NEWS
Uber will be legal in Victoria soon It looks like the Victorian government is inching closer to legalising Uber and ridesharing in the best state in Australia. The government has said that it will put forward some ridesharing legislation when Parliament returns on August 16th. There's no detail on what sort of things the legislation will entail, but it's good to see some action, finally. Discuss
Entry level Kindle gets an upgrade Amazon's released a new Kindle overnight. It's US$79.99 for the stupid ad supported one and US$99.99 for one without ads. Has a 167 PPI screen (so it's not a Paperwhite display), but does have a bit more RAM and even has Bluetooth. The new case looks a bit nicer and that's about it really. Dunno when these will be available in Australia, but it ships on July 7th in the US. I'd personally spend that little bit extra ($119.99) to get the nice 300 PPI screen on the Kindle Paperwhite. Discuss
Mike Quigley rips the current NBN management a new arsehole Mike Quigley, former boss of the NBN, has ripped the current management of his legacy a new arsehole at a Melb Uni lecture last night. In a thorough evisceration of the Liberal party's multi-technology mix, Quigley wheeled out charts and facts and accurate conclusions, confirming what we all knew - that the Liberal party screwed Australia's long term prosperity and blew away billions of dollars on a political ideology. Quigley's slides and notes are available to download and on Monday there will be proper video of the lecture (not just a Periscope vid) that I'll certainly link to when it's out. Discuss
Vicpol wants to make a one-stop shop crime intelligence computer system Victoria Police is planning to implement an intelligence platform that retrieves data from the 500 applications the force runs. The aim is to reduce the amount of time police spend logging in, searching and manually collating info from the plethora of apps and provide a single location for coppers to do their work. It'll even integrate social media data. It should be complete by 2019 - but you know how this thing goes. Maybe it'll half work by 2025, for double the budget (~$227m). Discuss
In-depth looks at the developer preview of macOS Sierra An embargo must have been lifted, as The Verge, Engadget, Arstechnica and Techcrunch all simultaneously posted previews of macOS Sierra, hah. If you're an Apple dork who's been reading the usual Apple hangout websites, there's prob nothing new here, but if you haven't bothered to take a look yet, then these articles are a nice way to skim through what Apple's up to with your favourite operating system. Arstechnica does in to the most detail, that's the one I'd read if I couldn't be bothered reading the others. Discuss
COOL SHIT
Chattanooga's mayor reckons fibre internet is excellent and revitalised his city While our politicians are talking shit amongst themselves about Australian internet access, the mayor of Chattanooga reckons fast internet access changed his city for the better and worth every cent. What was once a dead end manufacturing town in Tennessee is now vibrant and growing, mainly in part to the city installing fibre optic cable everywhere. Unemployment dropped, average wages rose and the network itself is generating a profit. Discuss
Y Combinator is refurbishing Alan Kay's personal Xerox Alto You've probably heard about the Xerox Alto before. It's the computer Jeff Raskin showed Steve Jobs and resulted in the eventual Mac that was released in 1984 and hence the GUI revolution was born - stop me if you've heard this one (if you haven't, read this, ASAP). Anyways, Y Combinator, one of Silicon Valley's most prestigious start-up incubators got their hands on Alan Kay's personal Xerox Alto. This is like getting the footy that kicked Tony Lockett's 1000th goal, or Cathy Freeman's 2000 Olympics gold meal. Alan Kay pretty much thought of all the stuff we take for granted in computing today. Alan did an AMA on Hacker News too, which isn't that interesting to be honest. Discuss
Pearl is an excellent rear view camera add on that costs far too much A bunch of ex-Apple engineers and other Apple escapees have made Pearl - a licence plate holder for the rear of your car that has cameras embedded into it and talks to your phone over Bluetooth. A wirefree way to add a rear camera to your old car that didn't get one from the factory. It even has a neat solar panel integrated that'll charge the battery. Looks good, but it costs US$500. Discuss
Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!) --Anthony
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