Children under 16 will be banned from major social media platforms after the Australian parliament passed the Online Safety Amendment bill last week. I think this a bad law which is not actually going…
Facebook has been showing me advertisements for investment scams for many years. When I report the scams to Facebook they mostly reject my reports despite the ads being clear breaches of Facebook's…
Steve Jobs used to tell a great story about what a computer is; he called it a "bicycle of the mind". It's that story I think of when I look at the new generation of artificial intelligence (AI). Some…
I reckon this interview with Leah Callon-Butler promoting blockchain games in The Age today is completely wrong. So let's put my opinion on the record. Callon-Butler says: "There are a lot of…
I've mainly avoided commenting on the pandemic because I don't think I'm suitable qualified (nor are you, probably) but I have made predictions, kept to myself, that have sometimes proved right and…
Christian Porter has denied rape allegations against him, and we must presume him innocent. I agree with his argument that MPs shouldn't lose their job simply due to an allegation. Porter should still…
Oh I am loving this Facebook news thing. Best thing to happen on the internet in ages. It's great because it means this important topic of tech monopolies has entered into public consciousness. It has…
I am so happy to see the Robodebt disgrace finally over with a class action settled by the Government this week. There are a pile of lessons to learn from that saga, but here's the one most relevant…
Goodbye to Donald Trump, the man who mistakenly thought he ran the USA. Amid the sea of lies we heard from Trump it was perhaps too easy to ignore the lie we too often tell ourselves: that a prime…
Wow this ruckus over publishing Australian news on Facebook and Google is... weird. Usually any time Aussie technology becomes a big story I'm all over it with opinions, but I haven't known what to…
Essential Essential services, essential workers, essential supplies... the Victorian Government repeatedly used the word "essential" while announcing the latest restrictions in Victoria. So what is…
Lockdown All us Melbournians are stuck at home in lockdown right now. But why are we calling it "lockdown"? That is not the term which the Victorian Government uses, they call it "Stay at Home…
Second Wave What term could be more appropriate for my second week of judging pandemic words than 'second wave'? After all we're in one right now, right? This is another term that I'd never heard…
For a while I was posting a short opinion online each weekend, more for my benefit than yours. I find writing down my thoughts a useful bit of introspection. It is a chance to evaluate whether my…
Are you more worried about getting COVID-19, or more worried about giving it to someone else? Up until now there's wasn't much point in separating the two. We Australians mostly followed government…
COVIDSafe: Looks like government has does a decent job on privacy, it doesn't track your location, it doesn't store unnecessary information. You should feel safe installing the app. The problem is it…
Welcome to April, the month when most of the first Australian Government stimulus package is rolling out. It is interesting how things have changed in three weeks since that was announced. Back then…
From The Guardian: Australian government won't 'jump to a solution' to help casual workers in coronavirus crisis Sounds like our government doesn't want to support casual workers and business owners…
We need to do more to attract and retain women in technology. In Australia less than a quarter of IT graduates are women, and that ratio has actually gotten worse: it has dropped since 2001 when I…
I am so glad to see our government back down on robodebt this week. They will no longer automatically raise a debt on welfare recipients based on data matching, instead Centrelink staff should review…
Yesterday the Sydney Morning Herald chose to run celebrity news on their front cover when they should have featured the devastating NSW bushfires. I don't mind that newspapers cover celebrities or…
I only just heard about the Parliamentary inquiry into age verification for online wagering and online pornography, so I missed the chance to make an official submission. Here's what I would have said…
I am feeling optimistic about our ability to deal with climate change, thanks to the last few weeks of attention on strikes and Greta Thunberg and all of that. That's because I feel like there was a…
Greta Thunberg's article "If world leaders choose to fail us, my generation will never forgive them" makes me wonder: what if those failing us now come good? Should we forgive those who change their…
It seems to me there is an obvious solution for the Biloela Tamil family who are facing imminent deportation: they should be allowed to apply for one of the new regional visas. They seem like ideal…
The Secrets, Spies and Trials episode of 4 Corners this week had a wonderfully ironic quote from Alexander Downer. He said this in 2004 as Australian Foreign Minister negotiating oil and gas rights…
I have enjoying reading and hearing the many stories that surfaced in the last month for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings. In particular it is fascinating just how similar the…
Read this ABC article about online food deliveries. It sounds like the reason hardly anyone dines at New York Minute is the influx of online delivery services, right? I have a different theory: New…
I think it's logical to pay staff more if they're performing well. But do such companies pay for better performance or just for better performance reviews? The problem is performance reviews are…
It is possible that in the future robots take all our jobs... but I don't think we will lack for jobs in the future. The problem is we may lack for ways to pay for the jobs we need done. We already…
There are couple of times in my career as a programmer where I've made a bad decision because I misinterpreted data — analytics, user research, production data samples, etc. Sometimes the data was…
Federal Parliament is back next week. I know a lot of people were surprised that the Coalition was returned to government, and my many left-leaning friends were disappointed. I take a slightly…
Cacao is cocoa that hasn't been roasted properly. However unlike cocoa, cacao is recently fashionable due to its alleged health benefits of antioxidants and minerals etc. Though it is true that high…
I try to post an opinion here once a week, but missed a couple due to being overseas. Only two Australian news stories made headlines in Europe while I was there: the appeal hearing for George Pell…
The big Chinese tech company Huawei has been banned or shut out by several Western governments recently, but it's not clear why. I figure it's either: reasonable, based secret intelligence about…
Bob Hawke was many things, but I want to highlight one: his Hawke/Keating government was the best economic manager our country has ever had. That's obviously a personal opinion but I think it's fair…
Uber listed on the stock market on Friday and was valued at US$80bn. How is that possible when Uber lost US$3bn last year? Uber loses money because it subsidises every fare... we pay perhaps less than…
Fraser Anning contributes nothing good to our country. He perpetuates xenophobic lies then acts like he is some victim of society, which is bullshit. So that's why I'm disappointed a kid hit Anning…
I have been enjoying writing a short opinion each week. It can get some friendly debate going and helps me think more deeply about the assumptions I carry around in life. But this weekend I wrote an…
Recently I argued with a friend over the concept of 'the ends justify the means'. I think its bad reputation is unfair. A common argument against the concept is that Hitler justified the horrors of…
For some years the Liberal and National parties have held Labor responsible for the deaths at sea of asylum seekers, and I think that's fair: around 1000 died during the Labor government and I reckon…
Labor are right to stop people who don't pay tax from getting cash refunds on dividends. There is a small but loud constituency claiming that it's unfair to take that away, however I think that it's…
It's getting easier to live life without cash in your wallet — or without a wallet at all. We can go shopping just about anywhere with just a credit card or smartphone. I buy most things on card…
Australia Day will inevitably change to another date. Conservatives don't seem to realise that they have already lost this battle of the culture war. My friends used to hold Australia Day parties…
It's pretty clear that it was a mistake for Malcolm Turnbull to try to appease the agitators in his party by changing energy policy yet again. Turnbull's capitulation lost him credibility and surely…
Malcolm Turnbull said this week that "the law must prevail online as well as offline", and I wholeheartedly agree. We shouldn't let crime flourish just because it happens online. Lawful interception…
A number of recent articles claimed that Japan was paying less for Australian natural gas than Australians are. That surprised me because I always thought natural gas was very cheap here in Victoria…
OS X Server 5 provides very few options for its inbuilt mail server, and does not provide an apparent way to configure a catchall — an inbox that receives all email sent to your domain. Catchalls risk…
The new metadata law 1 was passed in the Senate today, and there has been an uproar of anger in my group of friends. That's the wrong reaction. Not because this is a good law — I think it's a pretty…
I am very glad to see the Victorian Labor leader Daniel Andrews say today that he will stop the East West Link project, and would not honour contracts signed before the election (albeit with…
I appeared on last week's Q&A show questioning whether collecting metadata on citizens is effective at combating terrorism. My guess is that's its pretty useless. I might be wrong, but security…
"When will enough people say 'stop this madness, we don't have to live like this!'" A wonderful speech from the father of a recent US shooting victim.
There's so much in the Abbott government's first budget for us lefties to complain about. I know ranting on a blog won't change anyone's opinion... but, dammit, I can't resist so here's a blog post…
Barry O'Farrell, Premier of New South Wales, announced today that he will resign due to accepting an expensive bottle of wine as a gift and failing to tell yesterday's ICAC hearing about it. I make no…
It's hard to miss when a new series of Game of Thrones starts... the media and bloggers love to talk about it, and you'll probably hear a lot about it from your friends too. What isn't so obvious is…
Two men were shot and killed today at CBD Smash Repairs in Florence Street, Brunswick, according to The Age and other media. It’s a horrible story, and not something anyone would make light of. So it…
Someone slipped a note under my door last week. It was a handwritten note in blue ink from a local real estate agent. Someone wants to buy my house! The note says: I believe I have a buyer for your…
A few days ago I opened my letterbox to find two items. One was a postcard promoting a new local cafe called Pope Joan, the other was a letter promoting the Harvard Business Review. I rather liked the…
