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A decade ago I was privileged to have a tour through a new $18 million tiered theatre that was nearing completion. What most impressed me was the acoustic performance of the theatre. Sitting in the audience in any seat a person on stage could be hear…

Way back in those crazed eighties when most kids were watching a Steven Spielberg movie on their Betamax or learning to moonwalk like Michael Jackson, I was doing my best impression of emulating the stars of BMX Bandits – although I never could…

“According to most studies, people’s number-one fear is public speaking. Number two is death…Now this means to the average person, if you have to go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.” …

I was a car thief once. OK, so not actually a car thief, but I remember the day when I certainly looked like a car thief. I didn’t have a dark hoodie and gloves that seem important for car thieves in the movies but I did have the one piece of e…

Way back in 2009 I was writing columns for a computer magazine and I was discussing some concepts to reduce our carbon emissions. One of my speculative ideas was to produce all of Australia’s power via solar panels. My rudimentary calculations …

As I walked through my local supermarket this week, I performed one simple action that reminded me of the incredibly opulent society we live in. I checked the time on my watch and noticed that it was a little chilly outside. I removed my phone from m…

16 April 2006. Chittagong. The first day of the last Test in the Australia versus Bangladesh series. Jason ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie shared the new ball with Brett Lee. After Gillespie had finished his first five overs, he had the figures of thre…

It may seem like quite an easy feat in our current environment but way back in 2006 I had an interesting request from a friend. His elderly father had passed away and their family was spread far and wide around the globe. Unfortunately, it simply was…

When I was young, I would sometimes sit with my hip and groovy (much) older teenage sisters and listen to their music – usually on records but sometimes just listening to the radio. I remember one night when I heard Kiki Dee’s unique soul…

As humans we have a basic desire to be loved – and an innate curiosity. If you want to see fast actions from a person, mix these two ingredients and stand back! “This is a tech column,” I hear you thinking. “Why is he talking …

I walked in to a local sporting goods store many years ago to buy a sports watch. The typical sort of thing for the day. A chunky watch with a separate external armband to track GPS location and a chest band to monitor heart rate. I remember asking t…

The first car I owned was a V8 253 Holden HZ Ute – although I am ignoring my brother’s VC Valiant which he accused me of borrowing so often that I thought I owned it! I had gained most of my mechanical skills working on motorbikes as I wa…

The earliest archaeological evidence of any type of wheel was discovered in Mesopotamia dated around 5,500 years old. Those early wheels were used for pottery creation so it was left to the Ancient Greeks to develop the wheel for transportation in so…

NBN recently released information to demonstrate just how much additional data we have been using since the start of COVID-19 restrictions. In less than a month our usage in the evening has increased by 25 per cent; the early evening has witnessed an…