Tech Talk Column

Most people see the name of my column, ‘Tech Talk’, and assume I talk about technology. Correct assumption. Where it starts to become more complicated is in the definition of technology. For most people the modern assumption of technology…

I had a trip down to Bega and Eden on the picturesque Sapphire Coast this week – and apart from a variety of beautiful views I came across an incredibly unusual sight. I saw a person taking photos…with a camera! Sure – people still…

Today I have a big day planned. After a breakfast of yeast extract on toast, I am going to visit a shopping mall and travel down the moving stairway after having purchased my lightweight jacket with both clasp lock zip fasteners and additional hook a…

When it comes to the rich and famous, we are constantly reading about the latest toys and accessories they purchase to live a life that is foreign to the average person. Think of private yachts owned by Steven Spielberg; Paul Allen and Larry Page tha…

As much as the world of technology has seen some incredible visionaries throughout time, some hindsight short-sightedness demonstrates just how difficult it is to plan for the future. We are all familiar with the Y2k problem, of course, when early pr…

I would argue that I have a desire for extremely accurate data on which to make decisions but some may argue that I have OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) tendencies, either way I remember growing up and utilising the services of Australia’s …

Not only does the world we live in change around us but our knowledge of that world also changes. It took until 1543 when Copernicus published his planetary model with the sun at the centre for people to start viewing the planets differently. JJ Thom…

Since 1768, a small group of people had a very prestigious job. They held a University degree – sometimes plural – and were regarded as the wisest in the land. Parents were filled with pride when they told their friends that one of their …

For the sake of the technical discussion, assume for a moment that I particularly dislike the CEO of a fictional company, Blue Widgets Galore (BWG), and also assume I have a very nasty vindictive streak (this is hypothetical remember!). If I have som…

Do I need to remove the head? What about sunlight or a cross? No, sorry, that is for the Count. These need a different technique. No stake through the heart but definitely a shotgun aimed at the head. Bludgeoning of the cranium seems like hard work a…

As I ride my e-scooter through Warsaw and past the bronze statue of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, I start to wonder what he would make of one of our modern conveniences. As Alistair Crombie, the Australian science historian, once noted, Cope…

What do the names Beam; Bird; Bolt; Circ; Dott; Jump; Lime; Poppi; Scoot; Skip and Trotti have in common? With less than seven years of history in this market, not many of these are household names…yet. This is despite the fact that some of th…

I was browsing my social media accounts earlier in the week. I saw a post from a friend and something didn’t seem quite right. People do put some crazy stuff on their social media accounts but this seemed particularly bizarre. In this case a fr…

2G, or not 2G: that is the question: Whether ‘tis worthier to the mind or to suffer through 5G. Unlike poor Hamlet, I have not lost my mind but there is a lot of confusion with the various levels of ‘G’ that are quoted by telecommun…

I had the pleasure of being the MC at a tech conference recently. During one particular panel session, the discussion centred around the advantages of high-speed connectivity and what we are now doing differently because of this paradigm shift. Not s…

Paraphrasing the former US Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, we are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are pr…

In technology and innovation, it can be as much about when as it is about what. Six years ago, I was involved with a charity event and a standard recipe for such an event was for an auctioneer to take the microphone and spend thirty minutes trying to…

For over one hundred years, pragmatic advice freely handed out to people or organisations in a seemingly doomed situation has been “if you can’t lick ‘em, jine ‘em.” I suspect that was the logic applied in the latest mov…

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” It would be hard to imagine what Newton would think, almost 350 years later, of how the world of technology has taken to heart this concept of building upon previous k…