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Systems

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Parent Category: Information Technology
Category: Systems
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The issue of online security is never far in the background these days: high-profile TV presenters in court for downloading child pornography [link]; Julian Assange holed-up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London; or attacks by Anonymous on Melbourne IT (AAPT) records that allegedly made some of the ISP's users' private information public. 

While we can all applaud the apprehension of criminals through police monitoring; and we might be swayed by Assange's assertions that corporate and government secrets are forms of conspiracy and that such conspiracy is a bad thing; we may not be so pleased by our browsing history; or worse, our medical history; or our employer's HR records being made available to a cyber bully or blackmailer.  

Read more: Online Security

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Parent Category: Information Technology
Category: Systems
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Thanks to computer and communications technology we live in exciting times. The bounds of technological possibilities seem limitless. The changes decade by decade have already been unprecedented. Where is all this going?

Or see a youthful one from the past [31st October 1986]  here...

 

Read more: Visions of the Future

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Parent Category: Information Technology
Category: Systems
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The first version of this article was written back in 2005 as a contribution to a strategic planning exercise.  I was arguing for putting those things like marketing and so on, that we ultimately wanted to be seen, in the Cloud as this would save money.   But I stressed that the Cloud is not secure so it was imperative that we retained our 'physical corporate information infrastructure'.

I predicted that in future:  'Corporations will need to look to ways in which they can split their computing requirements between the internal systems and the Cloud';  and 'We can expect the development of new software systems to facilitate (e-mail attached) document passing between secure corporate environments and the Cloud';  implicitly, because e-mail is not secure.

The article was slightly updated in 2010, when I opened this website. I added some now outdated and since removed comments on that experience. 

I've left the main content here, essentially unchanged since 2005, because it's still relevant; and it's always good to see one's predictions fulfilled. 

 

Read more: Directions in Computing

Travel

Burma (Myanmar)

 

This is a fascinating country in all sorts of ways and seems to be most popular with European and Japanese tourists, some Australians of course, but they are everywhere.

Since childhood Burma has been a romantic and exotic place for me.  It was impossible to grow up in the Australia of the 1950’s and not be familiar with that great Australian bass-baritone Peter Dawson’s rendition of Rudyard Kipling’s 'On the Road to Mandalay' recorded two decades or so earlier:  

Come you back to Mandalay
Where the old flotilla lay
Can't you hear their paddles chunking
From Rangoon to Mandalay

On the road to Mandalay
Where the flying fishes play
And the Dawn comes up like thunder
out of China 'cross the bay

The song went Worldwide in 1958 when Frank Sinatra covered it with a jazz orchestration, and ‘a Burma girl’ got changed to ‘a Burma broad’; ‘a man’ to ‘a cat’; and ‘temple bells’ to ‘crazy bells’.  

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Fiction, Recollections & News

Reminiscing about the 50’s

 

This article was written in 2012 and already some of the changes noted have changed.
For example, in the decade that followed, 'same sex' marriage became legal. And sadly, several of those friends and relations I've mentioned, including my brother, died. 
No doubt, in another decade, there will be yet more change.

 

 

Elsewhere on this site, in the article Cars, Radios, TV and other Pastimes,   I've talked about aspects of my childhood in semi-rural Thornleigh on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. I've mentioned various aspects of school and things we did as kids.

A great many things have changed.  I’ve already described how the population grew exponentially. Motor vehicles finally replaced the horse in everyday life.  We moved from imperial measurements and currency to decimal currency and metric measures.  The nation gained its self-confidence particularly in the arts and culture.  I’ve talked about the later war in Vietnam and Australia embracing of Asia in place of Europe.

Here are some more reminiscences about that world that has gone forever.

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Opinions and Philosophy

How does electricity work?

 

 

 

The electrically literate may find this somewhat simplified article redundant; or possibly amusing. They should check out Wikipedia for any gaps in their knowledge.

But I hope this will help those for whom Wikipedia is a bit too complicated and/or detailed.


All cartoons from The New Yorker - 1925 to 2004

Read more: How does electricity work?

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