Australia's NBN IS GO! Warp Speed ahead!

I am now very glad that the current government got re-elected so that this great network can go ahead!

It is clear that internet connectivity regardless of location is essential for future technology development, wether this is done by combination of fibre optic, wireless, satellite, it needs to be cheap, reliable and very fast , to support the multitude of devices from iphone type devices, to cars, to homes to business, educational institutions to medical facilities, be they rural based, or in our capitals.

The current market forces are not supporting the rural or new estates. We are still getting new estates in rural areas and metro areas fitted with ADSL 1 only rims, and poor wireless coverage, which is criminal in 2010 , YES I AM LOOKING AT YOU TELSTRA, there is no excuse for putting in ADSL1 ONLY RIMS in new estates! This is why the government needs to do it, as the corporate market wont!

The adoption of any future technology, the way people work and the development of our regional areas is very dependant upon a state of the art affordable network by telecommunication companies. If communication companies do not put in this type of infrastructure for all Australian's we will create a digital divide that will resemble the difference between a modern world in the cities and a 3rd world in the rural areas. People in new estates or rural areas with poor connectivity will be at a massive disadvantage, not just from a quality of life but from education, to medical care. It will drive the ever expanding population to Metro areas with good communication infrastructure, and put extra pressure on the already overtaxed infrastructure in those areas, and continue to drive the exodus from country areas.

If we have a state of the art communication system for all Australians, it will dramatically shape the way this country will develop, educate, care, and work, regardless of people's physical location.

Coolest looking cases for iphone 4 I have seen

These are so cool looking, WHY can you not get them in this country!?

Optus speeds on 3G with an iphone 4

I never got speeds like this, but now I do... amazing, its faster than my ADSL at home!

Why the Android will fail.

Piracy problems undermine Android's growth against iPhone

It seems android have replicated the PC games market, massive pirating, little to no controls over their apps, poor quality coupled with a poor user experience. Apple is often critiqued for being over controlling in its apps store, but the developers love it, as they get their return on investment. The android will not encourage anyone to develop on its platform when it does nothing to stop developers hard work being exploited by pirates.

This is why the game consoles of today have much more development on them than ever before, and why the PC games market is near death. Games consoles have a tight control over what can be run on them, and you try and run a pirated game on them , it either doesn't work, or the console maker bricks your console. The only way the PC market can make any money is from monthly online subscription fees (World of Warcraft monthly frees for example to play online).

Sometimes a loss of loss of some flexibility is a good thing for all. So don't go ripping off apps on your iphone, pay the developers for their good work, and encourage better app development, even if you do jail break your iphone, otherwise we will all end up with the android broken model!

The iphone 4 antenna issue, is bullshit!

Having a new iphone 4 on the Optus network in Australia, I and many others have tried the so called death grip, and we cant replicate it!! In fact many times the signal bars go up, so it looks like this entire story can be summed up as AT & T network as total crap, and the rest of it as a media beat up. Go ahead Aussies and buy your iphone 4's and enjoy the much better signal stregth.

I have compared the signal bars to my old 3G and it gets twice the reception quality that the old 3G got. Once again media totally screws up the real story.

TELSTRA STILL SUCK!

I just rang Telstra and got the most disinterested sales guy out! I was ringing to see of Telstra might be competitive enough to move my accounts to, and to get a new iphone 4, it went like this....

I said I have 3 accounts with optus, and I get free calling between my accounts, and I pay this much, get this much data, calls and free sms' and mms, on this plan with optus, and I can order over the phone and get it delivered to my house, as I live 100kms from a Telstra shop, can you match the prices etc.... OR even offer me something thats competitive to that to switch my accounts,

he said, "NOPE, cant do any of that or even close sorry, AND YOU HAVE to come into a shop, we are not doing online sales till September"

Me: "Ok thanks for your time, I will be signing with Optus again then"

he wasn't even interested in giving any deal or incentive or anything, and even said "take it or leave it"!

With that attitude I wont be calling them back again, I havnt talked to Telstra in years, and I guess I wont be again.. good to see nothing much has changed!

They are still not competitive!

I have good coverage and speed with Optus, so the line of we have better speed and coverage doesn't wash with me !

OPTUS NEW IPHONE PLANS!

iPhone 4 Antenna issues.. not a real issue

You may or may not have been reading stuff on the net about the iphone 4 having antenna issues.

But there has been a disturbing trend with this whole story, something missing, what is missing you may ask?

Investigative journalism is what has been missing from this whole story since it started. It started out as a beat up by Gizmodo, and 1000's of bloggers took that ranting with no fact, as thruth, thus a whole storm in a thimble started.

This is not a real issue like the one that RIM had that email bug in their phone for months before they did anything about it, and to this date they never admitted a fault. Or Microsoft had stuffed xbox 360's for years and have only just done something by releasing a new xbox, and yet put all their users through pain (40% return rates and repairs) of constant fixes, I myself have had 5 xbox 360's fixed! How many car companies or builders would stand up to this? I never saw this much ranting on the net, on blogs and forums with those above mentioned issues.

Is it a Major issue... no, its it a minor one.. yes, but no more or no less than every other phone out there. Its like complaining your car gets stone chips, and that the car maker is some how responsible for not putting enough paint on the car to stop getting stone chips, stupid! And now that car maker is giving you a free car bra, and yet some people still complain? It must be a slow news week, this is such a NON STORY!

The fact that Apple even had a press conference about it, is amazing, and UNPRECEDENTED in the tech community.

chat with me live

http://olark.com/s/c8b4

The REAL Holodeck!

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

I want one!

MERIMBULA

Probably one of the most unspoiled places in Australia, peaceful, friendly, and very laid back.

Some where I wish to spend the rest of my days, if I can find some way out of this ugly city.

NO CLEAN FEED

MY NEW WORK SETUP!

My new work station, cossists of a 30 inch cinema display, a 23 inch cinema display, and Mac pro with 16 GB's of RAM and 4 TB of hard drives with a external 10 TB raid, with Blackmajic cards and a whole heap of other stuff... total cost 30 K :) lucky me!

APPLE STORE SYDNEY

I made a visit to the store in Sydney this weekend. What a great store, so very clean! Great staff!

FLAME WAR

This needs to be on so many Mac Vs Pc Forums... I thought I would post it here

BEST SONG FOR 2008!

Yes its been a long time between drinks as they say, but finally, got around to posting something to my old blog.... and in the past few weeks managed to get some music listening in.. .and I have to say Mike Oldfield is a master of music excellence.... his latest album, which was made for a video game some 6 years ago, has finally turned up on itunes... called tres luna, go get it... here is a video clip of one of the songs :)

Intro to Mass Effect

Not got Mass Effect yet? Why not...?

why MASS EFFECT is game of the decade?

http://galactichub.vault.ign.com/index2.php











ARTICLE IS A REPOST from Fox news at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314541,00.html

Video games like "Mass Effect" don't come around too often, and good thing: This new science fiction epic is so good it's basically sucking away all of my free time.

Action addicts who'd rather shoot first and think later may find it somewhat pedantic, but "Mass Effect" is a wonderful example of dorky digital storytelling.

It's a space opera in the "Star Wars" tradition, sans the constant father-son limb chopping and the inanely pubescent romantic dialogue.


What we have here is a distinctive universe where the Milky Way becomes a staging ground for intergalactic political intrigue, some racy interspecies romantic flings, (yes, they went there) and, of course, battles with viscous aliens.

If you prefer aliens of the E.T. variety, fret not: there are plenty of boring, friendly creatures to chat with, too.

The back story is interesting even if you've been through the usual gamut of interstellar epics like "Star Trek" or "Battlestar Galactica."

In "Mass Effect," humans have only recently begun to find their place in a considerably larger galactic community. That's right: We arrogant humans hardly matter.

There are more than a few creatures who'd like it to stay that way. Namely, the game's chief villain, Saren Arterius. As a rogue special agent gone bad, he's on a zealous quest to aid a race of artificially intelligent creatures called Geth and destroy all intelligent life in the universe.

Sadly, we hardly ever seen him during the game. Beyond that, unleashing a race of life-squelching monsters turns out to be dumb decision — at least if you have any say in the matter.

As human Commander (insert the first name of your choosing here) Shepard, you engage as a planet-hopping, alien-quashing superagent, called a Spectre, who goes sniffing around the vacuum of space for Kryik.

Like those endearing Choose Your Own Adventure books, "Mass Effect" gives players many paths to follow — good, evil, and somewhere in between — by selecting from one of several responses during even seemingly mundane conversations.



There's a ton of dialogue here, and it's all well-done and relatively interesting by video-game standards.

My earlier caveat to action gamers is warranted because this isn't a title where you'll want to run into the fray like some trigger-happy maniac. You'll die.

"Mass Effect" battles are what it would be like if you could play chess, Dungeons and Dragons and rock-paper-scissors at the same time.

There are many role-playing elements, which is cool because you can really tweak Shepard and your computer-controlled companions for the many missions. Planning, strategy and skill-point allocation far outweigh fast reflexes, that's for sure.

The graphics are superb on the Xbox 360, with some of the most realistic-looking aliens around, if that makes any sense.

The dialogue sequences are shot like big-budget movies and feature some wondrous backdrops such as sprawling space stations and seedy, dimly lit bars.

With games like this lasting for weeks and weeks, why even bother with commercial-filled televised space dramas you can't control?

THE BEST GAME EVER! MASS EFFECT

After being with Halo 3 for weeks, which I give 9/10.. .along comes a game that totally blows me away.

I am NOT an RPG fan or much into STRAGETGIC games, but having played video games for the past 30 years, I must say this is the best game I have ever seen on any platform in all my time. I am only 8 hours into it, and so far the story line is totally engrossing, the artistic design is totally stunning, the people responsible for the uniforms, ship designs and architecture of your universe, deserve an award on their own, and lets not forget the voice acting, and music, all brilliant!

I have never been so engrossed in a game in my 40 years on this planet! Its like an immersive simulation! 10/10!!!! go get a xbox 360 and go get this game and get lost in your own SCI FI world! DO IT NOW!

HALO 3 REVIEW!

THIS GAME ROCKS!