Saturday, 28 August 2010 11:17 AM
Ok first up let me declare a couple of things.... I am passionate about politics, IT and the future of Australia. I'm a centrist when it comes to politics and like some policies of both parties and dislike lots of things on both sides. If push comes to shove I would probably err on the side of the right just because of my current vocation and my upbringing but I am keen not to have a closed mind on any policy or party.
That declared my blog today is on the NBN. I deliberately didnt post about this in the weeks leading up to the election because I dont believe in getting stuck on politics particularly when passions can run very hot!
As the head of a growing IT company I have heard LOTS of things from suppliers, clients, staff and many others that I talk to regularly. These are people both in regions and in cities. The general consensus is that people seem to back the NBN or boil it depending on their view on policies and where they sit. What I have also noticed is young people love it and older people just dont get it. (in general anyway)
Here's my view having reviewed it and thought on it for a long while. Firstly lets consider the technology itself. Right now fibre to every home would be fabulous. It would deliver blinding speeds to each home and be a great step forward. Secondly there is no doubt we want to be progressive and we also know that the internet is a great ally to business, learning and in general.
So everyone is nodding right now but there are some key things to figure here. (Hence the title of this blog). I will bullet point some things to consider.
* Australia is in debt - can we afford big ticket items right now?
* Australia is HUGE! Is this the right technology to roll out for Australia?
* Based on the above what sort of maintenance plan is required? Also what is the cost of this?
* Can we really trust Government to roll out a HUGE project over 10 years and stay on time and on budget? (Think of the last projects government have rolled out)
* With the point above, with 2-3 elections in this period and likely a government change will we end up with a waste and/or a half finished project?
* We cannot compare ourselves to Korea, Japan or smaller nations. They are high density population in such a small area!
* A HUGE component of material that Australia accesses is in the US. No matter what speed you have you will always have bottlenecks. (I'm sure they have plans for proxying and larger pipes but I havent seen much on that)
* I'm not convinced on all the HUGE advantages we kept getting spun. As far as I can tell the majority of its usage will be for downloading media which would be based mostly at the teen and young adult audience. I'm not suggesting there is anything wrong about this however I am a big fan of really understanding the benefits and pointing to some real return on investment (ROI)
* I dont agree with the railroad or road analogy that keeps getting brought up. I think there is a huge difference between an infrastructure project like the ones of the past and this one. The benefits were clearly defined and the ROI was obvious.
* Those most passionate about the project seemingly dont understand that they wont get an upgrade to their existing broadband for another 5-8 years.
I could raise other minor points here but the list could go on and on.
Let me emphasise something. I am not for sticking the head in the sand when it comes to networking or that fibre to each home wouldnt be great. I am just advocating we think things through a little before we start nodding away like those nodding dogs in the back of the cars. (they are cute arent they?) Can you imagine if we went to our client base and said everyone needed to pay $15,000 + per office for a stronger connection to the internet, for only potential future benefit and with no clear ROI?
Now with regards to the coalitions proposal. It was terribly delivered and not very clear. I also thought Tony Abbott was very poor on the 7.30 report. We dont want techheads for leaders but we also dont want ignoramus's on such a clear issue of the election. My suggestion is that Tony works with some of his staff to get a good broad range of understanding on these things.
In closing I would also say that I am for having infrastructure held by the Australian people with it being retailed by private enterprise. I think this is not a perfect model but the better model than having everything privatised...
Wrapping up.... There is no point in being critical and not offering solutions. Here is my thoughts on the matter.
* Whatever way we decide to go lets clearly review the ROI and make sure every taxpayer understands the cost v the benefits.
* We should target wireless/satellite technologies for the regional areas as a priority and other places where there are clear gaps in broadband. This will help deal with our congestion in the city, stimulate the regions and also bring more of balance to the property scenes.
* We should start with a core and work on no more than 2-3 year phases to ensure that the project is better managed and we have something to build on for the future even with change of technologies and governments.
* The infrastructure should be held by the government under a company so that there is commercial activity driving the project. Companies (selective criteria) should be allowed to resell/wholesale this infrastructure and pay for this right which will help fund the project.
* I'm in favour for a cabled core and then a robust wireless solution. I just feel this would be a cheaper and more flexible solution for a place like Australia.
* The times we live in dictate the budget we can invest right now. If that means we do a smaller project and hedge our bets then so be it.
What are your thoughts?
Author: Geoff Olds | Filed Under: Broadband | 2 Comments
Sunday, 25 July 2010 5:51 PM
Ok who really likes targets? The poor chaps from Catch 22 certainly didnt.... Are targets really only for those playing Robin Hood on a warm winters afternoon? Or for midrange Australia wanting to buy at a department stores?
Targets are for Guns! You know those people that are referred as "Guns" or sometimes "Young Guns". Its the 20 goal a year striker, its the cold caller determined to make something happen, its the programmer wanting to establish their work into something productive and useful, its the elite athlete wanting to get to the top (think Cadel Evans sans the broken elbow) and its most certainly every entrepreneur wanting to build a business or organisation.
I must profess I consider myself a "gun". Partially because I am really driven and most definitely because I love targets. Yes they create pressure and stress. Yes they put you under the spotlight. Yes they can be unfair and subjective. But they also create achievement, standards of excellence, best practice, benchmarks and a real reason to get out of bed. I certainly have a love/hate relationship with targets as they keep going up and the nagging voice of the "negative (evil) geoff" keeps telling me its not possible, or its too hard or it cant be done. BUT the love part always outweighs the balance and I find myself pushing forward at a great rate of knots.
So are targets for everyone? Absolutely! Everyone could and should be a gun. Whether it be a gun salesman, a gun attorney, a gun housewife, a gun receptionist, a gun cabbie, a gun admin, a gun techo and the list goes on. Embrace targets. Set them up as a guide to success. Everything is achievable when you have a list of milestones and targets to reach. Yes things get harder and further but then you get better and stronger. Imagine a computer game where things don't get more challenging and harder to accomplish. Boring right?
So set targets. Make them realistic and achievable within correct time frames. Better yourself. Go on! Be all that you can be! Pull the trigger and be that gun _________ that you could and should be.....
Author: Geoff Olds | Filed Under: Miscellaneous Stuff | 0 Comments
Thursday, 22 July 2010 3:33 PM
It seems that we cannot get anything done quickly in this country. The committee of Attorney Generals were meant to meet this month to discuss about the games classification issue in Australia. This has been cancelled and with it goes the hope of a quick resolution to the matter.
This is obviously a very important topic of discussion because it saw an unprecedented number of submissions when it was opened for public consultation.
The proposed date for the discussion has now been delayed to early November.
Author: Nick Heng | Filed Under: Announcements | 0 Comments
Wednesday, 21 July 2010 1:04 PM
I just had to post this. It seems to be a genuine news report about Apple's iPhone 4 and its issues, but the fact that it references Star Wars in its animation sequences is priceless.
The video is in Chinese, but you don't need to know it to understand the message. It is hilarious.
Author: Nick Heng | Filed Under: Apple | 1 Comments
Wednesday, 21 July 2010 8:47 AM
TechFlare is turning a grand old age of 6 soon and we're going to be having a bash to celebrate it. As prelude to the occassion, I am posting this video that I did last year (photos by Ronald Atengco).
Quite a slideshow, if I do say so myself.
Heres hoping that it will be bigger and better this year!
Author: Nick Heng | Filed Under: Announcements | 1 Comments
Saturday, 17 July 2010 4:18 PM
Systems. Without these, whether manual or automated, life would implode all around us and a new form of anarchy would exist. Well that's probably a little dramatic but you get the point right? Without a system success definitely isn't on the agenda. Take the ants. They have a great little system to ensure their colonies survive despite the seasons. Look at Spain's amazing football team (even if somewhat boring) they have a system that they follow and it is very succesful. It explains the great gap between the amateur and the professional from the coaching staff, backroom staff and playing staff.
So why I am blogging about systems? System = Save Your Self Time, Energy and Money. This applies to everyone. It doesnt take a genius to work out that doing something efficiently and in a consistent manner translates either more time, energy or money. Take a paper run. Would it make any sense at all to deliver papers one house at a time on foot taking the most inefficient route? Of course not. Equally so it makes no sense to store the most used products at the back of the warehouse or take the slowest vehichle to the race track.
So this is just common sense right? In fact people are very resistant to systems as I have found in the past. It is mind blowing to see how some people train, study, run businesses and organise events. I am often found scratching my head and trying to work out how these lovely people get the job done when they seem to want to it the most difficult way. Remember those clever Bill Pay adverts with the chap struggling out the pool when the ladder was right next to him or the person with all the luggage stumbling along when the walk aid was right at hand...
When I often ask these chaotic entities I often hear the same objections about systems and solutions -
* Its always been done this way.
* It takes too much time to work out a system.
* It costs too much.
* I dont have the time.
* It simply wont work.
* etc etc
There are plenty more excuses (or reasons) that people dont want to invest or at least more importantly investigate into systems. One of the most glaring obvious is that people do things for themselves and not the organisation or their peers. This is fair enough I suppose but it certainly isnt the right reason to improve things for all and sundry.
Systems dont have to be expensive, complex or time consuming. I'm betting if each organisation or person chose one small system and put it in place right now that everyone would have more time to spend on other things. Here are some examples -
People
* Get an intray
* Put all of your new bills and letters in the intray
* Allocate half an hour every week to review this and action as due
* File the paperwork away
This is hardly rocket science but the time and money this small system will save certainly will stack up over time.
Organisations
* Write down the goals of the business this year
* Break it down into milestones and objectives
* Email a copy of this out every week to every staff member including yourself with a progress report
* Request feedback and ideas
So once again something very simple but so effective. Imagine having everyone understanding the goals and seeing the progress being made. Wouldn't that improve efficiencies and energy and thus save time, energy and money? Kind of like having a big scoreboard that all your players could see during a match? Where the score shows up and how much time to go......
So systems can be implemented everywhere by anyone and let me repeat; they are not too hard, too expensive or too time consuming. One of my favourite parts of my job has been implementing systems in TechFlare over the last 6 + years. From our job system, invoicing, sales, quoting and to many more systems it has been a thrill where processes have been run and things work smoother, faster and certainly save us more time, energy and money. I will be extra excited when I have a large chunk of my team running off the iPad to improve their efficiencies and the quality of work. Being able to improve the speed of delivery of quotes, job sign offs, project delivery, number of meetings and reduction of printing and luggage is just some of the benefits that these devices can bring.
Happy to hear your thoughts and ideas on systems!
Adios...
Author: Geoff Olds | Filed Under: Business | 0 Comments
Tuesday, 13 July 2010 12:12 PM
"Opposition to the government's plan to protect kids".
This line (in one form or another) has been used countless times since the proposal for a mandatory Internet filter was first put forth by Senator Stephen Conroy. Now it seems that this has got legs because a member of the Australian Childhood Foundation, Dr. Joe Tucci, is spouting the same nonsense.
When will these people get it into their heads that the filter will not really protect our children. Parents have to take responsibility for their kids and not the government.
Based on everything that I have read so far, the proposed system will NOT protect our kids enough to warrant a China-like approach. Surely there are other ways to resolve this issue because, make no mistake, the Internet filter IS a form of censorship.
Author: Nick Heng | Filed Under: Censorship | 0 Comments
Monday, 12 July 2010 10:08 PM
* The original article was posted back in a previous publication of our newsletter.
Other than being the world's most popular search engine, Google has developed some really cool software. Many of them are free. We have touched on a few of these before, but here is a summary list of some of the more commonly used ones.
Google Mail
To quote the company: "Google Mail is built on the idea that email can be more intuitive, efficient and useful. And maybe even fun." This is a great free mail application that provides lots of space (about 7GB), mobile access and has a pretty good spam filter.
You can find out more about Google Mail and signup for an account.
Google Earth
This application lets you fly anywhere on the planet to view satellite images of maps, terrains and even some 3D buildings. It basically contains a whole lot of geographic information and presents them at your fingertips. Awesome.
You can download Google Earth and see for yourself.
Picasa
Oddly enough, this app does not have Google in its name, but it is still a Google product. It is a free photo editing software that also allows you to share your photos with friends and family. Create, organise and share your web albums.
You can download Picasa and try it for yourself.
Google Maps
An alternative to something like 'Whereis' but it contains maps from the rest of the world as well. Google Maps include great features like local listings and driving directions. It even offers satellite images for the more complex or pinpointed regional searches.
Google Chrome
Chrome is one the fastest browsers currently out there. It has been designed with simplicity in mind to make it more efficient and easy to use. Many of the guys in the office have defected from IE8 or Firefox3 and are now using Chrome for their everyday use.
You can check out some really cool experiments that users are doing with Google Chrome. Mind blowing!
Download Chrome and try it out for yourself.
You can also check out some other products by Google. This article may well list some great products that you may not have heard about.
Author: Nick Heng | Filed Under: Browsers, Google | 0 Comments
Sunday, 11 July 2010 5:14 PM
Musings on the future....
Greetings one and all. First Blog on TechFlare and if you dont count micro blogging then I guess this is my first blog post ever. I've done a fair amount of writing in the past but its funny when sitting down and blogging your mind seems to go everywhere.
I guess the best place to start is the future. Say what! Well that's where we are heading so maybe thats where I will start anyway to unlock this mind of mine. Let me paint you my version of the future....
First things first. Computing will change. Well. It is changing but it will CHANGE significantly. What I mean by this is you wont be sitting down to a PC. Personal Computer that is. You will have a personal environment and profile however and this will travel with you everywhere instead of configuring windows at home, at work, on mobile etc etc.
This environment or profile will be your settings which you will save a backup onto a solid state drive like a USB drive but something smaller more like a chip. With these settings you will be able to pick up a mobile device, a tablet or sit down at a terminal and bang you and all of your settings will be there! Its already happening. Take a look at evernote. Its called the cloud even though I hate using that expression due to is severe overusage.
So you will have everything stored in the NET (Cyberdine systems anyone?) and you will be able to go anywhere and see your own favourites, everythign loaded correctly in your SKYPE or voice program, all contacts setup etc etc - you get the picture.
So where does this place Microsoft, Apple and Google? Hmmmm interesting one. Lets look at the trends for a minute - A) cloud (grr) B) appliance computing C) mobile computing D) SaaS and the list goes on. Based on these trends its hard to see a signficant spot for MS in the future and it seems that Apple and Google really are poll position to grab the reins of the future.
Mind you with the windows and office environment so entangled in commercial operations it is hard to see them not making a strong comeback embracing the NET. It is entirely plausible that a Chinese or Russian outfit springing out and head lining some big technology although the former isnt exactly known for pioneering but anything is possible in the future....
Some other brief predictions in the vein of Paul the Octopus (no mussels please I am seafood nay sayer) - 1) sayonara to the mouse and keyboard 2) laptops will become roll tops (google the german design idea) 3) wireless will render cable mostly to the DC 4) cash is gone within 50 years in the developed world 5) paper will be antiquated in 25 6) TV and Cable TV is dead replaced by streaming internet
So interesting days a head for the human race and technology and here is TechFlare caught between both worlds although I can safe predict that the human race is very much unpredictable than technology.
So first blog wrapping up here.... Hope everyone has enjoyed the world cup and enjoying in the not too distant future some excellent sleep. Outski's!
Geoff
Author: Geoff Olds | Filed Under: | 0 Comments
Friday, 9 July 2010 1:35 PM
The government has placed the mandatory Internet filter on the backburner. They are finally going to do an independent review on all this nonsense.
Senator Stephen Conroy says that the review will likely take up to a year to be carried out and that Telstra, Optus and Primus have agreed to the move.
It's about time that someone got through to him. I guess now we have to wait and see what happens.
Author: Nick Heng | Filed Under: Censorship | 2 Comments
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