Stories by Mark Broatch

Caring too much

Communications and IT minister Paul Swain met leaders of the Call for Change movement last week, but wouldn’t say what his response would be to the Commerce Commission deciding not to unbundle the local phone loop.

Don't formulate wrongly

Auckland software house and Microsoft partner e-Formation has found a humiliating use for the cutesy Linux penguin. Any of E-Formation’s developers who stuff up are made to park the penguin –- representing the DFW Award -- on their desk until some other hapless code jockey earns it. The penguin’s symbolism ensures “double humiliation for a Microsoft developer”, writes e-Formation’s Jose Luis Fowler, who acknowledges that it’s probably a "cruel and unusual punishment". What Fowler doesn’t mention is what DFW stands for.

Stick to the day job

TV3 News co-anchor Carol Hirschfeld has aspirations to get into IT journalism if appearances at industry events are anything to go by.

That's what I want

If you thought that most of the cybercrims out there are just script kiddies with too much time and no social skills, think again. Security holes in our networks and computer systems are targeted by criminals who are in not for the notoriety, but for the money, honey.

Portals are not easy: EDS

AUCKLAND (02/24/2004) - It's sometimes forgotten when choosing portal technology that organizations don't "willy-nilly" change application servers.

Tranz Rail shows glimpse of IT treasure

For those wondering why Melbourne-based Toll Holdings bought Tranz Rail, it may have had something to do with the cleverness of the people and technology hidden inside the transport company. It may even be that Toll plans to use its New Zealand arm as an IT testbed, if a glimpse of what’s ahead is any indication.

The Brown fella

For about half a second we thought the founder of the ill-fated PC Company, Colin Brown, had come up with a new venture when a name resembling his appeared as the sender of this email.

Govt IP an unknown quantity

As moves to commercialise government-owned software gather pace, the question arises of how much intellectual property the state can call its own?

Bull fight

Mention of Deloittes' Bullfighter in the Natural Resources management column this week encouraged us to check out the stories from the past three issues of Computerworld for waffle and jargon. We're too embarrassed to tell you the specific results, as it appears we're getting more obscurist and full of bull by the week. The columns were a bit better, but we will try harder, we promise. What do you think? Let us know if we babble bull at the email address below.

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