Episode 046

posted in: Show Notes

NEWS LINKS – FULL STORIES

iTWire – Downturn in high-end IT jobs market
The demand for higher paid IT executive positions fell 12% in June compared with the previous month and the softening is likely to continue but any downturn will be mild, according to executive search firm E.L Consult’s Executive Demand Index.

The index measures demand for positions such as CIO, MIS Manager, Network Manager, specialist programmer, software manager, systems architect and business systems analyst, among others.
 
Grant Montgomery, managing director of the executive search firm E.L Consult which researches and publishes the E.L Executive Demand Index, said:

 
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Video Ezy gives up on broadband for video on demand – News – DVD & PVR

Video Ezy gives up on broadband for video on demand

Forget downloading movies from your local video store; by early next year, an on-demand video service from Video Ezy will rely on consumers to physically deliver movies from store to home for viewing on their TVs.

The upcoming offering, known now as Video Ezy’s Electronic Video Store (EVS) and due to be launched early next year, will be built around a set-top box (STB) that the store’s 3.5 million customers will be able to buy and install at their homes.

Equipped with a 160GB hard drive, the box — in the works for 18 months with local developer Mobilesoft — will provide 80GB of storage for movies and incorporate a standard-definition television tuner that will use the remaining 80GB as a conventional personal video recorder (PVR).

What is especially distinctive about the solution is the way movies will be loaded onto the box. Video chains have talked about offering secure, downloadable movies over the Internet for years, but stubbornly slow broadband services have driven Video Ezy to employ an alternative method: the humble iPod.

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  Google reduces cookie lifespan by 30 years: News – Security – ZDNet Australia

Google has tipped its hand to privacy advocates and agreed to cut the lifespan of user cookies by up to 30 years — instead, the search giant will implement a rolling two-year auto-renew policy.

Cookies are small files stored on a computer so that it can be recognised when it revisits Web sites, enabling the site to remember the user’s preferences for things like e-commerce and sites that require log-in.

Under the new policy, Google cookies will expire after two years instead of in 2038, according to the official Google Blog.

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  Australian broadband among world’s worst: OECD: News – Communications – ZDNet Australia

The OECD has passed judgement on Australia’s broadband in a study calling it among the slowest and most expensive in the world, however, Communications Minister Helen Coonan claims it was a “strong report card” for the nation’s infrastructure.

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Communications Outlook 2007 report found that Australia’s broadband was among the world’s most expensive and among the slowest.

The OECD report studied the average download speed for the incumbent telco — in Australia’s case Telstra — in each of the industrialised countries and found Australia second from bottom, beaten by the likes of Poland, Belgium and Mexico.

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E-voting comes to Australia : News – Hardware – ZDNet Australia

in brief Visually impaired Australians will be able to cast their ballots using e-voting machines for the first time in this year’s federal election.

The e-voting machines will be available for two weeks before the election and on the election day itself at 29 locations across the country, including Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.

Groups representing the visually-impaired will be invited to a demonstration of the machines before they are put into use, Special Minister of State Gary Nairn said.

The machines will be in deployed in Melbourne, Kooyong, Ballarat, Shepparton, Warragul, Geelong, Adelaide, Gilles Plains, Noarlunga, Wollongong, Parramatta, Enfield, Chatswood, Coffs Harbour, Dubbo, Albury, Darwin, Alice Springs, Brisbane City, Brisbane North, Gold Coast, Hervey Bay, Cairns, Hobart, Launceston, Perth, Mandurah, Bunbury and Canberra.

Blind or visually impaired voters who live too far from the machines will still be able to vote by post or cast an assisted vote, the minister said.

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DCA – The Cure for Cancer

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