tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-165028182008-07-04T23:20:15.102+10:00Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comBlogger1087125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-89729787760948233852008-07-04T19:09:00.010+10:002008-07-04T23:20:15.136+10:00

The Garnaut Climate Change Review Draft Report was released today at the National Press Club. There is a Media Release with a summary (PDF, 312kb). The full Draft Report is 548 pages (13.5Mb of PDF). Public forums about the report will be held in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane from next week. One of the key messages of the report is that a way must be found to decouple economic

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-86313683268869842842008-07-04T11:50:00.002+10:002008-07-04T12:00:20.760+10:00

The Australian Department of Defence has issued a Request for Tender for companies to sell it, and the rest of the federal government, Microsoft software. It is a little odd, that for a RFT about software, a "Weight Limit" has been specified (16 Kilos) and size (0.5m x 0.6 x 1m). It would seem more appropriate to ask for electronic documents with a Mbyte limit. Also it is a shame the Australian

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-71947584235467810512008-07-04T09:19:00.003+10:002008-07-04T09:35:29.433+10:00

The paper "NF3 , the greenhouse gas missing from Kyoto" (Michael J. Prather and Juno Hsu, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, L12810, doi:10.1029/2008GL034542, 2008) suggests a chemical used in making plasma and LCD panels needs to be monitored. The chemical is Nitrogen trifluoride and is a powerful

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-43327134641720770512008-07-03T16:01:00.003+10:002008-07-03T17:27:22.094+10:00

After suffering poor quality hotels in Turkey and Greece and the relative comfort of the overnight train between the two, it makes me wonder why there are not budget hotels, even more basic than the Hotel Formule 1. Comfortable rooms could be provided at a low cost by replacing the windows with flat screen TVs. In Melbourne, Accor have their excellent Hotel Formule 1 Melbourne CBD. This is in

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-44808333288560970522008-07-03T14:44:00.003+10:002008-07-03T15:41:11.085+10:00

Perhaps it is a mark of how cheap some of the hotels I stayed in were, but the third most comfortable accommodation in Turkey or Greece on my recent trip was the Thessaloniki to Istanbul sleeper train (Dostluk/Filia Ekspresi). The train is run by Turkish railways (with the national crest etched in each window). It leaves Thessaloniki (Selanik), Greece, about 8pm,

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-20875484290171475212008-07-03T10:52:00.004+10:002008-07-03T11:11:53.671+10:00

After reviewing the e-learning system in the seat of a long Malaysian Airlines flight I decided to watch a movie. Outsourced is a romantic comedy about an American call center manager who is sent to India to train staff in the outsourced call center. He tells the staff to claim to be from "Chic-a-go". In the end he comes to terms with India after some lessons in life and the world beyond the USA

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-39868180854097102012008-07-03T10:29:00.002+10:002008-07-03T10:46:39.607+10:00

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has provided a brief report on the two trials of electronically voting at the 2007 federal election. 1511 Defence personnel in Iraq, Solomon Islands, East Timor and Afghanistan voted electronically using the Defence Restricted Network to communicate with a specially developed AEC system. 850 people used a separate system in Australia for those who are

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-26671421318935040272008-07-03T10:03:00.003+10:002008-07-03T10:23:31.715+10:00

ATutor is one of the less well known open source Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS). The latest version (1.6.1 on July 2, 2008) adds two useful features: WCAG 2.0 Conformance and Pretty URLs. There is a demo of the new version available. ATutor is worth looking at for those considering an e-learning system. WCAG 2.0 is the new version of the W3C's guidelines for accessibility for the

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-62245412425899165672008-07-03T09:42:00.002+10:002008-07-03T09:58:34.387+10:00

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has issued a Request for Tender for a consultant to estimate the value of spectrum being freed up by the conversion of Australian TV to digital. However, you would be hard pressed to work that out from the language of the tender, which refers to the commercial value of the potential ‘digital dividend spectrum’. The analysis

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-25132796903663567092008-07-02T13:14:00.005+10:002008-07-02T14:14:16.283+10:00

University of NSW, Law and Policy Centre, are hosting a free seminar on location privacy issues, 23rd July 2008 in Sydney. It will have r researchers and commentators from industry , academia, government and policy think tanks discussing: Legal / Policy Issues, Technology Issues and Social Issues of technologies such as GPS. Time Speaker Title 0830 -0900 Registration 0900-

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-5935410748689409542008-07-02T09:41:00.005+10:002008-07-02T11:03:08.178+10:00

Alex Zaharov-Reutt has done a short review of the soon to be released Australian version of the TiVo Personal Video Recorder (PVR) in "Seven gives Foxtel the heave-ho with TiVo" (IT Wire, 2 July 2008). It is mostly positive, with the only significant feature disabled by Australia's TiVo distributor (Channel 7) being the 30 second ad skip. It is planned to have the TiVo in Harvey Norman

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-91084227352688561322008-07-01T08:52:00.003+10:002008-07-01T09:03:55.964+10:00

ASUS released the Eee 1000 PC on June 3, 2008, with a 10 inch screen, 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU, Linux, 2GB RAM and 40GB disk (also Windows XP model available). for about US$625. The unit is much larger than previous Eee PCs (about A4 size). There is criticism of this unit for its size and speculation that the Eee 900 Series with its 8.9 inch screen will be dropped in favor of a Eee 1000 fitted

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-68828118298599201142008-06-30T16:55:00.001+10:002008-06-30T16:58:17.932+10:00

Canberra Open Coffee is an informal meeting for designers, bloggers, developers, investors and anyone interested in start-ups to get to know each other over coffee. First Saturday on the Month. Venue: Essen, Garema Place, Civic Saturday 5 July from 3pm Contact: Rohan Mitchell ... Email: rohan(a)rohanmitchell.com

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-34871796840859229372008-06-30T10:53:00.011+10:002008-06-30T17:52:46.265+10:00

Greetings from the launch of the Computers Off Campaign in Sydney today at 10am. Mark Winter started off by showing a humorous video about "Naked Tuesday" showing that turning computers off may be an easier approach than others to energy saving. He then introduced the advisors to the campaign, including myself. He then talked about his inspiration for the campaign, when he stayed in North

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-45852375350078283162008-06-27T17:40:00.003+10:002008-06-27T18:31:58.879+10:00

Palaios Panteleimon (Παλαιός Παντελεήμονας) ,"Old" Panteleimon" is a village in Central Macedonia, Northern Greece, near Mouth Olympus. The village is now a popular tourist spot, with guesthouses such as Nefelh (English Translation). I attended a wedding at the Greek orthodox church and then dined with the wedding party and what appeared to be most of the village, and the guests left over from

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-33910401110658301172008-06-27T17:29:00.003+10:002008-06-27T17:40:24.712+10:00

The Sultan Hostel, Istanbul, is a classic hostel, from the rooftop garden overlooking the Sea of Marmaris (and the Blue Mosque), to the dubious plumbing. The best part of the hotel were the very helpful staff, with useful tips, such bas taking the metro to the airport, not the slow tourist bus. The street cafe is a great place to meet other travelers (you will not meet a local unless they are

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-65824986216360067682008-06-27T17:15:00.003+10:002008-06-27T17:28:00.086+10:00

The Sultan Hostel was full, so the manager put us up around the corner at the Tria Hotel for our return visit to Istanbul. As the Lonely Planet guide says, this is a new, well appointed hotel, with objets d'art. The staff are very good, the new lift works, it is very clean and most importantly smoking is banned. But the hotel is not without problems. The room was around the back, on the top

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-81053273392228397252008-06-27T16:43:00.003+10:002008-06-27T17:12:47.558+10:00

I promised the very helpful manager at Hotel Lozanni, Athens that I would recommend his establishment to Hosteling International. It would be a very good hotel, if a few changes were made: Ban smoking: The staff smoke in the lobby and the guests smoke at the free cyber cafe on the first floor. This makes the public areas unbearable for people sensitive to smoke. This comment of course, applies

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-52593773034578597582008-06-27T15:15:00.004+10:002008-06-27T16:24:49.541+10:00

The Hotel Rex, Thessaloníki, Greece might be a good place to stay after the current renovations are finished. But as of a week ago it was like staying in a building site. A new lift is being installed, but in the interim you have to walk up four flights of stairs to your room. New soundproof double glazed windows are being installed, but while that is happening you have to step over builders

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-39790779473170714472008-06-27T14:32:00.002+10:002008-06-27T14:44:22.631+10:00

The Roman Forum is an archaeological site in the center of the modern Greek city of ral Thessaloniki. The site is free to visit, with useful signs in English and staff to ask questions of (and almost deserted when I visited). There is a Stoa (covered walkway) which was the site of ancient trade (the modern covered marketplace is a few streets down the hill and operated mugh the same way as this

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-66975627374098695222008-06-27T14:17:00.004+10:002008-06-27T14:31:53.534+10:00

The Delphi site and museum is worth a visit in Greece. The modern town of Delphi is a few hundred metres up the road from the ancient site. After the noise, heat, dust and crowds of Athens, the town was quiet, cool and clean. The Delphi Archaeological Museum was refurbished in 1999 and looks much less cluttered than many in Greece, with a few important pieces given the space they deserve. The

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-40645410092194235842008-06-27T14:04:00.002+10:002008-06-27T14:14:29.189+10:00

Sony are now offering "Cycle Energy" pre-charged, low discharge NiMH Rechargeable Batteries. According to the Wikipedia, these are made by Sanyo. Presumably they are identical to the Sanyo eneloop, but cost a few dollars more.

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-28579242808114933722008-06-27T13:13:00.004+10:002008-06-27T13:48:02.368+10:00

While I did not set out to do a formal study of ICT education on my trip to Malaysia, Greece and Turkey, I noticed a few things on the way. Malaysia My visit to coincided with the 24th Malaysian Education Fair 2008. The Straights Times newspaper included a sixteen page supplement for the fair. ICT and computer science featured, after business, medicine and engineering, in prominence.

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-63851001121993052008-06-27T11:11:00.001+10:002008-06-27T12:13:41.775+10:00

The Auterra DashDyno seems to be taking On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) for car engines to a new level. Rather than a hand held device you get out when you want to service the car, this unit is designed to be fitted to the dashboard. This way the car can be monitored all the time (and you have an impressive extra gadget for the dashboard). As well as interfacing to the car's diagnostic code interface

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16502818.post-43308497482693012502008-06-27T08:59:00.005+10:002008-06-27T09:53:24.664+10:00

Apple's new store in Sydney opened 19 June 2008. I visited yesterday and found it still crowded with people. The store has the same glass curtain wall, transparent minimal design as other Apple stores. It makes an interesting contrast with the Telstra T.Life store opposite. Telstra have tried very hard to be cool, but can't quite achieve it, whereas Apple seem to do it effortlessly. The

Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com