A little bit creepy
Logitech finds inspiration from the stalker genre to promote its upcoming Google TV device in the US.
Guess what story was among the most popular on the Computerworld website this week?
Microsoft’s Tech.Ed takes place next week, and already it feels as though it won’t be as newsworthy as the event in Australia. That’s because in the sunny climes of the Gold Coast, it was considered a perfectly reasonable idea to have promotional assistants dressed in gold bikinis. That was until some in the industry queried if it fitted with a session being held to encourage more women into IT. This prompted Microsoft to release the following statement. “The Australian Tech.Ed team would like to sincerely apologise for any offence caused by the promotional staff who were manning the remote controlled car exhibit at the Tech.Ed welcome reception. We were unaware of their exact costuming until the day of the event, at which time it was too late to be addressed.” Not sure what the promotional assistants will be wearing in Auckland next week, but this year the Tech Girls dinner (always wondered about use of the term ‘Girls’), which was designed to celebrate women in technology and which last year featured Air New Zealand CIO Julia Raue, isn’t going ahead. This could mean that women have reached equality in IT, or if it could be that they couldn’t find a high profile woman in IT to speak.
In any case it appears that Microsoft is a little confused about gender politics.
Microsoft Australia apologises for booth babes at TechEd
Speaking of beauty contests, well sort of
The government’s process of picking who it will partner with on fibre broadband infrastructure took another step this week with the announcement that only national projects need apply to roll out rural fibre. The Rural Broadband Initiative is designed to bring 5Mbit/s to at least 80 percent of rural households and businesses in six years.
The new rule that companies have to submit a national proposal indicates to some that, in the rural areas at least, the government has its eye on the proverbial 800 lb Gorilla (ie Telecom) and that everything is about to turn ugly.
“Today’s announcement has changed the goalposts on how rural broadband will be rolled out without any public discussion or explanation. It has raised speculation that a deal is being done with Telecom,” wrote Clare Curran in her release.
Curran didn’t identify who it is doing the speculating but jilted bidder James Watts clearly believes that Telecom has it in the bag.
Rural fibre pioneer shut out of govt broadband scheme
Government calls for national proposal on rural broadband
Something new or more of the same?
Congratulations to Simpl Group chief executive Bennett Medary who took over as chair of NZICT this week. He says his election will give the organisation a more New Zealand face and moderate the dismissive reaction of some local sources who consider NZICT is primarily a lobby for big multinationals.
Not everyone is convinced.