Gizmodo Australia » nsw

Shouldn’t The NSW Government Spend Your Money On Something Useful?

Nick Broughall — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:47:34 +0000

Brad Howarth at ITNews reckons that the NSW government is seriously considering how they can implement the Microsoft Surface into their future plans after Minister for Commerce Jodi McKay visited Microsoft last week for a demo. God I hope not.

As much as I love the Surface, I sincerely hope the government doesn’t buy one, and instead spends their money on doing something useful, like ensuring every peak hour train has eight f—king carriages. Honestly, how can they justify even contemplating the Surface when our public transport system is worse than some third-world countries.

Anyway, according to the article, the Government is looking for “innovative ways to store, share and analyse government information”. Like claiming copyright on train timetable info and blocking third-party apps? No?

Sorry, I’m just a bit over Cityrail at the moment. But you should read the ITNews article anyway.

[ITNews]

This Sony Bravia Deal Is Pretty Frickin’ Awesome

Nick Broughall — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:30:10 +0000

If you’re even contemplating picking up a Sony KDL40Z5500 or KDL46Z5500 Bravia TV, you might want to consider hopping in the car and driving up to Northern NSW or Queensland to grab it from Retravision, cos their current promo is pretty unbeatable.

When you pick up either TV for $2499 or $2799 respectively, you’ll get Sony’s three-year warranty as standard. You’re also eligible for Sony’s current PS3 giveaway promotion. But the Retravision stores in Northern NSW and Queensland will sweeten the deal even further by throwing in a KDL22S5700S 56cm LCD, worth $899, for free with your purchase. That works out at about $1600 worth of bonus product for a $2500 spend. That’s totally worth the cost of petrol to get up there.

[Thanks Adam!!]

Southern Cross Launching One HD July 2

Nick Broughall — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:34:20 +0000

Gizmodians living outside the major metropolitan areas who have been hanging out for access to the 24 hour HD sports channel, One HD, your time is almost here.

TV Tonight is reporting that Southern Cross 10 has today announced that they’ll be flicking the switch on July 2 at 7pm for the new One HD channel in regional NSW, Queensland, ACT and Victoria. They’ve also stated that Tasmanian viewers will get the channel at the same time. It will be broadcast on channel 50 (weird) and will be subject to digital coverage.

TV Tonight also has a series of regional coverage maps for each of the eastern states (and territories) except Tasmania, so if you’re wondering if you’ll get the new channel, make sure you check out the TV Tonight post.

[TV Tonight]

New Blu-Ray Disc Factory Opens In NSW

Nick Broughall — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:18 +0000

Yesterday Sony opened a brand new Blu-ray disc plant in Huntingwood, NSW. Could this mean cheaper Blu-ray discs for the masses?

The plant features three lines for creating Blu-ray discs – one exclusively for PS3 games and two for movies. It’s the only plant in the southern hemisphere, and is capable of producing 12 million discs every year.

It’s probably unwise to presume that the opening of this plant will translate to cheaper Blu-ray movies and PS3 games straight away. After all, creating a factory to make the next generation discs wouldn’t have been cheap, and Sony’s going to want to try and recoup some of that money before they start cutting prices. But ultimately, as more and more discs are available on the market, it’s safe to assume the days of $50 Blu-ray movies will die the painful death they deserve…

NSW Police Getting A Virtual Reality Firearms Range

Nick Broughall — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:31:32 +0000

Forget Call of Duty 4 on your 360 – for the latest and greatest interactive shooting game you need to join the NSW Police Force. According to Edmund Tadros over at the SMH, the NSW boys in blue are planning on dropping around $2 million on a state-of-the-art virtual reality firearms range to boost firearms training at the Goulburn police academy. The range will use replica guns shooting at a video screen, complete with recoil action and using wireless technology (although what wireless tech isn’t mentioned).As with pretty much any story involving NSW police, there’s a lot of political mudslinging in the SMH article, but from all accounts it seems like the VR range will be used to supplement live firearms training, and is being used to improve confidence and ability for young officers.

Now the real question is how long before an enterprising young police officer hacks it for some multiplayer Halo after it opens for training later this year.

[SMH]

NSW Students To Get Free Netbooks Next Year

Nick Broughall — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:30:38 +0000

Kids today have got it easy. Not only do they have mobile phones and the internet, they’re now going to get a free netbook just for going to a public school. So long as they live in NSW that is, with The Australian today reporting that the NSW State government and the Federal government have kissed and made up over funding for the free laptop scheme.

Sadly, there’s no mention on exactly which type of netbook years 9-12 students can expect to see come next year. They will have wireless though, and will connect to the Department of Education’s network through each student’s unique ID, which the Government claims will help prevent theft of the devices.

Students will also get to keep the netbook when they leave school, although you’d feel pretty bummed if you were in year 9 next year and you had to keep the same, 3-year-old netbook heading into uni… Those things aren’t that powerful to begin with, let alone 3-years down the track…

[The Australian]

NSW HSC Students To Study Wikipedia Next Year

Nick Broughall — Mon, 26 May 2008 02:01:14 +0000

The year after I finished school, it was announced that English students would have the option of studying movies for their HSC in NSW.

I was so pissed off. Not because I though this was a bad idea, but because Star Wars was going to be one of potential “texts”. I would have been looking at straight A’s all the way, and some study that I might actually enjoy.

I’m having a similar moment here now. According to the SMH, as of next year, HSC students will be able to study Wikipedia. It will be one of the possible “texts” in an elective known as “The Global Village”, which studies how global communities interact with eachother.

The aim of the course is not only to study the dynamic nature of the online encyclopedia, but also to give students a greater understanding of the potential for misinformation on the web.

It’s a great step forward in legitimising the online medium as a respectable source of information. The next step, hopefully, will be adding Gizmodo to the curriculum, with lively debates on why we’re fantastic replacing all religious education classes. Well, we can dream, can’t we?

But I wonder how long it will be before the entire course ends up on Wikipedia itself, along with tests and test answers? When that happens, it will be the official point where the argument over Wikipedia’s legitimacy ends.

[SMH]

Laser Pointers Banned In NSW, Users Face $5,000 Fine

Nick Broughall — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:44:04 +0000

Unless you have a really good reason to own a laser pointer (being a Giz-loving geek doesn’t count, apparently), you should probably avoid using / carrying / showing off anything that points a laser beam if you live in NSW (or WA).

Yesterday the NSW government passed legislation making it possible for police to search anyone the believe may be carrying a laser pointer, and unless you have it for a legitimate reason (you’re a teacher, an architect or ~~a bounty hunter~~ something similar), you could face fines of up to $5,000.

What’s more, class three and four laser pointers are now classified as prohibited weapons, and if you’re found with one of those babies, you could be rattling chains in your very own orange jumpsuit for up to 14 years.

The crackdown has happened because of a recent spate of jackasses pointing the lasers at commercial aeroplanes. As the NSW Premiere, Morris Iemma put it:

“It only takes a fraction of a second for a pilot to become
temporarily blinded and that could have catastrophic consequences.”

Every gadget nut knows that lasers can be fun. But there’s nothing fun about potentially bringing down a 747 (or any other flying vehicle, for that matter). If you know one of the assholes doing this (or you’re doing it yourself), give them (or yourself) a swift punch to the crotch for being so stupid.

[SMH]

NSW Police Launch Internet Dob-In-A-Criminal Scheme

Nathan Taylor — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:42:31 +0000

In a move that seems more than a little reminiscent of the Stasi, the NSW Police have announced that they are setting up a Web site that encourages people to take and send in footage of lawbreakers in action, or so News.com.au is reporting.

The story is a little light on details, but it appears that since the Cronulla riots, the NSW Police have been working on Project VIEW, which is a plan to develop ways of harnessing the vast amount of AV material and pictures that are out there, but unsorted, unmanaged and unknown. They’d like to get the help of people who run CCTV cameras, have taken film or photos with mobile phones or otherwise have access to evidence of criminal behaviour. They plan to set up systems so that the cameras are catalogued and the footage accessible to the police.

It’s a scheme that I find more than a little worrying (as you might have guessed by the opening sentence of this post), although I also believe that it is possible to strike a balance. Here’s hoping that the NSW Police Force can do just that. [News.com.au]