Gear and gadgets at CeBIT 2012, Sydney

Techworld Australia dropped down to CeBIT at Darling Harbour to have a look at some of the gear and gadgets on offer.

BigPond GameArena, Games Shop hit by hackers

Telstra's BigPond GameArena and Games Shop sites have fallen victim to hackers who may have obtained BigPond games usernames, email addresses and the encrypted passwords of up to 35,000 users.

By Rohan Pearce | 24 May, 2012 11:25

Tags: security, networking, games

Alternatives to Raspberry Pi you can get right now

Sure, of course you want a Raspberry Pi, be it for running a media centre, teaching computer science, home automation experiments or just for the hell of it. Unfortunately, a few hundred thousand other people also want one — join the queue!

By Rohan Pearce | 24 May, 2012 08:40

Tags: Raspberry Pi, open source

Is internet porn bad for teen health?

A study by Australian researchers at the University of New South Wales and the University of Melbourne indicates an association between internet pornography and the sexual health of teenagers, with a review of literature in the area finding a strong correlation between teenage consumers of online porn and risky sexual behaviour.

ACMA probes airport body scanner operation

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is seeking comment on the deployment of body scanners at Australian international airports.

By Rohan Pearce | 23 May, 2012 11:34

Tags: telecommunications, security

Spotify music streaming hits Australian shores

Spotify today launched in Australia, with its base level offering delivering unlimited free music streaming for free. The internet-based service has struck deals with Warner Music Australia, EMI Music Australasia, Universal Music and Sony Music Entertainment to offer tracks from their catalogue of songs.

By Rohan Pearce | 22 May, 2012 10:35

Tags: Spotify, music

What's at stake in Oracle v. Google?

The stakes in Oracle's lawsuit against Google over Android are high for developers, with the recent finding by a jury that Google infringed Oracle's Java copyrights by, among other things, implementing Java's application programming interfaces (APIs] for Android.

By Rohan Pearce | 11 May, 2012 16:16

Tags: patents, oracle, lawsuits, Google Android, Google, copyright

HP unveils Ethernet-powered thin client

HP has unveiled an all-in-one thin client capable of being powered by an Ethernet cable. HP claims the t410 AiO is the first all-in-one thin client that supports the 802.3at Type 1 Power over Ethernet (PoE) standard, which means it is capable of drawing its power from a network connection.

By Rohan Pearce | 10 May, 2012 11:57

Tags: thin clients, Power over Ethernet, HP

One Laptop Per Child Australia scores $11.7m in federal budget

One Laptop Per Child Australia received a one-off boost in the federal budget, scoring $11.7 million of funding. In addition, budget measures mean that donations to OLPC Australia will be tax deductible from 1 July.

By Rohan Pearce | 09 May, 2012 10:46

Tags: one laptop per child, olpc, education, Budget 2012

Open Source Spotlight - OpenStack: Building a more open Cloud

OpenStack is a collection of open source software for building public and private Clouds. It can be used either by providers who want to deliver infrastructure as a service to customers or enterprises that want a private Cloud for on-demand, self-service provisioning of compute services for departments.

By Rohan Pearce | 08 May, 2012 10:30

Tags: OpenStack, cloud computing

Open Source Spotlight: iSpy Connect

It's hard to imagine that a Texas police agency, Chinese airport security and thousands of small business owners share much in common. But they do share at least one thing: An interest in iSpy Connect, a free, feature-rich open source video surveillance application that's compatible with standard consumer webcams and IP cameras.

By Rohan Pearce | 04 May, 2012 11:29

Tags: video software, open source, multimedia software, multimedia

Open source case study: SugarCRM at Footprints Recruiting

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is generally hard to get excited about, but Jeff Strachan a founder of Footprints Recruiting, an English as a second language (ESL) placement agency, verges on evangelical. And little wonder: Being burdened with a legacy system built using forms in Microsoft Outlook and being burnt by the lock-in of proprietary software would be enough to make an open source evangelist out of most people.

By Rohan Pearce | 02 May, 2012 10:40

Tags: CRM, open source, sugarCRM

Open Source Spotlight - Yabi: Bringing drag-and-drop to supercomputers

Supercomputers are powerful tools for scientists. They are also very expensive, so wasted time can mean a lot of wasted resources. But making the most efficient use of them is not the easiest proposition in the world; it's not just a case of clicking a button to analyse a protein. However, fitting out the world of supercomputers with a user-friendly, web-based interface is the focus of an open source project based at Western Australia's Murdoch University.

By Rohan Pearce | 27 April, 2012 09:50

Tags: high performance computing (HPC), open source, supercomputers, supercomputing

Syllable chalks up new release

Syllable, an attempt to write a desktop-focused operating system from scratch using best practices, has notched up a new milestone, with its developers releasing 0.6.7 today.

By Rohan Pearce | 13 April, 2012 10:50

Tags: open source, operating system, Syllable

One Laptop Per Child Australia set to launch 'One Education' program

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Australia is set to launch a new initiative centred on the Linux-based XO laptops the nonprofit organisation distributes.

By Rohan Pearce | 11 April, 2012 09:41

Tags: education, laptops, notebooks, olpc, one laptop per child