Tech Talk Column

When you walk around an office building, you can easily spot all the people that have watched the movie, Snowden. They are the ones with items stuck over the camera on their PC to block the NSA (or other agencies and individuals) from spying on their…

The very first phone I sold – way back in 1990 – was an NEC P3 but the most popular handheld mobile I sold around that time was the Motorola 8000. In much the same way that Apple started the smartphone revolution, the Motorola ‘bric…

When a young person with a clipboard approaches you on the street to ask a survey question, the researchers think they are obtaining the true thoughts of a randomised sample. That may well be the case – but it does depend on the question and th…

I have to get something off my chest. I believe in Anthropogenic Climate Change (ACC). Actually, that isn’t strictly correct. It is not so much that I believe in Climate Change any more than I believe in the fact our planet revolves around the …

As with many industries, the die-hards are separated from the pretenders by their knowledge of acronyms and initialisms (AAI). If you really want to know you are speaking to an expert in any industry, listen to how many AAIs roll off the tongue in no…

It is an all too common experience. You sit down for dinner and gather the family around to discuss the events of the day. Your first forkful of a well-prepared meal is on its way to your mouth to satisfy your hunger when rudely interrupted by&hellip…

Ask any millennial and they will tell you that ALL sales are now online. It may seem that way – and there is incredible growth in online sales – but there is still some bite left in bricks and mortar. I recently delivered some presentatio…

I am sure the major talking point in households around Australia last night was the impact that the removal of Dasha and Emily would have on the dynamic of The Honey Badger and his four remaining female suitors. Over a million metropolitan viewers tu…

I attended a race meeting at the local Greyhound track last week. It was a track I was familiar with as I grew up with my Dad as President so I was often there helping out between meetings and attended most meetings. It was a real family affair with …

You were probably doing the same thing as I was yesterday morning at 3am. Sitting at my desk with my iPad on one side and my computer in front of me ready to take notes on every new piece of information that was delivered during the annual Apple &lsq…

I love chatting to people so I was a little surprised when I read a recent survey that said the number one pet hate of people doing the groceries was the check out process. Maybe some people don’t see that small interaction with a stranger as b…

I am going to utter three letters that cause a huge amount of elation and frustration and glee and anger among Australians. Sometimes all at the same time and all from the one person. It depends on where you live and what you do as to the level of wh…

Today gives me the opportunity to talk about two of my favourite things. Technology and cycling. It is also a story about how the modern world of product development works so differently to how it did in the past. Go back before we had the Internet a…

Foxtel made a major announcement this week in relation to TV resolution. They will start broadcasting shows in 4K – or more accurately 3840 pixels wide by 2160 pixels high. It started me thinking about the progression of television broadcasting…

As much as many great achievers throughout history might joke that the world would be better without their competition, the reality is that humans thrive on competition and rivalries to inspire improvement. Would John Landy and Roger Bannister both h…

We were extremely fortunate this week to have some of the largest technology companies in the world deliver presentations in our city at the inaugural diga.tech conference, organised by a very progressive Dubbo Chamber of Commerce. Speakers from Micr…

How many times a day do you say “Google it?” For those with kids, how many times do you instruct them to ‘Google it?” Across the world, there are 7.6 billion people but only about 4 billion have access to the Internet. Google,…

When I was growing up and I sat around and watched TV I used to complain to my Dad about the ads. Back when I was a boy growing up in regional Australia, we had two TV stations. The clumsily named CBN8/CWN6 station was the commercial station and we h…

We had a frustrating incident this week. Our good business name was used by someone, somewhere in the world to try and fleece 45,000 people across the world of their hard-earned money. It is a common scenario that scamsters use – try and impers…