The world of computers and technology moves ahead everyday.

This is the latest news that matters for this week.

India sends people to Geelong

Your emails to be read by the boss

Microsoft wants to take your money and then annoy you

The Playstation 3 shaking in a few days

Mobile phones crossing the border in Cuba

Telstra now able to force Next G on farmers

Australian internet and telephone providers finding ways to keep young

Apple fixes $11,000 flaw

Last HD DVD player soon to be in bed with Sony

People able to budget their power bill.

Monday 14 April - 18 April 2008 

India sends people to Geelong

Indian technology company Satyam this week announced plans to open a base in the Geelong Technology Precinct to help the company get more, and larger government contracts.

Satyam co-founder and managing director B. Rama Raju said the new facilities will be used for software development, research and training.

Satyam will hire local university graduates as well as bringing in some of their Indian stuff to work in Australia. 

Source The Australian

Comment

In what is not a first, it is good to see Indian technology outsourcing businesses opening up offices in Australia.

While their motives might be to try and get large government contracts, they will be employing local people to add to their current Indian workforce so it could be quiet good for people trying to get a job in the technology industry. 

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Your emails to be read by the boss

New laws being planned by the federal government bosses the right to read emails that are sent to their staff's business email addresses.

The planned new law will see businesses that are important to our economy given the power to check employees emails in an attempt to stop any possible terrorist activity.

The Greens and privacy groups are up in arms over the plan.

Source ZDNet

Comment 

To be honest this is nothing new.

If anyone actually thinks their emails are secure, safe and private is in for a rude shock.

Unless you are using a secure encrypted email service, which most people are not, you emails can be read by anyone. When you send an email, it can be read any where on it's way to the destination by anyone who knows what to look for. The email can also be read by email service provider, in mos cases your Internet service provider, or the business you buy your email service from as well as anyone on your corporate network.

Emails should never be used for personal or confidential information, it is just too easy to read what is said.

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Microsoft wants to take your money and then annoy you

A manager from Microsoft at a conference in the US this week said the reason for the annoying User Account Control (UAC) prompts were to annoy the users of the computer.

David Cross, a product manager, said the plan was to force other software makers to change the way they write their programmes so the users computer remains as safe as possible.

Most programmes that are installed on a computer require the user to have administrator rights, however the default for Windows Vista is for the user to have restricted access.

The Microsoft plan was to have users not want to say yes to the UAC prompts and force the other software makers to change the way they write their programmes. 

Source ZDNet

Comment

While the Microsoft plan might have been to annoy the users and force software makers to change the way they do things, all they have managed to do in most cases is to confuse users.

Luckily there is a way to turn off the UAC prompts and run Windows without the prompts. Details on how to do this will be on our sister site, Clicksonline.info soon.

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The Playstation 3 shaking in a few days

The Playstation 3 will soon get a new controller adding a feature that Sony had said was "Last Generation"

After Sony settled with Immersion technology last year it opened the door for Sony to add the rumble feature back into their controllers.

The Playstation 3's controller, the SixAxis has motion sensitivity but no rumble feature. Their new console, the Dual Shock 3 will have motion sensitivity as well as rumble features.

Sony has said the new controller will go on sale on the 24th of April and will retail for $99.95.

Source Gamespot

Comment

This is Sony showing their true colours.

Not only are Sony adding a feature to the Playstation 3 that should have been there from the start, but they were to proud to admit it, that have the ghoul to charge Australians a premium when compared to the rest of the world.

When the Dual Shock 3 controller was released in the states recently it was sold for US$54.99 (AUS$54.20) mean while we are being asked to pay a premium price.

Seeing as we are still being overcharged for the Playstation 3 console itself when compared to the rest of the world, plus the games to go with it, this is a case the three strikes rule.

If you do want to get a Dual Shock 3 controller for your PS3, you should get one imported from websites like www.play-asia.com . It will be a lot cheaper than getting them from an Australian retailer $66 = $81  depending on how quickly you want the controller to arrive.

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Mobile phones crossing the border in Cuba

With a new president comes a new age in Cuba.

This week Cuban residents were legally able to buy mobile phones. Previously only government officials were able to use the mobile phone network that is own by the government, although some people had illegally been using it.

Any one that wants to gain access to the mobile phone service can, although the phones cost close to 9 months salary.

Anyone who had illegal access can now legally register their phone for use.

This comes as Cubans as given more access to modern technology and given the ability to stay in tourist resorts in Cuba, which were previously only for international tourists.

Source Reuters

Comment

It's good to see Cuba being opened up to the western world and letting people living in Cuba reap the benefits.

Unfortunately the cost is still amazingly high for people living in Cuba.

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Telstra now able to force Next G on farmers

on the 28th of April the Telstra CDMA mobile phone network will be switched off. This comes after they were forced to keep the network running for an extra 3 months after communications minister Stephen Conroy said their Next G service was not up to scratch in the bush.

Mr Conroy said "I am satisfied that Telstra has met the equivalence test in its license condition and has sufficiently rectified the problems,".

CDMA customers will be sent 2 SMS messages, one a week before the closure, and one 24 hours before the network is switched off.

Source ZDNet

Comment

Whether it is a good thing or a bad thing is yet to be decided, but it does bring to an end the CDMA network in Australia, leaving us with just the GSM networks being used by all the mobile phone providers.

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Australian internet and telephone providers finding ways to keep young

People 25 - 34 and people earning more than $130,000 a year are more likely to try and find a new provider for services from mobile phone and internet access through to insurance and electricity a study by BMC.

The study found six in ten people have churned one or more more of their services in the past 12 months.

Some of the reasons for the dumping of providers are price, lack of a reward for staying with a company and service problems.

75 percent of people said they would be loyal if call centres were kept in Australia.

Source ZDNet

Comment

In the last 12 months having changed my mobile phone company, my internet service provider and my web hosting I can say price, customer service and quality of service are important and the reason why I will always look to find the best provider for my needs.

While churning might be the scourge of businesses, it does keep businesses on their toes to make sure that they are giving their customers the best service at the best price possible.

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Apple fixes $11,000 flaw

The security flaw that saw the Macintosh recently come last in a test to see how easy it is to hack was fixed this week.

The flaw involved the web browser Safari and was patched on Wednesday through their Sofware Update service.

An Apple spokesman said Safari, Dashboard and Mail were all affect by the flaw that has now been fixed.

Source Infoworld

Comment 

This is another fine example of keeping your computer up to date with the latest patches. Now it might once again make OSX one of the most secure operating systems in the world.

Time will tell.

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Last HD DVD player soon to be in bed with Sony

The biggest and most vocal backer of the now defunct HD DVD standard Universal Studios has announced from the end of July it will start releasing it's movies on DVD and BluRay disks at the same time.

The first 3 movies will be the Mummy trilogy, "The Mummy", "The Mummy Returns" and "The Scorpion" on the 22nd of July.

Source Reuters

Comment 

Now that HD DVD is officially dead there is a standard, however there is really no benefit to move away from normal DVD's for most people.

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People able to budget their power bill

A plan from the NSW government owned Country Energy will see 10,000 rural residents given the chance to see exactly what the power consumption is for their appliances and then find out if there is some way they can save some money.

Similar trials are already underway in the US sates of Texas and California.

Source The Australian

Comment 

With all the press about trying to save power to reduce global warming it might end up being a good idea finding out how much power your appliances use.

However most people should be able to understand things like fridges, freezers, dryers and air conditions will use a lot of power, unfortunately in most cases they are needed.

If it works properly, hopefully it will save the people in the trails a fair bit of money. 

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