the future. However, once a firm step has been made into censorship it is not much use in hindsight to say we should not have allowed it in the first place. "Terrorist" sites are to be banned. Should all Muslim sites be next? Then ban all Iranian sites? There seems to be no clear line where it is to stop. We plainly see how arbitrary China is with its censorship.

The list of sites will be determined by the Australian Communications and Media Authority which categorizes magazines, DVDs etc. But, it will be kept secret from the public. This is a clear danger signal - censorship in secret. An operator of a site cannot apply to have a decision reviewed. Site owners cannot appeal through any judicial process.

National ratings authorities are notorious for getting things wrong by banning films and books in a "knee jerk" way. For example, it is not unusual for restrictions on controversial material to be changed after just a few years. What about sites pushing for legalization of marijuana? Some states in the US allow this drug to be used. To stop Australians from reading the views of marijuana supporters is clearly breaching civil rights. What about pro-graffiti sites? The current classification code allows for anything that promotes crime to be banned.

Ironically, porn will not be banned. Personally, I would like porn sites to be banned. The Government will not even consider this because if it tried porn would flood in like bad grog with Prohibition. Australia had a ridiculous system before the advent of the Internet: porn was banned but Australians could still purchase such material from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and receive it in the mail.

The Government's Internet filter will fail. Proxy sites based overseas will do good business. What is to stop friends in other countries sending site information via email? Peer to peer sharing is also well established. How will overseas companies like Google be brought on board? Google has already left mainland China. The Internet pervades the world. If the majority of nations restricted access, information would still be obtained from the few free nations that were left!

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