Learn from the mistakes of others

"We honestly expected at worst it would be a retrial. It's just so cruel to Glenn's memory and our memory as well.''

His mother Judy said: "People say the law's an ass but you don't realise how big an ass it is until you get involved in it.''

"We honestly expected at worst it would be a retrial. It's just so cruel to Glenn's memory and our memory as well.''

His mother Judy said: "People say the law's an ass but you don't realise how big an ass it is until you get involved in it.''

Charles Wright does a little tinkering with an iPod and a desktop.

January 26, 2006

HERE is the question you apparently mustn't ask if you're an iPod owner: How do I transfer the songs on my iPod to a PC or Mac?

We can't find this prohibition in the End User Licence Agreement, but it must be there somewhere because two of our friends - one a Windows iPod owner, the other a Mac-based user - recently asked precisely that question in Apple dealerships in Sydney and Melbourne and were treated like master criminals.

"You can't do it," they were told with noticeable firmness. "It isn't possible."

The only reason we can think of for this vehement, and unfortunately completely wrong, advice is that in the world of Apple there's a pervasive view that people who ask that question are intent on music piracy.

Here at the Bleeding Edge Centre for the Examination of Intentions, we're convinced, however, that most of them have far more honourable motives. They simply want to know how to recover their music collection in the event or the actuality of a catastrophic failure of their computer hard drive. Or they might want to back up their music collection to a different computer.

They ought to be made aware that it's quite easy to do.

... ... ...

Charles Wright does a little tinkering with an iPod and a desktop.

January 26, 2006

HERE is the question you apparently mustn't ask if you're an iPod owner: How do I transfer the songs on my iPod to a PC or Mac?

We can't find this prohibition in the End User Licence Agreement, but it must be there somewhere because two of our friends - one a Windows iPod owner, the other a Mac-based user - recently asked precisely that question in Apple dealerships in Sydney and Melbourne and were treated like master criminals.

"You can't do it," they were told with noticeable firmness. "It isn't possible."

The only reason we can think of for this vehement, and unfortunately completely wrong, advice is that in the world of Apple there's a pervasive view that people who ask that question are intent on music piracy.

Here at the Bleeding Edge Centre for the Examination of Intentions, we're convinced, however, that most of them have far more honourable motives. They simply want to know how to recover their music collection in the event or the actuality of a catastrophic failure of their computer hard drive. Or they might want to back up their music collection to a different computer.

They ought to be made aware that it's quite easy to do.

... ... ...

Keeping it simple
February 9, 2006
Charles Wright looks at why big solutions can often lead to bigger problems.

WOULD it be too much trouble if those big IT companies stopped providing us with solutions? Just for, say, the next five years or so could all those product managers and their engineers and programmers go away and let us solve our own problems?

We're tired of what you might call big solutions. Left to their own devices, the average person chooses small solutions rather than big ones. Solutions Inc., however, favours the larger variety because they generate bigger profits. But big solutions tend to magnify the problems.

... ... ...

Keeping it simple
February 9, 2006
Charles Wright looks at why big solutions can often lead to bigger problems.

WOULD it be too much trouble if those big IT companies stopped providing us with solutions? Just for, say, the next five years or so could all those product managers and their engineers and programmers go away and let us solve our own problems?

We're tired of what you might call big solutions. Left to their own devices, the average person chooses small solutions rather than big ones. Solutions Inc., however, favours the larger variety because they generate bigger profits. But big solutions tend to magnify the problems.

... ... ...

'Smart card' task force head resigns
ABC News Online: Monday, May 8, 2006.

( Read more... )

Foreign experts to take on smart card project
ABC News Online: Monday, May 8, 2006.

( Read more... )

Report criticises Australian IT buyers' cultural cringe
Graeme Philipson
smh.com.au: May 2, 2006
Home-grown technology can vie with its international competitors - it's local attitudes that must change.

( Read more... )

'Smart card' task force head resigns
ABC News Online: Monday, May 8, 2006.

( Read more... )

Foreign experts to take on smart card project
ABC News Online: Monday, May 8, 2006.

( Read more... )

Report criticises Australian IT buyers' cultural cringe
Graeme Philipson
smh.com.au: May 2, 2006
Home-grown technology can vie with its international competitors - it's local attitudes that must change.

( Read more... )

Legal hiccup hits Medicare abuse investigations.
ABC News Online.

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Legal hiccup hits Medicare abuse investigations.
ABC News Online.

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Senseless censorship gets a hippy hippy shake down
March 28, 2006
Who's policing the web's thought police, asks Graeme Philipson.

( Read more... )

Senseless censorship gets a hippy hippy shake down
March 28, 2006
Who's policing the web's thought police, asks Graeme Philipson.

( Read more... )